Expecting a Christmas Miracle

Jadon glanced at Alyssa, and in that moment they shared a special intimacy, a bond that shook him to the soles of his feet.

Together they’d created these baby girls.

Looking at Alyssa holding Grace, and the way Gretchen slept so peacefully in his arms, he realized what he’d told her earlier was true. There was no turning back. He was a father now.

This new, precious family was a part of his future. His and Alyssa’s future.

If only he knew how in the world he was going to make it work…

Dear Reader

Welcome to Cedar Bluff Hospital, located in a small Wisconsin town overlooking the beautiful rocky shores of Lake Michigan. EXPECTING A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE is the second book in my new mini-series. I really hope you enjoy reading about Alyssa and Jadon as much as I enjoyed writing about them.

Alyssa and Jadon had a hot, brief affair that ended when Jadon left without a word. When Alyssa discovered she was pregnant with twins, she tried to reach Jadon—but couldn’t. Resigned to raising her babies alone, she is shocked and surprised when Jadon unexpectedly returns to his job as one of the emergency department doctors on staff. Alyssa is determined to remain independent, but she soon realises she needs Jadon’s help. When the babies arrive prematurely, Alyssa and Jadon are drawn together as they fight for their tiny babies to survive. Somehow they must find a way to heal the wounds of the past in order to save their new family.

I hope you enjoy EXPECTING A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, and look for the third book in my Cedar Bluff Hospital series, to come next month with a New Year’s story.

Happy Reading!

Laura

Laura Iding loved reading as a child, and when she ran out of books she readily made up her own, completing a little detective mini-series when she was twelve. But, despite her aspirations for being an author, her parents insisted she look into a ‘real’ career. So the summer after she turned thirteen she volunteered as a Candy Striper, and fell in love with nursing. Now, after twenty years of experience in trauma/critical care, she’s thrilled to combine her career and her hobby into one—writing Medical™ Romances for Mills & Boon. Laura lives in the northern part of the United States, and spends all her spare time with her two teenage kids (help!)—a daughter and a son—and her husband.

EXPECTING

A CHRISTMAS

MIRACLE

BY

LAURA IDING

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Recent titles by the same author:

MARRYING THE PLAYBOY DOCTOR* EMERGENCY: SINGLE DAD, MOTHER NEEDED THE SURGEON’S SECRET BABY WISH THE FIREFIGHTER AND THE SINGLE MUM

* Cedar Bluff Hospital

This book is dedicated to my editor Meg Lewis.

Thanks for everything.

I always enjoy working with you.

CHAPTER ONE

“SLOW down, Ben,” Alyssa Knight called, tightening the red wool scarf around her neck and pulling her black jacket over her pregnant belly in an effort to block the chilly wind as she followed her charge down the path toward the Lake Michigan shoreline. “I can’t move that fast.”

“But I want to see if the water is frozen,” Ben protested, with six-year-old logic.

“The lake is too large to freeze. Ben, I mean it. Stop right there and wait for me,” Alyssa said in a firm, you’d-better-listen tone.

Ben let out a heavy sigh and stopped in the middle of the path. She smiled and shook her head. Ben was Kylie Germaine’s active son, and she’d agreed to watch him for a few hours. Kylie was spending this Saturday afternoon doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, along with a final fitting for her wedding dress, in preparation for her New Year’s Eve wedding to Seth Taylor, one of Cedar Bluff’s Emergency Department physicians.

Kylie would make a beautiful bride, she thought with a pang of envy. The couple radiated happiness. When Alyssa had been young, she’d always wished for a big family. Kylie and Seth were planning to have more kids, and Seth already treated Ben like his own son.

She was glad to help out, even for a couple of hours.

There was an inch of snow covering the ground and she was looking forward to a white Christmas. In spite of the chill in the cold December air, she’d thought a trip to Cedar Bluff Park would be a good way to keep Ben occupied. Much better than sitting around in her small apartment.

An apartment too small for her expanding family.

The dark, heavy clouds overhead indicated more snow might be on the way. She picked up her pace, more so to keep warm than to catch up with Ben.

