Isn't it Romantic? Read online

  “School?”

  “You know how dogs are,” Trey said. “They only … ah, get together, in schoolyards, on church property or busy street corners. They have a wonderful sense of humor.”

  “Disgusting creatures,” Katrine muttered.

  “Melissa has a nice one,” Shelly said softly.

  “It barks morning, noon and night,” her mother complained.

  “Dogs and children come with a certain amount of noise factor filtered in,” Trey said dryly. “Now, do we continue this abuse, or have your knees had enough?”

  “I believe your knees are probably every bit as bruised as ours,” Katrine pointed out. “You aren’t any better at this than we are.”

  “No one can skate very well with another person constantly clinging to his arm.”

  “I don’t see anyone clinging to your arm at present,” she challenged. “Why don’t you show us your stuff?”

  “Unlike the obviously insecure heroes in your novels, I don’t feel the need to prove my masculinity by strutting for females like some peacock. I can skate. We’ll leave it at that.”

  “I want to see you strut,” Shelly pouted. “He probably skates as well as he mud wrestles,” Katrine said under her breath.

  His gaze shot her direction. “I heard that. All right. Prepare to be impressed.”

  After Trey escorted them to the side rail, he bent and began tightening the laces of his skates. “I could have taken Wanda,” she heard him mutter.

  Katrine smiled, her smile fading when he rose and dusted the ice from his knees. Trey Westmoreland was a man who’d always look good walking away.

  “Here goes,” he turned to say, then he was gone.

  “Where is he?” Katrine craned her neck.

  “There!” Shelly pointed. “Wow. Look how fast he’s going!”

  Tracking Trey wasn’t easy. He sped along the ice, weaving in out of people the same as he’d done on the motorcycle. “Maniac,” she whispered, but was impressed despite herself.

  He passed them, turned and skated backwards. a cocky grin plastered on his face. Neither Katrine nor her daughter said a word to each other. I can skate, had been a ridiculous understatement.

  After leaving them gaping while he shot around the rink twice more, Trey skated toward the rail. He stopped abruptly, spraying Katrine and Shelly with ice shards.

  Shelly laughed, clapping her hands with excitement.

  “Where did you learn to skate like that?” she demanded.

  Trey shrugged as if it were no great accomplishment. “I’ve been skating since I was a kid. I played hockey in college.”

  Hockey? Katrine’s limited knowledge on the sport consisted of turning the channel when a game came on television. From what she could grasp of the sport, a bunch of men in stuffed shirts skated around trying to knock a small black thing into a net and usually knocking each other around more than the disk.

  “Well?” Trey said.

  She lifted a haughty brow. “I’m not familiar with the sport.”

  “And you’re not impressed?” he goaded.

  “Not very,” she answered dully.

  His grin stretched. “Maybe that’s because you haven’t had enough research in the area of speed skating. Come on, I’ll give you a lesson.”

  Before she understood his intent, Katrine found herself pulled out onto the ice. Trey placed his hands on her waist and propelled them forward. “Wait! I thought we were leaving!” she shouted in panic.

  “Can’t,” he said in an apologetic tone. “Not until I make you laugh. Keep your knees bent and your feet straight. If we fall this time, it’ll hurt like hell.”

  The word ‘hurt’ Katrine understood all too well. She couldn’t tolerate pain, not physical or emotional. Since an argument seemed pointless, she did as Trey instructed.

  “Here we go.”

  The floor rushed past her, filling Katrine’s nose with the clean scent of cold. Trey’s hands were secure on her waist, and after a few moments of fear-induced adrenaline being pumped through her system, she felt something she’d never experienced. A heady taste of recklessness. She had no time to think, to react, only to feel, and the pleasure of flying across the ice with Trey brought her such joy, she couldn’t help but express it. Katrine began to laugh out loud.

  Her eyes were stinging with unshed tears, her insides sore from laughing by the time Trey slowed, steering them toward the railing where Shelly stood wide-eyed.

  “I don’t believe it,” she whispered. “You’re laughing, just like he promised.” The girl’s gaze settled upon Trey with reverence. “You did it, Trey. And you didn’t even have to tickle her.”

