“Keep it safe. I’ll let you know when I need it. Don’t tell her about this though.”
“How long is this gonna take? I was planning on hitting the road in about two weeks. I’m staying through Christmas, then I’m going to travel for a while.”
“Christmas Eve. Give me til Christmas Eve.”
The barn doors swung open and slammed against the wall. We both jumped and looked at Eva standing there with a smile on her face and red cheeks. She was breathing hard like she’d been running. I took a step toward her.
“Low’s in labor!” she squealed. “We gotta go. Hurry!” She waved at me and turned to run back to the house.
Low was in labor. Holy shit.
“I got things here. Get her to the hospital before she blows a gasket,” Jeremy said from behind me.
I managed to nod and followed behind Eva as she ran toward the house. Low was about to me a mother. I had known this was going to happen, but at the moment it was surreal.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to see Preston’s name on the screen.
“Hello.”
“Marcus just took Low to the hospital. Her water broke.”
“When’s the baby due? Is it early?” I asked, thinking it was probably dumb to be asking Preston Drake something like this.
“Her due date was Monday. So she’s right on time.”
He knew. Surprise.
“We’re on our way.”
Preston paused. “We?” he asked.
“Eva and me,” I replied, realizing he didn’t know we were back together.
“Congrats, man. I didn’t know you’d worked things out.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you in a few,” I replied before ending the call and shoving my phone into my pocket. Eva was standing at the passenger side of her Jeep.
“Hurry!” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
I jogged the rest of the way, but I didn’t go to the driver’s side and get in. Instead I went to Eva and picked her up then covered her mouth with mine. She melted into me like she always did, and I enjoyed knowing I had my always back.
She broke the kiss first. “As much as I like your kisses, ’cause I do—they’re really hot—I want to get to the hospital. Your best friend is about to have a baby. We need to be there for that.”
I pressed one more kiss to her mouth before putting her down and then patting her on the bottom. “Let’s hope the new Hardy looks like its momma and not its daddy,” I said, then opened her door and helped her inside.
Chapter Twenty-Four
EVA
The waiting room at the hospital was packed. It also would appear that we had all decided to use this as a party location. There was cake that Trisha and her daughter Daisy had made. Trisha was married to Rock, one of Marcus’s oldest friends. When you looked at him, he was scary, with his bulging muscles and bald head. Then when his little girl, Daisy climbed up in his lap, he morphed into a teddy bear with tattoos.
Amanda had shown up with fried pickles from Live Bay and at some point someone, and I think it was Cage, had ordered pizza. Soda’s littered the tables, and we had all managed to take over the small area.
If anyone else was having a baby today, their relatives weren’t hanging out here with us. But then again, there was no room. Preston had his younger brother in a headlock while his younger sister, Daisy, pulled on his long hair.
“Look, Daddy! I got him! I got him!” Daisy said, smiling over at Rock. To anyone else this would be a normal family activity, but to a pregnant woman who knew the story behind that scene, I was having a hard time keeping my tears back.
Not too long ago those kids had lived in a house with a druggy for a mom, and Preston was doing everything he could to take care of them. After their mother died from a drug overdose, Preston had faced losing all three of them to the system. Rock and Trisha had stepped in and asked to adopt the kids.