Tender Stranger (16 page)

She leaned back with a sigh. “Thank God,” she said. “Oh, thank God. But—but these dragging pains,” she added, pressing her stomach.

“False labor. A few twinges are normal,” he said, grinning. “Now, stop worrying, will you?”

The nurse came in with a syringe, but before she could go any farther, the door flew open and a blond man burst into the room with eyes so wild that both doctor and nurse actually backed up a step.

“Eric!” Dani whispered, astonished at the look on his face.

He went to her, a wet, disheveled raincoat over his gray suit. He was wild-eyed, flushed as if he’d been running, and half out of breath.

“You’re all right?” he asked unsteadily, touching her as if he expected to find broken limbs. “The baby’s all right?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Eric, it’s all right!” she repeated softly, and the look on his face was the answer to a prayer. “It’s all right, I just fell off the ladder, but I’m—”

“Oh, God.” He sat down beside her. The hands that touched her trembled, and there was a look in his eyes that struck her dumb. He caressed her face and suddenly bent, burying his face in her throat. “Oh, God.” He was shaking!

Her arms went up and around him, hesitantly, her hands smoothing his hair, comforting him. She felt something wet against her throat and felt her own eyes being to sting.

“Oh, darling,” she whispered, holding him closer. Her eyes closed as the enormity of what he felt for her was laid bare, without a word being spoken. She laughed through her tears. She could conquer the world now. She could do anything! He loved her!

“Reaction,” the doctor said, nodding. He took the syringe from the nurse. “Pregnancy is hard on fathers, too,” he murmured dryly. “Off with that coat, young man.” He removed the raincoat, and the suit coat, then rolled up the sleeve of the shirt without any help from Dutch, who wouldn’t let go of Dani, and jabbed the needle into the muscular arm. “I’ll have a daybed rolled in here, because you aren’t driving anywhere. Dani, I think you’d do without a sedative now, am I right?” he added with a grin.

“Yes, sir,” she whispered, smiling dreamily as she rocked her husband in her arms.

He nodded and went out with the nurse, closing the door behind him.

“I love you,” Dani whispered adoringly. “I love you, I love you, I love you…”

His mouth stopped the words, tenderly seeking, probing, and his lips trembled against hers.

He lifted his head to look at her, unashamedly letting her see the traces of wetness on his cheeks. “J.D. came himself to tell me after Harriett called.” He touched her face hesitantly. “I went crazy,” he confessed absently. “J.D. got me a seat on the next plane. I ran out of the terminal and took a cab away from some people…. I don’t even remember how I got here.” He bent and brushed his mouth softly against hers as he let the relief wash over him. His wife. His heart. “I was…I was going to call you tonight. I wanted to tell you how much I like what I’ll be doing. I found us a house,” he added slowly. “On the beach, with a fenced yard. It will be nice, for the baby.”

“Yes, darling,” she whispered softly.

He brushed the hair back from her face. “I was so afraid of what I’d find in here,” he said unsteadily. “All I could think was that I’d only just realized what I felt for you, and so quickly it could have ended. I would have been alone again.”

“As long as I’m alive, you’ll never be alone,” she whispered.

He touched her mouth, her throat, her swollen stomach. “Danielle, I love you,” he whispered breathlessly, admitting it at last, awe in his whole look.

“Yes, I know,” she answered on a jubilant little laugh.

He laughed, too. “I’ve never said that before. It isn’t hard.” He looked into her eyes. “I love you.”

She smiled, stretching. “I love you, too. Ooh,” she groaned, touching her back. “I’m bruised all over. That stupid ladder!”

“No more stupid ladders,” he said firmly. “We’re moving to Chicago, where I can watch you. Harriett can visit.”

Her eyes searched his. “This is what you really want?”

“How can I take care of you from across the world?” he asked reasonably. His voice was slowing, and he looked drowsy. “Anyway, I was getting too old for it. And I like the challenge of teaching techniques I’ve learned.” He kissed her softly again. “J.D. told me I could do it. When he and Gabby got married, he decided that marriage was more exciting than dodging bullets. I think he has something there.”

