Play Softly (The Devil's Share Book 4) (3 page)

Dylan was in and out, checking on Lexi and then talking with some of the other patients, making herself useful. Both Dylan and Dr. Solomon had privileges at this hospital. Bryan had taken Landry to get some food in the cafeteria when we’d gotten here and I hadn’t seen them since. But we were all under one roof, per usual.

Lexi reached out and grabbed my hand, squeezing it with everything she had. She didn’t cry or scream; she was so stoic through the pain. It was afterward that she got pissed. “You’re doing so good, Kitten. I am so proud of you.”

After the intensity of the contraction passed she leaned her head back against the bed. “You suck so bad.”

I nodded, kissing the hand I was still holding. “I know, baby.”

“You put this baby in here, and now I’m the one that has to help it come out.”

I rubbed her arm, massaging her tight muscles. “If I could trade places with you, take this pain away, I would. In a heartbeat.”

She made a face. “Don’t say that. Don’t be sweet to me.” She shook her head. “I’m being a bitch. I’ve screamed at all our friends. I don’t deserve your kindness.”

I stood and pushed her sweaty hair back from her face. “First of all, they aren’t our friends. They are our family, and they can take it. They
will
take it, because they love you. Second of all, you are in pain. You are in labor with our baby, I will be nothing but sweet and kind and compassionate and loving to you. Today and for the rest of our lives.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “That was so beautiful. Thank you.”

I leaned in and kissed her lips, softly. I was so in awe of her, so amazed at her strength and her—

“Now, get out.”

I pulled back. “Again?”

“I need you to go find that anesthesiologist, pay him an ungodly amount of money, and get him in here.”

I walked out of Lexi’s room and tapped Luke on the head. “You’re up, man.”

He opened his eyes and raised his head, looking up at me. “What?”

I reached down and grabbed his hand, helping him to his feet. “I need you to go in there and sit with Lexi while I track down the anesthesiologist.” Luke looked around the waiting room, obviously searching for someone else who could go in his place. “Everyone else is hiding, man. You’re the only one here and I need you in there with her. She needs you.”

Chapter Four

Lexi

“Hey.”

I opened my eyes, not at all surprised that Dash had finally made Luke come in here. “Hey, Lukey.” My voice was automatically soft, not sounding at all like the crazy person who had shouted at Smith and told him he was a pussy less than an hour ago. Dash was right, Luke calmed me. “Where’ve you been?” I held my hand out.

He took it. “Outside your door.”

Just because he hadn’t wanted to be in here didn’t mean he didn’t need to know I was okay. I was sure he’d have set his ass on that cold tile for the next forty-eight hours if that was what it took. He was the best friend I’d ever had. “I’m so sorry you’re hurting.”

He looked up. “You’re insane, you know that?” He shook his head. “Worry about you and your baby, not me.”

I rubbed my thumb over the frantic pulse in his wrist. “I know you’re hurting, Luke. I know that all of this is hard on you, and I hate it.” Luke thought he was in love with me, he had for a long time now. But I knew better. Luke was confusing love, and being
in
love. To him, being in love was volatile and painful. He’d never had a solid healthy relationship with another girl, except for his friendship with me. And here he was, sitting next to me, while I was in labor with his bandmate’s baby. Wearing his bandmate’s ring.

“I am fine. I am better than fine, actually. I am great. My best friend is having a baby. It’s a good day.”

I knew he was partly lying, but I let it go when another contraction hit. He stayed by my side for another thirty minutes, holding my hand silently while I was in pain and then making me laugh when I wasn’t. Dash was right, I needed Luke today. And the fact that Dash was willing to let him be here for me made me fall even more in love with my rock star. I was going to marry the most amazing man on God’s green earth.

“I found him.” Dash walked in beaming, with an annoyed-looking man in scrubs trailing behind him. A nurse walked in as well, holding a plastic tray topped with some kind of paper cover.

