A Mother's Special Care

by Jessica Matthews

  “Normally, I’d seal a deal with a handshake, but I think I’d rather kiss you,” he said.

  She couldn’t take her gaze off his mouth. “I’d rather you did, too.”

  His breath seemed to surround her and she closed her eyes as she lifted her chin. Her lips met his and the tender contact sent liquid fire flowing through her veins until it seemed as if every bone in her body had melted. The rough texture of his whiskers against her fingertips as she stroked his face reminded her that this wasn’t a dream or a figment of her imagination.

  It was magic. Pure magic.

  As his hand began exploring, she didn’t object and, in fact, wanted to satisfy the ache he’d created inside her. Initially, she’d seen him as a lost soul, as someone who needed her, but she’d only been partially correct.

  She needed him as much as he needed her. She needed to feel cherished, and wanted, and desired, and, heaven help her, MacKinley Grant made her feel all of those things.

  But was he thinking of her in his arms, or of Elsa?

  Slowly, she stiffened and his hand moved from her breast to her side.

  “Moving too fast?” he asked.

  Not if you know who’s in your arms. “I’m afraid so,” she apologized, hoping it wouldn’t take her long to hold first place in her future husband’s thoughts.

  “Sorry. Under the circumstances, marriage will be quite an adjustment for both of us.”

  In her opinion, blending two families was more of a major lifestyle change than a mere adjustment, but she simply nodded.

  “My house is larger than yours,” he continued, “and unless I give up my den or we move, we’ll only have three bedrooms.”

  It wasn’t difficult to guess where he was headed with his remark. “I know.”

  “Then you understand we’ll be sharing a room.”

  She nodded slowly. “Yes, but I think we should talk about that.”

  His eyes darkened with a combination of curiosity and suspicion. Instead of answering, he simply raised one eyebrow.

  There was no way to say what needed to be said, except to blurt it out. “I know that you don’t feel the same for me as you did Corey’s mother. And while I’d admit that we share a physical attraction, I don’t want to make love until I’m sure you won’t mistake me for your first wife.”

  “With the sparks flying between us, once we’re in close quarters…” He raised an eyebrow. “You’re not being realistic.”

  “Maybe not, but those are my terms.”

  Mac released a drawn-out sigh before he finally nodded. “All right. When can we get married?”

  “A month?”

  “A month?” he echoed. “Why wait?”

  “I refuse to run off to Las Vegas or rush to the judge’s chambers at the courthouse.” It reminded her too much of her first marriage and that hadn’t turned out to be the wedding of a lifetime. “I may never have a church filled with guests and orange blossoms, but I want my daughter to see that one shouldn’t enter into marriage lightly or treat it like just another appointment in one’s day.”

  “All right. We’ll do it your way. If we can move things forward, though…”

  Lori didn’t see any way possible to hold the ceremony before the end of November but rather than argue, she agreed. “If we find a minister, and if we find a place that’s available, and if we can make all the other arrangements like a cake and flowers and dresses then, yes, we’ll move the date forward.”

  “I can live with that.” Mac cupped her face and brushed her lips with his, as if sealing their agreement with a kiss. “Since we’ve settled those issues, I vote for a few hours of sleep.”

  Lori glanced at the clock. Four a.m. If she skipped her morning toast and coffee, she had two and a half hours until her alarm rang and three hours until she had to report to work.

  It was less than ideal, but she’d managed before. If Fridays weren’t already short-staffed, she’d have called in sick, but they were, and so she wouldn’t. Perhaps they’d have a quiet day—one was long overdue.

  Yet, as she lay next to Ronnie and heard her soft breathing, she couldn’t sleep. How could she? Mac lay in the next room, most likely wearing next to nothing. If that vision wasn’t enough to hold the sandman at bay, the thought of lying next to him in a few short weeks did.

  Lori functioned on pure determination during her shift. Her eyes burned from her relatively sleepless night and her muscles ached as if she’d run a marathon, but as she settled into her routine, her discomfort faded. Taking care of her patients, especially Hannah Drescher, she was reminded of how minor her aches and pains and worries really were.

