Nicole Foster - Sawyer's Special Delivery

“Just a few minutes,” she heard a woman say, and then the curtain was pushed aside and Sawyer looked in.

“Hey, I just thought I’d—” The smile she remembered vanished, and in two strides he was at her side, scowling. “What are you doing? You’re not supposed to be up.”

“If someone would tell me how my baby is, I wouldn’t be. What are you still doing here anyway?” she asked, then immediately looked contrite for snapping at him.

“It’s okay,” Sawyer said, heading off the apology she started to make. He didn’t have a good answer for her question and he didn’t want to look too closely for one right now. Taking her by the shoulders, he gently guided her back down on the bed. “And Joey is, too.”

“You saw him?”

“Right before I came to see you. The pediatrician is with him now—Lia Kerrigan. I know her. Don’t worry, he’s in good hands.”

Maya closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ve been going crazy. No one would tell me anything and—” She stopped, looking up at him. “You’ve done so much for us. I—”

“Need someone to keep a closer eye on you.”

“I can take care of myself. And Joey,” she said, giving him a look that dared him to disagree.

Sawyer stopped himself from saying she didn’t look as if she could have stood up without help. Except for the purpling bruise darkening her temple and cheek and the long tangle of dark red hair, she looked completely drained of color and strength. She shouldn’t be alone, not now. She needed someone to take care of her, no matter what she said. “Isn’t there anyone you can call?”

She raised her brows at his abrupt question, then shook her head. “I was on my way to my parents’ house, but apparently they’ve either gone out or forgotten I was coming, because they aren’t answering the phone.” Even though she’d talked to her parents two days ago, reminding them for the third time she’d arrive today, their absence hadn’t surprised her. It would be typical of her parents to have gone off to a party or some weird festival in the middle of the desert, expecting she’d fend for herself until they got back.

“Your parents…” Sawyer studied her a moment. “Of course, now I remember. You’re the hippie girl.”

Maya sighed. “That would be my parents. I grew up.”

He grinned sheepishly at her. “Sorry, but I remember that’s what all the kids used to call you. Your parents still live out at the old commune at the edge of town, don’t they?”

“When they’re not living in their van. They disappear every few months in search of spiritual enlightenment.”

Maya didn’t add she’d had no trouble remembering him once he’d told her his name, even though he was four years older and she’d never said more than two words to him the years she’d grown up in Luna Hermosa. She’d been the barefoot girl in ragged jeans whose unmarried parents lived in a run-down house with their cats and chickens and various people who’d stay for days or months, depending on their whims.

He, on the other hand, had grown up on the Morente family estate, excelled at everything, dared anything and been the object of many a young girl’s fantasies. And she’d bet the fantasies had grown up with the girls. She didn’t doubt his competence on the job, but the uniform looked out of place on a man who conjured images of a midnight rendezvous, and temptation whispered in that dark voice.

She realized she was staring and quickly looked away. “I’m surprised you remember me. You left town years before I graduated high school.”

“How could I forget the only time I actually got to rescue a cat from a tree? Of course—” he flashed her that smile “—I ended up rescuing the girl along with it.”

“Now there’s something I’d hoped you wouldn’t remember.” She’d been twelve years old and had followed her favorite kitten up a tree only to find herself literally out on a limb and unable to get back down. Sawyer and several friends had been driving by and he’d stopped and climbed up, bringing her and the cat down. “You seem to have a bad habit of being there to rescue me.”

Sawyer studied her with an intensity that made Maya blush. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said softly. Then he shrugged, and abruptly he was back to the competent professional again. “I was just doing my job.”

“Luckily for me. That’s twice you’ve been my hero,” she said lightly.

The smile went out of his eyes so suddenly, Maya blinked.

“So,” he said in a very obvious change of subject, “are you planning on staying in that house alone?”

“I’m sure my parents are around somewhere. I just talked to them the other day. And if not, they won’t mind if I crash there a while.” She knew that wasn’t what he’d meant, but right now she didn’t want to think past making sure Joey was healthy. Her head was starting to pound, and all she wanted to do now was see her baby and then get some sleep.

Sawyer easily read the exhaustion in her eyes and the droop of her body. He didn’t want to press her, but he knew the Rainbow house and he was surprised it was still standing. The idea of her there alone with a new baby, with no one to look after her, bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

It wasn’t even remotely his problem. He didn’t even know her, except as a memory of a scrawny girl with red braids and wide green eyes, a girl that everyone called weird. He’d done his job, gotten her and her baby to the hospital safely. There was no reason why he should care what she did or where she went.

Except that he did.

Before he could come up with a good reason why, Rico stuck his head into the cubicle. “We’re up. Another accident on 137.”

Sawyer looked at Maya. “I’ll see you later.”

She made herself smile. “Sure, and thanks again.”

