Taking Heart (27 page)

“I
NEED YOU
to help me deliver these puppies.”

Alyssa stared at him and wondered if he'd lost his mind. She couldn't deliver puppies. She didn't know anything about animals. She hadn't even been around any since she'd moved away from home and her mother's yapping shih tzu. “I thought you said I couldn't come back here,” she pointed out.

“That was while I doing the X-rays.” He pointed to a door off to one side of the room. “I need another set of hands, and we can't waste a lot of time talking about this. I'm going to open her up. When I get the puppies out, I'll hand them to you, and I need you to wipe them down with those towels. You just need to make sure they're all breathing, then put them over there, so that the mask blows oxygen on them.”

She looked where he pointed at what looked like a small nest of bedding with an oxygen mask to one side of it. She looked back at the man in front of her. He was doing everything he could to help this dog, and he could have just walked away. She had been the one who caused the damage, after all.

The dog lay on the table, completely covered with sterile blue paper, except for the exposed section the vet had wiped down with what looked like iodine. Alyssa ran her hand through her loose hair and twisted it into a makeshift knot at the back of her head and squared her shoulders, resolving herself to do this. “Okay, just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Take these,” he said, surprised by her quick acquiescence, and handed her a pair of latex gloves. He glanced up at her as he set the scalpel against the shaved belly of the Lab. “I'm Justin Hart, by the way.” His blue eyes searched hers intensely, making her insides flutter oddly.

“Alyssa.”

She heard the breathless quality of her voice and cleared her throat. The corner of his lips curved up on one side as a dimple sunk deep in one cheek. Attraction slammed into her, jolting her more than when her car hit the wall outside.

“Well, Alyssa, hold up that towel in both hands and we'll get started. You're about to have a litter of puppies.”

She tried not to study him, from the rugged squared jaw to the too-broad shoulders that looked massive in the gray Henley he wore and his penetrating blue eyes. But it was his voice that drew her attention. It was deep and smooth, reminding her of rich wine and dark chocolate, and, just like those things, it was a luxury she couldn't allow herself to enjoy too much. Not with everything that had just happened in the past twenty-four hours. She needed to keep her focus on her future, and this side trip in the middle of nowhere had already delayed her.

As he made the first incision, her blood went cold and her stomach rolled. She didn't think she'd made any noise, but Justin looked up at her, his eyes searching her face.

“You okay?”

Hold it together, Alyssa. This is no different from biology class.

The scent of antiseptic was all around her, and she felt suddenly queasy. Unable to speak, she nodded. He dabbed at the blood that oozed with gauze, quickly but carefully working his way through the layers of skin before pulling some unrecognizable part of the dog's insides to the outside of her body. Alyssa was surprised to find that instead of being repulsed, her curiosity got the better of her, and she watched him make another incision, revealing the first puppy. Reaching for the tray of equipment beside him, he plucked another piece of gauze from a pile and pulled open the amniotic sac encasing a small black puppy. He pulled the membrane from the puppy's face before clamping, then clipping the umbilical cord and tipping the puppy upside down.

“Okay, we're going to move quickly. Here's the first one. Just rub him really good and make sure he's breathing.” He watched her for a moment as she ran the towel over the sides of the puppy. “Don't forget to move over his face and neck, too. That will help work the fluid out.”

She tried to follow his instructions, but the puppy gave a gurgled yip. Alyssa froze midstep, her gaze shooting toward his in fear. “What did I do?”

He glanced up and chuckled at her discomfort. “Nothing. That just means he's alive and ready to meet his mom. Get ready, I've got another for you.”

She set the puppy on the towels of the makeshift bed, surprised to find them warm. Hurrying back to the operating table, she reached for a clean towel to receive the next puppy. He laid another puppy into her hands, and she began rubbing him as she walked toward the bedding.

“Why is the bed warm?”

“It's enough of a shock being born without worrying about getting them sick,” he replied as he continued to work, barely glancing her way. “This way, it's a gradual adjustment and it helps regulate their body temperature until they can do it themselves.”

They repeated the process in silence while the squirming pile of puppies grew. Some black, some almost white-blond, but all of them grunting now, nudging one another in the pile.

“Last one,” he announced, laying it into her hands.

She could feel the difference in this one immediately. He was smaller than the others, and where the others had been plump with round bellies, she could feel the ribs on this one. Alyssa rubbed at the puppy's side, but there was no quiet whine this time. She opened the towel and didn't see the telltale rise and fall of his chest.

“He's too still.” She hurried back to Justin at the table.

“Set him down,” he ordered. “Grab that stethoscope.” She held it out to him, and he arched his brows, nodding at his hands, buried inside the anesthetized dog on the table. “You need to see if he has a heartbeat. I need to stop her bleeding.”

“I don't know what I'm listening for,” she argued.

