Newborn Needs a Dad

Funny, he thought, how people had different ideas of what was perfect. Personally, his idea of perfect went to something wild, something without people. Hers went to just the opposite, it seemed.

“Your dinner, Neil,” Laura said, setting the brown paper bag full of plastic containers in front of him. “There should be enough to get you through the next couple of days, and if there’s not, come back. There’s always more where that came from.”

“Appreciate the home cooking,” he replied absently, unable to take his stare off the woman, who was now seated with her back to him.

Laura, noticing his intent stare, smiled. “She checked in several hours ago,” she whispered. “Not from around here. She registered her home address as Chicago and I don’t know a thing about her other than that.” She paused, then chuckled. “Except the obvious.”

“And that she looks lonely,” he commented out loud, although he’d meant the remark to stay in his head.

“You know, she did look a little lonely, come to think of it. I thought she was mostly tired, though.” Laura shrugged it off as she scurried over to the other table to take Gabby’s dinner order, while Neil stayed there, sipping his coffee, watching a while longer than he really should have, given his schedule.

Strangers came to town all the time. In fact, the town’s economy was built on people coming here to stay for a while, whether to ski, or shop, or simply have a nice holiday. He barely even noticed them unless they had a medical problem. So what was it about this woman that caught his attention…not only caught it, but held it?

Nothing, he said to himself. Absolutely nothing at all. Right now, he didn’t get involved. Not with anyone. He was married to his work, and he owned a part interest in a hospital. That was enough to keep him out of trouble, keep him fairly contented, keep him reasonably happy. Life was good. Why try for anything else?

Thinking about what had happened the last time he’d tried for something different was what propelled him back to his feet, and carried him right out the door. When he got to the entrance, though, Neil stopped and turned back to look at her, and that’s when he saw her face. She was…beautiful. Stunning. Honey-blond hair falling gracefully to her shoulders, her blue eyes cast downward. Almost shyly…eyes that could only have been blue. And perfect lips. He was observing her as a physician, of course. Only as a physician.

She was what that pregnant glow was all about. He wasn’t sure he’d ever truly seen it before, but now that he’d seen her, he knew what it looked like.

In that brief moment when his eyes were still fixed on her, she glanced up at him, stared outright for a long moment, then looked away. That’s when Neil knew he’d better leave before good judgment was overcome with something he didn’t understand, and he intruded where he clearly wasn’t wanted. But once outside on the walkway, he looked back up to the window where she sat, and…was she staring at him? It seemed she might have been.

Handsome face. Rugged. Nice firm jaw, nice straight nose. With his wavy black hair, she imagined dark brown eyes. Or green. No…they had to be dark brown.

It was a face that should have been familiar, but nothing in her memory could place him. His eyes haunted her, though. So familiar. But she didn’t often forget a man so handsome. Yet in that span of mere seconds, when their gazes had crossed, it had been like she’d been looking into eyes she’d looked into before. The same, yet not.

Just pregnancy hormones kicking in. Still, at first glance, he’d seemed so familiar. Then, at second glance, he didn’t at all. His was one of those faces that would plague her for a while, though, until she placed him, or forgot him.

“Who was that?” she asked Laura, as Laura placed the handwritten menu on the table in front of her. Potato, vegetable and salad choices were the same with every meal, and she had her choice of meat, poultry or fish.

“Neil Ranard. He owns the family practice clinic at the hospital. And, actually, he’s part owner of the hospital. Specializes in pediatrics, but all the docs there do a little bit of everything.”

Would she have known him from some medical event—a seminar they’d both attended, perhaps? Or maybe a medical convention?

In theory, that sounded good, except she rarely ever had time for seminars, and as for medical conventions…She’d been to exactly one, and it hadn’t been the White Elk doctor she’d fixed herself on there. So that left…Honestly, she didn’t know. And she didn’t want to keep thinking about it. “I think I’d like the vegetables only, if you don’t mind. Bryce and I don’t seem to do so well with meat these days.”

“Bryce?”

Gabby laughed, self-conscious. “My baby. I’m going to name him Bryce, and I guess I’m getting in the habit of using his name. Thinking of him as a person.” She’d been in the habit from the moment she’d known she was pregnant. It was going to be a boy, and she would name him Bryce after her father, a decision made the instant she’d thrown away the third pregnancy kit. Bryce…that was the only way she could make sense of things.

Laura laughed. “Boys are nice. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. We’ve got three girls, and I’m not sure if I’d know what to do with a boy now, after so many years.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure I’m going to know what to do with a baby, boy or girl.”

“You’re…alone?” Laura asked, hesitant.

