A phone call and a few minutes later, he reported, “I’m supposed to run over to Matt’s office now. He’s leaving in an hour for his son’s ball game, but I can’t leave the ER.”
“I’ll cover for you,” she offered. “Maybe Lynette will stay until you come back, just in case I get busy and can’t watch Emma.”
Lynette appeared in the doorway with Jean right behind her. “Did I hear my name mentioned?”
“Galen is going to check on a few things for me so I’m going to cover the ER,” Nikki said. “Can you hang around to look after Emma?”
“Sure. Just let me call home and tell my kids I’ll be late.”
“They won’t mind?”
“Not if I promise to bring home fast food.”
Nikki smiled. “Then it’s my treat.”
“One more thing,” Galen cautioned the trio. “It’s important for no one to know how Emma came to be here.”
“I don’t understand,” Lynette said, clearly puzzled.
Nikki summarized the story. “For now I’ve been granted temporary custody, so we’ll have to think of a plausible cover story.”
Jean, a widow who devoured mystery fiction and arranged her life according to the air times of police drama and crime scene investigation television shows, immediately perked up. “This is fantastic. Just like on TV. Maybe Mrs Martin is on the lam. Or she’s trying to run away from an abusive husband. Or—”
“No one is supposed to know anything about Emma,” Galen warned her, hoping the woman would tamp down her enthusiasm. “As for speculating, don’t. I’m sure there’s a simple explanation, so let’s not blow it out of proportion. People will notice if we act like we’re hiding something.”
“We are,” Lynette pointed out, “but I won’t say a word.”
“Don’t worry about me either. My lips are sealed.” Jean clamped her mouth shut, then made a turning motion to simulate a key being turned.
“Then it’s settled.” Galen used his physician’s authoritative voice that few dared to argue with. “We’ll all go about our business. This weekend we’ll think of a good cover story for why Nikki is looking after Emma and let you know on Monday.”
Jean and Lynette nodded before they left to lock up the office.
Galen turned to Nikki. “I’ll hurry back.”
She smiled at him. “We’ll be waiting.”
“What did you find out?” Nikki asked Galen an hour and a half later when he arrived at her apartment. His visit to Matt’s office had lasted longer than expected because Matt had tried to learn more about Mr Finch through his network of legal friends. Impatient to go home, Nikki had left immediately after she’d handed the ER reins over to Galen’s evening shift colleague, Ivan Tesler.
“Apparently Howard Finch is a well-respected member of the Oklahoma City legal community,” Galen said as he glanced around her living room. “You’ve been busy.”
Nikki had unpacked the bag Alice had supplied and now its contents covered her sofa and coffee-table. There were clothes of all kinds, several soft, squishy, and squeaky toys, three cardboard books, which were obviously Emma’s bedtime reading material, the requisite baby shampoo, soap, ointments, cleansing wipes and powder, a supply of bottles, and several containers of formula.
“I only found a couple of diapers,” she told him. “We’ll definitely have to run to the store tonight because three won’t tide us over until morning.”
“OK.” He looked around. “Speaking of the one who needs that particular item, where’s Emma?”
“In bed.” She grinned. “Actually, she’s in my suitcase.”
“Your suitcase?”
“It was the best I could do on short notice,” she said, leading the way into her bedroom where she’d placed her largest, soft-sided piece of luggage on the floor and lined it with towels and a sheet.
“I’ll buy a crib tomorrow, but she can’t mind it too much,” she added in a whisper, “because she’s still sleeping.”
“You’d better wake her up or she won’t sleep tonight,” he warned.
“I will. In a few minutes.” She shooed him from the room, leaving the door ajar so she could hear the baby if she cried. “First, I want to hear the rest of the story.”
“Matt says the papers are in order. Emma is yours. Temporarily. Unless…” His voice faded.
Wariness filled her soul. “Unless what?”
“Unless you call Finch and say you can’t handle this.”
“It’s too late.”
His eyes narrowed and she felt his scrutiny. “Too late?”
“I’ve already called him.”
“And?” he demanded.
“And after listening to him, I decided to keep Emma, just as her mother intended.” Actually, she’d come to her decision before she’d spoken to Mr Finch, and their conversation had simply cemented the deal. Her earlier comment about Emma being passed around like an unwanted package had hit closer to the mark than Galen had realized. She, too, had been moved from one foster-home to another before she’d finally found a permanent adoptive home with the Lawrence family. While Emma was too young to remember this time in her life, Nikki wasn’t convinced that she wouldn’t subconsciously pick up the same feelings of rejection that Nikki had suffered. For that reason, barring any illegal activity, she would do whatever was necessary to keep Emma until her mother returned. No matter what.
A deep wrinkle of apparent frustration appeared on his forehead. “I thought you were going to wait until I talked to Matt.”
“I was,” she agreed, eager to smooth his ruffled feathers. “I only wanted to ask him a few questions to help me make up my mind. He started telling me not to worry, that Alice wanted the very best for her child and that he was sorry about being unable to explain the exact circumstances because of client confidentiality, but that he wouldn’t have been a party to this if he’d had reservations. He sounded so nice and was so convincing—”
“Of course he was,” Galen retorted. “He’s a lawyer. He’s supposed to be convincing.”
