Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
I linked my arms around his neck, sobs wracking my body. Jessie rushed down the stairs, pulling his keys from his pocket. “Easy, baby,” Lincoln soothed. “It’s okay. We’re here. We’re never fucking letting you go, you got me? You might bring our beautiful baby girl into the world early, but that’s okay. She’s got her mother’s fighting spirit, and I know she’s going to fight just as strong as you are for her right now.”
I loved that he knew what I was fearing without me saying anything. Another cramp twisted my insides, this one much more painful than the last. I screamed, my nails digging into the back of Lincoln’s neck. He didn’t flinch, only rushed out of the front door and down the steps to where Jessie was waiting with Lincoln’s truck since it had more space than Jessie’s little sports car.
“Let me drive,” Lincoln ordered. Jessie shook his head, but Lincoln wasn’t having it. “She fucking needs you right now, Jessie. You’re her rock, remember?”
I sobbed, more pain twisting my belly. Jessie quickly jumped out of the truck and rushed around, taking me from Lincoln’s arms before he climbed into the truck, holding me on his lap. The pain was coming in quick, rapidly repeating waves, never giving me much of a chance to breathe before it assaulted me again.
“We’re here,” Jessie soothed, his voice strong despite the fear I knew was rushing through him. “West, breathe,” he commanded, his voice firm. I sucked in a desperate bit of air. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding my breath. “Breathe, baby. Panicking does not help our baby. You’re so fucking strong. I need you to fucking breathe,” he commanded, stopping me from having a full-blown panic attack.
“There you go,” he praised when I sucked in large, lung-full breaths of air. “There’s my strong fucking woman. Keep breathing, baby.” He looked up. “Not much further,” he assured me.
Lincoln had to be flying.
Reaching over, Lincoln gripped my hand in his, bringing it to his lips. “We’re not fucking leaving your side, you got me? One of us will always be with you,” he promised.
I just nodded, my speech gone. My breath was barely sawing in and out of my lungs. Fear had a tight, vice-like grip around my lungs.
He quickly pulled up in front of the hospital, leaving his keys in the truck. I didn’t even give a damn if it got towed, and apparently, Lincoln didn’t either.
Jessie jumped out of the truck. Lincoln rushed around the front of the truck, quickly following us inside. The lady at the receptionist’s desk looked up at us with a bored expression, but her expression quickly went alarmed when I screamed in pain again, my hands going to my belly so abruptly I almost made Jessie drop me. The pain was suddenly so intense, it ripped the breath from my lungs, my entire body trying to curl in on itself to hold my insides together. I couldn’t even begin to be embarrassed about the amount of fluid that poured from me.
I was losing amniotic fluid. Too quick. Too fucking fast.
The nurse quickly got over the intercom, demanding help from labor and delivery down in the emergency room. Jessie’s face was pale, his teeth gritted as he held me tighter. Lincoln was whispering soothing words to me, trying to keep me calm as I wailed, so terrified and in so much pain that I could barely focus on anything else.
As soon as we were in a labor and delivery room and the midwife checked my cervix, she stood up, a solemn expression on her face. “We need to prep her for a c-section. We have very little time to save her baby,” she told my men.
“One of us has to be here,” Jessie told her. “She can’t—fuck, she has a condition that keeps her from speaking when she’s overwhelmed. It’s like a block in her brain comes up. We can communicate for her.”
The midwife nodded. “Only one. Decide quickly,” she ordered as she left the room, ordering the nurse to get the room prepped for a c-section.
“Stay with her,” Jessie told Lincoln.
I sobbed, wanting both of them here with me, though I knew I could only have one. I was so fucking scared. I didn’t want to lose my baby. I couldn’t go through this without both of them.
“Jessie—” Lincoln roughly protested, looking torn and conflicted, his hand trembling in mine.
“No. This baby is biologically yours, Lincoln. You need to be here with her,” he told him, his tone brooking no arguments. “Fucking suck your shit up, bro,” he ordered. “She needs you to be her rock.” Jessie leaned down and kissed me deeply, pouring all of the love he felt for me and our baby into the kiss. I sobbed as I clutched at him.