Troubles in Paradise (Paradise #3)(95)

“For crying out loud, why not?”

“I should rephrase that. Ayers claims she’s in too much pain to move, and Phil and Sunny have assured her she doesn’t have to go anywhere. They’re telling her she can just have the baby here in the house.”

“Is anyone there a doctor?” Huck says. “If the answer is no, then get that girl to the health center. Have Baker step in if you need to. That baby is his as well.”

“I’ve told them all that,” Irene says. “What if there are complications? But Ayers said she had a checkup at the beginning of the week, and the baby is in place, apparently. Sunny keeps saying that women all across the globe have babies at home and there’s no reason Ayers can’t as well. She says it might actually be safer.”

Huck can’t believe this. “I can’t believe this,” he says.

“Apparently it’s the low pressure that brings the babies,” Irene says. “I should go get Maia now. Everyone else is with Ayers. Can you please come home?”

And do what? Huck thinks. He’s not a doctor, and although he has sixty-plus years of wide and varied life experience, he has never delivered a baby. Then he gets an idea.

“I’m going to make a call,” he says. “Long shot, but it’s all we’ve got. You bring Maia home safely, please, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Huck hangs up and calls Rupert.

“This best be an emergency,” Rupert says when he answers. “Not sure if you heard, but there’s a storm coming.”



Rupert’s lady friend Sadie lives in Coral Bay on Upper Carolina. She’s waiting at the bottom of her steep driveway, thank God, wearing blue scrubs and a silk scarf over her hair and holding a small duffel. Sadie is a nurse practitioner up at Myrah Keating; her mother, Blythe, was a midwife, the best in the Virgin Islands. When Huck called and told her about Ayers, she said, “If you come get me, I’ll help out. I have my bag of tricks right here ready to go.”

As soon as Sadie climbs in, Huck swings the car around and heads back down the Centerline Road like a bat out of hell.

“It’s one thing asking you to deliver a baby at home and another thing asking you to deliver a baby at home with a category five hurricane on the way.”

“Low pressure brings the babies,” Sadie says. “I remember my mama delivering two or three babies during Marilyn in ’95.”

“I’m not sure how I’ll ever thank you,” Huck says.

“I’ll tell you how you can thank me,” Sadie says. “Convince your old friend Rupert to stop seeing Josephine.”

Oh, boy, Huck thinks.

“And Dora.”

It’s a small island, Rupert, Huck thinks. He takes the curve above the Reef Bay Trail at breakneck speed. The wind is picking up; trees aren’t swaying, they’re bending.

“And anyone else he’s got on a string,” Sadie says. She slaps Huck’s arm. “You hear me?”

“I hear you,” Huck says.





Maia


That was sick,” Maia tells Irene as she climbs into Cash’s truck. She puts down the window. “Bye, Shane! Stay safe! Text me!”

“Buckle up, please,” Irene says. “And put up your window. It’s starting to blow.”

“We gave out six hundred and twenty-two emergency kits,” Maia says. “Each one with two jugs of water, flashlights with batteries, bug spray, energy bars, and matches. The volunteers got to take home the extra fudge.” Maia pulls a piece of fudge wrapped in wax paper out of her pocket. “Do you want some? It’s fudge with Oreos.”

“No, thank you, honey,” Irene says. “Seat belt?”

“It’s on,” Maia says. “Is everyone at the house?” Maia knows this hurricane is going to be very destructive, but she can’t help feeling something like excitement anyway. Shane and Bright and Colton and Joanie were all at the volunteer effort, and Bright said that every news station in the States is focused on the Virgin Islands. They keep calling it “America’s paradise.” Maia is happy people are paying attention; normally, the USVI are overlooked because they’re a territory and not a proper state.

“Cash is on Lovango with Tilda,” Irene says.

“Ahh,” Maia says. She has been waiting for those two to get back together. Maia had caught Cash texting Tilda under the table during Irene’s birthday breakfast at Jake’s, and when Maia asked if they were starting back up, Cash said, She’s dating someone else. And when Maia kept staring at him, he said, It’s one text, Maia, relax.

“Your grandfather will hopefully be back by the time we get home,” Irene says. “And Maia…”

Maia has just popped fudge in her mouth. “Mmm-hmm?”

“Ayers is in labor.”

“What does that mean?”

“She’s having the baby.”

“Tonight?”

“Tonight most likely, yes. Or first thing tomorrow. Her water broke.” Irene sighs. “Her contractions were close when I left the house to get you. And she doesn’t want to go to the health center…”

Maia asks, “Why not?”

“She thinks that because of the storm, it will be better to have the baby at home.”