Special Order Groom

by Tina Leonard

  “He’s not my physician,” Crystal said sternly. She wouldn’t say that right now he was no one’s physician. Not even his own.

  But she had kind of liked learning that he found relief from his pain by being with her.

  THE RINGING OF THE PHONE in the middle of the night sent both Mitch and Crystal and the dogs upright with surprise.

  “Who could be calling at this hour?” Crystal gasped. She jerked the phone up and turned it on. “Hello? Mrs. McStern?”

  She listened for a moment. “Oh, my goodness! Oh, no! Of course. Um, yes. I’ll…tell him right now. He’ll be there as soon as possible.”

  She switched off the phone and turned on a light to face Mitch. “Kathryn’s been in a horrible car crash! There’s something wrong with her heart or the baby’s heart or something. I didn’t get all the details from your mom. But you’re needed at the hospital right away. Kathryn is asking for you. She doesn’t want anyone else performing the surgery.”

  His eyes went wide under his sexily rumpled hair. She saw the muscles in his chest tense.

  This was no time for him to dwell on the past. She hopped out of bed. “Get up, Mitch, damn it! Put these clothes on.”

  She swept him a pair of jeans and her nerveless fingers grabbed the Just Do It T-shirt he wore when he lounged in front of the TV with her at night. “Hurry, damn it!”

  When he didn’t move, she jammed the T-shirt over his head and dragged him from the bed to his feet. “Mitch, snap out of it! This is an emergency. You better than anyone know how much Kathryn wants that baby.” She hopped up on the bed so that she was directly in his face. When he didn’t look at her, she shook him. “Listen to me. I know you’re scared. You have reason to be. But she’s asking for you. You. The finest cardiac surgeon around. So get going and do the job. Because if you don’t and something happens to her or the baby—” She took a deep breath. “Mitch, I don’t think you’d ever forgive yourself if you let something happen to her. And frankly, we’ll all be living in the past forever.” She pulled his head to hers so that she could give him a fast kiss on the lips. Then she looked into his eyes, forcing him to connect with her. “I don’t want that. Do you?”

  “I’m going,” he said hoarsely through lips that barely moved.

  “Excellent.” Crystal hopped off the bed and grabbed up a pair of jeans for herself and a T-shirt that had way too much dog hair clinging to it as she ran for her keys. “So am I. I’ll drive.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Mitch wasn’t going to do the surgery. He could calm Katherine down and get his buddy Halberstam in to do the actual procedure. He would be backup instead.

  He called Ron Halberstam on his cell phone and made arrangements to meet him at the hospital. Crystal listened while she drove without saying a word. Disapproval might be lingering on the air but he couldn’t worry about that. She simply did not understand how frozen he was. This was not the time for him to pick up the scalpel again.

  At the hospital, he and Crystal ran to Kathryn. To his surprise, there were no nurses scurrying to prep her for surgery.

  Instead, she was being instructed to push by a birthing nurse.

  “Kathryn,” he said, going to take her hand. Crystal was less reserved, hurrying to hug her friend.

  “What is her condition?” he asked the nurse. “I thought there was some suspected cardiac trauma.”

  “They weren’t certain when they called you,” the nurse answered. “I believe they wanted you on hand in case the baby was in distress.”

  “Should she be having a section?” Mitch noticed that Kathryn seemed calm and confident, if somewhat disheveled from the accident. A large bruise was beginning to darken her upper arm, so he inspected that and began to examine her other arm and neck. “Is there indication of fetal distress?”

  “No. Although we weren’t positive when she was brought in. Mrs. Vincent was quite upset about her pregnancy, and the accident apparently caused her to begin labor. As for the section, she has opted to try to deliver vaginally until we advise her that the baby is at risk.”

  Obviously his mother had overstated Kathryn’s condition when she phoned Crystal’s house, but his mother would have panicked and the medical jargon would have upset her, not the least because it was someone she knew.

  “Mitch,” Kathryn said, after the labor pain had eased. “I knew you would come.”

