In Your Dreams (Blue Heron #4)(127)

Em hadn’t seen Jack. The other night, Angela asked if she wanted to go to O’Rourke’s and Em said no, just in case Jack was there. She was glad he’d had some closure with Josh, glad he was doing better. But it didn’t change the fact that she was in love with him, and he didn’t feel the same way. You’re right, he’d said. We should be done. I wasn’t really looking for a relationship and neither were you.

Right.

“So what now?” Everett asked, dragging her back to the present.

“Just click Upload. Right there. No, not Escape! Great. Now you have to enter it again.”

“How come you know more about this than I do?” Everett asked. “I’ve been working here longer.”

“Because you have the IQ of a chicken,” Carol said.

“Now, Carol,” Em said. “Everett has many qualities.”

The phone rang, and Carol pounced. “Manningsport Police Department, is this an emergency?...Oh, hi, Levi!...Really? Finally! I thought she’d never—okay, fine, don’t yell at me. She’s right here.” Carol gave Em a long-suffering look. “Faith’s in labor and Levi wants a police escort.”

Em picked up the phone. “Faith’s in labor and I want a police escort,” Levi ordered. “Get your ass here now.”

“On my way.” She ran out to the parking lot and got into the cruiser. Lights and sirens, and it was exactly as much fun as it sounded. She sped into town, blipped at intersections and turned onto Levi and Faith’s street. Their cute little bungalow was a few blocks off the green.

But apparently, word had gotten out, because the street was mobbed. John Holland’s dilapidated red truck, Prudence’s equally abused blue truck, Honor’s white Prius, Jack’s gray pickup. Furthermore, Colleen was standing on the lawn with the Barretts, who lived next door, as well as Faith’s grandparents and nephew and Levi’s sister. “So Sarah, we should go out sometime,” Ned was saying.

“My brother will make sure your body is never found,” Sarah Cooper answered. “But if you’re willing to risk it, so am I.”

“Need some crowd control?” Emmaline asked.

“Actually, yes,” Colleen said. “There are a dozen people in there.”

Just then, the front door banged open, and Levi appeared, Faith in his arms.

“Now that’s hot,” Colleen murmured. “I want Lucas to do that for me when my time comes.”

Various and sundry Hollands streamed after them—Abby, Pru, Honor, Mrs. Johnson, Faith’s dad.

Jack.

He was smiling, and Em felt it like she’d just stepped into a patch of sunlight.

Well. He wasn’t smiling at her. She wrenched her eyes off him. She was on duty, after all. She was needed.

It didn’t stop her stomach from tightening. She tried to ignore it. “You doing okay, Faith?” she asked, trotting next to Levi as he strode to the car.

“He’s overreacting,” Faith said. “But I do kind of want to push.”

“Don’t push!” Levi barked. “Do not push, honey. Please. No pushing. We have fifteen minutes to the hospital. You can make it.”

“Have we thought about an ambulance?” Em asked.

“Gerard Chartier is not seeing my girl parts,” Faith said firmly. “I can hold it in. Oh! Wow! This hurts! Hurry up, babe. Not you, baby. You, babe.”

Jack opened the backseat of Faith’s car, and Levi lowered her in. “I’m driving,” Jack said. “Stay in the back with your wife.” He looked at Emmaline. “You ready?”

“All set.”

She got into the cruiser and let the siren rip. Glanced back from time to time to make sure Jack was behind her and slowed for intersections, making sure all was clear.

She wouldn’t think about Jack. Not that way, not now.

But it did dawn on her that Hadley hadn’t seemed to be among the crowd.

The trick was to go fast but not too fast, and basically to just clear the runway, so to speak. Jack had his hazards on, and it looked like a colorful presidential entourage, with all the Holland vehicles following him.

They made it to the hospital in twelve minutes instead of fifteen, and Em ran in to get a gurney. Crowded day, of course. Full moon. Shelayne was on duty, surveying the waiting room with a frown.

“Baby coming,” Emmaline called. “Faith and Levi’s.”

“About time!” Shelayne said. Small towns. No secrets.

Emmaline ran out with the gurney and Levi put his wife on it. She was clinging to his hand, doing that hee-hee-hoo-hoo thing that couldn’t possibly work. Probably just to distract the woman from the fact that she was in labor.

Jack fell into step next to her, one hand on the gurney. Em could smell his good Jack smell—grapes and laundry detergent and sun. He smoothed some hair off Faith’s forehead, and the gesture made Em’s throat tighten.

He was such a good guy.

They went through the automatic doors of the hospital, Levi murmuring to his wife. Behind them, the Holland clan followed, chattering like magpies.

A couple of kids were waiting to be seen, one of them running around with a paper airplane, the other holding gauze on his chin as he wiggled his front tooth. Crazy Matthias Pembry was talking animatedly to himself—time for a medication adjustment, no doubt. An old lady in a wheelchair was glaring at the runner, and a man clutched a bloody dishcloth to his ear.