LITMIR.BIZ

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dreaded her arrival in the nursery—especially today, because it meant leaving Joey in the hospital while she went home to her parents’ house.

      “I don’t want to leave him,” Maya said, holding her son a little closer.

      “I know, but he needs to go back to the incubator now. It won’t be long,” Cat said as she rearranged the blankets in Joey’s incubator. “Then he’ll be able to go home with you.”

      Maya bent and kissed her precious little boy before grudgingly transferring him to Cat’s arms. Joey sighed, wriggled a little, then let out a satisfied gurgle.

      “’Bye for now, sweetie,” Maya said softly. “I’ll see you at feeding time.”

      “You’ll probably want to give him a bottle for the next several feedings since you’re going home today,” Cat reminded her.

      Maya bit her lip, watching as Cat settled Joey in the incubator. The last thing she wanted to do was leave her baby to the care of the nurses, no matter how competent and caring they were. But she didn’t have much choice. Her insurance wasn’t going to pay for her to stay any longer since her doctor had said she was fit to leave.

      Cat had said she could visit Joey anytime, but it was a poor substitute for having her little boy with her.

      “I know how you feel,” Cat said sympathetically. “But Dr. Kerrigan says he’s doing so well, he’ll be out of here real soon. You’ll see, the time will fly by.”

      Maya doubted it but she forced herself to smile at Cat before carefully levering herself out of the rocker. Her insides still felt weak and tender and her back and neck tended to stiffen up when she sat for too long. “I guess I’d better find something to wear besides this hospital gown,” she said. Pausing by the incubator, she touched the glass, tears welling in her eyes as she watched her baby sleeping.

      “Is someone picking you up?” Cat asked.

      “No. Actually I hadn’t thought about it.” Val had come back yesterday afternoon and brought her some clothes from the suitcases packed in her Jeep, but the Jeep itself was still sitting in a local tow yard, useless. She doubted the doctor would release her knowing she was going to drive herself, anyway. That meant she’d have to impose on Val and Paul and hope they wouldn’t mind giving her a ride to her parents’ house. And first thing there, she’d have to arrange for a rental if she was going to spend as much time as possible at the hospital with Joey.

      “Go ahead and call Val,” Cat suggested. “Paul’s off shift, he won’t mind—oh, there’s Sawyer.” She waved, drawing Maya’s eyes to the nursery window.

      Sawyer stood on the other side of the glass, hands in the pockets of his faded jeans, watching her. In a leather jacket and boots and his hair wind-ruffled, he looked nothing like her rescuer of four days past and everything like those dangerous fantasies his voice suggested.

      Maya’s knees suddenly felt weak and she nearly sat back down in the rocker again. What was he doing here?

      “You back again?” Cat asked him, going to the nursery door. She turned to Maya. “He’s been here every day since the accident, checking on Joey.” Grinning at Sawyer, she gestured to Joey. “He’s fine, but his mom’s not too happy about going home without him. Since you’re here, maybe you could walk Maya back to her room.”

      “Oh, that’s all right, I can…” Feeling her face grow hot, Maya wondered if Sawyer felt as awkward as she did about Cat’s suggestion. She couldn’t read his expression, but she guessed the last thing he wanted right now was to play nursemaid to her. Then she realized she’d been staring at him again and quickly averted her gaze, deciding she couldn’t do much more to embarrass herself at this particular moment.

      “Actually I came to see you,” Sawyer said easily. “Paul told me you were going home today, and since you don’t have a car, I thought you could use a ride.”

      “Uh, well, I—” Maya began, but Cat interrupted.

      “That’s great,” she said. “We were just talking about how she was going to get home. Now, problem solved.”

      Far from it, Maya thought, but not wanting to argue in front of Cat, she turned to caress the glass of Joey’s incubator one last time before gathering her hospital-issue robe more firmly around her and walking out of the nursery to face Sawyer. “You don’t need to rescue me this time. I’m sure I can find a way home,” she said as they started walking back toward her room.

      “Save yourself the trouble,” he said shortly. “I just got off shift and I’m on my way home. I can easily drop you at your parents’ house.”

      Sawyer told himself this was the last thing he’d do for her. He’d see her safely to her parents’ home and that would be it. He was saving Val and Paul a trip to the hospital to get her, so his offer to drive Maya was really nothing more than a favor to friends. Besides, he’d been coming to the hospital anyway to check on Joey. It wasn’t as if he was going out of his way.

      He caught Maya looking sideways at him as they waited for an elevator and figured he probably looked more than a little tired and out of sorts. It was no wonder she was reluctant to go anywhere with him.

      “Look, I’m sorry if I snapped. It’s been a long week already and I haven’t had my transfusion of caffeine yet this morning.” He tried a smile. “Why don’t we start over? I’ll be glad to give you a ride home as long as we can stop for coffee and bacon and eggs on the way. What?” he said when she grimaced. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those health-food freaks who only drinks weed tea and refuses to eat anything that used to breathe.”

      “Okay, I won’t tell you,” Maya said, flashing him a smile in return that lit up her eyes and temporarily banished the shadows from her face. The elevator opened and he followed her inside. “But I won’t deny you your drug of choice.”

      “So does that mean we’re outta here?”

      “Just as soon as I lose this lovely hospital gown and sign whatever stacks of papers they have waiting,” Maya said. The elevator shuddered to a stop and he walked her to her door, where she stopped him by touching her fingers to his arm. “One thing, though.”

      Sawyer looked down at her and decided at this point it didn’t much matter what she asked. He’d committed himself to helping her, at least for today. “One thing?”

      She nodded. “I’ll accept your offer of a ride. But you have to let me do something for you in return.”

      And before he could ask what that might be, she smiled and ducked inside her room and closed the door.

      Chapter Three

      “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Sawyer said nearly two hours later as he followed her, pushing a cart, through the organic-foods market. Instead of the café, she’d managed to talk him into stopping at this new-age excuse for a grocery market, offering him breakfast at her parents’ house in exchange for helping her stock the shelves.

      He’d agreed only because he figured she needed the supplies and, without a car, she’d have a hard time getting them. And she’d also reluctantly agreed to let him pick up breakfast at the café after shopping.

      But watching her, Sawyer was beginning to regret giving in to her. She hadn’t bothered with makeup, and in loose-fitting jeans and an oversize gray sweater, her hair loosely pulled back, she looked small and pale and unequal to a half an hour of grocery shopping, let alone the demands of time and strength raising a baby alone would take.

      “You shouldn’t be on your feet this much,” he said. “You just got out of the hospital.”

      “That’s the fifth time you’ve mentioned that,” Maya told him as she reached for a container of yogurt. “Like I said, I’m fine. It’s good for me to get up. If I sit too long, I get so stiff I can’t move at all. Besides, it won’t be too much longer and I’ll be getting up all

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