Page 17 of His Best Friend's Baby

‘So the ambulance is on its way?’

Seth nodded, but he was frowning and when Polly tried to make eye contact, he kept his gaze fixed at some spot on the floor.

‘The ambulance isn’t nearby. It’s going to take ages, isn’t it?’

‘Might be a while.’

‘And the base hospital’s miles away.’ About an hour’s drive, if she remembered correctly.

Seth dropped a warm kiss on her forehead. ‘Don’t worry, Pollz. You’ll be fine. Let’s get you more comfortable.’

*

They had towait for another contraction to build and then ebb before Polly could progress to the bedroom.

She frowned as she eyed the deeply padded, king-size mattress covered in crisp, very new looking, navy-blue sheets. ‘Do you have some kind of protector on that mattress?’

‘No. I forgot about a protector,’ Seth admitted. ‘But I can grab a few towels.’

Polly was very conscious of her damp underwear and she couldn’t bear the thought of leaking onto Seth’s brand-new bedding. ‘You don’t have anything stronger than towels?’ She tried to think of any kind of waterproof that a tradesman like Seth might have. ‘What about those canvas drop sheet things people use to cover floors when they’re painting?’

Seth’s eyes widened. ‘Yeah, I do have a drop sheet, but it’s not exactly clean.’

‘Get it.’ Polly was surprised that she could still be so bossy when she was feeling totally scared and fragile. ‘We can use it to protect the mattress and then you can cover it with the sheets and towels.’

He nodded. ‘I’m onto it.’

While Seth was fetching this gear, Polly removed her uncomfortably wet knickers, rolling them into a ball and stuffing them behind her shoulder bag, hopefully out of Seth’s sight. He was very efficient, setting the drop sheet in place and repositioning the bed linen and then the towels, and she was certainly grateful for his strong arms supporting her as she slipped off her shoes and lowered herself slowly, cautiously, to the floor-level mattress.

This manoeuvre was quite an effort, but once Polly was down, she was grateful for the luxurious padding and pleased to be horizontal. Hopefully, the laws of gravity might come into play now and the contractions would slow down. Even stop.

‘What can I get you?’ Seth asked. ‘A drink of water? Little ice cubes?’

‘Maybe ice?’ Polly tried for a grateful smile, but as soon as Seth left, another pain arrived, gripping her with such a cruel, vice-like force, she forgot about the steady breathing and gave in to panic.

*

Seth had livedall his life in the countryside, so he’d witnessed his share of births—births of puppies, lambs and calves, that is—including one birth that involved tying a rope around a calf’s hoof, while a farmer planted his boot squarely on the mother’s hind quarter to gain leverage. But despite these experiences, Seth knew next to nothing about the birthing of human babies.

Just the same, he was pretty sure that if Polly’s water had broken, she was having this baby in the very near future. Whether she wanted to or not.

Poor girl. He felt wretched that he’d persuaded her to come out here to Wirralong, dragging her away from all the big city facilities. Thanks to his reckless brainwave, Polly was more or less stranded in the outback, with her baby coming early, and almost certainly, she was scared out of her wits.

And, of course, he was thinking about her mother.

Bloody hell. In all the years he’d been mates with Polly, she’d rarely talked about her mother’s tragic death. But Seth knew it had happened when Polly was born and he also knew this sad fact had always lain heavily on Polly’s heart. Today, it lay heavily on Seth’s.

He was terrified.

But the ambulance officer had stressed to him that it was important he stayed calm. So, for Polly’s sake, he would do his damned best to be outwardly calm at least. His job was to keep her as comfortable as possible until the experts arrived. He could only hope they broke all the speed limits.

‘Here’s some ice,’ he said, coming back into the bedroom and kneeling beside Polly to offer her a cup.

‘Thanks.’ As she propped herself onto one elbow and helped herself to a small ice cube, Seth remained crouched at her side. Her skin seemed extra pale, her eyes a deeper shade of blue, and there was a delicate air about her. He told himself this was simply because she’d taken off her glasses and put them in her bag beside the bed.

Without makeup, or the armour of those strong black frames, her face seemed more vulnerable. But Polly Martin wasn’t a weakling. Seth told himself she was going to be fine.

Damn it, back in their schooldays, Polly had always been stronger than she looked. While she’d never been much chop at ball sports that involved hand–eye coordination, she’d been a champion at the grittier pursuits like long distance, cross-country running. When it came to sheer tenacity and determination, Polly Martin could win hands down.

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