by Dianne Drake
The next time he turned around to take a look, the house was completely flattened, lost in the wash of mud coming down over top of it in a slow gush. “Can you climb?” Gideon asked, looking up the tree.
Without saying a word, Lorna spotted the sturdiest branch within her reach, jumped up and grabbed hold. Gideon immediately steadied her swinging body and helped lift her fully onto a branch. It was awkward, and she wasn’t too steady. Once up, though, she balanced herself in a sitting position and grabbed hold of the trunk, hugging it like she’d never hugged anything in her entire life. And she kept her eyes squeezed shut for an eternity, holding her breath, for fear that even the slightest little jostle would send her plummeting to the ground below. But eventually her breath gave out and she was forced to draw in another. At that same time she opened her eyes to find Gideon, but he wasn’t there. She looked down, blinked, looked down again. Then gingerly she twisted a little to the side, had a look over her shoulder, saw nothing!
Panic gripped her instantly, especially when, out of the corner of her eye, she could see the mud and all sorts of debris picking up intensity in its slide down the mountain. “Gideon,” she whispered because nothing louder would come out. She’d thought he was coming up with her, and she actually ventured a look upwards to see if he was overhead, but he wasn’t. “Gideon,” she choked, this time a little louder.
This couldn’t be happening! He’d made it. Gideon wouldn’t have got himself caught in the muddy avalanche. Not Gideon! “Gideon, where are you?” she called again, now braving a louder shout. But he didn’t answer, and all she could hear was the racket of the Azevedo house sliding its way downward.
Amazing, how loud it sounded. To her ears, it was screaming. “Gideon!” She finally mustered a decent shout as she gathered up the courage to make a full twist to the side and have a better look further down the wash. “Can you hear me?” She couldn’t see him anywhere, not caught up and being carried along in it. But, then, she couldn’t see much of anything.
“Gideon!” she finally screamed at the top of her lungs, panic clutching at her throat like bony fingers, threatening to rob her of her next breath. She had to find him. Get out of the tree and find him! “Gideon!” she screamed again. “Can you hear me?”
“Over here!” he shouted. “Lorna, I’m over here!”
It took her a moment to find him, but when she did he was well on his way up another tree. For that brief instant she went numb with relief. So many horrible images had flashed through her mind in those few seconds when she’d thought she’d lost him. Awful images about never seeing him again, about a new beginning that would never happen, about spending the rest of her life without the man she loved. And she did love Gideon. Desperately.
“Didn’t have to time to wait until you got situated,” he called. “Had to find my own tree.”
“Are we safe?” she managed, swiping back the tears starting to stream down her face. Not tears of fright, though. Tears of happiness. Gideon was alive and well, and nothing else in this world mattered.
“The debris isn’t large enough to knock down the trees, and the mud’s not going to uproot them. So we’re fine. But we may be in for a long wait up here.”
Didn’t matter. None of it did. She could sit in the tree for hours, or days, if that’s what it took to be with him when they finally got down. Yes, they were fine. He’d said it, and she trusted him. They were absolutely fine, Gideon up his tree and she up hers. “So, what we were talking about before?” she shouted, deciding she may as well make the best of their situation since there was no telling when they’d have time to sit down and have a heart to heart again. “About me moving to Texas…” And starting a whole new life with him.
“It won’t be easy, Lorna.”
“I don’t need easy. I know what I’m getting and I’m ready for it.” Ready like she’d never been in her life.
“Won’t be traditional either.”
“Don’t need traditional.” All she needed was Gideon. If he would have her, the rest would work itself out in ways that would matter only to them. “And we’ve got to talk, Gideon. No matter what else, we’ve got to talk. Tell each other how we feel, never shut each other out again. Every day, every night. And I want you to train me to go out on rescues, then trust your training—and trust me—that I’ll be good at it. I don’t want you hovering over me all the time, worrying. And trying to protect me.”
“Got to protect you, Lorna. That’s part of the package. But I won’t hover…too much. And I want to come with you when you tape your shows to see what you do.”
A little hovering and protecting wasn’t bad. That’s what husbands and wives did. “Are you sure? That’s going to mean New York.”
“I can do New York when I’m not on call. As long as I’m doing it with you. So, do you need a house?” he called. “Or would you be OK living in the warehouse with me?”
“A warehouse is good.” A tent pitched with Gideon would be dandy. A tree house would be fine, too, as long as she was with Gideon.
“So would it be appropriate now for me to tell you that I love you, and that I never stopped?” he shouted. “Or would you rather wait until we can go someplace romantic, have candlelight and champagne, and soft music in the background?”
She thought about the first time he’d told her he loved her. It had been by candlelight, and they had had champagne and soft music in the background. She’d thought that was the most romantic, magical moment of her life. But she’d been wrong. This was. They were two crazies sitting in two trees, they were covered with mud, planning a life that no rational person would ever think could work, and to her this was the most romantic, most magical moment of her life. “It would be appropriate,” she called over to him.
