Page 87 of Chasing Dreams

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“It’s about time,” Shaine muttered.

“I’ll get him.” Austin stood, and Maya stepped aside so he could leave.

“Oh, God, this is it,” she said in a quavering voice.

Shaine hurried to her side. “You’re going to be just fine. And you’re going to have this over with in a snap.” She glanced at her watch. “Six hours. That’s great for a first baby.”

“Six hours! Easy for you to say!”

Shaine led her toward the back door. “Get in the car. I’ll grab your bag.”

Six and a half hours later, she and Austin sat in the fathers’ waiting room, the television droning from a corner of the ceiling. “We should have heard by now,” Shaine said.

Austin nodded and glanced at his watch.

“I know what time I saw on that card,” she said, as though assuring herself.

He tried to read last week’s issue of Time.

The double doors opened and Craig came through, beaming. “You can see him in a little while,” he told Shaine. “It’ll be about an hour before they move her to her room.”

“She’s okay?”

“She’s a champ,” he replied, his face flushed. “It was great!” He started to leave, then turned back. “Oh, and I won the baby pool.”

* *

Rain gusted against the multipaned window. The darkness outside was relieved only by an occasional spear of lightning. A lonely man’s sharply etched features were reflected in the glass.

He knew he was being watched.

Wind howled beneath the eaves. He turned his head and found her.

Lightning flashed, momentarily defining his rugged features.

Austin.

She wanted to touch him, to ease his pain.

“You can’t,” he said, though she hadn’t spoken a word.

And he was right. She couldn’t absorb all the pain and hurt like she wanted to. She would only add to his burden.

She’d never wanted that.

A small figure appeared at his side. Shaine squinted through the darkness and made out the fair-haired child. “Jack,” she whispered.

“I been waiting for you,” he said, his childish voice piercing her soul. “I want Bear.”

“I have him,” she promised.

“Get him now.”

She didn’t want to leave. He wouldn’t be here when she returned.

“Please?”

Torn between denying Jack’s request and losing him altogether, she cast Austin an anguished look.