“Shit.” Not the most professional response, but Annie didn’t blame Theo. He gestured Kurt inside. “Wait here.” He passed Annie on his way to grab some clothes. “Get dressed. You’re going with me.”
Chapter Eighteen
THEO CLUTCHED HIS PHONE to his ear with one hand, the steering wheel with the other. “I know the weather’s bad. Do you think I can’t see? But we need a helicopter out here, and we need it now!”
The wind buffeted the Range Rover, and the taillights of Kurt’s truck gleamed like demonic eyes on the road in front of them as they followed him into town. Kurt said the baby wasn’t due for another two weeks and that he and his wife had planned to head to the mainland on Friday. “We were going to leave the kids with my mom and stay with Kim’s cousin near the hospital,” he’d said. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Theo seemed to recognize that he was being unreasonable with the person on the other end of the phone because he calmed down. “Yeah, I understand . . . Yes, I know . . . All right.”
As he tossed his cell aside, Annie regarded him sympathetically. “Am I tagging along because you don’t want me to be alone in the cottage or because you need moral support?”
“Both.” His knuckles tightened on the steering wheel.
“Excellent. I was afraid you were bringing me along for my midwifery skills. Of which I have none.”
He grunted.
“All I know about childbirth is what I’ve seen on TV,” she said. “And that it’s supposed to hurt a lot.”
He didn’t respond.
“Do you know anything about childbirth?” she asked.
“Hell, no.”
“But . . .”
“I’ve had training, if that’s what you mean. But you might say I’m missing any real-life experience.”
“You’ll do great.”
“You don’t know that. This baby is two weeks early.”
Something Annie had already noted, but she attempted reassurance. “This is Kim’s third child. She’ll know what she’s doing by now. And Kurt’s mother will be able to help.” Judy Kester, with her ready laugh and positive attitude, would be the perfect person to have around in a crisis.
But Judy wasn’t at the house. No sooner had they taken off their coats than Kurt told them Judy was visiting her sister on the mainland. “And why should I have expected anything else?” Theo muttered.
They followed Kurt through a comfortably untidy living room strewn with kids’ detritus. “Ever since the school burned down, Kim’s been talking to me about moving off the island,” he said, shoving aside a pair of Transformer figures with his foot. “This sure isn’t going to make her change her mind.”
Theo stopped in the kitchen to scrub his hands and arms. When he gestured for Annie to do the same, she gave him an Are you crazy? look intended to remind him she was only there for moral support. He narrowed his eyes at her, his expression so ferocious she did as he asked, although not without protest. “Shouldn’t I stay here to boil water or something?”
“For what?”
“I have no idea.”
“You,” he said, “are coming with me.”
Kurt peeled off to check on his kids. Since they seemed to be sleeping through the whole ordeal, Annie suspected he was doing whatever he could to avoid his wife.
She followed Theo into the bedroom. Kim lay in a tangle of orange and yellow floral sheets. She wore a threadbare pale blue summer nightgown. Her skin was blotchy, her frizzy auburn hair snarled. Everything about her was round and plump: her face, her breasts, and most of all, her abdomen. Theo set down his red canvas EMT kit. “Kim, it’s Theo Harp. And this is Annie Hewitt. How are you doing?”
She bared her teeth through a contraction. “How does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you’re doing fine,” he said, as if he were the most experienced obstetrician in the country. He began unpacking his EMT kit. “How far apart are the contractions?”
The pain eased and she sagged into the pillows. “About four minutes.”
He pulled out a package of latex gloves and a blue bed pad. “Tell me the next time you’re having one, and we’ll see how long it lasts.”
His calm seemed to rub off on her, and she nodded.
A couple of celebrity magazines, some children’s books, and various tubes of lotion cluttered the glass-topped bedside table closest to her. The other held a digital alarm clock, a pocketknife, and a small plastic food storage container half-filled with pennies. Theo unwrapped the bed pad. “Let’s get you more comfortable.”