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“Good point,” I said, turning onto the highway that would take us down to Colorado Springs.
For the hour and a half it took us to get down the hill through the building storm, Aubrey made increasingly unhappy noises as the baby made it clear that today was the day.
“Are you in pain?” I asked her several times.
“Existential pain, I guess,” she said. “No contractions yet, but I’m just...” Aubrey’s voice cracked. “I guess it’s okay to admit... I’m just, I’m scared.”
“Hon,” Wiley said, and I could see him scooting across the back to take her in his arms. “It’s gonna be fine. We’re together.And if I have to deliver this baby with Ghost and Emily in an SUV, we’ll get it done.”
Aubrey moaned louder.
“Let’s call the hospital so they know we’re on the way. They can get her doctor in and ready to go,” Wiley suggested.
“I can call,” Emily said, already poking at the screen of her phone. “Which hospital?”
Wiley gave her the information and Emily made the call, sounding authoritative and professional as she informed whoever she was speaking with that my sister was in labor and repeated the pertinent details Aubrey dictated to her through the phone. “They’ll be ready for you,” Emily said, as she tucked her phone back into her bag.
“Thanks,” Aubrey said, and I felt the weird tension between my sister and Emily break right then. Whatever reservations Aubrey had faded in the face of the situation we were all in together.
Worry and fear dueled inside me as I forced myself to channel that part of me I’d buried long ago, the part that could compartmentalize emotion and focus completely on the task at hand. I’d flown a jet at speeds most people would never know. I could handle an SUV on a snowy road.
Still, when we arrived at the hospital, my hands hurt from white knuckling the wheel and I felt shaky as the adrenaline began to clear my blood. We pulled up to Emergency and Wiley scooped Aubrey out, practically sprinting into the hospital with her. I looked at Emily and let out a shaky laugh. “Made it.”
“We did,” she said, her easy tone reassuring. She dropped a hand on my forearm and squeezed, the warmth of her touch calming some of the adrenaline shooting through me. “Should we go park?”
“Yeah.” I shook out my hands and we found a spot for the car and then went inside.
They had Aubrey in a wheelchair in front of the check-in desk, and Wiley was answering questions for the registrar, who immediately admitted Aubrey and sent her up to where her doctor was waiting for her. Soon, we were all heading up to maternity, and Emily and I found the waiting room while Wiley went back with my sister.
It was anticlimactic, settling into chairs in the quiet space after the mad dash to get to the hospital. I had a fleeting thought that my parents should be here, that they would be so proud in this moment. But they’d been gone for years, and I was all Aubrey had. For better or for worse. It was one of the reasons leaving Kasper Ridge was something I’d been putting off, even though I knew I wanted to explore.
“You doing okay?” Emily asked, her eyes fixed on my face. It was odd, someone asking me that. For so many years, I’d made a point of being fine. Of not giving anyone any reason to worry about me. It felt good.
I blew out a breath. “Yeah, I think so. Glad we made it.” I wasn’t worried about Aubrey, not really—her sheer force of will got her through most things. Sometimes I envied her that way.
Emily smiled, and her expression helped me relax a bit, easing the accumulated tension from my limbs.
“I saw a vending machine out there. You want anything?” she asked, pointing to the hallway we’d come through.
“No, that’s okay.”
“I’m gonna grab some water.” She rose and I watched her disappear back through the waiting room door. I liked her. A lot. And I liked having her close—something in her very existence was soothing.
When she got back, I realized how far from her planned trip this journey had become. She was missing time with the writers at the conference, with her friend Christine, and stuck here inthe snow with me at a hospital. “Hey, I’m really sorry about all this.”
“It’s not your fault at all,” she laughed. “Plus, it’s really exciting.”
I glanced toward the window, which showed the snow falling in a dense veil outside. There was no way we were getting back up the mountain tonight. “I mean, about bringing you down here. I think we’re going to be stuck at least overnight, not just because of the baby, but the snow.”
She followed my gaze and shrugged. “Adventure.”
I laughed. “Right. Will this make it into the article?”
“I’m not going to include your private family moments in an article,” she said, allaying any fears I might have had. Then she tugged her phone out of her pocket, pulling up the photo of the carving and angling it at me. “So. We have time to think. What do you think the numbers mean?”
“We don’t even know Uncle Marvin put them there.” The hunt was a welcome distraction from my concern about my sister, and Emily seemed to know this.
“I guess not.” She squinted at the image on her phone. “Or maybe we do.”
