She watched, frowning as he rifled through her purse then pulled out her inhaler. He handed it to her, and as soon as she took a hit from it, she felt the instant relief. “You see?” She took a deep breath minus any wheezing. “I’m better now.”

Abel exhaled, his already pale face visibly torn between still being terrified and relieved. He held his hand out to her. “Let’s go.”

“You need me to go get her things from your house?” Roni asked.

“No,” Abel shook his head, holding on to Nellie’s arm as she stood. “Everything’s already in the car. After the second trip this week, I didn’t bother to take it out. I figured we were close.”

Taking one step, Nellie stopped as she felt another contraction coming. She made every attempt to stay calm and breathe normally. Panicking or getting worked up for any reason could trigger her asthma, and she was not going to ruin what should be an exciting and wonderful day for her and Abel.

She noticed Abel making an effort also to appear calmer as he stopped and massaged her lower back. In a very calm voice, he leaned in and whispered. “I love you.”

Nellie nodded, unable to respond as she leaned against his big chest. The stupid breathing techniques from Lamaze were not helping with the pain at all.

“Do you know how far apart the contractions are?” He asked in that still soothing voice.

As the contraction ceased, she took a long breath, looking up at him, and answered. “About five minutes now.”

His brows lifted as his eyes widened, but he quickly caught himself and nodded. “We gotta get you to the hospital.”

In the midst of it all, Bianca’s stunned face nearly made Nellie laugh. Her big doe eyes said it all. The reality of what being pregnant and eventually having to go into labor really meant, had just sunk in.

Roni assured them she’d let everyone know they were going, including Abel’s mom, who must’ve been inside somewhere because they didn’t see her as they rushed out into the driveway. She’d likely be upset that she didn’t get a chance to see them off, but at this point, Nellie knew Abel was doing everything in his power to remain focused and keep Nellie calm. The last thing he’d be concerned about was his mother’s emotional state.

Ever since what he now referred to as the worst two days of his life, he told her he wanted to be armed with the knowledge of how best to handle her attacks, but even more so how to avoid them.

She’d told him the most important thing was to remain calm whenever she was experiencing trouble breathing. Nothing was more detrimental than freaking out. It only escalated things quickly.

They made it to the hospital without incident, and Abel helped her up the ramp of the back entrance that they were told to use. Being as high profile as Abel was now, nothing would ever be normal for them again. So arriving at the regular emergency room was a thing of the past for Nellie.

The nurse recognized them immediately, not just because of Abel’s celebrity but because she’d been there both times this past week when they’d had to be sent home. She took one look at Nellie’s body language and nodded. Without even asking, Nellie could already see it in the nurse’s eyes. She knew that this time they wouldn’t be leaving the hospital without a baby.

Massaging Abel’s arm now as she was wheeled into the maternity ward, Nellie smiled. Even as she was hit with another excruciating contraction, she actually felt bad for him. He looked absolutely horrified, yet she could still see how hard he attempted to remain calm for her sake.

After changing into her hospital gown and being hooked up to all the monitors, she noticed how somber he suddenly went. “What’s wrong,” she asked, reaching her hand out to him, feeling a wave of alarm when she noticed his red-rimmed eyes.

“Nothing,” he shook his head quickly, took her hand, kissed it, and then shrugged. “All the machines and seeing you in this hospital bed just brought back memories.” His brows pinched, and he leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I love you so much,” he whispered, just as the nurse walked in again.

The nurse checked the monitors then checked Nellie’s progress in dilating. She added more towels under Nellie’s behind. “Everything’s as it should be. It won’t be long now,” she said with a smile. “And,” she said as she pulled her glove off and dropped it in the waste basket. “You’re dilating beautifully. Already close to eight centimeters. It paid off to wait a little longer this time before coming in. If all goes as well as it’s going now, we’ll be welcoming baby Ayala into the world very soon.” The nurse picked up a green stack of folded garments on the counter. “Here you go, Daddy.” She handed them to Abel. “It’s almost show time—time to get suited up.” She winked at Nellie. “You see. If we had kept you here yesterday morning, you would’ve felt like you’d been in labor for days. Now you can say you came in and handled giving birth like a superstar in under just a couple of hours. I’ll go get you some ice chips.”

As hard as she wanted to feel as upbeat as the nurse was, Nellie had waited too long. It wasn’t as safe to get an epidural this far along in her labor, and Nellie refused to take any chances. But she was paying the price in pain by going at this naturally. The contraction she was feeling now had her squeezing the bar on the side of her bed and her lower back felt like her spine was being ripped open. Unable to stand it anymore, she was done feeling sorry for Abel and let out an agonized moan through her clenched teeth.