Angel Baby (2 page)

A baby? She was having a baby?
Forgetting he was
squatting, Chase jerked back, lost his balance, and landed on his ass on the
ground next to her. She smiled slightly at him as he stared dumbly into her
face. Shifting his gaze, he saw that she wore a long, heavy wool coat,
unbuttoned, which hung loose, concealing most of her body. When the woman straightened,
brushed the dirt off her hands, and reached around to rub her lower back, he
got a good look at the rest of her. Her stomach was about the biggest he’d ever
seen in his life.

“Good God in heaven, lady, are you out of your mind?”

Chase quickly scrambled to his feet and took her hand to
help her up. Her fingers felt cold and fragile, and he immediately gentled his
touch. Sliding his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her to her feet. Her body
quivered as she leaned into him.

“How close together?” he asked, his voice interrupting the
silence in a harsh whisper.

“Seems like they don’t stop,” she whispered back.

Chase cursed silently and lifted a hand to her chin. Tipping
her face up, he saw with dismay that her mouth was tensing again. A solitary tear
slid out of her eye, making a path down her soft cheek. And somewhere, from
deep inside, he heard her release one single whimper.

“Heaven help us,” he muttered as he bent down and swung one
arm behind the woman’s legs and swept her up.

“No,” she ordered. “Put me down. I’m too heavy.”

Ignoring her, Chase turned and strode toward the gate. Trying
not to focus on her face as it curled into those tight lines of pain again, he
instead concentrated on getting her to his truck. He felt her body tense in his
arms. Her long coat fell to her sides, and Chase could see that huge mound of
stomach turn as hard as a boulder beneath the thin cotton of her maternity
blouse. She arched her back, probably not even conscious she was doing it, but
Chase never loosened his hold on her.

“Put me down,” the woman insisted again, pushing each word
out on an angry breath.

“Shut up and breathe,” Chase ordered.

As they reached his truck, Chase felt her tense arms and
shoulders relax slightly. He gently lowered her to the ground as he grabbed for
his keys.

“You shouldn’t have carried me,” she said as she leaned back
against the hood, drawing in deep breaths and raising her face toward the night
sky. “I’ve gained more than thirty pounds with this baby.”

Chase thrust the key in the lock, yanked the door open and
retorted, “You couldn’t have weighed much more than an eight year old to start
with, then. Other than that stomach of yours, you’re nothing but skin and
bones.”

She didn’t say anything as Chase gently helped her slide
into the passenger seat. He ran around the truck and jumped in on the driver’s
side.

“Lady, this is a brand new truck, so don’t you dare let your
water break all over my shiny leather seats,” he said, hoping his harsh tone
distracted her. And covered his fear for her.

The woman smiled slightly, shaking her head without opening
her eyes. “This is my first baby,” she replied, “and I’m not exactly sure how
this is supposed to work. But I really don’t think I have much control over when
my water...Oh, no!”

Chase glanced over and saw her features tensing with another
coming pain, then quickly looked at his watch. This contraction had started
only two minutes after the last one ended.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered as he started the truck, threw
it into reverse and revved the engine.

“No, please,” she whispered hoarsely. “I’ve got to...my
back...”

Chase watched in dismay as the woman turned in her seat,
rose to her knees and fell forward, allowing her stomach to drop before her.
There was no way he could drive with her kneeling like this. Considering how
nervous he was, all it would take would be one fast curve on these winding
country roads and she’d be right out the windshield.

Feeling helpless, Chase flipped on the overhead light.
Working purely on instinct, he turned to face her. The first thing he noticed
was her thick mane of brown hair, shot through with auburn highlights. He
gently brushed a few long strands from her eyes, then placed his hand, palm
down, on the small of her back, and pushed gingerly.

“Yes, please,” she hissed.

He increased the pressure. She pushed up against his palm.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, he heard her deep sigh and saw her body
relax. She nodded once, then straightened in her seat with two last deep
breaths.

 “It’s back labor,” she explained softly as she buckled her
seat belt low on her hips. “My doctor told me the baby was facing the wrong
way, but that she’d probably turn in plenty of time.”