  She completed her latest round of observations on Mrs Drescher, who’d undergone a Caesarean section two hours earlier because of a prolapsed umbilical cord. Normally, C-section patients received a spinal or epidural anesthetic but, because time had been critical, she’d received a general anesthetic and had landed in Lori’s recovery room.

  Sadly, her baby hadn’t survived.

  Although Lori hadn’t seen the infant or been involved with it in any way, the loss affected her because it reminded her of the hours when they’d worried over Corey. Even without the parallels between this woman’s experience and her own, caring for patients like Hannah was tough because the mother had gone through so much, only to leave the hospital empty-armed and broken-hearted.

  In the meantime, Brad’s pager was about to drive her and Talia nuts. It had rung every five minutes for the past twenty.

  “Do you suppose he’s realized that he left it on our desk?” Talia asked as she shut it off for the third time.

  Lori sighed. “Who knows? Knowing how difficult he can be to reach at times, I suspect this little trick is more habit than accident.”

  “Can’t you complain to Dr Grant about him? Seeing as you have his ear, so to speak…” Talia grinned “…he’d listen to your gripes before he’d listen to mine.”

  “Believe me, I will,” Lori said before she stifled her latest yawn.

  “Must have been some party you went to last night.”

  Lori managed a smile. Everyone knew better than to link her and parties in the same sentence, which was why Talia constantly teased her about it. “Mac’s son decided to run away from home last night and we went looking for him.”

  “Omigosh. Did you find him?”

  “At the bus station. By the time the excitement had died down and I went to bed, it was four o’clock.”

  “No wonder Dr Grant called in sick today.”

  “Yeah. I’m not sure what details he wants to share so, please, don’t mention it to a single soul.”

  Talia pantomimed locking her mouth. “My lips are sealed. Is he OK?”

  “He’s fine,” Lori replied, purposely refraining from sharing her news. She didn’t want anyone to know of the upcoming wedding until she’d talked to Ronnie and Corey. Although she hadn’t said so to Mac, she hoped he wouldn’t say a word until they were all together.

  Blythe came in and spent the next few minutes assessing Hannah for discharge to a regular hospital room. Her Aldrete score, which was based on activity level, ability to breathe and vital signs, had been constant for the last thirty minutes, so Lori expected Blythe to sign her release. She did.

  “Your husband is waiting for you in your room,” Blythe told her kindly.

  “And the baby?”

  “He’s there, too.”

  Lori knew that the parents would be given time with their son’s body to grieve in private. She felt badly for them, imagining how easily she could have been in the same position had they not found Corey. Between his disappearance, the prospect of marrying Mac and a sleepless night, her emotions had gone into a tailspin. It wasn’t difficult to sympathize with the distraught mother.

  She and Blythe wheeled Hannah to the maternity wing and left her in the care of her husband and the OB nursing staff.

  To cheer herself after taking care of Hannah, Lori walked past the nursery. She peeked throug
h the window and saw five babies lined up in their bassinets, all looking like wizened gnomes in their pointed little caps and color-coded pink or blue blankets.

  She’d always dreamed of bringing home four precious bundles. Two boys and two girls. While Corey wasn’t bundle-sized any more, looking after him would let her fulfill half of her wish.

  Idly, she wondered what it would be like to carry Mac’s baby. They’d never discussed having more children, which, considering their arrangement, seemed premature. She might sleep with him, but it would be the only activity going on in their bed.

  He wasn’t particularly pleased by her conditions. In fact, he’d seemed rather disappointed, which was rather flattering. However, as he’d said, marriage would be an adjustment for both of them so, as far as she was concerned, consummating their relationship needed to wait for the right moment.

  She quickly forgot the notion of babies when she returned to the PACU and ran into Brad, whose mood was more hostile than grumpy.

  “Why didn’t you let me know my pager was here?” he demanded.

  “How were we supposed to do that?” Lori asked. “We didn’t know where you were and we certainly couldn’t page you.”