“Good, because I don’t want to wait, Lorna. I don’t want to wait to tell you that I love you, and I don’t want to wait to ask you to marry me again.”
And she didn’t want to wait either. “I love you too,” she cried, as the rescue helicopter lifted up over the top of the hill and hovered above. “And I’ll marry you!”
“What?” he shouted. But she couldn’t hear over the whir of the rotor.
“Yes! I’ll marry you,” she shouted, fully realizing her words would never make it to Gideon’s ears. But they didn’t have to. From the look on his face, they’d made it to his heart.
Gideon rolled over in bed and laid his hand across Lorna’s belly. This was their third lazy day in São Paulo, the city that had become their favorite place in the world. They’d been there three times over the months, helping Ana Flavia get ready for her move to Texas with them as she’d become like a second mother to them both. She was learning their language, as they were hers. And what they’d learnt was that her son lived in Chicago, her daughter in Florida. So Ana Flavia was excited to be moving closer to her own family, and closer to her new family, where she was going to be a second grandmother and caregiver for Ana Merrill, her soon-to-be namesake. In fact, the day after tomorrow, when Lorna and Gideon returned to Houston, they would be escorting Ana Flavia to her new home, a nice little flat they’d fixed for her right in their warehouse.
“Baby’s kicking like a real soccer player this morning,” he said.
“She’s had enough traveling around as part of my luggage. I think she’s ready to get out and see the world on her own.” Lorna had gotten pregnant that night in São Paulo. No, it hadn’t been her time of the month to conceive, but she and Gideon both looked on it as one of those miracles that were meant to be. The Fates giving them a reason to be together if they hadn’t worked it out for themselves. Now, nearly eight months later, Gideon’s stuffed animal from years ago sat in the crib in the room they’d prepared for their baby, along with the baseball mitt in case little Ana had a preference for sports.
“Well, I’m just as ready as she is,” he said, pulling down the bed sheet to stare at Lorna’s swollen belly. He’d done that a lot lately. And, yes, he did protect and hover, but she adored it. Would
n’t have it any other way.
Life was working out beautifully. Her daily televisions segments by satellite were coming along nicely, most done in Houston now but some done by remote in the rescue field. Her audiences actually loved that, seeing her out with Gideon, doing something worthy. It added a new depth to her advice. Also, her trips back to New York to film her Sunday television show were easy, even though she missed Gideon terribly when she was gone. Until just a few weeks ago she’d gone out on about half of Gideon’s responses as an active medic, and even now, when she wasn’t so active, she still tagged along just so she wouldn’t have to be separated from him. Although, admittedly, she’d given up those bed rolls on the wooden floors in the tent and now toted along a cushy air mattress.
She’d never taken up practice in a hospital, though. Instead, she’d devoted herself to being a one-woman ambassador for Gideon’s emergency preparedness program for children, and traveled about as often as she could, teaching and handing out backpacks. The program was a success, and thanks to a little television push the demand for more was greater than anything they’d ever anticipated.
And she had her rescue work, the real hands-on care she needed to do. Later, when little Ana was part of the family, Ana Flavia would be the one to care for her when Lorna and Gideon went off on a rescue. But the one condition would always be that their daughter came first, no matter what. A child as wanted as she was would never feel unwanted when they went off, and they would devote their lives to making her secure in that.
Also, no matter where Lorna went, her rescue dog in training, Maisey, went with her. Oh, Max was a little put out at first, not being the only dog. But he got over it. And he still slept with Gideon, only on the floor next to the bed, as Lorna now had Max’s spot, curled up next to Gideon.
It was one big, happy family with Jason and Priscilla and their kiddies as extended family, and Ana Flavia soon to be the new grandmother, two dogs, little Ana on the way, and a whole troop of rescue volunteers weaving in and out all the time. Big, happy, not traditional. Everything Lorna had ever wanted and more than she ever thought she’d have.
“You know what I’d like to do?” she said lazily, stretching and wiggling her toes.
“What?” Gideon asked, smiling.
“Have you give me a nice foot rub.”
“Give you a foot rub? What’s in it for me?”
“The satisfaction of knowing you have a very contented wife.”
“Is she contented?” Gideon asked, reaching over to give her belly another rub. “Really contented?”
More than she’d ever known she could be. “She is. But is he?”
Instead of answering, he pulled her over to him and kissed her lightly on the lips, then kissed her on the belly. “Contented, and getting even more contented by the day.”
“Then skip the foot rub,” she said, wiggling herself into a comfortable position in his arms. “Let’s just stay here in bed like we are. All day. We’ll call out for food. You can read me another romance novel. We can listen to soft music…something with a nice Brazilian flavor. We can put on those sunglasses and bandanas I bought from that street vendor and…”
“No bandanas,” he said, seeking out her lips.
“No bandanas,” she whispered, tilting her face to his.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5911-2
THE RESCUE DOCTOR’S BABY MIRACLE
First North American Publication 2007
Copyright © 2007 by Dianne Drake
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