“What’s wrong?” she asked, holding the baby and sling in her arms.
“There’s a road up ahead. I flagged down a passing truck and the driver told me there are checkpoints set up now every few miles.”
“That’s not unusual though, is it?” Serena put Gracie over her shoulder to burp her. “I mean, I’m not usually in this part of the country, but even I know it’s a hotspot—lots of cartels, right?”
“According to the driver, today they’re searching for a woman,” he said, his tone dead flat. “And that’s definitely not the norm. We need to get moving again. Now.”
Unexpected tears of frustration and fatigue prickled the backs of her eyes before she blinked them away hard. Dammit. Now was not the time to fall apart. Too much depended on her keeping her shit together and getting herself and her baby out of here to safety. If she just wasn’t so darned sore and tired and…
Some of her inner turmoil must have shown on her face because Noah waggled his fingers at her. “Give me the knapsack. No arguments this time.”
She did as he asked, then gritted her teeth while she slowly eased the sling over her neck and down around her strained shoulder again, muttering under her breath, “If you really wanted to help, you’d take Gracie too.”
“What?” he asked, holding the heavy knapsack with a couple fingers like it was nothing. She contemplated kicking him hard in the shin, just because, then stopped herself. Hurting him wouldn’t help her. And knowing her luck, it would just make her blistered toes feel worse. He kept staring at her expectantly. “I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I said…” she started then shook her head. “Forget it.”
“No.” He slung the knapsack over one brawny shoulder and crossed his arms, clearly not moving until she relented. “Tell me what you said.”
“I said if you really wanted to help, you’d carry Gracie too.” She tried to make it sound like a flippant joke. Ha-ha. Except his serious expression said it landed otherwise.
A beat stretched out between them as he seemed to come to some kind of decision. Then Noah gave a curt nod and held out his arms like he was about to catch a football. “Give her to me.”
“What? No.” She shook her head and snorted. “She’s a small human, not sports equipment.”
His dark brows knit and his blue gaze turned intense. “I’ve never carried a baby before. But I have carried live grenades across a minefield, so I think I’m qualified.”
As analogies went, it wasn’t completely wrong. Besides, her shoulder felt permanently dented from her daughter’s weight and she feared walking like Quasimodo for the rest of her days if she didn’t do something so…
Carefully, she eased the sling off her body and walked over to Noah. “Bend down.”
He did as she asked and Serena carefully looped the sling around his neck and over one shoulder, nestling baby Gracie over the center of his chest before adjusting the knots in the sheets to make sure it was all secure. “Okay. Now, you’ll still need to support her head, like this.” Serena showed him by cupping the back of her daughter’s tiny skull with her hand. “And if you need to adjust her position, make sure you have one arm behind her back too, for support.”
Noah repeated all of the movements Serena showed him, all with the same nervous hesitation she would imagine people normally reserved for handling armed nuclear warheads. Finally, Gracie was asleep against his chest and Serena felt ready to set out again.
They only made it about half a mile, though, before he stopped and held up his hands in exasperation. “This is making things worse instead of better. Now I’m slowing us down.”
Serena scrunched her nose at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’re moving along just fine.”
“No. We’re not. Every time this baby moves or makes a noise, I freeze up because I’m scared to death I’ve hurt her somehow. That I’ve done something wrong. It’s exhausting and counterproductive.”
“Welcome to my world.” Serena shook her head and chuckled. “She’s fine. Look at her. What’s not to like? She’s warm and cosy and your heartbeat calms her. Gracie’s having the best time of all of us. When she gets hungry or needs a diaper change again, she’ll let us know. Otherwise, she’s good.”
His dubious expression showed his skepticism, but he kept going. “Fine. But if she comes out of this with some kind of trauma, it’s on you.”
“It always is,” Serena mumbled, then followed alongside him through the rainforest. As the sun had risen higher in the sky, the damp air had begun to fog around them, lending the whole place a sort of happy fairy tale appearance. Well, except for the crazed thugs trying to kill her. That part came straight from the brothers Grimm. They walked on for what felt like miles, past flora and fauna and all kinds of things that at a different time, in a different place, Serena would have been eager to study and photograph. As it was now, she just longed to see some signs of peaceful civilization again.
At least Noah seemed to have moved beyond his initial freak-out and had settled into fatherhood nicely. She gave him a side glance and didn’t miss the small smile on his lips as he gazed down periodically to check on Gracie. She also couldn’t help but noticing the comfortable way he held the baby against him now, the earlier tension gone. Noah might not have a lot of experience with kids, but he was a natural, if the way Gracie was responding to him was any indication.
Finally, a couple hours later, the baby started fussing and Serena stopped to check her watch. Yep. Feeding time again. They found a secluded spot just off the path and she took Gracie to feed her. Afterward, she handed the baby back to Noah to burp her while she
