LITMIR.BIZ

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      Too late, guys, she’s almost finished, he thought, relieved that this part of Stephanie’s ordeal was almost over.

      The muffled, high-pitched noise caught his attention. Sebastian instinctively raised his eyes to her face for a second. Lips parted, teeth clenched together to keep back any sounds and writhing in pain, Stephanie looked as if she was going to turn purple.

      “You can scream, you know,” he told her. “It actually helps.”

      But she merely shook her head adamantly from side to side, refusing to be reduced to this most common of common denominators. She wasn’t going to allow herself to scream. This wasn’t the way it was going to happen. “No” was all she could manage to expel through her lips without running the risk of doing exactly what she was trying not to do.

      “There you go, Stevi,” he announced, his voice taking on the width and breath of excitement as the infant’s shoulders became visible. With one hand beneath the tiny back to support it, Sebastian eased the baby out.

      “What…what…” Near collapse, Stephanie didn’t have enough strength or breath left within her to form the question.

      She didn’t have to. Sebastian anticipated it. “You have a boy, Stevi. One of each. You and your husband’ll be evenly matched.” He had no idea what made him say that, or what to do with the sharp, hot stab of pain in the center of his chest when he made the remark.

      With both her head and body throbbing from the effort she’d just put forth, Stephanie hardly heard what he was saying. Except that she had a daughter. And a son. Was she going to be equal to them? Was she going to be able to give them everything they needed, the perfect life they would have had before a blue Chevy, jumping the light, had ended Holly and Brett’s lives?

      I’ll try, she silently vowed to people who were not there and to the two who were. I promise I’ll try.

      Her tongue passed over lips that were parched. “Can…I…?”

      Again, Sebastian anticipated the words she was trying to say. “Just give me a second to cut the umbilical cords and you can hold them both if you’re up to it. They’re a little messy,” he warned, knowing it would make no difference to her. Not after what she’d just been through to have them. Despite her father’s efforts and her refined background, Stephanie had never been one to hang back just because everything was not pristine. She could always be counted on to charge in no matter what.

      He supposed it was one of the first things that had attracted him to Stephanie. Her unpretentious zest for life.

      Before Stephanie could summon the energy for a response, the van’s rear doors were suddenly being opened. A glaring sheet of sunlight filled the newly created space, framing the figure of a man in a dark blue uniform who peered into the interior of the vehicle.

      “Everything all right in here?” he asked, coming inside.

      Sebastian reacted the instant the doors were being opened. He threw the hem of Stephanie’s dress back down over her legs before turning to look at the person who was climbing in. The paramedics had arrived. It was time to retreat.

      “Just in time to take the lady and her kids to the hospital,” Sebastian told the older man, moving out of the way.

      Even as he did so, he felt a reluctance taking hold. He wanted to remain, to hang around in case she needed him. Which was exactly why he had to get out. With the paramedics on the scene, there was no excuse he could tender that would allow him to stay, other than his own desire.

      But desire, dormant or not, had no place here. Stephanie was a wife and a mother and he had nothing to do with either.

      The baby he still had in his arms squirmed. Something tightened in his chest. This child could have been his. Stephanie could have been his.

      If he hadn’t been so damnably noble.

      “Sure looks that way,” the paramedic was saying. “And you look like you could use a shirt,” he commented.

      Sebastian looked down. He’d all but forgotten that he’d stripped his shirt off to wrap the first twin in. “I guess I could at that.”

      “I think we’ve got something we can fix you up with in the ambulance. You did a great job—” the man glanced at the opened black bag “—Doc. Took us only fifteen minutes to get here from the time we got the call. You are one fast lady,” he said, giving Stephanie a toothy, genial grin. “Lucky for you he came along.”

      “Lucky,” she murmured, trying to make out whether or not Sebastian was even looking her way. The angle of the invasive light made it difficult for her to make out his expression. Maybe it was better that way, now that the crisis was over.

      Another paramedic, younger than the first, entered the van. “Here, let me take him,” he offered, nodding at the infant in Sebastian’s arms.

      “There’re two,” Sebastian told him, indicating the tiny being in the laundry basket.

      It occurred to him as he surrendered the baby to the paramedic that he’d delivered and held nearly twenty babies so far in his budding career, yet he was far more aware of giving up this one than he had been of the very first infant he’d delivered.

      That little boy should have been his hallmark, not this nameless little creature.

      But then, he hadn’t loved that first baby’s mother as he did this one’s. Once. Sebastian underlined the word firmly in his mind, knowing he would have no peace otherwise.

      What had been was not now. He had to remember that. Seven years had passed. Seven years of sunrises and sunsets, of life moving on.

      “There’re two in here, Murphy,” the second paramedic called out to someone standing outside the van. “Call Bedford General and tell them to get two more bassinets ready.”

      “Harris Memorial,” Stephanie corrected him, relieved that she could gather together enough breath to form more than just a single isolated word at a time. “My doctor’s at Harris Memorial.”

      The older paramedic looked at her apologetically. “Sorry, ma’am, we’ve got to take you to the closest hospital in the area. I don’t have the authority to just arbitrarily pick another—”

      Sebastian cut him off. “I’m on staff at Harris Memorial. Whatever paperwork has to be done to get her there, I’ll take care of it.”

      It was a lie, one he figured he could bluff his way through once the time came. Harris Memorial was the hospital where his application was pending as he waited to be accepted. It wasn’t a done deal yet. But he didn’t want Stephanie subjected to any more undue agitation. In the total scheme of things, he felt he owed it to her.

      The older paramedic exchanged looks with his partner, and then he nodded his assent.

      “Okay, you’re the doc. I’ll square it with dispatch later. Guess that means you’ll be riding along with the mother in the ambulance.” He made the assumption without waiting for a comment.

      Sebastian paused, trapped. It hadn’t been his intention to accompany Stephanie to the hospital. He was just going to step out of the van and out of her life again, returning home with the videos fate had had him come get just at this exact moment in time. But after what he’d just said, he didn’t see that he had much choice in the matter.

      “Guess so,” he agreed. He purposely avoided looking at Stephanie. But he could feel her eyes on him.

      Emerging out of the van, he stepped into a surprising round of applause.

      The people who’d gathered around the initial scene of the accident, including the owner of the black SUV, had obviously all hung around to find out if Stephanie had indeed given birth.

      “What did she have?” someone called out.

      Sebastian didn’t bother trying to attach a face to the voice, merely turned in its direction. “A girl and a boy.”

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