  Katrine glanced between the two of them in confusion. “What’s this, a conspiracy going on behind my back?”

  “Earlier, Shelly expressed a doubt you were capable of having fun,” Trey explained. “Knowing how much yow like to be entertained, I told her I’d prove her wrong.”

  “You are entertaining,” Katrine admitted dryly, then smiled at him. “And you skate better than you…” She cut her eyes meaningfully at Shelly. “Better than another sport I’ve seen you involve yourself with.”

  “I want Trey to push me around the rink the same as he did you,” Shelly pleaded.

  Trey looked to Katrine for permission.

  “Only a couple of times, and not as fast,” she stressed.

  “Why don’t you get your skates off and meet us by the rental desk.”

  She nodded, grasping the rail for support while he took Shelly’s hand and helped her onto the ice. Once Katrine made the safety of a chair, she went about removing her skates, watching the rink for signs of Trey and Shelly while untying her laces. When she spotted them, a strange feeling stole over Katrine. They looked so natural together, and she resented John all the more for not being there to help her raise their daughter.

  Her child drank up Trey’s attention like a thirsty flower. Katrine had told herself for years a man wasn’t a necessity to make a woman’s life complete, but what about Shelly? By denying herself, had she also short-changed her daughter? She suddenly wondered what her life would be like if things had turned out differently, then fought the picture forming in her imagination. A picture of her, Trey and Shelly, together, as a family.

  Don’t, Katrine mentally warned herself. She was dreaming a very dangerous dream. On paper, Katrine knew how to make it turn out the way it should, but in real life, she knew the ending all to well. Nothing lasted forever. When she noticed Trey and Shelly headed toward the skate rental desk, she finished removing her skates and slipped into her flats.

  Shelly’s flushed face made her smile when she joined them.

  “Did you see us, Mom? Weren’t we great?”

  “You were,” she agreed. “Maybe we should check into some lessons for you.”

  “Really?”

  Shelly seemed so excited, Katrine felt another twinge of guilt. Why hadn’t she thought of doing this before? Beneath her lashes, she sought the source of her newfound enlightenment. Trey turned in their skates and cast her an approving glance. Katrine hated the pleasure it spread through her body. She shouldn’t care about his approval. Still, as they headed down the mall toward an exit where they’d agreed to meet Charlie, Katrine felt obligated to express gratitude for her daughter’s sake.

  “Thank you for today. Shelly had a great time … and I did, too,” she admitted softly. “I guess this goes to show we can spend more than a couple hours in each other’s company without a major catastrophe occurring.”

  “Maybe we should take Shelly on all our dates,” he suggested with a grin. “Has Jerry called you?”

  “He has. Expect a limo at your apartment two nights from now. Jerry said he’d give the driver directions to your apartment and to my house, as well.”

  “I can’t believe you want control of the next date,” he said in a tone dripping with fake injury. “You couldn’t possibly top the evening I had planned for us.”

  “Probably not,” s
he said, enjoying the easy banter between them. “I’m insisting on formal attire. No grease,” she added a warning.

  His sexy smile dazzled her. Katrine took slow, deep breaths as they walked outside in an effort to clear her head. Trey Westmoreland was a dangerous man. If she didn’t watch herself, she might start to like more about him than his looks.

  “There’s Charlie,” Shelly said, running ahead toward the cab.

  “I’ll sit up front,” Katrine decided.

  “Afraid to get in the back with me?”

  “Afraid you’ll write something about it,” she countered, walking around to the front passenger door. Thankfully, Shelly had already scrambled inside the back, saving Katrine the curiosity their conversation would have generated.

  “I don’t think I’d mind another round of research.”

  Hand poised on the door, Katrine stared over the top of the cab to meet his heated stare. Truth be known, she wouldn’t mind another round, either.

  “You two quit flapping your jaws!” Charlie rolled down his window to shout. “I’ve been sittin’ out here for over fifteen minutes.”

  Trey opened his door and started to climb in before he realized Charlie had a passenger. Judging by the person’s bulging belly, Trey suspected he knew who it was. “Nadine?”

  “T. West,” she snarled.

  “Get in, Trey,” Charlie instructed shortly. “I’ve got things to do.”

