Anchored in Alaska (At the Altar Book 13) Read online

  “Good. I’ve realized that it was very superficial. People don’t need to be that way.” She shrugged. “Aren’t you glad you met me after the accident and not before?”

  “Would you have even looked at me twice before?”

  “Maybe. I’d have been attracted to you, but my friends would have told me you were there to play with, but you settle down with a Wall Street man.” She made a face. “I can’t believe I was even friends with that kind of person.”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t have liked you at all. I probably would have tried to kiss you though. Then I could have bragged to my friends that I kissed a snobby New Yorker.”

  “Did you brag to your friends when you kissed a girl?”

  “Well, yeah! That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? I was a Boy Scout, but not an athlete. We Boy Scouts had a harder time finding girls to kiss than the athletes did.”

  She sighed. “So let’s not tell Sara about that.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Chapter Ten

  It was just a few days later, when Beverly went into labor. She woke at three on Saturday morning, her pains strong. She was halfway to the bathroom when her water broke. She groaned, walking into the bathroom to shower.

  When she had finished cleaning herself up, she walked back into the bedroom to see that Colin had turned on the light for her. He turned to look at her, more than half asleep. “Why’d you shower?”

  She sat down on the side of the bed, wearing just her robe. “My water broke. It’s time to go to the hospital.”

  “Hospital? Really?” He sat up straight in bed, jumped up, and dressed quickly. “Hurry!”

  She laughed. “My contractions are still several minutes apart. We have some time. I need to get dressed first. Would you mind putting my suitcase in the car?”

  He grabbed her suitcase, ran it back to the car, and he was with her in less than a minute. “I started to warm the car up too. I don’t want you catching a chill.”

  “Okay. I’m going to call my doctor and let her know how I’m doing.”

  “Isn’t that my job? In the childbirth classes, they said that I should do that!”

  “I think I’m going to make a little more sense at the moment.” For a man who didn’t want to be a father, he was certainly reacting to her being in labor. She took her phone and dialed the answering service for Dr. Yung and her associates. “I’m having contractions and my water just broke. My name is Beverly Geller.”

  She listened for the instructions on the other end of the line. “Sounds good. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” She stood up, looking at Colin. “I’m going to get dressed so we can head to the hospital. Are you ready?”

  He nodded. “Yes, hurry!”

  “You’re going to want to take a book to read or something to do. This isn’t going to be a fast process.” Beverly walked to the dresser and pulled out underwear, before going to the closet for her jeans and a top.

  Colin was obviously upset that she was taking so long, so he began to pace. He paced up the hallway and down the hallway. Up the hallway and down the hallway. “You’re making me crazy,” Beverly finally said. “Come and put my socks and shoes on. I can’t find my feet again.”

  This time there was no laughter about how they were still attached. Instead, he knelt on the floor and put her socks and shoes on for her. “I feel like a toddler needing someone to put my shoes on.”

  “It’s not your fault your feet disappeared! It was very rude of them!” He finished and stood back up, offering her a hand. “Let’s go.”

  She waited for a moment for a contraction to pass, before she stood. “That one was harder.”

  “We need to hurry then!”

  “We’re fine. Colin, if you get us in a wreck because you’re panicking, that will be worse than if we’re late. Do you want me to call an ambulance?”

  “No! It’s my job to get you to the hospital.”

  She shook her head, taking his arm so she had something to lean on if another contraction started. “Just move slowly and be careful.”

  “All right!” He wished she’d hurry as much as she wished he’d slow down. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. He swept her up in his arms and carried her to her SUV, putting her into the passenger seat. “Buckle!”

  Beverly waited for him to get in after buckling. “This baby is not going to be born before we get to the hospital. First babies are notoriously late.”

  “What about only babies? I’ve seen no statistics on only babies!”

  She reached over and patted his arm. “Just get me to the hospital in one piece, okay?”

  He drove more recklessly than she would like, but he got them to the hospital safely. He parked at the emergency entrance, and she walked in. “I’ve preregistered for my deliver. I’m Beverly Geller.”

  “Would you like a wheelchair, Mrs. Geller?”

  “I would love one.” Truthfully after all the years her mother was in a wheelchair, she was loathe to sit in one, but she just didn’t have the power to get there on her own steam. “My husband is parking the car, and he’ll be here in a moment.”

  “Is that him running through the hall like a madman?” the nurse asked, her lips pursed to keep from laughing.

  “I don’t even have to look. That’s him. He’s a bit nervous about this delivery.”

  “This must be your first.”

  “Only.” Beverly turned to watch Colin sprinting through the halls. She was glad it was the middle of the night and the hospital was quiet.

  When he reached her, he held her suitcase in one hand. “I almost forgot your suitcase, but I went back for it. Then I figured I’d better run.”

  “All right.” She didn’t know what else to say to him. He was losing his ever-loving mind, and she needed someone who was calm to help her through this delivery.

  “If I faint, will the doctor be angry?” he asked her as he walked beside the wheelchair. The nurse was behind her pushing it.

  “Probably,” she said. “Doctors don’t like sick people.”

  The nurse laughed outright at that.

  “Then why are they doctors?” he asked, frowning at her.

  “They’re trying to rid the world of sick people. How else will they accomplish it?” Beverly was thrilled that she’d come up with a good reason. Sometimes it was all she could do to stay one step ahead of him.

  The nurse pushed her into an elevator, and he stood in the hall for a moment, as if he was trying to decide if he was going up with them. He jumped in at the last moment. “Would you hit six?” the nurse asked.

