2
I pulled up to #20 Kensey Lane and rolled my window down, reading the small sign affixed to the thick brick post that held an intercom speaker and a keypad. Following the directions on the sign, I pressed the green button, and said, “Um…hi, this is Renee Mattison, one of the midwives from Genesis Birthing Center. I’m here to assist Melyssa Higgs.”
As I was waiting for a reply, the iron gate groaned and began to slowly open. “Okay…” I muttered, as I rolled my window up and pulled through the gate onto the winding driveway, finally parking in front of the three-car garage. I was at the massive door with my rolling case next to me, hand raised to knock when it opened to reveal a huge man, and when I say huge, I mean enormous—tall, wide, and downright ominous looking. He didn’t speak, just moved to the side so I could enter the house, but I wasn’t altogether sure I wanted to enter it.
“Uh,” I said, still standing outside. “Um, is this the Higgs residence?”
He nodded, stepped back a little further.
“Uh…”
“Who’s that, Rell?” a voice coming from somewhere beyond the door yelled.
The big man, presumably Rell, turned and looked at whoever it was wherever they were and opened the door wider, but still didn’t utter a word.
A second or two later, another man approached the door, the kind of man who makes your breath hitch and your heart race. Tall, probably about six-five to my five-seven, and big, but smaller than Rell. Wide shoulders and extremely handsome with smooth, semisweet chocolate skin, a neat mustache and goatee, thick eyebrows and lips, and dark, deep-set eyes. He wore sweat pants and a black t-shirt. The energy in the air shifted, became almost electrified, and I was suddenly aware of an intoxicating scent infiltrating my senses—his cologne.
“You from Genesis?” he asked, a look of concern etched into his face.
I nodded, composed myself, and said, “Yes.”
“Good! She’s saying she feels like pushing, but it’s too soon, right?”
“Where is she?” I asked, now fully recovered from the introduction of his comeliness and ready to handle the task at hand.
“Up here. In the tub.” He started toward the stairs, and I took the cue, following him as Rell closed the front door. “I’m Lorenzo Higgs, by the way,” he said.
“I’m Renee Mattison.” I would be so glad when my divorce was final and I could be a Strickland again.
I made myself not look at the back of his body, and instead, concentrated on the stairs and my own feet. “How long has she been having contractions?”
“Ah, she started hurting yesterday afternoon, said she had pains off and on all day and into the night, but they didn’t get bad until early this morning. It got to the point that she was screaming and shi—um, and stuff like an hour ago, so I called you guys.”
“Bless her heart, she’s been laboring for a long time.”
We were on the second floor, and he was leading me down a carpeted hallway that smelled of fresh linen. “Yeah,” he said, “I’ve hated seeing her hurt like this. I’ll just be glad when this is all over.”
I smiled. So many husbands were this way, worried, anxious. It was endearing, really, and while it warmed my heart, it also made it ache just a little bit more. I couldn’t recall the last time my estranged husband had ever seemed concerned about me.
I followed him into an enormous room, past a gorgeous four-poster bed and into a bathroom that was larger than my bedroom in the home I’d shared with my husband, Robert. And sitting in a huge alcove tub set under a window was the patient. Just as I was thinking the tub had probably been built to accommodate Mr. Higgs, I fully took in the scene before me. The woman in the tub breathing through a contraction wasn’t a woman at all, but a girl, no more than sixteen or seventeen. She wore a black sports bra, and I was sure she had nothing on beneath the water. An older woman was sitting in a chair beside the tub rubbing her back. My admiration of this man’s concern flew out the window. He was older than her, much closer to my age than hers. She had no business here with him, but I suppose the huge mansion I was in had something to do with their union. But then again, the man was handsome with chiseled features.
I need to mind my own business.
“Melyssa?” I said, in a calm voice.
When I entered the bathroom, her eyes were closed and the older woman was encouraging her to breathe. After I said her name, she opened her eyes and fixed them on me.
