Hummingbird Lake Read Online Free PDF

push. Take a breath. Push, push, push.”
    She’s pushing . In that second, due to previous experience and the refresher childbirth class he’d taken in Gunnison this past summer, Gabe recognized that the situation was indeed too far gone to transport her to Gunnison. That meant no hospital. They were doing this here. Thank God Sage is a doctor. Please, God. Please, please, please, please .
    He burst into the room. “Nic?”
    “Wash your hands, Gabe,” Sage instructed. She was behind Nic on the bed, supporting her body while she pushed. “That’s it, sweetheart. You’re doing great. Now rest.”
    Gabe ducked into the bathroom and hurriedly washed his hands, then rushed back to Nic. “Are you okay?”
    “So far, so good.” She smiled up at him tremulously. “I’m sorry, Gabe. I didn’t mean to do it this way.”
    “That’s okay. I’ll yell at you about it later.” Without being told, he took Sage’s place and supported his wife just as she sucked in a breath. “Here comes another one.”
    From that moment on, time passed in a weird progression of agonizingly slow seconds and fast-as-lightning minutes. The dressing table mirror was arranged in such a way that he could see what was happening at the bottom of the bed, and he only vaguely noted that Ali Timberlake arrived with a camera in hand.
    “Did you track down the supply cart?” Sage asked her.
    “Yes. Celeste is on her way with it now.”
    “Oh, heavens,” Nic said, panting.
    “Get her up,” Sage instructed. “There you go, girlfriend. Push, push, push.”
    Gabe kept his gaze glued to the mirror. Nic moaned and groaned.
    Sage encouraged, “Attagirl. You can do it, Nic. We’re almost there. Almost.”
    Nic let out a scream and a little head popped out.
    “Dear Jesus,” Gabe prayed as seconds later Nic gave another push and the baby slid out into Sage’s waiting hands.
    “We have a girl,” Sage said.
    For a heartbreakingly long few seconds, nothing happened, then Gabe and Nic’s daughter drew air into her lungs and let out an angry mewl.
    Crying and laughing at the same time, Nic said, “She sounds like a little lamb.”
    “So says the veterinarian,” Sage said as she tucked the little one securely into the crook of her arm. “Ali? How long will it take Celeste to—”
    “I’m here.” The older woman blew into the roompushing a medical cart. “I decided it was easier to bring the whole thing. Colt carried it up for me. What do you need?”
    “Sterile scissors, to begin with,” Sage said.
    With Celeste acting as a competent assistant, Sage saw to the baby’s immediate needs, then handed her to her mother. “You three say a quick hello, because there is more work here to be done.”
    Tears were flowing down Nic’s face as she cradled their daughter against her. “Oh, look, Gabe. She’s beautiful. Isn’t she beautiful?”
    She was a wrinkly, squiggly thing covered with blood and cheesy-looking stuff, but he agreed. “Absolutely gorgeous.”
    Love filled his heart as he watched his daughter and her mother, and when the memory of another birth arose in his mind, he refused to let it steal his joy. He would never forget the son he had lost or the woman who had given birth to him, but this was a moment for the future, not the past. Then Nic let out another groan, and he focused his mind on the present.
    “I need another pair of arms here,” Sage said. “Celeste? Ali? One of you take the baby.”
    “Let me,” Sarah Reese said. Just when she’d joined the gathering, Gabe didn’t know, but he was glad to have her here. It felt right for Nic to have her closest friends with her now. Sarah held out her arms and cradled the baby, now swaddled in the receiving blanket Celeste had brought along with the medical cart. “Well, now. Aren’t you the prettiest little thing?”
    “A little angel,” Celeste said.
    At that point things got busy again. Twelve minutes later, Nic delivered Gabe’s second little girl.
    By that time, a