  “Of course.” Well, only after Crystal kicked his butt into gear. Now he was glad she’d delivered him up from his paralyzing memories. It had felt so bad to find his feet unable to move, his mouth unable to speak.

  He glanced at Crystal as she held Kathryn’s hand. Later I’ll tell her how much she means to me. I’ll tell her how much I need her.

  Kathryn began panting again. She made a brave effort not to cry out. He watched the contraction pass across the monitor, saw it peak and then subside. His adrenaline had felt that way tonight. Frightening peak, draining valley.

  “And, Crystal,” Kathryn said when she finally could. “After everything, you really are my best friend.”

  “Of course! A prom night is nothing compared to a baby being born, is it?”

  He was proud of Crystal. Only he knew how petrified she was of commitment, of putting her trust in another person. That she viewed the altar with the same misgivings she would view a hangman’s gallows.

  “Kathryn, just relax and breathe,” Crystal told her. “You’re doing fine, and soon you’re going to be a mother.”

  She had a hideous bruise on her face. Another inch over and it could have been her temple. Mitch didn’t even want to think about that. “Besides the labor, how are you feeling?”

  “Sore. Angry. And a bit silly for taking a turn as fast as I did.” Kathryn accepted an ice chip from Crystal and shook her head. “I was so upset about…Tom and everything that I was driving recklessly. I’m lucky I only hurt myself. I could have injured my baby, or someone else.” A tear rolled down her face. “I don’t think I could live with myself if I hit some innocent driver. Or family.” Another contraction hit her, and she concentrated on the pain.

  Mitch turned away, wrestling with his demons. He knew just what Kathryn meant. He was a doctor. He was supposed to heal, not harm.

  TEN MINUTES LATER, Ron Halberstam strode into Kathryn’s room. He was tall, handsome, confident, with burnished skin. Crystal was riveted by the air of command the man carried with him.

  “Mitch,” he said.

  “Ron. This is my fiancée, Crystal, and this is the patient, Kathryn Vincent.”

  “You don’t look like a cardiac patient,” Ron said, moving to Kathryn’s bedside.

  Crystal released Kathryn’s hand and crossed to the other side of the room so that Ron could examine Kathryn’s chart and speak to her.

  “My hand is sore!” Crystal whispered to Mitch. “I can’t imagine what I’d be feeling like if I’d had a car wreck and then went into labor! In fact, labor doesn’t look all that inviting. I don’t think I’ll try it.”

  “Never?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I know that there’s a wonderful prize to be had at the end of the race, but I never was good at track. I’ll just stick to my pooches and felines.”

  “I’d stay with you every second,” he whispered against her ear. “I’d never leave your side.”

  “Not a reassuring thought. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want you around. I don’t think I’d handle being a patient as well as Kathryn.” She sighed and turned into his shoulder. “I can tell Kathryn is upset about Tom. I can’t blame her. You think he’d at least be here for the sake of his child!”

  Barney Fearing walked into the room. “Did I miss the party?” he asked.

  “Barney!” Kathryn struggled to sit up and run a hand through her mussed hair. “What are you doing here?”

  “Tom called me. He’s in San Francisco, but apparently the hospital somehow got a message to him that you’d had an accident. He asked if I’d come by and check on you.”

  He s
et an enormous vase with twenty-four pink roses on the windowsill and came over to kiss her cheek.

  “What a louse Tom is,” Crystal muttered under her breath. “I’d like to give him a piece of my mind!”

  “You just let them handle their own situation,” Mitch advised. “Tom may have been held up somehow and couldn’t get away. It’s nice that he asked Barney to come by.”

  Crystal eyed him impatiently. “She needs her husband with her right now, not a bunch of friends.”

  “I don’t know,” Mitch said thoughtfully. “Barney was probably the right person for Tom to call on.”

  Crystal turned as Ron came over to talk to Mitch.

  “She’s stable,” Ron commented.

  “Sorry about the urgency,” Mitch said sheepishly. “I jumped the gun. Mom called Crystal’s with the message that Kathryn had been brought in and that there was some cardiac trauma. I should have examined her before I called you from your bed.”

