by Judy Duarte
With that being the case, then how could he ever expect to have a healthy relationship with her?
He couldn’t.
Of course, realizing that still didn’t make it any easier to accept.
Four days later, while he was leaving for work, he saw Samantha dragging her recycle bins out to the road.
Dammit, she shouldn’t be doing that in her condition. He started to get out of his car, but stopped himself.
Did he really want to get sucked into her life again? Did he want to compete with a memory, knowing he’d always come up short?
No, but he couldn’t sit here and watch her struggle with those bins. So he shifted into Park, turned off the ignition and climbed from the car.
He’d barely circled the vehicle when he saw her slip and take a hard fall, right into the street.
Oh, no. He rushed to her side. “Sam, are you okay?”
“Ow,” she cried. “I…I don’t know. Everything hurts.” She clutched her belly, and the fear on her face was disarming.
Hector no longer gave a rat’s ass about secrets or frozen DNA or long-lost love.
What if Samantha was injured? What if the fall had hurt one of the babies? What if she’d jarred something—or someone—loose?
“I’ll take you to the doctor’s office,” he said. “We can call once we’re in the car and let them know we’re on the way.”
“But—”
“No buts about it, Sam.” He helped her up, supported her as she winced in pain.
“What hurts, honey?”
“My ankle. I twisted it. That’s what caused me to fall. I landed on my hip, and everything pretty much aches.”
He walked her slowly to the car, wondering if he should have called an ambulance instead. But she was up. And walking. So he helped her into the passenger seat and adjusted the seat belt. Then he climbed behind the wheel.
Everything was pumping—his heart, his blood, his adrenaline. Before backing out of the driveway, he called his office and asked his secretary to reschedule all of his meetings for the rest of the day. Then he pulled into the street.
“Where’s the doctor’s office?” he asked.
“It’s located in the clinic next to the Armstrong Fertility Institute.”
The silence was almost overwhelming, as words and emotion jammed in Hector’s throat.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the obstetrician’s office. Again Hector helped her out of the car and up the walkway. Once inside the clinic, Samantha was walking better, but still limping.
“How are you feeling now?” he asked.
“Okay. I’m a little shaky, though.”
Hector followed her to the receptionist, a woman in her mid- to late-fifties.
The woman smiled warmly. “Hello, Mrs. Keating. I’ll let Sara Beth know you’re here. But don’t take a seat. Go on in—they’re expecting you.”
Hector couldn’t help noting that the receptionist didn’t call Samantha by name, and he didn’t like the fact that she was clinging to the Keating surname, as if it was another way of holding on to Peter.
But he didn’t have time or the inclination to split hairs about that now. All he wanted to know was that she was all right and that the babies were, too.
They’d no more than reached the center of the waiting room when a red-haired nurse wearing bright pink scrubs opened the door and called, “Samantha.”
Her first name, he realized, feeling a bit better.
Once they were settled in the exam room, Hector held her hand as she climbed onto the table. Then he took a seat in the chair next to the window. They didn’t have to wait long, though. The doctor soon entered the small room. When he noticed Hector, he reached out a hand, and the two men shook.
“I’m Chance Demetrios.”
“Hector Garza.”
After quizzing Samantha about the fall, about any pain she might be having, he suggested a sonogram, “Just as a precaution.”
It took a while for them to set things up, and Hector couldn’t help saying a silent prayer that the babies were all right, and that Samantha was, too.
As Dr. Demetrios scanned Samantha’s belly, Hector focused on the grainy, black-and-white screen. He was amazed as the doctor pointed out the babies—little ones A, B and C.
Andrew, Brandon and Chloe, Hector thought to interject, but he bit his tongue.
As the doctor showed them the beating hearts, Hector was overwhelmed at the sight of those precious little babies, so vulnerable, so tiny. And his own stubborn heart melted.
“Everything looks good,” the doctor said. “But I want you to go home and take it easy for a few days as a precaution. No heavy lifting, no stress. Do you have anyone who can stay with you and help out?”
“She has me,” Hector said, knowing he was being sucked in again. But it didn’t matter this time. His life and Samantha’s were somehow connected.
When the doctor left the exam room, Hector helped Samantha down from the table. Then he escorted her out the door.
“I really appreciate this,” she said. “You’ve been so good to me.”
Because he loved her, he realized. But he didn’t dare tell her here. So he waited until he drove her home and put her to bed.
“I’m going to stay the night,” he told her, not expecting or willing to accept an objection. He refused to think about Peter, about what he and Samantha had once shared. At this point, it was more important that she was comfortable.
“Thanks, I’d appreciate that. I sleep better when you’re with me.”
He struggled not to take that as proof that she cared for him, that whatever secondary feelings she had for him would be enough.
But when she reached for his arm and gave it a squeeze that insisted he look at her, he found it impossible to pull away or completely shut her out.
When she had his attention, she said, “I love you, Hector.”
His heart stood still. Was it enough? He wanted it to be.
“I loved Peter, too,” she added. “But not in the same way.”
“You don’t have to say that,” he said.
“Yes, I do. I need to be honest from here on out.”
And so did he.
He took her hand. “Sam, I’m sorry that I was so hard on you the other day. I was angry and disappointed, but only because…I love you. And I’m…jealous of Peter.”
Her eyes glistened. “You love me?”
“Yeah. I’m completely smitten. And even if I can’t compete with Peter in your heart, I’m willing to give our relationship a try.”
She smiled and patted a spot on the mattress beside her. And he took a seat.
“Don’t be jealous of Peter,” she said. “There will always be a place in my heart for him. He came into my life at a time when I didn’t think I’d ever find a man I could trust. And he showed me a brand-new world. So how could I not love him? But what I felt for Peter,” she continued, “and what I feel for you are two completely different things. You’ll never have to compete with him in my heart, Hector. I love you in an entirely different way. A special way.”
“You love me?” he asked, wanting to hear it again.
“More than I’d imagined.” She scooted to the side and made room for him on the bed.
He kicked off his shoes and joined her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.
“Those nights when you and I slept together,” she said, “were the best I’d ever spent. In those hours just before dawn, we shared an intimacy I’d never experienced, not even with Peter. They were the most memorable nights I’ve ever had, and I realized that making love with you was going to be special.”
Hector drew her close, resting his cheek against her hair. “I love you, Sam. And not just you. I love those babies, too. I want to be their father. And I’ll honor Peter’s memory. I’ll remember him as the man who took a broken young woman and provided her with the kind of life she deserved.”
“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that,”
she said. “Or how much I love you.”
“If it’s anywhere near as much as I love you, then I have a pretty good handle on it.”
She laughed. “Maybe you do.”
“Marry me, Sam. Before the babies are born.”
“Yes,” she said, smiling. “Three times yes.”
As he kissed her gently but thoroughly, something told him they were going to be three times happy.
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Judy Duarte for her contribution to The Baby Chase miniseries.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5516-0
AND BABIES MAKE FIVE
Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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*Bayside Bachelors
*Bayside Bachelors
*Bayside Bachelors
*Bayside Bachelors
†Montana Mavericks
**Talk of the Neighborhood
††The Texas Homecoming
§The Wilder Family
††The Texas Homecoming
††The Texas Homecoming
§§Fortunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock
‡The Baby Chase
