Chapter 20: The Night Before

Avery's POV

The doctor let me go home at seven that evening, with a bottle of pills and a speech.

"Bed rest," she said. "No stairs, no stress, and no board meetings."

"The board meeting is tomorrow at nine."

"Then you'll be doing it from a chair. And if the contractions start again, you come straight back."

"She will," Nolan said behind me. "I'll carry her."

"I'll go slowly," I said.

We climbed the three flights of Vicki's building at a crawl, with his hand under my elbow.

The doctor did not need to know about the stairs.

Vicki had left a note on the door.

Gone to sort your mother's ride for 8 a.m. She says she's coming tomorrow.

I said you'd say no. She said she wasn't asking.

Don't break the couch. I mean it this time.

I laughed until my belly tightened, and then I stopped.

Nolan helped me out of my coat.

He knelt and took off my shoes, and set them side by side by the door.

"You're good at that," I said.

"I've been practicing on you for four months."

I put my hand on his head, in his hair.

"Come here."

He rose and I reached up and kissed him.

The kiss was long, and I tasted tiredness and coffee and the end of a very hard day.

When we came apart he was breathing unevenly.

"The doctor said rest," he said.

"She said rest. She didn't say nothing."

"Avery."

"I asked one thing," I said. "I asked that you stay. I'm asking something else now. Take me to bed."

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