by Rhodes, Beth
“Mom and Dad have been worried sick ever since you came home, claiming to be married to him.”
Maria leaned back against the counter behind her and watched her brother’s capable hands loosen bolts and then reach for the tube of grease next to him. She bit her lip, uncertain and unsatisfied.
“Maybe that’s part of the problem.” When he looked at her like she was crazy, she frowned. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean they shouldn’t worry. Or maybe I do. I don’t know. I appreciate it but rather than their worry, I’d rather have their confidence that I can take care of this baby, no matter what. This baby needs me.” There she’d said it. One person in this world who needed her completely. She was done being babied at home and taken care of by David. Over-loved in one place, an obligation in the other…
She frowned.
David loved her. She believed it with her whole heart, but until he figured it out, she couldn’t go back to Vermont. If anyone could understand, it would be him. There was too much pain there, living with him, wanting him…wanting to be his everything when he refused to see that she was strong enough to take care of herself, share his life, share his pain.
A throbbing began behind her eyes and she sighed, wondering if she spoke out loud if any of this would even make sense. “I can take care of myself and the baby.”
“You need someone to look after you—”
“I do not,” she ground out.
“Oh no?”
“No.”
Juan’s gaze fell to her belly.
Maria blushed, instinctively covering the baby bump with her hands. “This baby is a gift. And he needs me—” Her voice broke and she turned away from the accusation in his stare.
“A lot of people need you, Maria. You didn’t need to— Jesus, you didn’t get pregnant because of this hang up with being needed, did you? Shit. Maria, of all the stupid, crazy things you’ve done.”
“No.” She stood up straight, whipping around to her brother. “Geez. None of this was on purpose. It was a mistake. All of it. I fell in love with a man incapable of putting his heart on the line, and worse?” Her throat closed a little on the words. “I don’t even know if he really loves me or knows what love is, for that matter!” Her hands waved in front of her and then first.
“I’ve called him, messaged him. My flight is next week…but how do I go back?”
The door to the storage room swung open with a bang.
Maria sucked in a breath and watched as David came through the door, and her heart began a thrilling beat.
~*~
“You have a ticket to come back?” David crossed the narrow space, skirting the tool boxes. The tight feeling in his chest loosened at the sight of Maria standing there, not five feet from him.
Her eyes were wide with surprise. “David?”
“You just said you were coming back.”
“Well—”
“No, you said you had a flight.” He couldn’t believe it. She was coming back? No one came back, not for him. He’d been ready to beg and plead.
Maria cleared her throat. “Well, yeah, that was the plan when I left.”
Her brother growled and threw down his rag. She jumped a little, and David frowned. “What?” He knew for a fact, she wasn’t scared of anyone in her family. And it was a joke to think she feared him. “What’s going on?”
“Where have you been?” Juan asked, going to stand with his sister.
“Esta bien, Juan.”
“No, it’s not. You said it yourself, you’ve been trying to contact him since you left. He can’t answer his phone? Maybe his secretary is too busy to deal with el pequeno esposa, eh?”
“I didn’t know my little wife had left.” He turned his attention to Maria. “At first, I didn’t know you’d left. My dad followed you to the airport. He, uh, found your note.”
“It took you long enough to get here.” Juan again, over-protective.
“It’s February. Damn it,” David felt the boil start to creep up. “Winter in—” He looked at Maria, stopping the swear word on the tip of his tongue. “—in Chicago. Snow, Juan. All flights were cancelled. I had to fucking drive to St. Louis to get here at all.”
“You drove to St. Louis?”
David looked to Maria. “Yes, I did. I would have done anything to get here. I didn’t get your messages, Maria, because I left my phone at home. I forgot it, okay? And what was with that note? Four measly little lines?”
Those pretty brown eyes focused on him, and the hurt look was shifting to curiosity.
“I thought you’d left me.” Restless leg syndrome. He swore, at this very minute, he had it. The urge to move, pace, was strong. But she wasn’t looking at him with accusation in her eyes.
“I did,” she admitted. Looking back at her brother, she shrugged. “Escusame, hermano. Por favor? Give us a minute.”
Juan rolled his eyes. “Don’t do anything stupid, Maria. You can do better than this pendejo.”
David let the insult roll. He’d been a dumbass a time or two, but… “Maria isn’t stupid.”
“She thinks with her heart instead of her brain sometimes.”
“I love that about her.” David never took his gaze from her face. Her brows rose, and the surprise in her eyes evidenced his failure. “I need you, Maria.”
“You understood my brother when he spoke Spanish.”
David pursed his lips. “So?”
“When…how?”
He shrugged. “I guess I just picked it up from you.”
“When you didn’t call me, I thought you’d decided you had enough.”
“I’ll never have enough of you.”
Juan groaned, threw down his rag, and left the garage, muttering something about stupid idiots in love. Maria grinned.
David crossed the garage. “Maria.”
