A Very Special Delivery

Luke stared in awe at the wet, wrinkled infant that was somehow the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. And when the baby looked at him with big blue eyes wide with innocence and wonder, he fell just a little bit in love with the little guy.

He wiped the baby’s face carefully with a clean, soft towel to ensure that his nose and mouth were clear of fluid. Then he wrapped him, still attached by the cord, in a blanket and laid him on his mother’s chest.

“And there he is,” he told her.

Julie blinked, as if startled by this statement. “He?”

“You have a beautiful, healthy baby boy,” he confirmed. “Born at 4:58 pm on November first.”

“A boy,” she echoed softly, her lips curving just a little. “My baby boy.”

Tears filled her eyes, then spilled onto her cheeks. She wiped at them impatiently with the back of her hand.

“I’m sorry. I’m not usually so emotional.”

“It’s been an emotional day,” Luke said, feeling a little choked up himself.

It took her a few minutes to get her tears under control before she spoke again, and when she did, she surprised him by saying, “I thought he’d be a girl. I wanted a girl.” After a moment she continued. “I don’t even feel guilty admitting it now. Because looking down at him, I know that I couldn’t possibly love him any more if he had been a she. All that matters is that he’s mine.”

“Why did you want a girl?” he asked curiously.

“I guess I thought it would be easier to raise a girl, since I was once one myself. I don’t know anything about little boys. Or big boys.” She glanced up at him and offered a wry smile. “And personal experience has proven that I don’t understand the male gender at all.”

“Are you disappointed that he’s a he?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m not disappointed at all. He’s...perfect.”

“That he is.”

“I never expected to feel so much. I look at him, and my heart practically overflows with love.” But she managed to lift her gaze from the baby to look at Luke now. “Thank you, Dr. Garrett.”

He didn’t know how to respond to her gratitude, especially when he felt as if he should be thanking her. Because in his entire life, he had honestly never experienced anything more incredible than helping to bring Julie’s beautiful baby boy into the world.

What he’d told her earlier was true—the hard part was all hers. And he couldn’t help but be awed by the strength and determination and courage she’d shown in face of the challenge. He felt honored and privileged to have been a part of the experience, to have been the very first person to hold the brand-new life in his hands.

By the time he’d cut the cord and delivered the placenta, Julie had put the baby to her breast and was already nursing. And Luke finally let himself exhale a silent sigh of relief.

He tidied up, gathering the used sheets and towels, then left mother and child alone while he stepped away to call Yolanda to let her know that an ambulance was no longer a priority. She offered hearty congratulations and a smug “I knew you could handle one little baby” then signed off to deal with other matters.

After putting a load of laundry in the washing machine, Luke fed Einstein, then realized that his stomach was growling, too. And if he was hungry, he imagined that Julie was even more so. He put some soup on the stove to heat, then peeked into the family room again.

“How are you feeling now?”

“Exhausted,” she admitted. “And ecstatic. I don’t know how I can ever repay you for everything you’ve done.”

“I’m just glad I was here to help.”

She smiled at that. “And if an ambulance could have got through the storm, you would have shipped me off to the hospital in a heartbeat.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed without hesitation.

“Since I am still here, there is something I wanted to ask you.”

“Sure.”

“What do you think of the name Caden?” She looked at him expectantly, trying to gauge his reaction.

“What does it mean?” he asked.

“Fighter or battle.”

He nodded. “I like it.”

She smiled down at the baby before lifting her eyes to meet his again. “Then let me formally introduce you to Caden Lukas Marlowe.”

She saw surprise flicker in his eyes, then pleasure. He offered his finger to the baby, and Caden wrapped his tiny fist around it, holding on tight. “That’s a lot of name for such a little guy,” he noted.

“You don’t mind the ‘Lukas’ part?”

“Why would I mind?”

She shrugged. “I wanted him to have a small part of the man who helped bring him into the world. I know we probably won’t ever see you again after we leave Pinehurst, but I don’t want to forget—and I don’t want Caden to forget—everything you’ve done.”

“You’re not planning to go anywhere just yet, are you?”

“Not just yet,” she assured him. “But I figured you’d want to get us out of here as soon as the roads are clear.”

Of course, she couldn’t go anywhere until her car was pulled out of the ditch and any necessary repairs were made, but she didn’t expect her Good Samaritan to put them up for the duration.

He shrugged. “As you noted, it’s a big house for one person and two pets.”

