Almost Mine (35 page)
Authors: Lea Darragh
‘Why isn’t she crying,’ I panicked. ‘She should be crying.’
Nick patted her as hard as he could bring himself to, looking down at her as we waited for a response.
She gurgled…
She coughed…
And then in the silence of the surrounding vineyard, of the vast expanse of the still national park that enclosed us in our private miracle moment, our daughter let out an all mighty cry that echoed around us. My sigh of relief could be heard just as audibly; the release of fear of a mother hearing that her baby is ok.
‘Hello there my sweetheart,’ Nick spoke softly to her holding her skin to skin against his chest. ‘Aren’t you just the most beautiful girl in the world? Look at her.’ Nick turned the pink bundle with a head full of chocolate brown hair to show her off. ‘She’s breathtaking.’
I breathed back my elation, but though my shuddered breath was calmed, my tears streamed down my face. ‘What’s her name?’
He gazed down at his daughter and he stemmed his emotion when she slowly blinked once, twice and looked at him as if she knew him, staring deeply into his eyes. And as naturally as he swirled wine in a goblet, he rocked his daughter in his arms. I watched him in wonderment, knowing that he was entirely mine and that I was utterly and completely his. Our miracle baby; well, she was a beautiful representation of the love that we shared and we both knew that we belonged to her rather than her belonging to us. ‘Hello there, Evie Mathieson,’ he murmured quietly to her. ‘You gave me such a fright, baby girl.’
‘Let it out, Nick.’
‘We have a baby, Cate.’ He finally allowed his tears to fall freely. ‘We have a baby.’
‘Come here.’ Holding our daughter protectively to his shoulder, he crawled to me and handed Evie over. ‘Daddy did a great job didn’t he, Evie? He’s going to take such good care of you. Trust me.’
His arms wrapped us up as we gazed down at the miracle that saved us and the sound of approaching sirens echoed around us.
The End.
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ISBN: 978-0-85799-096-9
Title: Almost Mine
Copyright © 2013 by Lea Darragh
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Limited, Locked Bag 7002, Chatswood D.C. NSW, Australia, 2067.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
® and ™ are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and are used under license to the Publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in Australia, New Zealand, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.
