“You can count on it, darling.”
My heart thrummed against my chest.
“I love you, Ry,” I said, my eyes misting. “You mean the world to me.”
I gasped when he suddenly pulled the car over on the side of the road, unbuckled his belt, and leaned over the console to kiss me.
“There is only so much of your sweet talking I can take,” he murmured against my lips. “I’m only a man.”
I smiled and pressed my forehead against his before he moved back to his side of the car, buckled his belt, and started driving once more.
“You should ring your sister.”
I lost my smile.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to worry ‘er until I know there is somethin’ to worry about.”
Ryder glanced at me once more.
“She’ll lose her mind if you do that.”
“I don’t care,” I said firmly. “She and everyone else will just worry, and I don’t want to think about that. I just want you and me to go to the hospital, and we’ll go from there, okay?”
“Whatever you want, baby.”
I nodded and placed my hands on my stomach, silently willing the baby to move, but like before, I felt no movement of any kind... not even a flutter. When we pulled into the hospital car park, it wasn’t soon enough. I opened the passenger door and stepped out, but the second I put weight on my sore leg, I yelped.
“Shite,” I said through clenched teeth. “I can walk, but it’s goin’ to be sore.”
Ryder came around my side of the car, shut the door, locked the car, and then scooped me up into his arms. Instinctively, my arms went around his neck as he briskly walked across the car park, through the double doors and into the hospital. I told him how to get to the emergency room, but he ignored me and the security guard, and took the stairs two at a time until we reached the second floor.
The labour ward.
“I’m not in labour,” I said to him as he advanced towards the double doors. “I have to go to the emergency department.”
“Like hell,” he said before literally kicking the door open and stepping onto the ward.
“Ryder!” I gasped.
“Sally, Ash?” he shouted, not caring that everyone else on the ward could hear him. “I need your help; it’s Branna!”
I looked to my left and saw Ash literally sprinting down the hallway with Sally and my other co-workers in tow.
“Bran,” Ash panted as he came to a skidding stop before Ryder and me. “What the hell happened?”
“She fell into the river near the cabin we were staying in,” Ryder answered, hiking me up against his chest so he could adjust his grip on my body. “She was submerged for about ten to fifteen seconds, and it was ice cold so I had to warm her up before we could come here. She hasn’t felt the baby move since it happened nearly three hours ago.”
“Room one is free,” Sally said as she dug her phone from her pocket. “Get ‘er in there, and I’ll call me husband up from the emergency room.”
Ryder kept me in his arms as he followed Ash into room one. Ryder placed me on the bed and remained by my side as Ash silently moved around the room, grabbing everything he would need to check on the baby. He cursed when he found no CTG machine in the room.
“I’ll go grab a CTG,” he said to Sally who entered the room.
“There is a Fetal Doppler in here. I’ll use that until you get a machine. I’m sure Branna and Ryder are anxious to hear the baby’s heartbeat.”
If there is a heartbeat.
I began crying, and it caused Ryder to sit on the bed next to me and wrap his arm around me. Ash left the room quickly, and Sally grabbed the Fetal Doppler from the storage press at the end of the room. Ryder helped me remove my jacket and jumper and pull up my t-shirt until my belly was exposed. Sally helped me tug down my leggings until my pubic bone showed. Without waiting for consent, she squirted some gel on my stomach, turned on the Doppler, and placed it on my stomach. She swirled it around the gel, and for a few moments there was static and the usual sound that came from the device. I listened hard, and when I heard the soft drum of a heartbeat, I knew it wasn’t mine from the pace of it. The sound got louder and louder until it was all that could be heard.
“The heartbeat is strong,” Sally announced, and her sigh of relief was obvious. “The baby is okay, probably just sleepin’.”
I burst into tears once more, and I think Ryder did too.
“I told you,” he said as he kissed my face. “I told you he would be okay.”
I clung to him; the relief I felt was almost too much to bear.
“Shit, don’t tell me it’s bad, Sal?”