The urgency in her voice told him something was really wrong. He lifted her into his arms. “I’ve got you.” Dylan carried her down the stairs and into the lobby. “Sandy!” he shouted toward the dining room. “I need to get Emma to the hospital. Stay with her while I get the snowcat.”
“Oh, my God, it hurts.” Emma sobbed as he lowered her into the lobby chair. “Please hurry, Dylan. Don’t let me lose my baby.”
“I won’t.” He promised as he ran out the front door. He pulled his keys from his pocket and jumped on his snowmobile. His hands shook as he found the right key. Jamming it into the ignition, he started the machine and tore off toward the stables. From a distance he could see the layer of snow on the snowcat’s windshield and he prayed it hadn’t iced over. There wasn’t time to wait for it to defrost.
The snowmobile skidded to a stop alongside the snowcat’s tracks. He snatched the keys from the ignition and fumbled for the one to open the door. Then he hopped onto the track and swiped at the windshield. It was all powder, thank God. He unlocked the door, swung it wide and climbed into the driver’s seat. The diesel turned over without hesitation. His snowcat may be old, but it was reliable.
When he reached the lodge’s entrance, he couldn’t be sure how much time had passed. One second seemed too long. He felt something had been off with Emma since she had arrived and his instincts had been correct.
Dylan parked outside the entrance and raced inside for her. Tears streamed down her face as he lifted her back into his arms. He tightened his grip on her and stepped into the cold. A bitter wind stung his cheeks as he tucked her closer to his body.
Sandy ran ahead of them and opened the passenger door. “Here’s her bag. Rhonda went to her room and got it. And I called Harlan,” she panted. “He’s going to meet you at the intersection of South Fork and Anderson. He said the roads to the hospital are plowed from there.”
“Thank you.” He eased Emma onto the seat and gently fastened her seat belt across her lap. “The hospital isn’t far.” He closed the door, looked skyward and silently prayed Jax was looking down on them.
* * *
DYLAN PACED THE hospital waiting area. A wiser man would have dropped Emma off and been done with the situation. Unfortunately, he had this inexplicable need to remain close by in case she needed him, even though the logical part of his brain reassured him she wouldn’t. Sure, he wanted to be certain she was all right, but he had zero connection to this woman and her child outside of their nonexistent sale of the ranch.
Okay, so that wasn’t altogether true. He’d been physically attracted to Emma from the moment they’d met. He just had a strong distaste for her endgame. But his attraction to her began and ended there. There certainly wasn’t an emotional attachment. Yet he couldn’t force himself to walk out the hospital’s doors.
“Mr. Sheridan.” A nurse in bright pink scrubs approached him. “Both momma and baby are stable. The doctor is about to begin the ultrasound, so if you will follow me, I will take you to her.”
Mr. Sheridan? The woman assumed he was Emma’s husband. He opened his mouth to correct her but ended up saying the opposite of what he’d intended. “Great, thank you.”
The walk down the hospital corridor seemed endless. With each step, the voice inside his head begged him to run in the opposite direction. But his body refused to obey. He needed to see for himself that Emma and the baby were fine.
He halted in the doorway of the room when he saw her reclined on a bed, wearing a hiked-up hospital gown to expose her bare belly and nothing more than a sheet covering her lap and legs. Two wide bands stretched around her abdomen and held what Dylan assumed were fetal monitors of some sort in place. Emma’s attention was transfixed on the screen attached to her stomach as the sound of a heartbeat reverberated throughout the otherwise quiet room.
“Your daughter still sounds strong and healthy.” The doctor looked up from the monitor’s printout. “Your blood pressure is my primary concern. It’s more elevated than I would prefer.” The woman glanced in his direction. “Is this the baby’s father?” she asked.
Emma held out her hand to him. “Please, come in.” Despite her weak smile, fear emanated from her delicate features. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t leave now. Any desire to escape had faded and he didn’t understand why. He crossed the room to her bed. Her fingers entwined with his, gripping his hand tightly. “Dylan’s a friend,” she said as her eyes met his. “Right? At least for today.”
They had been sworn enemies since the beginning, but even he refused to deny her when she needed someone most. He scanned the numerous machines connected to her body. “Are you in labor?”
