A Bachelor and a Baby. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ to avoid that look in his eyes.

      And yet, after all this time, here he was, looking at her as if he hated her.

      She started to say something, and had her breath stolen away before she could utter an intelligible sound. What came out of her mouth was a purely guttural cry.

      Joanna’s eyes widened as her hand flew to her abdomen. The pain she’d been peripherally conscious of intensified, pushing itself to center stage and demanding attention.

      “What? What’s the matter?” On his knees beside her, concern pushed aside his anger.

      Rick strained to hear the sound of sirens approaching, but there was nothing. Not only that, but there didn’t appear to be any activity, or even any lights being turned on from the three other houses on the immediate block.

      Where the hell was everyone? Had he and Joanna just slipped into some private twilight zone of their own?

      Joanna clutched his arm, her nails digging into his flesh, her face drained of all color. She wasn’t answering his question.

      This couldn’t be happening, she thought, frantically Not now. She wasn’t due for another two weeks. The doctor had promised her.

      Promises were meant to be broken.

      The promise between her and Rick had been.

      “The baby,” she gasped, pushing the words out as best she could. “I think the baby’s coming.”

      Two

      Dumbfounded, Rick could only stare at her. “You mean later.”

      She couldn’t be saying what he thought she was saying. Rick looked from her face to her abdomen and then back at her face again. That had to be the panic talking, he decided.

      Joanna could almost feel her knuckles breaking out through her skin as she clenched his wrist.

      “I mean now.” The word rode out on a torrent of pain.

      Crouching beside her, Rick carefully peeled her fingers from his wrist. She’d almost cut off his circulation. “Hang on, the paramedics have got to be getting here soon.”

      Instinctively she knew that they’d never make it in time.

      Joanna shook her head violently from side to side, the pain all but cracking her in half. “Unless they’re invisible and already here…they’re going to be too late.” She looked up at him. God, but life was strange, bringing them together like this, now of all times. “You’re going to have to help me.”

      There were a great many things he’d learned how to do, felt comfortable in undertaking. Delivering a baby was not one of them. “Me?”

      Even with the throbbing sound echoing in her head, Joanna could hear the wariness in Rick’s voice. She couldn’t very well blame him. This wasn’t exactly her idea of ideal circumstances, either.

      “I don’t…like this any better…than…you do, but this baby…is coming…and I need…someone…on the other end.” It was getting more and more difficult for her to talk, to frame complete thoughts. The pain kept snatching away her breath, railroading her mind. Panic was attempting to push its way into her consciousness.

      Desperate, Rick looked over his shoulder at the other three houses on the block. They were all dark. Why hadn’t any lights gone on? Why wasn’t anyone home?

      Where the hell was everyone?

      Where they were didn’t matter. What did matter was that he was here and so was she. And she needed him.

      It occurred to him that for the second time in his life, he hadn’t the slightest idea what to do. And both times had involved Joanna.

      Someone had to be home on the next block. “Hold on,” he told her, beginning to rise to his feet. “I’ll go get help.”

      The death grip tightened on his wrist, yanking him back down to her with a strength he didn’t think she was capable of.

      “You are help…” She raised her eyes to his. “Please.”

      Damn it, she still knew just how to rip into his heart. Even after all this time. Rick knew he had no choice.

      “Okay. I—” He saw her jerk and stiffen, her eyes opening so wide, they looked as if they could fall out at any moment.

      Joanna bit down on her lip so hard, she thought she tasted blood. A scream welled up in her throat, its magnitude nearly matching the agony assaulting her. It felt as if she were a holiday turkey and someone had taken a buzz saw to her body.

      “I have to push…I have to push…I have to push.” The words came out in a frantic rush.

      He knew next to nothing about what was involved in delivering a baby, but it had to take longer than this. She had to be wrong. “Are you sure?”

      Clutching his hand as if it were her very lifeline, Joanna managed to pull herself up into a semi-sitting position. “I’m sure…oh God…I’m sure.” How did someone feel like this and still live?

      Fear gnawed at her. Belatedly, recalling something Lori had said to the Lamaze class about not being able to pant and push at the same time, Joanna began panting hard. Praying that the action would at least temporarily divert this overwhelming urge she had to push the baby out.

      Nothing she’d read or heard had prepared her for the reality of this. Before she’d ever walked into the sperm bank, she had read about every possible scenario that could happen at this juncture.

      Every bad one now flashed before her, stealing away her courage.

      She’d been so sure about this. So sure. She hadn’t even regretted her decision when the local school board had tactfully “suggested” that she take an unpaid leave of absence until after her baby was born. Since she was a high-school English teacher, her condition in the somewhat conservative town was a source of discomfort and embarrassment to a number of the parents. But even then, she’d been sure about her choice to go this route alone.

      Now she wasn’t sure about being alone or even the route itself. Now there was only a sense of panic tearing into her with steel claws.

      Here she was, her house in flames, her life in shambles, giving birth to a fatherless baby on the front lawn with the only man she’d ever loved inexplicably standing over her.

      She felt as if she’d lost her grasp on reality.

      “Ricky…I’m…scared.”

      “Yeah, me, too,” he admitted.

      His words echoed back to him. Joanna had been the only one he’d ever let his guard down with, the only one he’d ever allowed to witness his more human, vulnerable side. To the rest of the world, even from a very young age, he’d always presented a strong, unflappable front. It was expected of him. He was a Masters. Only Joanna had seen him as Ricky, as the boy he’d been and the man he was struggling to be.

      But all that was behind him. Years behind him.

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