Brie got right over there. “Any idea how far apart?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I was listening to Ross. But close and getting closer. This has been going on since you called, but I saw a chance to have this over with him before the babies came and I—Cameron?” she asked, turning her frightened face to his. “I’m nervous. Is it okay? It’s over thirty-six weeks, right? We’ll be okay, right?”
“We’re going to be fine, baby. And they’ll be fine.”
“Will they come too fast?”
“We’ll have Mel pick us up in the Hummer just in case. Brie? Call Mel?”
“Sure,” she said, heading for the phone. When she turned to pick it up, she saw Ross backing toward the door, his eyes on Cameron and Abby.
Abby had her hands on Cam’s face. “I love you so much,” she said. “I wish we’d just gotten married when you first suggested it. I want them to have a father.”
“They have a father, baby. We’ll get it done as soon as you’re recovered a little.”
“We’ll put your name on the birth certificates.”
“We’ll do anything you want. Right now it looks like we’re going to deliver.” He smiled and gave her a kiss. “You didn’t want to wait for the Pitocin, I guess.”
“I made it long enough for them to be healthy,” she said, leaning against him. “Didn’t I? Please tell me I—”
“They’re going to be perfect, Ab. Trust me, honey.”
Brie watched Ross. He had a melancholy look on his face as he lifted a hand to her to wave goodbye. For a second she was frozen, then she lifted her hand in return. No time for farewells between Abby and Ross, which was probably for the best. She made a mental note to retrieve and protect the check that lay on the table.
She dialed as the door closed behind Ross. How must it feel, she wondered, to know that you’ve squandered your life? To see all you lost?
“Mel? Hey, Cam and Abby are here and she’s in labor. Contractions very close together and she says they’re strong and long. Cameron asked if you’d bring the Hummer to take her to the hospital, just to be safe. Very good—I’ll tell them.” She disconnected and said, “As soon as she can leave the kids with Jack, she’s on her way.” Brie grinned. “So—what an exciting day this turned out to be. So much for boring paperwork!”
While Mel drove, she listened to Cameron trying to coach Abby through her breathing, trying to soothe her, rubbing her back. But when they arrived at Valley Hospital forty-five minutes later, she heard Abby snap, “Of
course
I’m doing fine. Can you stop
touching
me so much?”
Mel smiled to herself, but then she hurried. She put the Hummer in park at the hospital’s emergency entrance, ran around to the back and lifted the hatch. “I want you to stay on the gurney, Abby,” she said. “Cam, give me a hand here.”
“I can probably still walk,” Abby began to argue.
“No, do as I say,” Mel instructed. When she and Cameron had rolled her into the hospital and up the elevator to labor and delivery, they were expected. Mel asked a nurse, “Is Dr. Stone here yet?”
“Not yet, but he said he was coming right over.”
“If you can still reach him, tell him to put a wiggle in it—I think I’m going to find she’s in transition.”
“Will do,” the L&D nurse assured her.
In the birthing room there were two plexiglass bassinets, two warmers stocked with diapers so tiny they could fit in the palm of her hand, monitors and IV stands. Cameron and Mel cautiously transferred Abby to the bed. Mel pulled off Abby’s shoes. “I’m going to ask Cameron to help you get into a gown, Abby, while I change into scrubs. When we’re both changed, I’ll check you. How’s that?”
“Fine,” she said, rolling carefully into a sitting position on the bed. “Oh!”
“What, honey?” Cam asked her.
“My water! Oh God, I’m totally sitting in a puddle.”
“Then let’s change quickly, shall we?” Mel said, throwing her purse and bag in a corner out of the way and heading out of the room for a quick change. On her way toward the nurses’ lounge and locker room she said to one of the nurses, “We’re gonna roll in there. Get me the pediatric nurse and I’ll need some help until Dr. Stone arrives.”
“I’ve arrived,” she heard a voice say.
She turned and smiled at John Stone. “Great timing. Our patient is moving up on the docket, water just broke, and I haven’t even checked her yet.”