“Well, I was until about seven months ago.” Noncommittal response that would suffice. Smiling, she patted her belly. “But that’s sure not the case now.”

“I talked to my girls too…in the womb. Read books to them, sang to them, played music for them. My husband thought I was crazy, but for the whole time I was pregnant, I wasn’t alone, and I needed to make that connection.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’d better get back to the kitchen.”

Once Laura was gone, Gabby turned her attention back to the window, wondering if she’d see the man, Neil Ranard, again, but he was gone. Oh, well…

“I’ll take both of them.” Two quilts weren’t too many, and both were so adorable. So were the fifteen newborn outfits she’d bought, along with the crib accessories, the bootees, the hats…There were so many baby things she’d never thought about before and, so far, she’d bought every single thing she’d looked at. This morning her ankles were normal, her back felt fine, Bryce was kicking up a storm, and she was totally in love with Handmade for Baby. It was an amazing little store, fronted on the main street right next to a candy store. She hadn’t been in there yet, but she would. And she intended to browse through the little maternity boutique that Debbi Laughlin, the babystore clerk, had recommended.

“You staying here long?” Debbi asked. She was seventeen at most, with short, spiky yellow hair, a pierced eyebrow, and an engaging, warm smile.

“Just another day, then I’ll be going back to Chicago.”

Debbi arched her eyebrows over the mention of Chicago and Gabby’s gaze fixed on the little silver ring anchored there that bobbed up and down. “I’ve always wanted to go there. Maybe even save my money and move there, go to college…anywhere but here.”

“You don’t like it here?” Gabby asked. So far, she hadn’t found anything in White Elk she didn’t like.

“It’s OK, if you’re old, I suppose.”

Old, like she was? Gabby laughed inwardly at the thought. Thirty-three wasn’t old, but to someone Debbi’s age, it was ancient. “Well, I think it’s a nice little town.”

“Little’s the thing. I don’t like little. It’s boring.”

And Gabby didn’t like big any more, but she supposed she’d have thought a small town was the end of the world when she’d been younger. She and her dad had always lived in a big city—Chicago, New York, San Francisco—and that’s what she knew. All she knew. But those pregnancy hormones were changing her in ways she hadn’t expected, for now her ideal seemed just the opposite of Debbi’s and in some ways the opposite of the ones she’d become comfortable with in herself until she’d gotten pregnant. “Well, then, you’d like Chicago, because there’s nothing little about it.”

“What do you do there?” Debbi asked, as she folded the first quilt into a box.

“I’m an obstetrician. That means—”

“I know what it means. My uncle’s a doctor here.”

Was she related to Neil Ranard? “Dr Ranard?”

Debbi shook her head. “Dr Ramsey. He works with Dr Ranard when the twins aren’t sick. Which they are right now, which is why I’m here and my mother isn’t. She’s helping Uncle Eric.”

“Twins?”

“My cousins. Both of them down with a sore throat and I told my uncle I wasn’t going anywhere near them, so my mother’s there helping take care of them and I’m here, doing this.”

And not loving it, Gabby thought. Too bad. Life was too short not to love what you were doing.

Debbi folded the second quilt into another box, then sat it in the stack with at least fifteen other boxes. “So, did you come to take over for Doc Graham?”

“Who’s Doc Graham?”

Debbi blew a bubble with her gum, then popped it. “The obstetrician. He retired so he could have more time to hike, and go skiing. If it were me, I’d retire and get out of here.”

“No. I’m not here to replace Doc Graham. I’m just traveling through, and decided to stop and do some shopping.”

Debbi nodded, but the expression on her face showed that she thought Gabby was crazy for intentionally staying in White Elk when she didn’t have to. “So, what do you want me to do with all this stuff?” she asked.

Good question. Gabby hadn’t thought that far ahead, and her first response was to give Debbi the address to her Chicago condo and have every last thing shipped there. But for some reason she didn’t understand, she decided instead to have it sent back to her cabin at the lodge and figure out what to do with it later. Farewells with Debbi were brief, but she felt compelled to tell the girl to look her up if she ever made it to Chicago. Debbi’s response was to roll her eyes, plug the earpieces back into her ears and listen to some tune Gabby was sure she’d never heard of.

Next, she visited the candy shop, then the maternity boutique, sending more packages back to her cabin from both shops, as well as stopping at the corner toy store and showing amazing restraint by buying only one stuffed teddy bear and a little wooden train set Bryce wouldn’t play with for years. Shopping done, she felt amazingly good. Refreshed. Full of energy. So she wandered down the street, in the direction of the hospital. Deliberately.

