Their Child?: Lori's Little Secret / Which Child Is Mine? / Having The Best Man's Baby

With obvious reluctance, Brody laid his mother’s hand gently on her stomach, took the jacket and stepped back. Tucker watched him, thinking what a terrific kid he was. Ten years old and holding it together with a building collapsed on top of them and his mother out cold and covered in blood.

“Thank you.” The doctor sent the boy an encouraging smile as he rolled up his sleeves. He turned to Tucker. “Is she breathing normally?”

“Yeah, as far as I can see.”

The doc said, patiently, “Son, with her head in your lap like that, there is some restriction of the airways…”

Calling himself ten kinds of thoughtless idiot, Tucker carefully eased out from under her, guiding her head to the bench with a cautious hand, keeping steady, gentle pressure on the wound the whole time.

The doctor moved closer. “Any other injuries—beyond this nasty head wound?”

Tucker said, “I don’t think so. But stuff was flying all over up there. She might have a bruise or a cut or two.”

“Nothing major, though—other than that gash on her head?”

Tucker frowned. “It was wild up there. I can’t say for sure…”

“Let’s have a look, why don’t we?” The doctor glanced over his shoulder. “Bring that lantern close. Someone get me some clean towels, please. And something to cover her.”

The man with the lantern stepped up and held it high. Two women moved off—presumably in search of the towels and a blanket.

Dr. Flannigan examined the angry, swelling gash. Yes, Tucker thought with a grim surge of triumph, the flow of blood really had slowed. Flannigan gently poked and prodded. He checked Lori’s pulse and lifted her eyelids, one and then the other.

About then, Tate and the men returned from the stairs.

“That exit’s blocked solid,” Tate said, scowling. “We’ll have a hell of a time digging out that way…”

Molly, who’d been hanging back near the wall, stepped close to her husband and slid her hand in his. Tucker guessed, from the look on her face, that she was thinking of their babies, hoping they were safe with the nanny in the basement at the Double T. Tate lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss on the fingers twined so tightly with his.

The two women returned with a stack of bar towels, what looked like neatly folded tablecloths—and a bowl of water.

“Water,” said the doc. “Wonderful.”

One of the women spoke up. “There’s a laundry room, down the hall. The sink faucet in there is still working.”

“Excellent.” Flannigan wet a towel. “Let’s see if we can get a better look here…” He dabbed at the bloody mess over Lori’s eye.

About then, the club manager elbowed his way toward them from the other direction.

Tate said, “Well?”

The manager actually dared a smile. “The outside exit is clear. We can get out, no problem. Plus, there are choppers overhead and we heard sirens. Help is definitely on the way.”

The E.M.T.s came down the corridor from the outside exit to get Lori. They loaded her onto a stretcher, carried her out and put her in the ambulance. They were headed for Tate Memorial, the hospital that Ol’ Tuck had generously endowed. Memorial was big enough to have state-of-the-art machinery, its own E.R. and a surgeon with a solid handle on head trauma.

Tucker insisted on riding in the ambulance. Nobody—not Heck, Enid or Lena—argued with his right to be the one to stay with her.

He spoke to Brody before he climbed into the back of the big white van. “Your mom is going to come through this just fine.”

The boy looked small and lost, standing there in the darkness and the drizzling rain in front of the collapsed ruin of what had once been the clubhouse. He asked, doubt in every word, “How do you know for sure?”

Somehow, Tucker managed a grin. “Trust me. I’m not letting anything happen to her.”

Brody surged forward and grabbed him around the waist, hugging him hard. “Promise?” he whispered, his nose squashed into Tucker’s chest. “Promise?”

Tucker hugged him back, his own throat locking up, surprised at the strength in the young arms around him. Damn, he thought, what a kid. He coughed to clear the tightness away. “Absolutely. I swear it.”

One of the E.M.T.s spoke from the bed of the open van. “Mr. Bravo. We’ve got to get moving.”

Brody’s arms dropped away. He swiped at his nose with the back of his hand.

Heck, who stood a few feet away with Enid, Lena and Dirk, moved close enough to wrap a beefy arm around Brody’s shoulder. “We’ll be there at the hospital to meet you.”

Tucker nodded, climbed into the van, and turned to look out at Lori’s family. They were wet and bedraggled, the hem of Lena’s beautiful white dress trailing in the mud, Brody, Heck and Dirk sans jackets, with ties askew and shirts pulled half out of their trousers. Only Enid was crying, silent tears that tracked down haggard cheeks already wet with rain.

Then the med tech pulled the doors shut. The driver started the engine and off they went.

Tucker stayed out of the way as best he could in the cramped space. The E.M.T.s tended their patient, cleaning the wound, hooking her up to an IV drip, keeping close watch on her vital signs and communicating via radio with the hospital, so all would be ready for her when they arrived.

Watching them, so focused and efficient, Tucker found he felt a little bit calmer himself.

As soon as they had Lori settled, one of the E.M.T.s told him that the clubhouse, south of town and surrounded by a golf course, tennis courts, pool, formal grounds and beyond all that, acres of open land all around, was the only structure that had been hit. As far as they knew, Lori’s was the sole injury—at least, so far.

In midride, the miracle Tucker didn’t realize he’d been praying for happened.

Lori let out a low groan—and opened her eyes. Tucker, at the foot of the narrow portable cot where she lay, was right there waiting to give her a smile.

“Tucker?” She blinked and licked her lips and tried to lift the hand with the IV needle stuck in the back of it. She groaned again. “What…?”

“Easy, Mrs. Taylor…”

“It’s all right, you’re safe…” Making soothing noises, the E.M.T.s closed in.

Tucker craned to the side, so she could see him around the med techs bending close. “You were hit on the head—but you’re going to be okay.”

She asked, weakly, “Brody?”

“Safe,” he told her. “He’s with your folks. And as far as we know, everyone else is okay, too.”

“Good,” she whispered. “Good…”

Three hours later, near midnight, Tucker, Lena and Dirk sat in Memorial’s main waiting room. Heck and Enid had taken Brody home. But Lena, still dressed in her limp wedding finery, said she was going nowhere until she was certain that Lori would be okay. Dirk kept close to his bride.

Tucker sat across from the newlyweds, his elbows braced on the chair arms, a paper cup of bad coffee balanced on his belly and his legs stretched out in front of him. He stared down at his scuffed dress shoes, not really seeing them.

Not seeing or thinking of anything, really.

Except Lori.