Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Michael was an ex-doctor. He’d gone to med school, graduated with his MD, and then had thrown it all away to go into the military—or so Hannah had told me. I hadn’t had any interaction with the man due to him despising me, to get any more info, but I trusted him to care for his sister’s life.
“Convince her to do the C-section,” he told me. “Likely, they’ll suggest that soon, anyway, and she’s going to expect it.”
I looked at the cup of almost-melted ice.
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”
I got fresh ice and didn’t once look at Hannah’s brother again, but I felt his eyes on me. Felt his dislike. I knew he thought I was leading his sister on, but I wasn’t.
At least, not intentionally.
And if I were an honest man, I’d admit that I was secretly happy that Hannah hadn’t moved beyond what we’d had. That she hadn’t gone out and found another man.
Hostel, Texas was a small town. Less than ten thousand people in its entirety, but a lot of those residents were unmarried men.
Hostel was what you would call an oil town. Most of its money was made from the oil rigs that lined the outskirts of the city, and those beyond ours. Men were more than prevalent, and it hadn’t gone without notice that Hannah was a beautiful woman. Despite her obvious pregnant state, many men had done their level best to get her to pay attention to them.
It hadn’t worked, thank God.
I’d definitely taken notice, though.
“Oh, God.”
Those two words were muttered the moment that I crossed over the threshold by the doctor.
Which were words that you never wanted to hear leave past their lips when they were supposed to be taking care of the woman that you loved with all your heart—even if she didn’t know it—or if you hadn’t admitted it out loud yet.
“She’s passed out cold,” came the nurse’s voice.
I walked up to the side of the stretcher, doing my best to keep my eyes away from her vaginal area, and walked up to Hannah’s side.
“Is she okay?”
“Exhaustion has set in,” came the doctor’s reply. “We spoke while you were out of the room about her getting a cesarean. If she’s passed out, though, she can’t deliver this baby. And the longer the baby stays in the birth canal, the more likely that it’ll be that an emergency delivery will be needed.”
I glanced up at Hannah’s exhausted face, feeling helpless and useless.
“What do we do now?”
“Now, we wait for her to wake back up.”
I looked at the man.
“How will we do that?”
“The pain will wake her up shortly. This happens, although not that often,” he admitted. “Should have her back here shortly. There’s another contraction. It’s a monster, too.”
Then came Hannah’s moan of pain, and her eyelids fluttered open.
The moment that I saw her eyes, I knew that she was mentally and physically depleted, and that this wasn’t going to work.
“Honey, we’re doing the C-section,” I told her bluntly. “Now.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but instead a loud sob left her lips.
“I wanted to do this the right way,” she wailed, her body curling around her stomach as her body forced her to push despite her exhaustion.
I smoothed her hair out of her face, and dropped my forehead to hers.
“This isn’t the wrong way, honey. Not for our baby, and not for you. It’s the only way at this point.”
She nodded against my forehead, and I leaned back so that I could look at the doctor.
“Let’s do the C-section.”
The doctor winked at me, but I didn’t miss the look of relief that crossed over his features.
Eleven minutes and thirty seconds later, I was watching over the curtain—despite the doctor telling me not to—and holding Hannah’s hand as our son was brought into the world.
***
Present day
“Trav?”
Hannah’s smooth hands sifted through my hair, and I closed my eyes as I pressed a soft kiss to the scar that looked nothing like it did two months ago.
“You sure?”
In answer, I bit the soft swell of her belly, right above her incision, and growled at her.
I didn’t answer her, though. She knew I was sure.
She was trying to give me an out, though.
Little did she know that I didn’t want the out. I didn’t want to be apart anymore, even when we were so close together.
She started to giggle and pushed my head away, playfully forcing me off of her.
She was bare on my desk moments later, her eyes dilated, and her breath causing her breasts to jump.
“God,” I breathed, taking her all in. “You look even more beautiful now than you did the first time I saw you like this.”
I had seen her naked in the hospital, of course, but that time I’d tried my level best not to stare during her vulnerable state. I was glad to know that she didn’t have a very nasty scar, despite my worries to the contrary.