LITMIR.BIZ

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anything. Cody was the only other human being out here and he was going to handle this.

      He put a sympathetic expression on his face. “But what are you doing out here by yourself in your condition?”

      She had no idea what possessed her. She didn’t even remember doing it, but, suddenly, Devon found herself grabbing the front of the inquisitive angel’s shirt and yanking on it with all the strength she had. She yanked on it so hard that she almost dragged him right in through the window.

      “DYING!” she yelled back.

      “So you are having contractions?” the cowboy asked.

      Great, a Rhodes scholar. “What...gave it...away?” she panted, desperately trying to get away from the pain or at least ahead of it. She failed. It insisted on following her.

      Cody ignored the woman’s sarcastic comeback. “How far apart are your contractions?” he asked.

      Devon was arching in her seat. No one had ever said it was going to hurt this badly. “Not...far...ENOUGH!”

      Cody looked out into the horizon, in the direction he’d been riding when he’d heard her screams. Forever was about five, maybe seven, miles away.

      “There’s a clinic in town,” he told her. “I can get you there fast.”

      But all she could do was shake her head—violently—from side to side. He’d never get her there in time. Besides, the idea of movement made everything worse.

      “No...time,” she panted. “Baby...coming... NOOOWWWW!”

      That was what he was afraid of.

      Mentally, Cody rolled up his sleeves. Connor always insisted that they face all their challenges head-on, not hide behind excuses or shirk their responsibilities. This woman obviously needed him.

      Whether he liked it or not, it was just as simple as that. He took a deep, fortifying breath.

      “Okay, then,” Cody told her. “Let’s do this.”

      Maybe he was better than an angel, Devon thought. “You’re...a...doctor?” she asked, digging her nails in the cab’s seat again, bracing herself for what she now knew was coming.

      “No,” Cody answered honestly, “but I helped birth a few calves on the ranch before I became a sheriff’s deputy.”

      Terrific, he was a cowboy. Just her luck. “I’m...having...a...BABYYY,” she cried, arching again, “not...a...CAAALF!”

      Cody did his best to give her a confident smile. “Same difference,” he assured her.

      No, it wasn’t, she thought. Not by a long shot. “I...am...in...so...much...TROUBLE!” Devon screamed, all but biting a hole in her lip.

      “I know this is scary,” he told her.

      “You...don’t...know...the...HALF...OF...IT!” she retorted, trying her best not to give way to hysteria as she dug her nails into his forearm.

      He did what he could to comfort her. “I think I can guess,” he told her, then began to introduce himself. “My name is Cody, and I’ll be delivering your baby today,” he ended with a warm smile.

      At this point, Devon was no longer worrying about whether or not she was hallucinating. If this hallucination could help her get rid of this incredible piercing pain she was experiencing through her lower half, then she was all for it.

      “PLEEEEASE!” she all but begged.

      “What’s your name?” Cody asked as he carefully climbed into the truck’s cab, coming in from the passenger side. He gently shifted her so that she wasn’t behind the steering wheel anymore.

      What difference did her name make? “Are...you...filling...out...a...form?” Devon cried in disbelief.

      “Just thought it’d be easier for both of us if I knew your name before I got personal,” he replied.

      She’d thought that she was way past embarrassment. This was another low. Devon closed her eyes. “Oh...Lord...”

      But the pain ramped up, becoming so intense that she was quickly at the point where she would do anything to get beyond it. “DEVON! MY NAME’S DEVON!”

      “Nice to meet you, Devon.” He braced himself for what he was about to say and do. “I’m going to have to have to lift up your skirt.”

      She knew that. He didn’t have to narrate his actions, she thought in mounting agitation. She just wanted this to be over. If this baby wasn’t coming out soon, Devon was certain that she was going to die out here in the middle of nowhere.

      “Say...that...to...all...the...girls?” she managed to get out without screaming at him.

      “Just the pregnant ones I find in abandoned trucks on the side of the road,” he said dryly.

      Feeling somewhat awkward about it, Cody slipped the woman’s underwear off, all the while telling himself that this was nothing personal, that he had to do it in order to help her bring this baby into the world.

      As he drew the material off her legs, he glanced at the hand that was clutching at him. It was the woman’s left hand and he saw that there was a ring on it. Not a wedding ring, but a rather tiny engagement ring. At least, he assumed that’s what it was. The stone at the center was missing.

      He couldn’t help wondering if the baby’s father was just temporarily missing from this scene—or if there was more to the story than that.

      It was a story that was going to have to wait for another day, Cody told himself. From what he saw, Devon appeared to be completely dilated and ready to become a mother.

      “You’re going to have to bear down and start pushing now,” he told her.

      She didn’t answer him. And then he realized why. As he saw the perspiration popping out all along her brow, she ground out a bloodcurdling noise.

      Cody saw that she was already complying with his instructions.

       Chapter Two

      Devon’s face had turned a bright shade of red. In Cody’s estimation, she was pushing too hard and too long. She had to take a break. Otherwise he had a feeling that she was going to rupture something.

      “Okay, now rest,” he told her. She didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes were screwed shut and her face was growing even redder. “Stop pushing!” Cody ordered more loudly.

      Worn-out, Devon fell back against the seat, her hair damp and plastered against her brow. She was panting really hard.

      “You...tell...the...cow...that...too?” she gasped.

      Devon couldn’t remember ever feeling this exhausted. She’d pushed so hard, she was seeing spots dancing before her eyes.

      “No. I saw this on a medical drama on TV,” he confessed. It was the summer he’d broken his leg and was laid up with nothing else to do. He’d picked up a lot of miscellaneous information that came in handy at the oddest times. Like now.

      “Better...and...better,” Devon retorted. This would have been funny if she wasn’t so scared and in so much pain.

      The next second, she went rigid again as another scream pierced the air. Without waiting for him to say anything, she began to bear down again.

      Cody knew better than to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary, so he counted the seconds off out loud.

      When she’d gone past the limit, he ordered, “Stop!”

      This creature inside her—she’d ceased thinking of it as a baby—had taken charge of her body and she couldn’t control the urge to push it out.

      “I...CAN’T!”

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