She squeezed her eyes shut and dug her fingers into his flesh as the doctor returned her attention to the printout. “Easy, Emma, it’s almost over. She’s experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions. It’s false labor, but we’ll continue to monitor her overnight. Let’s begin your ultrasound.”
“I should leave.” As soon as he uttered the words, he realized he hadn’t meant them. He didn’t know if it was because he wanted to see for himself that the baby was okay or if his strong desire to stay was out of curiosity. He’d never been involved in any pregnancy aside from his brother Harlan’s wife, Belle, who was almost in the middle of her second trimester. He’d seen an ultrasound photo, but that was the extent of it. When she didn’t release his hand after the contraction subsided, it unnerved him even more. The ultrasound didn’t scare him. The situation did. He didn’t want to get close to Emma or her baby, because he had no intention of ever forming an attachment to another man’s kid again. Losing his stepchildren had almost destroyed him and he refused to be a two-time fool.
Emma averted her eyes. “I want you to stay.” Her voice no more than a whisper.
“Okay.” Dylan relented. He reached for the chair near the bed and pulled it closer.
“This will feel cold at first.” The doctor squeezed a tube of clear gel on Emma’s abdomen and spread it with the ultrasound probe. Various shades of white and grey danced across the screen until an image of the baby appeared. “There’s your daughter.”
“My little butter bean.” Emma smiled through her tears. “Is she really all right?”
The doctor continued to move the probe. “I don’t see any abnormalities. She’s exactly where she should be at thirty-two weeks.”
Dylan fought the urge to wipe away her tears. He looked from the screen to Emma’s belly and back again. That tiny person was growing inside of her. He’d seen plenty of horse ultrasounds, but this was different. This was...far too intimate for her to share with him. She needed her mother or her best friends by her side. Not someone who hadn’t been very nice to her.
“We’ll perform another one tomorrow, but I’m fairly confident there won’t be any change. I’m more concerned about your blood pressure and the possibility of preeclampsia. Your baby is healthy and strong, and I need you to be healthy and strong so you can carry her at least another six weeks.” She handed the probe to another woman in pink. “Tricia is going to get a good ultrasound photo for you. I want you to rest tonight. I know that’s difficult to do in a hospital. We’ll leave your fetal monitors on as a precaution, so if there’s anything out of the ordinary they will alert us right away. Again, Emma, the signs point to Braxton-Hicks and not preterm labor. Try to get some sleep and I’ll check on you in the morning.” The doctor squeezed her other hand.
“Thank you,” Emma said as the woman left the room. She readjusted her gown and pressed the bed’s remote until she sat more upright. “And thank you for staying here with me even though you didn’t have to.” She smiled up at Dylan. “I didn’t want to go through this alone.”
“Don’t mention it.” Dylan stood, breaking physical contact with Emma. He jammed his hands in his pockets to prevent touching her again. “I should get going and let you sleep.”
“As if I could sleep now. Besides, it’s not even two o’clock.” She stared at the photo Tricia handed her. “Believe me, I am anything but tired. Stay with me for a little while longer. Help distract my mind from all of this.”
Two o’clock? One hour had felt like twelve. “What would you like to talk about?” He didn’t know how to idly chitchat with a pregnant woman. He sat on the edge of the chair, braced for a quick exit. He’d already crossed too many lines this evening. “Baby names? You mentioned earlier that you haven’t chosen one yet. Do you have any in mind?” Dylan couldn’t believe what he was saying. He sounded like his mother. Now, there was a woman who would have been right at home discussing babies with Emma. If only she hadn’t moved to California, he could have called and asked her to trade places with him. For both his and Emma’s sake.
“I haven’t even had a chance to buy a baby name book yet.” A tinge of pink rose to her cheeks. “I’ve been busting my butt to close this deal before I go on maternity leave.”
“There is no deal, Emma. I know the ranch is in trouble, but I’ll find a way to save it. Selling is not an option. Your vision for it doesn’t mesh with mine.”
“Can you hand me my bag over there?”
Dylan retrieved the large leather purse from the windowsill. Emma dug inside of it and removed a small black tablet. “Let me show you my plans for Silver Bells.”