“Hello, Lexi. I’m Dr. Jones, your anesthesiologist.” He folded his hands in front of him, “You ready to get numb?”

“I was more than ready two hours ago.” Huh, all the peace Luke had created was clearing out fast.

Luke chuckled under his breath. “Easy, Lex, he’s about to put a needle in your spine.”

My eyes flicked to his and then back to Dr. Jones. “Thank you for coming. I’m just really exhausted and cranky.”

He nodded and then he and his nurse started their well-rehearsed dance of setting up and getting me ready. “Lexi, my nurse is going to check you one more time before we do your epidural.”

I let my head fall back against the bed. “You need to stick your hand up into my body one more time, before you get me numb? Sure. Seems logical.” Why wouldn’t you do something uncomfortable before you get me out of pain? The nurse came over and sat on the foot of my bed, lifting the sheets.

Luke stood. “I think I should probably go…”

I reached out and grabbed his hand. “You leave now and you’ll see what’s happening down there.” I gestured to the end of the bed and squeezed his hand tight.

Dash was down there with his face close to the nurse’s; he seemed amazed at what she was doing. His eyes narrowed as he looked down at his own hand, confused. Luke wrinkled his nose. “What’s wrong with your fiancé?”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t want to know.” Dash was becoming curious about the concept of fisting.

“Okay, what we need now is for Lexi to sit on the edge on the bed. Dad, you sit in that chair right there and help her stay still. You think you can do that? She has to stay completely still.” Dr. Jones was talking as he was suiting up.

Dash nodded and sat down in front of me. “Yeah I can do that.” He looked at me with a nervous smile and took my hands in his. Luke winked at me then left the room. I didn’t blame him. I was glad I wasn’t in a position to see the needle.

I leaned my head on Dash’s shoulder, more than ready to do whatever was necessary to feel some relief. I had my eyes closed and I was concentrating on staying calm and still, just deep breaths in and out. Very zen. Until I noticed the shaking. “Dash. Are you kidding me right now?”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“You’re bouncing your feet,” I whisper yelled. “I’m about to have a needle in my spine and your job is to help me be motionless. Stop. Moving.”

“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t realize I was doing that. I’m nervous.” He kissed my cheek.

He’s nervous? For freaking real?

“Dad, are you sure you’re okay to do this? I really can’t have Lexi shift at all for about sixty seconds.” I could feel something cold being rubbed on my spine, but I couldn’t see anything.

“Yeah. I’m good now.”

I closed my eyes, tight. I took two deep breaths in and out, and it was done. I guess in comparison to constant contractions, epidurals were a cakewalk. It took another few minutes for them to get me repositioned and back in bed. And then my new favorite person, Dr. Jones, instructed me to try to get some rest.

Which I did.

For all of five minutes.

Then every alarm in the room starting going off at the same time. Nurses came pouring in, barking orders, and rolling me over on my side. I had no idea what was going on, but instantly I started to cry. Two nurses were moving cords around, repositioning me like I was a rag doll. Dash had been shoved out of the way and an oxygen mask had been placed on my face. It was total anarchy and it was terrifying. After a couple more seconds the alarms quieted and the nurses seemed to relax.

“Okay, Lexi, I need you to try to calm down now. The baby is fine.” Nurse number one was right in front of me. I sort of hated her for some reason. “But if you keep acting like this, you could put her back in distress.”

Acting like this?
“Maybe I’d be able calm down if someone would tell me what the hell just happened.” I tried to roll back over onto my back, and nurse number two put her hand out to stop me.

Nurse number one rolled her eyes. Yep, I definitely wanted to punch her. “It’s not a big deal. The epidural made your blood pressure drop, which made the baby’s heart rate drop. It’s pretty common. We have you on your side for a reason. This is the position babies like the most.”

No big deal? It seemed like a huge freaking deal to me. Who the hell was this woman? Her bedside manner was shit. But for some reason, I didn’t stand up to her. I just kept crying.

