Page 6 of Deserving Ryleigh
“I think so, but they aren’t telling what they are,” Alaska said with a shrug.
“It’s a girl. I know it!” Cora exclaimed happily.
“No, definitely a boy,” Lara disagreed. “He’s really low in her belly.”
“How someone carries a baby doesn’t have anything to do with gender,” Cora told her with a snort.
“Yes it does! I read it on the web!”
“I read a story yesterday about a woman who was kidnapped by Bigfoot and had his love child…so that means it has to be true, right?” Cora retorted.
Everyone chuckled.
“Okay, good point. I just…I want them to have a boy,” Lara said.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I mean, a boy would be awesome. Hecould follow Tonka around and help feed the animals and stuff.”
“And a girl can’t?” Cora huffed.
Ry bit her lip to hold back the smile that threatened to escape. Being around the two best friends was always a hoot. They argued and bitched at each other like sisters, but the love between them was easy to see. The fact that Cora had gone to such extreme lengths to find her friend when Lara had disappeared wasn’t something Ry understood. Intellectually, she could appreciate it, but she’d never had that kind of relationship with anyone…blood-related or otherwise.
Lara sighed dramatically. “Okay, true. I’m being sexist. And now that I think about it…seeing Tonka with another daughter wrapped around his little finger, the way he is with Jasna—and his dogs Wally and Beauty—would be equally as awesome.”
Ry saw Brick smiling as he drove, but he didn’t interrupt the conversation. All too soon, they pulled into the parking lot at the small hospital in Los Alamos. Ry knew from talk around The Refuge that Tonka had wanted Henley to go to Albuquerque to have their baby, since the hospital was bigger, but she’d put her foot down, insisting she wanted to give birth right there at “home.”
Brick pulled up to the hospital doors to let the women out before parking. Ry walked with her friends through the doors and they headed toward the waiting room down the hall. It wasn’t hard to figure out where everyone was, as Reese’s laughter rang out to their right.
The second they walked into the room, it felt as if everyone started talking at once. Ry had gotten used to how…exuberantThe Refuge gang was, but it still sometimestook her by surprise. She’d grown up in a home that was extremely quiet. She was expected to be that way too. Her mom had tried to encourage Ryleigh to laugh more, to get outside and play, but her dad was in charge of their home, and he preferred she sit behind a keyboard and learn everything he had to teach her.
Thinking about her mom made Ry sad, so she purposely turned her thoughts to the people around her.
“We didn’t miss anything, did we?” Alaska asked no one in particular.
Maisy giggled. “No. Although you were cutting it close.”
“I know. The last guest to check in had a hundred questions. And then I had to make sure Robert, Jess, and Hudson had things under control.”
It wasn’t often that all the owners of The Refuge left the property at the same time. But as this was a special occasion, no one had wanted to stay behind. Ry felt uneasy about leaving, especially with her father out there, no doubt watching and planning, but she hadn’t known how to bow out without explaining why.
The time was coming when she’d need to tell not only Tiny, butallthe guys what she suspected was going to happen soon…but she kept hoping and praying she was wrong.
“You okay?”
The two words came from her right, and they surprised Ry so badly, she jerked in surprise.
“Whoa, easy.”
Looking up at Tiny, Ry could feel herself blushing. How she’d missed him approaching her, she had no idea. He looked good today. He had on a pair of well-worn jeansand a checkered button-up shirt, which seemed molded to his arms and chest. And he smelled amazing, like usual. She figured it was whatever body soap he used, because Tiny would never be the kind of man who bothered with cologne.
When he lifted a brow at her, Ry realized she’d been staring at him instead of answering his question. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Is Henley all right?”
He didn’t answer right away, simply stared at her. Ry wasn’t comfortable with being on the receiving end of such scrutiny. Had gone out of her way to keep from being noticed for most of her life, both in person and while she was fiddling around online. But this mansawher. She didn’t feel as if she could hide anything from him, especially now that they were basically living together.
“She’s fine,” he finally said. “Tonka’s been coming out and giving us updates when he can. The last we heard, she was fully dilated and ready to push.”
It felt a little weird to be discussing the birth process with Tiny, but he didn’t seem uncomfortable in the least discussing dilation and what it meant. She shouldn’t have been surprised. He was amazingly unflappable—most of the time.
