Riot novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Off Her Feet

Joss's POV

The doctor stopped the contractions with fluids and a drug that made my hands shake.

I lay in the hospital bed at thirty-three weeks with a monitor strapped across my belly.

Rhys sat on the plastic chair beside me, in the same wrinkled shirt he had put on in the kitchen.

He had not let go of my hand since the elevator.

The obstetrician studied the paper strip and frowned at it.

"Your cervix is holding," she said. "You're not in labor, but your body is rehearsing."

"What do I do?"

"You get off your feet. No oven, no stairs, no standing shifts. Rest at home, lying down, until thirty-six weeks."

"I live on the third floor."

"Then someone carries you up once and you don't come down."

"Is anything else off the list?" I asked, very carefully.

The doctor looked at me, and then at Rhys, and then at the ceiling.

"Gentle is fine," she said dryly. "Nothing that sets off the cramps. If it does, you stop."

Rhys turned a deep shade of red.

I had not known he could.

"I'm moving into the walk-up," he said, after the doctor left.

"You haven't been invited."

"Joss."

"You do not fit in the room."

"Then I'll sleep with my feet in the hall."

"Bex will kill you."

"Bex gave me a list," he said. "She did not forbid me to carry you upstairs."

He carried me up all three flights that night.

He did not breathe hard.

Bex stood on the landing with her arms folded and the mop at her side.

"He can have the couch," she said. "And I'll be watching him."

"Thank you."

"I'm not doing it for you, Ambrose. I'm doing it for her."

"That's fine," Rhys said. "That's the best reason."

She looked at him.

Then she gave a short nod and went to put the kettle on.

Bex had a night shift, and by midnight the apartment was quiet.

I lay in my narrow bed with pillows piled behind me.

I could hear Rhys shift on the couch in the next room.

The couch was four inches too short.

I heard it creak twice.

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