Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Cam grabbed the house phone, staring at it for a second, knowing he needed to make this next call but not wanting to. God, really not wanting to. He’d been avoiding this for months. He listened to the ring, bracing himself for an earful.
“Hey, cuz!” Jo said. “I forgot you even had a house line. What’s going on?”
“Jo, it’s me. It’s Cam.”
“Cam?” Jo’s voice skipped surprise and hopscotched straight to disbelief. Irritation. Anger.
“Jo, hey. Look, I need—”
“You lead with ‘I need’? Where the hell have you been? You haven’t returned my calls or text messages since Christmas. Christmas, Cam! And you lead with ‘I need’?”
“Jo, I need you to shut up.”
“What?” Steam was probably pouring out of her ears. “What did you just say to me?”
“I need you to listen to me. It’s Kerris.”
“What about her?” Jo’s voice softened like butter left out in the sun. “What are you doing at their house? Is she okay?”
“No.” Cam glanced at Kerris when a small moan slipped between her bite-marked lips. “Definitely no. She’s in labor.”
“No, it’s too soon. She’s only, like, seven months!”
“Walsh asked me to check on her. He’s in Hong Kong and just had a feeling. Good thing. Um, where are you?”
“I’m…I’m in Rivermont, but I—” Jo’s voice sounded farther way, like she’d turned her head. “Shaundra, did Daddy take the Walsh Foods jet? No? Can you get it ready for me? I need to get to New York, like now.”
“Thanks, Jo. See you soon.”
Cam settled on the floor beside Kerris, his back against the kitchen island. He pulled her head into his lap, not sure he should move her much more than that. Kerris’s hair clung to her forehead where sweat had dampened it. Cam pushed the hair back, jerking his hand away when Kerris’s eyes opened again.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice a tired rasp. “I know this is the worst—”
“Don’t.” Cam gripped the hand Kerris clutched over her belly. “Just don’t. Things happen the way they’re supposed to, I guess. Ambulance is on the way and so is Jo.”
“Thank God.” Kerris gave him a weary smile before letting her eyelids fall again. “Jo’s always good to have in a crisis, huh?”
Cam just gave a nod. Yeah, Jo was good to have.
Chapter Two
Misterrrrrr”—the doctor glanced down at Kerris’s chart—“Bennett, your wife should be just fine.”
“I’m not—”
“He’s not—”
Cam and Kerris exchanged a look, both eager to correct the mistake.
“He’s not my husband,” Kerris said with so much composure you never would have known five minutes before she had been doubled over with a contraction. “Anymore. I mean, my husband’s away. He’s…um…Cam is…”
“I’m a family friend.”
The last thing either of them needed was to air their weirdness in the maternity ward.
“Where’s my doctor?” Kerris rubbed a hand over her belly, anxious eyes on the substitute physician.
“She’s on vacation.” The young doctor Cam couldn’t help but think of as Doogie Howser glanced at the chart in his hands. “I’m sure Dr. Edwards didn’t think you’d be delivering this early.”
“Am I?” Kerris bit her lip and swallowed before asking the question Cam was afraid he already knew the answer to. “Delivering, I mean? It’s early. Isn’t there any way we can delay this? Bed rest? Hang me upside down or something?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Bennett. These babies are coming today.”
“Will they be okay?” Kerris’s voice dropped to a frightened whisper.
Cam reached over and squeezed her hand. She looked up at him and squeezed back but couldn’t muster a smile. She tightened the soft line of her mouth, shut her eyes, and drew a sharp breath in through her nose. Cam knew what was coming. Ever since he’d found her on the kitchen floor, the pain had come and subsided with ominous regularity.
“It’s not uncommon for twins to come early.” Doogie slipped his hands into the slits of his white coat. “And even though it’s early, they are viable.”
Cam’s phone rang, and he stepped away from the bed to answer it as soon as he saw Walsh’s name flash on-screen.
“Hey, Bennett.”
“Cam, no!” Kerris whispered, her eyes begging even as she tried to control the pain squeezing her from the inside out.
“Cam, I’m going crazy here.” Walsh’s voice pulled tight and snapped on the other end. “Was Kerris home? It’s been hours since we talked.”
“Walsh, man.” Cam glanced at Kerris, knowing she didn’t want Walsh to worry but knowing he couldn’t keep this from him. “Kerris is in labor.”
A full five seconds of deafening silence before Walsh spoke. Panic threaded between his words.
“No, she can’t be. It’s…it’s too early. Maybe just Braxton Hicks, or false labor?”
“We’re at the hospital, and the twins are coming soon.”
“I’m not there. How the hell am I halfway around the world when my kids are being born? God, I’m my dad.”
“The hell you are.”
Kerris made a strangled, subdued sound, her head turned into the pillow, the sheet clenched in her fist.