LITMIR.BIZ

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       CHAPTER THREE

      CAMERON LET OUT a long cry full of dismay and fear, and Gabby held her hand tighter. “Hang in there, Cameron. Rafael’s getting his fingers under the cord.”

      Gabby kept her voice calm and quiet but her chest squeezed hard when she saw the cord wasn’t just around the baby’s neck, it was wrapped round a full three times between her collarbone and her tiny chin. Dear God, this was the last thing a preterm newborn already bound to be in distress should go through.

      Throat tight, she watched Rafael carefully wiggle his fingers between the cord and the baby’s neck. Gabby was pretty sure she didn’t breathe at all as the long, tense seconds passed while he worked gently to loosen it.

      “What’s happening?” Cameron asked in a high-pitched voice. “Is...is she okay? Oh, God.”

      “Working on it. Hold on.”

      His fingers finally loosened the cord enough to slip it over the baby’s head, and air spilled from Gabby’s lungs in a relieved whoosh. “Cord’s clear now, Cameron. Get ready.”

      “Looks like she’s been doing synchronized swimming in there to get so tangled up,” Rafael said as he flashed a quick grin.

      How he managed to look so completely collected, Gabby wasn’t sure, and hoped she always exuded the same calm confidence whenever she had to deal with a tricky situation. “Rafael has her head and shoulders now. One more big push, okay?”

      “Good. Perfect. And...here she is!” Rafael had the infant in his hands, his dazzling smile lighting up the room as he held her. “You were magnifico! Bravo!”

      Gabby quickly laid a towel on Cameron’s chest so Rafael could briefly place the baby there for Cameron to see her for just a moment as the neonatal team swooped into the room. Cameron looked down at the tiny little face, not a good color yet, still too purple, but Gabby’s heart lifted when she saw the infant was already pinking up.

      “My sweet precious,” Cameron whispered. Two wide eyes stared back at her, and the new mother promptly burst into noisy tears that pulled hard at Gabby’s heart. “I love you so much. Please be okay. Please be healthy and normal and not damaged because I didn’t eat enough and worked too much and squeezed my belts too tight when you were growing. Worrying about myself instead of you. Please, Skye. Please be the perfect angel I dreamed you would be.”

      Skye. Cameron had airily claimed she had no idea what she’d name her baby, but Gabby had always suspected she just hadn’t been ready to share it. And as she looked at the tiny, scrawny baby’s blue eyes, she got choked up herself, knowing so well the guilt Cameron felt. Worries she hadn’t shared with Gabby. And she understood. Because she, too, didn’t share her guilt with anyone.

      * * *

      Skye was exactly the right choice for the new life in front of her. A pure and precious gift, like any baby was to its mother. Even those who never had their chance to grow up.

      “Skye is a beautiful name.” Gabby gently wiped Cameron’s perspiring brow once more, thinking how the woman looked more beautiful at that moment than all the times her makeup was immaculate and her hair perfectly done by her professional stylists. Having worked so hard to bring her baby into the world, she looked vulnerable and scared and more like a real person than Gabby had ever seen her—not at all the ultra-confident screen persona and diva actress she projected to the world most of the time.

      For a moment, she let herself watch a little longer. To see Skye whisked to the heat lamp by the neonatal team, a bulb suction quickly clearing her nose before the small oxygen mask was placed over her head. To marvel at the little body being cleaned up and swaddled tight as Gabby would have done if the baby hadn’t had the stress of the cord scare added to her being so premature.

      Then she didn’t want to watch anymore. She turned to focus back on Cameron and caught Rafael’s eye. An eye that seemed to be searching right into her very soul, seeing far too much, and she quickly turned away from that unnerving green gaze.

      “She is so beautiful, Cameron,” she said, wishing her voice wasn’t tight with unshed tears. “Hard work bringing her into the world, I know. But now she’s here, you can spoil her rotten.”

      “Yes,” Cameron said in a wobbly voice as she watched the neonatal team take Skye from the room to the NICU. “Yes, I plan to do just that.”

      * * *

      “You did great,” Rafael said. “I’m not surprised that the real Cameron Fontaine is even more of a warrior than the parts you play.” The smile he gave the actress looked so sincere, Gabby wasn’t sure if he meant it or if he was as good an actor as their patient.

      “Thank you,” Cameron said, but without the preening she usually responded with when given a compliment. “But what if she’s not all right?”

      “No worries until we have to worry, right? What is it you Americans say? Don’t borrow trouble?” Another flash of white teeth. “I will get you fixed up, then we’ll see if we can sneak you in to see your bebé, and ask the doctors how she is doing. Okay?”

      Cameron simply nodded, her lip trembling, and Gabby wanted to distract her from her worries. Maybe distract herself a little too. “You must be hungry after all that hard work. How about I get you a bite to eat? What sounds good?”

      “Just crackers or something. And maybe juice. Do you have orange juice?”

      “You want it, we’ve got it.” Which was pretty much true, as the clinic had more different kinds of food and drinks to offer patients than the biggest restaurant in L.A.

      Trying to think about food instead of everything else occupying her mind, Gabby could hear Rafael’s deep voice chatting with Cameron as she left the room. She’d already seen he was good with patients, seeming to know when they needed to be firmly told what to do, and when they needed comfort or distraction instead. And, yes, she’d also seen he wasn’t all arrogant, full of himself princely fluff. That might be a part of him, but there was no denying he was an excellent medical doctor too.

      Which, dang it, were all unfortunate realizations, because it had been much easier to ignore the man’s overwhelming mojo when she’d thought he was just a handsome, royal jerk.

      She concentrated on figuring out what might appeal to Cameron, to focus on work, which was how she always coped when something happened to yank her back in time. But how could she deny that concentrating on Rafael Moreno for a moment instead was an awfully appealing distraction?

      Promising herself she wouldn’t look at said distraction as she walked back to the room with a tray, she stopped dead in the doorway. For one heart-stopping moment she thought Rafael and Cameron were in an embrace, and she stared as a horrifying thought followed. Which was that the man was taking advantage of his beautiful patient at a vulnerable time.

      Then her heart jerkily started up again when she realized that Cameron was sobbing, tears streaking down her cheeks as she rested her head against Rafael’s broad shoulder, her hands clutching his scrub shirt. That his large hand gently stroking her damp hair back from her face was meant to comfort and soothe. Soft and beautiful Spanish words were coming from his beautifully shaped lips, and though Gabby’s knowledge of the language wasn’t as good as it should have been, she recognized them as words of praise and reassurance.

      Oh. My. In her years as a midwife, working with doctors of all kinds, she’d seen many who were wonderful with patients. But this? This was something entirely new to her experience. This man was one lethal combination of excellent medical skill, patient care, and soothing empathy, with movie-star good looks on top of it all.

      A sudden vision of his big, tanned hand pushing back her own hair, cupping her jaw before lowering those sensual lips to hers nearly stopped her breath. At that moment, he seemed to realize she’d come just inside the door and looked up. Still holding Cameron, patting her shoulder, his attention somehow seemed to be one hundred

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