“But what do you think?”
“Nine or ten,” Mel said with a shrug. “She had a nice little personality shift just as we were arriving.”
“I’ll check her.” Then he smiled at the L&D nurse. “She’s got great instincts. Get your delivery team in there.”
The room became busy even before Cameron had helped Abby all the way into her gown. John Stone was waiting for her to ease back on the bed, snapping on a pair of gloves. People started filling the room—two pediatric nurses, a couple of labor-and-delivery nurses, the pediatrician arrived, and Mel was back by the time Abby’s knees were raised and John Stone was examining her. One of the nurses was monitoring fetal heartbeats. “What are you feeling, Abby?” John asked her.
“Pressure,” she said. “Low pressure. I think maybe I have to use the bathroom.”
John pulled out his hand, stripped off the glove and said, “Not anymore, Abby. Let’s break down this bed,” he said to one of the nurses. “Abby, there’s only a tiny strip of cervix left—you ready to push?”
“I could try,” she said.
“In a second or two, you’re not going to have to try.” No sooner said than she was lifting off the bed on pure instinct, bearing down. “There you go,” he said, grinning. “Mel, take the first one.”
“My pleasure,” she said.
The L&D nurses removed the bottom half of the birthing bed, rolled forward a table on which the delivery instruments and equipment lay under a sterile drape, and Mel and John shared the space at the end of the bed. Mel pulled a stool up to the front-row seat where she was rhythmically and systematically stretching Abby’s vagina around a growing crown of hair. She was telling Abby to push push push push push and, “Go ahead and rest for a minute.”
“I missed the epidural,” Abby said breathlessly.
“I know the feeling,” Mel laughed. “Ready to go again, Abby?”
Abby lifted slightly, Cameron assisting at her shoulders, and before even fifteen minutes had passed, Mel said, “Here we go, just one more,” and a baby came into her hands. While holding the baby in her lap, she deftly clamped and cut. “Ah. Ladies first.” And within moments she had moved out of the way for John Stone to take over, bringing the newborn up onto Abby’s chest. “Nice, very nice. Take a moment to rest and meet your daughter, then we have to do that again. Let’s dry her off, Cam,” she said, rubbing a soft towel over the baby’s tiny body.
“Is she big enough? Is she, Cam?” Abby asked. “She looks so tiny.”
“I’m guessing five pounds,” Cameron said. “What do you think, Mel?”
“I think she liked it in there. Look at those arms flail, listen to that voice. Oh, you two are going to be busy. Abby, have a quick look, sweetheart, then let’s get her warmed up and bring out her brother. Hmm?”
“I don’t want to let go of her,” Abby said.
“You’re going to get her right back. She just needs to be cleaned off, warmed up, diapered and swaddled. By that time, you’ll be counting fingers and toes on her brother.”
“Oh God, look at her, Cameron. How can I be in charge of something this tiny?”
He laughed. “You should get help from a pediatrician. How about that?”
“Why didn’t I just marry you when I had the chance?”
He leaned down and put a kiss on her lips and on the baby’s head. “I’m not going anywhere, honey.”
Abby and Cameron had less than two minutes to examine and fawn over their daughter, when a low groan came from Abby. That sound alone brought the pediatric nurse to the bedside, scooping up the baby to get her cleaned, weighed, measured and checked over by the doctor. As soon as the baby was cleared from her, John Stone said, “Go ahead and push when you’re ready, Abby. We’re going to bring this fella down and into the world.”
Just a couple of minutes later, Abby had another baby in her arms. Mel and Cameron were drying him off while Abby was cooing over him, touching him, kissing him. She didn’t even notice that the nurse was washing her up, that the field of birth was being cleaned and cleared away, the bed reassembled. It was only another fifteen minutes before Abby held their daughter while Cameron held their son.
“Your daughter is five pounds, two ounces and your son a strapping five-seven. Both of them eighteen inches. Nice work, Abby. You grew them into going-home-from-the-hospital weight. They’re beautiful,” Mel said.