  “Absolutely not. I’m glad to be here.” The two men shook hands again. Crystal tried not to gawk at the big man. Her best estimate was that somehow he had the physique of Sylvester Stallone, with the coloring and handsome looks of Ricky Martin. She couldn’t imagine a man so big operating on something so small as a heart. His hands were so large she felt certain he could hold a grapefruit in his palm the way she might hold a Ping-Pong ball.

  Janet and Genie walked into the hallway outside Kathryn’s room. Upon seeing Crystal and Mitch, they quietly came inside the room. Total relief was etched upon their faces as they saw Kathryn was fine. Then Mitch introduced Ron to his sisters, and Crystal watched the big man’s eyes begin to glow as he assessed Janet.

  “Are you all right, Crystal?” Mitch asked.

  “Yes. I’m just admiring—I mean, I’m just amazed by everything that has happened tonight. If you’ll excuse me, everybody,” she said, hurrying back over to Kathryn’s bedside before she made an utter fool of herself. “Barney! You’re kind to rush right over here,” she whispered across Kathryn’s stomach to where he sat opposite her.

  “I’m glad to do it,” he said, his grin toothy as ever. “I’ve never seen a baby being born. Jes’ foals and other livestock on the farm. This is special.”

  Crystal smiled at Barney. They both allowed Kathryn to squeeze their hands as she panted through another contraction.

  Barney reached up to put a cool cloth against her forehead and feed her an ice chip. “Relax,” he told her. “You’re doing fine.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind being here?” Kathryn gasped.

  “Naw. It’s jes’ like a football game. Pretty lady, you just set up for the pass and I’ll catch that little pigskin when you’re good and ready. I’ve never dropped one yet.”

  Kathryn smiled luminously, and Barney grinned back at her, and Crystal wondered why life was so mixed-up sometimes.

  MITCH WAS GLAD Barney showed up. For some reason, the big man had a calming effect on Kathryn. Mitch’s hands felt shaky. Not that they trembled, but the surgeon’s steel nerves he had once possessed appeared to be gone.

  He was grateful for Crystal. He was also somewhat ashamed. He shouldn’t have had to be dragged—but once he’d gotten to the hospital and discovered Kathryn was going to be fine, he found himself enjoying the birth process.

  And strangely, he found himself wondering how the birth process would be with Crystal. They had not agreed to have children—but as a baby’s cry sounded in the room, he knew he would love to share a moment such as this with her.

  This was not in their marriage of convenience agreement, though. He cleared his throat, watching Barney snuggle the now-cleaned and securely wrapped infant girl to his chest. Kathryn, tired and wan but extremely proud, stared up from the bed, her eyes large and definitely on Barney. If he had been an outsider looking in, he would have thought that Barney was the father of this infant, a very proud father.

  He tugged Crystal close to him. She glanced up at him, startled, but made no move to leave his side. The tears in her eyes spoke volumes about her feeling about the new life they had witnessed being born.

  “That was amazing,” she said.

  “Yeah, I thought so, too.”

  They didn’t say anything for a few minutes.

  “Maybe we should add an amendment to our agreement,” he suggested.

  She held his gaze, her eyes huge and questioning.

  “I think you’d be a great mother.”

  “Do you?” she asked. There was a tremor in her voice. “I was just thinking you’d make a wonderful father.”

  They watched as Barney and Kathryn stared down at the baby now held by its mother.

  “Thank you for being here for Kathryn,” Crystal said.

  Shock filled him, washing the shame away. “I wasn’t there for her.”

  “You were. You’re right here. One of the finest doctors in the country. And you had Dr. Halberstam in the room. How many women can say that they have a staff of highly qualified physicians assisting their labor nurse and delivering doctor?”

  When she put it that way, he began to realize how multi-faceted Crystal was. She saw even his negative attributes through a positive prism. Pride filled an empty space in his chest. “Your mother’s right about you,” he finally said.

  “Oh, gosh, whatever it is, please don’t listen to my mother,” Crystal said on a groan. “You know she has my best interests at heart, which is scary. And she’s not above shaping things to suit her.”

