She went on reasoning with the baby that seemed intent on kicking its way out now. “Please, please, PLEEEASE!” she shrieked, unable to contain the pain.
Sweat was pouring down from her brow and her tears were mingling with it, pooling along the hollow of her throat.
Devon couldn’t believe that this was actually happening, that she was going to die in the middle of nowhere, giving birth.
“This is not happening now,” she yelled at her stomach. “Do you hear me? I’m your mother and I forbid you to come out!”
Another scream tore from her lips, taking a tremendous toll on her body. She was beginning to feel as if she was hallucinating.
“You’re not going to listen, are you?” she asked weakly. A deep, frustrated sigh emerged from the center of her very core. “Not even born and you’re already a typical male.”
The next wave of pain completely stole her breath away, making her pant.
Making her panic.
“No, no panicking. Panicking is bad,” she admonished herself, trying desperately to exercise some measure of control, putting mind over matter.
But it wasn’t helping.
Nothing was helping. She was coming apart at the seams, literally, and nobody would ever know what had happened to her.
The word throbbed in her brain.
Nobody.
The few friends she had all thought that she’d run off with Jack to Texas. They’d never know that she died before she got to her destination.
And she had no family. An only child, she’d lost her father when she was seven and her mother when she was a senior in high school.
So there was no one to worry about her.
No one cared.
That was probably why she’d been such an easy target for Jack. She’d always thought of herself as an independent soul, but the truth of it was she was lonely. She’d wanted to matter to someone, just one someone. And Jack had pretended that she mattered to him.
Tall, dark and handsome with an easy grin, Jack had drifted into her life and then taken her along for the ride.
She’d been a total fool, Devon thought disparagingly.
Perspiration was beginning to soak through her clothing. She didn’t know if the sun was hot, or if only she was. The end result was the same. Her clothes were damp.
“I thought your daddy loved me. Turns out he loved my meager little savings account. But we’ll find him, you and I. We’ll catch up to him and force him to give back all that money because you’re going to need diapers—and food.
“Who am I kidding?” she said despondently. “We’re not getting out of here alive. I’m sorry, Michael. Sorry to have done this to you. Sorry to have saddled you with a daddy who’s a deadbeat. SORRYYYY!”
The pain was so bad that she’d almost bitten right through her bottom lip this time around.
She was clutching and clawing at anything she could find within reach. The pain was growing stronger, threatening to swallow her up completely. As it was, she was on the verge of passing out.
This was more than she could endure.
This was—
“Ma’am?”
Devon screamed again, this time in fear. A moment ago, there’d been no one here, not even a prairie dog. Now someone—or more accurately, something—was leaning in through her rolled-down truck window, peering in and apparently talking to her.
“Oh God, now I’m seeing things,” she cried, doing her best to disappear into the cracked seat cushion. “Talking horses. Maybe I’ve already died.”
Belatedly, Cody realized that the woman in the cab of the truck was looking at Flint. She sounded as if she was delirious.
Dismounting, he tied the horse’s reins to the back of the vehicle and returned to the open window. He looked in.
The woman was drenched and looked almost wild-eyed. “Are you alone?” Cody asked her.
“Not a horse, an angel,” Devon realized out loud. The next moment, she closed her eyes tight as she felt yet another huge contraction coming. This one had all the signs of being even bigger than the last. “A hunky angel,” she said to herself. “This is Texas, what did I EXPECCTTT?”
For a second, Cody could only stare at her in complete awe. Even wracked with pain, the dark-haired woman was beautiful. But he’d never seen a woman this pregnant before. She looked as if she was just about to pop at any moment.
“No disrespect, lady,” he began politely, really wishing someone else was with him right now—Cassidy, for instance.
Women related to each other at a time like this. Or maybe Connor. Nothing rattled Connor. He could handle anything. Still, wishing didn’t change anything. Cody was the only other human being out here and he was going to handle this.
He put a sympathetic expression on his face. “But what are you doing out here by yourself in your condition?”
She had no idea what possessed her. She didn’t even remember doing it, but, suddenly, Devon found herself grabbing the front of the inquisitive angel’s shirt and yanking on it with all the strength she had. She yanked on it so hard that she almost dragged him right in through the window.
“DYING!” she yelled back.
“So you are having contractions?” the cowboy asked.
Great, a Rhodes scholar. “What...gave it...away?” she panted, desperately trying to get away from the pain or at least ahead of it. She failed. It insisted on following her.
Cody ignored the woman’s sarcastic comeback. “How far apart are your contractions?” he asked.
Devon was arching in her seat. No one had ever said it was going to hurt this badly. “Not...far...ENOUGH!”
Cody looked out into the horizon, in the direction he’d been riding when he’d heard her screams. Forever was about five, maybe seven, miles away.
“There’s a clinic in town,” he told her. “I can get you there fast.”
But all she could do was shake her head—violently—from side to side. He’d never get her there in time. Besides, the idea of movement made everything worse.
