His Touch (7 page)

The other paramedic shook his head. “We need to transport. Now.”

“What is it? Oh, God! Please. Is she okay?”

“Sounds like croup, probably spasmodic,” the nice paramedic replied. “Your daughter’s airway is swelling shut. We need to transport her immediately to the emergency room for intervention.”

“Okay. Okay. God. Yeah. Okay. Right.”

Kara stood up, ran to the bedroom, came back with a bag and began stuffing things inside it. Blanket, phone, keys, Nadia’s favorite Teddy bear. The paramedics packed up their gear, scooped up the baby, and moved for the elevator. Reid clicked the mic fastened to his shirt, began transmitting their patient’s vitals. “ETA, eight minutes.”

“Ambulance 6, acknowledged.”

With their tiny patient safely aboard their rig, Reid continued to squeezed the bag over Nadia’s nose and mouth while the other paramedic drove, lights and sirens on. Beside the stretcher, Kara watched, crying silently. Reid cursed. “Ms. Larsen. Kara! Look at me.”

Kara raised damp brown eyes to his and instead of the annoyance and disgust he’d shown her earlier that day, she saw kindness.

“She’ll be fine. She needs some albuterol, maybe some epinephrine, and she’ll be just fine.”

Kara shook her head. “She…she wasn’t even sick. How am I supposed to know? Something was off today. I knew it, but I didn’t know what and I nearly lost her.” She pressed a hand to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.

Reid kept pumping air into the baby’s lungs with one hand, gave her mother’s hand a squeeze with the other.

The rig turned sharply and slowed to a stop. Nadia started to fight against the mask over her face.

“Hello, little Miss Nadia,” he said, smiling down at her. “Remember me?”

She reached up a pudgy hand and patted his face.

“Oh, you do remember me. That’s a good girl.” The back door opened and together, he and his partner directed the stretcher out of the rig and into the Emergency Room. Nadia was getting increasingly more restless and frightened. “Kara, sit up here and hold her. Try to soothe and calm her down,” Reid ordered.

Kara sat on the bed, reached for her daughter as Reid transferred her from the stretcher, still pumping fresh air past swollen tissue. “Okay, baby. You’re okay now. Look! What’s this?” She took her cell phone out of her huge bag and let the baby play with it.

His partner whistled from the nurses’ station. “Bennett. Ready to roll. Come on.”

Kara froze. Leave? No! He couldn’t possibly leave her alone. Not now. She knew what he thought of her. She knew he thought she didn’t deserve Nadia and he was right. But right now, she didn’t care. All she knew was that she was completely, one-hundred percent, unable to take care of Nadia by herself.

A nurse took the mask from him. He turned to leave and before she could think twice, Kara flung out a hand, gripped his wrist. Shook her head.

“Ms. Larsen?” Reid tugged his arm but she only tightened her grip.

“Please. I…I can’t. I just can’t.”

The paramedic whistled again. “Bennett!”

Reid glanced back at Kara Larsen, put up a hand. “Yeah. Just a minute!” he called back. “Ms. Larsen, I need to get back to work.”

Kara bit her lip, shut her eyes. “Of course. I’m sorry. I know you have things to do, but
please
. You can’t leave me with her. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s wrong with her! What if I make another mistake and it
kills
her?” She was babbling. She was almost hysterical. His muscles tensed under her hand and she knew she was clutching him hard enough to bruise but didn’t care. All that mattered was Nadia.

Nothing else.

“Ms. Larsen. Kara! Look at me!”

Kara blinked up at the man who held Nadia’s life in his hands.

“You got anyone you can call?”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure.”

With a nod and a tight-lipped smile, he took out his own cell phone, exchanged it for the one Nadia was now waving around like a rattle. “Go ahead and call. I’ll stay with you until they get here.” Kara took her phone and dialed Elena, but Lucas answered.

“Luke?” Kara’s voice cracked. “It’s Nadia. She’s having trouble breathing. No, not yet. We’re waiting for the doctor now. Yes. Yes, please! Thank you. Thank you. I love you, too.”

“Nadia’s father?”

What? Oh. For a second, Kara thought Steve was there. “No, no. Lucas is my sister’s husband. They’re on their way.”

Reid only stared at her. “Shouldn’t you call Nadia’s father?”

Kara shook her head before he finished the sentence. “Nadia’s father took off the second I found out I was pregnant. I haven’t talked to him since. I’m not even sure he knows he has a daughter.”

“Gah,” Nadia said under her mask and Reid smiled down at her.

Kara gasped. Reid Bennett had a beautiful face when he wasn’t scowling. He caught her staring at him and she noticed she was still clutching his arm. She coughed, removed her hand like it burned. “Oh. Um. Sorry.”

“It’s my job.”

“Oh. Right. Of course.”

A woman wearing a lab coat over scrubs walked in.

“Doctor Warren. Patient is Nadia Larsen, eighteen months old, twenty-two pounds,” Reid gave his report as soon as the doctor reached the bed. He caught his phone before Nadia chucked it to the floor.

“Mom, hold her still, please,” Doctor Warren ordered while aiming a light into Nadia’s mouth. The baby gagged on the tongue depressor and started to cry in earnest. Kara struggled to hold her still and steady but Nadia seemed to suddenly have eight arms and legs.

“Nadia, no.” Reid’s firm voice did the trick. The baby stared at him, but stopped fighting. He held down her legs while Kara restrained her hands so Doctor Warren could finish her examination. With their heads bent over Nadia, Kara noticed Reid had a day-old growth of stubble on his cheeks that did nothing to hide the sharp cheekbones and cleft in a strong chin. Now that he wasn’t scowling, she could tell his eyes weren’t brown as she’d thought. No, they were green with specks of gray and maybe even a bit of gold and—

Oh, God, they were pinned to hers. She looked away, at the strong hands holding her daughter. He had huge hands, but they were gentle on her daughter’s soft skin and for that, she was grateful.

