The Cowboy's Family Plan

Chapter Four

After leaving the wellness center, Selena arrived at her new two-bedroom digs on Hawthorne Lane, one of the older neighborhoods in Brighton Valley. She checked her voice mail, took a quick shower and dressed for the day. While tempted to grab something she could eat on the run, she took time for a good breakfast—a veggie omelet, a fruit cup and a blueberry muffin—to fuel her body and keep her going until noon.

It was almost seven-thirty when she made the fifteen-minute drive to the medical center, which was just a few blocks down the street from her office.

Because she still had an hour before her first patient would arrive, she decided to swing by the hospital so she could check on Shannon and her baby.

Her first stop was at the neonatal intensive care unit, where little Michael slept in a heated isolette. He wasn’t the tiniest baby in the NICU, but at just over four pounds, he was still smaller than a full-term newborn.

Last night, while Shannon had been in labor, his heart rate had dropped, indicating he was in distress, so Dr. Chin had decided upon an immediate C-section. His initial Apgar score had been a little low, but Roger Parnell, the neonatologist at the delivery, hadn’t been too concerned. And thank goodness Michael’s subsequent scores had improved.

His color looked good today, Selena decided, as she studied the sleeping newborn. Her medical assessment soon took a maternal shift, and she found herself taking note of his little fingers and toes. He was a beautiful baby, with dark tufts of hair.... And look at that sweet little grimace on his face.

“Good morning, Dr. Ramirez.”

Tearing her gaze from the newborn, Selena turned to Margie Kaufman, the charge nurse, and offered her a smile. “Good morning, Margie. I stopped by to check on Baby Bedford before visiting his mother. How’s he doing?”

“So far, so good. He doesn’t seem to have any major issues, although we’re watching him closely. We’ll probably bring his mom in to visit later this morning.”

“I’ll let her know. I’m sure she’s eager to see him.” Still, Selena made no immediate move to leave. Instead, she continued to watch little Michael and to imagine having a baby like him someday. But longing for something that wasn’t meant to be wasn’t doing her any good, so she forced herself to leave the NICU and head for the maternity floor. When she reached the nurses’ station, she learned that Shannon Bedford was in room 407.