by KaLyn Cooper
Simon shook his head fervently. “No. Mama thay we can’t interrupt Daddy. He important.” His face squinted as though seriously thinking. “We’re not back in camp anymore. We’re here in our new home. Is Daddy important here?”
Nita burst out laughing. “Your daddy is still important, but I’m sure we can interrupt him to see if he wants to go swimming with us.” Nita wondered how much actual time Daniel spent with his son.
Simon threw both arms around Nita and held her tight. “Thank you, Mith Nita.”
She stood up with the boy in her arms, and he wrapped his thin legs around her waist. Boldly she stepped up to the door and tapped. “Daniel, may we come in?”
“Sure,” he called in a normal voice. “I’m just giving Bella a bottle.”
When she stepped into the room, her heart clenched at the sight of the big man in the rocking chair holding the tiny child so tenderly. Simon climbed out of her arms and walked carefully toward them. His eyes were not on his father, but his sister. Nita’s heart broke just a little as Simon’s gaze traveled up the tube to the bag hanging over the nearby crib.
His jaw quivered in the way only small children can do. “Bella not better?”
Before Daniel answered, his eyes met Nita’s. She had no idea whether the baby was improving or not. She hadn’t even been in to check the child. Except for the few brief moments when Daniel had first handed her Bella, she’d never even looked at his baby.
She looked away and saw a clipboard at the end of the crib. Hoping it was some kind of a chart, she walked over and studied the top sheet.
Fuck.
No. Bella wasn’t getting better. Nita studied the chart of temperature, respiration, heartbeat, and food intake.
“Knock, knock,” Kira’s cheery voice came from the open door. She looked from Daniel, Simon, and the baby to Nita. “I’m glad you’re here.” She stepped beside Nita and pointed to the temperature column. “The baby Tylenol doesn’t seem to be keeping the fever down for very long. Twice, I’ve had to give her cool baths while waiting for the next round to take effect. She’s not eating much either, and I’ve tried every trick I learned during my neonatal ICU rotation.”
Nita flipped through a few pages. “I don’t see any labs.”
Shock was written across Kira’s pretty face. “Is there a hospital lab close by that we can use? Dan—I was told the nearest hospital was an hour and a half away by airplane.”
“The nearest hospital is that far, but we have a state-of-the-art lab two-hundred feet down the beach.” Nita glanced at the baby in Daniel’s arms then quickly returned her gaze back to Kira. “I was never any good at finding those tiny veins. Would you take a blood sample from her, please? I’ll be more than happy to take it over to the lab and get them working on it right away.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Kira went to a box of infant medical supplies that had been shipped down.
“In this house, we don’t stand on military protocol,” Daniel informed both women. “The only person who has rank here is Rosita, and she is the queen of everything.”
“That Mith Rothita. Aunt Katlin thaid tho.” Simon glared at his father as though he should’ve known.
“My point is made.” Daniel readjusted Bella into one hand and pulled his son onto his other knee. “Out of the mouths of babes.” He then focused his complete attention on Simon. “Did you come in here to see your sister and me?”
“No, Mith Nita and me going thimming.” He proudly showed his father the plastic-wrapped arm. “Can you go with uth?”
“How about I take Miss Bella while you go spend some time with your son?” Kira kneeled down so she could be on Simon’s level. “That water is wonderful. It’s warm and clear and just about perfect.”
“You already been thimming, Mith Kira?” Simon was such a friendly child and so curious.
“Yes, we swam as a team this morning. Three miles.” Kira cocked her head. “Do you know how to swim?”
Simon gave her a huge smile and proudly declared, “I thim in the bathtub.”
“Looks like I need to add swimming to the list of things I have to teach you,” Daniel said as he handed Kira the baby. He held up a nearly full bottle. “She didn’t drink much, and she needs to burp.”
Kira immediately flopped a hand towel on to her shoulder and positioned Bella. A few gentle back rubs and a couple of pats was all it took.
He lifted Simon off his knee. “Teaching you to pronounce s is my first priority.” He looked at his son for a long moment then grimaced. “We didn’t bring many clothes with us, did we?”
