Play Softly (The Devil's Share Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

We have you on your side for a reason. This is the position babies like the most.”
    No big deal? It seemed like a huge freaking deal to me. Who the hell was this woman? Her bedside manner was shit. But for some reason, I didn’t stand up to her. I just kept crying.
    From the far side of the room, Dash caught my eye and gave me a reassuring smile.
    Nurse number two put her hand on my shoulder. “Let’s roll you over to your other side so you can see the monitor.” I liked nurse number two. She helped me roll to the other side then pointed to the monitor. “See these lines right here?” There were two horizontal white lines, a couple of inches apart, with a squiggly red line bouncing in between them.
    “Yes.”
    “These are the parameters we need baby girl’s heart rate to stay in. As long as you don’t see the red line go higher or lower than the white lines, everything is fine.” Nurse number two and Dr. Jones were competing for first place in my favorite person poll right now.
    “Okay. Thank you.” I stared at the monitor, tears still trailing down my face. I couldn’t seem to stop crying. I had been shocked, then scared, then mad, and now I was back to terrified. I just wanted to hold my baby in my arms. I wanted to feel her heart beating. I wanted to see with my own two eyes that she was breathing and healthy.
    After the nurses left, Dash came back to my bedside and took my hand. “Kitten, are you okay? Why are you still crying? The baby is fine.”
    “I don’t know. I can’t seem to stop. That was the scariest moment of my life.”
    He leaned down and kissed my head. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep while you can.”
    I shook my head. “No. I need to watch the monitor.”
    Dylan came in before Dash could say anything else. “Lexi? You doing okay? I just talked to your nurses.”
    I nodded, still crying. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just shaken up I think.”
    “I know that was scary, but the baby is doing great. There is no need to be worried, okay? The nurses out there are watching your monitors. You should rest. You’re progressing pretty fast and it’ll be time to push soon.”
    I nodded but didn’t close my eyes.
    “I’m going to send Luke in here, okay? I need Dash to fill out some paperwork. We didn’t have you registered yet and they don’t have any of your insurance information on file. Are you good with that?”
    I nodded again.
    Dash squeezed my hand. “I’ll be back in just a few minutes, Kitten.”

Chapter Five
    Dash
    It took way longer than I thought it would to fill out all those fucking forms. Plus, they made me pick a pediatrician from a list of names and pictures. I didn’t want to be doing that; I wanted to be with Lexi. But the baby had come early, and these were all things we had on our to-do list for the next few weeks.
    After all the forms, I had to have a word with hospital security and get all the nurses to sign nondisclosures. Word would eventually get out that the Devil’s Share’s lead singer’s girlfriend had a baby, but I didn’t want the paparazzi camped outside the door. We’d been pretty lucky so far in Seaside. There were rich people everywhere, no one cared that we were famous. But now we were in Destin, which was a much bigger city.
    Finally, I returned to Lexi’s room. I opened the door quietly, in case she had calmed down enough to get some sleep. “How is she?”
    Luke was sitting right next to her bed, holding her hand and staring at the machines mounted on the wall. “She just fell asleep a few minutes ago, but she’s still crying.”
    I leaned over the side of the bed; tears were still falling out of Lexi’s eyes, even while she slept. “How did you get her to calm down?”
    Luke kept his eyes on the monitor. “I told her I’d watch the baby.”
    “What?”
    He pointed to the screen. “The baby’s heart rate. Lexi wouldn’t stop staring at the monitor, so I told her I’d watch for her while she rested.”
    Luke had yet to take his