Second Chance Pass (Virgin River #5)(80)

He suddenly realized he was thinking only of himself and he got down on one knee beside the bed, took her hand in both of his and said, “I love you, baby. More than my life—you know that. Right?”

“Not now, Jack,” she whispered. “I’m busy.”

“It’ll be okay.”

“Sure it will,” she said. “Maybe you better pant.”

“I should never have let you do all that cleaning.”

“Shh… Just breathe…”

He heard the sound of voices outside their bedroom. Brie stuck her head in the door. “Need anything?” she asked.

“A basin or bowl. The baby bathtub of warm water. John Stone would be nice.”

“Oh, he’s here. He’s scrubbing up in the kitchen sink.”

“Tell him to get in here now. Tell him she’s here!”

“Not quite here,” Mel said. “But she’s coming…” Mel looked at Jack. She reached out a hand and touched the hair at his temple. “You’re getting a little gray here.”

“Big surprise. I really didn’t know you’d be such a handful.”

“I’m the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“Yeah,” he said in a breath. He leaned down and kissed her brow. “Yeah, baby. You sure are. And you’re a reproductive genius.”

John came into the room, all smiles. “You have a nice little birthing party going on out there, Mel. What’ve we got here?”

“We’re ready,” Jack said, getting up.

John lifted the flashlight with a clean towel, fixed the light on Mel’s pelvic floor and said, “Yup. We’re ready. How about you two? You ready?”

“John, I’m so glad to see you,” Jack said.

“And I’m just so glad to be here. Jack, why don’t you glove up, help me out here.”

“Sure,” he said. “Sure. I can do that. How you doing, baby?”

“I’m ready,” Mel replied.

“Hey, Jack,” John said. “Why don’t you go ahead. I’m right here. Go ahead, bring her out.”

“No way, man,” he said, backing away.

“Come on—you know you want to. Might as well. You did the hard part. You put up with this for nine months.”

“Hey!” Mel objected. “Excuse me?”

But Jack got a funny, dreamy look on his face and said, “Yeah. Let me bring her out. Let me. Since you’re right here…” All these months of insisting this wasn’t what he wanted and suddenly it was all he wanted. He’d pulled the last one right out of her body and he felt as if he’d gone to heaven, it was such a trip. He gloved up real fast. “There won’t be anyone for Mel’s back,” he said.

“I’ll take her back, and I’ll coach you,” John offered. “But you’re okay, you know what to do. Go for it, man. It’s your baby.”

“Okay,” he said, getting himself settled on his knees, right at the foot of the bed, and waited through a few more contractions, and then she delivered the baby’s head. Without even being told, he checked around the neck for the cord. John left Mel for a second to look over his shoulder to be sure. Then Jack supported the baby’s head with a large hand and John told Mel to give them a little push. The baby came out slick and easy, mucky and screaming.

Jack held another life he’d produced in his hands. No one should be this lucky, he thought. No man on earth should have all this.

John spread the baby towel over Mel’s belly and Jack placed the baby there and began to dry her off so he could wrap her in a clean, dry blanket. He clamped and cut the cord.

“Okay, I’ll take care of the placenta,” John said. “You get that little girl to her mother, then to the breast.”

Now Jack was on terra firma—he’d done this before. He wrapped her, moved her into Mel’s arms and got down on his knees to watch as his baby daughter nuzzled against Mel’s warm flesh for a little while, then rooted and finally latched onto the breast, suckling. “Aaah,” he said, smiling. “Another genius.”

He pulled off the gloves and ran a couple of fingers along Mel’s cheek, then over the baby’s head. She turned her watering eyes up to his face. “You’re getting pretty good at this,” she said in a weak whisper.

“I am, huh. So are you. Mel, she’s gorgeous. Positively gorgeous. She’s going to look like you.” He leaned over the baby to put his lips against hers. He moved over her mouth lightly. “God, I love you.”

“She’s smaller than David,” Mel whispered.

“She’s a good size,” Jack said, as if he knew. “God, she’s gorgeous.”

“Jack?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“You do this to me one more time without my permission, you’re a dead man.”

“Sure, honey. I’ll be careful…”

“And all those people out there?”

“Yeah?”

“You get out there and tell them, if they mess up my clean house, they’re going to pay. Pay, do you hear me?”

He grinned at her. “I hear you, Mel.”



Walt Booth was just dishing up dinner—two plates of fish he’d steamed in foil packages on the barbecue, wild rice and fresh broccoli—when the phone rang. The answering machine was in the kitchen and he decided to listen before picking up. “Dad? Dad, are you there?” Vanessa asked.