by Dianne Drake
“But the turn I got... I don’t want to manage the company, Michi. I do my best because that’s who I am, but I’d rather be back in surgery. I’d rather be happy in my life and planning a future for the three of us as a family. So, yes, I’m sure. Will you marry me? You and Riku are the only important parts of my life and I don’t want to lose you.”
“If you want me in your life,” she said. “Knowing better than anyone else what a mess I can make of things.”
“Not a mess, Michi. Just a temporary misdirection. And I do love you. No one’s compared since I met you. And keep in mind this deal comes with a pony.”
“Ah, yes, the marriage proposal sealed with a pony. We need to have a serious talk about romance, Eric.”
“How about you show me romance, instead of telling me about it? I’m a quick learner.”
“I know you are, Dr. Hart. I know you are.” Michi wrapped her arms around Eric’s neck and whispered, “Lesson one, hospital-appropriate and baby-approved.” They both looked down at Riku, who was sitting up watching them. And smiling. Michi’s heart suddenly filled until it was almost on the verge of overflowing. She’d gone from being the woman who’d thought she could never have her heart’s desire to the one who had a lifetime full of it ahead of her. Two men in her life. A little one and a big one.
Yes, she had everything. And she didn’t even need a pony. “So, tell me about that yacht,” she said, smiling up at him. “I’ve always had this desire...”
“Any other secret desires I should know about?” he asked, lowering his mouth to hers.
She snaked her arms around his neck and pulled his face all the way down. “Plenty. And you’ve got the rest of your life to discover them.”
EPILOGUE
ERIC PACED THE floor nervously, as any expectant father would do. Along with him his father-in-law, Agnes, his mother-in-law and Michi. Oh, and Riku. This adoption was a family affair, and what a family it was. Everything he’d always wanted and had never thought he’d have.
“She’s almost here,” Tamiko Tanaka, their adoption attorney, advised. “Dr. Benedict is bringing her here straight from the airplane, and I’ve been informed that Mali is doing very well.”
Dr. Arlo Benedict, his estranged half-brother. The one he wanted to embrace as family for the first time. The one who’d found Mali and had thought he and Michi might be the perfect parents. He didn’t know Arlo yet, but he would. That was a priority, and not one to be put off.
He and Michi had been to Thailand twice to visit Mali since Arlo had first called. She was a beautiful child, full of life. Two years younger than Riku, which meant that they would have their hands full with Riku, now four, and Mali, just turned two. Their decision to adopt had happened almost at the same time they’d married in the hospital chapel, a week before Riku had been released. And now, two years later, it was coming true.
“You do realize that in addition to speaking Japanese and English, you’re now going to have to learn enough Thai to get Mali through until she understands the other languages we use?” Michi asked. Basically, a mixture of Japanese and English. “And you’re going to owe your brother big time for making the arrangements.”
Mali had been an orphan, raised in a communal refuge for wounded elephants in a compound near the village where Arlo lived and worked as the village doctor. She’d simply been abandoned there, probably on the assumption that someone there would look after her, maybe teach her to work with the elephants when she was old enough.
Six weeks ago, after Arlo had asked him if he and Michi wanted to adopt, they’d flown down there twice, and now, almost in the blink of an eye...another miracle child. Life couldn’t have been any better. Getting Mali, beginning the road to being a better brother to Arlo, the son his mother had had after she’d abandoned Eric. He wanted that. Wanted the family ties in a way he never had before. And it was beginning to happen.
“Chinatsu called, wishing us well,” Michi said, fighting to hold onto Riku. He wanted to run down the airport corridor so he could greet his new sister. And, yes, he could run now. And play light outdoor games. He swam, too. Like a fish.
“She’s buying up a rather sizeable chunk of Wyoming, she tells me.” He’d hired her to run Hart Properties. She was eminently qualified as a businesswoman and had the same sensibilities he had. So, he’d had no qualms when Michi had suggested her cousin as his replacement.
Maybe she wasn’t technically part of the Hart family, but she loved her job, and the company was, once again, in good hands, while his hands were where they belonged, performing pediatric cardiac surgery. Life was better than he’d ever imagined it could be and now that he knew what the support of a good family meant, he was no longer sad for what he’d missed but happy for what he’d gained.
“She’s turning it into one of your wildlife preserves. Not your dad’s first choice, I would think,” Michi said.
Eric gave his wife a playful nudge. “Well, I’m not my dad.”
“My sister?” Riku asked, pointing to a long-haired man in outdoor gear headed in their direction, carrying a bundle in a blanket. “Mali,” Riku pronounced very deliberately.