“When are your babies going to be born?” Ben asked as she met up with him on the path. There was an upper path leading to the top of the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, but they’d taken the lower path leading directly to the lakeshore. Climbing the upper path in her current condition had been too daunting.

“Not for another eight weeks,” she told him, smoothing her hand down over her stomach. At least she hoped she wouldn’t have them too early. With twins, nothing was certain. Not only was she facing the fact she was pregnant with twins, but that she’d need to raise them alone, since their father, an emergency department physician named Jadon Reichert, had vanished in a disappearing act over four months ago.

She’d tried to call him, to let him know she was pregnant, but after the first couple of messages his cell phone had announced the number was out of service. According to Seth, Jadon was on an extended personal leave of absence from Cedar Bluff Hospital. In her opinion, a personal leave of absence was nothing more than a euphemism for gone and never coming back.

Which meant she was on her own. Exactly how she would manage to raise two kids alone was something she hadn’t quite figured out yet. But, no matter what, she was determined to succeed in providing her babies with a secure, loving home.

“Mom says you’re gonna need our help when the babies are born,” Ben said, skipping up the path. He picked up a large stick and poked it into the snow.

She was going to need help all right. And lots of it. Luckily the close-knit, family-like atmosphere of Cedar Bluff, the town and the hospital where she worked as an ED/trauma nurse, meant she was surrounded by friends. People like Kylie and Seth had already offered their support.

Alyssa knew she wasn’t alone. Not really. But having friends who were willing to chip in and help wasn’t exactly the same as having a full-time father for her babies.

Wishing for the impossible was a waste of time, so she quickly pushed thoughts of Jadon aside. She’d gone into the affair knowing it wasn’t going to last, so it was her own fault if her heart had gotten bruised when he’d left. If he didn’t want to be a part of her life, fine. Her focus needed to be on taking care of herself and the babies.

Besides, her favorite holiday of all, Christmas, was only a few weeks away.

The path opened into a small clearing near the lakefront. Ben dashed forward, heading straight for the rocky shore.

“Don’t go near the water,” she warned.

“I won’t,” he hollered over his shoulder.

She told herself not to worry so much. Kylie brought Ben down to the lakefront all the time; surely he would abide by his mother’s limitations. The wind kicked up, blasting frigid air into her face, whipping her long dark hair over her eyes and stealing her breath.

Jiminy Cricket, it was cold.

She turned to face the wind, pushing her hair out of her eyes. She pulled the scarf around her neck a little tighter and looked for Ben. Where had he gone? Impatiently she scanned the area, finding him standing precariously on the rocks above the water.

What part of Don’t go near the water hadn’t he understood?

“Ben? What are you doing?” she called in exasperation. “Get down and come back here.”

He didn’t seem to hear her, poking intently at something between the rocks. She had no idea what he’d found—surely all the marine wildlife was in hibernation by early December. She quickened her step, intent on dragging him back to safety, when suddenly there was a loud crack and a shrill cry. His walking stick had snapped in two, throwing him off balance. His small arms made windmill motions as he hung for mindnumbing seconds poised above the water.

“Ben!” Alyssa broke into a run just as his body toppled into the icy lake with a horrifying splash.

She scrambled up and over the rocks, helplessly scanning the water for his body. Could he swim? Had he hit a rock? Could he survive in the dangerously cold water?

There, his tiny head bobbed in the water, his arms flailing as he tried to stay afloat, his heavy winter coat dragging him down. Quickly, she shrugged out of her coat and pulled off her scarf. Remembering some of her old lifeguard skills, she wound one end of the scarf around her left hand and leaned out as far as she dared before tossing the other end into the water toward Ben.

“Grab the scarf!” she shouted. “I’ll pull you in.”

Ben reached for the end of the scarf, but missed. Her heart lodged in her throat when his head disappeared beneath the water for a couple of long seconds. Thankfully, the tide pushed him a little closer as his head cleared the surface again.

“Ben!” She reeled in the scarf and this time took careful aim before throwing it again, hitting him in the chest. “Grab the scarf!”

