Page 70 of Ky
Oh, um, wow. I had heard the nurse say that she was in labor and all, but clearly, I hadn’t really thought about what that meant.
I did not want to be here for this. Nope. Not one little bit.
But I knew I couldn’t leave her.
“Everything looks good with the baby. I’ll be back to check on you in about twenty minutes. You’re at eight centimeters and we’d like you to be at ten. The nurses will be right here if you feel any discomfort or feel any unusual pain. Other than that, I suspect things will be ready to go when I come back.” The doctor smiled and patted Ingram’s knee. Then she walked out of the room.
“This is not fun, Ky. I didn’t know it was going to be like this.”
“It’s alright, Ingram. I’m here.” I tried to sound reassuring and strong.
“No, please. I’m not mad at you, but I don’t want you here. I don’t want you to see this. Please, get someone else. Mouse?”
I wasn’t happy that she somehow found comfort in Mouse but it wasn’t the time to bring it up. When I stepped back to look at it, I couldn’t really be mad. Mouse had taken Ingram under his wing. He’d treated her like family should. Like a good brother would. Way better than me, and I fucking knew it. So, I was going to push my overprotective big brother instincts down and go out there and get her what she needed at the moment.
“Okay, I’ll get Mouse.” I bent over, brushed the hair from her face, and kissed her forehead.
“Wait,” she called out before I could step away. “Chris?” Her eyes went wide with panic.
“He’s a few floors up. He’s fine. I just left him and he was awake.”
“Oh,” she said sounding winded. “Good. I tried to—”
“Shhhh,” I said smoothing her hair. “He’s fine, and we can talk about it all later, when things are more private.”
I didn’t know what she was going to say, but I needed to keep that shit on lockdown for right now. She gave me a frantic nod like she understood but was freaking out.
“You sure you don’t want me to stay?”
“No, this is awful and weird. I don’t want you to see.”
“Okay, I’m going to go get Mouse now.”
“Thank you.”
I left the room, hating that I was leaving her but also a little relieved that I didn’t have to witness all of that.
“Is she okay?” Mouse said the moment he saw me as his body jerked away from the wall.
I stood tall, crossed my arms over my chest, and stared him down. He didn’t bulk up at me but he also didn’t flinch away like he was hiding something. Then I broke, because I was in the wrong again and I saw it.
“She wants you in there. But I’m telling you now, your eyes better be on hers or the fucking wall behind her back. Not so much as a glimpse of down there. I fucking mean it, Mouse.”
He smiled and nodded his head. Then his arms came around me in a manly hug. I let out a long breath and hugged him back. We broke apart like it’d never happened and we both let out a short laugh.
“I’m going to see Chris, call me when it’s safe to come down.” I didn’t add in anything about if something went wrong because I wasn’t even going to let those thoughts invade my head.
“I’ll take care of her, I promise,” he said, then with a firm clap on the back, he was off in the direction of Ingram.