“I didn’t call with the purpose of agreeing to anything. If you’d been here, you would have heard my side of the conversation for yourself.”
“That’s my point. I wasn’t, and I should have been!”
“Why?” she asked calmly. “Give me a little credit for knowing my own mind, Galen. And you shouldn’t be angry. You found out the same thing I did.”
“But what if I hadn’t?” He ran his hands through his hair. “No wonder your brothers are always worried about you leaping before you look.”
“Galen,” she warned, stiffening her spine to add an extra inch to her height, “you know yourself that sometimes you just have to go with your instincts. In this case, I chose to go with mine. I’m sorry if that has offended you…”
“I’m not offended, Nik,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her. “Only afraid you’ll get into something way over your head.”
“I won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Sure I do.” She grinned at him. “Between my intuition and your suspicious nature, we’ll be fine.”
One eyebrow raised. “Suspicious nature?”
“I mean it in the nicest possible way,” she teased.
“I’ll bet.”
“Seriously, though, we need to plan our story. But first…” she cocked her head to listen to the squeaks of unhappiness drifting in from the bedroom “…we’re being paged.”
Nikki took care of Emma’s wet bottom while Galen warmed her formula. As soon as Emma was occupied with her bottle, Galen sat beside Nikki on the sofa.
“Do you have any ideas on how to plausibly explain why you’re minding a baby?” he asked.
“I thought about saying she’s my niece. No one would think twice if they thought I was taking care of my brother’s baby.”
“For three months?”
“They’re out of the country.”
“What for?”
“An archeologic
al dig in Egypt.”
“Isn’t that rather clichéd? And what if someone asks about their project?”
Nikki shrugged. “Then I say that it has something to do with old pots and other than that I’m clueless.”
“What if someone discovers that your brothers don’t have children? Then there’s the question of why you’re taking care of the baby rather than your parents. If word gets back to them that you have an infant in your apartment who’s supposedly a relative, are you prepared for them to descend and ask questions?”
“Ohmigosh. That’s right. Derek said he was coming to visit and since I’d told him that he could, the rest will, too.”
He nodded matter-of-factly. “That also sinks the idea of Emma being your cousin’s baby.”
“You’re right.”
“What about a friend?”
She thought for a moment. “They know most of my friends and if I’m a close enough friend to do this, they’ll wonder why I’ve never mentioned Emma’s mother.”
“You’re running out of legitimate options,” he reminded her. “If she’s not a relative, then she has to be a friend’s baby. Otherwise you can’t justify having her.”
“OK. Emma will be my friend Alice Martin’s baby. They’ve never met her because…” She thought quickly. “She moved to away right after college and we lost touch until recently.”
“And why did she give her to you?”
Nikki thought fast. “Because she’s in the Navy and being deployed on a training mission.”
“For three months?”
“So my timing’s off to be completely accurate, but do you have a better excuse?”
“No. I suppose if Alice returns early and if your brothers never come for a visit, it won’t matter what our story is.”
“Exactly.” She raised Emma to her shoulder and patted her until the required burp resounded.
“I think we’re ready to go shopping,” she told Galen.
“We’ll take my car,” he said, rising. “It’s bigger than yours.”
Nikki stared at him in surprise. “Do you really want to tag along?”
“Of course,” he said a trifle impatiently. “If you think I’m letting you struggle through these next few months on your own, you’re deluding yourself.”
“Is this another case of you deciding what’s best for me?” she asked. “Of saving me from myself?”
“No,” he said slowly. “I’m simply saying that, sink or swim, we’re in this together.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“WE SHOULD probably find a bed for Emma while we’re here,” Galen said as he secured the infant carrier on the shopping cart Nikki had freed from the cart corral inside the discount store.
“I’d rather look for a used crib in the classifieds,” she said.
“What if you don’t find one?” he asked pragmatically. “Do you want to explain to her mother that you allowed Emma to sleep in a suitcase for two months?”
“No,” she answered slowly. “But they’re so expensive…”
“Alice left money with you so you can buy what Emma needs. Expensive or not, the kid needs a bed. If you’re worried, I’ll chip in—”
“I’m not arguing about buying a bed, but we don’t have to rush into purchasing something that neither of us will use after she leaves.”
Nikki might not want to think past the next few months, but he did. He hoped that he and Nikki would put that same crib to use within the next year or two. He wasn’t getting any younger and he wanted to have kids of his own while he still had enough energy to run after them.
“OK,” he conceded, “but can we at least look?” He had a feeling that once she saw their selection and he expounded on the benefits of sleeping on a mattress, she’d change her mind.
His own thought pulled him up short. The benefits of sleeping on a mattress. The image that popped into his head didn’t include little Emma, only her guardian, and he forced it away for a later time.
“Looking won’t hurt,” she admitted. “But we’re not buying anything unless it’s on sale.”