He looked down at her stomach and the last of the barriers came down. “He’s going to be all right, they’re sure?” he asked touching the swell.

Her lips parted, smiling. She sat up and touched his face with soft, loving hands. “I’m giving you a baby,” she whispered, smiling. “A healthy, strong boy. The doctor said so.”

He started to speak, and couldn’t. And tried again. “I’ll take care of you both,” he whispered.

She reached forward and caught his full lower lip gently between her teeth. “I’ll take care of you, just as soon as they let me out of here,” she teased.

He chuckled softly, putting a hand to his temple. “I may need taking care of. My God, what was in that syringe?”

“A sedative. They brought it for me, but I guess they decided you needed it more.”

He smiled ruefully. “I’d like to talk some more, but I think I’d feel better lying down.”

Dr. Carter came in with a nurse and a spare bed even as the words were echoing in the room. He glanced at his watch and grinned at Dutch. “I thought you’d be about ready for this. Lie down, father-to-be, and you can both have a nice nap until supper. Feeling okay now, Dani?” he asked.

“Just wonderful.” She sighed, trading soft looks with her drowsy husband. The nurse was eyeing him wistfully, and Dani only smiled with confidence of a woman who is deeply loved. As Dutch lay down her eyes closed on the smile he gave her. Minutes later she was asleep, with the future lying open and bright ahead.

Chapter Eleven

T
he christening took place six months later, with little two-month-old Joshua Eric van Meer cradled in his mother’s arms. At Dani’s side Dutch burned with pride in his young son, and amused looks passed among an odd group on the front pew of the Presbyterian church in the outskirts of Chicago.

Harriett felt uneasy, sitting next to them all, and Dani had actually started to get up except that she’d caught him in time. What a collection of unusual men, she thought, gaping. There was an older, wiry little man sitting beside a wiry, tough-looking woman and they were holding hands. There were two black men, a tall, dignified one and a shorter, grinning one. There was a huge, dark-eyed, dark-headed man sitting beside a green-eyed brunette who was obviously pregnant. On the other side was a swarthy Latin, arms folded, looking elegant. Harriett turned her attention back to the minister, who had taken the child in his arms and was walking it up and down the rows of pews. Harriett smiled. Her godchild. Dani had wanted her to stand with them during the ceremony, but she’d twisted her ankle getting on the airplane, and could hardly manage to stand. Just as well, she thought with a smile at the big blond Dutchman. She and that handsome giant were too much alike to ever get along. But even she had to admit that he was a terrific husband and father. A surprisingly domestic man, all around. A really normal man. Except for his friends here.

After the ceremony was over, the group beside Harriett sat still. She wondered for a wild minute if they were escaped fugitives, because they seemed to be looking around them all the time.

Dani rushed forward and hugged her. “Wasn’t Joshua good?” she asked enthusiastically, kissing the white-clad baby in her arms. He cooed up at her. “I was so proud of him! Harrie, you haven’t met our friends. Gabby!”

Gabby Darwin Brettman drew her tall husband along with her, beaming as she made faces at the baby.

“Isn’t he gorgeous! I want a girl myself,” Gabby said, her bright green eyes gleaming, “but J.D.’s holding out for a boy.”

“I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s ours,” J.D. grinned. “Hi, Dani. Nice ceremony. Dutch didn’t even pass out—I was proud of him.”

“Imagine Dutch married.” The wiry old man shook his head. “And with a child!”

“Could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out,” the tall black man joined in.

“Hush, First Shirt,” Gabby growled at the older man. “And shame on you, Apollo,” she told the tall black man. “Dutch just had to find the right girl, that’s all.”

Apollo shrugged. “Well, I’m glad he did,” he told Dani with twinkling eyes, “because he’s sure made the best vice-president any consulting firm could ask for. Shirt, when are you going to give in and join up? Semson and Drago already did. And I need someone to teach defensive driving.”

“You corporate tycoons give me a pain,” First Shirt scoffed. “Besides, Mrs. Darwin and I are contemplating a merger.” He grinned at the blushing widow beside him, who was Gabby’s mother, from Lytle, Texas. “We’re going to raise cattle and sand.”

