Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“I need to speak to Kerris,” Walsh said.
“Uh…she’s kind of in the middle of a contraction.”
“Contraction.” Walsh’s voice spiked, stretching beyond panic and into another stratosphere. “She’s in pain?”
“That’s generally a part of labor, so yeah.”
“Cam, don’t joke about this. Is she okay?”
Another muffled moan from the bed.
“No, but I don’t think she wants you to hear how much it hurts.”
“Fuck that. FaceTime me.”
“FaceTime? Dude.”
“Just do it.”
Cam did it.
He walked over to the bed and angled the phone so Walsh could see Kerris.
“Kerris.” Walsh had scrubbed his voice clean of the panic. No anxiety. Perfectly even and soothing. “Baby, I’m right here.”
Kerris opened her eyes, zoning in on Walsh’s image on the phone.
“Walsh?” Her voice wobbled and shook. Her face crumpled. All the strength she’d been marshaling dissipated right before Cam’s eyes. “I’m scared.”
“I know, but I’m right here. Baby, I’m so sorry I’m not there.”
“I know. I just wanted to get through this and have it all be over by the time you found out. Please don’t feel guilty.”
“I’m working on it. How are you?”
Kerris probably would have lied if a monster contraction hadn’t wrenched the truth from her in a scream that drowned the sound of the heart monitor and raised every fine hair on Cam’s body. That scream sounded like it had twisted around Kerris’s intestines before it bellowed in the room.
“Baby, breathe.” Walsh’s face on the small screen Cam held was amazingly, deliberately emotion-free. “You can do this.”
Doogie went to the edge of the bed and peered between Kerris’s knees. His head popped up, and anticipation raised his brows and lit his eyes.
“It’s time to push.”
“Are they…?” Kerris gulped and squeezed her eyes shut again. “Are they okay?”
“They seem fine. Not breech, just ready to make their appearance a little earlier than we all thought. I’ll need some big pushes here soon.”
There was no way Cam would be angling the phone between Kerris’s legs so Walsh could see his babies being born. As it was, his breath kept chopping up in his chest. Sweat trickled down his neck. Nausea crept through his stomach until it watered his mouth. This was too much. Too close. The last time he’d been in a hospital, he’d held his dead baby girl in his arms and wept.
“Kerris, I…” Cam locked eyes with her, begging without words for her to understand this was as far as he could go. As much as he could help.
“I get it.” Kerris threw her head back against the pillow, her dark hair fanning out behind her. Her mouth pulled into a tight ring, tunneling panting breaths. “I know, Cam. You’ve done more than enough.”
“Cam, go.” Cam glanced at the screen, seeing Walsh’s anxiety this close, but helpless to do any more.
“I don’t want to leave you alone, Kerris.”
“She’s not alone.”
Cam turned toward the door, thanking God for Jo standing there, looking like a queen as usual.
“Cam, I’ve got it.” Jo walked up to him, grabbed the phone, and grinned down at the screen. “One day I’ll get tired of picking up after you, cuz.”
Walsh chuckled, relief splattered freely all over his face.
“Jo, you came. Thank you so much. Take care of my girl.”
“Of course, I will.” Cam watched the regal lines of Jo’s face soften in that way too few got to see. “What do you think I came here for?”
Chapter Three
No one could ever accuse Cam’s eyes of being just blue or just gray. They were instead a mesmerizing intercourse of the two colors. A gorgeous, God-spun mixture of sea and clouds. At least that’s how Jo Walsh had always thought of them. She couldn’t see them right now with Cam’s forehead pressed to the viewing window. Watching him unobserved for a moment was a privilege. The dark hair, always unruly, fell around his neck, undecided about whether to wave or curl. The broad shoulders pushed forward and his hands burrowed into the pockets of the jeans it had taken this long to look that good.
The clack-clack of her four-inch Manolos brought Cam’s head swiveling in her direction. Jo drew in the bracing breath she always needed at the first sight of him after a long time. She kept thinking, kept hoping that one day Cam wouldn’t affect her this way. That her heart wouldn’t seize with disbelief that any man could be this beautiful in real life. That all the steel-reinforced walls she’d erected wouldn’t topple when that blazing white smile flashed at her like lightning. She was never fully prepared for that smile, always a bolt to her unsuspecting system.
Only there was no smile tonight.
Sadness cloaked and slumped Cam’s shoulders and turned down the corners of his mouth. He offered her those one-of-a-kind eyes for a few moments before considering the babies again without saying a word.
Jo slid damp palms across the soft material clinging to her hips. She had just gotten back to the office after a fund-raising luncheon when Cam called. She still wore the Kelly green dress outlining her every asset. Convenient. She hadn’t had time to think about what she would wear or how she would style her hair or any of the nonsense she typically considered when she knew she’d see Cam. A lot of good it ever did her.