“Back labor. Great. Just great,” Chase muttered. “What is
wrong with you, anyway? Why would you come out here alone this late in your
pregnancy?”

“I’m not due until next month.”

Chase calmed down slightly, knowing that babies didn’t
always come when they were expected. But still, if this helpless looking woman
were carrying his child, he wouldn’t be more than ten yards from her side.

Chase took advantage of the bright interior of the truck to
more carefully look at her. He found himself staring at the cloud of reddish-brown
curls surrounding her pale face. Her cheekbones were high above her hollow
cheeks, and her full lips quivered. Slowly, the woman turned her face to look
gratefully up at him, and Chase found himself lost in the depths of the
greenest eyes he'd ever seen. She smiled shakily, then leaned her head back
with a deep sigh.

"Good idea," he muttered, "try to get some
rest. You need to re-gain your strength between each one."

The enormity of the situation descended on Chase as he
acknowledged she was close to having her baby, here, forty miles from the
nearest hospital. And Chase was the only one around to help her. The thought
scared the hell out of him.

“There's no excuse for you to be out here all alone.
Anything could have happened. What if that heap you’re driving had broken down?
Where’s your family? Your husband?”

“He’s the reason I’m here,” she admitted. “I had to come one
more time, to let him know I’m okay, and that I plan to name our daughter
Sarah, after his mother.”

Chase stared at her in disbelief, but she didn’t seem to
notice his reaction. She breathed softly, her hand wearily rubbing her neck.
Chase glanced past her, out the window to the lonely spot ...where she’d been
visiting her husband.

Chase felt a sharp stab of sympathy strike him, as he began
to understand the haunted look of sorrow he’d noticed in her pain-filled green
eyes.

“We’d better get out of here quickly,” she said. “I don’t
know how much longer we have.”

Chase glanced at the woman, knowing she was right. Flipping
off the overhead light, he put the truck in gear and took off. As they exited
the parking lot, he glanced in his rearview mirror, noticing his forgotten
bunch of flowers lying where he’d dropped them. The black iron gate they’d just
walked through swung lightly in the breeze. They’d neglected to latch it. He
didn’t think it mattered much.

The silent occupants in the lonely graveyard wouldn’t mind.

“How much longer?” Claudia asked, gasping for breath as
another pain finally eased its tenacious grip on her insides. It had been bad
before; now that she was buckled into the seat and had no way to relieve the
pain in her back, she felt like screaming every time the familiar tightening
began.

“At least another half an hour. But at least we’ve made it
to the highway, no more twisty country roads. And once we get to the outskirts
of Shelbyville, I’ll call for help. There’s no sense in trying right now; I
know from past experience that my cell phone is worthless reach here in the
mountains.”

Claudia shook her head in dismay. She couldn’t stand another
half hour in the cab of this truck.
Stupid
. She’d been so stupid! How
could she have ignored what her body had been telling her all day?

“I can’t...”

“You can,” the man insisted. “You have to. I’m sure as hell
not going to end up on the evening news as the stupid guy of the week who can’t
get the woman to the hospital on time."

Claudia smiled slightly, glad the man continued acting
flippant and unconcerned. She knew he was anything but. She didn’t know who he
was, where he’d come from, but she could see by the rigid set of his body, by
the way he leaned forward in his seat as if urging the truck to go faster, that
he was very concerned. But if he’d said that, if he’d sympathized, or panicked,
or been kind and consoling, she might have given in to fear and despair. His
casual demeanor, even his callousness, gave her strength, and Claudia blessed
him for it.

She didn’t bless him for long. As another contraction ripped
into her she let loose a string of curse words she didn’t even know she knew,
most of them directed at the man in the seat next to her who could not, would
not, make the pain stop.

She wasn’t going to make it. Chase glanced at the clock,
wondering why he even bothered to keep track. The contractions were constant,
rolling over her in unrelenting waves, and she was in agony. He saw her writhe
on the seat, seeking relief from the pain in her back, and knew she needed to
change positions. She drifted into a mild delirium with each pain. Chase
suspected she would never remember some of her rantings.

