“Lawrence isn’t in distress now, but the situation could change. Is that what you’re saying?” The words barely made sense to her. Kevin stroked the side of her face with a shaking finger. She couldn’t look at him. If she saw fear in his eyes, then she’d lose all hope. Her heart smashed against the wall of her chest and adrenaline hurtled through her veins.
“You’ve got a great medical team, babe. They’re monitoring you and our little guy. You’re a fighter. He’s a fighter, a tough guy like your dad, so we picked a good name for him. While you were sleeping the NICU team stopped by to introduce themselves, and to let us know they’d be in the delivery room to take care of Lawrence as soon as he’s born, whenever it happens.”
“NICU?”
“Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”
She had personal experience with intensive care units, but a unit just for babies made her shiver. “What…what happens if the placenta keeps…” She could barely say the words. “What happens, you know, if the placenta keeps peeling away?”
“In pre-term cases, it’s a bigger problem. There’s no magic pill. All the doctors can do is wait and see. If the contractions and spotting get worse, they’ll try to deliver the baby vaginally. If he goes into fetal distress, they’ll do a C-section.”
Her world imploded. If it was just her, she’d cope okay. But her body was supporting her baby’s life. “It’s because of my age. We should have gotten pregnant as soon as Blane had his first birthday. We shouldn’t have waited so long.”
“It’s not your age. It’s my fault. We should have flown in the big jet.”
When he grimaced, she instantly gripped his hand. “It’s not your fault, Kev. We’ve flown in your plane hundreds of times. There was no reason not to fly in it today. It was a freak accident. You saved our lives.”
She turned so she could see him better. “I’ll stay in bed. I’ll be the best patient they’ve ever had. I’ll eat what I need to eat. I’ll get lots of sleep. I’ll stay off the phone. If I follow the rules, it’ll all be okay. I’ll only listen to elevator music. No hard rock. When Blane comes up here, I’ll stay in bed and read to him.”
“You? Be agreeable?” The crow’s-feet around his eyes crinkled as he teased her. “Blane can come up for visits. But you know how he is when he goes to the plantation. He barely remembers us. All he wants to do is play with the big kids and go to Uncle Matt’s school.”
A contraction tightened her uterus. She reclaimed her hand, rubbed her belly, and studied the monitor. When it was over, she raised the head of the bed, trying to get more comfortable.
“We need to call Austin,” Kevin said. “He’ll be pissed as hell if you don’t tell him you’re in the hospital.”
“Summer league in Las Vegas starts tomorrow. If I tell him, it’ll mess with his focus. I can’t tell him yet.”
“He’s your son. And don’t forget what happened when you didn’t tell him about your divorce,” Kevin said.
“I’ll never forget. And I promised never to keep secrets from him again.”
“What if he sees the crash on the news?”
“He’s in Las Vegas,” she said. “He won’t see it on the news, and besides, this is different. Nobody’s in danger. I’ll call him tomorrow. If he can get through the first couple of days of league play, he’ll be able to handle our news better.” She glanced at the closed door and changed the subject. “Where’s Charlotte?”
Kevin looked through the monitor printout rolling out of the machine, fan-folded it neatly, and stacked the paper in the corner of the top drawer of the cabinet. “Do you remember talking to her when the ambulance brought you in?”
JL rubbed her eyes, then closed the right one, then the left one, then squinted, trying to clear the distortion in her vision. “Vaguely.” The word came out slowly, sounding like she was under the influence.
“Charlotte called in her personal obstetrician. She wasn’t on call, but she came in for you. There hasn’t been a significant change in your condition since you arrived.”
“I remember the crash, the EMTs. I think I was screaming.”
“Not screaming. Just yelling at the EMTs. You could have a bullet in your gut and you wouldn’t complain, but when you’re pregnant you don’t handle pain as well.”
She closed her eyes, hoping she wouldn’t see wavy lines when she opened them again. “When I was pregnant with Austin, I was seventeen, away from my family, and scared. When my water broke, I believed my baby was going to die. I lost it.”
