As the contraction eased and Zoe came back into the moment, she quickly asked, “How’s she doing?”
“She’s ready to be out, but she’s hanging in there,” the nurse said, and Ryder couldn’t miss the worry in her eyes. Her screens were covered in wavy lines, none of which meant a damn thing, but he didn’t like them.
“Fuck, the pressure… I want to poo, so I think I’m ready to push,” Zoe said with a sharp grimace, and looked up at Ryder.
The doctor reassuringly said, “It’s okay. If it feels right, give a little test push.”
Zoe’s face contorted, red and puffy, and her test push triggered a tidal wave.
Another contraction, and another.
Growls turned into raging roars.
Only Zoe’s screams and the beeps filled the room, the nurses busy getting ready.
It all happened so fast. One of the nurses scooped the baby up as soon as she was out, and rushed her over to the warming bed. Surrounded by a team, Ryder couldn’t see anything.
He turned to Zoe and pushed her hair off her face. “You okay?” he whispered.
Tension eased in an instant, and he heard Scott laugh at the warming table. “There she is,” he said.
“Go,” Zoe said, nodding as tears started to gush. “Please?”
He nodded helplessly, and crossed to see. Each step slower than the last, he wasn’t sure what to expect.
The little pink alien blob laying naked on the warming bed erupted in an epic wail the second he walked close.
“That’s what I like to hear,” the pediatrician said, and rubbed the baby’s head with her gloved hand. She looked up at Ryder and waved him the rest of the way over. “You made it in the nick of time.”
He nodded, his throat too tight to speak.
17
Home
Three months later
Sleepadistantmemory,yet it sealed Zoe’s eyelids shut. Sand in her mouth, sandbags on her eyelids, Zoe blinked a few times. Sunlight blasted over her eyes, bright and brilliant, and she blinked again as she pushed to her elbows.
In a bedroom that would fit four of her old bedroom—no wait, five—Zoe sat up and shoved her hair out of her face. Brenda Halseth would wave a magic wand and have some art on saturated walls, dressers and end tables and bookshelves and area rugs and whatever else until no empty space remained. Instead, the space was white and sparse… except for the window.
A window covered more than half of the wall opposite the bed, and the forest filled her room with greenery. Zoe’s taste had never aligned with her mother’s, but moving into a new house only weeks after having a baby made things go a lot slower, and the nursery and the kitchen had taken priority. She may have married a spoiled Mallory, but… Zoe laughed under her breath as she drank in the room, the view, the ceilings high enough to fit a tree inside. There were perks.
Speaking of… the house was awfully quiet for ten in the morning. Ryder had promised she could sleep in after her first shift back. Once a week for now, as she had been itching to get back in there.
True to his promise, she’d slept, and her boobs throbbed. Before she started leaking everywhere, she dragged out of bed and tossed on cozy sweatpants. Said leaky boobs had led to wearing tops at night, a habit she was eager to drop as soon as the boobs were hers again.
Smooth, cool wood chilled her feet, and she stepped into slippers for the search through the house. Area rugs would have to come next.
The silence faded into echoes as she passed the empty nursery, empty bedrooms, and headed down the stairs. Shit. The video meeting. She had completely forgotten.
Where was Elena? Zoe zipped faster to rescue Ryder from having to tend to a baby for his first meeting.
His neat-freak tendencies had slipped with the new baby, and true to his word, a frying pan was left out, and his breakfast plate sat next to the sink. The coffee pot had been heavily drained, but there was enough for her to indulge in a few sneaky sips.
She rounded the corner, and found his office doors were wide open. Not quite as sparse, he’d quickly filled the room with a desk and computer, bookshelves, a cozy sofa, all looking out into the forest.
Baby on his shoulder, facing the computer, Ryder smiled as he concluded the meeting with his new boss.
