I glare at him. “You’re not coming near me until she’s at least twenty. Period.”
I don’t mean it, and he knows it. As uncomfortable as I am, I’ve loved every second of carrying my daughter, and I love the way he sees me when I’m pregnant.
Another cramp ripples through my back. I rub absently at the spot. Of course he notices. “You hurtin’?”
“I’m fine. Probably just need to sit down for a bit.”
He raises a brow. “So I was right? You need to be off your feet?”
“I didn’t?—”
I don’t say anything more because what hits me isn’t a cramp. It’s breath-stealing pain.
My hand latches around his bicep as I fold over my belly. Fuck. Oh. Shit. That hurts.
It’s like someone is tearing through my insides.
Casey steadies me as my legs threaten to buckle.
“Babe? Is it time?”
“It hurts. Oh fuck, it hurts so bad.” The words are garbled under my gasp of pain.
I breathe through my nose, trying to stay calm, but it’s pretty hard when it feels like someone is taking a chainsaw to my uterus.
“Just breathe, Lex.”
I want to snarl at him to just fucking breathe, but there’s no air in my lungs anymore.
The muscles unclench and I can think again, talk again. “I think it was a contraction.”
“You think, or you know?”
I glare at him. “How would I know? I’ve never done this before.”
I don’t mean to snap and I feel instantly guilty. He doesn’t flinch. He never does.
“Was that the first one?”
Shit. I wince. “I’ve been cramping for the last few hours.”
He stares at me. Blinks, then narrows his gaze. “What?”
I scowl. “Don’t look at me like that. I thought it was Braxton Hicks. How was I supposed to know it was contractions? I don’t even know if this is a contraction.”
He huffs. “How far apart are they? Are they regular? Where are you feeling them?”
“I don’t know, maybe a few minutes, and it’s hard to tell.”
Before he can say anything, another pain rips through me. This one is worse and it feels like the baby is between my legs.
I cling to him like he’s the only thing keeping me upright because he kind of is.
This isn’t a practice contraction. It’s too sharp, too painful. My brain is in full panic mode as my body tightens to unbearable pain and then relaxes, as if it never happened.
“We’re going to the hospital.”
“And what if it’s not labor?”
