The Accidental Daddy Page 6

  And this woman was going to raise his baby?

  She probably wasn’t nearly as daffy as she seemed. Shock could turn anyone a bit peculiar. He’d been angry at the clinic, very angry, but shock had certainly struck him as the hugely pregnant woman had walked through the door of the consulting room.

  His ‘that’s my baby in there!’ thought had definitely brought on shock.

  Though the emotion that had followed—a surging, prideful sense of ownership—that had been the biggest shock.

  Especially when he’d so recently confirmed in his head that children weren’t for him.

  It had to be a genetic thing, going back to caveman times—a tiny bit of cellular material that made a man protective of his child.

  The key fob opened a silver—straight silver as far as he could tell—sedan with a wrapped baby capsule in the back seat, on the third floor of the parking station. The woman did love her stairs!

  After easing back the seat and studying the unfamiliar controls, he drove back to the old building, pulling into one of two parking bays in what had once been a small front garden.

  Joey was sitting on the front steps, a bag beside her, her head tilted to one side as she held the book she was reading to the light.

  Could she really be as calm as she looked?

  He walked towards her, holding out his hand to help her to her feet, but as she took it she must have felt some pain for her fingers tightened on his, gripping strongly, clinging to him until, with a deep sigh, she relaxed and released his hand, pushing herself to her feet.

  ‘Contraction?’ he asked, his own gut now tight with tension.

  She smiled. ‘A small one but definitely a contraction,’ she said. ‘This is good. Now it’s started I’d like to get it over and done with.’

  ‘Although...’ she added, after a slight hesitation. She was looking into his face, and even in the light from a streetlamp outside the building he could read the worry in her eyes.

  ‘There’s something—no, there could be something—wrong,’ she whispered, fear edging the words.

  ‘With you?’ Max asked, taking her hand again.

  ‘With the baby.’

  The words were little more than a sigh, then she straightened up, took a deep breath, and said, ‘The last scan—as you can see, I’m huge and the scans showed polyhydramnios, which you probably remember just means lots of fluid. The baby wasn’t cooperating with the scan so they couldn’t see a problem, but there could be.’

  Another pause before she added, ‘I thought you should know.’

  Max folded his arms around her, holding her as close as he could, and dug back through his memory—polyhydramnios was associated with Down’s syndrome and possibly other congenital birth defects.

  ‘You had other tests?’ he asked, because that was the practical thing to say while inside he was wondering how well he’d cope if his child needed special help.

  A warm feeling inside told him he’d be fine—just the words ‘his child’ brought on such a sense of achievement he knew he could conquer anything.

  You’ve gone nuts, the cynic in his head muttered, you do not need to be involved with this child, but he barely heard the words.

  ‘Of course, so it’s nothing obvious,’ she said.

  ‘We’ll manage,’ he told her, and she stepped back and looked into his face.

  ‘Oh, will we?’ she said, although he was sure there was a smile in the words. ‘Anyway, it might be nothing at all, so for now let’s just get him or her out and take it from there.’

  She was all practicality again, tucking the book into the pocket of her top while he helped her into the car. He had no idea of what the future might hold, or his place in it with this woman and the child, so for now all he could do was go with the flow. She’d handed him the car keys earlier, asking if he’d mind driving her to the hospital—‘not that I can’t drive, I just feel a bit spacey’—so she was offering him a certain level of trust.

  It wasn’t until he’d backed out onto the road again that he realised he had no idea where he was going.

  ‘Across the river. I’m not so spacey I can’t give directions,’ she said, guessing his dilemma.

  Before the directions began, a phone sounded, so he pulled to the kerb while Joey rummaged in her bag.

  After the initial greeting, her end of the conversation wasn’t hard to follow.

  ‘Jacqui, calm down. Where are you? Where are your mum and dad? Will you let me call the ambulance?’ She sighed as he heard shrill protests from the other end of the phone. ‘Okay,’ she said at last. ‘Keep trying to contact your parents but I’ll be there in ten minutes.’

  ‘Change of plans,’ she said as she closed the phone. ‘One of my patients from this afternoon was hit by a bike on the way home from a friend’s. She fifteen, a recovering anorexic as well as being a type one diabetic. She loathes doctors, loathes hospitals. It’s taken me ages to get her trust. It sounds like she’s damaged her shoulder but I’m more worried about her sugar level. She’s home alone and she’s terrified. I have to go.’

  Max felt his draw drop in disbelief.

  ‘Whoa! Hang on there a moment, lady! We’re on our way to hospital for you to have a baby. You can’t go dashing off to tend to other medical emergencies.’

  ‘I don’t have a choice. Jacqui trusts me and you have no idea how hard that was to achieve. I’m only in early labour. I’ll be fine. But...but you don’t have to come. I can drive.’

  She didn’t sound too sure about the ‘I can drive’ part, and the ‘but’ had been definitely scared.

  ‘This is crazy,’ Max told her. ‘Right now you should be thinking about yourself—thinking about you as a patient, not you as a doctor. You’ve just had a contraction.’

