sorry. I do mean it.’
‘Perhaps.’
Her eyes met his and she could see they were not warm and forgiving but neither were they icy. They were sad. They were filled with a look close to disappointment and she felt her heart sink a little further. She had never been quite so rude to a stranger before. Heaven knew what day he had endured and she had behaved abominably.
Circumstance had made her distrust the male population. She had not even thought how her behaviour would affect the handsome stranger sharing the slowest elevator on the west coast of North America, until he’d pointed it out. But she was surprised by his reaction. She assumed most men would have shrugged it off but he seemed genuinely disappointed, almost as if he was directing the disappointment inward for some reason.
With a humble and heartfelt expression she replied, ‘I really do apologise. I’m very sorry and there’s really no excuse for my behaviour.’ Taking a deep breath, she outstretched her hand like an olive branch. ‘I’m Claudia Monticello, slightly hormonal mother-to-be and having a very bad day. I could add that I’m perhaps a little stressed right now as I’m flying back to the UK tomorrow and I have so much still to do. I have to see my obstetrician and finish packing. There’s so many things I have to remember...’ And so much she wanted to forget. But she had no intention of telling the handsome stranger that.
‘Well, perhaps you do have a reason to be a little on edge,’ he said, looking into her eyes, almost piercing her soul. ‘Apology accepted. Patrick Spencer, doctor, not eavesdropper.’
Claudia smiled. She had picked the wrong profession too. As she kept staring into his eyes, she noticed they were a deep blue with flecks of grey. Like storm clouds swirling over the deepest part of the ocean. She felt herself wondering why he hid such stunning eyes behind dark sunglasses. They were too captivating a shade to be hidden. She shook herself. His eye colour was not something she needed to busy her mind with at that time. Nothing about him was her concern, she told herself as she noticed there was only a short trip of eight floors until they reached street level and she would never see the man again.
But it did feel strangely reassuring to be in the elevator with a man with a medical background after the fleeting contraction she’d experienced. She knew they were commonplace nearing the latter part of pregnancy and it appeared to have been a once-off but his nearness made her feel a little safer.
No, very safe and she didn’t know why.
Out of a sense of awkwardness in the silence that were now sharing, she glanced up again to check how many floors they had travelled. The elevator had not picked up any speed. She was glad they weren’t in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai or the boys would be ready for pre-school at the rate they were travelling.
With her mind brought to travel, Claudia was excited to be heading home. Once her obstetrician signed her flight clearance she would be on her way back to London. Her contract with the television studio had finally ended, leaving her free to return home. Instinctively, she patted the recent ultrasound scans tucked safely in her bag. She had no swelling in her legs and her blood pressure had been fine at the last visit. Her pregnancy had been uneventful until the twinge, something which was at complete odds with her disastrous personal life. But she was grateful she had something positive upon which to focus.
As they passed the fourth floor and the elevator seemed to almost pause, suddenly she felt another more intense contraction. Claudia tried to smile through it but suspected it was closer to a grimace. Braxton Hicks contractions were a lot different to what she had expected. She had been told that a woman could experience up to four in an hour but she hadn’t thought they would be so close together.
Patrick eyed her with concern but, just as he opened his mouth, the stalling elevator came to a jarring halt. Claudia grabbed the railing to steady herself and they both looked up to see the floor light flickering and waited for the doors to open. But they didn’t. Instead the lift dropped what she imagined to be another floor and stopped. Patrick had already taken two purposeful steps towards Claudia and she felt his strong arms wrap around her to prevent her from falling. His touch should have worried her but instead a wave of relief washed over her. She was not alone.
‘Let’s get you on the floor. It will be safer.’ Hastily he pulled off his jacket and dropped it to the elevator floor before gently lowering Claudia onto it.
‘Your jacket—it will be ruined.’
‘At this moment, a ruined jacket is not my concern. You are,’ he said matter-of-factly but with an unmistakable warmth in his voice and one Claudia didn’t believe she truly deserved after her behaviour. ‘When are the babies due?’
‘The twins aren’t due for another six and a half weeks and I’m fine, really I am,’ she insisted as she tried to sit gently and not move and crease the jacket underneath her. ‘I’m flying out tomorrow with the doctor’s approval; it’s the last possible day that the airline will allow me to travel.’
‘You’re cutting it fine with the whole long haul at almost thirty-four weeks,’ he replied with his brows knitted. He added, ‘You seemed to be in pain a moment ago.’ It was a question he framed as a statement. He didn’t want to appear overbearing but he was concerned. He was also doubtful whether she should be travelling at such a late stage of pregnancy. Even with a clean bill of health, it seemed risky for her to take a long haul flight so close to delivering.
‘Yes, just one of these Braxton Hicks contractions.’
‘You’re sure?’ His frown had not lifted as he spoke.
This time it was a question and she sensed genuine concern. It heightened hers.
‘Absolutely,’ she said, followed by a nod. It wasn’t the truth. The truth was that she had never been quite so scared in her life but she had to push that reality from her mind and remain positive. The worst-case scenario was too overwhelmingly frightening to consider without collapsing into a heap. She had been holding everything together tenuously for so many months her nerves were threadbare.
‘If you say so,’ he told her, doubt about her response evident in his tone. ‘Just stay seated till we reach the ground.’ He retrieved his mobile phone from his trouser pocket, but Claudia assumed there was no reception through the heavy elevator walls as he turned and reached for the emergency telephone.
He didn’t take his eyes away from Claudia, even when the standard response finished and he cut in. ‘This is Dr Patrick Spencer, I’m in Terrace Park Towers, Wilshire Boulevard, not far from Highland. We’re somewhere between the fourth floor and street level and the elevator’s come to a halt. I have a female resident with me. Approximately thirty-four weeks pregnant.’ He paused. ‘No, no, there’s no immediate medical emergency. I have the resident seated and there’s no obvious physical injuries but I want a crew to get us out stat. And after the jolt it would be wise to send an ambulance. The patient may need to head to the hospital for a routine obstetric examination.’
With that he hung up and turned his full attention back to Claudia.
Her resolve to remain calm had deserted her, despite attempts to tell herself she was overreacting. She wasn’t overreacting. Her eyes darted to the steel doors, willing them to open, and then back to Patrick, unsure what she was willing him to do.
‘We’ll be out of here before you know it,’ he said and very gently wiped the wisps of hair from her brow, now covered in tiny beads of perspiration. ‘They’re on their way.’
‘Yes, they are... I’m afraid.’
‘There’s
