Holding On (28 page)

Jemma and Lily were there, next in line for a hug.

“I was so afraid Carly wouldn’t be able to get you out of the house,” Lily admitted as she gently hugged her friend. When she was done, she handed her off to Jemma.

“We had a back-up plan,” Jemma admitted as she squeezed her into a hug too.

Quinn let out a little laugh. “Do I even want to know what that was?”

Jemma smiled brightly. “If we had to, we would’ve brought the party to you.”

“B
elieve me when I say,” Nora jumped in, “that it worked out for the best this way.”

“Good job Carly,” Lily said with a smile when Carly returned again.

“No problem. It was a piece of cake,” she said as she gave Quinn a wink.

Quinn was grateful that she didn’t admit to everyone that she had literally had to tow her out of the door.

“Come on Quinnie, let’s get this party started,” Carly said as she looped her arm around her once more.

She led her into the McGrath’s family room. It was decorated with balloons and streamers. A table was overflowing with gifts. Quinn smiled and greeted the small group of friendly faces, the few who had been invited. Carly led her to the couch and made her take a seat.

Quinn was grateful for the upbeat mood everyone was in.

To
her relief, Carly had been right. The number of people did not overwhelm her. However, the amount of gifts she received amazed her. Gifts from both Nora and Margo’s co-workers, neighbors and their friends…All of whom understood that under the circumstances, it would be just too stressful for Quinn to have a huge shower. So they had just dropped off gifts ahead of time.

To her surprise, Quinn found that she was having an okay time.
It would be too much of a stretch to say that she was having fun.  But it was a nice distraction to visit with people, play a few games, eat cake and open gifts. The afternoon went by quickly. The mood was kept as light as possible.

When the shower was over,
Nora insisted that Carly and Quinn stay for dinner. Carly immediately accepted. Quinn was hesitant and told Nora that she’d really rather head home. She hadn’t been out of the house this long for weeks and she told Nora it was wearing her out.

Tom had chosen that moment to materialize from wherever he’d gone during the shower. He’d been adamant that Quinn should stay. He pointed out that he hadn’t been around for the shower and he’d missed the chance to visit with her.

Carly argued that she
should
stay for dinner because it was impolite to turn down an invitation. So they had and Quinn had found it comforting to be with Jake’s family. It was fairly late in the evening by the time they had all of the gifts loaded up into Carly’s car so they could head back to Quinn’s.

“
It’s going to take a while to carry everything inside. I’ll stay and help you put everything away,” Carly said. When Quinn didn’t argue, she pushed on. “We can even wash up the clothes tonight. Won’t it be nice to have them all hung up and put away in the drawers?”

“I can’t believe how much we got!” Quinn said in disbelief. She didn’t think she’d have to buy a single outfit for at least a year. Everything was so cute and so precious.
After she had told Luke the baby was a boy, she’d told Carly and her friends. Once the secret was out, the shopping had begun.

“It was fun, wasn’t it?” Carly hesitantly asked.
“I mean, did you at least have an okay time?”

Quinn nodded. “It was nice.”

“Good,” Carly said. “So you’re not mad at me?”

Quinn forced a smile. “You know I could never be mad at you.”

When they pulled up to the house, Luke’s truck was there. Quinn was surprised that he was there so early. But then she decided that he’d probably known about the shower. And he probably hadn’t wanted to be at his parents’ house with a bunch of women. He’d probably decided to hang out at Quinn’s instead. She didn’t have a problem with that. But she did think it was odd that he hadn’t asked first. Then again, she realized he couldn’t have done that without spoiling the surprise.

“Oh, Luke is here!” Carly sai
d. Her tone sounded odd as she pulled up next to his truck.

Quinn turned to look at her sister. Her tone sounded…surprised. But phony. She narrowed her eyes at
Carly again. She hoped she wasn’t going to make a big deal out of Luke being there. Things with her and Luke had been, oddly, back to normal. Or, at least, as normal as they could be under the circumstances.

She didn’t want her to make it into something it wasn’t. But then she realized something about Carly’s voice was…
Off
.

“Yes
, it looks like he is,” Quinn agreed. She did not take her eyes off of Carly. “I don’t know why he’s here now, though. Especially if he knew I’d be gone for the baby shower.”

“Yes,” Carly said. “It’s a mystery.”

“What is going on with you?” Quinn demanded. She was growing more suspicious of her sister by the second.

“Nothing!” Carly said. Her eyes
were too wide and innocent. Just as they’d been as they’d approached the McGrath’s house.

Quinn groaned as Carly turned her car off.

“Is there something I should know about? Please tell me there are no more surprises,” Quinn begged. Though she couldn’t imagine what kind of surprise would involve Luke.

Carly ignored her comment. “Come on. Let’s go see what Luke is up to.”

Quinn followed her sister down the short sidewalk. When Carly opened the front door she called, “Hey Luke! We’re
baaaaaaaack
!”

Before Quinn could question her odd behavior, Luke appeared. He hadn’t been in the living room which would’ve made sense. He’d come down the hallway where the bedrooms were located.

“Hey! How was your party Quinn?” he asked. He was grinning. Quinn hadn’t seen him grin like that since…Well, since
before
Jake…

“It was nice,” she said. “What are you up to?” she demanded. She had her hand on her hip and a frown on her face.

He rolled his eyes at her. “Nice to see you, too.” But he didn’t deny it. He was clearly up to something. “Come on,” he said as he took her hand.