What a cute hospital! Not at all institutional-looking, like where she’d worked back in Chicago. That was a real brick-and-mortar structure, nine stories tall, spanning several blocks, if you included the various clinics and asphalted parking lots. This hospital was quaint, made of logs, resembling a mountain lodge more than it did a hospital. If not for the sign out front indicating that it was, indeed, White Elk Hospital, she would have walked right on by, looking for a more regular-looking institution.

So, she was there. Wondering what came next. “Maybe I’m crazy,” she whispered to herself. “But if they do need an obstetrician…” That’s what Debbi, the store clerk, had implied. But why had she deliberately come here? To apply for the job? No way. Quaint was nice for a visit, and while she wasn’t big-city obsessed like Debbi, she was reasonably sure that she agreed with the girl on the fact that White Elk was too small.

But here she was anyway. It must have been the nesting thing again. Had to be. More rushing hormones telling her to settle down, make a real home for this baby, and White Elk Village was a nice candidate for all those things. Except the idea was ridiculous. Her opportunities here would be too limited. Besides, nobody needed a seven-months-pregnant obstetrician. And at seven months pregnant, the obstetrician didn’t really need a full-time job. Money wasn’t a problem, but time on her hands was. She did want to work. Loved working, and she already missed it.

“But I’ve never lived in a city smaller than Chicago,” she said to Bryce, “and I’m not sure your mother is cut out for small-town living.” Even though this small town was tugging at her. “And don’t go telling me I can make a go of it anywhere I want because I’m not sure I can. There are so many things to consider, like my career, and your education.”

“Excuse me? Can I help you with something?”

The sexy, smooth voice startled Gabby out of her mental conundrum, caused her to gasp and grab her belly. She rounded to face him, and caught herself staring into the most gorgeous dark brown eyes she’d ever seen. Dark brown, like she’d thought they should be. Glad they were.

“I thought I heard you say something.”

She shook her head. “I was just…taking a walk, trying to get a little exercise, and I think I got myself turned around.” Well, that was a bit of a lie as she knew exactly where she was. “I stopped for a moment to get my bearings and you probably heard me muttering to myself. Bad habit. I do that when I’m nervous.” Better to admit that than to tell him she was engaged in a debate with her unborn child, and her unborn child seemed to be winning the argument at the moment. Muttering made her look eccentric, debating with an unborn baby made her look just plain odd.

“You’re staying up at Laura’s lodge, aren’t you? I thought I saw you there last night.”

Gabby nodded. “It’s up at the top of the hill, isn’t it?” she said, pointing in the direction she knew perfectly well. Was that really her, feigning the helpless woman? Good thing she had pregnancy hormones to blame it on, because there wasn’t anything helpless about her. Her father had raised her well in that aspect, and she took great pride in her independence.

“It’s a pretty long walk, going uphill the whole way. Maybe I could call someone to come get you? A friend, a husband…”

“It’s not so bad,” she said. “Besides, I’m here by myself.”

He glanced at his watch, then at the hospital. “How about I get my car and drive you back? It’ll only take five minutes.”

This would have been such a nice meeting had she not been pregnant, but she was, so this was only about chivalry. He was a pleasant man coming to the rescue of a damsel who didn’t need rescuing. End of story. “Thanks, but I’ll walk.”

“Then maybe you should come inside and sit down for a few minutes before you attempt going back up.” He gestured to the hospital. “Ten minutes. Find a nice, comfortable chair, put your feet up…”

“My doctor thinks I should be a little more active than that. She’s of the opinion that healthy, pregnant women should be active women. But like I said, thanks.”

“Then I’ll walk with you.”

“Because I’m pregnant? Are you one of those people who believes a pregnant woman isn’t capable of doing anything? Because if you are…”

He thrust his palm out to stop her. “Whoa, I was only trying to be polite. Something my mother taught me.”

“Maybe she should have also taught you that pregnant women can take care of themselves just fine.”

He chuckled. Deep, sexy. “Actually, she did. And she’d send me to bed without supper for acting the way I have been.” He took a step backwards and thrust out his hand. “Hello, my name is Neil Ranard. Can we start over?”

Gabby took his hand and nodded. “And I’m Gabrielle Evans. People call me Gabby…even the ones who accost me, then try to lecture me on the street.”

“Then I’ll have to call you Gabrielle so you won’t be reminded of this rather inauspicious first meeting. It’s nice to meet you, Gabrielle.”

