A Baby to Love Page 20
“I need a favor,” Jeff explained after Garrick answered.
“You got it.”
“It might get you fired,” Jeff warned.
“No problem.”
Five minutes later, Jeff stood in the middle of a clearing, waving his hands overhead as Garrick landed the helicopter. He ran beneath the whirling blades.
Garrick leaned across the passenger seat, shoved the door open and shouted, “You’re pale as Casper the Ghost. I can take her up alone.”
Jeff gritted his teeth and ignored his stomach turning itself inside out. He climbed into the plastic bubble and fought down the panic rising in the back of his throat.
“I’m ready to take—”
Garrick handed him a set of headphones with a microphone attachment. “You sure you’re ready for a ride in this soup?” The words came through the headset clearly.
Jeff yanked his seat belt tight and clenched his thighs with his fingers to keep them from shaking. “Let’s go.”
“Hell of a day to conquer your fear of heights.” Garrick’s grin contradicted his words. “Where to?”
“He’s got a boat called the Obsession that’s probably no longer anchored at the marina.”
The helicopter rose, and Jeff’s stomach lurched. Garrick’s hands and feet constantly adjusted pedals, hand controls and dials. A sharp gust battered the chopper, but then he regained control with a burst of speed and veered toward the coast.
“I’m going to have to take her in low. There’s a pair of binoculars under the seat.”
Jeff tried to keep his head steady on the horizon while he grabbed the binoculars and opened the case. “Sailboats have a top speed of what?”
“Ten knots. How long’s she been gone?”
“Not more than half an hour.”
“So we’ll search within a five-mile radius of the manna.” Garrick glanced at Jeff. “What are we going to do when we find her?”
Fighting nausea, Jeff found bottled water under his seat-and took a swig. “Trail them and call in their location to the coast guard.”
Garrick shook his head, started to say something. Wind and rain buffeted the bubblelike craft. Jeff’s nails dug desperately into his thighs. And they swooped, fishtailing and skidding through air like a skater across ice. After another steep dive, the chopper clawed upward, and his teeth clenched until the cords in his neck ached.
While the helicopter’s unpredictable movements frightened him, Garrick appeared to enjoy the challenge. “Nothing to worry about. She’s just bucking the wind.”
Nothing to worry about, my ass. Garrick could lose his license for this little stunt. Hell. They could both lose their lives.
But he wasn’t about to let the woman he loved face a murderer alone. He didn’t want to lose her.
He brooded over it as the chopper swept back and forth in some kind of crazy pattern. Then out of the mist, a white cigar-shaped object appeared.
“Is that her?”
Jeff raised the binoculars to his eyes. Obsession was written in bold black letters across the rear. His gaze shifted to the cockpit. Chelsea huddled with the baby in a corner. The bastard hadn’t even let her go below to the cabin to get out of the rain.
Mark reached into his jacket.
“He’s got a gun!” Jeff yelled, expecting Garrick to pull the aircraft up. The chopper dropped lower.
Garrick threw a sling into his lap. “I’ll lower you onto the boat.”
Below, Chelsea screamed and Jeff made up his mind.
WHEN CHELSEA LOOKED UP and spied Jeff in the helicopter, adrenaline and renewed hope surged through her cold bones. If Jeff could master his fear of heights to rescue her, the least she could do was help.
With Mark distracted, Chelsea maneuvered Alex into the bottom of the cockpit where he couldn’t fall. Pulling an oar from the deck where Mark had stored it, she almost had the paddle in striking position when Mark noticed her antics.
She swung the oar hard, but instead of hitting his head or knocking him overboard, she whacked the gun into the sea.
Mark roared in pain at the damage to his hand. He let go of the tiller and started to come at her, murder glinting razor sharp in his eyes.
She reached for Alex. “Don’t step on the baby!”
“He’s mine.”
The boat pitched, Alex rolled, and she scooped him into her arms. “The tiller!”
In his haste to murder her, Mark had released the tiller. The sailboat broached in the heavy seas. The next wave flipped them upside down.
Pitched into the sea, Chelsea closed her arms around Alex. Stinging seawater washed in her eyes, her mouth, weighed down her clothes. Kicking with all her might and with lungs straining, she swam toward the surface and Jeff.
Jeff, who had come for her. The thought warmed her heart, gave her strength, pushed her on long after she’d exhausted her last reserves of energy.
Her head broke the surface, and she gasped for air. She raised Alex’s head out of the water. He choked, then grinned.