She let him lead her to the nursery. He opened the door and she was instantly hit with the smell of fresh paint. She wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed it before. The window was open in the baby’s room but now that she was standing there, the scent was obvious.

And the room…? It was freshly painted mint green.

Her eyes filled with tears and she threw her arms around Luke.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Yeah, I was happy to do it,” he said as he squeezed her back.

Carly was checking out the room, beyond pleased with the result.

Quinn took a step back to look as well.
Luke had painted it and then put all of the furniture back in place. The crib, dresser, toy box and glider. It looked like the perfect nursery. Exactly what she had envisioned for her baby.

“
Just don’t touch anything yet. I don’t think the walls are completely dry,” he told her. “I was kind of in a time crunch.”

Quinn’s gaze swung from her sister to her best friend and back again. “You planned this! The two of you! You had it all planned out!”

“Damn right!” Carly said with a grin.

“And your parents? Dinner with them? It was all part of it?”

Luke nodded. “Dad was here for the start. He helped me move everything around and tape everything up. But he’s not so good with the painting so I sent him home after that. I knew it would need two coats. They wanted to do the shower anyway so I thought it would be the perfect day to get it done. But I knew I’d need a little more time. So yeah, they were happy to keep you for dinner.” He took a breath as he took in the look on Quinn’s face. “Do you like it?”

She turned around, slowly taking it all in. It was the color she’d chosen. The crib was even made up with the bedding she’d picked out but hadn’t purchased yet. Since finding out the baby was a boy, she simply hadn’t felt like shopping.

“It’s perfect,” she honestly told them both.

“I showed Luke which paint sample you’d picked,” Carly told her. “So he picked up the paint. Then I bought the bedding the other day. I had it all washed up, ready to go. Luke put it on the crib because I never had the chance to do it myself.
”

Quinn laughed because the bedding was slightly rumpled and crooked. A side-effect of being put on by a man, she was sure. But she loved it all the same. He’d even hung the curtains that Carly had purchased.
The curtains matched the bedding. A lamp that matched the set was on the dresser, turned on and emitting a soft, gentle glow.

“I love it!” Quinn said, fighting off another wave of tears. This time, they were tears filled with love and gratitude. “I can’t even tell you…I love it so much.
It’s all so perfect. Thank you,” she said as she pulled Carly and Luke into a hug.

21

Getting up to pee countless times a night was nothing out of the ordinary. The sudden
squirty
feeling between her legs…that had never happened before. She’d just hoisted herself out of bed and taken a step. The squirty feeling surprised her so she froze. Nothing seemed amiss. It was shortly after midnight. This was the first of what she figured would be a few trips to the bathroom. So in the darkness of her familiar bedroom she took another step.

She
shrieked in surprise as a gush of liquid cascaded down her thighs.

“Oh, gross,” she muttered as she
edged toward the light switch. She flipped it on just as Luke came charging through the door.

“What?
What happened?” he demanded. He had heard her shriek and it had scared him witless. His hair was rumpled as were his sweatpants and t-shirt. He looked groggy, yet wide-awake as his eyes scanned over her.

Her eyes took a similar journey. Her
gray pajama pants were obviously darkened where fluid continued to trickle down. Her eyes crept back up to Luke’s again. He looked nothing short of horrified at the sight of her soaking wet bottoms.

“Is that…?” he asked with a small flick of his hand.
He was standing just outside of her door.

She wasn’t entirely sure that Luke even knew what he was asking.

“My water broke.” The words gushed out of her mouth, clarifying things for him. “Oh my gosh! My water broke!”

Feeling awkward or embarrassed that she was standing in soaking wet bottoms in front of
Luke
never even crossed her mind. She was just grateful that he was there.

“Is that bad?” he asked. “Doesn’t that normally happen?”

“I’m not due for another five weeks,” she said. Her voice sounded constricted. She realized, suddenly, that maybe she’d started breathing too fast.

“Shit.
Shit
!” he said as he came into her room. He raked a hand over his hair and her heart crumpled because he looked so much like Jake when he did that. “Do I call an ambulance?”

“No. I think…” S
he tried to actually
think
. “It’s actually only about four and a half weeks early. And that’s
early
. But not…not…” She wasn’t sure what word she was searching for. “Can you just bring me to the hospital?” She knew that once labor started, usually you had some time. A whole lot of time in most cases. But once your water broke…didn’t that mean things were moving right along? Right?
Right
? She tried to think back to the childbirth class because she was sure that had been covered. Yet now, it seemed like it had been a lifetime ago and she couldn’t remember a single thing.

“
Yeah, of course. You just sit. I’ll go warm up the truck. I’ll come back in for you. Okay?” Quinn nodded. “You just sit,” he repeated.

He
started to lead her back toward the bed. Then he seemed to realize he had things to do and he started to dart away.

“Luke!” she called and he stopped in his tracks, right outside of her door.

“What?” he asked as he came back in again.

“Relax, okay?” she said with a small, nervous laugh. “Take a breath and relax.”

He blinked at her and then smiled. “Right,” he said with a small nod of his head. He took a comical deep breath for her. “Got it. I’ll be right back.”

When he left she had no intention
of sitting as he’d instructed. Not on her bed, anyway. She had to
pee
. She rummaged around in her drawer for a clean, comfy pair of pants and undies. She’d barely had a chance to go to the bathroom, try to dry herself off and put on dry clothes and Luke was back again.