Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,99

anything but stare.

My body blitzed in a sudden shock of pain.

And Jude didn’t get up.

The team scattered to the end zone to celebrate, but their cheers were short-lived. Jack raced back across the field, shouting for the medical staff.

Jude was down.

Limp.

Lifeless.

“Oh God.” Leah grabbed my arm. “Rory—”

I didn’t let myself panic.

“I’ve gotta get down there.” I headed to the door and gasped. “I have to…help…”

Something wet wooshed down my leg, drenching my skirt.

Well, that wasn’t good.

“Oh, no.” Piper leapt away from the torrent of inconvenience that gushed like a freaking fountain from my nether regions. “Your water just broke!”

Leah’s eyes widened. “We have to get you out of here. You need to go to the hospital!”

“No.” I checked my cell phone and set a timer. “I have to go to Jude.”

“Rory, you’re in labor.”

“I don’t care. He’s hurt.”

I would not get upset. I had flipped out enough this week. Cried when the peanut butter jar was empty. Cried harder when I was covered in sticky peanut butter after reaching inside the container for the last swipe. Lost my mind completely when I got stuck in the bathtub trying to rinse away the rest of the peanut butter.

But now things were serious.

Jude was hurt. Badly. The trainers still attended him on the field, and the cart was rolling over to take him away. He could move, so the hit hadn’t paralyzed him, but I’d never worried about anything below his neck. Jude was half-man, half-ox. Nothing slowed him down except for his rattled head.

And they’d need my help with that.

I could still walk, but I was…dripping. That was entirely too gross for the VIP booth. Leah left Sammy with Piper, but Piper was already on the phone with her father, Jude’s agent. Paul Madison was on his way, though she whispered in warning that he should probably meet Jude at the hospital.

Leah and I detoured into the bathroom. I gripped the sink, nearly cracking it in two as another contraction squeezed the air out of me.

I tried to pat myself dry, but I wasn’t getting to the locker room anytime fast. Fortunately, Piper and Leah’s connections to the team’s management delivered a security guard with a cart.

Leah hopped on.

I did my best and beached myself like a whale on the tailgate of a go-kart.

The blinking yellow light cleared the path through the stadium…my leaking kept the crowds from following. I figured I’d be blubbering after the game—either from a win or loss. But no one mentioned washing out the championship game in a tsunami of my own soup.

The game continued, but the action poured into the locker room. The team doctor kept Jude on the cart. Leah helped me down, and I hurried to him, pushing the trainers from my path and ripping a stethoscope off of one of the interns.

Jude sat up…but it wasn’t him. He couldn’t focus. Couldn’t really speak. He clutched at his chest repeatedly, scaring the ever-loving hell of out of the staff who thought he had a rib injury too. I cleared them away.

“He’s trying to protect the football,” I said. “His mind is still on the field. Jude?”

I ripped a pen-light out of another trainer’s hands. Louisa edged the doctor from her path and tossed on a blood pressure cuff. She checked his vitals and stuck an oxygen monitor onto his finger.

His pupils were dilated, only mildly, but that gave me no comfort. He didn’t respond to his name.

I called it again, louder.

“Jude?” I spoke clearly. “I need you to listen to me. I’m here. You’re going to be okay.”

But I sure as hell wasn’t.

I shifted away from him, holding my stomach. That contraction was…bigger than the last. I pulled my phone out and marked the time since the previous one.

Seven minutes?

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” I grunted.

Louisa stared at me, eyes wide. “Rory, are you in…”

“Yeah, it’s just a baby.” I ignored the panicked glances of the medical staff and concentrated on Jude. I took both of his hands in mine. “Jude…listen to me. I want you to squeeze my fingers. Both hands. Lemme feel it.”

“You’re beautiful…” He stared at me. “I know you.”

Oh boy. “Squeeze my hands. We don’t have much time.”

Louisa fretted. “Rory, we have to get you to the hospital.”

“I’ll go when he goes.”

Jude squeezed. Weakly. At least I got a reaction from him. He smiled, winced, then smiled again.

“You’re having a baby.” His words were slow.

“Believe me, I’m well-aware. Can you squeeze only with your right hand?”

“My baby?”

I refused to