In slow motion, his numb fingers grasped the end and she nearly wept with relief as she towed him the short distance to shore. “I’ve got you. It’s all right, I’ve got you.”

When he was close enough to the edge, she reached down to pull him up.

Her center of gravity shifted. She’d forgotten all about her pregnant belly and her miscalculation made her lose her balance. She plopped with a thud into the water next to Ben.

Her babies!

Shockingly cold water surrounded her, sucking her down into the murky depths. For precious seconds she couldn’t move, stunned by the cold water, and she idly wondered if she and Ben were both going to drown. The thought spurred her into action. Frantically she strove toward the surface, her fingertips brushing against something soft. Ben. Her head cleared the surface and she coughed, grabbing hold of the boy and holding him upright in the water.

“I’ve got you,” she repeated, gasping and clenching her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. Poor Ben had already been in the frigid water too long for a child his size. She tried not to think about the potential harm to her unborn children as she shucked off Ben’s watersoaked coat so he’d weigh less and then used every ounce of her strength to lever him upright, literally pushing him up and out of the lake, onto the rocks. “See my coat up there? Use it to get warm.”

Ben crawled over the rocks, falling facedown onto her coat. He may have been out of the water, but he still wasn’t safe. Hypothermia was deadly. He needed to get warm, and soon.

Alyssa struggled to follow him out and over the rocks, but her fingers slipped and she fell back into the water, her strength seeping away. Desperately, she lunged upward, clutching a boulder while also trying to find a toehold so she could climb out. The task seemed impossible. She didn’t have the upper-arm strength to pull herself out of the water.

Her legs were numb. She focused on Ben’s too-still body lying on her coat and on the survival of her babies to give her the energy and willpower she needed to pull herself out of the icy water. She had to do this. She had to! She found a toehold and inched her way up, willing the quivering muscles in her arms to support her.

Finally she broke free of the icy prison, dragging herself up, over the rocks to safety.

“Ben.” She collapsed next to him, beyond shivering as the cold wind hit her wet body. She recognized the numbing fatigue for the danger it presented. They needed help. Fast.

Her fingers didn’t move very well, but she managed to pry her cell phone out of her coat pocket and fumbled to flip it open. Pushing the buttons for 911 wasn’t easy, but she had to try. She couldn’t rest, not until she’d told someone where they were.

Dimly she realized the connection had been made. The dispatcher wanted to know the nature of her emergency. “We’re on the rocks by the lakeshore in Cedar Bluff Park. We fell in the water. Hypothermia. Hurry…”

The woman dispatcher on the other end of the line continued talking, but Alyssa couldn’t hang on to the phone, uncaring when it clattered against the rocks, disappearing from view. Help was on the way, all they had to do was wait. She pulled Ben against her rounded stomach, sharing what little warmth they possessed between them and doing her best to use her coat to shelter his body from the dangerously cold wind.

“Don’t worry, they’re coming to get us,” she whispered, closing her eyes, the need to sleep nearly overwhelming. “They’re coming…”

Bright lights. Blurred faces. Unintelligible voices.

Warmth. Lifesaving warmth.

Exhaustion. Her arms and legs felt like dead weights. Even her head was too heavy. Tired. She was so very, very tired.

Time had no meaning. She vaguely realized she was probably at the hospital. Maybe still in the emergency department. The people around her were a blur. She needed to know if Ben was all right, but couldn’t find the strength to ask.

“Alyssa? Can you hear me?”

She frowned, blinking against the light, recognizing a familiar face hovering above her.

Jadon?

No, it must be her mind playing tricks on her. Jadon was gone. He’d left.

He was on a personal leave of absence. Gone for months. And never coming back. He didn’t know she was pregnant. He didn’t know he was soon to be the father of twins.

“Alyssa? Look at me. Can you hear me?”

No, she didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to keep having dreams about Jadon. They were too painful. She closed her eyes and turned away, seeking peace.

Allowing the precious warmth to draw her down into blessed oblivion.

Jadon Reichert clutched Alyssa’s limp hand in his and willed her to open her eyes, to talk to him.