Abby, holding her daughter close, looked up into Cameron’s eyes. She smiled. “We’re a family now.”
“Yeah, honey.” He leaned down to give her a kiss. “Thank you.”
“I’ve had a couple of contacts, asking for details. One is a minister who’s been teaching for the past few years and wants to get back in the pulpit and another is an artist who wants to live in the church and use it as a shop to make everything from stained-glass pieces to decorative candles. There’s one other—I have no idea who. It’s going to go by midnight next Wednesday.”
“I think Preacher’s watching it,” Jack said. “But I haven’t figured out that whole eBay thing yet.”
“Jack, it’s eBay-dot-com,” Dan said. “You can do this. If you need me to, I can come over to the house and show you.”
“I’m not so sure I want you to know where I live,” Jack said, wiping the counter.
Dan grinned. He liked that—some grief from Jack. Buddies ribbed each other, and if a guy liked you a lot, he hit below the belt now and then. “Maybe your wife could get you checked out on eBay. You could put in a bid, raise the stakes for Hope here.”
“Yeah, and end up with a church. Just what I need.”
Paul lifted his beer. “I hope whoever gets it needs a good builder for a remodel.”
“If you don’t get a contract on that church, it’ll take the new guy a year to put it right,” Jack said.
Rick listened to all this with half an ear. He didn’t really participate in the discussions at the bar. Each week he sat farther to the end of the bar so he wouldn’t be expected to say anything. The joke was on him, he thought. No one was in the mood to cajole him into being sociable anymore. Jack let him have his beer and before he was half through it, put a plate of food in front of him.
He’d trained this old town of his pretty well—he gave them an hour or so of glum silence once a week and now they didn’t pester him, asking him how he was getting along, et cetera.
Then it happened, as it always did. She came in. He could set his watch by her—five o’clock Friday night. He couldn’t really say whether she came to the bar other times, because he didn’t. Of course, he could change his schedule and avoid her. But no, he couldn’t make himself do that.
She looked so damn beautiful. All of eighteen. How could she look so pure and innocent when he knew she’d been having sex since she was fourteen? With him!
“Hey, Lizzie,” Jack called out. “Wait till you hear this! Hope’s got bidders on eBay for that old church!”
“No way,” she said, her smile beaming. She walked right up to the bar and stood between Dan and Hope, elbows on the bar.
“Way,” Hope said, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “I don’t think I’ll make a killing, but I might get it opened up again.”
Rick secretly admitted he’d started sitting at the end of the bar so he wouldn’t have to turn his head to look at her when she came in. Or when she left. He wanted to be absolutely sure she wasn’t even glancing around, checking to see where he was, and still manage not to even see him. She wasn’t. It was as if he was invisible.
“But will you get a minister to open it up?” Liz asked.
“With a little luck. But if you think about it, the most important thing is that it not look like a boarded-up old church anymore. Goddamn thing’s an eyesore.”
“Nice talk for the owner of a church,” Jack said.
“Ach, I’m just a broker. How was your high-school graduation, Lizzie?” she asked.
“Awesome,” she answered. “I wasn’t exactly valedictorian or anything, but I graduated on the honor roll. A miracle.” She beamed proudly.
“And you partied?” Paul asked.
“Sort of,” she said with a shrug. “There was a big open house at the school. Then there were some other open houses around town—I went to a few. Some girls and I had a sleepover.”
“Some
girls?
” Dan asked. “Shoot, what’s happened to this world? When I graduated high school, a long time ago by the way, there was an all-night party for boys and girls. And a lot of funny business.”
She giggled. “There was an all-night party, but I just passed on that. I hung out with my girlfriends.”
“Congratulations,” Jack said. He pulled a big envelope out from under the till and handed it to her. “Mel and I are very proud of you.”
“Oh, Jack! What’s this? You shouldn’t do this!”
