Page 158 of Over the Line

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Even if your mom were still able to be here. If, you know, you wanted me here.”

“I’m glad you’re here.” Again, her features crumpled a little. “I feel so bad that my mom isn’t, though. She really wanted to be here, and I really wanted… I know it sounds childish, but I want my mom for something like this.”

“Nothing childish at all. Chris’s grandma was there for all four of our kids.”

“She was?”

I nodded. “There really isn’t a substitute for a mom who’s been through it herself. But in a pinch, I’m happy to step up as much as I can.”

“I appreciate it. A lot.” She started to say something else, but paused again as pain pulled her features tight. She breathed through it, and then we continued down the hall.

After our umpteenth lap, a nurse summoned us back to Jasmine’s room. “Let’s have you get in bed so we can see how you’re progressing.”

“Oh, yay,” Jasmine mused. “My favorite part.

I chuckled. The nurse didn’t seem amused.

Whatever. I helped Jasmine onto the bed. As soon as she lay back, she winced. “Okay, now it hurts.”

“It’s labor,” the nurse said flatly as she did a quick exam. “Labor hurts.”

Jasmine scowled at her, but then her face contorted and she put her hand to her belly as she curled in on herself. When she started to relax, she whimpered softly. “Oh my God.”

“Honey, you’re only at four centimeters. If you can’t handle it now…”

Jasmine closed her eyes and swallowed.

With a condescending laugh, the nurse shook her head as she checked some of the various monitors. “Go ahead and keep walking. You’ll progress faster if you stay on your feet for a while.”

“Hurts less to be out of bed anyway,” Jasmine muttered as I helped her to her feet. She breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing her back. “Laying on my back hurts.”

“It’s labor, dear,” the nurse replied. “What did you expect?”

Jasmine rolled her eyes.

“No one ever said this would be a cakewalk,” the nurse continued. “There’s a reason they say something hurts ‘worse than childbirth,’ you know?”

“I just didn’t realize laying on my back would hurt so much. I’m going to keep walking all night.”

“As long as you can,” the nurse said, her laugh edged with sarcasm and condescension. “Talk to me again when things start progressing a bit more.”

Horror crossed Jasmine’s face, and my patience snapped.

“Hey.” I glared at the nurse. “Go easy on her, all right? She’s never done this before.”

The nurse glared right back. “And I know what I’m doing, so⁠—”

“So you can cut her some slack for not knowing,” I growled. “You do your job every single day. She’s never had a baby before.”

She glared harder, then muttered something and left the room.

As soon as we were alone again, Jasmine rolled her eyes and exhaled. “Ugh. I swear, the mean-girl-to-nurse pipeline is real.”

I chuckled. “Yeah?”

“Uh-huh. Like most of them are awesome, you know? They’re great. But I swear half the mean girls I went to high school with are nurses now, and I’ll bet she”—Jasmine pointed sharply at the door—“was exactly like them.”