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Like she could go anywhere else. The guy straightened and the door closed sharply, carried by the wind. The slam caused more ice to crack, and a small sheet slid down the windshield where it wedged beneath the wiper blade, obliterating her ability to see.
This was what it was like to suffocate. To feel hemmed in and confined, surrounded by darkness.
Melodramatic much? Just stay calm.All she had to do was keep it together and ignore the pain spreading along her back. Relax.Breathe.But what if the man didn’t return? What if he went back to his car and drove away because he didn’t want the responsibility of helping her? How many peoplewouldhelp her? Had it been someone else by the side of the road and her driving by, would she have stopped?
She gripped the steering wheel so tightly her fingers went numb. Then, as fast as it had come on her, the contraction ended, the tension subsiding to a dull ache.
Darcy huddled in her seat, cold in a hot and shivery, this-really-can’t-be-happening kind of way. The baby would be fine. She had to believe that. She couldn’t believe anything else because if she did—
She caught a glimpse of movement in her peripheral vision, unable to believe what she was seeing. The man’s vehicle wasmoving.
Darcy straightened in the seat, her heart racing out of control the way it had when she’d been the new kid on the merry-go-round the bullies had tried to sling off. She flattened her hands on the window. Pounded on the glass. Her sweaty palms left prints behind. “Wait! Wait, don’t leave!”
But the large vehicle drove on.
Images came again. First Stephen, his parents, the storm and the accident. The baby and now this. She dropped her forehead to the cold glass, fighting the cramping sensation as long as she could.
I asked, Nana. I asked! What now?
The contraction leaped from cramp status to uncomfortable, this-really-hurtspain.What now?
All she wanted was to give her baby the best life possible, make up for screwing up the beginning of its life. A nice home, someplace safe. Maybe a nice guy somewhere down the line. Tobethe mother—
You don’t know how to be?
She wrapped her arms around her stomach and rocked. “Please…don’t leave me.”
Chapter 2
GARRET TULANE DROVEpast the little Volkswagen to a straightaway, then carefully began the arduous task of turning his large SUV around on the slippery, narrow road.
The conditions were dangerous no matter how good a driver was and, glimpsing the Florida tags on the newer model VW, he doubted the woman inside had a lot of experience with snow and mountains.
The attorney in him balked at the potential lawsuit she could file if something happened to her or the baby while in his care, but what else could he do? People bit the hand extended to help them all the time. It was a risk he had to take.
With the Escalade in position Garret got out, the blast of cold air actually feeling good on his adrenaline-heated body. Leave it to him to stumble upon a pregnant woman on a night like this.
He pulled open the VW’s door and, for the second time that night, he inhaled evergreens and spices he couldn’t identify. But it was the quiet sobs tearing out of the woman’s chest that broke his heart.
“What’s wrong? Did something else happen?”Don’t let her water have broken.
She raised her head and stared at him in surprise, her long lashes spiky with tears. “Y-you came back?”
Back?Humbled, he leaned a shoulder against the roof and reached out to wipe the tears off the cheek closest to him, noting the unbelievable softness of her skin. “Sweetheart, I wouldn’t leave you here like this. I had to turn around and I didn’t want to do it with you in the car in case I ran off the road.”
The woman touched her tongue to her lips, wetting them. What he could see of her expression looked to be a mixture of disbelief, thankfulness and fear.
The stress of the day left him in that instant—work, family problems, the snow and the ridiculously expensive seats. Staring into her tear-streaked face he bit back his questions and anger as to why she was alone, and forced himself to smile. “Tell you what,” he told her, grateful his head was being spared the biting shards of ice since he’d ducked beneath the car roof, “I’ll forgive you for not believing in me if you’ll tell me your name. Deal?”
She laughed abruptly, the gust of sound tear choked and rough. “D-deal.” She gave him a wobbly smile, her cheek moving against his hand. “I’m Darcy, Darcy Rhodes.”
“Garret Tulane.” He dropped his palm from her face and took her fingers in his, squeezing gently. “Nice to meet you, Darcy.” Shaking once, he let go but didn’t move away. “You’re not alone, okay? Not anymore. But we do have a major problem.”
Darcy’s brave face crumpled for a moment before she pulled herself together with a deep inhalation and a courageous nod. She looked down at her stomach, her hands roaming over the mound in rapid strokes indicative of her state of mind.
“You don’t have a cell signal, either, do you?”
“No, but I do have OnStar and I contacted the hospital. It’s small and they don’t have an ambulance available right now. Which means even though I’m a stranger, you’re going to have to trust me enough to let me drive you there. Think you can do that?”
