thought back, trying to remember. So many details of that day were permanently etched on her memory. Others were less clear. “It was around four, I think. She’d managed to finish her shower and dry her hair and get dressed, but the contractions were coming every fifteen minutes or so, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to drive herself to the hospital.”
“Which proves that she’d considered it,” he noted.
Paige nodded. “Thankfully, I only lived a few blocks away, so we were at the hospital before five. Of course, her doctor didn’t show up until seven, and even then, he wasn’t ready to admit her because the labor hadn’t progressed very far.
“Anyway, long story short, Emma was born just after ten p.m. that night.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you skipped over a lot of stuff?”
“Because I didn’t think you wanted to hear about the contractions stalling and the baby being in distress and finally being delivered by emergency C-section.”
Nor did she want to think about those complications—and the accompanying terror—while Megan was in labor. Of course, she was confident her cousin could handle just about anything. Because from the minute she’d learned that she was pregnant, Megan had been reading everything she could find on pregnancy and labor and childbirth. In fact, Paige wouldn’t be surprised if the mother-to-be couldn’t teach the doctor a thing or two.
Still, Paige would feel a lot better once the baby was actually born. Because although it was true that women had been having babies since the beginning of time, it was also true that even with all of the progress in modern medicine, there were still occasions when things went wrong. And although Paige knew it was both silly and futile, she crossed her fingers under the table, hoping that nothing would go wrong for Megan or her baby.
“Yeah,” Zach finally responded to her comment. “It’s hard enough to think about how differently things could have turned out fourteen months after the fact. I can’t imagine what she—and you—went through at the time.”
“Olivia was a trooper throughout the whole thing,” she told him. “But when they finally pulled the baby out, we both cried right along with Emma.”
“Thank you,” Zach said softly.
Paige looked over at him, surprised. “For what?”
“For telling me,” he said. “But especially for being there, for Olivia and Emma.”
“It was my pleasure—and an absolute thrill to hold Emma in my arms when she was only minutes old.” She glanced at Zach again and felt an unexpected twinge of guilt, as if she’d stolen an experience that should have been his. But then she remembered the point she’d made earlier—that even if he had known about Olivia’s pregnancy and wanted to be there for the birth, things might not have played out any differently.
Except that there would have been no question about the baby’s custody when Olivia died. Or maybe the accident never would have happened, because Olivia wouldn’t have driven to New Jersey to tell Zach about the baby because he would already have known. But it was pointless to play “what if” at this stage. All they could do now was move forward, even if neither of them knew exactly what direction was forward.
Emma wriggled, trying to get out of the high chair, just wanting to move. Cubes of Jell-O were scattered on the tray and on the floor, but clearly she’d had enough of her snack and was ready to escape her confinement. Paige glanced at her watch and frowned. “I can’t keep her here all night.”
“I could—” Zach began, then snapped his jaw shut.
She sighed. “I know I’m being unreasonable. I just can’t seem to stop myself.”
“And I don’t know what to say or do to reassure you that I’m not going to disappear with her.”
Paige put her empty cup on the tray beside his. She didn’t know if it was the eagerness with which he’d listened to the story of Emma’s birth or the attentiveness she’d observed in his interaction with the child, but she decided that it was time—maybe past time—to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Would you trust me with your Jeep?” she asked him.
His brows rose. “Is there any reason I shouldn’t?”
She responded by digging her car keys out of her purse. “Leave me yours and you can have mine to take Emma back to my place. It’s easier than trying to move her car seat,” she explained, then couldn’t resist adding, “That and I have antitheft tracking, so if you take off with the baby, the cops won’t have any trouble finding you.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said drily, as he unhooked the tray from the high chair.
Desperate for freedom, Emma flung herself forward. Paige had a flash of panic as she remembered that she hadn’t fastened the grimy safety strap around the little girl’s waist, but Zach—obviously having anticipated the move—blocked her easily with a hand.
Emma frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but before she could make a sound, Zach had deftly plucked her from the seat and set her on her feet. She looked up at him, grateful but still wary, and took a few tottering steps toward Paige.
“Pawk?” she said hopefully.
It was her new favorite word and her favorite place. There was a small park at the end of the block where they lived in Syracuse and a bigger park even closer to the house on Chetwood Street, and Paige had gotten in the habit of taking Emma there after her nap. The little girl had been most displeased to be going in the car instead of to the park when she woke up today and clearly hadn’t forgotten.
“You’re going to go home with Zach,” Paige told her.
Emma stole a cautious glance in his direction, then shook her head. “Pawk,” she said again.
“I can’t today,” Paige said.
“But I can,” Zach said.
Emma stole another glance at him, but continued to cling to Paige.
“What’s your favorite thing at the park?” he asked. “The swings or the slide?”
Emma seemed to get what he was saying and her love of the park apparently outweighed her lingering uncertainty about this new man who had suddenly appeared in her life, because she looked right at him this time and said, “Pawk?”
He nodded.
Emma released her hold on Paige and held out her arms to Zach.
Chapter Five
When Paige returned to the maternity-wing waiting room, she found that Gage’s brother, Craig, and his wife, Tess, had joined the party. There were also two other, older couples, who she figured were the prospective grandparents of some other baby.
She slid into the vacant chair next to the sofa where Ashley sat close to her husband. Her head was on his shoulder, and his hand was on the curve of her belly. The baby must have kicked because Cam’s hand snapped back and Ashley laughed.
“You’d think I’d be used to that by