“We need to get her moved up to the OB unit,” Kim Rayborn was saying. She was the OB doctor on call, responding to emergencies as needed, but had informed him that she was also Alyssa’s regular OB doctor.

Pregnant.

Alyssa was pregnant.

With twins. His twins.

The irony of the situation didn’t escape him. He was certain, without talking to Alyssa, that the babies were his. The timing was right, for one thing. He’d thought they’d been careful, but obviously not careful enough. How could this have happened? With everything else in his life falling apart, he hadn’t even considered the possibility he’d left her pregnant.

Even now, when faced with the reality of Alyssa’s round belly, his mind couldn’t seem to grasp the news. He’d told Alyssa from the start he wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship, and she’d agreed that she wasn’t either. But things had quickly gotten intense between them. When he’d received the emergency call from his mother, he’d left Cedar Bluff, figuring the timing was for the best, since he’d been starting to care about Alyssa a little too much.

Now he was back. And Alyssa was pregnant. She and Ben had been rushed into the ED by the paramedics, both requiring immediate treatment for hypothermia on the same day he was being reoriented to the ED by Simon Carter, one of the other ED physicians.

He’d soon learned that Ben was Kylie and Seth’s son. Kylie was relatively new to Cedar Bluff so he’d never met her, but he’d worked with Seth Taylor. The boy had been dangerously chilled after his dunking in the icy lake water, but he’d be all right. Seth had been home sleeping after his night shift, but he’d rushed in to be there for Ben, with Kylie showing up a little while later.

The boy would be fine. And so would Alyssa.

Kim Rayborn hadn’t made a similar commitment regarding the survival of Alyssa’s twins yet.

As much as he’d never considered being a father, he was oddly protective of his unborn babies now.

“We need to move her upstairs to the OB unit,” Kim repeated, as if he were a dimwitted child.

“I know,” he said, in a hoarse voice. “But I’d like to stay with her.”

Kim’s expression held uncertainty. “Jadon, Alyssa has been through a terrible shock. Maybe it’s best for now to give her some time, some space. Why don’t you let her get through this immediate crisis first?” Before disrupting her life, was her unspoken implication.

She was right. Logically, he knew Kim was right. Yet he didn’t want to let go of Alyssa’s hand, to let her be taken upstairs without him. The OB specialist had already confirmed his fear regarding the possibility of premature labor. Alyssa had nearly lost her life. Right now, she needed to conserve her strength.

Clearly, she wasn’t ready to talk to him.

Alyssa had looked directly into his eyes when he’d called her name. The way she’d turned from him, deliberately closing her eyes to shut him out, had stabbed deep. But at the same time he understood she had every right to be angry.

Heaven help him, he hadn’t known she was pregnant when he’d left.

And what in the heck were they going to do about it now that he knew? He couldn’t even imagine how they’d move forward from here.

“All right,” he said, prising his fingers from Alyssa’s and taking a step back. “But please keep me updated on her progress.”

Kim nodded. “As much as I can. You already know she’s starting to have mild contractions. We’re going to see if we can stop them from getting any worse. But I have to be honest, once she’s awake, it will be up to her to decide how much information you’ll receive.”

He clenched his teeth, wanting to protest, but held his tongue. The health-care privacy laws had been in place for several years. As a physician he knew them well, had explained them to many a distraught family member.

But he’d never been on the receiving end of their restrictions until now. He tamped down the helpless anger at how government rules could keep him away from Alyssa and their unborn babies.

Kim snapped orders and the nurses scurried to prepare Alyssa to be transported up to the OB unit. Standing in the middle of the ED and watching her go was difficult.

“Are you all right?” Simon asked, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“Sure,” he lied, glancing around the ED. Now that Alyssa and Ben had been cared for, the activity level had returned to normal. Almost as if nothing had ever happened. The staff were already getting things cleaned up in preparation for the next emergency. “Is there anything else we need to review?”

Simon’s gaze rose questioningly, not entirely believing he was fine, as he shook his head. “No, I think you’ve got it covered. You’re cleared to be placed on the physician schedule.”

