he caught the door handle, a sudden uneasiness filled her. “Wait,” she sputtered. “I don’t know you. I can’t let you in my car.”
“I’m not a criminal,” he said, his voice tinged with impatience. “I’m Dr. Cal Tucker. Want to see some I.D.?”
Though she wasn’t thrilled with the tone of his voice or bossy attitude, she shook her head. He was a man, but more than that, he was a doctor. Everything would be all right.
He struggled with the door that hadn’t opened since Thanksgiving. He put his foot against the car and shifted Sara so that he held her in one arm against his chest. With another yank, the door opened, and he maneuvered her into the passenger’s seat, leaning inside the car to hook her seat belt. He turned his head, his face a hair’s breadth from hers. “How’s that?”
Sara swallowed hard and nodded, incapable of speech as the next pain seized her. She sucked in air and checked her watch.
He cursed under his breath, closed the door and raced around the car. Through a haze of pain, she watched him wrestle with the seat until it finally slid all the way back, then tuck his long legs into the cramped space. Even with the seat pushed back, his knees pressed against the dashboard.
Cal glanced toward her as he turned the key in the ignition and pushed on the gas pedal. “What hospital?”
She couldn’t make a sound for a minute, then set her jaw against the pain. “Mercy Hospital.”
When the motor caught, he eased out the clutch. “Hang on.” Her car backfired, coughed, then started forward.
He drove in silence, his movements sure and confident, which only made Sara feel more out of control.
Frustrated at the turn of events, she told herself she shouldn’t blame Cal Tucker. It wasn’t his fault she’d gotten pregnant or that her ex-fiancé, Gary, had demanded she get an abortion, or even that he’d walked out after she’d refused. Just remembering how he’d wanted her to dispose of their baby made her shiver.
“You cold?” Without waiting for her answer, Cal turned the heater up a notch higher as if he knew what was best for her.
Sara pushed the memories away and really noticed the man beside her. “Where have you been, all dressed up?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw as he shifted gears. “A wedding.”
“Yeah, whose?” Sara caught the edge of the seat as another contraction started.
Cal tore the bow tie from around his neck and shoved it in the pocket of the black tuxedo jacket before undoing the top button of his starched shirt. “Mine,” he said in a gruff voice.
Sara forced herself to concentrate on the conversation. “I hate to point this out to you, Dr. Tucker, but you seem to have lost your bride.”
The look he gave her rivaled the Texas sun in July. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Sara said through clenched teeth as the pain worsened. “What happened?”
Cal’s long fingers tightened around the gearshift, and the perpetual frown he wore deepened. “Last-minute change of plans.”
The contraction peaked, and she settled her hands over her protruding stomach, staring out the window until it eased. She had thought Dr. Tucker might be different from the others, but once again, she’d been fooled by a handsome face. “Your idea?”
He approached a red light, looked both ways, then went across. A shadow of annoyance darkened his gray eyes as he glanced at her from the other side of the console. “No, not mine.”
As another pain came, accompanied by a wave of nausea, Sara looked at her watch. The contractions came much closer together. “Oh, no. Faster. Drive faster.”
Cal placed his hand on her stomach.
Sara stared at his long fingers splayed across her abdomen. The fear she’d felt diminished as she watched him watching her. He gave her a quick nod and stomped on the gas pedal. “Hold on.”
Sara sat stunned. Obviously, he knew what he was doing. At least she hoped so. The thought of relying on any man scared her, but at the moment she didn’t have a choice. And Cal had M.D. behind his name, not that it mattered.
Except, he was going to have to deliver her baby.
“Hang on. We’re almost there.” Cal cursed himself for getting involved. He should have walked away, but he’d had no choice. He could no more have left this woman stranded, alone and in trouble, than he could embrace his parents’ way of life. He intended to get this lady to the hospital, one way or another.
When he pushed on the gas pedal, the stupid car sputtered. He muttered a curse and downshifted into second gear.
The woman gasped. “Pull over. I can’t go any farther.”
“What’s your name?”
“Sara Jamison.” Her words trailed off in a groan.
“Relax. It’s not far now.” Cal rolled through a Stop sign.
She glared at him. “Shove a bowling ball up your nose, Doc, then tell me relaxing will keep it from hurting.” She bore down and yelled a curse aimed at all men, including him.
Frustrated, Cal choked the steering wheel. “Dammit, the side of the road is no place to have a baby.” He felt as out of breath as she sounded. “No, Sara, don’t bear down. Don’t push.”
Sara braced her legs on the floor and moaned. Her hand clamped around his wrist. “Don’t tell me what to do.” She threw her head back and screamed bloody murder.
Cal cursed and pulled over to the curb. He had planned to drop Sara at the hospital, then meet James for a beer.
But first, it looked like he had a baby to deliver.
He got out, raced around to Sara’s side of the car and opened the door. “Let’s get you in the back seat.”
She tried to stand. When her knees buckled, he lifted her in his arms. Her scent whirled around him like a lasso, and he wondered how a woman could smell so good in the middle of something like this.
Cal settled Sara on the back seat. She reclined and bent her knees, tucking the skirt of her frumpy brown dress around her legs.
“Better?” he asked, hovering over her. He saw the fear she tried to hide and found he wanted to reassure her. When he realized he already held her hand, he released it, irritated at his reluctance to let go.
Sara met his gaze, her eyes suddenly wide. “It’s coming.”
She bore down then and yelled as if her horse had thrown her into a cactus patch.
Cal stole a quick glance at his watch. About now, he and Tiffany should have been toasting their future with expensive champagne served in fancy glasses. He shoved the thought aside as he yanked off his tuxedo coat and tossed it over the front seat, then rolled up his sleeves.
Sara grimaced, her face turning red from
