by Anna Adams
Emma choked back sudden tears that had no place falling until she made sure Megan was safe. “I think we should stay at Noah’s office if he’s not there. He’ll have equipment we might need. I’ll call for an ambulance from Knoxville. You’d be safer in the office than on the road with me, reading me directions from the Internet on how to deliver the baby.”
“We agree.” Megan rubbed her stomach as if trying to convince her body and baby to calm down. “I just hope we won’t have to worry about either option.”
“Maybe eight more minutes to reach Noah’s office.”
They turned where the ski lodge at the lowest altitude promised privacy and luxury and some famous chef’s best efforts. The chef’s name seemed familiar.
“Does he cook on one of those television shows?” Emma glanced at Megan, trying to determine whether she looked pale or flushed or neither.
“I don’t know, and you can’t distract me now. Don’t try. Here comes another one.” Megan took a grip on the center console.
Emma covered her hand with her own. “Hang on.”
Megan groaned. “This breathing doesn’t work.”
“Maybe it does when you aren’t alone with a clueless friend.”
“Family,” Megan said again, “and I couldn’t be more grateful if you were my mother.”
Emma might have welcomed a comforting mom, too. “Maybe we should call her.”
“So she can read you the emergency delivery instructions?” Megan shook her head. “Not a chance. She’d be terrified. I’ll call her at Noah’s office after he stops this labor.”
Emma gnawed on her lower lip. Neither of them knew a thing about what was happening to Megan. “She gave birth to you, though. She might remember something we’re supposed to do.”
“We’ll use her as a last resort.” Megan relaxed again. “I can’t tell you how amazing it is to feel nothing for a few minutes. Blissful nothing.”
“Town limits.” They blew by the sign. The road widened to four lanes, and traffic approached from the side streets and the square. “I have to slow down a little.”
Megan’s phone played a few bars of her favorite song about real love and a confusing kind of happiness that was like pain. She lifted the phone and sighed at the screen.
“Dad?” Emma asked, hoping that sigh meant relief, as one might feel with a helicopter on the way.
“Noah.” Megan slid the icon across the screen to answer. “We’re on our way to your office. Tell me you can stop premature labor.”
His voice, even rumbling indistinguishably through Megan’s phone, reassured Emma. GPs delivered babies. He was a professional, and he never liked to lose. He’d know what to do, and he’d try anything to save her unborn sister.
“I’m with Emma, and we’re driving toward your office. We’re already in town.” Megan pulled the phone away from her ear to glance at the screen. “Brett’s finally calling. I have to answer him.”
The second she clicked over, Emma felt panicked, as if they’d stranded themselves without help.
“Brett?” Megan’s voice pitched low with intimacy, and Emma felt in the way. “No, don’t say that. You couldn’t know. We couldn’t know, but we’re not going to lose our baby. I won’t let it happen.”
Emma wished she could hang her head out the window so as to avoid the conversation between her father and his wife. Instead, she hummed along with a song in her head until she pulled up in front of the building that housed Noah’s office.
Emma opened the door and spilled out as Megan tried to reassure Brett, while also agreeing he needed to catch the first flight out of New York. Emma stared up at the second floor, at two wide windows, bare to the sun. She prayed for the sight of Noah.
The door on the street banged open, making her jump, and Noah burst out, looking unsettlingly different in a white lab coat over jeans and a T-shirt. Saturday garb for the local doc?
Emma watched as Noah weighed the scene. “We have to get her out of there,” she said, gesturing at Megan.
“Is she talking to your dad?”
“Yes.”
“She has until I reach the door.” He crossed the sidewalk and reached for the handle as Megan dropped her phone into the seat and bent her head to breathe.
Noah opened the door. He laid his hand against her back. His gaze went for Emma and pegged her to the ground. Not even Megan made enough noise to make Emma’s thoughts stop screaming incoherently.
What she wouldn’t give for a full-service hospital in the most utilitarian design any obstetrician could dream of, filled with all the latest equipment. Enough to make any tourist feel he could break his leg in a million places, and Bliss would be the perfect spot to be treated.
She loved her small town and all the people in it, but the city fathers could hardly be more blind if they tied black cloths around their eyes and swore off human compassion for life.
She should have called all of them and invited them over to see their colleague’s wife in dangerous labor.
All of that must have shown on her face. Noah couldn’t seem to look away, and she couldn’t make herself break the connection. She felt as if he were holding her. She felt safer.
Finally, Megan looked up, slumping a little. Noah helped her out of the car, his touch so gentle Emma wanted to cry. It was his job, but he gave no sign of planning the next move in his bedside manner. He was just naturally kind, nurturing.
“How far apart?” he asked Megan.
“I can’t tell.”
“Some were extremely close,” Emma said. “Like on-the-way-to-delivery close.”
“You’re an expert?” Megan asked.
Any pregnant woman facing premature delivery in a resort town that offered plenty of ski lifts, but no real medical care had a right to snap.
“Did either of you actually time them?” Noah asked.
