“I love you both, too. Very,
very
much.” Her bottom lip quivered.
Robert saw the tears in her eyes, but he also felt the calm that had come over her. If his guess was right, she was going to need that calm.
Then David confirmed it.
“Well, mom and dads, this baby is coming today. There’s just one small problem, honey.” He looked up at Robert. “Two, actually. This little bundle of joy is determined to greet the world, feet first—and his heartbeat isn’t what we’d like it to be.”
Robert understood the implications immediately.
“What does that mean?” Joshua asked.
“It means that we’re about to turn this exam room into an operating room,” David said.
Robert ran his hand over Penelope’s tummy. When she looked at him, he said, “David hurt his hand yesterday, so I’ll be conducting your C-section today.”
Joe Grant awoke slowly, conscious of three things at once. His throat felt bone dry, his left shoulder hurt as if someone had taken a jackhammer to it, and the scent of jasmine filled his head.
He felt her before he saw her. She had hold of his hand, and had fallen asleep, her head on the bed beside him.
It wasn’t a dream, after all.
He’d thought he dreamt her, the way she’d smoothed her hand over his forehead, and then kissed him so sweetly. The way she’d told him, in a no-nonsense voice he kind of liked, that he had better damn well recover perfectly and he was never to get shot again.
He’d seen her tears, in his dream, and he’d had no doubts that she loved him completely.
He lay quietly and tried to put together the pieces of the puzzle of what had happened. He knew he’d been shot, and the bullet had come dangerously close to his heart. But the rest was fuzzy. The memory felt like fragments, like a photograph suspended in time that someone had torn into a dozen pieces.
They’d been following up on an investigation, he and Mel Collins, looking in to allegations that a Dallas man was involved in a human trafficking ring. They’d knocked on the door at the address they’d been given. The inner door had been ajar. He and Mel had drawn their weapons, identified themselves, and attempted to enter.
The interior of the room beyond the door had been dark, and the only thing Joe had seen was the flash of the gun as it had been fired, aimed at him.
He’d never been shot before.
“And it had better not happen again, either.”
He didn’t realize he’d said that aloud. He looked down, into Michelle’s sleepy gaze. She stood up, kissed his brow, and then reached for the cup of ice water beside his bed.
She held the straw for him while he sipped.
“Not too much,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “You still have anesthetic running around in your bloodstream. Too much will make you sick.”
He resisted the urge to gulp, pulling away from the soothing liquid sooner than he really wanted to.
“What time is it?”
She checked her watch. “Ten after two in the afternoon. I didn’t mean to doze off. I was tired.”
His woman looked beautiful, but exhausted. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Have you been here all night?”
“Just since 4:00 a.m. when they moved you out of ICU into this room.”
“Jesus, woman. On top of the drive here, you’ve been up all night? Did you even get yourself a place to stay?” He wondered at the look on her face. She almost looked guilty about something.
“Well, actually, I didn’t drive here,” she said. “Henry Kendall flew Peter and me here in the helicopter. And, um, this is Dallas, so I don’t actually need to get a room. My family has a suite at the Kendall Plaza.”
Joe loved the way Michelle blushed. Her fair skin looked sun-kissed and her pale-blue eyes sparkled. “Hmm. Helicopter rides and a hotel suite. Are you trying to tell me that you’re rich?”
Her smile gentled, and the expression in those pretty eyes made his throat ache, despite the water he’d just sipped.
“I wasn’t truly rich, not really.” She sat back down on the chair she’d so recently slept on. When he held out his hand, she gave him hers. “Not until you told me that you loved me.”
“I do love you. And I really don’t care if you’re rich, or not.”
“Good.” Michelle shrugged. “It’s not something I think about overly much, because, well, to be honest, most of the people who live in Lusty are rich. Our parents all raised us to work, and make our way, and pay it forward. The trust funds…well, they’re there, and to be used. But we don’t flaunt it.”
“So it’s not much of a gift on my part, then, if I tell you that once we’re married you can feel free to quit working and get that advanced English degree you want.”
Michelle tilted her head to the side. “Are we getting married?”
“Christ, talk about clumsy.” Joe scrubbed his right hand over his face. He had planned on waiting for just the right moment.
Lying here, knowing that he’d nearly been killed—he figured a man couldn’t get a more right moment than this.
“I think you’re right, that damn anesthetic
is
still running through my bloodstream. Come here, sweetheart.” He pointed to the bed beside him, on his right side.
She stood and maneuvered until she was sitting beside him, facing him, and managed it without letting go of his hand.
“Michelle Parker, I love you with all my heart. I’ve never said those words to a woman before, because no other woman has ever touched my heart the way you have, and no other ever will. Michelle, will you please marry me?”
Joe knew his woman well enough, that when her eyes glistened, and then the first tear rolled over the rim of her right eye to trickle down her cheek, he didn’t worry. He smiled, and he waited for his answer.
“Yes, please. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“Come here.” He tugged on her hand, urging her closer. She shot a worried glance to his left shoulder, where the white bandage told the tale of his recent misadventure. “You won’t hurt me, love. I need to kiss you.”
“I need to kiss you, too.” She laid her lips on his, a soft and gentle whisper that he knew he’d know blindfolded.
He placed his left hand on the back of her head, and gave in to the temptation to really taste her. And he recalled then, in that instant when he felt the lead tearing into his flesh, when he felt himself weaken, it was Michelle’s face he saw, and her name that echoed in his heart. He tapered the kiss, and tucked her head against his chest.
“I was so scared, Joe.”
“Me too, sweetheart.”
“I meant what I said. No more getting shot.”