“Lizzie, sweetheart, you showed ’em. You worked your tail off. That deserves a reward. You’re…what do they say now? You’re bad?”
She laughed at him. “I think that one’s over. You’re the bomb is still around—for people your age.”
Jack just shook his head. “Hard to keep up. I bet you’re glad the long haul is behind you.”
“For now. I’m working full-time all summer, then I start at College of the Redwoods in September.”
“Where are you working?”
“I’m checking groceries at Albertson’s Sunday through Thursday—all p.m.’s of course, since I’m new. And at Connie’s on Friday and Saturday.”
“That’s more than full-time, that’s two jobs,” Paul said. “When are you going to play?”
“Mornings, I guess,” she said with a smile. She ripped open her card to read it to herself and when it opened, a hundred-dollar bill fell out. “Aw, Jack,” she said softly. “After all you and Mel have done for me, you sure shouldn’t have done this.” He just shrugged and Liz put the card down, stuffed the bill in the pocket of her jeans and reached out for him, circling his neck with her arms so she could give him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Jack. That’s so sweet. I’ll thank Mel myself later.”
Rick was dying as he watched. Of course, he hadn’t bothered going to her graduation, nor had he given her a card or even congratulated her. And he wanted those arms around
him,
those lips on
his
cheek. Not that he’d done one thing to deserve it.
Jack fixed up her giant Coke to go and put it on the counter. “On the house, Liz. We’re all proud of you.”
“Hear, hear,” Paul said, lifting his beer. Hope raised her Jack Daniel’s, Dan lifted his bottle of Heineken, Jack toasted with his coffee cup.
“Thanks, that means a lot,” she said softly, maybe emotionally. “I’d better get over to Connie’s.”
“See you later, honey,” Jack said.
Rick felt his eyes burn and his head start to pound as he watched her leave. His eyes dropped to her perfect butt, her long legs, that beautiful sheath of soft hair, and remembered how every inch of her felt under his hands. He could smell her, taste her. This was the love of his life, his childhood sweetheart, the girl he was going to marry, until life threw them a curve. He turned on his stool, grabbed his cane and followed her. Because he was slower getting around, she was nearly to the corner store by the time he was at the porch steps. “Hey!”
She turned toward him, frowning.
He slowly and clumsily descended the porch steps, walking toward her, his limp suddenly much more pronounced.
Dan saw Rick leave and followed, standing just outside the bar door on the porch, his arms crossed over his chest. Watching. Listening.
“You do that on purpose?” Rick yelled at Liz. “Just to punish me?”
She shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
He got a little closer. “Acting like I don’t exist like that. You won’t even look at me. Is that how bad I gross you out?”
“Shut up, Rick. You’re acting like an ass again.”
“
I’m
an ass? For asking why you won’t even
look
at me?”
“I thought that’s what you wanted! You want everything we were to just go away! Right?”
“It’s not exactly like that,” he said.
“Bullshit, it
is
like that! You said we can’t even be friends! So back off—you got just what you wanted!”
Jack had heard the shouting, knew who it was and stepped out of the bar. He was about to go after Rick, shut him up before it got worse, but Dan put an arm across his chest. “Let it happen,” Dan said.
“I care about Liz. If Rick’s going to be a jackass, she doesn’t deserve—”
“Let it happen,” Dan said. “She’s fighting back.”
“I don’t know,” Jack said, shaking his head.
“It’s their bone, Jack. Don’t chew on it.”
And Jack stayed, joined by Paul a moment later.
“You know it’s not what I want! It’s how it has to be!” Rick was yelling at her.
“Why? You never did say!”
“You know why—I did too say! Because you can do better, that’s why!”
She laughed meanly. “Ain’t that the truth! But why? Is it about the leg or the fact that you’re such an asshole and you treat your best friends like crap?”
“Sorry if I’m not a happy-go-lucky idiot, Liz!” he shouted, leaning heavily on his cane. “I might have one or two things on my mind, y’know?”