“Mali and Uncle Arlo. Can you say Uncle Arlo?” Riku looked up at his dad like Eric had gone crazy, then started tugging at his hand, trying to lead him the direction of Mali. “Are you ready to share your toys with her?” Eric asked, trying to hold him back.
Riku contemplated the words for a moment, then grinned and gave his dad a big thumbs-up.
“Then I say let’s go meet your new sister.” And, hand in hand, the expanding family walked toward the new Hart member. Eric with tissues in his pocket for Michi, of course. And Michi sniffling well before she took her new daughter into her arms.
“Look what we’ve done,” she whispered to Eric, just before Mali was handed to her. “Just look at what we’ve done.”
He did. Every day. And there was never a moment he wasn’t amazed by all the miracles it had taken to get them to this place. His place. His family. The prospect of finally getting to know his brother. And, most of all, having Michi in his life. All of them true miracles indeed.
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out
these other great reads from
Dianne Drake
Second Chance with Her Army Doc
Bachelor Doc, Unexpected Dad
Reunited with Her Army Doc
Healing Her Boss’s Heart
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from From Midwife to Mommy by Deanne Anders.
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> From Midwife to Mommy
by Deanne Anders
CHAPTER ONE
DIM LIGHTS AND the sound of soft waves crashing against the shore had created an atmosphere of a calm retreat, but midwife Lana Sanders knew that her patient had long passed the point of caring.
“You’re doing great,” Lana said as she coached Kim through another contraction and watched the fetal monitor. She watched the fetal heart-rate accelerate, then come down to its baseline. So far this had been a perfect labor.
“You’re going to be late,” Jeannie whispered to Lana as she arranged the delivery table.
“It won’t be long now,” Lana said, as much to reassure the labor and delivery nurse as well as her patient.
“Push. Now.” Kim ground out.
“Wait, I’ve got to get the camera!” Kim’s husband Tom called out as he turned his back and started going through a duffle bag laid upon the bedside table.
“Wait?” said Kim. Her voice rose an octave and took on that gravelly sound that only a woman in transition, or one possessed, could reach. “What have you been doing all this time?”
“It’s okay, Tom, we have a couple minutes,” Lana said.
A deep growl escaped from Kim.
“Okay, maybe we don’t,” Lana said as she watched a circle of dark wet curls crown.
She positioned the delivery table so that it would be within easy reach, then undraped it, letting the protective covering fall to the floor.
“Kim, we’ve done this before, right?” Lana waited till she had Kim’s attention. “The baby’s starting to crown so whenever you’re ready go ahead and push.”
“Now!” said Kim, then took a fast breath.
Tom rushed to his wife’s side and helped her get into position as she curled her body and pushed down. Lana watched as the couple worked together for their child. Kim’s face was flushed and glowing with color as she concentrated on nothing but this moment—the moment she would bring a new life into the world. It was both beautiful and heart-wrenching for Lana to watch this miracle.
“Take another breath,” Lana said. “Is the contraction gone?”
“No,” Kim said, before she took a deep breath then returned to pushing.
“Okay, Kim, I need you to listen to me,” Lana said.
She waited as Kim looked up at her.
“Next push we’re going to have a baby, okay?” Lana watched as both excitement and fear filled her patient’s tired eyes. “You can do this. I promise.”
Kim nodded her head and grabbed Tom’s hand as she positioned herself again, then pushed.
Seconds later a screaming, squirming baby boy was delivered. Lana carefully suctioned the baby’s mouth, then handed Kim her new baby and watched as the experienced mom caught him close against her body, putting him skin to skin to keep him warm while Jeannie dried him off with some fluffy towels. She clamped then cut the umbilical cord that had been the baby’s lifeline. Seeing both mom and baby meeting for the first time, she was amazed, as always, by the miracle of life that she was blessed to witness.
“You did wonderfully,” Lana told Kim.
Lana delivered the placenta, then made sure her patient’s bleeding was controlled. A quick glance at the clock above the bed had her suddenly feeling a sense of panic. She had to get out of the hospital in the next twenty minutes or she was never going to make it to court on time.
She gave the new mom a hug, then posed for a picture with the rest of the Callahan family once they were allowed in the room. She headed to the nurses’ lounge for a quick change of clothes, then headed out of the hospital. This was going to be one of the most important days of her life. Today she would officially become a new mom herself—something that until a year and a half ago she had thought would never happen.
There was no way she was going to be late.
* * *
Lana white-knuckled her way through the nightmare of Miami traffic. The multiple lanes all seemed to be going nowhere, and Lana was short on both time and patience. For the first time she was scared she really was going to miss her appointment with the judge who would be finalizing Maggie’s adoption.
