“Right before I called you.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I’m not hurting the baby by rubbing on her back, am I?”
Tanwen hit the light switch in the bathroom with her elbow and turned on the faucet, getting the water as hot as she could stand. “No. I think the baby is sunny-side up, meaning the baby’s spine is pushing into Margo’s spine, so with every contraction, the hard bones of the baby’s back are pressing against the inner nerves of her spine.”
“Fuck,” Greg said in an unsteady voice.
The soap foamed up to her elbows as she scrubbed up. “After I check her, we’ll try some different positions to get some of the pressure off her back.” Tanwen patted her hands dry and grabbed a couple of towels before heading back into the bedroom.
Greg helped Margo scoot her nightgown up around her hips while Tanwen laid a towel beneath Margo’s bottom. “Ready?”
Margo nodded and slowed her breathing as Tanwen checked her as gently as she could. “You’re about six centimeters with a bulging bag. I think the paramedics will make it here in time. Everything is going to be all right, and you are doing a wonderful job. I’m so proud of you.”
Margo blinked back tears, and Greg let out a relieved breath as Tanwen went into the bathroom again to wash up. As she dried her hands, she watched the way Margo looked up at her husband, complete trust and love suffusing her face as he stroked her hair and whispered something to her. Once, her ex-husband had looked at her like that, but those days seemed like another lifetime.
The tension she’d been carrying since she left Bryan’s room churned in her stomach. During the silent ride up the elevator to Margo’s room, she’d wanted to reach out and grab Bryan’s hand and tell him she wanted to stay the night with him, but judging by the coldness in his eyes and the way he held himself away from her, she was pretty sure that chance was gone.
Margo and Greg’s voices came from the bedroom in a low murmur, and she stayed in the bathroom, wanting to give them a moment alone. She wet a washcloth with cold water and scrubbed her face, washing off the remains of her makeup and dabbing at the dark circles left beneath her eyes by her mascara. A slight flush remained around her lips, and she realized her skin had beard burn from Bryan’s face. As she traced her fingertips over the reddened skin, her lower lip trembled. Not forming an attachment to a relationship doomed from the start was the only smart, sane thing to do.
She avoided looking at her reflection as she rinsed out the washcloth. For pity’s sake, she didn’t really know anything about the man other than he owned a construction company in South Dakota and he gave her amazing orgasms. Well, she knew more than that, but the only thing that really mattered was he lived in South Dakota and she lived in Wisconsin. He didn’t want a relationship, and neither did she.
She wasn’t a coward—she was practical—and her practical mind told her foolish heart that it couldn’t stand to be broken again. Yeah, she’d dated guys since her divorce, but none of them had the effect on her that Bryan did. None of them had given her the butterflies that filled her stomach every time she thought of him, and none of them had made her feel so alive…so young…so vulnerable. Besides, there was no way Bryan would ever lack for female companionship. He was amazing.
A quick glance into the bedroom showed Margo breathing through a contraction as Greg talked to her in a low and soothing tone. Tanwen’s breath came out in a shuddering sigh. Maybe she’d been a little harsh, but he had no right to pretend they were anything more than a temporary thing. In some ways, sleeping next to someone was far more intimate than sex. She could just imagine waking up next to him, wrapped in his arms…or better yet, waking up to his kisses.
“Tanwen?” Greg said from the bedroom with a hint of fear in his voice.
After briskly rubbing her face with the towel, she tossed it onto the counter before grabbing a clean one and focusing on her patient. “Okay, let’s try to get some of that pressure off your back. Greg, help her get onto her hands and knees. Margo, if this doesn’t feel better for you, let me know and we’ll keep trying different positions.” She rolled the towel up. “You can also try biting on this to see if that helps you get through the contractions.”
Together they helped Margo turn over, pausing to let her breathe through a contraction before she got onto her hands and knees and instinctively arched her back. “Better,” she said in a low voice and looked over her shoulder at Tanwen. “I’ve never done natural childbirth, always had an epidural. You know what? I wasn’t missing a motherfucking thing.”
Tanwen laughed and checked her watch. “It may help to rock or to grab a pillow. Whatever you need, we’re here for you. You’re not alone, and you and your baby are going to be perfectly fine.”
“Thank you,” Greg said in a low voice as he rubbed slow circles over Margo’s shoulders. The strain on his face made him look years older.
A loud knock sounded on the front door, and Tanwen left them to answer it. To her profound relief, it was the paramedics with their stretcher and equipment. “Come on in, guys. She’s in the bedroom. Margo, the mother-to-be, was six centimeters with a bulging water bag when I checked about twenty minutes ago. I believe she’s somewhere between thirty-seven and thirty-eight weeks with a normal pregnancy. Contractions are around two to three minutes apart now, and she has back labor. She has a history of quick labors, and this is her third child.”
The older female paramedic with her hair back in a tight ponytail nodded. “Are you a doctor?”
“No, an OB nurse.”
The woman smiled as the blond man with her knelt next to Margo and began talking to her in a low voice. “Even better. If you want to give her moral support, we’ll get her as comfortable as we can and get her to the hospital.”
Tanwen moved to the other side of the room and stood next to Greg. He gave her a one-armed hug and dialed his cell phone. “Hey, Bryan? Yeah, we’re on the way to the hospital. Grandma Ebony is with the kids right now.”
As soon as she realized who Greg was talking to, Tanwen ducked under his arm with a smile.
“Hey, man, hold on one second.” Greg put his hand over the phone. “Tanwen, thanks again for all your help. We owe you, big-time.”
She kissed his cheek and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You two are doing such a good job. I wish all my patients were like you.”
He gave her a distracted smile, and she crept toward the door as Greg went to Margo’s side while still talking to Bryan. She gave Margo a kiss on the cheek after they loaded her onto the gurney, and followed the procession out the door. A small crowd had gathered in the hall, and when Margo was wheeled out, she raised her hand and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd. They broke into applause as Margo and the paramedics headed off to the elevators. Tanwen went in the opposite direction to the stairs. They wouldn’t all be able to fit into the elevator, and she didn’t want to be stuck with a curious crowd in a man’s T-shirt while not wearing a bra.
As soon as the door to the stairwell closed behind her, she leaned her head back and took a deep breath, her ears ringing with the sudden silence. As her heartbeat slowed, the day replayed in her mind at hyperspeed, most of it dominated with images of Bryan. She groaned and gently thunked her back against the metal door. How had things gotten so out of control so fast?
One minute she was wrapped in this blissful cocoon of amazing feelings, relaxed and comfortable in Bryan’s arms. Then the next thing she knew, he’s asking her to spend the night and the only thing she could think of was how much it would hurt the next morning to wake up and look at him sleeping next to her, knowing they were just going to be friends.
Oh, he’d sounded like he wanted something more, but how could she trust him after the things Margo had told her? For all she knew, he had just meant sleeping over as a comfortable thing to do, not the intimate act it was in her mind. Maybe she was being silly and overreacting. After the real-life drama that Margo and Greg were going through, her problems with Bryan seemed rather foolish.