Her giggles increased, but her hand swept lightly across his cheek.
“Because we’re in the kind of predicament teenagers find themselves in all the time. All revved up, and nowhere to go.” She kissed the tip of his nose. “Let’s go have that drink and regroup. Then we can see how we feel after that.”
But he recognized a reprieve when he saw one, and shook his head.
“Let’s just go home. This was a bad idea anyway. We both know this isn’t healthy.” It almost killed him to say it, but he knew it was true. “We can’t be together, as a couple, so we probably should stop torturing ourselves this way.”
Her amusement fell away, and she tried to search his gaze. With the moon behind him, he hoped she couldn’t read the anguish he knew was reflecting in his eyes. Then one corner of her mouth tipped up, and she nodded.
“Okay. Probably a wise plan.”
And she bent to pick up her sandals from where they’d dropped onto the sand, and they headed back to the car.
She’d been on the island for only a short time, but it had been enough to tear his life, his heart, apart. The years stretched ahead, threatening his sanity with the knowledge of what his options were—either seeing her all the time but not touching her anymore, or not seeing her at all.
He couldn’t decide which would be worse.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE TENSION IN the house hadn’t abated the next day, and Mina was glad to be working, although speculative glances at the hospital upped her stress. Knowing the entire staff had heard about the offer from the director and was wondering what she planned to do added to the pressure.
While Mina was in the small staff cafeteria having lunch, there was an all-hands emergency, after a bus carrying dozens of people overturned on one of the country roads. The call went out for all available doctors and nurses to go to the emergency department, stat. Quickly tossing the rest of her sandwich, she took off at a gallop, deciding to take a shortcut through an older part of the building, which would get her to emerge quicker.
Once inside, she was surprised at how quiet it was but then realized they’d probably pulled staff from here, as well. There was only one baby visible in the NICU, with a nurse tending to him or her, and through an open door she glimpsed a mother nursing her child. Obviously, unlike the emergency room, it was a quiet day in the maternity and labor ward.
As she got to the doors leading back outside, they swung open, and a hugely pregnant woman pushed through, almost falling into the corridor. Mina grabbed her, lending her support.
“The baby coming.” The woman was panting, holding her belly, and her face was covered in perspiration. “The baby coming.”
“Come with me,” Mina said, hastily leading her around the corner, toward the labor ward.
But the woman stopped and bent double, moaning.
Obviously, they wouldn’t make it to labor without some help.
“Nurse!” Mina called. “Nurse!”
But no help was forthcoming, so, as soon as the mother-to-be seemed able to walk again, Mina hurried her into the first room they came to.
“I’m a doctor,” Mina told the woman, trying to be reassuring, although her own heart rate was going wild. It had been years since she’d delivered a baby, and back then she’d had two hands. “Let’s get you on the bed and take a look.”
“It’s coming,” the woman moaned, after Mina got her partially undressed and lying down, and went to the end of the bed to examine her.
One peek told Mina the woman knew exactly what she was talking about. Right there, in plain sight, was a little patch of hair.
“Nurse!” Mina bellowed, just as the cell phone in her pocket buzzed. Did she even have time to answer?
A quick glance showed Kiah’s name, so she jammed it on speaker and threw it onto a handy chair, on her way to the sink to wash her hand as best she could.
Gloves? What the hell was she going to do about gloves?
“Mina? You there?”
“Yes, but I can’t speak for long.”
“Did you get the call out for the bus crash?”
“Yes,” she shouted in the general direction of the phone, while looking in vain for a sterile towel to dry up. “But I’m delivering a baby.”
“You’re what?”
“It’s coming! I want to push!” yelled her patient.
“Hold on, Mama,” Mina said in response, trying not to yell, too, as she grabbed a handful of gloves she couldn’t even put on. “Wait until I tell you to push, okay?”
“No. No. I want to push now!”
“Mina, where the hell are you?”
“Maternity!”
Another peek showed it was almost time for the baby to make its appearance, with the mother’s cervix almost perfectly dilated. Looking around, Mina spotted a package of disposable bed pads, and, sticking it between her knees, held it with a corner of a glove and tore it open. At least now the baby would have something clean to land on, she thought, as she spread it between the mother’s legs.
Having put a glove over it, she laid her stump on the mother’s belly, hoping it wouldn’t freak her out, and rubbed soothingly, saying, “It’s okay, Mama, you’re doing real good. Give it a couple more seconds, then you can push all you want, okay?”
“Argh!” was the reply, as the mother arched with the pain of her contractions, but she waited until Mina told her, before she pushed in earnest.
The baby crowned before retreating slightly, and then, as Mina chanted, “Push, push, push,” at the mother, the little head emerged.
“Good job, Mama,” Mina said. “Now don’t push again, until I tell you.”
She hadn’t been able to put a glove on her hand, so now she used the sterile latex like a pot holder, while turning the shoulders.
Then they were off to the races again, and in a trice, the baby slid out, already crying.
“It’s a
