Baby Comes First by Beverly Farr Read Free Book Online Page A

you.”
    After the doctor left, they were both silent
for a minute, then Luke said, “You’ll need someone to keep an eye
on you and make meals, clean your house, etc. Preferably someone
with a nursing background, just in case there’s an emergency.”
    Hannah sighed. “Yes, that would be wonderful,
but do you have any idea how much that would cost?”
    “I have a general idea. When my wife Gloria
was dying, we had live-in help.”
    For a few moments, she’d forgotten about his
wife who had died. That’s probably why he was being so kind now.
He’d been through medical crises before, and would be sympathetic
to anyone in need. His concern wasn’t specific to her, so she
shouldn’t flatter herself or make the mistake of thinking it meant
anything personal. “Well, I can’t afford it,” she said flatly.
“It’s going to be tough enough to start my maternity leave
early.”
    Luke said, “I can afford it.”
    She snapped, “I’m not one of your charity
cases.”
    “I never said you were.” His brown eyes
seemed to burn into hers. “If you have help, you’ll be able to lie
down. And the longer you lie down, the better chances are that your
baby will not be premature.”
    “I know, but --”
    “Are you too proud to accept help?”
    Maybe. For most of her life, she had prided
herself on being self-reliant, doing what needed to be done without
whining.
    He added, “Then consider it a gift for the
baby, not for you.”
    When he put it like that, it sounded selfish
of her to refuse. “All right. But only for a few weeks.”
    #
    Luke had been right. Hannah was an excellent
poker player. He had no idea what schemes lay behind her blue eyes.
Every time she picked up her hand, she’d smile at the cards,
whether it was an excellent hand or not.
    While she was under observation, and they
were waiting for her clearance to be released from the hospital, he
had gone to the gift shop and bought a deck of cards to keep her
mind off the baby.
    He glanced at his cards, then slid a wrapped
chocolate candy across the table to the ‘pot.’ “I’ll see your
chocolate and raise you two corn chips,” he said, matching actions
to his words.
    Hannah pursed her lips, considering. “Okay,”
she said, sliding two of her corn chips to the pot. “Call. Let’s
see what you have.”
    “Two pair.”
    She slapped her cards down. “You win. I had
only a pair of Jacks.”
    He slid the pile of food toward himself. “Do
you want to play another hand?” he asked.
    She yawned, and leaned back on her pillows.
“No, but I’m going to eat some of my winnings.” She unwrapped one
of the chocolate candies and popped it in her mouth.
    “You’ll never be rich if you eat as you go,”
Luke teased.
    She shook her head. “This chocolate is purely
medicinal.”
    He smiled. “Are you one of those women who
consider chocolate one of the four food groups?”
    “I don’t know about that, but I do consider
it essential to my well-being. If I go too many days without
chocolate, I get edgy.”
    Luke filed this piece of information away in
his mind for future use. “So you’re an addict,” he said, but she
wasn’t listening to him. She was staring at the machine that kept
track of her blood pressure and pulse, lost in thought.
    She was worried about her baby, and with good
reason. Luke sat silently, not wanting to disturb her.
    Placenta previa. He’d never heard of it
before. He didn’t know much about pregnancies, but it seemed to him
that women suffered a great deal to ensure the survival of the
species. He thought of Gloria and all she had endured: the painful
monthly periods, the inability to get pregnant, and then the
numerous and uncomfortable and embarrassing procedures she’d
suffered through, just to have a baby.
    Their baby.
    Luke wanted children, but there had been many
times during the years of trying when he had wondered if it was
worth all the anguish. And now that Gloria was gone, all the effort
and emotion expended