Wolf Ranch Complete Boxed Set

Chapter 9

9

AUDREY

“That’s it, I can see your baby’s head,” I coaxed my patient. Alana had been in labor for twenty-three hours and was definitely getting tired.

“You’re almost there, Mama,” Becky, the nurse said, rubbing her shoulder. “Think how amazing it will feel to hold your sweet baby in your arms.”

Alana whimpered and nodded, sweat beading on her forehead. She’d wanted an all-natural birth, and I always honored my patient’s wishes unless I deemed it completely medically necessary to intervene. So when labor stalled, I had Becky walk her up and down the hallway rather than give her a shot of Pitocin to get things going again. It worked. The weight of the baby’s head on her cervix caused it to dilate, and labor picked back up. Now she was just a few more pushes from the finish line.

“Another push when you feel the urge. No, wait for the urge,” I coached. The monitors showed another contraction, and Alana pushed. “That’s it.” A tiny dark-haired head slid out, and I cradled it in my gloved hands.

“Oh my God!” Alana’s husband gulped, tears in his voice. He stood by her side holding her hand. “The head is out, angel.”

Alana gave a sob. Her body pushed again, and one shoulder slid out, then another.

“You’re there!” I told her. On the next push, the slippery bundle slid into my hands. “You did it! It’s a girl.”

“A girl! Oh my God, we have a girl!” Alana wept, as I set the newborn on her chest. Becky covered her with a warm blanket and rubbed her back. Her husband wept.

Becky wept.

I blinked back the film of tears from my eyes and gave a watery laugh.

This moment was why I’d chosen to be an ObGyn. Even as grounded in science as I was and always have been, I was always moved by the miracle of birth. Nature at its most beautiful. Most joyful. It didn’t mean every situation was happy, and I didn’t encounter my share of sad tears, too. For the most part, it was an upbeat profession.

I helped Alana with the afterbirth, then waited to cut the cord. Alana was one of those all-natural-kind-of women who knitted their own baby caps before birth and had strong opinions about how much medical intervention they wanted. She’d read that her baby needed its cord blood, and it was better to delay the cutting. I saw no harm in delaying. Instead of untethering the baby and giving her to Becky to clean up, I let Alana continue to hold her.

Becky and I quietly picked up and set the bed back to rights. I chucked my gloves in the biohazard can, then washed my hands at the sink.

“We’ll give them a few minutes, then we can cut the cord and get the stats,” I murmured to Becky as she came over.

I had the luxury of time in Cooper Valley. It was one of the enormous perks of the job. Sure, sometimes things got hectic at the hospital, but for the most part, we could take time with our patients, unlike where I’d done my residency in inner city Chicago.

“I told you this before, but I like the way you do things, Dr. Ames,” she whispered.

“And I told you before, you need to quit that and call me Audrey,” I replied, with a wry turn of my lips. It was a small town, and Becky had worked at the hospital for almost a decade. I wasn’t going to insist the hospital staff call me Dr. Ames. I wasn’t here for a power trip. Besides, she wasn’t more than two years older than me, and I thought of her as a friend.

She smiled and waggled her eyebrows. “I forgot to tell you there’s a giant bouquet of flowers at the nurses’ station with your name on the card. From Jett Markle. Guess he’s really smitten with you.”

“Ugh.” Why wouldn’t he stop?

She snorted out a laugh. “Did you just say ugh?”

“Yes,” I moaned, then remembered to keep my voice down. I moved to the doorway, and she followed. We didn’t need to ruin a new family bonding moment detailing my unexciting dating life. “We had one date, and it wasn’t great. I don’t know why he won’t get the hint.”

“Not interested in the big shot rancher, huh? I thought you’d make a great couple.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Why?”

She laughed and shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re the cute new doctor.”

My scoff cut her off. As if. Doctor, yes. Cute, no.

“You heard me, the cute new single doctor in town, and he’s the rich new rancher. I guess that’s stupid.” She gave me a thoughtful look. “If not him, then what’s your type?”