“I owe it all to J.D.,” Apollo said, smiling warmly at the big, dark man beside Gabby. “He got me off. Years of hiding, over. I’m glad you decided to go into law, J.D.”

“So am I,” J.D. replied. He looked up as Dutch joined them. “I was just coming to find you. Gabby and I are starting natural childbirth classes. Any advice?”

Dutch grinned as he put an affectionate arm around Dani. “Sure. Go buy a can of tennis balls.”

Gabby stared at him. “Tennis…balls?”

“Tennis balls.” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “They’re for your backache. J.D. is supposed to roll them up and down your spine.”

“It really does help,” Dani said. She bent and kissed her son. “The best part is when you get to hold him for the first time.”

“Yes,” Dutch agreed. “Let’s go grill some steaks,” he said. “Everybody know how to get to our place?”

“Sure,” Apollo said. “I’ll lead the ones who don’t. You got enough steaks?”

“Shirt and Mrs. Darwin brought a boxful. If we make you stand last in line, there should be enough to go around,” he said with a grin.

Apollo glared at him. “I don’t eat that much!”

“Only half a ham at a time,” Dutch shot back. “Remember Angola, when you ate the rabbit I’d just snared?”

“Oh, yeah, remember ’Nam, when you ate the snake I caught?”

“It’s a christening,” J.D. said, separating them. “We’re supposed to forget old grudges at a time like this.”

They both turned at him. “Yeah?” Apollo asked. “Well, you’re the turkey that ate the box of cookies my mother sent me….”

“And the plum pudding I scrounged from the camp cook,” Dutch added in the same breath.

J.D. drew Gabby beside him. “You can’t pick on a man with a pregnant wife.”

“I had one of my own until two months ago,” Dutch returned.

“Well, I’m not standing too close to you guys,” Apollo said gruffly, eyeing them. “It might be contagious.”

“You won’t get pregnant, Apollo, honest,” Dutch said with a wicked grin.

Apollo glared at him and moved away. “Funny man. You know I meant this marriage virus.”

“Some virus.” J.D. grinned, hugging Gabby close. “What a way to go!”

Dani was laughing wildly, along with Gabby and the others. She moved close to Dutch and nuzzled her dark head against his shoulder. “I’m starved. Let’s go home. We’ve got all kinds of stuff to eat.”

“Yes, well, let’s just make sure Apollo doesn’t get there before us,” J.D. teased.

Apollo glared at him. “I’m returning the Christmas present I bought you.”

“It’s almost March,” J.D. reminded him.

“That gives you ten months to look forward to not getting one,” Apollo said smugly.

“Come on.” Dutch chuckled. “Let’s go celebrate.”

“Yes,” Dani said, so that only Dutch could hear. “I have a different kind of celebration in mind for later,” she murmured. “My doctor said I could.”

Dutch’s eyes lit up as he studied her bright eyes. “Did he? Hmmm,” he murmured, drawing her close to his side and smiling down at the baby sleeping in her arms. “Well, we’ll have to think up some new things to try, won’t we?” he asked, watching her with smug delight. He whispered into her ear, and despite months of marriage and a baby, she colored delightfully.

She felt more alive than she ever had in her life. She looked up at him with such love that the roomful of people seemed to disappear. His fingers touched her mouth.

“Tonight,” he whispered, holding her gaze, “I’ll love you the way I loved you that morning in Veracruz.”

“You’ll get me pregnant again,” she whispered, her heart throbbing wildly.

His own breath caught. “We’ll talk about it tonight.”

“Yes.” She searched his eyes slowly. “No regrets?”

He shook his head. “Not one. Watching that baby being born was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done—next to loving you,” he added softly.

She reached up and touched his hard cheek gently. He smiled, and for a moment, they were alone in the world.

* * * * *

DIANA PALMER

The prolific author of more than one hundred books, Diana Palmer got her start as a newspaper reporter. A multi–
New
York Times
bestselling author and one of the top ten romance writers in America, she has a gift for telling the most sensual tales with charm and humor. Diana lives with her family in Cornelia, Georgia.

Visit her website at
www.DianaPalmer.com
.