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“Do you?” she asked, looking at him again. “It was my mother-in-law’s name.”
He yanked his hand back as though he had been burned. “I thought you said you weren’t married.”
“I’m not. Not now. My husband was killed.”
A full minute ticked by as he gazed out at the setting sun, a huge red ball at the end of the highway. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “How long ago?”
“Eight months. He didn’t even know I was pregnant. He was a narcotics agent. He was shot during a raid.”
A whispered expletive sizzled through a short silence. Chad looked down at the baby again. She was sleeping, her only movement an occasional sucking motion of her rosebud mouth. “I think you’re both very special ladies,” he murmured before shifting the car into gear again.
Leigh must have dozed after that. The next thing she knew, Chad was wheeling up to the emergency entrance of the hospital. He honked the horn of her small car long and loud as he braked to a stop and cut the motor. Turning toward Leigh, he lifted the infant away from her breast. “Better fix your dress,” he instructed brusquely. With clumsy haste, she tied the shoulder strap. Sarah started fussing again. Chad handed the baby back to Leigh. “Wait right here,” he told her.
This was another Chad, issuing orders like a general to orderlies and nurses who had rushed out to see what the commotion was about. The car door was pulled open and eager hands relieved Leigh of her baby. Then she was hauled out and lifted onto a stretcher. The journey from her car to the examination room made her dizzy and slightly nauseated. She was moved to an examination table and her feet were shoved into cold metal stirrups.
Where was her baby? She hurt. Was that blood she felt running down her thighs? How did they know her name? It hurt when they touched and probed. Who was this doctor who kept telling her not to worry about anything? Were they giving her a shot?
Where was Chad?
Chad…
* * *
“Leigh?”
She was very sleepy. Her eyelids could barely be coaxed open. The room was dark. There was a tight, pinching sensation between her thighs when she tried to move her legs, and her face felt hot and prickly. Gradually Leigh realized that her hair was being smoothed back by a gentle hand. Everywhere else she felt battered. Her eyes opened wider and she saw Chad Dillon’s handsome, concerned face bending over her.
“Leigh, I’m leaving now. I hated to wake you, but I wanted to say good-bye.”
“Sarah?”
He smiled. “She’s fine. I just looked in on her in the nursery. She’s in an incubator, but they assured me she’s strong and healthy. No problems with the lungs. Perfect.”
Leigh closed her eyes again to offer up a quick prayer of thanksgiving. “When ca
n I see her?”
“When you’re rested. You went through quite an ordeal, remember?” His palm settled lightly and briefly on her cheek before he withdrew it.
Embarrassed, confused, and disoriented, Leigh looked around the room, spotting an enormous bouquet of yellow roses on the portable tray at the foot of her bed. “Flowers?” She looked at him questioningly.
“No new mother should be without them.”
Inexplicably tears came into her eyes. The roses must have cost a fortune and he couldn’t afford new boots. “Thank you. That was sweet of you, Chad.”
He ducked his head boyishly, shyly. “The doctor who treated you called your parents in Big Spring. I found their address and phone number in your wallet, on one of those notify-in-case-of-emergency cards. They’re on their way. I told the doctor where your car is parked. The keys are with the head nurse. Your insurance card got you and Sarah into the hospital without any hassles. Your own doctor will check you over in the morning, but they told me you only needed to rest. I don’t think I did you much damage. How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve had a baby in the back of a pickup,” she said, hazarding a grin. “My face stings.”
He chuckled softly. “You’re sunburned.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. Do you want some lotion on it? The nurse left some.”
“Do you mind?” It was a ludicrous question considering everything he’d done for her and his expression told her so.
He poured some of the lotion into his palm, and then, with the fingers of his other hand, applied it to the burning skin on her forehead, nose, and cheeks. His touch was light as his fingers glided over her face, spreading the emulsion evenly. He tracked the path of his fingers with his eyes. Brow, cheekbone, nose, chin, all came under his gaze as he smoothed it with his finger. Once he accidentally touched the corner of her lips. His hand stilled and his eyes lifted to hers. Her heart stopped and didn’t start up again until he continued his ministration. After that he finished quickly.