She wasn’t entirely sure what he was suggesting. Was he really offering to let them stay with him? And even if he was, she could hardly stay in the home of a man she’d just met. No matter that she already felt more comfortable with him than with the man she’d planned to marry.

Before she could ask, she heard the sound of footsteps stomping on the porch. Despite the fact that the roads were still closed, Lukas didn’t seem at all surprised to have a visitor—or that the visitor, after a brisk knock, proceeded to open the door and walk right into the house.

Einstein had been released from the laundry room and cautiously introduced to the baby. Since then, he hadn’t left Julie’s side. But he obviously heard the stomping, too, because he raced across the room and down the hall to the foyer, barking and dancing the whole way.

The sharp barks startled the baby, and Caden responded with an indignant wail of his own. Julie murmured reassuringly and snuggled him closer to her chest, and by the time the visitor had made his way down the hall to the family room, he was settled again.

“This is a friend of mine,” Lukas told her, gesturing to the tall, dark-haired man beside him. “Cameron Turcotte.” Then to Cameron he said, “This is Julie Marlowe and Caden.”

“Are the roads clear now?” Julie asked him. She assumed that they must be if he was able to get through, although she couldn’t begin to fathom why he would have chosen to visit a friend in the middle of a snowstorm.

“The plows are out in full force, but it’s going to take a while,” he told her. “Main Street is technically still shut down, but I knew the officer posted at the barricade and told him that I had to get through to deal with a medical emergency.”

“Are you a doctor, too?” Julie asked him.

Cameron’s brows lifted. “Too?”

“Yolanda wanted to reassure Julie that she was in capable hands with Doctor Garrett,” Lukas told his friend.

The other man chuckled.

“Why do I feel as if I’m missing something?” Julie asked warily.

“The only thing that matters is that you and your baby are okay,” Cameron said. “And since I was on my way home from the hospital, Luke asked if I could stop by to check on both of you. With your permission, of course.”

She looked questioningly at Lukas. “I don’t understand. You said everything was okay. Is something—”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said, answering her question before she could finish asking it. “But you may have misunderstood my qualifications.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’m a DVM, not an MD,” he told her.

It only took her a few seconds to decipher the acronym, and when she did, her jaw dropped.

“My baby was delivered by a vet?”

Lukas nodded.

Julie was stunned.

And mortified.

Dr. Garrett wasn’t a qualified medical doctor—he was an animal doctor.

She drew in a deep breath and tried to accept the reality of the situation. And the truth was, neither of them had had any other choice. She’d been stranded in his house in a blizzard with no one else around to help. Her options had been simple: accept his assistance or try to deliver her baby on her own. And, in his defense, he hadn’t claimed to be a doctor—it was the 911 operator who had offered that information.

And she’d grasped at it with both hands. It wasn’t how she’d wanted to deliver her baby but knowing that she had no chance of getting to a hospital, she’d considered herself lucky that her car had gone into the ditch by a doctor’s house. Proving once again that she had a tendency to see what she wanted to see.

“I didn’t intend to deceive you,” Lukas said to her now. “But you seemed to find comfort in believing that I was a medical doctor, and I didn’t want to cause you undue stress by correcting that impression.”

And she’d willingly stripped out of her clothes because a doctor—especially an obstetrician—was accustomed to his patients doing that. Glancing at the veterinarian who had delivered her baby, she didn’t doubt that he was accustomed to women stripping for him, too, although probably not in a clinical setting.

“So.” She cleared her throat. “How many babies have you delivered?”

“One,” he admitted.

“And it looks to me like he did a pretty good job for a first-timer,” Cameron—Doctor Turcotte—commented.

“But I think we’d both feel better if Cameron checked Caden over, just to make sure I didn’t miscount his toes or something.”

She could smile at that, because she’d already counted his fingers and toes herself.

“And you might want some numbers—weight and length, for example—to put in his baby book,” Cameron said.

“I guess ‘tiny’ is somewhat vague,” she admitted, relinquishing the swaddled infant to the doctor.

He measured Caden’s length and the circumference of his head, then he used a kitchen scale to weigh the baby.

“Not as tiny as I thought,” he said, handing the infant back to his mother. “Just about seven and a half pounds and twenty inches. A pretty good size for thirty-eight weeks. You obviously took good care of yourself throughout your pregnancy.”

“I tried to exercise regularly and eat healthy,” she said, then felt compelled to confess, “but I sometimes gave in to insatiable cravings for French fries and gravy.”

“Well, I don’t think those French fries and gravy did any harm to you or your baby,” Cameron assured her.