“I know, babe.” He kissed her, and his lips were soft and warm and reassuring.
“Can I have something to eat? I’m starving.”
“Probably not, but we can ask. This suite comes with the services of a private chef.”
“Yeah right,” she grumbled. “Which really means a designated cook in the cafeteria.”
“There you are. I just knew underneath all that cynical bluster I’d find the woman I love.”
“What cynical bluster?” She made a face. “I love you too, Kevin. And I hope Lance, aka Lawrence Paul Fraser, will look exactly like you.” The baby stirred beneath her heart, stretching out a long limb, as if expressing his opinion about the name. She managed a smile.
He squinted at her. “Lance?”
“Yeah, but stop looking at me like that.”
“Like how?” he asked.
“Like… I don’t know. Like you’re calculating sine, cosine, and tangent.”
He clamped his teeth over his lower lip and his shoulders shook as he tried not to laugh. “I haven’t done trig in decades. What made you think of that?”
She shrugged. “I heard Patrick and Lincoln FaceTiming with Emily. They were doing trig homework. So if you’re not doing trig in your head, then stop looking at me like I’m a bug in a petri dish.”
“I promise I don’t have trig or chemistry on my mind. I just haven’t heard you call the baby Lance before, is all.”
“Hmm,” she said, squirming to get comfortable. “I must have been thinking about his name while I was asleep. But don’t you think it’ll be a while before he grows into it? Lance might fit him better at first.”
“Whatever you want. I’ll just call him laddie for the next few years.”
She knuckle-punched his arm. “You will not. That’s Elliott’s name for the boys.”
The door opened and a tall, lanky nurse wearing blue scrubs strolled in. “Hello, Mrs. Fraser.” She stopped at the chalkboard, erased the nurse’s name, and wrote Sherrin in block letters. “I’m Sherrin, your nurse. How’re you feeling?”
The mid-thirties nurse’s wire-rimmed glasses sat on a narrow nose. No engagement ring or wedding band. After years of sizing up people in an eyeblink, JL wasn’t likely to stop anytime soon.
JL lied through her perfectly capped teeth, mumbling, “Not so bad.”
Kevin moved away from the monitor, and Sherrin approached the bed, checked the IV connection, and adjusted the monitor belt around JL’s belly. Satisfied nothing else needed adjusting, she unfolded the paper he’d just folded so neatly and studied several feet of the printout.
“They’re still irregular. Is there anything you need?”
“A loaded cheeseburger would be nice. But I’ll settle for a dish of chocolate ice cream for now.”
Sherrin tsked. “You can have ice chips. How’s that?” She smiled at Kevin. “The ice machine is in the lounge down the hall.”
“Yum,” JL said sarcastically. “Will you bring me two cups?”
He looked at her over the top of his reading glasses. “Two cups of ice chips. What will Trainer Ted say when he does your next weigh-in?”
JL waved him off. “Do you really think I care? I complain every time I enter his domain. He’s evil incarnate. The next time he gets an offer to manage someone else’s gym, he should take it. We’d all be happier.”
“And fat and out of shape,” Kevin said on his way out.
The nurse refolded the graph paper, made notes on it, tore it of
f the roll, and slipped it into one of two deep shirt pockets. “Dr. Winn just finished a delivery, so she should be in to see you shortly. Is there anything I can get to make you more comfortable?”
JL folded her arms atop her belly. “Have you seen Dr. Mallory?”
“There’s a note in your chart saying she called thirty minutes ago to see how you’re doing. She’s keeping an eye on you.”
“She’s the original eye in the sky.”
“How long have you known her?” Sherrin asked.
“A few years.” JL had a hot flash and let the covers fall below her belly. She was always either hot or cold these days, and would be very happy when her body’s temperature regulator returned to its usual efficiency.
While Sherrin typed notes into JL’s record on the in-room computer station, Kevin came back with a pitcher of ice chips and two small cups. He stopped to read over the nurse’s shoulder.
“Looks like Sherrin is putting an A-plus on your chart.” He handed JL a cup and spooned in some chips from the pitcher.
