LITMIR.BIZ

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to check if the rest of the world was still there after this miracle had taken place. “I need to get a knife to cut the umbilical cord.” He looked at Eve uncertainly. “Will you be okay if I leave you for a couple of minutes?” he asked.

      The bonding was instantaneous, as was the surge of motherly pride and love. Eve couldn’t get herself to tear her eyes away from this brand-new human being in her arms even for a second.

      “We’ll be fine, won’t we, Brooklyn?” she asked the infant.

      About to leave, the name stopped Adam cold in his tracks. He looked at her over his shoulder. “Brooklyn?” he echoed.

      Eve nodded. Very gingerly, she skimmed her fingertips along the baby’s clenched fist. Five fingers, there were five fingers, she assured herself. On both hands. She’d never felt anything so soft, she thought. Like snowflakes. Precious, precious snowflakes.

      “My father was born there,” she explained. “I always liked the sound of the name.”

      “Brooklyn,” he repeated, rolling it over on his tongue. Looking back at her and the baby, he slowly nodded. “Not bad.” But right now, the baby and Eve were still very much attached. He needed to sterilize a knife and separate them. “I’ll be right back,” he promised.

      Still looking at her daughter’s face, Eve smiled. “We’re not going anywhere.”

      He had to admit he liked the sound of that.

      The moment he left, Eve raised her eyes to the doorway to be sure that he was gone.

      “That was your father,” she whispered to the infant in her arms. “He’s a little unusual and he needs some work, but maybe with you here, we can fix him and make him into a good dad.” She took a deep, fortifying breath. Her lungs had finally stopped aching. “At least it’s worth a try.”

      She knew it was the euphoria talking, but it gave her something to hang on to.

      Adam was back faster than she thought possible. As he’d said, he had a knife in his hand. But the look on his face as he regarded her was slightly dubious, as if he wasn’t happy with what he was about to do.

      “What’s wrong?” Eve asked.

      He regarded the knife and then her. He had no problem digging out a bullet in his own arm, but the thought of using a knife on her for any reason suddenly didn’t seem like such a good idea.

      “I don’t know if this is going to hurt. Either of you,” he added.

      Considering what she’d just gone through, she felt she was pretty much beyond hurt. “Just do it and get it over with.”

      But he made no move to comply. “Maybe I should wait for the paramedics.”

      “What paramedics?” The euphoric bubble around her burst. Her eyes widened. When had he had time to place the call? “You called the paramedics?”

      “Yes.” He’d made the call in the kitchen. “I can’t just toss the two of you into the back of my car or have you ride to the hospital on the handlebars of my motorcycle.” The last was just an exaggeration. He had no motorcycle, at least, not here.

      As far as she was concerned, the discussion was all just moot. “Why do we have to ride anything to the hospital?” she argued. “It’s over, the baby’s here.” As she referred to her daughter, she couldn’t suppress the smile that came to her lips.

      “You both need to be checked out,” he told her in a no-nonsense voice that said this wasn’t up for debate.

      Exhausted though she was, Eve felt her back go up. Where did he get off, telling her what she was supposed to do? “Nobody put you in charge.”

      “I got the position by default because you’re not being sensible,” he informed her. Seeing her frown, he added diplomatically, “It’s understandable. You’ve just been through an ordeal and condensed eighteen hours of labor into about ten minutes flat. Anyone would have been addled by that—”

      She cut him off. “I’m not addled, I’m fine. We’re both fine,” she insisted, looking at her daughter who now dozed. “And we don’t need to go to the hospital.” She just wanted to be left alone to enjoy her daughter. And rest.

      His eyes narrowed. Something was off. For an ordinarily sensible woman, she was protesting too much. “What are you afraid of?”

      “I’m not afraid,” Eve retorted, but he kept on watching her as if he didn’t believe her, as if he was waiting for her to tell him the truth. She pressed her lips together and looked up toward the ceiling. It kept the tears from flowing. “The last time I was in a hospital, it was to see the E.R. doctor pronounce my father dead. I just don’t think I can handle being there.”

      The sound of approaching sirens pushed their way into the stillness, swelling in volume.

      “Too late,” Adam told her. “Besides, this is a completely different situation. Don’t you want to know if Brooklyn’s all right?” he asked her. With his free hand, he stroked the baby’s head ever so gently. Something warm moved through him. He felt fiercely protective of this little being, instinctively knowing that he would kill for her if it came down to that. “I mean, she looks perfect, but just to be sure, you need to have a pediatrician confirm that.”

      She didn’t think it was possible, not after all Adam had put her through, not after all the disappointment she’d felt when she discovered that he’d been lying to her the whole time they’d spent together, but her heart softened to hear him call their daughter perfect.

      And she knew he was right. Her baby needed to be checked out by a doctor.

      Much as she didn’t want to, she had to go to the hospital, not for herself, but for her baby’s sake. For Brooklyn.

      She nodded toward the knife he’d brought. “I want you to cut the cord before they get here.”

      “Okay.”

      With one quick, clean movement, he severed the physical connection between mother and child. The moment Adam placed the knife down, he heard the front doorbell ringing.

      “Looks like the cavalry has arrived,” he told her. Turning on his heel, he left the room to admit the paramedics.

      “No,” she said softly to her daughter, glancing toward Adam’s retreating back, “the cavalry’s already here.”

      Rather than riding with Eve and the baby in the ambulance, or opting to go back home now that he’d helped Eve give birth to their baby, Adam decided to follow the ambulance to the hospital in his car.

      Arriving at the hospital a half beat behind the paramedics, he left his vehicle parked in the lot designated for emergency room patients and stood at the back of the ambulance before the doors even opened. When they did, the first thing he saw was Eve’s face. She was looking for him. When their eyes met, her smile widened.

      It still got to him, that thousand-watt smile that always seemed to light up the room, or, in this case, the inside of the ambulance.

      And the inside of him.

      He supposed there was only so much a heart could be hardened.

      This wasn’t good, he admonished in the next moment. He needed a clear head to do what he was doing. Any distraction could prove fatal, not just to his operation, but to him, as well. He shouldn’t be here.

      Eve didn’t need him. She was in professional hands now. These people were trained for this. They could more than take care of her and anything that she needed. As long as Eve was here, in the middle of a bustling hospital, she’d be out of harm’s way.

      Besides, as far as he actually knew, no one in this region knew about their connection. His connection, the self-centered college student, Sederholm, didn’t know about Eve. This was all a preemptive strike on his part.

      But he lived the life too long to be at ease, to hope

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