Simon slowly shook his head. “No, Daddy. But Mith Rothita give me a lot of thirt and thort. They are in my drawer. Want to thee?” He took Daniel by the hand and dragged him toward the door.
“Give me a few minutes to change and run Bella’s blood sample over to the lab.” Nita gave what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “I’ll meet you at the beach.”
“See you there.” Daniel disappeared through the door.
Simon’s excitement could be heard all the way down the hall to his room.
Kira held out Bella. “If you’ll hold her, I’ll see if I can get a vein in this other arm.”
Nita’s stomach flipped over as bile rose up her throat. Damn it. She was going to puke. Sweat beaded on her brow as her lungs closed down. She couldn’t take that baby. Her hands were shaking so bad she shoved them in her pockets. There was no way in hell she could hold that baby. Thinking quickly she suggested, “Let’s put her in the crib, and I’ll hold her down.”
Kira shrugged and laid the baby in the crib.
Nita truly hated this. She hated herself for not being physically able to hold the baby. She hated Daniel for bringing the child to her. She hated God for making this poor baby sick.
Carefully, she held the child immobile while Kira expertly found a vein and filled the tube. “She’s so dehydrated, I really don’t want to take any more than this. Do you think it will be enough?”
“Absolutely.” Nita shook the tube visually examined color and consistency. “It’ll have to be.”
Kira picked up Bella and cooed.
Nita was envious of the nurse practitioner. She couldn’t do that. Not now. “You’re very good with her.”
“I like babies, but I hate to see them sick.” Kira nestled the child into the feeding position and offered her the bottle once again. “I hope you find out what’s wrong with her.”
With a nod, Nita headed for the door. “The faster I get this into the lab, the faster we find out what’s going on inside that beautiful little baby.”
Nita slipped into her bathing suit and cover-up in minutes. On her way to the lab, she truly lucked out. Dr. James Johnson, the lead researcher, was on his way in, saving Nita from the clean room entering procedures. She gave him a list of tests she wanted him to run, and he suggested a few others that had shown promise in their experimentation. Nita would do anything to make that baby better.
She jogged the two hundred feet down the beach to where Simon sat in waist-deep water and splashed. His laughter carried on the wind. The tides didn’t change much in the tropics, they simply creeped a few more feet up the white sand with slow gentle lapping.
In one practiced motion, she whipped off her cover-up and flung it on the chaise lounge close to the water’s edge. Trotting over to Daniel and Simon, she sat in the sand on the other side of the boy who seemed to be building a sand castle that got washed away with every wave.
“This doesn’t look much like swimming lessons,” she accused Daniel.
His smile never faltered, and his gaze never left his son. “It isn’t. He was just having so much fun, I hated to ruin it.” He leaned back on his elbows. “One of my first memories is of Mom and Dad taking me to the beach. I have a no idea where we were.” He glanced over at Simon then back out at the ocean. “I think I was about Simon’s age. It was just the three of us then. We were there to cheer Mom up.” He was quiet for a long minute. “She’d probably just
lost another baby. I know there were several between me and Katlin.”
Daniel was silent, so Nita decided to occupy Simon’s attention. They built a bigger castle, digging in the warm sand with their hands, then giggling as the next wave knocked it over and flattened it out.
Simon glanced over at his father and leaned back on his good elbow, gently laying the casted arm across his stomach. In that moment they looked so much alike, yet so different. Daniel had hard firm muscles, everywhere. In that position, his six-pack abs looked like rolling hills under skin tanned to a rich gold. His dark wavy hair a few inches too long, covered most of his ears. His angular face and strong jaw hadn’t seen a razor in years, but he kept the mustache and beard neatly trimmed.
Memories of those soft curly hairs tickling her thighs made her wet, and it wasn’t from the ocean water that moved up and down her legs.
Daniel looked over at her and scratched his beard as though he’d known what she’d been thinking.
Mimicking his father, Simon scratched his baby soft cheeks.
Daniel scratched his belly, and Simon mirrored the movement.
