Rainy Day Friends Read online

  Today had been the day from hell all the way around, but tonight . . . “Tonight I’m going to meet you,” she whispered, cradling her belly. “And that’s going to make everything okay.”

  MARK CAME OUT of a dead sleep when someone slipped into his room with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. “Someone better be dead.”

  Lanie stepped in closer, stopping in front of his window where the moonlight slanted in, highlighting her in bold relief. With a low growl of sleepy pleasure, he wrapped his fingers around her wrist to reel her in.

  “Good, you’re up,” she said in relief, moving toward him, practically falling on top of him, her silky hair brushing his face. Still half-asleep, he groaned at the feel of her body on his and went for it, rolling, tucking her beneath him.

  “Yeah,” he said against her mouth. “I’m . . . up.” He punctuated this with a nudge of his hips.

  She gave a half-hysterical laugh and pushed at his shoulders, waking him the rest of the way. “No, you don’t understand,” she said. “I need you.”

  “I need you too.”

  “River’s in labor.”

  He stilled. “So . . . this isn’t a booty call?”

  “No!” She pulled him out of bed and then stared at him. “You’re bare-ass naked.”

  “Yeah. See anything you like?”

  She threw a pair of jeans at him. “Hurry!” She tossed him a shirt, which hit him in the face. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

  “And you think I do?”

  “You always do,” she said, and at the backward compliment that might not have been a compliment at all, he followed her running form out of the house and through the night.

  River was in a lounge chair in front of the fire pit, clutching her belly, bent at the waist, gasping for air.

  “Contraction,” Lanie said and dropped at River’s side. “I’ve brought Mark,” she murmured, stroking back the younger woman’s hair. “He knows what to do.”

  Mark liked the easy confidence she had in him, but in this case it was overrated. He’d been overseas when his girls had been born. And the two times a woman had gone into labor on one of his shifts, Emergency Services personnel had gotten to the scene before him.

  He knew his mom had been taking River to labor classes and he pulled out his cell phone to call her when he remembered. “My mom’s in San Francisco until tomorrow.”

  River lifted her face, fear etched into her features. “She’s my labor coach.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “We’ll figure it out at the hospital.”

  He picked River up, ignoring her protests that she was too heavy, and carried her to his truck, while Lanie ran ahead and opened the door for him. They got River buckled in through another long and what looked like painful contraction, and then the three of them were off into the night.

  He tossed Lanie his phone. “Text my mom. Tell her what’s happening. First babies sometimes take a while; she might be able to get back in time. Text my sisters, let them know where we are and that they’re on twin duty, and that someone needs to go out to the fire pit with the hose to extinguish the fire. Then call the hospital and let them know we’re coming.”

  Lanie handled all of that while at the same time holding onto River’s hand and talking her through each contraction that hit.

  Mark drove, fascinated by this new Lanie. Whatever had happened on their road trip, whatever her personal feelings, she’d pushed through them enough to keep it together for River.

  They arrived at the hospital and a nurse helped River into a wheelchair before turning to Mark and Lanie expectantly. “Who’s her coach?”

  Mark looked at Lanie, who was looking right back at him.

  “One of you needs to come back with us,” the nurse said impatiently. “To keep Mama here comfortable and calm.”

  River’s gaze was glued to Lanie with fear and hope and expectation.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” Lanie reminded her. “You’d be better off without me.”

  “No!” River clutched Lanie’s hand tight enough that the skin went stark white.

  Mark felt Lanie brace herself and nod. “Okay,” she said. “Okay, I’ll go with you.” She walked off at River’s side and just before she vanished behind the swinging double doors of the ER, she glanced back at him with a fearful expression.

  He smiled with what he hoped was confidence. “I’ll be right here waiting for you,” he said, and he knew that he wasn’t talking about just tonight. Whether she got that or not, he had no idea. But she nodded and vanished.

  He headed to the front desk, thinking about how she’d come through for River in spite of how she really felt about her. In fact, she’d come through for all the people he cared about one way or another: his mom, his girls, his sisters, hell, his entire family. He could bury his head in the sand all he wanted, it wouldn’t change the fact.

  He wasn’t just falling in love with her, he actually already loved her, every single stubborn, frustrating, gorgeous inch.

  Chapter 28

  Anxiety: Okay, but what if—

  Me: Dude, we went over this a hundred times already.

  Anxiety: I know, but hear me out. I’ve found twenty new reasons you should be worried.

  Me: Go on.

  Lanie stood at River’s hospital bedside, watching her grimace through an internal exam.

  “Four centimeters dilated and fifty percent effaced,” the nurse said and gave River a sympathetic smile. “Still a ways to go yet, I’m afraid. We can’t do an epidural until the anesthesiologist gets here.”

  Sweaty and flushed, River dropped her head back to her pillow and stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t think I can do this. I’m too tired.” She lifted her head again. “I want to go home. I’ll come back tomorrow instead, okay?”

  She asked this with such sweet desperation that Lanie actually felt her heart squeeze.

  The nurse looked to Lanie for help.

  Lanie screwed up her courage. “You can do this, River.”

  “No, I can’t.”

  “You can. You’re the strongest person I know.”

  The nurse smiled at Lanie and left the room. Some of her fear must have shown in her face because River let out a choked laugh and went back to staring up at the ceiling. “Look, I know how you feel about me but if you could just stay with me through this, I’ll never ask another thing of you.” A contraction hit hard and swift and River nearly broke Lanie’s fingers.

  “Whew,” Lanie said, sinking to the chair, swiping her brow.

  “Hard on you, is it?” River asked dryly.

  “Hey, I don’t know what I’m doing.” Lanie looked at all the various things River was hooked up to. “I know nothing about having a baby.”

  “It’s okay,” River said. “I know. I just need to keep breathing through the contractions.” As yet another contraction hit, River squeezed Lanie’s hand and inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth.

  Lanie found herself doing the same right along with her, so that when another contraction hit, harder, faster, and stole River’s breath, Lanie was able to guide her through the breathing and slow her down.

  “Good job,” River said weakly when the contraction had passed and she flopped back to her pillow.

  Lanie had to laugh. “I should be saying that to you.”

  And she did. Many, many times over the next two hours as the contractions continued. Nurses came and went, but the only constant in the room was Lanie at River’s side. And then suddenly there was a lot of talk about centimeters and dilation, all of it going over Lanie’s head.

  “I think I’m going into transition now,” River translated, panting but somehow sounding shockingly calm.

  “Transition?”

  “It’s the last, most intensive phase of labor. The baby’s engaged in my pelvis and has dropped close to my cervix, making it soften and become thin.”

  “That sounds . . . painful,” Lanie said, more than a little h