As soon as he saw the road sign indicating his own exit,
Chase realized his cellular phone should be within tower range. If he called
for help, maybe an ambulance could meet them halfway. At least then the woman
would have paramedics to help her deliver the baby.

“I’m going to call for help now. Hold on, all right?” he
muttered as he reached around her to take the phone from the glove box. She
didn’t respond as he quickly dialed for emergency services.

“I need an ambulance to meet me on highway 28. I’m about twenty
miles south of Milltown, and I have a woman with me who is about to give
birth.”

“Get me out of this truck now!” the woman next to him
bellowed, causing Chase to nearly drop the phone.

Thinking quickly, Chase said to the dispatcher, “Listen, I
live just off exit nineteen. She can’t stay in this truck, and I’m about a mile
from the exit. I’m taking her to my house. You can send the ambulance there.”

Chase quickly gave his address, then dropped the phone, just
as the woman breathed a deep shaky breath and sagged against his side. He
curled his right arm around her shoulders protectively, wanting to give her
comfort, but totally at a loss as to how to do it. He’d certainly never been in
this situation before. About the closest he’d ever been to birth was watching
an alley cat having kittens while curled up in a drainpipe. And that had been
twenty years ago, when he was ten.

“Where...”

“We’re going to my house,” Chase answered feeling her body
instantly stiffen beneath his arm.

“Don’t go panicking on me, lady. I’m not kidnapping you, or
anything. I just figured we’d be better off inside, where you can change
positions and we can wait for an ambulance.”

The woman nodded once, looking relieved that she would soon
be out of the jostling truck. She leaned against him, absently rubbing her
cheek against his shirt, as if liking the physical connection…more,
needing
it. Given the fact that her husband was in a grave, and she had been by herself
in the middle of nowhere this late in her pregnancy, he had to wonder if she
really was as alone in the world as she appeared to be.

“What’s your name?” she asked, her voice soft and weary.
“What do I call the man who’s quite possibly saving my life?”

“My name's Chase. What about yours?"

“My friends, all two of them, call me Claude.”

Chase didn’t stop to wonder at her strange comment, for he
suddenly heard her gasp, and felt her body twist against his side. She pulled
away from him, leaning forward in the seat, shaking her head back and forth as
if denying the truth of the situation.

“Come on,
Clod,
you can get through this,” he urged,
trying to find that spark of strength she’d exhibited so far.

“It’s Claude, you jerk,” she managed to whisper. “But only
to my friends. You can call me Claudia.”

Chase suppressed a grin as her spunk returned, then he swung
the truck off the highway toward his house. It was bad luck that Dorien was out
of town this weekend. She would have been a tremendous help, and could have
been waiting for them with boiling water, or alcohol, or whatever else was
required for a woman about to give birth. Not to mention alcohol for a man who
might be about to witness it, whether he wanted to or not.  

“We’re here, now,” Chase said as he pulled the truck into
the long driveway leading up to his house. “You’re just about out of that seat.”

She ignored him, still doing her controlled breathing to try
to ride through the contraction. When he saw her breathing slow and her
shoulders relax, he got out and hurried around to her door. Helping her step
down, he scooped her into his arms.

 “You’re going to give yourself a hernia,” she insisted.

“We’ve been through this. Save your strength,” Chase said as
he carried her up the wide steps onto the broad front porch.

Claudia nodded weakly, glancing at the front of his house.
It was an elegant old restored Federal style home, with tall white columns
across the front, and she gaped at the sight. “I would have pegged you as a
cowboy,” she muttered. “Not lord of the manor.”

Huh. Him? He was no lord of the manor…just a street rat
who’d managed to straighten himself out.

Needing a hand free, Chase let Claudia slide from his arms
while he opened the door. Then he picked her back up and carried her into the
house. He considered bringing her into the living room, to be close to the door
when the ambulance crew arrived, but decided she’d be more comfortable in a
bed. When he'd renovated the house, he’d added a downstairs master suite behind
the old parlor and library to ensure privacy from the four bedrooms upstairs.
It was closest.