“David,” she said his name in that soft, sexy accent that made a B of his V and an E of his I. “You have everything in life. When I came and found you—” He tunneled his hand under the weight of her hair and rested it against her neck. “I didn’t even know what I was looking f-for.” She stuttered to a stop, visibly shaken by his touch, and began again. “What can I possibly give you? How can I ever help you, a man who merely has to open his wallet and hire someone to take care of his every need?”
She shook her head and stepped back. “All my life, I live with a family who babied me, took care of me. I thought your arrangement was perfect, because we could be independent. I could take care of myself. I can!”
David’s heart pounded. This sounded too closely like a good bye. All her reasons for leaving and staying gone.
“I want to take care of my family. I want to be loved, but I need to be needed to.”
“You are,” he ground out and ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t you get it? Don’t you see?”
Her head moved, side to side, in the negative.
“Without you, I won’t be able to teach my son his grandparent’s language. Without you, I’m two left feet—”
“With me, you are two left feet!”
His heart swelled a little, an actual feeling behind his sternum. She made a joke. He grinned, heat rising on his neck. “True. But at least when I dance with you, all our clothes come off and it doesn’t seem to matter.”
The look in her eyes softened, showing him that foolish heart.
“Don’t ever stop thinking with your heart, Maria. It’s what brought you to me, and I need you. You make me a better man, make me want to be a better man.” David took her hand. “I love you, Maria.”
It was like coming full circle. All his life, avoiding the pain that came with loving someone. He would live with ultimate pain, die a thousand deaths…anything to have Maria in his life. “Will you marry me Maria Rodriguez March? For real this time, with our families present, and in your church.”
“David,” she answered him as she snaked her arms around his waist and tucked her fingers into the back of his jeans. “As many times as it takes.
”
Simple.
True.
Love.
Epilogue
Maria shook out the dining room rug, hanging it on the clothesline that went from the back door to the garage across the small backyard. The grass was green and her flower bed in the far corner was vibrant with her favorite colors—reds, pinks, yellows, and blues. The white picket fence border made her smile.
Quaint.
She’d take it and add her own splash of Hispanic. Make her mom proud.
She took a solid whack at the thick, heavy material, and a cloud of dust and dirt billowed and fell to the ground. “Ack,” she laughed, coughing as she stood back and held her large belly.
David kept telling her to stop working so hard, but her mom and dad were due from California in three days, and the baby was due in seven. Seven! Where had time gone? She had so much to do—grocery shopping, bathroom cleaning… “Oh damn.” And she’d forgotten to call Mrs. Kraus this morning.
At the sound of a car beeping out front of the house, Maria sighed. She whacked the rug one last time, hard. Her stomach squeezed and water ran down her leg. Gasping, she stood up straight.
“Oh, no…” Pain started at her back and gripped her, coming around to meet low on her abdomen.
“There you are.” Mrs. Kraus came out the back door and stood on the back stoop, hands on her hips. “I was starting to worry.”
Maria turned to her friend. “I don’t think you need to worry anymore, Mrs. Kraus.”
The older woman’s eyes narrowed.
Another pain struck, this one ten times harder than the first, and Maria struggled to remain standing. “This baby is coming today.”
She’d never seen Mrs. Kraus move so fast, getting to her side, and helping her up to the house and through the back door. “There now. You’re going to be just fine. We’ll get you to the doctor right away.”
Another contraction came before they’d made it to the front door. “Ohh,” Maria moaned.
“No problem. We can do this.” Mrs. Kraus began talking, a stream of chatter as they got in the car. “Now, dear. Don’t forget to breathe. You did take those birthing classes, didn’t you? They’re all the rage, of course.”
Maria blew out a breath, trying to remember everything she’d learned in the class.
“Hi Brandy,” Mrs. Kraus spoke cheerfully into her phone. Okay, too cheerfully. Maria wanted to rip the phone from her hand and growl. “Looks like we’re having a baby today. I’m driving Maria to the hospital right now.”
Maria was silent as another pain pierced from her back to front. She groaned. “I think I have to push.”
Mrs. Kraus gave her a look, pressed the gas pedal a little harder, and spoke into the phone. “We’ll be there in eight minutes. If he wants to see this baby come into the world, I suggest he get his rear in gear.” Then she patted Maria’s leg. “You just hang in there and try to relax. You can’t push that baby out right here, girl. You’re just going to have to wait.”
Maria lost track of time, but it couldn’t have been more than five minutes when they pulled into the parking lot of the small community hospital. “I’m not sure I can stand up.”
“Oh yes, you can.” Mrs. Kraus determined with a smile.
The pain was really coming hard now, and tears tracked her cheeks. She was going to be fine. She was here. At the hospital. But as she opened her door and looked toward the emergency room entrance, all her confidence flagged. She took a wobbly step forward then took a break. She could do this! Her legs weren’t broken! She was having a baby. That’s all. Women had babies every day!
She straightened, and Mrs. Kraus was there helping her.
Somehow, they made it to the doors and were checked in before the baby was born. Her room was a pretty pink, one bed in the center, surrounded by a mix of home and hospital. They’d given her something to ease the pain—thank God!
“Well, if it isn’t my gorgeous daughter-in-law.” Colleen strode through the door with poise that gave a much-needed boost to Maria’s morale.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God you’re here.”