Then Jeff was there, swinging from a harness, and she handed the baby to him. “He’s choking.”
Jeff gave her a thumbs-up and started to check Alex while the lift took him and the baby skyward. Chelsea treaded water and tried to calculate how long she’d been under. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, but she worried that Alex could have breathed water into his lungs and tried to console herself Jeff would know what to do for the baby.
It seemed an eternity until Jeff descended again. From the smile on his face, she knew Alex was fine.
She barely had time to smile in return before a hand clenched her ankle, dragged her under. Mark!
Jeff splashed into the water beside her. He and Mark struggled over her ankle. Chelsea kicked hard and freed herself to pop to the surface. Flinging back her hair, she spied Jeff right beside her. Gently he brushed her wet bangs out of her eyes. “It’s going to be okay. The baby’s fine.”
“Mark?”
Jeff swam closer. “He didn’t make it. I tried to save him, but he fought me. I don’t think he could swim.”
Relief that Mark could no longer threaten her lifted like a two-ton weight from her shoulders. And then she felt guilty for her uncharitable thought. Reminding herself that he’d brought his fate on himself and it wasn’t her fault Mark had died made her feel marginally better.
Jeff must have guessed at her conflicting emotions. He tilted her chin and kissed her. “I love you.”
As his lips touched hers, she shoved thoughts of Mark firmly behind. “Oh, really? And just when are you going to prove you love me?” she teased.
“I jumped out of a helicopter for you. What more do you want?”
“Marry me, Jeff.”
“Hey, the guy’s supposed to do the asking.”
“So ask.”
“I’m afraid of rejection.”
“Ask me, damn you.”
“I’m supposed to do that on my knees, not while treading water.”
She chuckled. “I can think of better things for you to do on your knees.”
“Make an honest man out of me?”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
They kissed underwater and when they surfaced, he put her into the harness. As the winch took her up, he yelled, “Remind Garrick to come back for me.”
“What?”
He shouted but she couldn’t hear him. She was too close to the roar of the helicopter. But as soon as she climbed in and gathered Alex into her arms, she realized there was no room for a third person.
Despite the fact she knew Jeff was a strong swimmer, tears streamed down her cheeks. When Garrick returned, he might not be able to find Jeff.
“I’m going to set you down in the park. It’s the closest place.” Garrick tossed car keys into her lap. “Jeff’s car is parked there. “Get the baby warm. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Those few minutes seemed a lifetime. She checked the clock on the dash, then
checked it again. It hadn’t stopped; it just kept time in slow motion while her heart raced. If she hadn’t had Alex to fuss over, she might have bitten her nails to the quick. And then she heard the murmur of the helicopter returning.
And Jeff opened the car door and slid inside. “I decided on a career change.”
“What?” She expected a kiss, a hug, an I-wasworried-about-you, so-glad-you’re-safe comment. She hadn’t even had a chance to tell him she’d regained her memories, including the link she’d recalled between Anne and the word “Obsession.”
She took a deep breath and focused her thoughts on Jeff. When he’d proposed, she hadn’t had time to think things through. But she didn’t expect him to make such a sacrifice for her. “I don’t want you to give up medicine for me.”
“I’m not.”
Had he changed his mind about marrying her? His words had her thoroughly confused.
He took off his shirt and tossed it on the floorboard, and she had to force her gaze away from the magnificent golden skin of his chest to eyes sparkling with excitement. “I’m going to specialize in pediatrics.”
She still didn’t understand. “But—”
“I’ll go into practice with four or five other pediatricians. I’ll only be on call one or two nights a week. Don’t you see? The demand on my time and the number of emergencies will be lessened to give me more time to spend with my wife and kids.”
Stunned by his decision, she felt her pulse pound, flooding her heart with happiness. He was so good with Alex, he’d be a wonderful pediatrician. “Are you sure?”
His fingers cupped the curve of her chin. His thumb teased her lips, cutting off her protest. “It’s what I want for us. I asked Garrick to be my best man at our wedding. That okay by you?”
She was going to burst if he didn’t kiss her. His male heat scorching her, she leaned over the baby and kissed him, melted into him. “Everything’s okay with me, now that I have you and Alex.”
ISBN 978-14592-7577-5
A BABY TO LOVE
Copyright © 1996 by Susan Hope Kearney
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter Invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters In this book have no existence outside the Imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure Invention.
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Table of Contents
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Copyright