Texas Bride. Kate Thomas

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СКАЧАТЬ breathing deeply.

      “Very happy to be meeting you.” Ravjani grinned as he began taking Dani’s blood pressure. “I am guessing first baby. Right?”

      “Yes,” she exhorted. “But my due date isn’t for two more weeks.”

      “Oh, first babies are notorious for not heeding the calendar,” the doctor said cheerfully.

      When Dani offered a tentative smile in response, Josh turned to leave.

      “Good idea!” Ravjani crowed, grabbing Josh’s arm. “I will help Mrs. Dani into a sterile gown while you are washing up to your elbows.” For a small man, Ravjani had a tenacious grip. Josh found himself being hustled from the room and down a hallway. “Then I will examine your wife while you are comforting her.”

      Josh shook his head. Tried to free his arm. The little man’s grip tightened.

      “This was not a question, Josh Walker. My nurse is barbecuing her boyfriend today, so I am needing your help.” The doctor shoved him into a tiny bathroom. “Mrs. Dani is already afraid of what she isn’t knowing. Now I am an excellent doctor, you understand, but my English—I may not be saying the comforting clichés correctly to keep her focus off the pain. I tell you—thinking about it will only make this delivery harder.” The little man shook a finger under Josh’s nose. “For the baby’s sake, you must be helping me.”

      With that, Ravjani disappeared.

      Well, hell. Josh reached for the soap. He’d spent six years mourning his lost baby. As he scrubbed his hands and forearms nearly raw, some scorekeeper in his head observed, Helping Dani deliver her baby will give you part of what Carrie denied you.

      Besides, he owed Dani Caldwell his life. And even if he didn’t, no man worth the name turned away from a woman in need.

      Josh grabbed a wad of paper towels and dried his hands as he hurried back to the examining room.

      Dani gave him a smile, but—Yes, some fear lurked in those luminous green eyes. So Josh wrapped his fingers around hers. Squeezed gently. Tried to act reassuring. Probably failed. Complications worthy of a soap opera kept flashing through his head.

      After Ravjani examined Dani—while Josh examined his impressive medical credentials on the wall—he assured them everything was proceeding normally. “Rest between contractions,” he advised, patting Dani’s hand. “This will be taking some time. Do not become anxious,” he added, spearing Josh with a significant look. Then he wandered off to catch up on paperwork.

      A tear slid down Dani’s cheek and lingered on the edge of her full lower lip. He remembered how soft her mouth felt under his, how sweet she tasted....

      “Dammit. Please, Dani—don’t cry!”

      Thank heavens. A distraction. Through her own anxiety, Dani recognized the discomfort beneath Josh’s gruffness. She knew men weren’t very good with the messy parts of life; Jimmy had especially hated her tears.

      And what good were they, after all? They didn’t change reality.

      “You don’t need to stay,” she said, feigning nonchalance. “My husband would have been long gone by now.”

      “No man would miss his kid’s birth,” Josh declared in a voice like hammered steel.

      “Do you and your wife—” She gasped as a contraction hit.

      “I’m not married.”

      Did he think biting off the words could hide the raw anguish and grief echoing through them? Despite herself, Dani wondered at their cause.

      “Quit wasting your energy,” he commanded. “I’m not leaving you.”

      His deep, quiet voice offered support, like a strong pair of hands. Okay, she’d admit it: she didn’t want to face this alone. But did she dare accept this stranger’s help?

      As the contraction eased, Dani gazed up into Josh’s beautiful azure eyes. She saw apprehension in their depths, but determination was there, too. This was a man, not a boy. He carried scars—that still hurt, apparently—but maybe they’d made him strong. The way disappointment had weaned her from dreams and toughened her.

      Another wave of pain pulled at her. “Then make yourself useful,” she gasped. “Talk. About anything. Just—talk.”

      And so, through long, draining hours and slowly escalating waves of pain, she clung to Josh’s strong, hard hand and his deep, smooth voice as he talked of his boyhood in Montana and asked about life in Lufkin.

      Late in the afternoon, the contractions changed. Dani groaned, fighting the urge to push.

      Josh leaped to his feet. “I’ll get Ravjani!”

      “No need,” the doctor proclaimed as he bustled into the room to stand between Dani’s legs. “Ravjani is here and, ah, just in time.”

      His bubbly confidence was reassuring, Dani thought hazily, even if his English was slightly fractured.

      “Look, Mr. Walker,” Dr. Ravjani ordered. “Your child is arriving.”

      As Dani lay panting for the few seconds she sensed were all she’d have, she watched Josh reluctantly peek over the doctor’s shoulder.

      Beneath his tan, Josh’s color faded; his expression wavered between dismay and disgust. Alarmed, Dani cried, “Josh! What’s wrong?”

      “Your baby is crowning, that’s all,” said Ravjani. He smirked at Dani. “Perhaps your husband is one of those large, macho men who faints at the sight of one of nature’s miracles.”

      The greenish undertones to Josh’s skin turned greener. “I... It’s too—You can’t—Do something, dammit!” Had Carrie known about this...this whole appalling birth process? Was that why—

      Dr. Ravjani chuckled. “I am not the one who must be doing now. Your wife must begin pushing your creation out of his comfortable home. And you are still the cheerleader, Mr. Walker.”

      Begin pushing? What the hell did the idiot think she’d been doing? For hours and hours already. And there was more?

      “Mr. Walker. If I ask for the tray, I am meaning that,” Ravjani barked, pointing to a shallow metal dish filled with gleaming surgical instruments. “And I am needing it quickly.”

      The floor tilted. Blackness crowded the edges of Josh’s vision.

      Then, like yesterday, Dani’s voice, somehow urgent and calm at the same time, cut through the darkness. “Josh. I’ll be fine. Women have been having babies for thousands of years. Just come hold my hand.”

      Like yesterday, he obeyed that voice. Then following Ravjani’s instructions, Josh moved around to the head of the exam table so he could brace Dani’s back with his chest.

      As he touched her, moved her braid to the side, clasped her hands, the black mist cleared. Once again, Dani had rescued him—this time from embarrassing himself.

      “Push when you are ready,” the doctor told Dani.

      “Aauunnh!” СКАЧАТЬ