Charlotte Mallory swished in behind him and stopped to read over the nurse’s shoulder too. “Who got an A-plus?”
“Hi, Dr. Mallory.” Sherrin hopped up so Charlotte could sit and read the notes.
The beautiful blonde spouse of Braham McCabe was now in her mid-fifties. Except for a few lines at the corners of her eyes, Charlotte hadn’t changed a bit since JL met her in a Napa, California hangar following the conclusion of a murder-kidnapping-extortion case involving the entire MacKlenna Clan.
Charlotte was always calm. Always cool. Always in control. And JL loved her to the moon and back.
Charlotte logged off the computer, came over to the bed, and hugged JL. The warm familiarity of her signature apple-scented hair and clean scrubs was a boost to JL’s psyche.
Charlotte was there and had the situation under control. Now everything would be all right.
“The contractions haven’t changed. They’re still irregular. How’re you feeling?”
“Better now.” JL chomped on the last of the ice chips, and Kevin refilled her cup before putting the pitcher in the small refrigerator. “Have you heard from Elliott? We haven’t.”
“We haven’t heard from him in the last”—Kevin checked the time on his watch—“thirty minutes.”
“They just landed,” Charlotte said. “They’re going to the house first.”
JL dug her spoon in the ice chips. When she birthed Austin they let laboring patients have Jell-O. All these years later, they were trying to starve her. As soon as the ice hit the roof of her mouth, she slapped her palm to her forehead, hissing. “Brain freeze. Ouch.”
“Here. Drink something warm.” He handed her a bottle of water that had lost its chill a few hours earlier.
She set the ice chips aside and took a long pull on the plastic bottle. After a moment the brain freeze dissolved. “Call your dad and tell him not to come up here tonight. It’s too late. I don’t want him pacing and watching me like I’m going to steal the silver.”
Kevin laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “What are you talking about?”
“Haven’t you seen the way he looks at me when I eat food he doesn’t think I should eat? Or work out a minute longer than Ted has on my schedule? I don’t know how Meredith survived carrying James Cullen and having chemo at the same time. Elliott had to have been a royal pain in the ass.”
“He’s always a pain in the ass. But you are carrying his grandson,” Kevin said. “And you’ve been through this before.”
“No. Last time was different. Remember? I didn’t let him in my room until after Blane was born. This time he’ll want to monitor the situation. I don’t want him here.” JL grabbed Charlotte’s hand. “You call him. He listens to you. Tell him…tell him…it’s not good for his health? No, wait. Tell him this is a stressful situation and he might have a real stroke this time.”
“You’ll have to tell him,” Charlotte said. “I won’t run interference unless he’s doing something detrimental to you or your baby’s health. Elliott might be controlling and overbearing, but he’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“Doesn’t emotional harm count?” JL sipped from the water bottle again before capping it. “Well, at least if he has a stroke he’ll already be in the hospital.”
Sherrin checked the levels on JL’s IVs and wrote something on her palm. “I heard Dr. Fraser rented the other suite on this floor.”
JL spit out the water. “Nooo! Say it ain’t so.”
“I’ve heard he’s a handsome Scot,” Sherrin said.
JL dabbed at the wet sheet with a wad of tissues. “Kevin and Charlotte’s husband are handsome Scots, too, and much younger and nicer. Don’t let Elliott fool you. If he doesn’t get his way, he’ll cuss you out and blame you for whatever is wrong.”
Sherrin’s eyebrows met in the center of her forehead, and Kevin gave her a sympathetic smile. “Dad’s not quite that bad. But if you see him, don’t tell him your name.”
“He’ll hold the donation of a new labor hall over you so you’ll do his bidding,” JL said.
Sherrin covered the name tag pinned to her shirt. “He won’t hear it from me.” Then to JL she said, “If you need anything, honey, press your nurses’ call button.” She adjusted the position of the call button so it was within easy reach, then patted JL’s hand and left the room.
