As Zoe settled back in, Olive started readjusting straps, as if nothing had happened.
“Hello?” she heard Finn call as he eased back into the triage area. “Zoe? Can we come in?”
“Here,” Zoe said, and breathed for the few minutes of relief available. “Come on in. We’re having a party.”
With her brothers and father in the small room, Haley in the doorway, a bit more quietly polite in her entrance thanks to that Mallory upbringing, Olive lightly jumped as she turned and face the crowded room. “Whoa. I think you’re my first to bring a whole football team with you.”
Despite her aching belly, Zoe erupted with a belly laugh. “Oh, you have no idea.”
“Is this one the dad?” Olive asked.
“Another brother,” Zoe said, and sank into the reclined hospital bed to rest before the next wave. She beckoned for her phone from Evan, and read the screen. “Ryder is on the plane.” She turned just her head to face the nurse. “He had a meeting he couldn’t miss, in Phoenix.”
“Let’s check to see how far you’re dilated, and how much time we’ve got.”
Without enough time to rest after the last contraction, Zoe felt another rising, and searched for something to grip down on. Finn moved in next to her and she grabbed him by the shoulder. Evan moved into rub her back again, but she grabbed his hand and clenched down as the contraction hit harder than the ones before.
Theextracostforparking his own car, the unstoppable SUV he’d picked up for precisely this sort of eventuality, sort of, it had all been worth it. Snow was accumulating fast. Visibility waned as the sun sank early in the winter sky. It took every scrap of survival instinct Ryder had left to not fly down the roads.
His phone buzzed again, and the car Bluetooth read off Evan’s message.Eight centimeters. WTF are you?
Ryder quickly voice typed,Parking lot.
Fucking hell, he was going to make it.
Too damn late anyway, he’d already blown it.
Why in the fucking hell hadn’t he had the guts to tell off his boss before he dragged his ass down for a meeting no one cared about anyway?
Already at dangerous levels, his pulse hammered faster. Had he really quit his job? No notice, no negotiating, no next job lined up.
Quit. Done.
Snow had covered the parking lines, and the hospital plows couldn’t keep it clear enough. They probably wouldn’t let a new-dad-in-a-hurry use the valet.
He finally found a spot, parked, and jumped out.
Foresight was in his favor, at least, and he’d kept a to-go bag in his car in Phoenix, so on the flight up, he’d been able to change into jeans, sweatshirt, and, most importantly, beefy hiking boots. Not that he’d owned beefy hiking boots this morning. With an hour to kill at the airport, he’d found a sporting goods store near the Alaska gates, and stocked up in case the roads were shit and he had to literally run the last few miles to get here.
Despite the shoes, he did a few slip-slides before reaching the de-iced areas, and then took off at a sprint.
Down the stairs, toward reception, exactly as the birthing class had showed them.
Evan was waiting at the desk, eyes wide, and shook his head at Ryder as he ran up to meet him.
The receptionist had clearly already gotten an earful from Evan on the urgency, and opened the door.
Evan slapped a sticker nametag with the room number on it onto Ryder’s chest as they moved, and led the way down the hall. “You really like to cut things close,” Evan said, just as breathless.
Ryder wiped the sweat and melted snowflakes off his face and huffed a heavy breath as they ran down the hall. “Never again.”
The door was open a crack, and Ryder rushed in.
He slowed the second he walked into the chaotic mess.
Zoe’s legs were up, the doctor at the foot of the bed. The nurse was standing to the side, another nurse waiting by a contraption that looked like something to keep food warm like Zoe had in the kitchen.
His throat instantly tightened, swollen and his eyes burned red. Fuck, he should have been here sooner. Sweat was caked into her hair, but it had been tied back. A few strands had slipped free, but clung to her damp forehead. Her hospital gown was a wrinkled, sweaty mess.
