Page 128 of Nobodys Baby But Mine (Chicago Stars 3)

eks, making Jerry Miles’s vendetta against her look foolish. In August, he’d been dismissed and replaced with one of the most respected physicists in the country, a man who had convinced Jane to take a permanent position at Preeze. He’d even gone so far as to bribe her with several eager young physicists to serve as her staff.

At that moment, however, Cal didn’t have his wife’s blossoming professional career on his mind, but her physical well-being, and she tried to ease his worries. “Be logical, Cal. I talked to Dr. Vogler this morning. She knows my medical history, and she’s perfectly capable of delivering this baby.”

“I still say you could have made up your mind about this a long time ago.”

Her desire to have their baby here had grown stronger as her pregnancy advanced, but she wouldn’t even consider leaving Cal behind in Chicago. His injury over the weekend had given her the chance she needed.

The baby twisted, and her spine felt as if it were being clamped by a giant fist. He’d go ballistic if he realized she was in this much pain, and she barely bit back a gasp.

It was gradually occurring to her that Cal was right, and getting on that plane had been a stupid thing to do. Still, first-time labor took forever, and Jim and Lynn would be waiting for her. Her father-in-law would tell her if he thought she should call Vogler.

Luckily, Cal was distracted and didn’t notice anything wrong. “What’s that on the inside of your wrist?” He picked up her hand.

She could barely catch her breath. “Uh… It’s nothing.” She tried to snatch it away, but he held fast. “It’s just a little pen mark. I must have marked myself accidentally.”

“Now that’s real strange. This looks a lot more like an equation than an accidental squiggle.”

“We were coming in for landing,” she sniffed, “and I couldn’t get to my notebook.” She caught her breath as the baby scored a 9.7 with a triple axel double toe loop. This time her back pain hit along with a fierce contraction that seemed to last forever, but might still only be a Braxton-Hicks. She swallowed a groan, which would really upset him, and distracted herself from the pain by trying to start a quarrel.

“You don’t fight with me anymore.”

“That’s not true, sweetheart. We’ve been fighting ever since you told me we had to go on this trip.”

“We’ve been arguing, not fighting. You haven’t yelled once. You never yell anymore.”

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t seem to work up a good mad at you.”

“Why not? Even I can’t stand myself!”

“Crazy, isn’t it. I can’t explain.”

She glared at him. “You’re doing it again.”

“What?”

“That thing that irritates me.”

“Smiling?”

“Yes. That.”

“Sorry.” His hand settled over her drum-tight abdomen. “I’m so happy, I can’t seem to stop.”

“Try harder!”

She suppressed her own smile. Who would ever have thought a warrior like Cal Bonner would put up with this much nonsense? But he didn’t seem to mind. Maybe he understood how wonderful it felt to be completely unreasonable and still see all that unqualified love shining back. How could she ever have doubted his feelings for her? When Cal Bonner made up his mind he was in love, he stuck to it.

Cal had talked her out of her fear of having a brilliant child by making her understand that most of the misery in her childhood came, not from her intelligence, but from being raised by a distant, unfeeling parent. That was something their child would never have to worry about.

He leaned forward and peered out the window. “Damn!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Can’t you see? It’s starting to rain!” His voice grew agitated. “What if we’re up on that mountain and you decide to go into labor, but the road gets washed out so we can’t get back down? What are we going to do then?”

“That only happens in books.”

“I was crazy to let you talk me into this.”

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