He opened a backpack she hadn’t seen him carry in. “Newborn diapers and wipes,” he said, pulling out a bunch of sample packs. “Some receiving blankets and baby gowns.”

“Thank you,” Julie said. “I’ve got a few outfits and sleepers in the trunk of my car, just because I wandered through a baby store the other day, but I didn’t think I’d be needing diapers just yet.”

“Well, there should be enough here to hold you for a couple of days, until you can get out—or send Luke out—to stock up on supplies.” Then he said to his friend, “You did a good job—for someone who doesn’t specialize in obstetrics.”

Lukas narrowed his gaze in response to Cameron’s grin, but he only said, “Julie did all the work.”

“Knowing you, I don’t doubt that’s true,” the doctor teased. “Now I’m going to get home to my wife and kids, while I still can. If the storm doesn’t blow over, you might be snowed in for the whole weekend,” he warned Julie. “But if you have any questions or concerns, please call.”

* * *

“I’m sorry.”

They were Luke’s first words to Julie when he returned to the family room after seeing Cameron to the door.

“I’m not,” she told him. “I’m grateful.”

He sat down across from her. “You’re not even a little bit mad?”

She shook her head. “I’m a little embarrassed. Okay, more than a little,” she admitted. “But the truth is, I couldn’t have done it without out you.”

“It was an incredible experience for me, too.”

“Could you do one more thing for me, though?”

“What’s that?”

“Not tell anyone that you got me naked within an hour of meeting me.”

“Not even my brothers?”

“No one,” she said firmly.

He chuckled. “Okay, I won’t tell anyone. But speaking of telling—was there anyone you wanted to call? Or have you already posted newborn photos from your phone on Facebook or Twitter?”

She shook her head. “I don’t do the social media thing.”

His brows lifted. “Do you do the telephone thing?”

“Of course, but I don’t think any of my friends or family is expecting to hear any news about a baby just yet.”

“He’s only a couple weeks ahead of his due date,” Lukas reminded her.

Which was true. It was also true that no one was expecting any birth announcement because no one had known that she was pregnant. Not even her parents, because it wasn’t the type of news Julie wanted to tell them over the phone. She’d wanted to talk to her mother in person, to share her joy—and her fears—with the one person she was sure would understand everything she was feeling. But she’d been traveling for work for the past seven months and hadn’t had a chance to go home. In fact, no one aside from her boss at The Grayson Gallery knew, and it wasn’t Evangeline’s voice that Julie wanted to hear right now—it was her mother’s.

But more than she wanted to hear Lucinda’s voice, she wanted to see her, to feel the warmth of her arms around her. Julie wondered at the irony of the realization that never had she more craved the comfort of her own mother than after becoming a mother herself.

“I guess I need to figure out a way to get home.”

“You’re not going anywhere until this storm passes,” Lukas pointed out to her.

Watching the snow swirl outside the window, she couldn’t dispute the point.

She’d hoped to be home before the weekend. She’d only taken this detour through Pinehurst to discuss some issues with the lawyer her brother had recommended. Of course, she hadn’t admitted to Daniel that she was the one in need of legal advice, because he would have demanded to know what the issues were and insisted that he could handle whatever needed to be handled.

Instead, she’d told him that she had a friend in New York State—because she hadn’t been too far away at the time and heading in that direction, suddenly aware that she couldn’t go home until she had answers to some of the questions that had plagued her over the past several months—who was looking for a family law attorney and wondered if he had any contacts in the area.

“I guess you’re stuck with us for a little bit longer, then,” Julie finally said to Lukas.

“It’s a big enough house that we won’t be tripping over one another,” he assured her.

“When the snow stops, I’ll have my car towed and make arrangements for someone to come and get me.”

“I already called Bruce Conacher—he owns the local garage and offers roadside assistance—to tell him that your car was in the ditch. He’s put you on the list but warned me that there are at least a dozen vehicles ahead of yours.”

“I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse—knowing that I wasn’t the only one who slid off the road in that storm.”

“You definitely weren’t the only one,” he assured her. “And I’m sure there will be more before the night is over. But on the bright side, the storm hasn’t knocked out the power lines.”

She shuddered at the thought.

“It’s past dinnertime,” he pointed out. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” she admitted.

“How does soup and a grilled cheese sandwich sound?”

“It sounds wonderful,” she said.

Luke headed back to the kitchen where he’d left the soup simmering. He ladled it into bowls, then flipped the grilled cheese out of the frying pan and onto the cutting board. He sliced each sandwich neatly in half, then transferred them to the plates he had ready. He carried the soup and sandwiches to the table, then went to the drawer for cutlery.