  He looked at her gleaming blond hair, much like fine gold silk. Her eyes glimmered, reminding him of soft velvet one might showcase valuable diamonds upon. Skin silky as heavenly clouds lay just under his fingertips as he clasped her hand in his.

  Oh, Bess was right. Crystal Star was a wonderful woman, heaven-sent. He desperately wanted to believe she could be his, forever.

  THAT NIGHT WAS THE DREADED meeting with the minister for premarital counseling. Crystal had known the minister all her life, but she was still anxious about it. How could she talk about love and making a marriage work when both she and Mitch had entered into their agreement as if it were a business partnership? She felt dishonest.

  But Pastor Richardson seemed not to notice her hesitation as he welcomed them both into his office.

  “Come in, come in,” he told them. “This is one wedding I’m very much looking forward to!”

  He shook Mitch’s hand and gave Crystal a hug. “Two of my favorite people. I wondered if you would ever manage to get together. The Lord works in mysterious ways, doesn’t He?”

  Crystal felt the back of her neck begin to itch. “Yes,” she whispered. Less divine intervention and more Bess intervention was the case. Mitch squeezed her hand. She sensed him trying to calm her, so Crystal smiled and forgot about how they’d gotten together.

  “So tonight we’re going to talk about loving each other and nurturing each other in a committed relationship, right?” He leaned forward and put his spectacles on, which only served to make his merry blue eyes seem more intense as he looked at Crystal. “Are you okay, Crystal? There’s nothing to be apprehensive about.”

  “I’m fine,” she replied. But even to her the answer didn’t sound firm.

  He smiled at her reassuringly. “You seem a trifle un-Crystal, perhaps, but I promise you, this is the good part. Talking about growing a loving relationship is a very rewarding experience.”

  She swallowed. She glanced at Mitch. He raised an eyebrow at her, his smile slightly crooked. Her skin began a fresh rash of itching along the backs of her thighs. “I’m okay. Truly.”

  The pastor nodded at her. “All right. The union of marriage is, of course, a holy triumvirate. The wife, the husband and the Lord.”

  Oh, boy. That was all she needed. What did the Lord think about marriages of convenience? Had that been done in the Bible? Surely yes. Surely she wasn’t going onto the Bad Girl list because of their agreement?

  I’ve got to quit worrying about that! I’m sure the Lord understands a
bout ill mothers who believe they’re on their deathbed. She removed her hand from Mitch’s and clasped her fingers together tightly.

  Gently, but insistently, he reached and took both her hands in his, holding her. Pastor Richardson beamed at him.

  Crystal felt heat along the back of her neck. Great. Just great. Mitch had everybody in his corner—including, apparently, the angels and the Creator and every other holy entity who knew she was a big fake when it came to being a bride.

  It’s not too late to back out of this, a strangely soothing voice whispered tantalizingly in her ear.

  Crystal jumped, positive Mitch and Pastor Richardson had heard the voice as well. It had been as clear as if Mitch had said the words in her ear. She frowned, wondering if he was communicating his thoughts by mental telepathy.

  But no. His full attention was on the pastor’s instructions. Miserably, Crystal realized she didn’t even know the topic that was being discussed.

  And then she knew that she was the one who was in danger of not showing up this time around.

  The wrenching part of that knowledge was how much it would hurt Mitch. She couldn’t hurt him. Not when he was already in so much pain.

  Still, was her red and rashy body warning her that she was about to make the biggest mistake of her entire life? There was more to marriage than simply showing up for the ceremony. She was in danger of losing her heart to Mitch all over again—and he’d be the first to tell her that he wasn’t in the business of taking care of hearts anymore.

  AFTER THEY’D ENDURED ninety minutes of premarital counseling, Mitch and Crystal headed over to the Jennings’s home to check on Bess.

  “You’re uncharacteristically quiet tonight,” he commented as they walked up the sidewalk. “But I took notes for you in case you weren’t paying attention to Pastor Richardson.”

  “I was paying attention,” Crystal insisted.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he told her, ignoring her blatant fib. “We’re in this together.”