“One was four minutes,” Megan said. “Sorry, Emma.”
“No problem at all. Can we help you upstairs? We are staying here, right, Noah?”
“For now.” He took Megan’s arm. They both stopped at the stairs. “But we’ll go to the treatment rooms, not my home,” he said.
“Thank goodness. No stairs,” Megan said.
He opened the door and they took one careful step at a time, through the waiting room toward the closest treatment room. “Your contractions haven’t been regular?”
“No. That much, I’m sure.”
He glanced back, and Emma nodded, bringing up the rear of their anxious parade.
“I have some magnesium sulfate. We’ll get you off your feet. I’ll start an IV. We’ll see where we go from there.”
“Brett tried for that helicopter he was so fond of promising. He can’t find one that’ll come out here.”
“I’ve called the hospital,” Noah said. “They’re sending a life flight.”
“But you’ll come with me?” Megan grabbed at his arm and then jerked her head to look back at Emma. “You’ll both come with me?”
“They won’t allow Emma,” he said, “but I’ll fly with you. We just want to stop the contractions before they arrive.”
“Yes, we do. Maybe I should stay here if you stop them.”
“You need to be in a hospital. Babies can be determined, once they decide to come. Your OB will probably want to start a course of steroids to speed up development of the baby’s lungs. If we can keep you from delivering that long, we’ll be happy.”
“I know I sounded angry with Emma, but I want her with me. I’ll feel better if we’re all together.”
“I’ll feel better if there’s room to treat you on the flight,” Noah said. “Sorry, Megan, Emma.”
“You guys, stop apologizing, and I’ll start driving the second you take off,” Emma said. “And, Megan, Dad will meet you in K
noxville, too.”
They finally reached the treatment room, and Megan reached for the door handle. “I may not let your father in unless he can make that council see we need more medical facilities.” She broke off, her shoulders heaving as she turned her face away from them.
Emma slid an arm around her. “You’ll be all right, Megan.” She hugged her as close as she dared.
“All that time we talked about the clinic I never thought for a second that I might be a cautionary tale. I thought there’d be a complex fracture on the ski slopes this winter or a car accident. I never dreamed my baby could be in danger.”
“Noah is the most intelligent man I’ve ever known. I don’t doubt for a second that he was best at each rotation his group went through, including OB/GYN.”
She meant every word. Despite everything, she still believed in this man with all her heart. He’d perfected almost every human impulse to nurture.
She glanced at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, taken aback by the surprise on his face.
“I had no idea you retained any faith in me.”
She looked at Megan’s bowed head. “Not the best time to say something like that.”
“Megan, you’re safe,” Noah said. “I’m every bit as good as Emma said. I just didn’t realize she knew it.”
“If you two will stop flirting, I think another contraction is starting.”
“Emma, check the fridge in my office. If I have any water, bring a bottle back to the treatment room. Otherwise, run down to the coffee shop and pick up several bottles.”
“Water? I thought you weren’t supposed to eat or drink in labor.” She was already turning toward the inner office where Dr. Bragg had written all his bills and told her she had to be the grown-up in her family because her mother and father wouldn’t remember to bring her in for annual physicals. From the time she was too small for her feet to reach the floor in his visitor’s chair.
She’d repeated that information to her grandmother, and Nan had scheduled every well-child visit after that.
“In this situation, water helps,” Noah said. “Hydration with the magnesium.”
There were a few moments of silence. “Can you get on the table?” he asked Megan. Another silence. “Oh, never mind,” he said, and then there was the rustle of paper and a small, startled shriek from Megan.
“I’m too heavy,” she said.
“Obviously not. I lifted you. I’m not going to do an exam right now. You don’t feel any urge to push?”
“Just my husband off one of the black diamond trails on the mountain.”
“That would solve my problems, too,” Noah said with a smile. “Can you lift your feet? I’d like you to lie down, and I’m going to give you oxygen. Try to breathe evenly. Remember, the calmer you feel, the more control you’ll have over your body, and the more oxygen your baby gets. Stress can cause early labor.”
“I wasn’t stressed until I realized I wasn’t feeling the usual pregnant woman’s backache.”
Emma came back into the room and passed Megan a bottle of water. “Will the helicopter land on the lawn behind the courthouse?”
“I assume so. I already gave the crew directions to turn right around the square to get here,” Noah said.
Pale with worry, Megan managed a weak smile.
Emma took her hand to reassure her. “Should we call your mother now?”
“No, don’t. I’d rather wait until I know something. She won’t even know whether to go to Knoxville or come here. Right now I need you and Noah.” Megan lifted her head, her brows furrowing. “Here we go again.”
Emma rubbed her arm, trying to keep her touch light, not letting her own anxiety show.
“I should have taken those Lamaze classes,” Megan said. “What was I waiting for?”
“You know what you’re doing, Megan.” Noah took her free arm and pushed back the sleeve of her knitted pale green sweater. She gave him a distant nod, and he breathed with her as he rubbed alcohol on the inner crease of her elbow.