“Me?” Colleen grinned. “I don’t do anything but stand here and play catch.”
Maria held out her hand. She’d wanted her mom here, yet in the last few months, Colleen had become like a second mother to her. Colleen took her hand as a contraction started, and Maria could do nothing but squeeze.
“Oh,” she moaned, “I want to push.”
Colleen took her hand back as the contraction eased, and grabbed a pair of gloves from the box on the wall. “Well, let’s see what this baby wants to do, eh?”
~*~
“Keep an eye on that property for me, Donald.”
“The parcel isn’t worth the quarter million they want, David.” His contact in Florida sighed. “You’re being foolish.”
“It borders the hotel I just bought. I want it. Period.”
“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Optimists,” Donald muttered.
David wasn’t going to let his dream die. He hadn’t stopped with the hotel, and now he had a chance to expand. And he had plans, oh yes he did. Ocean-front stables, a separate building for an exclusive spa, one that included a licensed childcare. People—rich people—were going to pay good money to come to his resort.
He grinned.
“Uh, excuse me, Mr. March.” Brandy spoke as she opened the door to his office. “Mrs. Kraus called, and Maria is at the hospital.”
“What? What happened? Is she okay?” David dropped the phone to its base as visions of all kinds of horror filled his brain. “Was there an accident? Did she move that furniture when I told her not to?”
He grabbed his wallet and stuffed it in his pocket. “I gotta go.”
His heart was beating so hard, and there was a pounding in his head making it hard to hear.
“David, maybe you should breathe.” Brandy shook his arm, grabbing his attention. “She’s having the baby.”
“What?”
“She’s having a baby, and if you don’t hurry, you’re going to miss the whole damn thing.” She huffed, leaving him in the doorway to his office. “Silly man.”
“Well, go on!” This from his dad, waiting off to the side. He still didn’t have much faith in David’s marriage, but since they’d moved out of the March estate, his dad had been more reserved in sharing his opinion. A good thing. David still held out hope that he would come around.
David grinned…and ran.
His car wouldn’t go fast enough, but soon he arrived at the hospital and pulled into a parking spot close to the door. They’d come here once for a tour and a few times for the classes that came with having a baby. He bypassed the information desk and hurried down the hall to the far staircase at the back of the lobby. Up one flight of stairs and down a short hallway.
“Excuse me, sir.” A nurse spoke as he entered the maternity ward. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Maria March.”
“Oh! Mr. March. You’re just in time.” She waved him on, hurrying to the last door on the right. “Wash your hands before you go in.”
He smiled at her then hesitated.
Oh man. It was about to happen. His life was about to change. The fear he thought he’d gotten rid of flared back to life. What if he wasn’t good enough?
But then he heard Maria holler, her voice guttural and…scary as hell.
“Where is he? That bastard!” And her voice continued in Spanish, words he couldn’t understand, but the meaning was coming across clearly enough.
He drew on his courage and entered.
“Speak of the devil,” his mom said. Immediately, relief flooded through him. She nodded him to the other side of the bed. “Go, hold her hand or something.”
Maria’s eyes had a dazed quality, one he hadn’t seen before. Her brow furrowed when she saw him, but the look turned slightly panicky. And it scared him. He wanted to ask if she was okay, if she needed anything, but—
He took her hand instead and it was warm and dry. Unexpected. He kissed the back of it. “Sorry I’m late.”
“I need you to push again, Maria. One good, strong push should do it.”
“Ay, Dios!” But as the contraction began, Maria squeezed his hand—hard. No, harder.
“Holy—” David bit back the expletive and put his other hand on her knee, which gave him a glimpse of— “Holy shit! Is that—?”
“Here comes baby.” His mom grinned as a tiny human being slipped from Maria’s body into her hands.
Maria fell back onto the bed, relaxed for the first time since he’d walked in the door.
He turned to her. “We have a baby.”
She smiled up at him, sweat dripping down her face. “Boy or girl?”
In that instant, their baby let out a loud cry.
“It’s a girl!” his mom announced.
David’s breath stopped, and he blinked as tears welled in his eyes.
“You can cut the cord, if you like.”
He shook his head. “No! I couldn’t… I’d probably mess it up. What if I hurt her?”
His mom actually laughed. “Fine. You do the next one.”
Maria’s hand came out, reaching for him, and he lowered his head to hers and kissed her. There was this crazy pressure against his ribs and sternum. A girl. “She has dark hair,” he whispered.
His wife sighed, resting her head back and looking at him with those deep brown eyes. “We did it.”
“Here you go, Mom and Dad.” Colleen handed him the baby, gently setting her into the crook of his arm. “Look at that, David. You’re a natural.”
Then her hand rested on his shoulder and patted it before she sniffed. “You’re going to make a great dad, David.”
David took his daughter to the little table where they cleaned her and measured her while she screamed bloody murder, and his mom went back to take care of Maria. His gaze went from the little girl in front of him to his wife. She looked beautiful, and completely beat. “Is she okay?”