Page 159 of Over the Line

“Yeah, probably.” I tsked. “Chris’s mom had a nurse like that when Ally was born. All the others were incredible, but that one…” I shook my head.

Jasmine giggled. “What did she say when you told her off?”

At that, I cringed. “Unfortunately, I didn’t. I wish I had, but…”

She sobered. “They’re intimidating.”

“They are. It’s been over twenty years and it still bugs me that I didn’t step in.”

Her lips quirked. Then she grinned. “Well, you made up for it today!”

I chuckled. “Let’s hope.”

No, it didn’t completely assuage my guilt over being spineless before. I couldn’t change the past, but I’d done better in the present.

I’d take it.

Around 2:30 in the morning, my phone pinged with a text.

“Chris just landed,” I informed Jasmine, who was sitting on a yoga ball in her room. “He’ll be in a cab in a few minutes.”

Her face lit up. “Oh, thank God.”

I patted her arm. “I told you he’d get here in time.”

She smiled, the relief plain as day… along with some discomfort, because her labor was definitely progressing now. Even I’d started worrying Chris wouldn’t make it after all, though she probably still had at least a few hours left to go. I knew all too well that labor was unpredictable, though, and that it could either get moving really fast or drag on longer than expected.

But Chris was in Pittsburgh now, and he’d be here in the next thirty minutes. Hopefully baby Asher could wait that long. According to everyone who’d checked on Jasmine in the last hour or so, there was probably plenty of time. Still, I doubted Jasmine, Chris, or I would be able to relax until he was here by her side.

Fortunately, Jasmine was nowhere near ready to push when my phone pinged again.

“I’m going downstairs to get Chris,” I said. “Are you okay for a few minutes?”

She smiled and nodded. “If it means he’ll be here soon, definitely.”

“He will. Hang in there.”

I got into the lobby right as Chris sprinted in through the front doors.

“Okay, I’m here!” he panted. “Let’s go!”

I motioned for him to follow me to the elevators. When he reached for the call button, though, I stopped his wrist. “Chris. Look at me.”

He did, face full of more fear and panic than I’d ever seen in him. “Dad, I need to get to⁠—”

“I know. And we will.” I touched his shoulders. “But I need you to take a breath, okay? Take a few of them?”

“I am,” he said tersely. “I need to get to her before⁠—”

“Chris. Listen to me.”

He snapped his teeth shut and glared at me.

“She’s still got a long way to go,” I assured him. “Taking two minutes to collect yourself will help you both more than you running in there in a panic.”

“What the fuck? I need⁠—”

“She needs you, but more than anything, she needs you to be calm. She’s vulnerable, she’s scared, and she’s going through the most painful and intense experience she’ll ever have.” I squeezed his shoulders. “Right now, she needs to lean on you, and she needs to know you have it together.”