“Yes, ma’am. I promise.”
“I thought the hospital had rules against canoodling.”
Michelle straightened up, and Joe wanted to laugh at the fresh blush she wore. Joe looked up into the laughing eyes of Henry Kendall. Joe returned his grin, and said, “Congratulate me. This beautiful woman has just agreed to marry me.”
“Hey, congratulations, and welcome to the family.” Henry came in and hugged Michelle. Then he focused on Joe. “How’re you doing?”
“Considering I’ve been shot, I’m not so bad. I haven’t spoken to the doc yet, so I have no idea what kind of convalescent time I’m looking at.”
Michelle laid her hand on his arm. “You’ll stay in hospital however long the doctor says you will—and you’ll ‘convalesce’ until you’re healed.”
“Damn, Michelle, you sounded just like Kate when you said that,” Henry said.
Michelle beamed at her cousin. “Thank you. I’ve taken notes over the years, from her, Aunt Samantha, and my mother.”
Henry laughed. “Well, Joe, it looks like, from now on, your life is going to be ruled by this bossy cousin of mine.”
Yes, it did. Joe sighed and couldn’t contain his pleasure at the prospect. He squeezed his fiancée’s hand, gazed into her beautiful eyes, and said, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
* * * *
Jillian stepped to the door of exam room one and took a moment to just watch. Unlike an hour and a half earlier, the mood inside the room was damn near serene. “The medical transport is on its way. The van should be here in about twenty minutes.”
She watched as all three of the men crowding around Penelope’s stretcher seemed completely smitten by little Eloise Katherine Benedict. Penelope looked down at the baby at her breast, and wore what Jillian thought of as a mother-love face. She’d seen it on new mothers often, and could identify with the feelings coursing through the young woman. It may have been more than a couple of decades, but a mother never forgot that feeling of looking down into her newborn baby’s beautiful face.
Alex kept his hand under his daughter, and Jillian knew he was holding most of her weight. The new dads were loving husbands who took seriously some of the precautions David had given them. She doubted Penelope would be allowed to so much as lift a coffee cup until well after her incision had healed and her stitches came out.
From the opposite side of the table, Robert ran his hand down Penelope’s leg, a comforting gesture, and then looked up and met Jillian’s gaze. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him look so at peace.
David sat in the corner, making notes on the computer. He looked up and shot a big smile at Jillian. Then he flicked his gaze toward his brother, and then met hers again.
David sensed the change in Robert, too. Jillian wasn’t completely certain she knew what it meant, but she’d had more than a clue in the short, intense time they’d spent together.
Robert had obviously resolved something that had been weighing heavily upon him. Right then and there, she could say he wasn’t the only one.
The only other occupant in the room, Kate Benedict, stood quietly beside the stretcher, her left hand resting softly on Penelope’s head.
With her right hand she reached out toward Robert. He obliged her, letting her hold on to him. “Thank you, and thank God for you, for both of you. Not that your fathers couldn’t have delivered little Ellie, here…” She let the sentence go, and Jillian understood her sentiment.
The senior doctors Jessop had likely delivered their share of babies, but they were family practitioners. They weren’t surgeons.
Jillian wasn’t a trained nurse, but she’d been called upon often enough to assist at the clinic she’d managed for more than five years. She felt pleased with the contribution she’d made today.
They’d all donned masks and gloves, and draped Penelope in sterile sheets. David had administered just enough anesthetic to get the job done. Penelope had been awake during the entire procedure. Robert had worked quickly and skillfully to deliver the baby before fetal distress had become a real factor—without ever once letting the Benedicts know how dicey the situation could truly have been.
Although the baby arrived nearly a month early, she was a good weight, almost eight and a half pounds. David had declared the baby’s Apgar score to be a perfect ten.
Mom and babe would be admitted into the hospital in Waco, where both would be checked out and likely stay a couple of days, just to be on the safe side.
“You don’t have to thank us, Kate. It was always our plan to come home.
This
is what all those years away were all about.” Robert continued to hold Kate’s hand, while he put his attention back on the baby. “Things happen for a reason. Everything turned out exactly as it was meant to be.”
Jillian heard the door buzzer, indicating someone had come into the clinic. She turned, began heading in that direction, and then stopped in her tracks. Eyes wide, she could only stare at the line of people who filed in through the doors. Everyone was laughing or chattering excitedly, and began milling around, meeting and greeting others. No one seemed intent on coming back to the exam rooms. They just seemed to want to be there.
She should have recalled the town’s tradition, as related to her by her aunt. When something happened to one of them, as many of them that could, came.
Through the gathering crowd, Matt Benedict ushered his mother. Bernice Benedict looked excited, anxious, and riveted her gaze on Jillian’s as she approached.
Jillian had met the woman a couple of times, both at the restaurant, and that very first time right here, when she’d visited with Shirley a few weeks before.
“Hello there, Grandma and Uncle Matt.”
“My husbands picked the wrong day to go to Dallas, that’s for certain.” The woman shook her head. “I know you’re likely getting them ready to transport to the hospital,” Bernice said, “and my husbands are going to be taking me there as soon as they get back, but could I…?”
Jillian grinned. “Of course! They’re in room one. Come and have a quick visit.”
Matt stayed at the door, but Bernice went right into the room. She won major points from Jillian when she focused on the new mom, first and foremost.
“How are you, sweetheart? What do you need? What can I get you?”
“We’re good, Mom,” Penelope said. “You have a granddaughter. Would you like to hold her?”
Jillian stayed beside Matt, because the room was nearly at capacity. She counted herself blessed to be this close, to see and feel and be a part of the emotion that filled that room to overflowing.