Page 28 of Brighter than the Boss
She let out another wail and everyone turned their focus to her, wanting to help.
Sage and Hessa worked together to spread towels beneath her legs and a rolled-up one under her head. Sunny came to her other side and held her hand. Everyone then looked at me, like I was the one leading this birth, which at the moment, I guess I was. I swallowed hard and looked over at Sunny. She gave me a small head nod and that was all the encouragement I needed to jump in and save the day.
My girl was watching me, trusting me, believing in me.
"Oh God, here comes another one!" Natalie squeezed her eyes shut and let out small huffs of air.
"Come on, Natalie, you gotta grit and bear it." I looked up and saw Esa giving encouragement.
Hessa jumped in, "The phrase is actually 'grin and bear it.'"
Esa's face turned into a frown, swiveling to Hessa, already forgetting about poor Natalie. "No, like grit your teeth."
"I know what you meant, Esa, but that is an entirely different phrase derived from—"
"Girls! Focus on the job at hand!" Shasta interrupted them, saving me from a splitting headache and from losing all my friends when I yelled at their girlfriends. Sage snorted in the silence, earning a dirty look from everyone.
Dean and Jax jogged back into the room with news. "The tsunami has hit the coast. It's small but the tide is already coming in. They're saying that it'll cause some minor flooding. Advising everyone to get three stories high or to get five blocks up from the coastline."
We all stared at him, absorbing his news. Unspoken was the fact that we were only two stories high and not even one block from the water.
Jax piped up, "We only have one boat left on property on the back of the truck. The others are in the marina up north. We could fit twelve people in it if we had to get out that way."
A quick look around the room told me we were way over capacity. I sure as hell wasn't going to let this be a Titanic situation. That hadn't worked out so well. This was my crew. My responsibility.
Nothing to do but split up.
I stood up and walked over to the group of lifeguards still huddled by the doors. There were about ten of them, all looking anxiously out the front windows. I put my hand on the shoulder of the guy closest to me.
"Sounds like you guys may be better off taking the ATVs and getting to higher ground. At least five blocks north. Leave now and don't report back until you get the all clear." I looked them each in the eye, wanting to let them know that I was proud of them. That I cared about them.
Nobody moved.
"We've talked and we don't feel good about leaving you and the rest of them here, boss." Neil, our youngest lifeguard, stood up and stood his ground, making me even more proud of the team we had here in Huntington Beach. All for one and one for all wasn't just for musketeers.
I smiled, my heart thudding in my chest, overcome with emotion. These were good people and I was damn lucky they had my back. As their leader, it was time for me to make some tough decisions though.
"Here's the thing, boys. If we gotta evacuate the building, we're not all gonna fit on the one boat we have. Our only way out of this is to split up. You ten pile on the ATVs. The water hasn't come up this far yet. You should be able to get further north. Depending on how the civilian is progressing, we'll take the boat if the water level reaches this floor."
They all looked at each other, communicating silently and coming to the same conclusion. Neil turned back to me and nodded curtly, ready to finally follow my orders.
"Okay, we'll see you when this is over."
We all shook hands and slapped each other's backs like grown men do when they want to hug it out without displaying a ridiculous amount of emotion. I hoped I was making the right decision. It was a major downside of the job that each county lost one life a year on average, out there just doing their job. Losing one person was bad enough. I absolutely couldn't lose a whole group of them due to my bad decision making.
"Now get out here. I got a baby to deliver. Can't have you knuckleheads standing around making the mother uncomfortable." They left with smiles and I turned back to the next problem at hand.
Somehow, someway, I had to play doctor and bring a life into this chaotic world.
15
Sunny
The waves hadn't hit us yet, but I still felt battered. Getting everyone evacuated safely was hard enough, but add in my mom collapsing, Cain saying all those nice things about me, then kissing the life out of me...well, it was a bit much for any girl to handle all in one day. All those suspicions I had that Cain was actually a good guy underneath it all, just beaten down by life, were confirmed when he took care of me after my dad's phone call. His words about my nature and how I'd changed him were something I never expected to hear from his lips. He'd seemed so angry with me all the times we'd interacted, I'd had a hard time figuring him out.
And now we couldn't even talk it out and decide what was happening between us. I tried to stay away from him once we entered Headquarters. I didn't want my coworkers whispering behind my back about flirting with the boss. So I resigned myself to long looks, subtle head nods, and whispered words of encouragement. Like my thoughts of my mom, I had to simply push all that to the side and focus on one emergency at a time.
Right now, the only thing I was focused on was the woman squeezing the life out of my hand. Cain had sent the other lifeguards away, so the Beach Squad girls and their men were the only ones left in the big, empty lobby turned hospital room. Esa was timing the contractions and Hessa was trying to look up directions on her phone on how to deliver a baby. Jack looked like he was going to pass out, so Bailey got him a chair and moved him out of the way, but not without heavy sarcasm and sass, which ironically put the color back in Jack's cheeks.