  ‘I know.’ And this time he definitely heard fear. ‘I want...what’s best for my baby. You don’t know how much. But, Max, I know she’s desperate. If she’s having a hypo...’

  He gazed at her and she gazed back. Conflicting emotions were all over the place. She needed to be in hospital. He needed to get her there.

  One fifteen-year-old, with diabetes...

  ‘If the worst comes to worst, you’re a doctor,’ she said, trying to sound courageous. ‘Surely you can remember how to deliver a baby.’

  Oh, yeah?

  Shock had blanked his mind of medical knowledge, but he knew it would come back to him. And of course he’d known the first contractions rarely meant anything, apart from the fact that labour had started. It was just that he’d prefer her to be in hospital where someone else would be responsible for the delivery.

  ‘Let’s go,’ she said. ‘It’s not as if this baby is going to pop out any minute.’

  Was he really sitting in a car, arguing with a woman in labour—a woman who, at some stage, would produce his baby?

  It was beyond belief!

  ‘Drive or get out,’ she was saying now, although she hadn’t opened her door, so obviously she was just testing him.

  ‘I’ll drive,’ Max found himself growling, but he put the car into gear and indicated to pull away from the kerb. ‘Just tell me where to go.’

  Follow her directions, the calm, positive and in-control part of him suggested, so he ignored the panic fluttering through the rest of him, took a deep breath and drove the car where he was told to drive it.

  Down off the terrace, around the edge of the city, along the broad river, then up to a grand house with a sweeping view.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ Max asked worriedly. ‘There has to be some other way.’

  ‘Jacqui won’t ask for help. She’s so stubborn she’s dangerous.’

  ‘Stubborn! Tell me about stubborn,’ Max snorted, but Joey was already clambering awkwardly out of the car. Should she have bought something higher and easier t
o get out of?

  Not that she’d be pregnant much longer.

  The door was unlocked. Joey knocked. No answer. She pushed and went inside. Jacqui was sitting in the drawing room, hands shaky, sweat on her brow.

  ‘Joey...’

  ‘Hey.’ Joey started forward but Max was suddenly beside her, holding her back, then astonishingly pressing her to sit in one of the chairs. Great, Joey thought. What if her waters broke? What if...?

  ‘Hi,’ Max was saying to Jacqui, who was backing in alarm.

  ‘Who...who are you?’

  ‘I’m Dr McMillan’s birthing partner,’ he said, and sighed and knelt before the scared-looking kid. ‘It’s okay. Joey’s in labour, but she’s promised not to have the baby until you’re okay. I’m a doctor too, and while Joey’s concentrating on baby, can I concentrate on you?’

  The girl gave Joey an awed look. ‘Really?’

  ‘Really,’ Max said. ‘Jacqui, you look sweaty. Point me to the kitchen. Do you have juice?’

  ‘I... Yes.’

  ‘And where’s your test kit?’

  ‘In my backpack.’

  ‘That arm’s hurting?’ She was cradling it, protecting it—from him?

  ‘Y-yes.’

  ‘Where are your parents?’

  ‘My mum’s out with friends. She’s not answering the phone. Dad’s at a meeting and he hates me disturbing him.’

  ‘You won’t be disturbing him, I will be,’ Max said, giving Joey a quelling glance. ‘Okay, Jacqui, let’s get you sorted so Dr McMillan can get on with having her baby.’

  He found the juice. He tested her blood sugar and insisted on more juice. He fashioned a support sling to hold her arm immobilised and then barked orders at her hapless dad on the end of the phone.

  Then he waited, watching both Jacqui and Joey until Jacqui’s dad got home. Compelling them both to sit still. To rest. No dramas on his patch.

  By the time her father arrived, Joey had had two more contractions and Jacqui was so intrigued she’d almost forgotten about her own pain.

  ‘You need to take your daughter to hospital,’ Max told her father. ‘She needs that shoulder x-rayed.’

  ‘I won’t go,’ Jacqui said sullenly.

  ‘See, we have a choice,’ Max told her. ‘Joey won’t go to hospital until you do. This is nice white shag pile carpet. It’s not exactly birth material. Our baby might come at any minute. The only way you can make Joey safe is for you to agree to be treated.’

  ‘That’s blackmail,’ Jacqui gasped, and Max beamed.

  ‘You have it in one.’

  ‘Our baby?’ Jacqui asked.

  ‘Ours,’ Max said, and headed back to Joey. He knelt and put his arm around her. ‘Help me out here, Jacqui. Agree to get your arm x-rayed.’

  ‘Please,’ Joey added, as another contraction hit.

  And there was no choice. With one eye on his daughter’s arm, and another on his beautiful carpet, Jacqui’s father turned dictatorial. They left and Max was able, finally, to usher his lady back into the car.

  His lady? Why did it feel like that was the right description? She was so brave, he thought. What other woman would insist on putting the needs of an ill fifteen-year-old before her labour?

  ‘You didn’t have to say our baby!’ she muttered at him as soon as they were out of earshot.

