Page 66 of Forbidden Cowboy
Feeling the echoes of pain from the contraction, I stood, hoping to relieve some of the pressure.
If anything, that made it worse, and with another contraction, something terrible happened.
I actually lost control of my bladder and wet myself. At least, that’s what I first thought. When I looked down, though, it occurred to me that my water had just broken and that these weren’t Braxton-Hicks.
“No, no, no,” I moaned, looking at the puddle darkening the wooden floor.
“Sierra?” Anna asked, looking at me in confusion.
“Anna,” I said, and fished out my phone to hand it to her. “I need you to call an ambulance.”
Her eyes filled with fear.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, honey,” I said, knowing I needed to stay calm. “But I think the babies are trying to come sooner than I’d like.”
“Okay, okay,” Anna said, and started typing in the number for 911.
She held the phone up with the speaker on, and took over speaking for me when another contraction hit. She successfully gave the paramedics directions to the ranch, all while the terrified groom did his best to make me comfortable on a horse blanket where I was sitting on the floor.
“Dad isn’t answering,” Anna said, panicked. “His phone goes straight to voicemail.”
“He’s out of range,” the groom said. “He was taking the cattle up to the newer pastures with Greg to see if the grazing would be good there.”
“Fuck,” I swore, and Anna’s eyes widened. “Okay.”
“What do we do?”
“Call your Uncle Beau and tell him what’s happening. He’ll be able to keep trying to call him.”
Beau had been successfully discharged, and was well on his way to mending, but still wasn’t incredibly mobile. He certainly wasn’t about to ride off over the fields in search of my boyfriend.
“Ma’am,” the groom said, “I would like to wait for the ambulance, but then, if it would help, I would like to go find Mr. West. I think I know where he’ll be, and it will be the best way to reach him.”
I looked at the earnest face of the nervous man beside me.
“You might just be an angel on this Earth,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Joel,” he said with a polite dip of his head. “My apologies for not introducing myself sooner.”
“Not at all, Joel,” I said. “I’d rather be thanking you for all your help.”
He blushed a little, his acne-scarred cheeks coloring.
We were interrupted by the sound of a vehicle coming up the narrow road to the stables. It was usually only used by horses or the ATV, but was technically wide enough for cars and trucks.
The paramedics were surrounding us in a matter of moments, and I made sure to hold Anna’s hand the entire time. The two paramedics briefly toyed with the notion that I wouldn’t make it to the hospital and they would be better off helping me give birth in the back of the ambulance.
“It’s triplets,” I said. “I’m a high risk pregnancy, and they’re only thirty-one weeks.”
I panted all of this in between their examination of me.
Next thing I knew, I was bundled into the back of the ambulance, Anna was in the front with the driver, and Joel was taking off over the hills on the very Melisandre we had just brushed.
I didn’t remember much of the ride to the hospital. I was too busy worrying over my children.
“Just a little longer,” I told them. “Just stay safe until Dad and I are at the hospital.”