Not a Chance(64)

She shrugged. "I like that idea better."

Travis laughed and nodded. "We'll go with that then." He whistled for the waitress. He handed her enough cash to pay for their meals and then helped Tonya to her feet. They dropped Duane off at Neil's apartment and then went back to Travis's house. He left Tonya in the car and went inside to grab the overnight bag they'd packed earlier in the week.

As soon as he walked in the door, Dustin and Emma jumped to their feet. They'd clearly been on the couch and Dustin must have been trying out Travis's advice, because Emma's shirt was untucked, her hair was disheveled and her eyes were wide with guilt. Travis would have teased her, but he didn't have time.

"Tonya's in labor," he said. Then he dashed back to the bedroom and grabbed the bag.

"Let me come with you, Travis," Emma said as he came back into the living room. She was getting her shoes on. Dustin helped her into her coat. Outside, Travis leaned his seat forward and helped Emma into the back. Then they sped off for the twenty minute drive to the hospital in Bixy.

When they got to the ER, a nurse helped Tonya into a wheel chair. She was taken to a small exam room. Travis and Emma waited in a waiting room.

"You okay?" Emma asked, rubbing his back gently.

He nodded. Then he looked at her. "She's not going to want me back there with her, is she?"

Emma shrugged. "Maybe. Would you go?"

"Of course," Travis said without hesitation. "But I really...really don't want to."

Emma smiled. "I'll see if she'll let me stay with her. I've been in birthing rooms before."

Travis couldn't help himself. He hugged her and thanked her and told her what an amazing person she was. In the end it worked out just that way. Emma stayed with Tonya, whose labor only lasted eight hours. And Travis dozed off in the waiting room, jumping to his feet anytime Emma came out with an update. At last baby Emily was born into the world.





CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE



Arden woke up slightly hungover from drinking too much wine with Alice the night before. She dragged herself out of bed, showered and brushed her teeth. Then she went and sat on her bed. It was time to assess her situation. She looked around her room. She saw Nick's stupid favorite movies on her TV stand. One of Nick's stupid t-shirts over her footboard. The stupid perfume Nick had bought her that she hated. And since she was discovering that everything associated with Nick was, indeed, stupid, she decided it was best to purge her environment of the offending artifacts.

She went to her closet and grabbed a laundry basket. Then she started hurling everything that belonged to Nick, had been given to her by Nick, or even remotely reminded her of Nick, into the basket. She moved at a frenzied pace until she could find nothing more to put in the pile. The basket was nearly full. Nick had been a part of her life since she was a teenager. Arden stood over the basket feeling an exhilarating sense of accomplishment. She felt cleaner...lighter.

Then she looked down at her ring. She touched it lightly with the fingers of her free hand. She took a deep breath and gripped it. The phone rang.

Arden grumbled under her breath and picked up the cell phone. Emma's name was on the call screen.

"Hello?" Arden answered.

"Tonya had the baby," Emma said, without prelude. She sounded out of breath.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I got to be in there with her. It's just really amazing to me, watching a birth. Very exciting." Emma caught her breath again. "Dustin is supposed to come pick me up. I thought you might want to ride out with him. Travis is kind of in shock. It might do him good to have some company."

"Emma, I don't know..."

"Just meet him at the garage in fifteen minutes. He's expecting you." Then she hung up.

Arden hadn't planned on going out today. She shoved out of the ratty t-shirt and sweat pants that she'd put on, and into some jeans and a nice sweater. Then she pulled her hair up in a ponytail, grabbed her keys, and headed out the door.



Travis stood next to a nurse in Tonya's room. She was showing him how to change a diaper and then swaddle the baby like a burrito. Travis was mostly concerned with flirting with the nurse who, after she'd found out that Travis was not the father of the baby, was more than happy to flirt back.

Tonya cleared her throat from the bed in the background and Travis and the nurse turned to face her.

"Maybe you just hand me my baby and take it somewhere else, huh, Travis?"

The nurse looked up at Travis. "I've got some more patients to check on. But if you want, we could meet for lunch in the cafeteria."

"I don't know," Travis sighed, pretending to deliberate upon the subject. "I've got an awful short attention span and lunch is a long time away."