  “You have heard of using the hospital intercom?”

  His sneer grated on Lori’s already tired and stressed nerves. His eyes were bloodshot, which was only to be expected. Last night he’d shared call-back with Josh and the surgical team had been busy with an emergency splenectomy and an ectopic pregnancy. She hoped she looked better than he did.

  “We tried it once, but you didn’t answer,” Lori retorted. “For all we knew, you were making out in the broom closet with your pharmacist friend.”

  “Speaking from personal experience?” he asked snidely.

  Lori gritted her teeth. Responding would only fuel the flames of his obvious discontent. “Don’t you have someplace you should be?”

  He turned and, without answering her, stormed from the unit.

  “Geesh!” Talia exclaimed. “I wonder what set him off today?”

  “It’s hard to say. I’m just glad he’s gone.” As she fell into the routine of looking after a new patient, she slowly pushed him out of her mind. Fortunately for her, Brad’s and Josh’s next case went to Talia.

  The rest of the day passed quickly as she watched over people who’d undergone appendectomies, hip replacements and a variety of other procedures. All were routine, except for a woman who bled excessively after her hysterectomy. Lori could have used an extra set of hands as she monitored her closely for shock, dealt with the lab and hung several units of blood and fresh frozen plasma. Finally, the woman’s condition stabilized and Lori turned her over to the intensive care nurses at the end of her shift.

  Three o’clock hadn’t come soon enough for her, but she knew that her evening—her entire weekend—would be too busy to catch up on lost sleep.

  She parked in front of the school and watched her daughter race across the school grounds toward her car. Ronnie normally exhibited high energy, but today she seemed more excited than usual.

  “Mac said we were going to have a surprise tonight,” Ronnie announced breathlessly as she scrambled into the front seat. “What is it?”

  Lori hadn’t expected Mac to be awake before her daughter had left the house, but he apparently had. “I’m not sure what he was talking about,” she prevaricated.

  “Will we find out when we get home?” she asked.

  “Maybe. If Mac and Corey are still there. Otherwise I’m sure you’ll learn what it is this evening.”

  Ronnie wiggled in her seat belt. “I bet it’s a puppy.”

  Lori smiled at her daughter’s speculation. “What makes you think you’re getting a pet?”

  “’Cause Mac said it was for all of us. What else could it be?”

  “Somehow I don’t think a dog is your surprise,” Lori said. A brother, or a father, but not a dog. Then, because she was curious, she asked, “What else did Mac say this morning?”

  “Not much. He ate breakfast with me and Susannah. His eggs don’t taste as good as yours do. He doesn’t melt cheese on ’em.”

  “Maybe you can tell him to add it next time.”

  “I s’pose. Are you sure you don’t know what the present is?” Ronnie asked. “If you told me, I’d pretend to be surprised. Honest.”

  Lori laughed at her daughter’s earnest expression. “We’d better wait for Mac, don’t you think? He’ll probably want to tell Corey, too.”

  Apparently satisfied by her response, Ronnie speculated on the mystery during the drive home. Her excitement only grew once she saw Mac’s black Lexus parked in front of the house. Lori could hardly keep her in her seat until she stopped the car.

  Ronnie raced to the porch and through the door before Lori stepped foot on the concrete. By the time she walked in, Ronnie had discarded her coat and school backpack on the floor and was tugging on Mac’s hands, begging for him to reveal the surprise. Corey looked on, appearing equally as excited with his smile spread from ear to ear.

  “I’ll tell you as soon as you put your things away,” Mac said. With a hoop and a holler, Corey stuffed Ronnie’s coat in the closet while she ran her backpack to her room. Their feet thundered across the floor as they returned to stand near Mac.

  “Sit,” Mac directed.

  The two obeyed instantly, although they both wiggled with anticipation.

  “First of all,” Mac began, “Corey has an announcement.”

  The youngster nodded as he looked at Lori. “I’ve decided to stay with my dad. I got to thinking that if I lived with Aunt Liz, Dad would get lonely. Us guys should stick together.”

