Babies and Badges. Laura Altom Marie

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СКАЧАТЬ he lowered the back seat into the flat position, then made a nest out of the stash of blankets he hadn’t yet removed from that winter.

      With the back seat down, he had a clear view of Kelsey’s foil-wrapped wedding present on the front floorboard. Looked like something good had come from skipping out on the reception, since the contents of the box was a half-dozen ecru towels.

      Ecru.

      Now, who but Kelsey would ask for ecru towels?

      Forcing Kelsey and the way she’d looked in her white satin gown from his mind, he dashed back to the Thunderbird.

      “How’re you doing?” he asked the woman inside, bum knee aching and slightly out of breath from adrenaline.

      His heart sank when, once again, all he got from her was a weak nod.

      “Okay, well, at least you’re not worse. I’m going to open your door,” he said, doing just that. “And then I’m going to lift you out of there.” With the door open, he saw that she couldn’t have been much over five feet. Good thing, since her car probably wouldn’t hold anyone over five-three—and certainly not his own six-foot frame.

      She wasn’t wearing her seat belt, so he slipped his left hand beneath her knees and his right behind her back, easing her out of the car and deeper into his arms. She wore a black sundress, not all frilly and floral like the ones women wore in these parts, but severe in its shape.

      All straight lines and business.

      Even with the baby, she weighed nothing, and he cradled her close, mumbling something he hoped was comforting during the short walk to his truck.

      In the fading sun, he noticed from the long silky waves kissing his left cheek that her hair wasn’t mere red, but fire streaked with a hundred shades of blond. He’d never been big on hair colors beyond the basics, but even he could see that this gal’s head was something special.

      And her smell. Her perfume was a spicy, musky, sexy-hot Oriental blend that somehow matched the jade he remembered hiding behind her now closed eyes.

      “You’re gonna be just fine,” he murmured, stopping just short of instinctively kissing her forehead. Geez, he’d been in law for twelve years and had yet to kiss one of the Jane Q. Publics he’d sworn to protect. Further proof that he shouldn’t have come within three counties of Kelsey and Owen’s big day.

      His attraction meter was all screwed up.

      At the back of his truck, Noah placed his good knee on the floorboard, then eased her inside, covering her with a blanket she pushed away.

      “Hot—so hot,” she said, voice scratchy and weak.

      “Okay, um, let me see what I can do.”

      He’d just hopped down, planning to close up the truck and turn on the A/C, when she reached for him, locking her fingers around his black leather belt.

      “Please, stay,” she said, eyes welling with tears just before she squeezed them shut and started funny panting breathing that felt way too intimate for him to witness. “I—I thought I could do this alone.” She grimaced. “I do everything alone, but—” There she went with that breathing again. “Oh God, it hurts. Oh God, what am I going to do?” Somewhere in all of that, she’d raised her knees, then spread her legs wide, furrowing her lovely forehead with a grimace of what he could only guess was mind-numbing pain.

      He matched that with his own case of vertigo.

      Good Lord, she wasn’t gonna have this baby right now, was she? He’d seen training videos on this sort of thing, but…

      Suck it up, bud. This ain’t no drill and you ain’t no Boy Scout.

      Noah looked over his shoulder for the ambulance, but no such luck.

      “Okay, um, can you hold it?” he asked, taking yet another look.

      “Nooooooo!” Thrashing her head from side to side, she emitted an otherworldly scream that startled a flock of crows into noisy flight.

      Noah rolled up his sleeves and took a deep breath before assuming his usual professionalism. This was no longer about Kelsey, or his own fears, this was about saving this woman’s life, and the life of her child.

      “What’s your name?” he said, knowing they were about to get real close—real fast.

      “Cassandra—Cassie.”

      “Nice to meet you, Cassie. I’m Noah.”

      Though her beautiful face was all scrunched with pain, she nodded before cutting loose with another of her banshee wails. “It huuuuurts!” she cried.

      “I know,” he said, patting her knee. “I mean, obviously, I don’t know, but—oh, man…”

      I’ve gotta pull myself together.

      Latex gloves. Definitely need those. Too bad the box of them was in the back of his county-issued Blazer.

      Okay, so he had to somehow wash his hands. He was gonna need those towels, too.

      Shooting into action, he grabbed the box with the towels, unwrapped it, then, stopping just short of pulling them out, he ran back around to the rear of the truck to grab one of the gallons of fresh water he kept on hand for busted radiators or the occasional dehydrated lost hiker.

      In the first-aid kit, he fished out a couple of prepackaged alcohol wipes, ripped one open with his teeth and scrubbed his hands as best as he could. Next, he poured water over them before giving his hands another good scrub.

      Okay, now he was in business.

      Hands clean, he grabbed a couple of the new-smelling towels and spread them under Cass’s backside.

      Another of her wails hurried him along.

      She was now clutching at her dress, dragging it up lean, tan legs he had no business looking at, but had to. “My panties,” she said. “T-they have to come off.”

      He nodded, then reached for the first-aid kit’s scissors, and clinically snipped at robin’s-egg-blue silk.

      Oh boy—or girl!

      There—right there between her legs was the crown of her baby’s head!

      “Okay, Cass, you’re further into this than I thought.” Grabbing her hand, he said, “Squeeze, darlin’. Squeeze me as hard as you can and push!”

      Eyes wild, she did.

      “Again,” he said, keeping one eye on her and the other on the baby. Instinctively, he pushed her legs wider. “Push, Cassie, push. Come on, you can do it.”

      “Easy for you to say!” she snapped.

      “That’s right, darlin’—give me hell. Come on, I can take it! Give all men hell—especially your husband!”

      “I—I’m—arggghhh—not married! I d-don’t need a man!”

      “Great, СКАЧАТЬ