Nita couldn’t help herself. She threw her head back and laughed. This damn kid was so much fun. She looked at her watch and saw that they only had about twenty minutes before supper time. “You ready to learn to swim now?”
Simon looked at the water. “The ocean a lot bigger than the bathtub.”
Damn, he cracked her up, but she tried to hold a straight face. “Yep. It certainly is, and that’s what makes it so wonderful. Once you learn to swim on top of the water, and you grow a little bit bigger, I’ll teach you to swim under the water like a fish.”
“I can hold my breath and blow bubble. Want to thee?” Simon rolled over onto his belly and made a production of taking a very deep breath and putting his lips under the water. About that time the wave withdrew, and he was blowing air.
“I don’t see any bubbles.” Nita pointed out toward deeper water. “Let’s go out there and you can show me real bubbles.”
Daniel rolled over, scooped up his son on the way to his feet, and started to wade out into the clear Caribbean water. Nita rose quickly and walked beside them, stopping when they were knee-deep.
“You can stand up here,” Daniel reassured his son as he gently set him down in the water.
Wide-eyed, Simon swallowed hard but said nothing. He was being extremely brave. Nita wasn’t sure if it was to impress her or his father. Daniel never let go, holding him securely just under his arms.
“Okay, Simon. Let’s see those bubbles,” she challenged.
The boy looked a little bit apprehensive, so she kneeled down next to him. She sucked in a dramatic breath, stuck her whole face in the water, and started blowing bubbles. When she came up for air, she sluiced away the water with her hand. “Your turn.”
She saw the hesitation in his face. “Maybe your daddy needs to show you how to do it.” Nita gave Daniel raised eyebrows and an unspoken dare.
“Hold on to him.” Daniel stepped from behind Simon and kneeled next to him. “She’s just a girl. She doesn’t know how to do this right. I’m going to teach you the way my dad taught me. Men and boys do it with noise.” Daniel took a deep breath but when he put his lips under the water, he made engine noises with them. It actually sounded similar to a sports car right down to shifting gears.
“Okay, son, let’s do this together.” When Daniel started to inhale, Simon joined him. They lowered their chins at the same time until the watered just covered their lips. Daniel winked, and they both started making noises.
Well, damn, they were in harmony. In a tradition passed down from grandfather to father to son, it was a fucking hallmark moment.
Nita fell a little bit in love, with both Callahans.
Chapter 13
Nita had forgotten her cover-up on the chaise, so when she entered the house Daniel and Simon were nowhere to be seen.
As she headed for the steps, Rosita scooted out of the kitchen. “Nita, could you please take this up to baby Bella? I’m needed in the kitchen right now, and these old knees have a hard time with those steps.”
“Certainly, I’m headed that way.” Nita looked at the clear bottle. “What’s in this, anyway?”
Rosita laughed. “It’s an old recipe that’s been in my family for probably a hundred years. You’re a modern doctor, so you might not understand the old ways, but we’ve been settling upset tummies long before the Spanish conquerors ever came to this area.”
“I’ll admit, shots and pills aren’t always the cure.” She pinned Rosita with a hard stare. “How do you make this? I’m truly curious.”
“Mostly fruits. The mountain man brings me elderberries, which can sometimes be a little tart, so I add orange juice and some cane sugar.” She looked a little nervous, but added, “Then there are a few spices that I add in as it cooks. I strain it so there are no seeds. I let it cool, but babies like things warm.” She quickly added, “It’s all good for her.”
Nita smiled. “It sounds like it. The berries and oranges will give her plenty of vitamins C and D and the sugar will give her a boost of energy to help fight this off. I’m not sure which spices you’re using, but I’m sure they’re good for her. Probably makes it taste better, too. Let me get this up to her.”
After knocking quietly, Nita cracked the door. Kira was taking Bella’s temperature and recording all her vitals.
“Come on in,” Kira called. “She’s asleep, but I expect her to wake any minute. Thanks for bringing up the bottle.”