“You’re the boss.” He’d humor her for now because he suspected that convincing her to browse meant the battle was half-won.
“Why are you so concerned about a bed for her?” she asked as she pushed the cart toward the infant department. “Emma doesn’t care where she sleeps.”
“No, but I do. A bona fide crib is much safer, too. It isn’t as if you were only keeping her for a night or two. You’re her mother for three months.”
“Geez. I am, aren’t I?”
Nikki sounded awed and a little scared of her responsibility. “Yeah, you are.”
She stopped in her tracks. “What if I can’t do this? What if I make a mistake? If anything happens…”
A lesser man might have told her to get out while she was still ahead, to call the lawyer again and tell him that she’d changed her mind, but Galen suspected she was simply experiencing a case of new-mom jitters. Being gallant, he intended to help dispel her fears.
Idly, he realized he’d done this before…and with horrible consequences. This time he’d simply have to handle it right. He didn’t have any room for error.
“You’ll be fine,” he told her. “You’re a doctor. You can handle anything that comes your way. And I’ll be here to help. All you have to do is say the word.”
He wanted her to say “I do”, but that was two words and the appropriate answer to an entirely different question. The key to success lay in the timing, and at the moment the timing was off by a country mile.
“Remember what I told you before we left your apartment. We’re in this together. I meant it.”
Her mouth curved into a tremulous smile. “You’re right. For a minute, I’d forgotten.”
“Don’t.” He drew her close to his side in a one-armed hug of encouragement. Little did she know that he simply couldn’t keep his hands off her, but if he couldn’t touch her the way he wanted—even though it was killing him—he’d settle for this platonic stuff. For now.
“Are you ever going to explain why you agreed to take on Emma’s care in the first place?” he asked.
“Later,” she said, as they entered the section of the store filled with everything a baby could possibly need, and then some. “We have shopping to do.”
He gazed at the aisles for assorted baby supplies and the rows of clothing racks. He hadn’t felt this overwhelmed since his first day of medical school. “I’m glad you didn’t send me by myself.”
“Why?”
He motioned toward the shelves. “Too many choices. A man could spend hours just trying to figure out which disposable diaper to buy.”
She giggled. “You’ve seen babies of all sizes in the ER. They don’t show up with the same one-size-fits-all diaper.”
“I never really noticed or thought about it,” he admitted. “As long as the darn thing was doing its job, I didn’t pay attention to if it was pink or blue, had ruffles or elastic on the legs.” He picked up a package. “Or if the spots changed color when wet.”
“You need to pay attention to those details now,” she said. “If we’re in this together, as you said, then the chances are good you’ll have to make an emergency diaper run or two. So be prepared.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said dutifully, memorizing the appearance of the package Nikki placed in the cart. “Is forty-eight enough?”
“Now that you mention it…” She tossed another package in the cart. “Better not take any chances. I don’t want to come back in few days.”
He mentally rang up the cost. No wonder people were thrilled when their kids were potty-trained.
“While I’m getting a few other things for her,” she added, “can you grab the formula?”
“What kind?” He may not have been in this part of the store before, but he’d talked to drug reps during his stint in pediatrics and knew there were scores of brands with all sorts of additional supplement combinations.
Nikki pulled
a label out of her purse. “Get enough to last the week.”
“How often and how much does she eat?”
“Buy a case.”
“A case? Twenty-four cans? She surely won’t gobble down that much in a week.”
“All right. That number does seem excessive. Make that a half a case.”
“Half a case,” he dutifully repeated, still thinking it was far too many—but what did he know about the daily care and feeding of a baby? He might know the theory, but theory didn’t always stand up to actual experience.
He reached out to tickle Emma’s chin. “If you keep this up,” he teased her as she chortled with delight, “we’ll have to rename you Piglet.”
“If the only food going into your mouth was milk, you’d eat a lot, too.”
“I suppose, but, honestly, you want twelve cans?”
She shrugged. “Do you want to come back in a few days? Or would you rather I woke you at midnight and sent you out to buy her formula then?”
“OK. I get the picture. Half a case, coming right up.”
He strolled down the appropriate aisle with label in hand and Nikki on his mind. He wouldn’t care if she woke him at any time, day or night, as long as she was nestled beside him when it happened—snuggled against him with an arm and a leg draped over his and nothing but skin between them.
An ache that had become increasingly familiar ever since Nikki had come to town began to build. He shouldn’t be torturing himself like this, he mentally reprimanded himself. Until he convinced Nikki that he had changed his ways, he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of turning his imaginings into reality.
“Why, hel-lo, Galen,” came a flirtatious voice. “Whatever are you doing here?”
He turned unseeing eyes away from the rows of stacked cans to find Annabelle Sanders, a blonde he’d taken out a few times several months ago, standing next to him.
Damn!
“Just shopping,” he answered politely, hoping to send her on her way before Nikki returned.
“And what are you doing these days?” she asked coyly. “I haven’t seen you around.”
“Just working. You know the story…too many sick people and not enough docs to go around.”
The Baby Rescue Page 7