ended and was quickly chased by another, stronger one, that laughter faded into a low, deep moan of misery.
“I’ll take her to the hospital,” Alex said, and she shifted a glance at him. Navy pilot and a hero.
“No you won’t,” Sal countered, pulling Daisy closer to him. “We don’t need help from a Barone.”
“I’m not helping you,” Alex pointed out. He gave her arm a little tug, pulling her to his side. “I’m helping her.”
“What is this,” Daisy asked, yanking free of both of them, “a tug-of-war?”
“Hey, boss,” Tony yelled from the kitchen. “Ambulance’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”
“Cancel it,” Alex shouted, then looked down at Daisy. “I’ll get you to the hospital. Let me help. Trust me.”
She stared up into those chocolate-brown eyes of his and read determination there, along with an eagerness to help. And right then Daisy wanted all the help she could get. Besides, waiting fifteen minutes for an ambulance seemed like a lifetime.
“Okay,” she whispered, dropping one hand to her belly. “Okay, good. Let’s go.”
“Daisy, I think—”
“It’s all right, Sal.” She looked at the older man who’d been so kind to her and forced a smile for his benefit. “I don’t want to wait for the ambulance and— Ohhh…” She bent over, cradling her unborn child and biting her bottom lip to stifle the moan clogging her throat.
“That’s it,” Alex muttered, scooping her up into his arms. “We’re outta here.”
Waiters, customers and kitchen staff called out good wishes as Alex headed for the front door. The hostess rushed ahead and held the door open for him, reaching out to give Daisy’s arm a pat as they passed.
Out on the street, Alex paused, Daisy in his arms, and looked to where the guys should have been waiting in their rental car.
Only one problem.
It wasn’t there.
And neither were the guys.
“Oh, man…”
“What?” Daisy lifted her head from his shoulder.
“I think the guys took off.”
“They left you behind?”
Alex grimaced and hitched her slight form a little higher in his arms. Amazing. Even pregnant, she was so slight, so fragile that she seemed to weigh almost nothing. But even as tiny as she was, it would be a long run to the closest hospital. Damn you, guys.
“Yeah,” he said tightly, finally answering her question. “We do that sometimes. Go somewhere, then abandon one of the guys to make his own way back to the base.”
“Why?”
He glanced at those blue-green eyes and lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “A joke. One I used to think was pretty funny.”
“Swell.”
Then she inhaled sharply and Alex felt her body tense. Terror rippled along his spine. He had to get her to help. Fast. “Cab. We need a cab.”
And since he needed one, naturally there wasn’t a single taxi to be seen. Ordinarily, a man could cross any Boston street by walking across the hoods of the cabs waiting in traffic. But not tonight. On this warm summer night, the air was still and so were the streets.
As horrible thoughts of running back into the restaurant to ask Sal for help raced through his brain, Alex realized exactly where they were. If he’d had a free hand, he’d have slapped himself in the forehead.
“No problem,” he said, “we’re good.” He started walking at a long-legged, hurried pace.
“Where are you going?” Daisy demanded, already seeing the lights of Antonio’s slip into the distance. The hospital was uptown and he was headed in the wrong direction.
“My sister’s place,” he muttered.
“Your sister?”
“Just a couple blocks away. She’s a registered nurse. She’ll know what to do.”
“Are you kidding?” Daisy dug her fingers into his shoulder and talked through a pain that seemed strong enough to tear her in half. “I know what to do. Get to the hospital and deliver this baby.”
“I know. I know. But there aren’t any cabs—”
“The ambulance—”
“Look,” he said as he kept moving, “we could go back to the restaurant and wait for the ambulance. Or we could go about a block and wait for an ambulance. My way, we’ll have a registered nurse there to help. Which beats having a busboy or Sal deliver your baby.”
“Okay, that makes sense.”
He gave her a squeeze and moved even faster. “Trust me, okay? It’ll be good. I’ll take care of you.”
“Why are you doing this? You don’t even know me.”
He looked at her. “Does it matter right now?”
She met those dark, deep eyes and heard herself say, “No. No, it doesn’t matter.”
As the next contraction rippled through her body, Daisy surrendered. She was in no position to hop out of his arms and race down the street, trying to find a cab on her own. Even if she’d wanted to. Which she didn’t. For some reason, it felt good having him near. Being held as if she were something precious. Someone to be cherished. It had been so long….
No, that wasn’t right. She’d never felt like this before. No one had ever cherished her. No one had ever truly cared. Not even the man she’d thought would love her forever. The man who’d given her a baby, then run off and gotten himself killed the moment he’d found out about the pregnancy.
She pushed thoughts of Jeff out of her mind. It wouldn’t do any good to go back down that road. That time was over and done, and a whole new world was about to open up to her.
If she could just make it through labor.
Alex moved quickly. Streetlamps haloed the sidewalk with a soft, ivory light and a cool evening breeze slid in off the ocean, lightening the humidity like a gift from God. Up and down the street, people went about their business, completely ignoring the tall man with a pregnant woman in his arms. A group of kids skateboarded around them like a wave cresting around a buoy, but Daisy hardly noticed. She was much too involved with what was happening to her own body to care about anything else.
“Hang on, okay?” Alex whispered. “It’s not far now.”
“Boy, I hope not.” Her fingers tightened on his shoulder again, then slowly, fractionally, relaxed. “I’m not an expert or anything, but I think this is it.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
“No, I mean now.” Daisy felt as though everything inside her was struggling to push its way out of her body. And in the classes she’d taken, that was pretty much D hour. D as in delivery.
“Oh man, don’t say that.” He glanced down at her and held her more tightly to him. “Please don’t say that.”
“This isn’t exactly how I’d planned to do this, you know.”
“I know. But it’s really close. I swear. Just hold on, okay?”
“The pains are coming so fast. Really strong, too.” She tipped her head to look at him. In the glow of the streetlamp, his face seemed to pale a little, but Daisy told herself it was probably a trick of the lighting. At least, she hoped so. She didn’t want to think that he was as scared as she was.
Heck, somebody should be in charge here.
“Don’t push.”