Gabrielle…it sounded so nice the way he said it. Sounded almost right and, strangely, she didn’t object. Didn’t object to the twinkle in his eyes either. Sexy, but mischievous. And, yes, even at her rather advanced stage of pregnancy, those thoughts still did pop into her mind. A good-looking man was a good-looking man and even her whacked-out hormones wouldn’t deny that. Neil Ranard was handsome and, like she’d thought yesterday, something about him seemed vaguely familiar. “Do I know you?” she asked. “Have you come to Chicago for any reason lately?” It had to be something in Chicago as until yesterday she hadn’t left the city for nearly two years.

“Actually, I’ve never been to Chicago, outside a layover in the airport, and that was probably five years ago. Maybe six.”

“You’re not famous, are you? I wouldn’t have seen you on television, or in a magazine?” Or on the cover of a romance novel?

“Sorry. I’m only famous in my own mind. And even then, it’s highly overrated, if not totally ignored, except by my mother and her sister.”

“I guess you’ve got one of those faces, then,” she said, still wondering why she couldn’t shake herself of the feeling. “Look, I appreciate you being concerned about me, but I’m fine, and there’s no need to help me get back to the lodge.”

“What if I said that Laura makes the best cheesecake in White Elk Valley, and you’re my excuse to go have a piece?”

“Then I’d say you’re a terrible liar. But I appreciate the gesture.” With that, Gabby turned and started the climb back up the hill to her cabin. She’d only gone ten steps, though, when she stopped and spun back around. He was right on her heels. “Are you following me?”

“Actually, I thought I’d go to the lodge and have a piece of cheesecake. Talking about it made me hungry for it.”

“Liar!” she exclaimed, fighting to control the laugh bubbling up inside her.

He arched playful eyebrows. “I’d never lie about a good piece of cheesecake.”

“But you were looking at your watch just a minute ago, which tells me you’re in a hurry to get back to work. So you really don’t want that cheesecake right now, and you’re using it as a pretty lame excuse to make sure I can get myself back up the hill. Which I can do perfectly well without anybody’s help.”

His face went serious. “I know it’s none of my business, but how long has it been since you’ve seen a doctor, Gabrielle?”

“If I’m not mistaken, I’m looking at one right now.”

“I mean an obstetrician.”

She smiled. “If I’m not mistaken, you’re looking at one right now.”

“No kidding? You’re an obstetrician?”

“No kidding. And if I’m not mistaken, you might be in need of one here for a few weeks. According to Debbi, at Handmade for Baby.”

Obvious surprise blinked across his face. “You’re applying for a job?”

“Not really a full-time job. But I could fill in until your new obstetrician arrives. As it turns out, I left my old position a few weeks ago, so I’ve got the time.”

“I’ve got to admit, you’ve caught me off guard. We were just having a staff meeting, wondering what we were going to do, and here you are, on our front walk.”

As they always said, timing was everything. She hadn’t meant to apply for a position, although she’d thought about it. Hadn’t meant to stay here in White Elk, although she’d thought about that, too. Yes, after Debbi had mentioned that their former obstetrician had just left, the idea of staying awhile had tempted her. Now here she was, making it happen. “Well, I do come with an obvious condition.” She raised her hands to her belly. “Two months to go. But I’m healthy, fit to work, and if you need me for a while…”

“Do we need you? Our obstetrician’s been phasing himself out without phasing someone else in to take his place. We thought he had a while to go before he finally left so we weren’t too worried, then one morning he woke up and just couldn’t do it any more. It was time for him to leave.”

Something she understood all too well. That’s exactly what had happened to her in Chicago. She’d known she was going, hadn’t known when, then one day it had been time. “Well, my credentials will check out, and I can give you some personal references.”

“We’ll need you for six weeks at the longest. I’ve got someone else coming in to take over after that, on a temporary basis until we can find someone to fill the full-time position. But we had this big gap between Walt and the temp.”

“Six weeks sounds good.” So did temporary. And this was perfect timing, wasn’t it? She could work for six weeks, part-time, have her baby after that, and put off trying to figure out, for a while longer, what came next in her life. “Unless something unforeseen and early changes my plans.”

“In which case, I’ll be glad to deliver your baby.”

An offer she could hardly refuse. Pregnant and employed again. If only for a little while for both conditions. She liked it. In fact, she was excited to be working again, and didn’t doubt for a minute that she could handle it. So she extended her hand to the incredibly handsome Dr Neil Ranard, and instantly a little chill shot up her arm. “When do I start?” she asked, her hand lingering in his just a fraction of a second longer than it should have.

“Five minutes ago OK with you?”

Reluctantly, she pulled her hand from his and crammed it into her jacket pocket. “Five minutes ago is perfect.” Then she shivered again.

Just the chilly air, she told herself. What else could it be?

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