Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

hadn’t come to these appointments alone. She’d always had one of her sisters insist on coming with. She’d always known she wouldn’t raise this baby alone, but knowing she—or this baby—had reached Dev and brought him here...where he could experience life. And wonder. And joy.

She wanted to cry, but she blinked the tears back.

“Now to check your cervix.” Casually explaining what she was doing and why to Dev, the doctor went through the exam. When she was finished, she gave Sarah a sympathetic smile.

“No dilation. I think he’s content to stay put for a while longer yet. We might even want to schedule an induction for after Christmas. We don’t want him hanging out in there too long.”

“Even with the contractions she’s been having, you think he’s going to stay put?”

The doctor smiled indulgently. “Anything is possible, Mr. Wyatt. She could have him tomorrow. But the likelihood of him coming early at this point is slim. First-time births are notoriously late and slow. She should have plenty of warning when he’s coming.”

“So, what you’re saying is it’s perfectly safe to stay out at the ranch through Christmas, even if the weather forecast is bad,” Sarah said.

The doctor paused, looked from Dev’s scowling face to Sarah. “Well. It’d be good to pay attention to the weather forecast. You wouldn’t want to be caught too far away from a medical facility. But I think you’re pretty safe as long as there aren’t any more contractions. Considering how far you are from the hospital, I’d say you start getting regular contractions, even if they’re pretty far apart, you’d want to make your way close. Especially if the weather is bad.”

Sarah gave Dev a triumphant smile.

“If he’s not here for Christmas, we’ll see you back next week. I’m out of the office until the new year, but my nurse practitioner can check you out, and I’ll be on call for any births. You both have a nice holiday. Take your time getting dressed.”

Sarah thanked the doctor before she left. She needed Dev’s help to get herself off the table. Getting undressed in front of him hadn’t been that big of a deal because she’d had the paper gown to put over her before she’d shimmied out of her pants.

Now it was a little more awkward. Especially when he handed her her pants. Still, she felt more weird about asking him to turn around or close his eyes or something, so she twisted and turned to pull her pants back on while keeping the paper in place.

Of course, then she had to slide it off to put on her shirt, but that was... Well, her bra was no different than a swimsuit really.

Uncomfortable but unwilling to say so, she let the paper gown drop and took the sweatshirt Dev handed to her. But before she could pull it over her head, he placed his hands over her belly. His bare hands on her bare belly. “I can feel him kick you. I heard his heart beat. But he still doesn’t feel...real.”

No, none of any of this felt real, most especially Dev touching her like this. But it would. At least the baby would. “He will. When you hold him. When he’s here. It’ll feel more real than we can imagine.”

“You’re so sure?”

“I watched Gage and Felicity. Pretty intently, since I was starting to hatch my plan then. So, yeah, I’m sure. Something changes when he actually gets here. Something big.”

He looked at her then—her—not her belly. The gaze was searching. Open. There was something in those hazel eyes that had her breath catching in her throat.

But then he only dropped his hands and stepped back. “We should get going. Don’t want to be separated any more than we have to be.”

Sarah could only nod, because her throat was too tight, and everything she’d dreamed of was too close. But instead of reaching for it, demanding it, she kept her mouth shut and followed Dev back out to the waiting room where Nina and Cody were.

Because there was still a madman torturing them, and no dreams were going to be realized in the midst of that.

DEV KEPT EXPECTING something to happen, but they were back at the ranch by suppertime safe and sound. Not even the hint that anyone had followed, nor had anything new happened at the ranch while they were gone.

After supper, Sarah went to bed early. They’d agreed on four people staying awake for four hours, then another four people for the next, to get them through the night. Dev was on the first shift tonight.

He stood in the kitchen while his brothers said good-night to their kids and wives and people slowly settled into bed. He should be thinking about Anth. About the notes and sentences and the dead bodies.

But all he could think about was that doctor’s office. He’d heard his child’s heartbeat. An odd noise. Not really human. Not really...

It hadn’t been magic. He didn’t suddenly think he’d be some amazing father, or that Sarah didn’t deserve better. Like he’d told her, it still didn’t feel real. But it had touched something inside of him. Something he’d preferred to have left dead.

Life was easier that way. Easier without all this...this...

This.

But now that the Pandora’s box was open, there was no shoving it back.

When Jamison, Cody and Gage all walked into the kitchen and instead of determining lookout posts, grabbed four beers from the fridge and handed him one, Dev blinked. “What’s this?”

“The Dad crew,” Gage said, clinking his bottle of beer to Dev’s. “Welcome.”

“I’m not a dad yet.”

“Dad enough,” Cody said with a grin. “The real terror is just beginning.”

Dev shifted uncomfortably. “We’ve got actual terror to deal with first.”

Gage laughed. “Buddy, you don’t know real terror ’til that baby is crying at two in the morning and you ain’t got a clue as to why.”

“Or your eight-year-old looks up at you and says, ‘Daddy, where do babies come from?’”

Gage snorted out a laugh at Cody’s rendition of Brianna’s