“Just put that on.” She slipped the earpieces in. “Good, now lay the end on his chest and tell me what you hear.”

“Nothing . . . wait, I hear something but it's quiet.”

Justin reached for a piece of gauze and rubbed it over the puppy's face a few times before it gasped, opening its mouth wide. “Okay, take him and put him right in front of the mask. I'll come check on him as soon as I finish with the mom. Just stay with them.”

A
LYSSA LAID HER
head in the crook of her elbow, trying to stay awake. Justin was finishing with the female Lab as she watched the puppies. She was keeping a close eye on the littlest one, the one that had trouble breathing. They were all so small and weak, but he was even more so. Her hand instinctively curled around the side of her pregnant belly, where her child lay, nestled under her ribs. In less than six weeks, she'd be watching her own child sleep. Rather than comforting her, the thought sent vibrations of panic echoing through her.

She had no idea what to do next. The last thing she'd expected when she went out to lunch with Lillian yesterday was to find out her best friend had been sleeping with her husband for the past three years. The confrontation with Elijah that followed had been bad enough, but his apathetic response, coupled with his demand for a divorce, had shattered the last remnants of the illusion she'd clung to that their Hollywood marriage wasn't as fake as everything else in the industry. When he ordered her to leave the house before his return, she'd packed the car up with clothing and her jewelry, assuming she would find a way to sell what she didn't need.

But that would only last so long. She needed to find a way to support her and her child. Her mother had insisted she return home, which would at least give her a roof over her head and buy a little time before the baby was born, but what then? Elijah had already informed her that she wouldn't get anything from him. She didn't even have a way to pay for doctor's visits or the delivery now, she reminded herself. Even worse, she didn't even
have
a doctor any longer. Worries beat against her brain, like the staccato beat of a drum, making her heart race in her chest as her child moved within her.

Two strong hands settled on her shoulders gently. “You did a good job.”

“Oh!” Alyssa jerked upright and slid the rolling chair to the side.

Justin's lips curved into an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you were awake.”

He cocked his head to one side, and his dimple sank into his cheek, giving him a boyish charm. He had full lips, the kind that made you want to bite them gently before kissing them. She brushed back the bangs that had fallen from her bun and tucked them behind her ear. “I was. I just thought you were still with the mom.” She realized she was staring at his perfect mouth and quickly looked back at the puppies, which were grunting softly and wiggling against one another. “I was just sort of lost in my own head, I guess.”

He nodded as he turned to a cupboard nearby and withdrew two needleless syringes. “What are those for?”

“We need to give them colostrum so they have the antibodies they need and don't get sick.” He walked back and handed her the syringe. “Just a little on the back of their tongues, and we'll do it again in an hour. Like this.” He reached for the first puppy and put a few drops of the liquid into its mouth.

Justin glanced up at her through thick, dark lashes. Lashes most of the women in her career field would kill for. “This is a nice litter. What do you think you're going to do with them?”

“Me?” she squeaked, pausing as she reached for a puppy. “Doctor, I can't take them with me.”

“I think we're beyond the ‘doctor' business.” He arched a brow and smiled at her, the dimple creasing his cheek before his brows dropped forward between his eyes, thoughtfully, and he set the puppy down, reaching for the next one. “You won't be going anywhere for a while, at least not until your car gets fixed. But I guess you probably wouldn't be able to keep them in a hotel. They could stay here until you head out.” His brows lifted again, as if he was certain his explanation was sufficient.

Crap, how am I going to pay for a hotel or to fix the car? Does he really expect me to pay to keep these puppies, or for the surgery?

“Um . . . I can't pay for any of this.” She tucked the strand of hair behind her ear again and saw his eyes flick to the massive diamond solitaire settled on her left hand under the latex glove. She arched a brow, daring him to comment. She didn't owe him anything. She wondered where her sudden backbone had come from. Where had it been for the last six years of her marriage, when Elijah pressured her to spend less time on set and more time helping him build his agency? Where had it been when she'd allowed him to take control of her already successful career, allowing him to make higher demands in her contracts, until producers could no longer meet them and she'd decided to “retire” at the height of her career to focus on her husband and starting a family? Her hand trailed over the baby quiet within her. Now that fantasy lay in rubble at her feet. Her husband had kicked her out, said he didn't love her, and left her pregnant and alone.

Her eyes slid over the man in front of her, his still-wet hair standing at odd angles at the top of his head, and guilt swept in. The least she could do was give him some sort of explanation. He had come to her rescue and stayed in the freezing sleet to find the dog she hit.

Alyssa cleared her throat. “The truth is that expensive things are all I have right now. I don't have any money or any way to get any until I can sell a few things. I'm not even sure I still have insurance on the car to fix it.” She looked down at the puppies, praying he wouldn't force her to admit anything more.

She couldn't give him any answers. She didn't have them to give.