“No...time,” she panted. “Baby...coming... NOOOWWWW!”
That was what he was afraid of.
Mentally, Cody rolled up his sleeves. Connor always insisted that they face all their challenges head-on, not hide behind excuses or shirk their responsibilities. This woman obviously needed him.
Whether he liked it or not, it was just as simple as that. He took a deep, fortifying breath.
“Okay, then,” Cody told her. “Let’s do this.”
Maybe he was better than an angel, Devon thought. “You’re...a...doctor?” she asked, digging her nails in the cab’s seat again, bracing herself for what she now knew was coming.
“No,” Cody answered honestly, “but I helped birth a few calves on the ranch before I became a sheriff’s deputy.”
Terrific, he was a cowboy. Just her luck. “I’m...having...a...BABYYY,” she cried, arching again, “not...a...CAAALF!”
Cody did his best to give her a confident smile. “Same difference,” he assured her.
No, it wasn’t, she thought. Not by a long shot. “I...am...in...so...much...TROUBLE!” Devon screamed, all but biting a hole in her lip.
“I know this is scary,” he told her.
“You...don’t...know...the...HALF...OF...IT!” she retorted, trying her best not to give way to hysteria as she dug her nails into his forearm.
He did what he could to comfort her. “I think I can guess,” he told her, then began to introduce himself. “My name is Cody, and I’ll be delivering your baby today,” he ended with a warm smile.
At this point, Devon was no longer worrying about whether or not she was hallucinating. If this hallucination could help her get rid of this incredible piercing pain she was experiencing through her lower half
, then she was all for it.
“PLEEEEASE!” she all but begged.
“What’s your name?” Cody asked as he carefully climbed into the truck’s cab, coming in from the passenger side. He gently shifted her so that she wasn’t behind the steering wheel anymore.
What difference did her name make? “Are...you...filling...out...a...form?” Devon cried in disbelief.
“Just thought it’d be easier for both of us if I knew your name before I got personal,” he replied.
She’d thought that she was way past embarrassment. This was another low. Devon closed her eyes. “Oh...Lord...”
But the pain ramped up, becoming so intense that she was quickly at the point where she would do anything to get beyond it. “DEVON! MY NAME’S DEVON!”
“Nice to meet you, Devon.” He braced himself for what he was about to say and do. “I’m going to have to have to lift up your skirt.”
She knew that. He didn’t have to narrate his actions, she thought in mounting agitation. She just wanted this to be over. If this baby wasn’t coming out soon, Devon was certain that she was going to die out here in the middle of nowhere.
“Say...that...to...all...the...girls?” she managed to get out without screaming at him.
“Just the pregnant ones I find in abandoned trucks on the side of the road,” he said dryly.
Feeling somewhat awkward about it, Cody slipped the woman’s underwear off, all the while telling himself that this was nothing personal, that he had to do it in order to help her bring this baby into the world.
As he drew the material off her legs, he glanced at the hand that was clutching at him. It was the woman’s left hand and he saw that there was a ring on it. Not a wedding ring, but a rather tiny engagement ring. At least, he assumed that’s what it was. The stone at the center was missing.
He couldn’t help wondering if the baby’s father was just temporarily missing from this scene—or if there was more to the story than that.
It was a story that was going to have to wait for another day, Cody told himself. From what he saw, Devon appeared to be completely dilated and ready to become a mother.
“You’re going to have to bear down and start pushing now,” he told her.
She didn’t answer him. And then he realized why. As he saw the perspiration popping out all along her brow, she ground out a bloodcurdling noise.
Cody saw that she was already complying with his instructions.
Chapter Two
Devon’s face had turned a bright shade of red. In Cody’s estimation, she was pushing too hard and too long. She had to take a break. Otherwise he had a feeling that she was going to rupture something.
“Okay, now rest,” he told her. She didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes were screwed shut and her face was growing even redder. “Stop pushing!” Cody ordered more loudly.
Worn-out, Devon fell back against the seat, her hair damp and plastered against her brow. She was panting really hard.
“You...tell...the...cow...that...too?” she gasped.
Devon couldn’t remember ever feeling this exhausted. She’d pushed so hard, she was seeing spots dancing before her eyes.
“No. I saw this on a medical drama on TV,” he confessed. It was the summer he’d broken his leg and was laid up with nothing else to do. He’d picked up a lot of miscellaneous information that came in handy at the oddest times. Like now.
“Better...and...better,” Devon retorted. This would have been funny if she wasn’t so scared and in so much pain.
The next second, she went rigid again as another scream pierced the air. Without waiting for him to say anything, she began to bear down again.
Cody knew better than to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary, so he counted the seconds off out loud.
When she’d gone past the limit, he ordered, “Stop!”
This creature inside her—she’d ceased thinking of it as a baby—had taken charge of her body and she couldn’t control the urge to push it out.
“I...CAN’T!”
