Sawyer's Special Delivery

“You saw him?”

“Right before I came to see you. The pediatrician is with him now—Lia Kerrigan. I know her. Don’t worry, he’s in good hands.”

Maya closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ve been going crazy. No one would tell me anything and—” She stopped, looking up at him. “You’ve done so much for us. I—”

“Need someone to keep a closer eye on you.”

“I can take care of myself. And Joey,” she said, giving him a look that dared him to disagree.

Sawyer stopped himself from saying she didn’t look as if she could have stood up without help. Except for the purpling bruise darkening her temple and cheek and the long tangle of dark red hair, she looked completely drained of color and strength. She shouldn’t be alone, not now. She needed someone to take care of her, no matter what she said. “Isn’t there anyone you can call?”

She raised her brows at his abrupt question, then shook her head. “I was on my way to my parents’ house, but apparently they’ve either gone out or forgotten I was coming, because they aren’t answering the phone.” Even though she’d talked to her parents two days ago, reminding them for the third time she’d arrive today, their absence hadn’t surprised her. It would be typical of her parents to have gone off to a party or some weird festival in the middle of the desert, expecting she’d fend for herself until they got back.

“Your parents…” Sawyer studied her a moment. “Of course, now I remember. You’re the hippie girl.”

Maya sighed. “That would be my parents. I grew up.”

He grinned sheepishly at her. “Sorry, but I remember that’s what all the kids used to call you. Your parents still live out at the old commune at the edge of town, don’t they?”

“When they’re not living in their van. They disappear every few months in search of spiritual enlightenment.”

Maya didn’t add she’d had no trouble remembering him once he’d told her his name, even though he was four years older and she’d never said more than two words to him the years she’d grown up in Luna Hermosa. She’d been the barefoot girl in ragged jeans whose unmarried parents lived in a run-down house with their cats and chickens and various people who’d stay for days or months, depending on their whims.

He, on the other hand, had grown up on the Morente family estate, excelled at everything, dared anything and been the object of many a young girl’s fantasies. And she’d bet the fantasies had grown up with the girls. She didn’t doubt his competence on the job, but the uniform looked out of place on a man who conjured images of a midnight rendezvous, and temptation whispered in that dark voice.

She realized she was staring and quickly looked away. “I’m surprised you remember me. You left town years before I graduated high school.”

“How could I forget the only time I actually got to rescue a cat from a tree? Of course—” he flashed her that smile “—I ended up rescuing the girl along with it.”

“Now there’s something I’d hoped you wouldn’t remember.” She’d been twelve years old and had followed her favorite kitten up a tree only to find herself literally out on a limb and unable to get back down. Sawyer and several friends had been driving by and he’d stopped and climbed up, bringing her and the cat down. “You seem to have a bad habit of being there to rescue me.”

Sawyer studied her with an intensity that made Maya blush. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said softly. Then he shrugged, and abruptly he was back to the competent professional again. “I was just doing my job.”

“Luckily for me. That’s twice you’ve been my hero,” she said lightly.

The smile went out of his eyes so suddenly, Maya blinked.

“So,” he said in a very obvious change of subject, “are you planning on staying in that house alone?”

“I’m sure my parents are around somewhere. I just talked to them the other day. And if not, they won’t mind if I crash there a while.” She knew that wasn’t what he’d meant, but right now she didn’t want to think past making sure Joey was healthy. Her head was starting to pound, and all she wanted to do now was see her baby and then get some sleep.

Sawyer easily read the exhaustion in her eyes and the droop of her body. He didn’t want to press her, but he knew the Rainbow house and he was surprised it was still standing. The idea of her there alone with a new baby, with no one to look after her, bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

It wasn’t even remotely his problem. He didn’t even know her, except as a memory of a scrawny girl with red braids and wide green eyes, a girl that everyone called weird. He’d done his job, gotten her and her baby to the hospital safely. There was no reason why he should care what she did or where she went.

Except that he did.

Before he could come up with a good reason why, Rico stuck his head into the cubicle. “We’re up. Another accident on 137.”

Sawyer looked at Maya. “I’ll see you later.”

She made herself smile. “Sure, and thanks again.”