It took nearly thirty minutes for Elena and Lucas to arrive. By that time, Nadia was sleeping, a mask strapped to her face administering steroids.

“Kara! Oh, honey.”

On jellied legs, Kara stood up to grab her sister in a fierce hug. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Of course.” Lucas squeezed her hand on his way to Nadia’s bed. He curled one limp hand around his finger, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “I’ve never seen her so still. Even when she’s sleeping, she’s active.”

Laney’s lip quivered. “Oh, Kara. What’s wrong?”

Reid cleared his throat. “She’ll be fine. A bad case of croup. The doctor sedated her. They’re giving her nebulizer treatments. Steroids will open the airways, get her breathing normally again. You’re in for a long night, but she’ll be fine.”

Kara stepped away from her sister’s comforting hug and held out a hand that still trembled to Reid. “I know what you think of me. But thank you. For saving her. For staying with us.”

He squirmed, shifted, made a few non-committal sounds and nodded. He took a few steps, halted and then turned back, thinking of the grandmother Nadia had never met.

Help her
, his brother had said.

He had and hoped it was enough.

‡

R
eid saved the
report he’d typed up, shot it to the printer and yawned. Night shift sucked. He grabbed the print-out and stood. “Okay, Jay. I’m out.” He shook hands with Jacob, handed him the print-out.

“Yeah, thanks for the help tonight. Can I buy you breakfast before you grab your train?”

Reid thought about that for a moment. He didn’t have a train to catch. He lived in a dump not far from the fire station. But he’d been up since early yesterday morning. “Rain check? I need to crash.”

“You got it. Thanks again, man.” Jacob held up a hand and Reid left the office, grabbed his gear from the locker, and headed to the street. Before he reached the exit, Carrie, the administrative assistant called out.

“Bennett! Hold up.”

Reid turned, waited for her to catch up.

“Your CPR class the other day. You had four people not complete it?”

“Four? No. That should be three.”

The assistant shook her head. “Gene told me about the three women who confused this station with a singles cruise. But I also show insufficient rating for a…” she checked his clipboard. “Kara Larsen.”

“No, that’s an error. Kara Larsen completed the course.”

“Do you remember her ratings?”

Reid hesitated a second too long. “Uh, yeah. She completed the infant section with an eighty percent and the child section with a ninety.”

The assistant gave him the side-eye and slapped the form into his hand. “Retest her.”

Reid sighed. “Yes, ma’am.” He stuffed the form in his duffel bag and took off, stopping in his favorite coffee shop for a cup of liquid fuel. He slung his bag back on his shoulder, turned a corner and almost collided with…

Kara Larsen.

“Sorry, sor—oh. It’s you.”

The flat tone had him holding back a smile. “Ms. Larsen. How’s Nadia today?” From the flat hair and purple circles under her eyes, Reid figured it had been a rough night.

“Better. My sister is staying with her today while I—”

“Let me guess. Off to get your nails done?” He glanced at her hands, spotted the short, bare nails. “Or maybe another shopping trip?”

Her eyes narrowed and she stepped around him. He changed directions, fell into step beside her. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“No. I didn’t.”

He laughed. “Okay. Look. There was a problem with your test yesterday. You have to retake the class.”

She skidded to a stop and faced him. “I what? No. Out of the question. I don’t have time for more of your Dating Game contestants.”

He almost snorted.
Dating Game.
How old was this woman? “Okay, okay. How about if I meet you and just redo your test so you can get your card? We can even do it while your daughter naps. Shouldn’t take more than twenty or thirty minutes.”

She turned and walked away, heels stabbing the pavement with sharp clicks. She was wearing heels today. And looked damn good in them, not to mention the power suit that skimmed her curves.

In two strides, he’d caught up to her. “You sure it’s a good idea to leave a baby who’d almost stopped breathing?”

She halted and spun so fast, she damn near cut his cheek with a whip of her hair. “The hospital released my daughter, which I have to believe they wouldn’t have done if she were still at risk. I left her in the extremely capable hands of her godmother while I keep an appointment that may very well allow me to keep my job. So if you’ll excuse me.”

Keep her job
. Reid suddenly remembered she was a single mother. What kind of guy leaves a woman who’s pregnant with his kid? Swallowing back his opinions of this guy, he shook his head. “I can’t excuse you. I’m sorry. I have to retest you.”

Kara’s face was flushed with color and Reid had to admit, it suited her. With a loud sigh, she pulled out her always handy cell phone and checked her calendar. “This afternoon. Two o’clock.”

He almost winced. Technically, that would be like four or five AM for him. “Fine. I’ll be at your place around two.”

She nodded. “Here’s my address—”

“I’ve got it. It’s on your registration form.”

“Make it three o’clock.”

He raised his cup to her in a toast. “Have a good day.”

*

A good day
.

Yeah, sure.

Since Nadia’s birth, Kara typically did what she had to do and fell into an exhausted sleep each night only to repeat it the next morning. She didn’t notice good days from bad.

Until now.

She’d had all of two hours of sleep and was on her way to meet Ronald T. Saxon, the biggest client of her career and didn’t care whether she signed him or not.

No, that wasn’t true.

She couldn’t lie to herself. Of course she cared. Just not as much as she should, given her position. She knew how lucky she was. She was well-educated, her professional reputation was solid and afforded her luxuries like being able to cut back on her hours, work from home whenever she needed, and even say no to certain assignments. She hated herself for this, but she couldn’t say no to Saxony House.