“It smells delicious,” Julie said, coming into the room with Caden carefully tucked in the crook of one arm.

“Of course it does—you’re starving,” he reminded her.

She smiled at that, drawing his attention to the sweet curve of her lips.

He felt his blood pulse in his veins and silently cursed his body for suddenly waking up at the most inappropriate time. Because yes, he was in the company of a beautiful woman, but that beautiful woman had just given birth. Not to mention the fact that she was in his home only because there was a blizzard raging outside. There were a lot of reasons his libido should be in deep hibernation, a lot of reasons that feeling any hint of attraction to Julie Marlowe was wrong.

But after six months of self-imposed celibacy, his hormones apparently didn’t care to be reasoned with. Not that he’d made a conscious decision to give up sex—he just hadn’t met anyone that he wanted to be with. At least not longer than one night, and he was tired of that scene. He was looking for more than a casual hookup.

He could blame his brothers for that. Until recently, he hadn’t wanted anything more than the casual relationships he’d always enjoyed with amiable members of the opposite sex. And then he’d started spending time with Matt and Georgia, and Jack and Kelly, and he’d realized that he envied what each of them had found. He’d even had moments when he found himself thinking that he’d like to share his life with someone who mattered, someone who would be there through the trials and tribulations.

But he figured those moments were just a phase. And the unexpected feelings stirred up by Julie Marlowe had to be another anomaly.

She was simply a stranger who had been stranded in a snowstorm. He’d opened up his home to her because it was what anyone would have done. And he’d helped deliver her baby because circumstances had given him no choice. The fact that his body was suddenly noticing that the new mom was, in fact, a very hot mama, only proved to Luke that no good deed went unpunished.

She moved toward the closest chair, and he pulled it away from the table for her. As she lowered herself onto the seat, he caught just a glimpse of shadowy cleavage in the deep V of the robe she wore before the lights flickered. Once. Twice.

Then everything went dark.

* * *

He heard Julie suck in a breath. Einstein, who had positioned himself at his master’s feet as he was in the habit of doing whenever there was food in the vicinity, whimpered. Beyond that, there was no sound.

No hum of the refrigerator, no low rumbling drone of the furnace. Nothing.

And the silence was almost as unnerving as the darkness.

“So much for the power holding out,” he commented, deliberately keeping his tone casual.

Thankfully, he had an emergency flashlight plugged into one of the outlets in the hall. It ran on rechargeable batteries and automatically turned on when the power went out, so the house wasn’t completely pitch black. But it was pretty close.

While he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he reached for Julie’s free hand, found it curled into a fist on top of the table. He covered it with his own, squeezed gently.

He heard the distant howl of the wind outside, a sound even more ominous than the silence. Julie heard it, too, and shivered.

“I’ve got some candles by the stove,” he told her. “I’m just going to get them so we can find our food.”

He found half a dozen utility candles in the drawer, set a couple of them in their metal cups on the counter and lit the wicks. The scratch of the head against the rough paper was loud in a room suddenly void of all other sound. He lit a couple more and carried them to the table.

They were purely functional—a little bit of illumination so that they could see what they were eating. And yet, there was something about dining over candlelight—even if the meal was nothing more than soup and sandwiches and the lighting was necessity rather than mood—that infused the scene with a romantic ambiance he did not want to be feeling. But somehow the simple dishes and everyday glassware looked elegant in candlelight. And when he glanced across the table, he couldn’t help but notice that Julie looked even more beautiful.

“Dig in before it gets cold,” he advised.

She dipped her spoon into the bowl, and brought it up to her mouth. Before her lips parted to sample the soup, they curved upward and her gaze shifted to him. “Chicken and Stars?”

“So?” he said, just a little defensively.

“So it’s an unusual choice for a grown man,” she said.

“It’s my niece’s favorite.”

“How old is your niece?”

“I have two nieces,” he told her. “Two nieces and two nephews. Matt’s daughter, Pippa, is only a baby. Jack’s daughter, Ava, is twelve going on twenty.”

Her brows drew together, creating a slight furrow between them. “Is Jack short for Jackson?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Why?”

“Your brother is Jackson Garrett?”

Now it was his turn to frown. “You know Jack?”

“Actually, he’s the reason I came to Pinehurst,” she admitted.

Luke carefully set his spoon down in his bowl, the few mouthfuls he’d consumed settling like a lead weight in the pit of his stomach. “Please tell me that he isn’t the father of your baby.”

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