Taking the better part of valor, Emma looked away. Megan needed both of them, and she wouldn’t be that useful if she face-planted at the sight of the needle.
In a few seconds, Noah did something that made a snapping sound. “Okay to open your eyes now, Emma.”
She breathed again, too, but she avoided looking at the IV line in Megan’s arm. “Sorry, I’m scared of needles.”
“You’re good.” Megan’s hand clenched with her relief. “You’re both good. I’m so glad you answered your phone, Emma. What would have happened to the baby and me if you’d had it off or been busy? What if we hadn’t reached you, Noah?”
“Nothing would have happened,” he said. “You would have called 911, and they would have arranged for a life flight. I’m starting the magnesium now. Keep breathing. Try to relax.” He nodded at the water bottle. “And keep drinking that.”
“The baby will be fine,” Emma said, hope lifting like a small balloon inside her body. She glanced at Noah, all business, calm and capable. “You’re going to be fine.”
“I hear the chopper,” Noah said, brushing Emma with his gaze. “Do you think you could give me a ride back from Knoxville?”
She nodded. Although she thought she could have flown Megan and him on her shoulders more easily than she could spend almost two hours alone in a car with Noah.
But he didn’t have to know the idea spun her into another panic. That his kiss replayed in her mind and memory. Her fluttering pulse reminded her how vulnerable she was to him.
“Megan,” Emma said, “did you pack everything you wanted?”
Megan turned her head away. If she hadn’t looped her hair behind her ears, Emma would never have noticed the tears dripping off the end of her nose.
“I forgot her dolly.” She looked up. “She was my doll when I was a baby. It’s kind of a ragged little cloth thing. Her name is Judy. She’s in the crib in your old nursery.” Megan ended on a delicate, faint sob that made Emma lean down to give her a hug.
“I’ll get Judy.” She hardly recognized her own voice. She’d do whatever she could for Megan. Maybe this was what Noah felt for his family. “But you won’t need her for several more weeks. You won’t.”
She hoped that was true and sought Noah’s gaze. Still steady, but he made no promises. He wouldn’t even shake his head or nod. A tic jumped at the side of his mouth.
Emma swallowed, unnerved. She couldn’t demand specific answers without frightening Megan, but then, how could he really know how it would end?
Across her stepmother’s head, they shared one more quiet moment of understanding. They’d both do their best for Megan, but some things could not be fixed, no matter how far you went to make it happen.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
JUST LIKE THAT night she’d left Bliss four years ago, Emma cried as she drove out of the mountains. Normally, she kept her eyes wide open and her wits about her to appreciate the water streaming over moss and limestone beside the dark roads.
But today, Emma had only one thought. Get Judy to the hospital. Maybe the lumpy cloth doll with her stringy blond hair would provide Megan an anchor and keep her calm.
When her phone rang, she jumped. She hit the control on her steering wheel to answer.
“Noah?”
“Why would Noah call you?”
“Oh, Dad. He’s with Megan. I thought he might have news for me.”
“I thought she was on the way to the hospital on a chopper.”
“Yes, and Noah flew with her. I’m driving up to meet them. Why are you interrogating me when your focus should be on Megan and the baby?”
“I took a private jet. I’m already at the airport in Knoxville. I just called to let you know I’m on my way to the hospital. The traffic is about what you�
��d expect.”
“Drive carefully. I wish I could have been there to pick you up.”
His sigh filled the car. “What was I thinking, having a baby at almost sixty years old?”
“You were thinking you loved your wife, and you wanted a family with her.”
That blunt statement surprised them both. They fell silent while she wondered if she was qualified to become a walking, talking advice column.
She barely knew what she was doing in her own life. Since she’d arrived home, nothing had gone as she planned. She certainly couldn’t bear to think of Megan losing her baby.
“Emma, still there?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“I’m glad you’ve accepted Megan. I half expected you wouldn’t be able to.”
“Because I was so immature when I ran away from home at the age of twenty-two.” Ridiculous.
“You never really had a proper family, and that was my fault, too.”
“Why are you feeling guilty now?” She eased out to pass another car.
“I want you to know, this new little girl isn’t taking your place. I’m not having her to fill some lack you left in my life. I don’t feel a lack.”
She couldn’t accuse Noah of being the only closed-down citizen of Bliss, Tennessee. She’d been home for more than a month, and this was the most honest she and her father had been with each other.
Over a hundred miles apart, speaking over cell phones. Both worried about Megan and the baby.
“Dad, I love you.”
His gentle laugh comforted her as if she were five again and her mother had disappeared. Her father had shown up in shirtsleeves and glasses, to read her a selection from Aesop’s Fables. His idea of a bedtime story.
* * *
AFTER THEY SETTLED Megan into her room, Noah gave his report to her OB and found himself redundant on the scene. As if she were part of his family, too, he was walking toward her door, his heart making funny jumps, when Brett came in.
Both men stopped. They’d met like this before, in a hospital, when they’d both shown up to assure themselves that Brett’s daughter and Noah’s father were not going to die after their fall down the stairs.