I was adjusting myself on the seat when the limo driver appeared at the door.
“Why aren’t we moving?” Jake asked.
His face paled. “We seem to be having engine problems.”
“Excuse me?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
“It won’t start.”
“You gotta be fucking kidding me!” AJ exclaimed.
Jake shook his head. “Maybe we can borrow someone else’s car or limo?”
The limo driver shook his head. “I just called the paramedics on dispatch. They were right around the corner, and they should be here any minute.”
“Shit,” I muttered as another terrible contraction ricocheted through me. Looking back, I realized all the pains I’d had yesterday and today weren’t just the usual pregnancy pains or Braxton Hicks. Even though I was a Cardiac nurse, how the hell could I not have realized the signs that I was in labor?
I gripped AJ’s hand tight as I rode the agonizing wave of pain. When it finally subsided, I relaxed. But it was at that moment that I felt something had shifted below my waist. “Um, this is probably totally in my imagination, but it feels like she’s coming out already.”
Abby peered down at her phone. “Your contractions are coming faster and faster together. Do you want me to…” She glanced between AJ and Jake before looking back at me. “You know, check on things…down there?”
“Yeah, it probably wouldn’t hurt. I mean, between the two of us, we probably have just enough nursing training to be dangerous when it comes to labor and delivery.”
When Abby reached to ease up my dress, Jake threw up his hands defensively. “Wait, I’m sorry, but I have to get the hell out of here,” he said, before ducking out of door. I caught a glimpse of Rhys pacing outside with Brayden and Lily before Jake closed the door.
Abby gently reached under my dress to remove my soaked panties. She tossed them to the side, and then pushed the hemline up. “Oh my God!” she screeched.
“What?” AJ and I demanded in unison.
“You were right. Bella’s head…it’s like…right there.”
“Oh, shit, I’ve already crowned?”
“Whoa, what the hell is crowning?” AJ questioned.
“Didn’t you read any of the baby books I gave you?”
A sheepish look entered his face. “I skimmed some of them. Those birthing pictures were way intense.”
“Well for your information, crowning means it’s time to push.”
He shook his head wildly back and forth. “But you can’t push yet. The paramedics aren’t here. Can’t you just hold it in?”
The death glare that both Abby and I shot him caused him to shrink back into the seat. He held up his hands defensively. “Sorry, that was a really stupid question.” He swallowed hard. “Okay, then what do we do?”
I opened my mouth but was interrupted by the wail of an ambulance’s siren. At AJ’s horror stricken face, I squeezed his hand. “It’s okay now. The EMT’s will know what to do.”
Just as they knocked on the window, another pain seized me—this time it felt like a giant’s hands were squeezing my abdomen. I couldn’t help but pinch my eyes shut and push, regardless of whether the paramedics were there or not. Voices echoed around me, but all I could do was focus on the contractions as they came harder and faster.
As I crouched down at Mia’s side in the back of the limo, the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me. We’d come together sexually as a couple for the first time on a limo floor and now our daughter was going to be born in one. Mia was advancing so fast that the EMT’s refused to move her.