“Breathe through your mouth.” When she didn’t seem to hear him, Cody put his hands on either side of her face and made her look at him. “Listen to me, unless you want to start possibly hemorrhaging, breathe through your mouth!” he ordered. “Like this.”
And he proceeded to show her, recalling what he’d seen on that program he’d watched during his summer of forced confinement.
He could only pray he got it right.
Cody saw anger in the woman’s eyes. Anger mingled with fear, but then she began to do what he’d told her. Blowing air out of her mouth, she stopped pushing for a moment.
And then he felt her growing rigid again. Her whole body looked as if it was in the throes of another contraction.
“Another one?” he asked.
It was a rhetorical question, but she answered anyway. “YES!” she hissed as she dug deep into her core to find the energy to expel this child out of her body once and for all.
“I see the head!” Cody declared in wonder as he tried his best to encourage her.
“Isn’t...there...any...more?” she cried sharply.
She was going to die like this, she was certain of it. She could feel herself growing weaker and weaker as she seemed to float in and out of her head.
“There’s more,” he assured her. “There’s more!” This time he said it because she was pushing again. Pushing and screaming. “You’re almost there,” he encouraged.
“AAAARRRGGGHHH!”
The word shattered the atmosphere as it accompanied the emergence of the infant who was sliding out of her body.
Euphoric, exhausted and close to delirious, Devon panted hard, trying to regain her breath. Trying to hear something beyond the sound of her heart, which was pounding like mad.
“He’s not...crying,” Devon said, panicking. “Why isn’t...my...baby...crying?”
Cody didn’t answer her. He was too busy trying to get the tiny human being he was holding in his arms to do just that.
Turning the infant over so that it was facing the ground, Cody patted the baby’s back, then turned it over again to check its airway.
Quickly clearing it with his forefinger, he held the baby in one arm while unbuttoning his shirt with the other.
Devon attempted to use her elbows to prop herself up so she could see what was going on. She didn’t have enough strength left to manage it.
“What—what are you doing?” Devon demanded weakly. Why was this man getting undressed? Fresh fear vibrated through her.
Parting the tan deputy shirt, Cody pressed the baby against his bare skin, all the while still massaging the tiny back.
A tiny whimper just barely creased the air. And then there was a cry. An indignant, lusty cry, followed by another one.
Cody breathed a sigh of relief. His own heart was racing in triumph and elation.
“She’s going to be all right!” he declared.
Confusion slipped over Devon’s face. “She?” Devon questioned, unable to process the deputy’s words for a moment.
Shrugging out of his shirt one sleeve at a time, he passed the infant from one arm to the other as he did it. Once he had the shirt off, he wrapped the material around the newborn.
“Your baby’s a girl,” he told Devon. She was also the first infant he’d delivered and he was filled with a warm glow he couldn’t begin to describe.
“Michael’s a girl?” Devon asked, confused and happy at the same time. It was over. The baby was out and it was over! She realized that she was crying again.
“You might want to think about changing that name,” Cody advised. Looking down at the infant, he smiled. “This is your mama,” he told the baby as he transferred her into Devon’s arms.
Her head spinning, f
eeling like someone in a dream, Devon carefully accepted the swaddled infant into her arms. She felt completely drained as she held the infant against her.
She did her best to smile at her daughter. “Hi, baby.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Devon thought she saw the man who had come to her rescue pull a knife out of the sheath within his boot. A wave of new fear shimmied through her.
“What are you going to do?” she asked in a horrified whisper, unable to gather the strength for anything louder.
Having struck a match—he always kept a book of matches in his pocket, although he rarely used them—Cody was passing the blade of his knife back and forth over the flame.
“The umbilical cord is still attached,” he told her with an easy smile. “I figure it might get in the way after a bit.”
Even though it was hard for her to focus, Devon was watching his every move. Her arms weakly tightened around the baby. “Will it hurt?”
“Can’t really say for sure,” Cody told her honestly, “but I don’t think so.” He looked up at her. “Got any alcohol in the glove compartment?”
Was he looking to toast the successful birth? Now? Had she not felt so exhausted, she might have seriously considered trying to get out of the truck with her baby.
“No,” she cried.
“Too bad.” He carefully lifted the umbilical cord at the baby’s end. “It might have been good to disinfect the area, but this should be okay for now.”
And then, just like that, before she could ask Cody when he was going to do it—he’d separated the infant from the cord. She felt the remainder, no longer of any use, being expelled out of her own body.
Sweating profusely, Devon didn’t realize that she had taken in a sharp breath until she released it.
“That’s it?” she asked.
Cody nodded. “As far as I know.”
The reality of the situation and what he had just miraculously been a part of finally hit him. It took Cody a moment to get his breath back. The tiny infant nestled in the crook of Devon’s arm looked at peace, as if she had always been a part of the scene rather than just newly arrived.
COWBOY AND THE BABY, THE Page 2