The Footballer's Designer Baby (A BWWM Pregnancy Romance) (9 page)

“What is it? What’s wrong? Did he kick your ribs again?” Cameron asked, worry washing over him.

She shook her head. “No… something’s wrong. He’s coming, Cameron, he’s coming right now.”

Cameron went into sheer panic. “He can’t come yet! It’s too soon! Oh my god… we’ve got to get you to the hospital!” He stood up and pulled her carefully to her feet, walking with her, until she doubled over in pain again as another contraction shot through her body, crippling her. When she was able to move again, he got her to the car and grabbed her hospital bag, and they were off.

He only made one phone call. “Aaron, buddy, we’re on the way to the hospital. Delilah is in labor… would you do that for me, please? Thanks, brother.”

Cameron put his phone down and got Delilah to the hospital in record time. The emergency room was ready for her when she got there, having received a call from Aaron. Jim, Aaron, Mikey, and Josh all arrived within fifteen minutes of Cameron and Delilah’s arrival, and by that time, she was already being cleaned up and taken into the delivery room.

The doctor on call in delivery took one look at her and told Cameron, “We can’t stop this, she’s too far along. If you’re going in, get scrubbed up and dressed right now.”

Cameron looked at Aaron in shock, and Aaron pushed him after the nurses. “You’re going in. You’ll always regret it if you don’t. Get in there. We’ll be out here waiting for you. Go on.”

Cameron nodded and rushed after the nurse, barely making it into the room to get prepped, and taken into the delivery room. He felt faint when he saw Delilah there, sweat pouring down her beautiful face, her body racked with pain, breathing heavily and heaving as she tried to gasp for air. He went to her side and grabbed her hand.

“I’m here for you. We’re going to do this together. You can do it, just breathe,” he encouraged her.

One of the nurses looked up then and stared at him. “Oh my god! You’re Cameron Bellamy!” She turned and looked at one of the other nurses. “That’s Cameron Bellamy!”

The doctor looked up at Cameron and then over at the star struck nurse and said, “Get her out of here.” She was escorted out of the room and none of the other nurses said a word to Cameron. They all focused on Delilah and the baby.

Her contractions grew closer together and each one ravaged her with pain, but she held tightly to Cameron’s hand and struggled through them all. He looked at the doctor and pleaded on her behalf, “Don’t you have something? Can’t you give her something for the pain? Look at her!”

The doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry; she’s too far along for anything I could give her now. We’re just going to have to do this, and if the baby doesn’t turn soon, this will have to be a C-section.”

Cameron felt panic course through his whole body. “What do you mean turn? What’s going on?”

The doctor explained it to him quickly. “The baby is sideways. If he doesn’t turn so that he can come out naturally, we’ll have to cut her open and pull him out so he doesn’t die. We don’t have much time between now and when we’d be forced to do a C-section, so we’re hoping he turns and gets his head into the birth canal.”

Cameron looked at Delilah, who was weak with the struggle and the pain, and flushed with fear. “It’s going to be okay, we’re going to get through this. I’m right here, Delilah.”

He ran his hand over her forehead and squeezed her hand, then he leaned down to her belly and spoke to his son. “Hey little man, it’s me, I’m right out here waiting for you, but you have to help me out here, you need to turn for this to work, buddy, you have to turn around in there and come out head first. Can you do that for me? You can do it, I know you can. Come on, little guy!”

Delilah threw her head back and screamed as another contraction ripped through her body and made her writhe in agony. Cameron hadn’t felt so helpless in his whole life. He held her hand and she managed to make it through the pain until it subsided again.

He took a wet towel and wiped her forehead, telling her how well she was doing and that it would all be over soon. She looked up at him and knew that there was no way she could have gone through this without him. She clung to him, grateful that he was there, and fearful for what might happen, and for the health of the baby inside her.

The doctor monitored the baby carefully, and finally he said, “I’m sorry, we’re going to have to do a C-section. He’s not turning. Neither the mother nor the baby can continue like this and survive it,” he said, looking at Cameron. “Prep for the C,” he told his staff.

Minutes later, they were standing around her and Cameron watched in wonder as the doctor sliced Delilah’s belly open and deftly lifted the baby from her body.

“Do you want to cut the cord, Cameron?” he asked, handing scissors to him. Cameron paused for a moment and he could suddenly hear Aaron’s voice in his head. “Get your head in the game. Get in there and do it now, or you’ll regret it later.”

He took the scissors and reached over and cut the cord. The sound made him cringe, and the blood made him queasy, but the sight of his son being wiped down and handed to him was the most profound experience of his life. He stood there, staring at the baby in his arms as it cried, and tears flowed from his eyes.

The boy was big, even for being born earlier than his due date, and he had ten fingers and ten toes, and a full head of tiny black curls. Cameron showed him to Delilah, and she looked at him with tears in her eyes, and then looked away.

Cameron gave the baby to the nurse and she took him away to be cleaned up and tested, then he leaned over to Delilah, held her hand and whispered to her, “Thank you so much. Thank you for my son.” The doctor sewed her up and she was taken to her room to rest.

Cameron stood at the window of the nursery, watching as the nurses cared for his little boy, and his friends stood by his side, all of them staring in amazement.