  Nadine shifted herself, grunting and groaning all the while. Shelly, not as mature as she sometimes seemed, ogled the woman’s huge stomach from the other side of the car.

  “Pumpkin, this is Kat Summers,” Charlie beamed, turning to face his wife.

  “I’m so h—happy to meet you,” Nadine said.

  “Nice to meet you, too.” Katrine settled herself in the front seat, wondering why the woman’s voice caught the way it did. Besides the fact she was obviously very pregnant, she looked odd. “Are you all right?” Katrine asked with concern.

  “Not really.” Nadine’s face screwed up. She groaned. “I’m in labor.”

  Chapter 10

  Trey gulped. “You’re what?”

  “I wasn’t talkin’ to you,” Nadine snapped. “Now, Kat, as I was saying, I’m in labor and Charlie here thinks he’s a doctor and knows we got time for one more fare before we go to the hospital. Since it was you, I unwisely agreed.”

  “Oh hell, Nadine,” Charlie swore. “You know at them Lamaze classes they said the first baby takes hours. This kid’s gonna cost me a fortune. I needed Trey’s fare. It usually turns into an expensive one.”

  “I’m paying,” Katrine reminded Charlie. “This was my treat, and I’m sure you’re absolutely correct. I labored with Shelly off and on for two days before—”

  “Do you think we can do something besides sit here and chit-chat?” the question barely made it through Trey’s clenched teeth. “Hurry, before she … does whatever it is she’s going to do!”

  ‘She’ turned a glare on Trey. “I won’t make any bones about the fact I think you’re about as sorry as a full tick on a starving dog. I didn’t much care for your review on Kat three years ago. You’d best just sit there and keep your mouth shut, ‘cause in case you ain’t figured it out, I’m not in a good mood.”

  “Sweet Cakes,” Charlie warned. “Don’t threaten my customers. I’ll get you to the hospital in plenty of time.”

  The cabby took the car out of park and eased into the flow of traffic. Trey sat close to the door, his eyes trained on the back of Charlie’s head. He knew plenty about kids, but had never witnessed a birth. Maybe if he ignored Nadine and the possibility she might deliver in the seat next to him, the situation wouldn’t materialize. The feel of a strong hand taking his made detachment impossible.

  Nadine gasped and dug her nails into Trey’s palm. “Oooooh,” she moaned, making small panting noises. “It hurts so bad, I just want to squeeze the life outta something!”

  “How far apart are your contractions?” Katrine asked.

  “They were ten minutes apart. Now five.”

  Katrine cast a worried glance the cabby’s direction. “Charlie, I think you’d better forget about taking us home and go straight to the hospital.”

  “You sure?” he asked, as if being a romance writer qualified Katrine to know about such things as birthing babies.

  “I can’t remember how far apart they were when Shelly was born. They knocked me out and did a cesarean. Even so, I think you should hurry.” Trey wondered if the scar ran up and down or sideways. He wanted to think about anything but the woman crushing the bones in his hand. Since Shelly had been brought to attention, he turned to see how she was reacting to the circumstance. Her eyes were huge and kept darting to Nadine’s stomach as if she expected something to pop out any minute. “Shelly, are you all right?” he thought to ask.

  She nodded, but her face looked pale.

  “Oh,” Nadine whispered. “Either I just wet my pants or my water broke.”

  “Are you sure?” Charlie yelled.

  “I’m sure it was one or the other!” she shouted back.

  “Just drive, Charlie!” Trey ordered.

  “Don’t you yell at my Char—lie.” Nadine bit down on her lip, squeezed her eyes shut and applied pressure to Trey’s hand.

  “She’s having another contraction,” Katrine fretted. “I don’t think it’s been five minutes. How long will it take to get to the hospital, Charlie?”

  “In this traffic, maybe an hour. I know some short cuts, maybe I’d better take them.”

  Yes! Yes! Yes! Trey wanted to shout. He didn’t dare, not with the future use of his fingers at Nadine’s mercy. Progress of her contraction could be easily measured. The pressure to his hand started out gradual, increased, became unbearable, then declined. Trey tried to ease his hand from her hold. Nadine clamped down.

  “Here comes another one,” she moaned.

  “It’s only been two minutes,” Katrine whispered.