The thought of her sweet, adorable little toddler had her taking a deep breath and relaxing. It would be okay. She was cutting it close, but she would make it. After over twelve months of social workers’ visits and court appearances, there was no way fate would fail her now.
It had been fate that had brought the little girl into her life, after Lana had just happened to take on her young mother as a patient. When Chloe had later decided she couldn’t handle the responsibility of a new baby and showed up on her doorstep, handing Lana the child along with a notarized letter saying she wanted Lana to adopt her, it had been nothing short of a miracle.
A lane opened up to her right and she swung into it and followed it to the next exit. Fifteen minutes later she made it to the judge’s chamber where her appearance was scheduled to be. She was surprised to see that neither her lawyer nor her babysitter and Maggie were outside the room, waiting for her. She had texted both of them to let them know she was going to cut it close.
A note on the door explained that there had been a change in where the session would be held. Lana rushed down the hall to the courtroom. As she reached for the handle of the door a large hand reached around her.
“Let me,” said a male voice in a slow drawl that almost curled her toes.
Lana turned and followed the outstretched arm up to the man behind it. The sight of coal-black hair curling around an angular face with a pair of deep blue eyes was startling. Forgetting that she was blocking the door, she let her gaze continue down the tailored black suit to the pointed toes of black leather cowboy boots peeking from beneath his pants leg.
A cowboy in Miami?
The thought had Lana smiling as she looked up at the handsome man and with a quick “Thank you” continued into the courtroom.
A frantic Amanda waved at her from the front of the courtroom, where she and Lana’s lawyer Nathan had taken their seats. As soon as Maggie got a look at Lana the toddler started protesting. She wanted to get down and see her “mama” right then.
Amanda had dressed her in the new pink sundress Lana had recently bought, and with her dark curls and big deep blue eyes she looked like a china doll come to life. Lana reached over and took her little girl. She gave her a big tight hug that had Maggie giggling and squirming in her lap.
“Why the change to the courtroom?” she asked Nathan as she scooted into the seat next to him.
“Shh...” Nathan whispered back as he studied some of the papers in his hand.
Amanda looked at the two of them, then shrugged her shoulders, letting Lana know that she didn’t have a clue about what was going on.
Nathan was always a little uptight-looking, which Lana put down to his job in family law. She knew that sometimes his cases were very stressful, with emotions riding high, but there was something about the way he was studying the papers in his hands that told her something was wrong.
Suddenly her heart kicked into panic mode. It was the same feeling she had when she woke up in the middle of her repeated nightmare about Chloe showing up at her door and telling her that she had changed her mind. That she didn’t think Lana would be a good enough mother for Maggie and she was taking her away. Taking the little girl Lana had fostered since she was six weeks old. Taking her far away to somewhere Lana would never see her again.
It was the same nightmare she’d had for months now, but after today it would surely go away. Once the adoption was final Lana would be Maggie’s mother, just as if she had given birth to her. There would be no way anyone would be able to take her away then.
As Judge Hamilton entered the courtroom everyone rose, then sat when the bailiff indicated. Taking a second to look around the courtroom, Lana noted that the social worker, Ms. Nelson
from the Florida Department of Children and Families, who had been handling her case, was seated on the right at the front of the courtroom. She watched as the older woman handed the bailiff some papers that were then given to the judge.
Apprehension sent a shiver down her back. Lana looked at her lawyer again, to see his attention glued to the judge, who was now reading over the documents the social worker had presented to him.
“This is the hearing for the final placement of the child known here as Maggie. I know that Maggie has been fostered with Ms. Sanders since...” Judge Hamilton paused as he read the documents in front of him “...since she was six weeks old, and that the child’s biological mother personally requested that Ms. Sanders be allowed to adopt her daughter.”
The judge looked up and gave Lana a smile. Lana felt the tension ease and relaxed back into her seat. Judge Hamilton had always been encouraging in her quest to adopt Maggie. She knew her case was in good hands as long as he was on the bench.
“Ms. Sanders has been forthcoming in all the demands the court has placed on her, and she has met every requirement that the Department of Children and Families demands.”
Judge Hamilton once more picked up the documents. This was it—finally he would say the words she had been waiting for and Maggie would be all hers.
“To be clear, this was to have been the last hearing and the adoption was to have become final today.”
Was to have become final? Were they going to make her jump through another hoop today?
“Ms. Nelson, you have indicated in your request to postpone the adoption that you have some new information that needs to be considered. Is that correct?”
Lana watched the social worker as she rose and walked to the front of the court room. Glancing at her lawyer for some sign as to what was happening, she noted that there was no look of surprise in his eyes as he watched the judge and the social worker quietly discussing the new documents she had handed him. When Nathan turned and took Lana’s hands his look of concern pierced her heart.
