The Billionaire's Best Friend (The Sherbrookes of Newport) by Christina Tetreault Page A

picked up. And although she didn’t say anything, she feared Jared might not make it to the hospital in time. Her sister had always known that was a possibility. Jared worked near Springfield about an hour away, and even when the weather cooperated, traffic could make the trip twice as long. For that very reason, Lauren had gone to the birthing class with Jared and Kelly. But while Kelly may have prepared herself for Jared not being there, she would be heartbroken if he wasn’t.
    “ Do you want me to call Mom and Dad?” Lauren asked, turning her back on the window. Watching the snow would not make it stop. “Or do you want to wait until the baby is born?”
    “ After. I don’t want them trying to get here in this storm, and you know they would.” Kelly repositioned herself in the bed. “I don’t want you to leave, but maybe you should head out now before the roads get really bad.”
    Lauren reached for her sister ’s hand. “I’ll go as soon as Jared gets here.” As much as she hated the idea of waiting until the roads got worse, she wasn’t leaving her sister all alone either.
    “ He . . .” Kelly stopped as another contraction tore through her. “Who knows when he’ll get here? I’ll be okay. I’ll worry less if you start home now.”
    “ You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Sis.” Reaching for the remote, Lauren turned on the television and flipped through the limited stations. “As soon as Jared gets here, I’ll go. I promise, okay?”
    She made it through the first half of the evening news before her normally calm brother-in-law raced into the room. Jared ’s hair stood on end as if he’d spent the last few hours running his hands through it. His tie had been loosened and left to hang at an odd angle around his neck. Without pausing, Jared rushed to his wife’s side and kissed her. Then tearing off his jacket he tossed it onto the other empty chair in the room and turned toward Lauren. “The roads are shitty already and every idiot driver is out there.”
    On the drive over they had been a little slick but nothing she couldn ’t handle. Lauren had lived in New England all her life, so this was hardly her first snowstorm. But for Jared to complain, they must be really awful. He’d lived up in Bangor, Maine, for several years before moving to Massachusetts, and the winters up there were much worse than here.
    Lauren leaned over to give her sister a hug. “Now that Jared’s here, I will go. One of you better call me right after the baby is born, though. I don’t care what time it is.” Coming around to the other side of the bed she gave Jared a hug, too. “I mean it, right after.”
    Only after getting a promise that they ’d call, Lauren left. As she waited for the valet attendant to bring around her car, she watched the fat snowflakes swirling through the sky. The few cars and trucks on the road were moving slowly, their windshield wipers fighting the trail of salt left behind as a large snowplow cleared a path down the road. Why did her sister’s water have to break tonight? Yesterday would have been a much better day. She may do it every year, but she hated driving in the snow. She didn’t mind a snowstorm once it ended and the roads were clear, but during the storm itself, well, that she hated
    “ Drive carefully, ma’am,” the valet said before closing Lauren’s door for her.
    With both hands, Lauren gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white as she eased onto the street toward the highway. Though well into rush hour, the traffic on the road remained light.
     
    Cranking up the windshield wipers, she turned the car onto Route 3. So far she ’d seen two accidents and had slipped on ice twice. Both times her car’s ABS brakes kicked in, bringing the car to a stop before she ran through the stop signs. That was the good news. The bad news was, she was only halfway home. Up ahead another stop sign appeared like a bright red beacon in the white snow. A gust of