  “Breathe, Baby,” Charlie called from the front seat. “That’s what we paid all that money for, wasn’t it? So you could learn to pant like a dog?”

  “I’m gon–na kill you Char–lie Grimes.” The contraction took Nadine’s threat and turned it into a gasp of pain. “Oh, Oh, Ohhhh my Godddd!”

  As numbness spread through Trey’s imprisoned hand, he suspected he’d never hear a woman moan those three words again without seeing Nadine’s sweat-beaded, twisted features in his mind. When Nadine increased the pressure on his fingers, he started to pant along with her.

  “Quit that, Trey,” Charlie grumbled. “You’re fogging up the windows. I’m taking a dirt road, Nadine. It’s rough. Hold on, Honey.”

  She did. To Trey. They bounced along a rutted road as Nadine grunted and groaned. “I need to lie down,” she moaned. “I need to push!”

  “No!” Charlie shouted. “It can’t be time to push! You know what we learned in them classes? You can’t push!”

  His wife proved she could by bearing down with the next contraction. Trey bore down on his lip to keep from groaning out loud.

  “Shelly, get up front with me,” Katrine instructed.

  Her daughter seemed eager to comply as she scrambled over the seat. Trey wanted to scramble up front with her. Nadine had other plans for him.

  “Help me stretch out!” she barked, releasing his hand. The sudden blood rush to his fingers was close to orgasmic. Trey wiggled his fingers in bliss. Nadine grabbed hold of his collar.

  “H-E-L-P M-E!”

  Taking her beneath the arms, Trey tried to budge a one-hundred-eighty pound woman to the far edge of the seat. He felt the movement of her stomach against his. It didn’t feel good. Nadine didn’t look good. This wasn’t good.

  “How far are we from the hospital?” he croaked.

  “Thirty minutes,” Charlie answered. “How you holding up, Pumpkin?”

  “Pull over,” Nadine said. “I waited too long to call you. I’m gonna have this baby before we get to the hospi
tal and I want you with me. So I can kill you afterwards,” she added with a sob.

  The cab skidded to a halt. Charlie almost wrenched the back door off its hinges. He poked his head inside. “Trey, don’t look. I’m going to see what’s going on down there.”

  Trey was all too willing to oblige. He had no desire to see what was going on ‘down there’.

  “Oh my gosh,” Charlie whispered. “She’s crowning.”

  “Crowning? What the hell does that mean?” Trey asked.

  “It means he can see the top of the baby’s head,” Katrine explained.

  Charlie nodded, turned white, then fainted dead away.

  When his body hit the frozen ground outside the car, Trey’s panicked mind shifted into denial. This can’t be happening. Women don’t really have babies in the back seats of cabs. This only happens in movies. A miracle would deliver them all, including Nadine. A doctor on the way to the hospital should pull up any minute and ask if they needed assistance. His head swiveled from front view to back. Not a car in sight.

  “What do we do, now?” Katrine choked, obviously on the verge of panic herself! “Trey, do you know anything about delivering babies?”

  “Oh, sure,” he snapped. “Not only did I major in Journalism and play hockey in college, I practiced obstetrics in my spare time! Hell no, I don’t know anything about it!”

  “I only asked!” she shouted back at him. “You don’t have to bite my head off! If you hadn’t taken Shelly ice skating today, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

  “If you hadn’t insisted on coming with us, we wouldn’t have had to call a cab, and we wouldn’t be here!”

  “You are here,” Nadine reminded weakly. “Someone’s gonna have to help me.”

  Katrine began chewing her lip and Trey began glancing out the window again. In the front seat, Shelly snapped out of her fear-induced trance.

  “I know, I’ll use the mobile to call 911.”

  Both Trey and Katrine stared dumbly at her.

  “The mobile?” they said in unison.

  Shelly lifted the phone. “While I dial, Trey move Charlie up front with me, and Mom, you get in the back seat and help.”

  All occupants of the car shifted. After Trey and Katrine managed to settle Charlie in the front seat, they returned to the back and opened the door, bumping shoulders as they scrambled inside. Nadine was past the ability to make comments of her own, emitting only groans and pants while she labored with the burden of love.