Mikey shook his head. “Cam, you’re a dad! A dad! I can’t believe it.”

“More importantly, I’m an uncle!” Josh smiled and elbowed Cameron.

Cameron turned and smiled at his friends, and then they hugged each other, overwhelmed with joy and happiness.

“How come the little guy came so early?”  Aaron asked.

“I don’t know,” Cameron answered honestly, “it might have just happened, or it might have been stress. It was a hell of a day. I got home this afternoon and I knew that Delilah had gotten the cast taken off of her arm.

“She kept talking about how she wanted to go swimming in the ocean at the beach behind my place, and I just knew that with that cast gone this afternoon, she’d be out there. She’s a champion swimmer in her regular life.

“I was watching her from the library window, and she was doing laps. She started going out really far, and it worried me, I thought she was doing too much, you know, going too far, and I went outside to watch her, just to make sure she was okay. 

“Then all of a sudden, she stopped swimming and she looked like she was being pulled under, and she was splashing around; it wasn’t right. I got out to her as fast as I could and brought her back in.” The memory brought tears to his eyes.

“She said her leg had cramped up and she couldn’t swim anymore.”

Aaron shook his head and looked at his friend in wonder. “You saved her life, and you saved your son’s life. Wow. That’s huge, man. That’s huge.”

Cameron continued. “We were talking, and she started having contractions and I got her here as fast as I could. Thanks for calling ahead for us here at the hospital, and for letting the guys know, Aaron. I appreciate it.” Aaron nodded and hugged Cameron.

“She might not have made it through the childbirth, if she hadn’t had a C-section. The baby was turned sideways and the doc said we had to do it this way,” said Cameron.

Jim rocked on his feet and looked up at Cameron.

“Hey Cam, she’s going to take some time healing; this isn’t like the regular deal. It’ll be six weeks before she’s really up and around like she should be. What do you want to do about that? Do you want her back at her apartment with a nurse on call, or do you want her at the house? This was supposed to be over for her now, but we never planned for a C-section.”

Cameron answered immediately. “I want her at the house. She’ll get the best care and rest there, and all her stuff is already there in her room, anyway.”

Jim clicked his tongue and shook his head. “You sure, kid? She’ll bond with your son and then it will be harder for her to leave. You might want to think about it a little bit more.”

Cameron shook his head. “I want her at the house. She’s given me the greatest gift I’ve ever known, and she needs help, so I’m going to be there to help her.”

“I think that’s a lovely idea, darling,” Maryanne said as she walked up and hugged her son tightly. “Where is my grandson?” Renee was in tow right behind Maryanne, and both of them pressed their faces against the glass window, staring in rapturous delight at their new little man.

Cameron clapped Jim on the shoulder and smiled. “My mom says it’s a good idea, and you can’t argue with my mom.”

Jim pressed his lips together and walked away quietly as all of them stared through the window, talking and smiling. He headed to Delilah’s room to talk with her about it.

Delilah was awake when Jim stepped into her room and closed the door. He came up to the bed and she looked at him. “I guess I’m done now,” she said, tiredly.

“I guess so. There are some things to talk about. First, I realize that we changed the details of the contract, but you held out on your end of the bargain and Cameron has his son, so here’s your money.” He reached out and placed a check on the table beside her. She didn’t look at it; she just kept her eyes on Jim.

“The other thing is this. You’ve just had a C-section and that takes some time to heal. It takes six weeks. Cameron is excited about the baby and he’s got it into his head that he owes you even more than what he’s already given you. I told him he ought to put you back at the apartment so you can heal quietly and in peace, but he’s talking about you being at his place for another six weeks.

“I’m beginning to become concerned about the time you’ve spent together and how wrapped up in this he’s become. I understand that he wants to be a father, and I’ve helped him make it happen, but now that he’s got his son, he needs to get his head back in the game and keep it there.  If you’re around, that’s just one more distraction to keep his mind from being where it should.

“The baby will be fine; Maryanne and Renee will look after him. But Cameron, he is such a good guy, you know. He feels such a sense of duty to everyone all the time, and I would hate to see him get used and suffer because of it.

“You’ve done your part, and you’ve been paid, just like we agreed. I want to ask you to take my advice and go to the apartment. Give Cameron the time he needs with his son and let him stop worrying about you.

“When he comes to talk with you about it, just tell him that’s what you want to do, okay? Put him first and bow out gracefully. Go focus on your education and your own goals. The deal is done and it’s time to move on. Okay?” Jim smiled at her and patted her leg.

Delilah looked at him and felt like she might throw up. He had good points, and he had hard points. She’d talked herself into leaving the baby she’d carried in her for almost nine months and now she was having to leave Cameron as well.

It was a difficult thing to try to do, but she understood just what Jim was saying, and no matter how hard it might be to try and do, she’d have to do it. He was right. It was time to go. “Okay,” she whispered, and then looked away from him.

He patted her leg again and said, “Good girl.” Then he turned and left, and she fell asleep and dreamed strange dreams of oceans and cars and babies and family. She slept deeply for a long time, and when she woke up, she was in her room at Cameron’s house.

She looked around the room and tried to sit up in bed, but found that the pain was too much for her. Renee was nearby, reading in a chair, and came up to Delilah’s bed when she woke up.