The Proposal (The Proposition #2)(20)

Keeping one hand on the wheel, he used his other to scroll through Emma’s contacts. He braced himself for the wrath to come as his finger pressed dial. Casey answered on the third ring. “Hey Hot Mama, sorry I haven’t had a chance to call you back yet,” she said without a hello.

“Um, this is Aidan.”

A long pause came on the line. “What the hell are you doing with Em’s phone? Please don’t tell me you’ve done something truly insane to try to get her back? Because if you have, I will make sure that you go to jail for a long, long time where a very large and hairy man can make you his bitch!” she shrieked loud enough for even Emma to hear.

“Casey, listen to me. I haven’t kidnapped Emma. We’re on our way to the ER at Wellstar.”

Casey gasped. “Oh God, what’s wrong?”

Aidan glanced over at Emma whose eyes were once again pinched closed while her jaw was clenched in pain. “She’s having some contractions.”

“She’s not bleeding is she?”

“No, just the contractions.”

Aidan heard who he assumed was Nate talking in the background. “It sounds like a good sign that she isn’t bleeding. Nate thinks it might just be Braxton Hicks, but we’ll be there just as soon as we can.”

“Okay. Can you call Connor, too?”

Emma’s eyes flew open, and she looked at him in shock. Aidan figured she was amazed that he didn’t have to be told to do everything, and he could actually be considerate of her feelings.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Bye.”

Casey merely hung up, so Aidan cut the call off. “Anyone else you want me to call? Virginia?”

Emma shook her head. “I don’t want to worry Grammy yet in case it is something like Braxton Hicks.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

They made the rest of the drive in tense silence. After screeching into the hospital parking lot, Aidan wheeled up to the curb at the emergency room and killed the engine. When he got out and started over to Emma’s side, a security guard hustled over. “Sir, you can’t park there.”

“Look, my…” he trailed off when he realized he didn’t know what to call Emma. She certainly wasn’t his wife and their relationship status didn’t qualify as girlfriend either. “She’s,” he finally emphasized, “having early contractions, so I’m getting her inside. If you don’t like it, then tow my f**king car!”

The security guard held up his hands. “Sorry sir. Once you get registered, please come out and move the car. A nice Mercedes like that will get knocked to hell at the impound lot.”

Aidan growled with frustration as he held his hand out to Emma. “Fine. But I’m not coming back out here until I know both she and my kid are okay!” With his free hand, he dug a hundred out of his wallet. “Watch it for me, okay?”

The guard looked left and right before he hastily snatched the money. “Yes, sir.”

Turning his attention back to Emma, he helped her out of the car. She grimaced as she stepped onto her feet. “Lean on me,” Aidan instructed as she took a tentative step onto the curb.

With one arm wrapped around her waist, Aidan led Emma through the mechanized double doors and into the ER lobby. She gripped his hand tighter and from the expression on her face, he could tell the pain was worse. “Just a little further, Em,” he said.

At the registration desk, he eased her down into a chair. When the clerk didn’t come up immediately, he banged his fist on the desk. “Excuse me, but she might be in preterm labor here!”

The receptionist nodded to a nurse. “We’ll go ahead and take her on back.”

“Thank you,” Aidan said.

A nurse came out of the doors with a wheelchair. Aidan helped Emma to her feet and then helped her over to sit down in the wheelchair. When he started to go back with them, the receptionist called to him. “You can’t go back until we have all of her medical information.”

“I’m already pre-registered here through my OB/GYN,” Emma muttered, through teeth gritted in pain.

“Then he’ll have to stay until we get the insurance information.”

Aidan stared helplessly at Emma as she handed him her purse. “My cards are in my wallet.”

He raced through the paperwork. Most of it he left blank, hoping they already had it since he didn’t know it. The irony wasn’t lost on him that Emma may be carrying his child, but he had no idea if she had ever had any major surgeries or childhood illnesses. Just as he started to punch the button to open up the doors, someone cleared his throat.

It was the security guard. “Fuck!” Aidan cried. Several people in the waiting room looked up at him. Digging his keys from the pocket, he sprinted past the security guard and to his waiting car. Tires squealed as he pulled around the entrance and back-tracked it to the available parking deck.

When he got back inside, he punched the button on the Authorized Personnel Only doors. His gaze spun desperately around the hallway of rooms. Feeling an odd sense of deja vu from earlier in the day, he was just about to flag down a nurse when Dr. Nadeen appeared before him, his face tense with worry. “She is in room five,” he said.

Although he hated to say it, Aidan mumbled, “Thank you.”

He threw open the door to find the curtain pulled. The sound of a baby’s heartbeat echoed off the walls. “Em?” he cried.