“Is it okay if I check you out? See how far you’ve dilated? I know you feel the need to push, right?”
She simply nodded, and I dug into the front pocket of my cart and grabbed a pair of gloves. “Is latex okay?” I questioned.
She nodded again.
I pulled on the pink gloves and kneeled beside the tub. As I checked her, I asked, “Has being in the water helped with the pain?”
“Yes,” she said softly, as she reached up and grasped the older woman’s hand.
“Good.”
“It’s almost over, baby,” the woman said.
I quickly pulled my hand back, startled by what I’d felt. I needed to check her vital signs, but that was going to have to wait. “This is your first pregnancy?” I asked.
The girl nodded.
“Well, your body is definitely doing its job efficiently. The baby is crowning. You felt like you needed to push, because it’s time to bring this baby into the world.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “What?”
“It’s time to push.”
She looked up at the older woman again. “Ma?”
The woman squeezed her hand. “You can do it, baby. Come on!”
I tried not to think about the fact that this woman had let this grown-ass man get involved with her child and got to work, coaching the young lady through delivering a beautiful baby girl while her mother remained at her side, encouraging her. Her husband hung in the doorway of the bathroom with an almost horrified look on his face, and I had to fight not to roll my eyes when the young lady called for him to come cut the cord.
He hesitantly stepped forward and took the scissors from me as his wife held the baby up a little. His hand was shaking, so I placed my hand on his arm and smiled warmly at his sorry, pedophilic butt. He looked me in the eye and gave me a little nod, then with a steady hand, cut the umbilical cord.
“Thank you, Zo. Thank you so much,” the tearful new mother said, as she held the wailing baby to her.
“You got it, princess. You know that.”
I wanted to sigh. No, I wanted to scream. I had seen so many young girls fall into this trap with older men, it was sickening. Bless their hearts, they were just clueless.
What does that make you?
That thought made me halt my hands. Yeah, I’d been a fool, too. An old one. Hell, that probably made me dumber than them. So I cleared my head of any judgmental thoughts and prepared to deliver the afterbirth.
Two hours later, after I’d checked out both baby and mother, weighed the eight-pound baby on my hanging scale, helped the new mom with her first breast feeding, and swallowed my disgust when she announced the baby would be named Loren, after Lorenzo, I packed my bag and left the overly-thankful Melyssa lying in the massive bed with little Loren cradled in her arms.
I made it to the door where Rell stood at attention, and I had to wonder if he’d been standing there for the entirety of my visit. He gave me a slight smile and a nod, and as he reached to open the door, a voice coming from behind me said, “Hey, Doc! Wait up!”
I spun around to find Lorenzo bounding down the stairs, and again, had to fight not to roll my eyes. “I’m not a doctor.”
“I can’t tell. What you did up there? Man, that was amazing!”
I shook my head. “Melyssa did all the work. I just helped her through it. Little Loren is gorgeous. Congratulations.”
“Thanks. Hey, I feel like we need to pay you extra or something. I mean, wow. I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was…”
“Beautiful?”
“Yeah. Beautiful.”
“Well, I don’t take tips, but we do take donations for our scholarship program. You can call the office Monday for details.”
He nodded as he clapped his huge hands together. “I will. I’ll do that for sure. Thanks, again.”
“It was my pleasure.”
“It meant a lot to my sister to be able to have her baby here. And I’m just happy it happened the way she wanted.”
I frowned slightly. “Sister?”
He looked at me, and a flicker of recognition lit in his eyes. “Yeah, Mel is my baby sister. You didn’t think—”
“Actually, I did.”
He chuckled. “Wow. This whole time you’ve probably been thinking I was some asshole predator.”
“No. It was none of my business. Still isn’t.”
“Well, anyway, thanks. I’ll definitely be making that donation.”
“Thank you.”
In my car on the way home, I smiled and wondered to myself why I was so relieved to find out he was Melyssa’s brother.