“You have got to be kidding me. You’re in the hospital, supposedly concerned about your baby and you’re still trying to convince me to sell. No wonder your blood pressure is so high. Instead of fixating on my ranch, you should download a baby name book on that thing.” Dylan returned the chair he had been sitting on to its original place against the wall. “I think it’s time for me to call it a night.”
“I am concerned about my baby. That’s why I came to Montana.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Once I have this baby, I won’t be able to travel for work any longer. I can’t afford a nanny to fly around the world with me. My job pays for my expenses only. Not a companion’s. I don’t have a husband or anyone else at home to leave my child with while I go on business trips. Besides, I plan to nurse my daughter. I can’t be gone twenty days a month and do that. I’m on my own. I shouldn’t even be telling you any of this, but maybe you’ll understand if I do.” Emma took a deep breath before continuing. “The promotion I told you about earlier isn’t something I want. It’s something I need. Without it, I’ll have to accept a lesser position. Living in Chicago is expensive enough. Even more so when you’re a single mom. I need to secure my child’s future and the only way I can do that is to convince you to sell. You only heard the initial proposal. Your uncle changed a lot of things. He told me you wouldn’t give him the time of day when it came to discussing the plans. At least look at our final design. You might be surprised.”
“I’m sorry. I sympathize with your situation, but I can’t put your job security above my employees. Including myself. Regardless of what your plan is, you’ve already said there are no guarantees you would rehire my employees and even if there were, they would be out of work for months. That alone is why I won’t hear you out. Change those parameters and then maybe I’d be willing to listen. But you’re still asking me to give up a part of my family. Silver Bells was my uncle’s ranch. A place I found a hell of a lot of serenity in during some really dark times.”
“Your uncle was willing to give it up. And I’m sorry, but there is no way I can promise to take on a full staff while they’re renovating the ranch. It doesn’t fit into the timetable.”
“Then you don’t fit into mine. I’m sorry, Emma.” Dylan noticed her blood pressure had increased since the doctor had left the room. “I’ll return in the morning to see how you’re doing. I wish you would take the doctor’s advice and relax for the rest of the day. I don’t know what the relationship is between you and your family, but maybe you should call them. Or a friend, at least. Let business rest for a while. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Dylan awkwardly waved as he beelined for the door. Once out in the hallway, he questioned if he’d been too hard on her. He resisted the urge to peek back in her room to make sure she was okay. He’d already gotten far too involved. The gnawing at the pit of his stomach told him this was just the beginning.
* * *
EMMA STARED AT the doorway, willing Dylan to return. She hadn’t meant to run him off. While it was true she wanted to talk business, the truth was she didn’t want to be alone. And while she needed to acquire the ranch to secure her promotion, Silver Bells happened to be the only subject they had in common.
Great job, Emma. You managed to run off another man. Not that Dylan Slade was of any consequence. Well, at least not outside of work. Although, if Paul had been half as attentive as Dylan had been today, they might still be together. She knew very little about his personal life, but Jax had made a point to mention on more than one occasion that Dylan was single. If he was as stubborn about everything else in his life as he was about the sale of the ranch, she could understand why. Regardless, the fact he had remained by her side spoke volumes to his integrity. She wouldn’t mind a man like that in her life. She could do without the orneriness, though.
Emma wanted to remain calm, but the constant flutter in her belly made it impossible. Never mind the glare of the fetal monitor screen, the repeated squeeze of the blood-pressure cuff, the annoying pulse oximeter at the end of her finger and the two bands wrapped around her belly. They were constant reminders that things were not okay. While her pregnancy had been a surprise, she had adjusted rather quickly to the idea of being a mom despite her ex-good-for-nothing walking out on her.
She wanted to give her daughter the love and attention she hadn’t received growing up. As far as her parents were concerned, she was surprised they had found time to conceive a child since they sure hadn’t had time to raise one. Not that she’d had a difficult life, because hers had been rather charmed. At least from the outside looking in.
Nannies had raised her until she went away to boarding school. She’d traveled the world on vacations and had even spent a semester at sea aboard a luxury cruise liner. But there was a price for being away from home most of her childhood. She never felt a bond with her parents. Her baby wasn’t even born and she felt more of a bond with her daughter than she’d ever felt with her own mother. When she had spent time with them, they’d been far from affectionate. She had received more attention from her nannies and she refused to ever play a secondary role to a stand-in mom.