“Great.” Jadon was relieved. Work was what he’d wanted, what he’d craved during the months he’d been gone. He’d known he’d have to work with Alyssa again, and that probably things would be awkward between them after the way he’d left abruptly. But her pregnancy changed everything. He couldn’t pretend their passion had burned itself out and he’d decided to move on without her. “Thanks.”

“Maybe you should head home for a while,” Simon suggested. “I’m sure you have plenty of other things to get caught up with since you’ve been gone.”

He did, but nothing as important as Alyssa and her unborn children, fighting for their lives upstairs in the OB unit. For a man who hadn’t wanted a family, he couldn’t seem to get Alyssa and her babies out of his mind.

“Nah, I think I’ll hang around here for a while.” He couldn’t make himself leave. Not yet. “Maybe I’ll grab something to eat in the cafeteria.” He didn’t have anything to eat in his house anyway. The place had been closed up for months.

Simon nodded. “See you later, then.”

Jadon wandered down to the cafeteria, not really hungry but desperate for something to do. He stared at the various meal selections before finally deciding upon a bowl of steaming hot chili. He’d barely sat down with his meal when he heard his name over the loudspeaker.

“Jadon Reichert, please report to the OB unit. Jadon Reichert, please report to the OB unit immediately.”

Alyssa!

He jumped up, abandoning his food, and headed for the stairs. He ran all the way up to the fifth floor, his heart pounding from exertion as much as fear.

“I’m Jadon Reichert. You paged me? About a patient, Alyssa Knight?” he said to the clerk seated at the front desk.

“Yes, Dr. Rayborn was looking for you.” The clerk picked up the phone and dialed. “Dr. Rayborn? Jadon Reichert is here.”

Within moments Kim appeared, dressed in scrubs and an ultra-serious expression. He clenched his hands into fists and braced himself for the news.

“I’ve started Alyssa on a continuous infusion of terbutaline in an attempt to stop her contractions,” Kim explained. “They’re getting less severe, but haven’t stopped yet. If I’m not successful in halting her labor over the next twenty-four hours, you need to know there is a good chance Alyssa will end up delivering her twins prematurely.”

CHAPTER TWO

WAITING was pure, interminable hell.

Jadon paced the small waiting room located near the delivery suites. Kim had insisted on keeping Alyssa in the labor and delivery area until she was certain she could stop Alyssa’s labor. Especially since Alyssa hadn’t fully recovered from her hypothermic episode.

Not knowing what was going on behind the closed doors was killing him. He was a man who liked to be in control. He didn’t know how to be patient. After he’d practically worn a path in the carpeting, he finally sat, dropping his head into his hands with a low groan.

There was no reason to dwell constantly on the potential complications. Alyssa would be fine. And even if the babies came early, they weren’t too small. Kim had estimated one twin to be about three pounds, the other about three and a half pounds.

About the same size he and Jack had been.

He closed his eyes on a wave of despair. He didn’t want to think about his twin brother, or about Jack’s problems.

Especially since he hadn’t been entirely truthful with Alyssa. She knew he had a brother, but she didn’t know Jack was his identical twin.

The lie of omission had stuck in his throat, even back then. But he’d gotten so used to hiding the truth over the years, especially where women were concerned. The stress of coping with his brother had destroyed too many relationships. The breakup of his own brief engagement was bad enough, but the failure of his parents’ marriage had driven the lesson home. Relationships didn’t work for someone in his situation and covering up the truth made it easier to avoid lengthy explanations.

No matter how much he wished otherwise, his life wasn’t his own. Jack would always have to come first. It wouldn’t be right to bring anyone else into his messed-up family.

But then he’d met Alyssa. He’d told himself to stay away, but he hadn’t seemed to be able to resist her. He had broken their rule of no strings by falling for her.

And now Alyssa was pregnant with his babies.

With twins.

Worry gnawed a hole in the lining of his stomach. If he could go back and do things differently, he would. He wouldn’t have left so abruptly, responding instantly to his mother’s panicked phone call the way he always had before. He would have talked to Alyssa first, taken the time to formally break things off between them.