Page 78 of His Vivacious Angel
It’s not often I pout sincerely, but I sure do now. “For what?”
He helps me into the shower after heating the water. “For not filling you up right before the nurses and docs check to see how far along you are in labor.”
“I’m not in labor.”
He smirks as he lathers shampoo in my hair. “If not now, you’re about to be, after all that nipple stimulation and an orgasm.”
Oh. Right. I’d forgotten that helpful tip the doc gave me at my last appointment to spark my labor naturally.
“Though, of course, I’ll be happy to try again if you’re not,” he says with a wink.
“I bet you are,” I say, sliding my hands up his lean chest, lovingly gazing at my wonderful, thoughtful, incredibly handsome fiancé. I can’t wait to marry and spend the rest ofmy life with him.
“I can’t believe I ever wanted to experience this…this…absolute bullshit! What was I thinking, letting you do this to me? You’re such an asshole!” I yell at Forest in the wee hours of the next morning, having only gotten about three hours of sleep before I woke with intense contractions. I snatch my hand from his when I slump back on the hospital bed. “I’m taking the kids and moving back home, and you’re never getting within ten feet of me again. We’re done. Done, done, done!”
Taking no offense, Forest brings a cup with a straw to my chapped lips. “Breathe, angel, and have some water.”
“Fuck you and your water!” I shout, though I take a grateful swallow.
“Here comes another one. Time to push,” Dr. Bautista says from between my legs.
After pushing for nearly two straight hours, sweat slicking my forehead, it’s getting harder to tell where one contraction ends and the next begins. Shayla jinxed me, and the fucking epidural failed, so I feel every bit of the fire blazing in my body as it stretches past its limits.
My chest rattles when I heave for breath. When, yet again, I don’t get any closer to delivering my daughter, I plead with Dr. Bautista, “Just pull her out!” I narrow my eyes at Forest, whom I never, ever, ever want to see again. “Tell them to get her out right now, or I’m leaving.” I even attempt to roll to the side, but Shayla—who I’m going to cut as soon as I get out of here—hangs tight to my left leg while Mom keeps a hold of my right.
“Just a few more pushes, then she’ll be out,” Forest says softly from my left side, echoing the doctor, exchanging the cup of water for a wet washcloth that he pats along my forehead.
I growl, “Swear to god, if any of you say that to me one more time, I’m going to fucking lose it!”
“You done lost it about five hours ago,” Bailey says with a snort from my right side.
“Be nice to your sister,” Mom chides.
“Yeah, shut up, Bailey,” I say.
Mom’s mouth tightens, but she’s not about to chastise me during my own freaking labor.
“Never have, never will, sis. Get used to it,” Bailey says with a grin.
“Ugh!” I have no good retort, nor would I even be able to give one when the doctor flicks her eyes to my monitor and tells me, “If we don’t get her out within the next few minutes, we’ll need to prep you for a C-section.”
I bear down and push so hard with my next contraction that Forest flips out at the apparently popped blood vessels in my eyes. “Are they supposed to do that? Is it permanent? Oh god, they look like they’re going to pop out!” he shouts, clutching my hand so tight that my bones grind together.
The nurse tries to reassure Forest that it’s a generally harmless, common occurrence when straining so hard and that it isn’t permanent, but it doesn’t seem to be getting through his head. His fear is the only thing that takes the edge off my anger.
“How the fuck did you do this so many times?” I ask Shayla. “Are you crazy?!”
“Yup,” Bailey answers without hesitation. “She’s certifiably nuts.”
Mom rolls her eyes. She’s just as crazy for doing this four times.
“Come on, angel, you can do it,” Forest croaks. Josephine had helped me style my hair in a braid before we left her and the boys at Eden and Martin’s house. With trembling fingers, my ex-fiancé pushes the stray strands thathave worked themselves loose back from my face. “One or two more pushes, that’s it, and then we’ll get to meet our baby girl.”
I want that more than anything I’ve ever wanted before, so with him helping me curl forward, since I no longer have the strength to do so on my own, I bear down again, even harder than before. I scream my throat raw when my body splits in two, and our baby’s head is born.
Forest leans over to take a closer peek between my legs. “You did it, angel! She’s so beautiful and bald as a badger’s backside,” he says excitedly with a laugh. “One more push!”
I curl my upper lip and rasp, “That’s a dickish thing to say about your own daughter, asshole!”
