Page 319 of Vegas Heat

“Right. Okay. Do your breathing, okay? I’ll do it with you.” She starts to pace as she sucks in loud breaths before exhalinglike she’s blowing out birthday candles. She’s more panicked than I am, and I can’t help a laugh.

“Does it feel better?” she asks, pausing in her pacing.

“A little, but honestly the entertainment here is top notch.”

She tilts her head and glares a little at me. “Listen, you’d be freaked out if your future daughter-in-law was giving birth two months before you, too. First of all, I have to take care of you or your father will punish me. And second of all, I have to watch you go through this first. I get to see just exactly how painful it is to give myself two months to get even more worked up about it.”

“Drama queen,” I tease, and her glare deepens.

“I am not!”

I give her ayeah, okaysarcastic glance as I turn my attention back to the television, and she finally sits back down.

It’s about ten minutes later when I wince as another one of those pains plows into me.

“That was twelve minutes,” Joanie announces.

“Nothing to worry about until they’re five minutes apart,” I say.

“Right. But how bad does it suck?”

I work my way through it, and then I sit back and take some of those deep breaths. “I mean, if I have to wait through these overnight, I’m not sleeping, that’s for damn sure.”

“Let’s do something, then. Want to go for a walk? Try to get things moving along?” she asks, standing up again.

“No!” I practically yell. “I want to slow things down so Cooper’s here for the birth of his child.”

“Slow down, slow down,” she mutters as she grabs her phone and starts typing. “Okay, lay on your left side and drink a lot of water. Dehydration can cause contractions. Oh, and empty your bladder.”

“So drink water but also have an empty bladder? Great advice, thanks.” I roll my eyes, and she giggles.

“You do realize the two of us know nothing about babies, right?” she asks.

“Yes, I do realize that. I’ve read a couple books over the last few months, but I feel like nothing will prepare me more than actually being in the thick of it,” I say. “Plus I have Cooper, who has nephews, so he has at least a little experience.”

“Lucky. Troy has zero.”

I shrug. “I know, with a big fat thanks to my mother.”

“At least we get to watch you go through it first so I can get some pointers.”

I laugh. This is what we have become. In a lot of ways, Joanie is more like a sister to me than a future stepmother. We work together, sometimes we live together, and we have fun together. We tease each other and we can laugh it off because we’re family now.

“Oh God, here comes another one,” I say.

“That time it was only nine minutes.”

“Thank God one of us is timing these,” I mutter.

“I’m here for you, girl. Lay on your left side. See if that slows things down.”

It doesn’t. They move to eight minutes and then seven, but they stick at seven for a little while.

It’s a little after midnight when Cooper texts me.

Captain:You still awake?

Fuck yes I’m still awake! I’m freaking contracting!

---