Isla, I want to push.’
‘Try not push,’ Isla said. ‘We’re at the traffic lights on the corner. Alessi’s swearing because they’re red.’
‘I don’t want my brother delivering me.’
‘I know you don’t want your brother to deliver you,’ Isla said, and she caught a glimpse of Alessi’s rigid profile. ‘But luckily you’ve got me. I’m going to ring off and I’ll see you in a moment.’ She turned to Alessi. ‘I’m jumping out when we get to the next lights.’
Their eyes met and there was so much unsaid. ‘We’re talking this out tonight, Isla,’ Alessi said.
‘I’m sorry, Alessi.’ She told him the truth as the car moved the next five hundred meters. ‘I wasn’t on the Pill.’ She felt his eyes on her briefly. ‘I know I let you think I was … I meant to take care of it the next morning, get the morning-after pill, but I didn’t …’ Tears were threatening and she choked them down.
‘Are you considering an abortion?’ Alessi asked, and Isla shook her head.
‘Then never apologise for your pregnancy again.’
She arrived at Geo’s and walked in as calmly as she could, grateful she had been there before and that the staff let her straight upstairs as soon as she explained that Alessi was parking.
The speeches were going on as Isla made her way through the crowd and Alessi’s father was speaking.
‘Tonight I celebrate forty years with the love of my life. We have been together through good times and bad …’ There was a long pause before he continued. ‘We were blessed with three children, Geo, Alessandro and Allegra, tonight we sit in Geo’s as a family, always.’
Alessi must have ditched the car because he was right behind her as she headed to the bathroom.
‘Watch the door,’ Isla said, and took a deep breath and stepped inside.
She’d delivered many women on the bathroom floor but she’d only deeply loved one of them.
Make that two, Isla thought as she stepped in and saw Allegra’s red face and damp curls. Steve was there beside her and he blew out a breath of relief as Isla came over. ‘Talk about timing,’ Steve said.
‘Perfect timing.’ Isla smiled, dropping to her knees, knowing what to do.
‘It’s coming.’
Oh, it was.
‘Get behind Allegra, Steve,’ Isla said. ‘Help pull her legs back.’
‘Where’s Alessi?’ Steve asked.
‘Gnawing on the door with his teeth.’ Isla smiled.
‘He must trust you,’ Allegra said.
Alessi did.
But with no equipment, no help to hand, it tested Alessi on so many levels and it was a Herculean effort to stand outside.
Last time, with Niko, Allegra had nearly died.
It wasn’t like last time, Alessi told himself.
Isla was there.
Isla was pregnant.
It was then that he properly acknowledged it. He looked at his parents, who were scanning the gathered crowd, waiting for their children to start speaking. A crowd was starting to gather where Alessi was playing doorman and a paramedic was climbing the stairs, wearing a crash helmet, which was possibly a giveaway.
‘Yes,’ Alessi said when his mother raced over. ‘Allegra is having the baby.’
‘Why aren’t you in there?’ Yolanda demanded.
‘Isla’s there. She’ll call if she needs me.’
Alessi closed his eyes.
She just had called.
Private, deep, she had told him she was pregnant and he was eternally grateful for the drama of tonight, for not demanding to know if the baby was his, in some Neanderthal reaction.
Whatever the answer, he was there for her, too.
Alessi knew it.
Isla didn’t.
‘Is everything okay?’ Steve asked, his eyes anxious.
‘Everything,’ Isla said, ‘is perfect.’
Allegra pushed and when she couldn’t push, she pushed some more and then let out a scream, not that anyone would hear outside, where there was music and chattering and laughter. And as Allegra rested her body against her husband, Isla demanded more from her.
‘Again.’
‘No.’
‘One more, come on …’
‘Do what Isla says.’ Steve was both supportive and firm. Behind his wife, he held up her thighs and helped Allegra bring their child into the world.
Their baby was almost here—the head was out and with the next push it would be delivered. The door opened at that moment and Isla smiled as Aiden Harrison, a rapid-response paramedic who had arrived on motorbike, stepped quietly inside.
‘Put your hands down, Allegra,’ Isla said.
Allegra did and together she and Isla delivered the baby.
It was a gorgeous fat baby girl with big cheeks and chunky arms and legs, who cried on entering the world and was born with her eyes open. Allegra and Steve wept when they saw her, their strong, healthy baby, and so, too, did Isla.
Not a lot, but some tears did spill out, especially as Steve cut the cord.
‘I think you’ve stopped the party.’ Isla smiled through her tears because the noise outside had faded.
‘Steve …’ Allegra said. ‘Maybe you could let them know that everything is okay?’ She glanced up from her beautiful daughter. ‘And let Alessi in, poor guy.’
His face was as white as chalk but he smiled when he stepped in and saw his niece.
It was so completely different from the last time.
Then, it had needed to be all sterile equipment and everyone avoiding meeting his eyes. Then it had been his sister and nephew on different intensive care units and the joy of childbirth completely missing.
Now smiling faces greeted him and the surroundings didn’t matter.
A backup ambulance had arrived and as Allegra was transferred to a stretcher it was Alessi who held the baby.
There were repercussions to his job. He generally dealt with the babies that had run into complications, with the battlers to survive,