  He pushed the button for six, looking over at Beverly. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like the giant watermelon I swallowed is trying to come out of me in the worst possible way!”

  The nurse chuckled. “I need more patients like you. At least you have a sense of humor about everything.”

  Beverly shrugged. “If you can’t laugh, you’re just going to cry, and no one likes a cry baby.”

  Ten minutes later, they had her settled in a labor room. She was in the bed, and they were attaching one of the machines to her to see how her contractions were measuring, while Colin paced back and forth. “What are our options? I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  The nurse—a new one who had just met them—looked at him for a moment. “Exactly what do you think can be done now?”

  “I don’t know! I think the baby needs to cook for a while longer, though. My wife isn’t ready for the baby to be born!”

  Beverly shook her head at him. “Your wife is more than ready. Your wife wants to evict this baby from her temporary home, and hold her in her arms. You will not try to slow this process down!” She loved the man but his panic over the baby being born was about to drive her to distraction.

  “But you said you had a few more things you needed to do!”

  “I said that on Monday. I did them on Tuesday! We’re as ready as we’re going to get, so you need to sit down and hush, becau
se I’m about to have this baby, and no one is going to stop me!” Now that the time was close, she wasn’t nervous at all. She was just ready to hold her baby in her arms. It was time.

  Colin sat down, but he didn’t hush. Every time she felt a contraction he told her it was time for her to ask for drugs. The good stuff.

  It was six hours later when Sara was finally born. She had all her fingers and all her toes. “She’s perfect,” Dr. Yung told Beverly. “You did good.”

  After they’d cleaned her up, one of the nurses brought Sara to Beverly, and she held her for the first time. “Wow. You’re a beautiful little thing, aren’t you?”

  Colin stood to one side, watching them for a moment. He felt like he had no place in the bonding moment in front of him. He stood with his hands behind his back, silently observing her as she met her baby, her eyes full of tears.

  Beverly looked up and saw Colin watching her with Sara. “Come see her,” she said softly, praying he wouldn’t refuse. Sara was his baby too, and she knew that if he’d just spend a little bit of time with her, he’d love her as much as Beverly did.

  He walked over and looked down at the baby. “She’s gray. And kind of wrinkled.”

  “That’s normal. She has all ten fingers and ten toes. And look.” Beverly stroked the baby’s hand, and she turned and gripped her finger, holding tightly. “Do you want to hold her?” She held her breath as she waited for an answer. Please let him want to hold her.

  “I’m afraid I’d drop her.”

  “You won’t.” Beverly held her out. “You need to support her head with one arm. Hold her close to you.”

  Colin did as she told him, taking the baby from his wife. He stared down at her little face, all at once realizing that this baby was his. Born of his love for Beverly. “She’s beautiful.”

  “I think so.” Beverly watched them together for a moment, wondering what he was thinking as he held her.

  He walked to a chair, holding Sara close, and looking down into her tiny little face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” There were tears in his eyes as he said the words.

  “Why are you sorry?”

  “I rejected her. From the first moment I knew she existed, I didn’t want her. I wanted nothing at all to do with her. She’s a human being, a tiny little person.”

  Beverly felt tears spring to her eyes. “Yes, she is. She’s the only person in the world that’s blood related to me now. Everyone else is gone.”

  “Me too.” He couldn’t take his eyes from the baby. She was so much more than he’d ever imagined. She opened her eyes and looked at him steadily for a moment, before closing them again and falling back to sleep. She hadn’t looked at him with censure, and she should have. “I’m sorry for everything I said.”

  Beverly shook her head. “There’s no need to apologize. You were honest with how you felt from the very first moment. I’m the one who threw a wrench in things.” She smiled at him as he sat there, holding their daughter. “I’m just glad you understand now.”

  “I do. I don’t think I had any idea how much love I would feel as soon as I looked into her tiny little face. She’s ours.”

  “The perfect blend of the both of us. She’ll have my sense of humor and your ability to assemble furniture. My love of crafts and your ability to stare at a television for three hours and have no idea of what you watched.”

  He frowned. “I do have a few good qualities, you know!”

  “I do know that. I’m still working on finding them, but I know they’re there…”

  Colin ignored her as he looked at the baby. “Your mama likes to tease me. You’re going to see that as you grow up, she’s going to tease me a lot. But you know what? I don’t mind at all. Because I know all her teasing is done in love. And she loves you and me with everything she has inside her. You are the center of her world, and that’s how it should be.”

  *****

  Three days later, Colin drove his ladies back home from the hospital. He’d stayed in Beverly’s room with her, helping her to care for the baby during the nights. Little Sara was already showing her personality. She preferred to be up at night and sleeping during the day.

  When they arrived home, he carried in Sara’s car seat, placing it on the coffee table. “Do you want me to fix supper?” he asked.

  “You? I don’t want something from a can. I want real food!”

  He laughed. “Well, then you’re going to have to cook!”

  “I will. Do you want to stay with the baby while I cook? I’m not sure I’ll hear her over the kitchen appliances.”

  “I’d love to.” And it was true. For as long as he’d dreaded the idea of her having a baby and him being a father, he was very much in love with the little girl on his coffee table. She was his everything. Well, she and her mother were his everything. A year ago, he’d approached a strange matchmaker, hoping that he could find someone who made him feel less empty. He now had two someones who made his life complete.

  Thank God for crazy purple-haired matchmakers.