The image of Boyd Wolf rose up in my mind, unbidden. Tousled sandy hair, sly smile, pale eyes, shoulders as wide as a doorway and abs ridged enough to climb. I couldn’t forget those clever lips of his or that tongue…

Oh gawd. My n*****s got hard beneath my scrubs just remembering all the things he’d done to me yesterday, and I crossed my arms over my chest. It was crazy. No, I was crazy. I had been then, letting him open my jeans, tug them down and get me off with a speed that had to be a record. In a barn. While there was lots of space on the property, I hadn’t been all that quiet. I blushed, even now, with the possibility someone had overheard. I’d barely slept the night before thinking about it all. Reliving it. I’d even pulled out my vibrator to ease the ache, but the orgasm had been weak in comparison to what Boyd had wrung from me.

I was ruined for all other orgasms, that was for sure.

As for Boyd himself, he’d been into me. I remembered the way he touched me, kissed me, licked me. He’d been practically ravenous. For me. I doubted he was hard up for female companionship, and there were much more appealing women out there than me. I wasn’t ever going to grow the extra seven or eight inches to be a supermodel. I could train for a marathon and still have a big butt. And unless I stopped down at the plastic surgeon’s office, I wasn’t ever going to offer more than small B boobs. But I’d seen how hard he’d been through his jeans. How pleased he’d been when I’d come. How he’d licked his fingers. Licked his fingers!

“Um, I like a cowboy, in theory, just not Jett. He was overbearing, condescending and a bore.”

Becky huffed out a laugh. “Well, don’t put too fine a point on it!”

“No kidding, right? You can have a volunteer take the flowers to one of the floors and give them to a patient without any visitors or family.”

“You should come to Cody’s tonight. You work way too many hours and haven’t once joined us out for fun. How will you ever meet anyone if you only stay within these four walls? Wait, how did you meet Jett Markle, anyway?”

I rolled my eyes, gave Alana and family a glance, then looked to Becky. “Produce section at the grocery store. What’s Cody’s?” I asked.

She gave a light scoff. “See? The fact that you don’t know the best—and only—local haunt for nightlife tells me you’ve been living like a hermit. Come out with me tonight. I’ll introduce you to the nice cowboys. It’ll be fun.”

Once more, I tried to push the image of Boyd out of my mind. He wouldn’t be one of the nice cowboys she wanted to introduce me to. Maybe someone like Abe. He was handsome and nice. And that was a good thing. Why then, was I so unexcited about the prospect of meeting anyone else? Why was I no longer interested in nice? That was so stupid. I definitely had to get out, get my mind off the sexy rodeo champ and meet the man of my dreams.

I glanced at the new family again. That was what I wanted. A doting husband, a new baby, the promise a brand-new family of three had for the future.

“You definitely should go,” Alana said. I looked over in surprise to see her grinning at me. Her hair was slicked back with sweat, her cheeks flushed.

Her husband, who had his arm draped gently around his wife’s shoulders, gave her a squeeze. “That’s where we first hooked up.”

I frowned in confusion.

“Yep. At Cody’s. After my sister puked all over the dance floor.” She laughed.

I went to grab a tiny knitted hat from a drawer. “All right,” I said to Becky, surprising myself. “Let’s do it, minus the throw up. What time?”

Becky smiled. “Let’s say eight o’clock. Wear your cowgirl boots.”

My smile drooped. “What if I don’t have cowgirl boots?”

She elbowed me. “Kidding. I was kidding. You can wear anything you want, except scrubs.”

I looked down at myself. “No problem.”

“You should get a pair of cowgirl boots,” Alana said, then kissed the top of her daughter’s head. She had lots of dark hair like her father. “Don’t you agree, Anabelle?”

“Anabelle,” her husband choked. “It’s perfect. She’s perfect.”

“She sure is.” I went over and gave the hat to dad to slip on the newborn to help her stay warm. I grabbed new gloves from the dispenser on the wall, then clamped and cut the cord. Their happiness lifted me out of all my misgivings about proper attire or good-looking rodeo champs.

There was a new baby in the world, and her name was Anabelle. She was going to continue to bring endless joy to the world, simply by being alive.

If only everything was so miraculous and beautiful.