Page 5 of Doctor Holliday

“I’m gonna call an ambulance,” he said again.

“No!” She screamed, but this time it was rage not pain he heard in her voice. “They’ll take me to the hospital. And they’ll call my stepmom. And?—”

“You can’t have this baby right here.” He shrugged. “With me.”

“Just walk away.” Her whisper was one of exhaustion, surrender. Completely at odds with her sweet, freckled young face and small hands.

Keaton pulled his phone out.

“Fuck you!” she screamed again. “Fuck you.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw her struggling to get to her feet. His stomach rolled when she froze and laid her hands over her extended belly.

“I’m not calling 911,” he told her. “I promise.”

“Who are you calling then?”

“Lay back down,” he instructed her.

“Who?” she yelled, but the anger was gone, and she whimpered again. If he didn’t get help here soon, he would be delivering a baby in his stockroom. Never mind that he had been there with Alyssa when Ruby was born. He didn’t know a damned thing about delivering babies.

“A friend of mine.” So he was stretching the truth a bit.

A lot.

But he needed a doctor here. Immediately.

His heart hammered at a raging pace as he put the phone to his ear and waited for someone to answer.

Chapter 3

Thursday,December 7

Lucy

“That’s why I don’t do blind dates,” Lucy announced when Jade had filled her in. Jade Barlowe worked in radiology; ten years Lucy’s junior, she was still searching for Mr. Right. Lucy had been married, a mom, and divorced before she turned twenty-two. While she hadn’t sworn off men in general, she definitely didn’t do blind dates or setups. Jade’s latest blind date had been a recent college grad who wanted to move to the country and live on a goat farm. His hobbies included fly fishing and bird watching.

“He was nice enough,” Jade mumbled as she tipped her pint glass up to drain it. “But talk about nothing in common. Not to mention so young!”

Lucy gave her young friend a look. She was old enough to be Jade’s blind date’s mother.

Her phone rang before she could say anything else. Cheri, who worked at the Eastport Women’s Medical Group with Lucy, eyedthe mobile phone as Lucy turned it over. She didn’t recognize the number, but that was the thing with being on call. The hospital could call her, but so could a patient with a simple question to a potential life-threatening problem.

“Dr. Holliday.” Lucy turned her head away from her friends’ conversation to focus on the call.

“Dr. Holliday, hi. Um. This is Keaton Thatcher. You don’t know me. But I have a very young girl in my stockroom out at Coastal Plaza. She looks like she’s ready to deliver any minute.”

“Did you call 911?”

“No. The girl is in distress, and she’s screaming at me not to call for help. She’s very agitated.”

Lucy bit her tongue before she could ask the male caller about the last time he delivered a baby. Of course the young woman was agitated. Childbirth was not a party.

“I think your best bet is to hang up with me and call?—”

“Dr. Holliday, she looks like she’s not even fifteen years old. And she’s scared to death. She’s asking me to leave her alone to die. I promised her I was calling a friend and not 911.”

A friend. Lucy frowned and pushed those words away.Keaton Thatcher. She had never heard the name before, but she had no time to worry about that now.

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