His Touch by Patty Blount Read Free Book Online Page B

of the annoyance and disgust he’d shown her earlier that day, she saw kindness.
    “She’ll be fine. She needs some albuterol, maybe some epinephrine, and she’ll be just fine.”
    Kara shook her head. “She…she wasn’t even sick. How am I supposed to know? Something was off today. I knew it, but I didn’t know what and I nearly lost her.” She pressed a hand to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.
    Reid kept pumping air into the baby’s lungs with one hand, gave her mother’s hand a squeeze with the other.
    The rig turned sharply and slowed to a stop. Nadia started to fight against the mask over her face.
    “Hello, little Miss Nadia,” he said, smiling down at her. “Remember me?”
    She reached up a pudgy hand and patted his face.
    “Oh, you do remember me. That’s a good girl.” The back door opened and together, he and his partner directed the stretcher out of the rig and into the Emergency Room. Nadia was getting increasingly more restless and frightened. “Kara, sit up here and hold her. Try to soothe and calm her down,” Reid ordered.
    Kara sat on the bed, reached for her daughter as Reid transferred her from the stretcher, still pumping fresh air past swollen tissue. “Okay, baby. You’re okay now. Look! What’s this?” She took her cell phone out of her huge bag and let the baby play with it.
    His partner whistled from the nurses’ station. “Bennett. Ready to roll. Come on.”
    Kara froze. Leave? No! He couldn’t possibly leave her alone. Not now. She knew what he thought of her. She knew he thought she didn’t deserve Nadia and he was right. But right now, she didn’t care. All she knew was that she was completely, one-hundred percent, unable to take care of Nadia by herself.
    A nurse took the mask from him. He turned to leave and before she could think twice, Kara flung out a hand, gripped his wrist. Shook her head.
    “Ms. Larsen?” Reid tugged his arm but she only tightened her grip.
    “Please. I…I can’t. I just can’t.”
    The paramedic whistled again. “Bennett!”
    Reid glanced back at Kara Larsen, put up a hand. “Yeah. Just a minute!” he called back. “Ms. Larsen, I need to get back to work.”
    Kara bit her lip, shut her eyes. “Of course. I’m sorry. I know you have things to do, but please . You can’t leave me with her. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s wrong with her! What if I make another mistake and it kills her?” She was babbling. She was almost hysterical. His muscles tensed under her hand and she knew she was clutching him hard enough to bruise but didn’t care. All that mattered was Nadia.
    Nothing else.
    “Ms. Larsen. Kara! Look at me!”
    Kara blinked up at the man who held Nadia’s life in his hands.
    “You got anyone you can call?”
    “Oh. Yeah. Sure.”
    With a nod and a tight-lipped smile, he took out his own cell phone, exchanged it for the one Nadia was now waving around like a rattle. “Go ahead and call. I’ll stay with you until they get here.” Kara took her phone and dialed Elena, but Lucas answered.
    “Luke?” Kara’s voice cracked. “It’s Nadia. She’s having trouble breathing. No, not yet. We’re waiting for the doctor now. Yes. Yes, please! Thank you. Thank you. I love you, too.”
    “Nadia’s father?”
    What? Oh. For a second, Kara thought Steve was there. “No, no. Lucas is my sister’s husband. They’re on their way.”
    Reid only stared at her. “Shouldn’t you call Nadia’s father?”
    Kara shook her head before he finished the sentence. “Nadia’s father took off the second I found out I was pregnant. I haven’t talked to him since. I’m not even sure he knows he has a daughter.”
    “Gah,” Nadia said under her mask and Reid smiled down at her.
    Kara gasped. Reid Bennett had a beautiful face when he wasn’t scowling. He caught her staring at him and she noticed she was still clutching his arm. She coughed, removed her hand like it burned. “Oh. Um. Sorry.”
    “It’s my