would you like me to do?” Grace asked.
“Hold on to her hand and count off the seconds when the contractions come.”
“No … don’t leave me.” Mary Jo couldn’t do this without Mack at her side.
“I need to deliver the baby,” he explained, his words so gentle they felt like a warm caress. “Grace will help you.”
“I’m here,” Grace said.
“Okay.” Reluctantly Mary Jo freed Mack’s hand.
Grace slipped into his spot. “I don’t want to hurt you,” Mary Jo said.
“How would you do that?” Grace asked, clasping her hand.
Somehow she found the strength to smile. “I squeeze hard.”
“You aren’t going to hurt me,” Grace said reassuringly. “You squeeze as hard as you need to and don’t worry about me.” She reached for the damp cloth and wiped Mary Jo’s flushed and heated face.
“I … don’t have anything for the baby,” she whispered. That thought suddenly struck Mary Jo and nearly devastated her. Her baby wasn’t even born yet, and already she was a terrible mother. Already she’d failed her child.
“That’s all been taken care of.”
“But … I don’t even have a blanket.”
“Maryellen and Jon are stopping at their house for diapers and baby blankets and clothes for a newborn.”
“But …”
“Maryellen still has all of Drake’s clothes, so that should be the least of your worries, okay?”
“Okay.” A weight lifted from her heart.
Another pain approached. Mary Jo could feel herself pushing the infant from her womb. She gritted her teeth, bearing down with all her strength.
Grace, her voice strong and confident, counted off the seconds. Again, when the pain was over, Mary Jo collapsed on the bed.
In the silence that followed, Mary Jo could hear the sound of her own harsh breathing. Then in the distance she heard the laughter of children.
“The kids …”
“The grandchildren are outside with Cliff,” Grace said.
“Laughing?”
“Do you want me to tell Cliff to keep them quiet?”
“No … no. It’s … joyful.” This was the way it should be on Christmas Eve. Hearing their happiness gave her hope. Her baby, no matter what the future held, would be born surrounded by people who were generous and kind.
Giving birth in a barn, the stalls below filled with beasts, children running and laughing outside, celebrating the season, hadn’t been part of Mary Jo’s plan. And yet—it was perfect.
So perfect.
This was a thousand times better than being alone with strangers in a hospital. None of her brothers would’ve been comfortable staying with her through labor. Maybe Ned, but even her youngest brother, as much as he loved her, wouldn’t have done well seeing her in all this pain.
Mack had been with her from the first, and now Grace.
“Thank you,” she whispered to them both.
“No, Mary Jo, thank you,” Grace whispered back. “We’re so honored to be helping you.”
“I’m glad you’re with me.” She smiled tremulously at Grace, then Mack. How she wished she’d fallen in love with him instead of David. Mack was everything a man should be….
Another pain came, and she locked her eyes with his for as long as she could until the contraction became too strong. She surrendered to it, whimpering softly.
“The head’s almost there,” Mack said when the pain finally released her. “Your baby has lots of brown hair.”
“Oh …”
“Another pain or two and this will be over,” Grace promised.
“Thank God, thank God,” Mary Jo said fervently.
“You’re going to be a good mother,” Grace told her.
Mary Jo wanted to believe that. Needed to believe it. All night, she’d been tortured with doubts and, worse, with guilt about arriving at this moment totally unprepared.
“I want to be a good mother.”
“You already are,” Mack said.
“I love my baby.”
“I know.” Grace whisked the damp hair from her brow.
Mary Jo was drenched in sweat, her face streaked with tears. “I’m never going through this again,” she gasped, looking at Grace. “I can’t believe my mother gave birth four times.”
“All women think that,” Grace said. “I know I did. While I was in labor with Maryellen, I told Dan that if this baby wasn’t the son he wanted, he was out of luck because I wasn’t having another one.”
“You did, though.”
“As soon as you hold your baby in your arms, nothing else matters. You forget the pain.”
Footsteps clattered up the stairs. “Mom?”
It was Maryellen, Grace’s daughter.
“In here,” Grace called out.
Maryellen hurried into the room, then paused when she saw Mary Jo and smiled tearfully. Her arms were heaped with baby clothes.
A pain overtook Mary Jo. Again it was Mack she looked to, Mack who held her gaze, lending her his strength.
She was grateful that Grace was at her side, but most of the time it had been Mack who’d guided and encouraged her. He had a way of comforting her that no one else seemed to have, not even Grace.
“You’re doing so well,” Mack said to her. “We have a shoulder …”
Mary Jo sobbed quietly. It was almost over. The baby was leaving her body. She could feel it now, feel the child slipping free and then the loud, fierce cry that resounded in the room.
Her relief was instantaneous.
She’d done it! Despite everything, she’d done it.
With her last reserves of strength, Mary Jo rose up on one elbow.
Mack held the child in his arms and Brandon had a towel ready. Mack turned to her and she saw, to her astonishment, that there were tears in his eyes.
“You