Nita’s gaze swept over the living room portion of Daniel’s suite then glanced down the short hallway toward his bedroom before she heard the shower running. The thought of him naked, lathering soap and rubbing it all over his body made her wet. She could easily imagine her hands running over his chest, curving those powerful shoulders, then down over his hard abs, following that happy trail of dark hair to his—
“I take it you haven’t heard back from the lab yet?” Kira’s question shattered Nita’s daydream.
“No, not yet. Some of the tests take twenty-four hours to run.” Nita looked at the dark pink cheeks on the baby in the crib. “Is her fever back up?”
“I’m afraid so. The acetaminophen doesn’t seem to last long for her, and I’m very careful not to overdose.” She looked at Nita, nurse to doctor. “Given her weight, and that she’s small for her age, I’ve calculated the dosage, but it doesn’t even last four hours. I checked with a pediatrician friend of mine back at Walter Reed, and he cautioned me not to exceed the recommended daily amount.”
“If we have to, we’ll get the chief of neonatology on a conference call, but he’s going to want to know the results of those tests.” She considered for a moment. “If we don’t hear something in a couple hours, I’ll go over to the lab myself.”
Relief showed on Kira’s face. “Thank you, Nita. When we got orders to come to Costa Rica to help out the Ladies of Black Swan team one, I never expected to be using these nursing skills. I thought I’d be patching people up, maybe working triage, perhaps even at the side of a surgeon in the operating room.”
Nita chuckled. “I haven’t been in a research lab in six years. I feel so awkward in there. But I’ll do what I have to do to accomplish the mission.” She patted Kira’s well-muscled bicep. “Trust me, you’ll see your share of blood and guts and gore. You’ll also be the cause of plenty of it. Our jobs are far from pretty.”
Returning to her own room, she stripped out of her bathing suit and tossed it over the towel rod. Stepping into the glassed-in shower with multiple heads, she scrubbed the salt water and sand off her body. Wrapped in a towel she headed toward her dresser.
At the light tap on her door she automatically called, “Come on in.” She figured it was one of the women on her team. They had all seen each other naked more times than she could count. Without looking to see who’d entered, she dropped her towel and started digging through clothes in her dresser on the far side of the be
d. When no one spoke. She glanced over to find Daniel standing motionless, staring at her.
He’d also seen her naked. She’d never been self-conscious about nudity, so she simply asked, “Is there something I can do for you?”
“Fuck, yes.” He closed the distance to her and pulled her down onto the bed. “We never got to finish what we started.”
She giggled like a virgin at this playful side of Daniel. “I believe you’re wearing far too many clothes for this party.”
His mouth crashed on hers, only leaving her lips to slide off his T-shirt. Naked chest to naked chest, he writhed above her as he shucked his shorts and tossed them next to her towel.
“I want to be inside you so bad my cock hurts.” He attacked her breasts with his hands and mouth, rolling her nipples before lightly pinching them. Her hips automatically shot off the bed and found what they sought.
He was hard and ready. So was she. Daniel seemed to bring her from zero to ready in seconds. She didn’t know how he had that effect on her, but at this point she really didn’t care. She loved what he was doing to her.
He dragged his hand between her breasts over her stomach and cupped her mound. Dipping one finger down her wet slit he kissed her desperately before he lifted his head to stare into her eyes. “Do you want me anywhere near as much as I want you?”
She placed her hand over his and moved it down as she widened her legs. “What do you think?”
“I think you’d better have condoms somewhere close, or I’m going to have to make a trip to my bedroom and embarrass myself in front of whoever is watching Bella at the moment.” He shoved two fingers inside her and moaned as he rocked his erection into her hip.
She reached for the nightstand, but her fingers couldn’t quite make it to the knob on the drawer, so she flipped him over onto his back and retrieved a packet. Ripping it open with her teeth, she decided to tease him and slowly rolled it down his shaft, pumping a few times. Before he could move she straddled his hips and watched his face carefully.
He reached up and cupped a breast in each warm hand. “I like this position.” He gently massaged and rolled the nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. The way he touched her sent tingles straight to her clit. Then he pinched her nipples. Hard.
