Page 46 of Doc

Chapter 16

Harlow

I’d just finished with my second patient, Mr. Williams, and was anxious to get home, changed, and headed out to Bobbie’s. I looked forward to my time with the girls, and now that Liam and I were together I had a lot of questions for them. I needed—wanted—to understand what the club was all about and what was expected of me, but mostly what Liam expected from me.

I came to a stop at a red light, smiling as I relived the domestic morning we’d shared. Liam had a good sense of humor when he wasn’t being all jealous and growly, although, I liked that side of him too. David had never been the jealous type. He’d gone with the flow and hadn’t seemed to care the few times that I’d gone out without him. I didn’t think that this was because he had trusted me, more that he just hadn’t cared enough. I knew that he loved me, but our relationship had always been too lackluster and mundane.

Seeing Liam come undone the night before had given me an insight into how dominant and passionate he was. I had a feeling that our first time together was going to ruin me, and in a good way. Those damned divorce papers couldn’t come soon enough. As much as I loved being with Liam, I almost wished we’d remain apart until we could act on our intense physical attraction. Damn his resolve not to fuck me because of a little technicality.

The light changed and I took off. At the same time my phone rang, but I ignored it. I never touched my phone when I was driving, and always waited until I came to another light or stop sign to check it. It stopped ringing after about six rings, but then started right back up again right after that. Luckily, I came to another red light and dug it out of my purse.

It was Lulu. We were driving to Bobbie’s together, and I assumed that she was calling to see when I planned to get to her place. “I know why you’re calling,” I started right in with a laugh. “I’ll be there in about ten or fifteen minutes.”

“My water broke!” she exclaimed in a breathless voice. “Brody is off doing club shit and I—” Her voice broke off, and I could tell that she was breathing through a contraction.

“Did you call him?” Surely his wife in labor trumped club business.

“He’s unreachable!” she practically screamed. “Fuck, Harlow, I don’t think I can drive myself to the hospital!”

My nursing instincts immediately kicked in. The light turned green, and I put my turn signal on and pulled over to the side of the road. “Calm down, honey. How far apart are your contractions?” I purposely kept my voice calm.

“Twenty minutes!”

I thought about advising her to call for an ambulance, but the quick calculations I did in my head told me that she still had plenty of time to make it to the hospital. I was ten minutes away from her, and from there we were another ten to the hospital.

“Okay, I’ll be there in ten minutes. Be ready and breathe through your contractions. You’ve got plenty of time and you’ve done this before.”

“Not alone!” she panted in a panic.

I was certain that her anxiety came from not having Brody there with her.

“Okay, but hurry!”

I decided to keep her talking to help take her mind off being alone, and in labor, so I put my phone on speaker and pulled back out into traffic. “I’m not far away, honey. So is Lilly there with you?”

“No, thank fuck. She spent the night at Holly’s, and we were going to meet at Bobbie’s.”

That reminded me. “Have you called anyone else?”

“No. You were the first one I thought of.”

“Well don’t worry. Once we get you settled into the hospital, I’ll make the calls.”

“Don’t call Brody.” I was surprised by her comment. “The club has something important going down today, and I don’t want to distract him.”

I frowned. “Something that’s more important than his wife having a baby?”

“You don’t understand, honey.”

No, I didn’t.

“If I were any one of the other women the men would expect a call, but I’ve been part of the club long enough to know better.” She began breathing through another contraction.