Her mother was an appellate court judge and her father was a neurosurgeon. Their work tended to come above needless hugs or petty playtime. They had groomed Emma to succeed, and she craved that success. But only so she could become a hands-on mother and be able to make enough money to raise her daughter more conventionally.
Emma pulled her phone from her bag and scrolled through the contacts. She hadn’t even told her parents she was going to Montana. Not that they expected her to keep them apprised of her travel schedule. She tapped the screen and waited for them to answer. After the fifth ring, she just about gave up when she heard her mother’s voice.
“Hi, Mom. I just wanted to let you know I’m in the hospital.”
“You’re having the baby?” Kate Sheridan asked. “Is it that time already?”
Emma sighed. She envied the women whose mothers had their due date circled on the calendar and counted down week by week with them. “Hopefully not for another eight weeks. The doctor will be happy with six, though. I’m in Montana on business and I started having contractions. Turns out they were only Braxton-Hicks, but they’re keeping me in the hospital overnight because my blood pressure is elevated. They want to rule out preeclampsia.”
“You’re keeping your weight down, aren’t you?” Kate asked. Her mother was obsessed with other people’s weight. They could be the most beautiful people in the world, but heaven forbid they carried an extra five pounds. Her mother always had to point it out.
“I’m doing fine. Thank you for asking, though.” Emma huffed. “And yes, I’m keeping my weight down.” As long as she didn’t count the food she’d eaten in the last twenty-four hours.
“Emma, if you called to argue, I don’t have time for it.”
“I thought you would be concerned.” The hint of a contraction warned her to remain calm. “My mistake.”
“You had some false labor pains. It’s common. I’m glad you’re okay, but it’s nothing to get upset over. I’m assuming you’re there to wrap up that ranch deal.”
Emma exhaled slowly. “I’m trying to, but the owner doesn’t want to sell.”
“I don’t know what you’re going to do, then. You need this promotion.”
“I will figure it out.” She ground her back teeth together.
“I’m sure you will. You always do. You’re a strong woman, Emma. Don’t forget that.”
Amazingly enough, when Emma had found out she was pregnant, her parents hadn’t gotten upset. She’d expected them to chastise her, but they said they had faith in her ability to raise a child without a partner to lean on. They also made it clear that their parents hadn’t helped them and they expected her to stand on her own if she was determined to keep her child. At least her mother thought she was strong, because today she felt anything but.
“Thank you, Mom. I have some notes to review since I can’t do much of anything else right now. I will give you a call if anything changes. I should be released tomorrow.”
“Okay. Get to work.”
“Bye, Mom.”
Emma rested her head against the pillow and closed her eyes. She didn’t know what she had expected from that conversation, but some concern or comforting words would have been nice. Another twinge from deep within her body jolted her upright. She quickly checked the numerous screens next to the bed, not exactly sure what she was looking for. No bells and alarms went off. That was a good sign. The cuff around her arm tightened. She checked the monitor over her left shoulder. 135/80. It wasn’t great but it was still better than the 140/90 it had read when she was admitted.
“Easy, butter bean.” She needed to choose a name for her daughter. Calling her a vegetable, however sweetly intended, no longer felt right. She didn’t even have a birthing plan. Or a crib. Or a car seat. Or anything. She kept meaning to sign up for the prepared childbirth and infant care classes the hospital offered in Chicago but hadn’t found the time yet. Jennie had offered to go with her for support. Considering they only held the classes once a month, she needed to make it a priority.
Emma opened the web browser on her tablet and registered for the next available classes. Her first and second Saturdays of the new year were officially booked. At least she felt she’d accomplished something for her daughter.
She pressed the call button and asked for something to drink. The doctor said her baby was strong and healthy, and she intended to keep her that way. If that meant temporary bed rest then so be it. It would give her the opportunity to reformulate her plan of attack on Dylan Slade. She needed to find a way to make things work for them both. She couldn’t give him what he wanted. She couldn’t guarantee jobs and she couldn’t promise employment for the next six months.
Her decisions affected many people regardless of what she did or didn’t do. In the end, some people would lose their jobs. There was no avoiding it. It weighed on her conscience with each acquisition, but it was business and she couldn’t allow her personal feelings to get in the way.