Then he was gone. A sense of loss stabbed her and Maya felt silly for it. He’d only been doing his job. And now that it was over, she doubted, despite his parting words, that she’d ever see him again unless it was an accidental meeting in town.

She and Joey were a family now. There wasn’t going to be anyone else. And the sooner she accepted that, the better off they’d both be.

Chapter Two

A small noise woke Maya from a light doze and she stopped herself from groaning, wondering what the nurses wanted this time. In the past three days, she’d gotten used to being roused at odd hours to feed Joey, to answer more questions or to be poked, prodded, or tsked over because of her refusal to take any pain medication. Three hours of uninterrupted sleep had become a luxury. And she’d been tempted more than once to take the painkillers, especially the morning after the accident, when she’d awakened stiff as a hundred-year-old and with a thousand pains.

But no one should be here now. She’d been to the nursery less than an hour ago to feed Joey, and the doctor had already been by this morning to tell her she could go home tomorrow.

Forcing open her eyes, Maya found herself looking into a smiling face she’d hadn’t seen in years. Though the woman’s curves were more lush now and her dark hair shorter, her generous mouth and smiling eyes and a passion for brilliant orange and red hadn’t changed. “Valerie? Valerie Valdez? Is that really you?”

Valerie laughed and bent to give her a hug. “In the flesh, honey, although there’s more of it than you probably remember. And it’s Valerie Ortiz now,” she added, settling herself in a chair beside Maya’s bed.

“But how did you know I was here?” Maya asked as she struggled to sit up. Running a hand over her tangled hair, she tried to force her brain to start functioning. “I haven’t been able to reach my parents and I haven’t talked to anyone I know since I got back.” Except Sawyer. But she couldn’t imagine him looking up her old friends and asking them to visit her.

“You can’t have been gone so long that you don’t remember how fast news gets around here. Your baby’s day nurse is my sister-in-law. Rainbow isn’t exactly a common last name. Cat told me about your accident and your baby and asked if I knew you and so here I am. Oh, and I have this,” Valerie said and held out a crumpled and water-stained piece of bright yellow paper.

“I stopped by your parents’ house first to see if I could find them for you but instead of them I found this stuck to the door,” Valerie said with a look that said she was sorry to be the messenger. “It’s a little worse for the wear, but the gist of it is they’ve gone off to some rock in Sedona to commune with like souls. Sorry, I tried.”

“I know, and thanks. I’m not surprised. It’s just—” Maya stopped, then made herself smile. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just really glad you came. You don’t know how wonderful it is to see you.” After three days without seeing a familiar face or being able to share her joys and fears about Joey with anyone she knew, Maya felt close to tears seeing Valerie. She brushed quickly at her eyes, pretending to rub the sleep out of them.

“It’s okay, babies do that to you,” Valerie said, taking her hand and squeezing. “It’s good to see you, too, honey. You look a little banged up, but from what I hear, you’re lucky to be alive. You and your little boy.”

“Have you seen him?”

Valerie nodded. “He’s tiny and precious. But I hear he’s doing just fine. He’ll just need a little extra TLC for a while.”

“So the doctor keeps telling me.” Maya turned to look out the window into the bright sunlight, tears welling in her eyes. “He—he just looks so little and helpless right now. And they’re not going to let me take him home with me when I leave here. They still won’t tell me how long he’s got to stay, and I’m just so worried about him.”

“I know. But Lia Kerrigan is a good doctor,” Valerie said, echoing what Sawyer had told her. “Before you know it, your baby will be a boisterous, rowdy little boy and you’ll wonder how he ever could have been so small and quiet. Believe me, I know, between the twins and now the baby.”

“You have a baby?” Maya remembered Valerie had married her high school boyfriend shortly after graduation. The marriage had gone wrong almost from the start, and less than two years later Valerie had taken her twin daughters and left. “New husband, new baby—wow, has it been that long?”

Valerie laughed. “It’s been a few years since we were sixteen, dreaming up ways to cut algebra. I think my favorite was the time we took your dad’s motorcycle and skipped school for two days so we could go to that music festival in Taos.”

A flash of memories made Maya smile. “We were trouble, weren’t we?”

“And proud of it,” Valerie said. “Now I’m working to keep my kids in line. And not succeeding most days. If it weren’t for Paul, I’d be a crazy person by now. This time I got it right.” She hesitated, looking uncertainly at Maya before asking, “What about you?”