Then he was gone. A sense of loss stabbed her and Maya felt silly for it. He’d only been doing his job. And now that it was over, she doubted, despite his parting words, that she’d ever see him again unless it was an accidental meeting in town.

She and Joey were a family now. There wasn’t going to be anyone else. And the sooner she accepted that, the better off they’d both be.

A small noise woke Maya from a light doze and she stopped herself from groaning, wondering what the nurses wanted this time. In the past three days, she’d gotten used to being roused at odd hours to feed Joey, to answer more questions or to be poked, prodded, or tsked over because of her refusal to take any pain medication. Three hours of uninterrupted sleep had become a luxury. And she’d been tempted more than once to take the painkillers, especially the morning after the accident, when she’d awakened stiff as a hundred-year-old and with a thousand pains.

But no one should be here now. She’d been to the nursery less than an hour ago to feed Joey, and the doctor had already been by this morning to tell her she could go home tomorrow.

Forcing open her eyes, Maya found herself looking into a smiling face she’d hadn’t seen in years. Though the woman’s curves were more lush now and her dark hair shorter, her generous mouth and smiling eyes and a passion for brilliant orange and red hadn’t changed. “Valerie? Valerie Valdez? Is that really you?”

Valerie laughed and bent to give her a hug. “In the flesh, honey, although there’s more of it than you probably remember. And it’s Valerie Ortiz now,” she added, settling herself in a chair beside Maya’s bed.

“But how did you know I was here?” Maya asked as she struggled to sit up. Running a hand over her tangled hair, she tried to force her brain to start functioning. “I haven’t been able to reach my parents and I haven’t talked to anyone I know since I got back.” Except Sawyer. But she couldn’t imagine him looking up her old friends and asking them to visit her.

“You can’t have been gone so long that you don’t remember how fast news gets around here. Your baby’s day nurse is my sister-in-law. Rainbow isn’t exactly a common last name. Cat told me about your accident and your baby and asked if I knew you and so here I am. Oh, and I have this,” Valerie said and held out a crumpled and water-stained piece of bright yellow paper.

“I stopped by your parents’ house first to see if I could find them for you but instead of them I found this stuck to the door,” Valerie said with a look that said she was sorry to be the messenger. “It’s a little worse for the wear, but the gist of it is they’ve gone off to some rock in Sedona to commune with like souls. Sorry, I tried.”

“I know, and thanks. I’m not surprised. It’s just—” Maya stopped, then made herself smile. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just really glad you came. You don’t know how wonderful it is to see you.” After three days without seeing a familiar face or being able to share her joys and fears about Joey with anyone she knew, Maya felt close to tears seeing Valerie. She brushed quickly at her eyes, pretending to rub the sleep out of them.

“It’s okay, babies do that to you,” Valerie said, taking her hand and squeezing. “It’s good to see you, too, honey. You look a little banged up, but from what I hear, you’re lucky to be alive. You and your little boy.”

“Have you seen him?”

Valerie nodded. “He’s tiny and precious. But I hear he’s doing just fine. He’ll just need a little extra TLC for a while.”

“So the doctor keeps telling me.” Maya turned to look out the window into the bright sunlight, tears welling in her eyes. “He—he just looks so little and helpless right now. And they’re not going to let me take him home with me when I leave here. They still won’t tell me how long he’s got to stay, and I’m just so worried about him.”

“I know. But Lia Kerrigan is a good doctor,” Valerie said, echoing what Sawyer had told her. “Before you know it, your baby will be a boisterous, rowdy little boy and you’ll wonder how he ever could have been so small and quiet. Believe me, I know, between the twins and now the baby.”

“You have a baby?” Maya remembered Valerie had married her high school boyfriend shortly after graduation. The marriage had gone wrong almost from the start, and less than two years later Valerie had taken her twin daughters and left. “New husband, new baby—wow, has it been that long?”

Valerie laughed. “It’s been a few years since we were sixteen, dreaming up ways to cut algebra. I think my favorite was the time we took your dad’s motorcycle and skipped school for two days so we could go to that music festival in Taos.”

A flash of memories made Maya smile. “We were trouble, weren’t we?”

“And proud of it,” Valerie said. “Now I’m working to keep my kids in line. And not succeeding most days. If it weren’t for Paul, I’d be a crazy person by now. This time I got it right.” She hesitated, looking uncertainly at Maya before asking, “What about you?”

It was the closest Valerie would come to outright asking her what had brought her back to Luna Hermosa, unmarried, with a baby. And what could she say? She’d left shortly after high school graduation to find something her parents had never been able to give her—stability, commitment, someone willing to share responsibility. She thought she’d found those things in Evan, but she couldn’t have been more wrong.

“I decided to come home to have my baby,” she said at last, not ready to rehash the last miserable year with her ex-fiancé. “Unfortunately that turned out to be a really bad idea.”