JL tugged on Kevin’s shirtsleeve to pull him down for a kiss. He kissed her lips, then the hollow where her neck and shoulder met, and her skin tingled with pleasure. “If Elliott and Meredith are taking Blane to the plantation, why don’t you go meet them there? At least one of us can tell Blane good night.”
Kevin cupped her cheek. His touch was steady and reassuring, and her nerves settled, as if they’d all been tucked into bed by a comforting hand. He kissed her again. “Blane will be so wound up he won’t care. And if I leave now, by the time I drove out to the plantation, spent time with him, and drove back here, I’d be gone almost three hours. I’m not leaving you.”
“There are scrubs in the closet, along with a personal hygiene kit. At least there were the last time I was in here as a patient,” Charlotte said.
Kevin glanced around the room. “I haven’t looked through all the drawers and closets, but if JL had been allowed out of bed, she would have done a complete inventory of the suite.”
“True.” JL finished the ice chips and handed Kevin the empty cup. “Are you going home tonight?” she asked Charlotte.
“I have a patient in ICU, so I’m spending the night here to keep an eye on both him and you.”
Holding the cup, Kevin pointed toward the sturdy, ready-for-use sofa upholstered in chocolate-colored fabric. “I’m going to pull out the sofa bed and get some sleep.”
JL wiped her hands and face with the damp washcloth. “Has anybody heard from Pete?”
“Connor called while you were asleep, and said Pete is on his way.” Kevin tossed the cup into the trashcan. “Swish. Fraser hits the three! Nothing but net.”
“Good luck with that.” JL looked down at the gentle mountain of her pregnancy, the protrusion from her once-lithe body, and for the thousandth time she prayed her baby would be born healthy. “Why’s Pete coming back?”
“Because you’re in the hospital.”
“But he has work to do in Italy.”
“It’ll get done later. Besides, you’re not his partner or his boss anymore. He can make his own decisions, and you wouldn’t want it any other way.”
She gave Kevin a skeptical eyebrow. “He’ll always be my partner, and we’ll always have each other’s back.”
“He surrendered the job on our wedding day.”
“You can’t surrender a job like that. It’s a lifetime responsibility,” JL said.
“And I accepted it, Jenny Lynn O’Grady Fraser.”
She covered her ears. “Don’t call me that. Sometimes children never match the name they’re given at birth. Which is further evidence of why La
wrence should be called Lance.”
“Lance it is. I won’t argue,” Kevin said.
“I think Pete’s coming home for you,” Charlotte said, “but he was already perturbed because the gathering was scheduled after his trip to Italy was put on the calendar. He hates to miss family gatherings.”
“Poor guy. He feels left out. Most of us are married and having babies. He needs to meet someone special.”
“I fixed him up with a woman on staff last time he was here,” Charlotte said. “They went to Monticello for a charity wine tasting and had a great time, but he never called her again.”
“I’m afraid he’s got Sophia on his mind this year. It would have been their twentieth wedding anniversary,” JL said.
“Bless his heart.” Charlotte’s phone beeped, and she checked her messages. “I’m needed in the ICU. Then I’m going up to my office for a while. If you need me, call my cell.”
JL reached out for a hug. “Thank you for everything. I can’t imagine going through this without your support.”
Kevin hugged Charlotte, too, and closed the door behind her. “I thought the Sophia business was supposed to be on the Q.T. I didn’t think Pete wanted everyone to know.”
JL rolled from side to side, searching for a comfortable position to ease the pains shooting down her lower back. “If he wanted to keep it a secret, he shouldn’t have told Jack, who tells his sister everything. Ouch.”
Alarm appeared on Kevin’s face. “What’s the matter?” He turned to watch the monitor.
“Nothing. Just my back. Amy told me last week that Jack’s going to write a romance novel about Pete and Sophia.” JL stopped to breathe through a contraction. When it was over, she continued, “If they won’t get back together in real life, he’s going to give them a happily ever after in print.”
Kevin grimaced, but JL couldn’t tell if it was about the idea of Jack writing a love story or what he saw on the monitor printout.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
The Pearl Brooch Page 9