  ‘It helped,’ he explained. ‘I have a niece about that age and any hint of romance between adults is a huge deal. Not, of course, that’s there’s any hint of romance here, but she wouldn’t know that. It got her distracted and she’s getting an X-ray because of it. Good result.’

  The explanation didn’t do much good, to judge from Joey’s frown as he helped her into the car.

  ‘Does it matter, people knowing it’s ours?’ he asked as he climbed in beside her.

  She turned to him, a puzzled look on her face.

  ‘I guess—I really don’t know. I feel so out of it somehow... Detached...’

  ‘Spacey,’ he provided, as her voice tailed away. ‘And for someone who’s admitted feeling spacey and who is having contractions, you need to turn off your phone, stop being a doctor and let yourself be looked after.’

  ‘By...you?’

  ‘By me,’ he said grimly. He took her phone from the car console and tucked it in his jacket. ‘I’m in charge—sort of—until we have a baby.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SHE TOLD HIM which way to turn to get back to the road along the river. She succumbed to silence.

  Once again he got that feeling of fear. He wanted to pull over and read the book. What to do when the lady giving birth was frightened?

  Distract her?

  ‘You haven’t really explained why you decided to have this baby,’ he said.

  ‘For David?’

  ‘Is that a question?’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head and stared ahead for a bit. ‘I guess...all I had was work. For so long...’

  ‘Is that why you decided to have the baby? To give you something other than work to live for?’

  The road was well lit so he could see the astonishment in her expression as she turned towards him.

  ‘Of course not! I’d sort of promised David. I mean...he hadn’t made me promise but I know he would want it. His parents quite desperately want a grandchild. Anyway, it’ll enhance my work, having a child of my own, experiencing child-rearing, something that’s been book-learning up to now.’

  ‘So you’re having this baby as a tool to make yourself a better paediatrician?’

  He couldn’t disguise his disbelief so it wasn’t surprising she went all defensive on him.

  ‘It’s not like that at all!’ she snapped, but there was an undertone of uncertainty beneath the words. ‘And, anyway, it’s none of your damn business.’

  ‘Oh, yes, it is!’ he retorted. ‘That baby’s mine as well, remember.’

  ‘So you say, and, anyway, you’ve missed the turn. You should have turned to the right back there and onto the bridge.’

  Shut up and drive, in other words, Max muttered to himself, but the conversation had disturbed him. He knew people had babies for all kinds of reasons, but shouldn’t there be an element of love? The ex-husband was in the equation, he thought, but only just.

  ‘If you go left now we can come at it from the other way.’

  She sounded so forlorn as she gave the direction, Max regretted the entire conversation. Did it really matter why she was having the baby?

  Wasn’t it enough that she was having it, and soon?

  ‘I did want to do it for David.’ The whispered words made him ease his foot off the accelerator, aware there must be something she needed to say. ‘But it’s the love thing that held me back—still worries me. Loving the baby.’

  She turned, her face pale in the streetlights.

  ‘Loving someone makes you a hostage to fate.’

  The words stabbed into his heart. She’d suffered the terrible pain of losing the man she’d loved and now feared the same pain should something happen to her baby.

  So she told herself all the stuff about it being good for her career in the hope that...

  That what?

  She wouldn’t love too hard?

  Too deeply?

  Too passionately?

  ‘Now over the bridge, along beside the park, and up the hill.’

  She was back to giving directions but was still subdued.

  Was she in pain?

  His heart ached for her, and he reached out and rested his hand lightly on her knee.

  She covered it with her own, and he drove up the hill towards the huge building. The hospital.

  Was it inappropriate that as well as an enormous empathy for her, he felt excitement stir
ring in his gut?

  ‘I’m not exactly an emergency,’ she said as he pulled into the emergency bay.

  ‘But you’re not a “walk through the front door with the visitors” person either,’ he told her firmly, parking the car and helping her out.

  Accustomed to pregnant women appearing on the doorstep, an orderly was already wheeling a wheelchair towards them.

  ‘I’d prefer to walk,’ Joey said firmly, but when she turned back towards Max, there was anguish in her wide blue eyes.

  Had he put it there with his unthinking words earlier?

  Or was it apprehension about what lay ahead?

  ‘You will come with me, won’t you? Stay with me?’

  Max swallowed hard. This was ridiculous. They weren’t anywhere near the nitty-gritty part and here he was getting emotional. He, who’d been decidedly ambivalent about this baby business when he’d been hit with the startling information. Maybe occasional contact had been as far as he’d got in his head before he’d actually seen Joey and her huge belly.

  ‘I’ll just park the car and come and find you,’ he assured her, then he stepped towards her, kissed her on the cheek, squeezed her shoulder, and added, ‘Promise!’

  A kiss on the cheek and a large warm hand on her shoulder—surely such simple gestures couldn’t bring on a wave of wellbeing? No, put it down to endorphins. Didn’t they kick in when contractions started? Speaking of contractions...

  Joey leaned against the wall, wanting to bring out the book but sure it was too late to be reading it again. She remembered the wave—go up it then down, sigh and breathe, but in what order she couldn’t remember.

  Did it matter?

  Just get through the pain.

  She wanted Max!