From the far side of the room, Dash caught my eye and gave me a reassuring smile.

Nurse number two put her hand on my shoulder. “Let’s roll you over to your other side so you can see the monitor.” I liked nurse number two. She helped me roll to the other side then pointed to the monitor. “See these lines right here?” There were two horizontal white lines, a couple of inches apart, with a squiggly red line bouncing in between them.

“Yes.”

“These are the parameters we need baby girl’s heart rate to stay in. As long as you don’t see the red line go higher or lower than the white lines, everything is fine.” Nurse number two and Dr. Jones were competing for first place in my favorite person poll right now.

“Okay. Thank you.” I stared at the monitor, tears still trailing down my face. I couldn’t seem to stop crying. I had been shocked, then scared, then mad, and now I was back to terrified. I just wanted to hold my baby in my arms. I wanted to feel her heart beating. I wanted to see with my own two eyes that she was breathing and healthy.

After the nurses left, Dash came back to my bedside and took my hand. “Kitten, are you okay? Why are you still crying? The baby is fine.”

“I don’t know. I can’t seem to stop. That was the scariest moment of my life.”

He leaned down and kissed my head. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep while you can.”

I shook my head. “No. I need to watch the monitor.”

Dylan came in before Dash could say anything else. “Lexi? You doing okay? I just talked to your nurses.”

I nodded,
still
crying. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just shaken up I think.”

“I know that was scary, but the baby is doing great. There is no need to be worried, okay? The nurses out there are watching your monitors. You should rest. You’re progressing pretty fast and it’ll be time to push soon.”

I nodded but didn’t close my eyes.

“I’m going to send Luke in here, okay? I need Dash to fill out some paperwork. We didn’t have you registered yet and they don’t have any of your insurance information on file. Are you good with that?”

I nodded again.

Dash squeezed my hand. “I’ll be back in just a few minutes, Kitten.”

Chapter Five

Dash

It took way longer than I thought it would to fill out all those fucking forms. Plus, they made me pick a pediatrician from a list of names and pictures. I didn’t want to be doing that; I wanted to be with Lexi. But the baby had come early, and these were all things we had on our to-do list for the next few weeks.

After all the forms, I had to have a word with hospital security and get all the nurses to sign nondisclosures. Word would eventually get out that the Devil’s Share’s lead singer’s girlfriend had a baby, but I didn’t want the paparazzi camped outside the door. We’d been pretty lucky so far in Seaside. There were rich people everywhere, no one cared that we were famous. But now we were in Destin, which was a much bigger city.

Finally, I returned to Lexi’s room. I opened the door quietly, in case she had calmed down enough to get some sleep. “How is she?”

Luke was sitting right next to her bed, holding her hand and staring at the machines mounted on the wall. “She just fell asleep a few minutes ago, but she’s still crying.”

I leaned over the side of the bed; tears were still falling out of Lexi’s eyes, even while she slept. “How did you get her to calm down?”

Luke kept his eyes on the monitor. “I told her I’d watch the baby.”

“What?”

He pointed to the screen. “The baby’s heart rate. Lexi wouldn’t stop staring at the monitor, so I told her I’d watch for her while she rested.”

Luke had yet to take his eyes on the monitor. I could honestly say that for the first time in my life, I was overcome with love and gratitude for another man. Luke loved Lexi so fully, so completely, so selflessly. I fought back tears. No lie.

“I don’t even have words, bro… I… Thank you, Luke.”

He nodded.

“I can take over, I can keep an eye on the monitors and you can go grab some—”

“No. I promised Lexi I would watch the baby, and I promised I wouldn’t look away. I’m going to stay until she wakes up.” He swallowed twice. “Why don’t you get some rest?”

I had to admit, I was exhausted. I moved across the room and lay down on the small couch. I watched them for a few minutes, Luke and Lexi. He didn’t let go of her hand, and he didn’t once look away from that screen.