It was the closest Valerie would come to outright asking her what had brought her back to Luna Hermosa, unmarried, with a baby. And what could she say? She’d left shortly after high school graduation to find something her parents had never been able to give her—stability, commitment, someone willing to share responsibility. She thought she’d found those things in Evan, but she couldn’t have been more wrong.

“I decided to come home to have my baby,” she said at last, not ready to rehash the last miserable year with her ex-fiancé. “Unfortunately that turned out to be a really bad idea.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. You’re here and you’re both okay. And I hear it was our finest resident knight in shining armor, Sawyer Morente, who came to your rescue. You remember Sawyer, don’t you?” Valerie prodded. “You know, Mr. Captain of Everything in high school, Air Force hero, the guy with the killer smile?”

“I remember him.” Maya suddenly felt warm and restless. The memories of the accident, of giving birth, of the moment she first held her son, were as clear as if they’d happened minutes, not days ago. And they evoked the same uncomfortable mix of emotions, somewhere between embarrassment at having to be rescued and to give birth in the back of an ambulance and an odd lingering sense of intimacy with the man who’d safely delivered Joey. Avoiding Valerie’s eyes, she fidgeted with the blanket, reached back to adjust her pillow. “I suppose everyone in town knows what happened by now.”

“Well, it hasn’t been in the newspaper yet,” Valerie said, then laughed when Maya shot her a wide-eyed look somewhere between horror and disbelief. “Paul is a firefighter. He and Sawyer work the same shift most of the time. So—”

“So everyone knows I’m not married and that Sawyer delivered my baby on the side of the road. And next week it probably will be in the paper,” Maya muttered.

“It’s not that bad. I’m sure there are at least a few people who don’t know what happened,” Valerie said with a wink. “Oh, I almost forgot. These are for you.” She reached over to the bedside table and tugged forward a plastic pitcher filled with an eclectic mix of brightly colored wildflowers. “I caught Sawyer bringing these to you when I was on my way up to see you. He didn’t want to wake you, so I offered to deliver them for him. Sorry about using your water pitcher but it was all I could find.”

“Sawyer? Brought these?” Maya almost couldn’t believe her ears. Sawyer Morente had brought her flowers? The most drop-dead gorgeous guy in town, every girl’s idea of the perfect romance hero, had picked wildflowers for the hippie girl no one ever wanted to be seen with? Don’t make more of it than it is. “I suppose it isn’t every day he delivers a baby by himself in a thunderstorm,” she murmured as much to herself as Val.

“No, but it figures it was Sawyer. Paul calls him Zorro because he always seems to be the one riding to the rescue whenever someone’s in trouble around here. Although…” Val turned thoughtful. “Paul said delivering Joey seemed to really affect Sawyer. Maybe it’s because he understands what it’s like.”

“You lost me,” Maya said.

Shrugging, Val didn’t quite meet Maya’s eyes. “I guess you don’t remember hearing the gossip, but Sawyer’s father abandoned him and his brother when Sawyer was about seven. He completely cut those two boys out of his life. He never acknowledged they existed ever again, even though he still lives less than fifteen miles from them.”

An odd ache touched Maya, hurting her heart and burning her eyes with unshed tears. Whether for Sawyer’s loss or her and Joey’s, she didn’t know, but she felt like crying, giving in to the sadness that had shadowed her since Joey’s birth.

To distract herself Maya brushed a finger over a daisy, breathed in the fresh scents of lavender and sage. “I guess he thought wildflowers would suit me better than roses,” she mused, still wondering at his gesture. “They do remind me of home.”

“You are home now,” Valerie said firmly. “And you’re not alone, no matter how much it might feel that way sometimes.”

Tears rushed to Maya’s eyes. “Thanks Val,” she said, reaching for her friend’s hand. “I know we’re going to be fine. I just need to get out of here and get settled at Mom and Dad’s for a while.”

“If you can call staying at your parents’ place ‘settled.’ They haven’t changed much.”

“Changed from tie-dye to spandex and back again, but finding the next Grateful Dead concert is still their top priority.” Maya sighed. “Maybe it’s better they’ve taken off again. If they were here, I’d have three kids to keep up with.”

