One More Dance by Roxanne Rustand (best ebook reader for pc txt) 📗

morning, she gave up and took Murphy to the neighbor’s place, then drove herself to the hospital, hoping she’d be sent home at least until Jared’s return in the evening.

The nurse in the ER didn’t appear very sympathetic as she ordered Kate into a wheelchair and called for a volunteer to take her upstairs. “You want to wait another fourteen hours? You’ll be a momma by then.”

The nurses upstairs were even less encouraging about a delay, and ten minutes later, Kate was gowned and admitted after making a quick call home and leaving a message on the machine.

The bright lights of the hospital had seemed warm and welcoming when she arrived, and she’d felt a momentary sense of relief.

The labor and delivery rooms bustled with activity and people. Nurses. Nursing students. A flock of residents who looked even younger than her, and who were probably in the first days of their OB rotation, given their nervous gestures and surreptitious glances at the pocket-size references crammed into their lab coats.

Not so fast, little one, she whispered under her breath. Maybe your daddy can still get here in time.

But four hours later, her contractions were coming hard and fierce, and she was ready to do anything to have the baby come now, whether Jared was here or not.

Every so often a herd of people in white coats trooped into her room to listen to the baby’s heartbeat and to check her IV, blood pressure and dilation—which had gone exactly nowhere.

Three centimeters at four o’clock in the morning, then six at ten o’clock.

By midafternoon, the doctor started a Pitocin drip. At five, she came back and broke Kate’s water, then began murmuring to the nurses about starting Nubain for the pain, and Kate first heard the words epidural and C-section.

An hour later, a different nurse came in with a bright smile. “We’re doing a quick ultrasound, and then the doc is coming in so you two can talk.”

Exhausted, Kate concentrated on her breathing, trying not to steel herself against the searing crescendo of yet another contraction. “I wish my husband were here,” she whispered through parched lips.

The nurse made sympathetic noises as she handed over a minuscule amount of ice chips in a paper cup. “I’m sure you do, honey. But nature takes its own course.”

“WELL, WELL,” THE DOCTOR said with a smile. “Aren’t you the surprise.”

Kate rolled her head on the pillow to look at her.

“There’s nothing in your records about this, but it sometimes happens. Even after repeated ultrasounds during a pregnancy, we can miss seeing things.”

Her heart abruptly lodging in her throat, Kate stared at the doctor and forgot to breathe for a moment. “Is...is something wrong?”

“Goodness, no—though you’re going to be a tad busier than you thought.” The doctor’s smile widened as she looked over her shoulder and beckoned, and then Jared was suddenly there by the bed, wearing a blue hospital gown and cap, a mask loosely draped around his neck.

“Hi there,” he said softly, his eyes warm with love and concern as he took her hand and brushed a kiss against her cheek. “Looks like you’ve had a big day.”

It took a moment for everything to register.

She reached for him, then fell back against the pillows and looked at the doctor. “Busy?”

The doctor beamed. “There are two little ones waiting to meet you. It happens sometimes—a surprise to everyone. But we’re going to need to take you up to surgery right away. There’s a bit of a traffic jam going on, and you could labor until the Fourth of July and not make any progress.”

Kate and Jared both stared at her in shock. “Two?” they said at the same time.

“An extra blessing, don’t you think? But one of them is showing signs of distress, so we need to get in there and help out, STAT.” The doctor nodded at someone standing in the doorway, and immediately, two orderlies came in with a gurney. “We’ll use a regional anesthetic so you can stay awake, and your husband can be there for you. See you upstairs.”

THE DELIVERY ROOM ON the surgical floor might have been more daunting if Kate hadn’t recognized a lot of the equipment and supplies from those she’d seen every day at the vet school. The friendly chatter of the surgical team added an extra measure of comfort.

The Minnesota Twins’ win last night.

Fishing.

The hospital’s annual employee picnic.

Then an abrupt silence fell.

The stainless-steel table was cold and hard against her back through the thin drape, but the intense expressions in the eyes of the surgical team, coupled with their ongoing silence, filled her with an even greater chill.

“Is something wrong?” She gripped Jared’s hand tighter. She heard the panic rising in her voice and tried to quell it, but her anxiety exploded. “What’s going on? Tell me!”

Another masked face moved into her field of vision and loomed over her. “You’ve got a beautiful little girl who’s doing just fine. You’ll get to see her in a minute. Your son is having a bit of trouble, but they’re transferring him to NICU right away. Just hang on.”

“Will he be okay? Is he all right?”

Above Jared’s own mask, she could see his face blanch and knew he was looking over the draped curtain that had been set up across her chest to the frantic activity taking place across the room.

And then, the activity suddenly ceased.

The world spun as she gripped Jared’s hand, too frightened to speak. Even before his soul-crushing words, she knew that they’d lost their son.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

PROPPED UP AGAINST a pile of pillows in her hospital bed, Kate stared at her new daughter in awe.

Until this day, every thought about her pregnancy had been tainted with worry about money. How she’d manage her vet school schedule in the fall. Whether or not she and Jared could make it through two more grueling years of school.

Who knew it would be like this—this instant, primal rush of fierce protectiveness and love? The unimaginable joy of