Prince Charming in Dress Blues Read Free Page A

to her, but better she know straight-out that he was as close to a doctor as she’d be seeing tonight. God help her.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, the storm has turned into a blizzard. There are drifts of snow blocking the driveway, and I’m pretty sure the roads are in no better shape.”
    Her blue eyes widened, and she shot a quick look at the nearest window. Outside, the wind hammered at the glass like an angry old man demanding entry.
    “Well, find a snowplow.”
    “I don’t have one.”
    “What kind of mountain cabin doesn’t have a snow plow?”
    Pointless to wish for things they didn’t have, he thought. “I’ll mention it to Pete next time I see him.” Along with a few other things, like making sure the cabin was unoccupied before you lent it out.
    “There can’t be a blizzard,” she said, interrupting his thoughts and swinging her gaze back to him. “I’m having a baby.”
    Oh, man. He forced a smile he didn’t feel and told himself she didn’t need to see just how nervous she was making him. The thought of becoming an instant obstetrician didn’t exactly electrify him. But what choice did he have? Hell, what choice did either of them have? That baby was coming whether they liked it or not.
    And in this situation the baby had the last word.
    “Maybe we could call for help,” she said, waving the phone she still held in one hand.
    “Good idea,” he said and cursed silently for not thinking of it himself.
    “I’ll call 911,” she said to herself as she turned the phone on and dialed. “This is an emergency, right?”
    “Oh, yeah, I’d say so,” he told her. Heck, if he had any rocket flares, he’d be firing them about now.
    She held the phone up to her ear, and he watched eagerness fade into disbelief and then fear.
    “What?” he asked, not really wanting to hear her answer.
    “It’s not working.”
    “What do you mean it’s not working?” he asked, reaching for the phone.
    “It’s not dialing.”
    He took it, listened for a long minute, hoping the situation would change, then gave it up. That sinking sensation crawled back into his guts and he wondered if it was going to become a permanent part of him. “The phone’s dead.”
    “Oh, God.”
    “Don’t worry,” he said, and instantly told himselfhow stupid that was. Of course she’d worry. She was probably terrified. Having a baby during a blizzard, with the only help available a complete stranger? Those wide blue eyes of hers shone with a glimmer of unshed tears and just a trace of dread. Hell, he was just short of panicking himself. But even as that thought registered, he put it aside. Marines don’t panic, for God’s sake. Marines fight battles. And Marines win, by damn.
    She licked dry lips and gave him a quick, frantic glance. “Maybe it’s not labor. Maybe it’s gas.”
    “You really think so?”
    “No,” she said, shaking her head and rubbing her mouth with her fingertips. “Just wishful thinking. Oh, God,” she added in a soft, panic filled murmur, “what am I going to do?”
    “We can do this,” he said, making sure his voice sounded firm but comforting.
    “ We can?” she asked, grabbing the phone from him and shaking it as if she could bring it back to life.
    “I’ll help any way I can.”
    She kept shaking the phone.
    He took it from her and set it back into the cradle. “Shaking it won’t help. The line must have gone down.”
    “The power line?” she asked.
    “No,” he said with a grateful look at the lamplight, “power’s still on. I don’t know for how long, though.”
    “This is not happening,” she whispered, and sank down onto the edge of the bed.
    “Yeah,” John said quietly, “it is.” Though he wished to hell it wasn’t.
    She shot him a quick look. “I had this planned, you know.”
    “You planned this?” He took a seat beside her.
    Unbelievably enough, a short laugh shot from her throat. “No, I didn’t plan this. I planned how it would be when the baby