“Oh, I know. You. Your mind is all filled up with yourself and how much you pity yourself. Because you’re the only one ever hurting, right?”
“Look around,” he yelled, and it was at that point that he saw the three men on the porch. He didn’t care. “How many other one-legged dudes you see hanging out here. Huh?” He stepped closer and so did she. Even though they got closer, their voices got louder. “Maybe you could just cut me some slack, Liz.”
“I’ve cut you plenty of slack, Rick, but I’m done. I can’t do anything to please you. You want me to go away quietly, then you want me to fuss over you like you’re some old friend of mine? Or maybe I’m supposed to feel sorry for you because you’re a cripple! You’re out of your
fucking
mind!”
“Don’t say that word,” he yelled at her. “Don’t say words like that!”
“What? Words like
mind?
Which you’re fucking
out of?
Go to hell!”
“Don’t swear like that! You’re not like that!”
“Guess what, asshole—I don’t belong to you anymore, so you don’t tell me how you’d like me to talk!”
When she turned to go, Rick grabbed her wrist and whirled her back toward him, which caused her to drop her Coke and graduation card in the street.
Again Jack stepped forward to intercede. This time it was both Dan and Paul who pulled him back. “Don’t get in this, Jack,” Dan said. “He has things to work out. So does she.”
“He wasn’t raised like that,” Jack said.
“He wasn’t raised to go to war and get wounded either. Let him go.”
“What do you
want
from me?” Liz asked Rick, twisting her wrist out of his grasp. “Maybe you like to see me look at you all sad and hurt so you can feel like big stuff. Or maybe you were expecting me to beg. Is that what you want?”
“I want you to look at me! I want you to say hello to me! I want you to treat me like a human being!”
“Yeah? I wanted that from you, too! But you don’t think anyone besides yourself deserves to be treated with kindness or respect. You have to give as good as you get, Rick, that’s all there is to it.”
“Sorry if I’m not unselfish enough for you, Lizzie! It gets tough, trying to figure out how to take a goddamn shower much less how to get the rest of your life back!”
“You think you’re the only one who wants their life back? Maybe you think you’re the only one who needs understanding, is that it? You hurting, Rick?”
“Yeah, Liz! Yeah! I’d trade anything to just be what I was before!”
“And so would I!” she screamed at him. “I’d give both my legs if you could have yours! You think I wouldn’t have given my arms
and
my legs just to see you holding a
living
son in your arms? You think I wouldn’t give my eyes so you wouldn’t have a limp?”
“Stop it! Don’t say that!”
“It’s true! It’s the truth! And not for me—for
you!
Hell, I don’t care if you limp. I don’t care if you wheel yourself around—it’s not your stupid goddamn leg I care about. I prayed all the way to Germany! I told God if you were dead when I got there, I wish I could go with you! But when I got there, you weren’t dead! You just told me to go away! Like I was dead. Sometimes I wish I was!”
“Shut up! Don’t say that!”
“I’d give my
life
if you could be happy again! I swear to God, I’d give my—”
“Stop saying that!” he screamed, and he shoved her. She was pushed backward a few stumbling feet.
Jack took a giant step forward and Dan pivoted quickly, putting himself in front of him. “Gotta let ’em do it, Jack. It’s their battle right now. We’ll get a piece of it later.”
“I should stop it before it gets—”
Dan looked over his shoulder in time to see Liz turn and run toward the corner store, but instead of going inside, she got in her car. She pulled away from the store and drove out of town. Dan looked back at Jack. “You. Stay put. You’re way too close to this.”
Dan went down the porch steps and moved toward Rick. Because he was moving kind of fast, he had a little hitch in his step. When he stood in front of Rick, he put his hands on his hips. “Did you actually
push
that female?” he asked.
“How about you mind your own business,” Rick said hotly.
“That’s not gonna happen, boy. Where I come from, we don’t stand around and watch a man get physical with a woman and mind our own business. You looking for a fight, is that it?”
“Out of my way,” Rick said, leaning on his cane and trying to get around Dan.