  Lori held out her arms and hugged him as he walked into her embrace. “He’d miss you terribly,” she affirmed, “so I’m glad to hear your decision.”

  “Me, too,” Ronnie said. “What a great surprise.”

  “Oh, but there’s more.” Mac raised an eyebrow at Lori and she responded with a shrug and a wave for him to proceed. “Lori and I have talked this over and we’re getting married.”

  Ronnie’s eyes widened. “Really?” she asked, looking at her mother, then Mac, and back to her mother for final confirmation.

  “No kidding?” Corey studied his father, as if trying to determine if this was a joke.

  “It’s true,” Lori said, and as she spoke, Ronnie shared a congratulatory high five with Corey.

  “Sweet,” the little girl crooned.

  “Then you don’t mind if we become a family?” Mac asked.

  “We were hoping we would,” Ronnie admitted.

  “How soon are we getting married?” Corey asked. “Will we have to dress up with ties and everything?”

  “I’m not sure of a date,” Lori admitted. “We haven’t started planning yet.”

  “That’s not entirely true,” Mac said. “I called several ministers this morning.”

  “You did?”

  “Only to get information,” he answered quickly, to Lori’s look of surprise. “The soonest date available for a church wedding is next August.”

  “Next August?” the children wailed. “We have to wait that long?”

  “We could always make an appointment with the justice of the peace,” Lori offered. “We could host the reception at your house.”

  “No justice of the peace,” he said firmly. “Our ceremony will be different.”

  He remembered the circumstances of her first wedding and his thoughtfulness touched her. “It’s all right, Mac,” she said softly. “I wouldn’t mind.”

  “You might not, but I do. Which is why I made another call to the hospital chaplain. His schedule is open for next Saturday and he offered us the use of the chapel.”

  “Next Saturday?”

  “A week from tomorrow,” Mac confirmed. “I know it’s short notice, but if we don’t schedule him, we’ll have to wait until after Christmas.”

  “Can’t we have it next week?” Ronnie begged.

  “I vote for next
week, too,” Corey said.

  Mac raised one eyebrow as he cast an amused glance at Lori. “The decision is yours.”

  “I don’t know if I can find anything for us to wear by then,” she said weakly as she glanced at her daughter.

  “You’ll look beautiful no matter what you wear.”

  She wondered if he’d think the same if she walked down the aisle in jeans or, better yet, a uniform.

  “Then there’s the flowers and the cake. How will we ever be ready?” Her voice rose.

  “I’m sure we can find a bakery to handle a cake and a florist to make a bouquet,” he soothed. “As I said, though, it’s up to you. Surely, if we put our minds to it, the four of us can accomplish a lot this weekend.”

  “Yeah, Mom. We can,” Ronnie assured her. “If two heads are better than one, then four are two times as good.”

  Lori bit her lower lip as she weighed all aspects, including the pleading looks on the children’s faces. “All right,” she agreed. “Next Saturday it is.”

  “Yippee!” The two youngsters danced around the room before they headed down the hall, returning a minute later.

  “Can Corey and I have a dog?” Ronnie asked Mac. “We’d take really good care of one.”

  “I’m sure you would.”

  “Then it’s OK if we get a puppy?”

  Lori held her breath, wondering how Mac would handle her daughter’s first of what would probably be many requests.

  “Your mother and I have to discuss it first.”

  “She’ll say yes if you do,” Ronnie said, turning her pleading big brown eyes on him.

  “We’ll talk about it after the wedding,” he promised. “We need time to settle into our new household before we bring a puppy home.”

  “All right. We’ll wait.” She nodded. Although she appeared willing to postpone their discussion, she clearly wouldn’t forget it.

  The two children headed back down the hall and Lori sank onto the sofa. “You handled that well.”

  “Hey, I wasn’t about to walk into that without a conference.”

  “Good idea.” She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed.

  “Are you OK?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed right now. A sleepless night and a rotten day are catching up with me.”