Concealed Attractions (Cedar Island Tales) (44 page)

The
baby gasp
ed
and let out a
weak
cry
, followed by another
, stronger
this time
.

As
they
watched
,
enraptured
,
the
newborn
seemed
to
look
around the room
and
cried again, this time
lustily.
Danni
reached for
her son
an
d Ben
placed
the
tiny
wet b
ab
y in her
arms. “Here, let’s wrap him up.” H
e
covered the
newborn
with a
dry
towel
.

Danni’s
face was shining with sweat
and wonder
. “He’s
so
beautiful,” she cooed, and wiped
a skim of blood off the top of his head
with one finger
. “His hair
. W
hat color
is it
?
”

“
It
’s hard to tell
wet, but
maybe lighter than yours.”
Ben
watched
as
the baby
settle
d
in her arms
then
looked intently at
Danni’s
face as she
murmur
ed
to
him
.

After a few minutes,
the baby
began to root.

“
He wants to nurse,
Danni
.
Mark
did the
sam
e thing right after he was born.
I
t
’ll
help bring down the afterbirth.
”
He leaned over the two of them, taking in the tableau, his heart
full to burst
ing.
This must be what fatherhood feels like. No wonder
Jason
wouldn’t leave
Julie
’s room after Natty was born.
He wiped a
forearm
across his
face
. It came away wet from his tears
.

Danni
moved the baby closer to her breast. After some fumbling, he latched on and began t
o suckle.

“Wow! Is he strong!” S
he
gazed
up
at Ben
, seeming to remember him for the first time since she’d returned to the bed
.

He
ran to the kitchen an
d came back with a metal pan,
scissor
s
,
a package of sterile gloves
and the sterilized
shoelace
s
he had placed in a baggy—for good luck, he
’d
told
Danni
when they’d joked about him catching the baby on the beach
.
A few minutes later, he
caught the afterbirth in
the
pan
.
When the cord was no longer pulsating, he
double-
tied and then cut it
and sat back with a quick sigh
.

“I’ll be right back.”
He
returned to the kitchen and c
alled Doctor
Wright’s
after-hours
answering service
.
The next call he made was to
Anna
.

“Hello?” Her voice was muffled and sleep-tinged.

Maybe he should have waited. It wasn’t yet dawn.
“
It’s Ben.
I know it’s early,
Mrs. Kelly
,
but c
ongratulations
.
May I be the first to call you Grandma?
You have a beautiful grandson. Wanna come over and see him?” Ben
looked
at the
clock
, his heart finally slowing down
to close
r
to a normal pace
.
It was
three
a.m
.

“Oh, yes!  What room is she in?”

Ben laughed. “We never made it to the hospital.
Danni
just popped him out on her own
,
about
twenty
minutes ago. We’re still home.
I’d have you talk to her, but the
phone
cord won’t reach into the bedroom.
”

“I’ll come over a bit later.
Oh! This is wonderful! Give her a big hug for me.
”

“
Will do
.
I’ll tell her.
See you then.” 
He
returned to
the bedroom
after
grabbing the camera from his bag
.

But before he could begin snapping pictures,
Danni
beckoned him with her free hand.

“
He just gave me a
big poopy
gift.”
She
pointed to the puddle of
dark
sticky fluid on the bed next to her.

Ben
grinn
ed.
“
That tells us h
is insides are working
.
Let me clean him up.”
Ben gather
ed
the baby in his arms and carried him over to the dresser, glad his diapers and shirts were stacked nearby.

“Good
idea
.”
Danni
walked unsteadily into the bathroom and turned on the water in the shower. She
returned to the bedroom,
pu
lled
on a clean nightgown
and started
to strip
off the
bed
sheets and the
stained
towels.
Ben handed her the baby, now sporting a diaper
and shirt and wrapped
like a cocoon
in the blanket her mother had given them.

“Sit down,
Danni
. Just hold him and nurse him. He
look
s like he wants so
me more. I’ll take care of this.
”

He
finished stripping the bed, tucked in clean sheets
and helped
Danni
into
the bed
. The
moon was
shining weakly through
the
fog
shrouding
the
nearby
trees.

“You
really
did it.” He kissed her
on her forehead and
then
on her lips
, his heart filled with
love
. “Just like you said you
would
.”
Then he began snapping pictures.

“It happened so fast. I thou
ght I was just tired, and then
he
came.”

“
You
must hav
e been in early labor yesterday,
when your back was hurting.” He
looked
out the window
at the sound of a car door slamming
. “Someone’s here.”

He went to the door.

“My service said you called.”
Angela Wright, medical bag in hand, smiled.

“
They’re in the bedroom.
”
Ben
couldn’t stop
beam
ing.
“A miracle, that’s what it was.”

“I know what you mean.”
Angela checked out mother and babe, pronounced them well and asked
Danni
to come to her office for a more complete examination later that morning. She ushered Ben into the
kitchen
. “Where’s t
he afterbirth?”

“R
ight here.” He pointed
to the covered metal pan
on the counter
. “I figur
ed you’
d want to examine it.” H
e
looked over her shoulder
as she
did a cursory check
.

She pulled out
Danni’s
chart and made notes as he
answered
her
questions.
“You
look
pretty proud of yourself
, Ben
.”

“
Danni
did all the work. I
think I
kind of misjudged the signs,” he admitted. “She said she was tired. So she went to bed. When I checked
her, I figured she was having
Braxton Hicks contractions
—like usual
, but
it had to be
more than that when she was sweating and then shivering. When she came out of
the shower, saying her water
broke
, things got
kind of
busy. I was getting ready to call you when she started pushing and it went fast
,
really fast.”

“I take it you caught the baby.”

“Yep.” He grin
ned again
,
thumping
his chest
. “What a trip
!
He turned just like
in the films and slid right out,
a
text
book
birth
.
”

Her
mouth quirked upward.
“Was it b
etter than when you’re midwifing a cow?”

“There are similarities,
b
ut
Danni
doesn’t have horns!” 

T
hey both laughed.

“You did a nice job tying off the cord.
And
the afterbirth is clean.”

“I
washed my hands and I
would have used g
love
s
, but there wasn’t time.
”

“Has he nursed yet?”

“
Oh, yeah
!  He gave
Danni
a big meconium
dump
after
he started
nursing, and when I was putting on his diaper,
he
did some more
.
I think h
e’s
been
on the second side
since before you
got here
.
How big is he?”

“I didn’t bring my scale,
but I suspect he’s a bit under seven
pound
s
,
a
good size for coming
early.
He’s got some lanugo on his face.
Did he cry on his own, or did you have to help him?”

“Nope. Almost as soon as he came out,
he yelled,
and he pinked up right away
, just like my sister’s kid
s
.
”

“I’m going to have to get you a
special
certificat
e
in case you decide to upgrade
from
DVM
to MD
.” S
he
smirk
ed. “Do I dare tell
Joel
you’re going to change
pat
ient species?”

“Not a chance,
unless I can do
that
in my off hours
,
and pick my two-legged
pat
ients.
Thanks for coming
so quickly
.
”
H
is cheeks ached from smiling so much, but he couldn’t seem to stop. When
Angela
held out her hand,
he
shook it vigorously and then gave her an impromptu hug
.
“What a trip!” he exclaimed
again
.