“Well, don’t you worry, Paul and I are here to help. And then there’s Sawyer…”

“Oh, no—” Maya held up her hands “—don’t even go there. He was only concerned about Joey. Like you said, he can sympathize. End of story.”

“Oh, right, that’s why he brought Joey flowers. I’m sure at three days old he’ll really appreciate them. Yikes, look at the time. I hate to run mi amiga, but Paul’s shift starts soon and I need to get home to the kids before he goes.”

“Thanks so much for coming,” Maya said, returning Valerie’s quick hug. “I can’t tell you what it means to me.”

“Then don’t, just invite me over when you break out of this place.”

“You’re on.”

“Catch you soon.” With a wave Val left.

The room felt cold and empty without her friend. Despite Val’s comforting words, Maya had trouble shaking a sense of utter loneliness, although she guessed that would pass once she and Joey were out of the hospital and the drama of the last few days was a distant memory.

She reached out and touched the soft petals of a daisy once more and suddenly her whole being ached to be with her new baby. Moving carefully, she swung her legs out of her bed, grabbed a robe and headed down the hallway to the nursery.

Sawyer slammed the door of his truck and strode across the parking lot of Firehouse No. 1. The bee sting on his hand was annoying him. He turned his wrist over to look at the red swell. “Morente, you’re a freakin’ fool,” he muttered under his breath.

What had he been thinking? Picking wildflowers for that girl—woman and mother now, he reminded himself. Maya Rainbow wasn’t a scrawny kid anymore. Even bruised and disheveled and swollen with child, Sawyer had thought she was beautiful, so different from the pale girl with eyes too big for her face he remembered.

After three days he hadn’t been able to shake the image of her struggling to hide her pain and fear, determined to bring her son safely into the world and to care for him alone. Those big green eyes seemed to hide lifetimes in them.

It was those eyes and the way she’d looked at him the other night when she’d told him Joey had no father, coupled with the miracle of her little boy, that had messed with his mind so much, he’d wound up in the middle of some field on the side of the road, picking wildflowers and getting stung by that damned bee.

As he yanked open the door to the station, he thanked the guardian angel of masculine pride that one of his buddies inside hadn’t driven by and seen him with a handful of daisies.

Sawyer strode straight to the coffeepot and poured himself a mug, wishing it were a double espresso instead of Paul Ortiz’s “lite” coffee. He needed to clear his head and he needed a jolt of caffeine to wake him up. He’d hardly slept since Maya’s accident; the whole night kept turning over and over in his mind like a movie stuck on replay. Why that night, that accident, that birth should be any different from any of the others he’d dealt with over the years, he couldn’t figure.

Lost in thought, he didn’t hear Paul come into the kitchen until a slap on his shoulder nearly caused him to drop his coffee mug.

“Wildflowers, Sawyer? Wildflowers?”

Cursing under his breath, Sawyer refilled his mug to avoid Paul’s smirk. “If Valerie wasn’t your wife, I’d put a muzzle on that woman.”

“Don’t worry, your little secret is safe with me,” Paul said, laughing. A few inches shorter and broader than Sawyer, his dark eyes seemed always to reflect a smile. “A little above and beyond the call of duty, though, wouldn’t you say?”

“The kid could have died,” Sawyer said, wondering why he bothered trying to explain himself. “They both could have. I— I just thought she needed a boost, you know, something to remind her it’ll get better.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet of you. I never figured you for the sensitive type.”

“Go jump,” Sawyer muttered. Taking his coffee, he headed for his office with the idea of locking himself in. Unfortunately Paul followed. Paul was a great guy, the kind of guy you’d want watching your back when it counted. But he was also the type of guy who didn’t know when a joke was old.

“I’ll bet the next time you visit her, she’ll have the flowers in her hair,” Paul teased.

“I’m not going back. I saw the kid and he’s doing fine. That’s all I needed to know.”

“Sure, that’s what you say now.” Paul said, leaning against the door to Sawyer’s office. “But Val and I already have money on it. Once you see that dump of a house Maya’s moving into, you’ll be over there with a hammer and a paintbrush all ready to remodel the Rainbow love shack. We all know you can’t resist riding to the rescue. Besides, from what Val says, your damsel in distress has grown up rather nicely.”

