Page 16 of Art of the Hunt
“What’s best?” Gina said, sounding as if she had complete confidence in Artemis’s skills. How could she possibly have so much faith already? Had Artemis whipped out a stack of credentials while Hunter retrieved the blanket?
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked.
Ignoring him, Artemis spoke to the birthing mother. “It’s really personal preference. Either way will allow gravity to help you. If you sit, Rich can sit behind you and offer his encouragement that way. Might help him feel like he’s involved in the process.”
“I want to be involved,” Rich piped up. “I got her into this situation in the first place.”
“Well, it was a team effort,” Gina said, simpering at her husband. She glanced at Artemis. “We had just started talking about trying. Weren’t planning to get pregnant for another six months. But nature had other plans, obviously.”
“Yes, well, that’s often how sex works,” Artemis said. “Especially when you do it the old-fashioned way.”
“Old-fashioned way?” Rich asked.
Artemis nodded. “Insert penis into vagina, stroke a few times and”—she snapped her fingers—“here comes baby.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” Gina said conversationally. “At first, I thought you meant missionary style, and we rarely do it that way. And I’m 99 percent positive this baby was conceived while we were doing it—”
“Can we focus on the birth instead of the conception?” Hunter interrupted. He did not need to know any more about this couple than he already did.
“Okay, Rich,” Artemis said, “help Gina down onto the blanket and then sit behind her, like she’s driving a motorcycle and you’re her passenger.”
She glanced her shoulder at Hunter and arched one eyebrow, and in a flash, he was back on that bike, her body fitting snuggly between his thighs. Yeah, that had been the greatest bike ride he’d ever taken in his life.
Wait. Baby. Birth. Not in a hospital. With doctors.
“Are you sure about this, Artemis?” he asked again.
She threw up her arms and flung herself around to face him. “Okay, I realize I may have overemphasized how much I dislike having to use this particular skill, but seriously,I know what I’m doing. If you want to distract yourself, go grab that basin over there and the jug of water so we can rinse off the baby when he or she comes out. Oh, and those scissors to cut the umbilical cord. Do you want to do the honors, Rich?”
“Hell, yeah,” Rich said, and then glanced at his wife. “Unless you want to, buttercup?”
Buttercup?
“She looks like Princess Buttercup, don’t you think?” Rich asked, apparently speaking to Hunter and Artemis.
Artemis smiled warmly. “Aw. Yes, I can totally see it.”
Gina started crying. “No, you do it, Rich. Now, can I push yet?”
Artemis snapped to attention, kneeling at Gina’s feet. “Soon. Let me get these pants off you so they don’t get ruined. Childbirth is messy business, you know. For example, you’re probably going to poop, and that’s entirely normal. It’s really—”
Hunter dove into the foliage, following Artemis’s instructions to look for a basin and a jug of water, but really, he didn’t want to hear whatever the hell she was telling the other woman.
He had a general idea of what childbirth was like. At this point, all of his sisters had kids, and this wasn’t the first time he’d come across a woman in labor who wasn’t in a hospital. Except he’d gotten her into his patrol car and had raced to the nearest emergency room and very gratefully handed her off to the medical staff, who, he learned later, had helped her to deliver a healthy baby boy.
He had a feeling he wasn’t going to be so lucky this time. Had any of them actually called for an ambulance yet?
He found the water and basin right where Artemis indicated they would be, and tried really hard not to question how such supplies got there in the first place while he headed back to check on Gina’s progress.
Maybe women went into labor all the time along this stretch of the trail, and whoever managed this national park had decided it made sense to leave provisions here as a result.
Artemis was on her knees between Gina’s thighs. Gina was on her back, lying half on Rich, who was seated behind her, brushing her hair out of her face and keeping up a constant stream of mostly gibberish that was probably supposed to be some sort of pep talk.
Gina was naked from the waist down, which was really awkward for Hunter, so he hurried to move to stand behind Rich, where at least her giant belly did a decent job of hiding most of her lady parts from view.
Artemis was staring at the other woman’s vagina. “I can see the head,” she cried out, sounding as jubilant as he imagined the almost-parents were about to be. “Push, Gina, push!”
Despite the fact that these people were complete strangers and he had no idea if Artemis truly did have experience doing this, Hunter got sucked in, found himself rooting for Gina, even offering words of encouragement as she scrunched up her face and squeezed her fists and her entire body went rigid while she tried to push a basketball through a wedding band.