“She’s not mine,” he said, then, unable to stop himself, he added, “So she really is going to move back to that rattrap of her parents’?” She’d told him so the night of her accident, but he’d put it out of his mind, half hoping she’d change her mind before the hospital discharged her and her baby.

“Val says so. Man, I remember that party we went to at the love shack right before graduation. The incense was so thick, my throat hurt for days.”

Sawyer remembered he’d been glad to get out of the Rainbow residence before he caught something. He also remembered Maya, a thin girl with tousled hair, sitting against the railings of the upstairs loft, gazing down at the strange mix of revelers with a solemn look as her parents called and waved up to her, trying to get her to join the party.

“Her parents were something. They still are, from what I’ve seen,” Paul mused. “I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone, Maya coming home the way she did.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Sawyer said more sharply than he intended.

Paul held up his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, you’re pretty quick to defend someone you plan on never seeing again.” He grinned at Sawyer’s glare. “I didn’t mean to insult your flower child. It’s just her parents were never married and everyone knows they basically raised Maya in a commune. Val says half the time they’d take off on that banged up Harley of theirs and leave her with whomever happened to be staying at their house at the time.”

“She told me they’re gone again,” Sawyer said.

“Yeah, and Cat said Maya’s doctor plans to release her tomorrow. So, just in case you want to drop by the old love shack…”

“Why, so you’ll win the bet with Val? Wait a minute. If you two are so sure what my next move is, what’s there to bet on?”

“That’s for us to know and you to figure out.”

Sawyer began sorting through the pile of paperwork on his desk, ignoring Paul’s attempt to bait him. “Don’t count on my losing any sleep trying.”

“What, you sleep?” Cort, in his usual jeans and battered leather jacket, was standing in the doorway. He walked around Paul, greeting the other man before dropping down into the chair beside Sawyer’s desk. “That’s not what I hear.”

“Superheroes don’t need the rest we mere mortals do,” Paul said, laughing. “I’ll let you annoy him for a while. I’ve done my duty for the day. Oh—” he leaned back around the door before leaving “—don’t forget to ask him about his flower girl.”

“Now my morning’s complete,” Sawyer said. He rubbed at his temple, really wishing he had that espresso.

“Girl?” Cort looked expectantly at Sawyer. “Don’t tell me you’re actually seeing someone. Although I’ve probably already missed it, since your idea of a long-term relationship is two weeks. So who is she?”

“There is no she. We delivered a baby the other night and I went back to check on the boy and his mother. Now Paul and Val have decided I’m ready to propose. So what are you doing here?” Sawyer asked, wanting to shift the conversation away from Maya before Cort got wind of his temporary insanity with the wildflowers. “As if I didn’t know.”

“You won’t return my calls or come see me, so I came to you.”

“This isn’t the time or the place.”

“C’mon, Sawyer, it never is with you,” Cort said. “But we have business, like it or not.”

“Not,” Sawyer said flatly. “I need more coffee.” Pushing back from his desk, he strode out of the office, hoping this would be the morning Mrs. Garcia would decide she needed her pulse taken.

The next morning, fed and content, Joey lay nestled in Maya’s arms, sleeping peacefully. She rubbed her fingertip over his cheek, marveling at the softness of his skin, wondering how he could be so perfect.

“Looks like he’s finished.” Cat Ortiz walked over to where Maya sat in a padded rocking chair next to Joey’s incubator. Maya liked the petite nurse, with her ready smile and gentle touch, but she dreaded her arrival in the nursery—especially today, because it meant leaving Joey in the hospital while she went home to her parents’ house.

“I don’t want to leave him,” Maya said, holding her son a little closer.

“I know, but he needs to go back to the incubator now. It won’t be long,” Cat said as she rearranged the blankets in Joey’s incubator. “Then he’ll be able to go home with you.”

Maya bent and kissed her precious little boy before grudgingly transferring him to Cat’s arms. Joey sighed, wriggled a little, then let out a satisfied gurgle.

“’Bye for now, sweetie,” Maya said softly. “I’ll see you at feeding time.”

“You’ll probably want to give him a bottle for the next several feedings since you’re going home today,” Cat reminded her.