One look at the blood on her legs and towel and the triage nurse grabbed a wheelchair. Lucas held her hand, rushing beside her.
“How far along are you?” the young nurse asked.
“Almost seven months,” Maxie whispered. “It’s too early.”
Lucas squeezed her shoulder. They reached a set of swinging doors and the nurse paused. “Are you her husband?” she asked.
“No but—”
“Wait here. I’ll come out as soon as I know something.”
“But—” Lucas cursed himself for not lying through his teeth to go in with her, but he hadn’t been thinking about anything except Maxie. And the blood.
The notion of losing her for good was unbearable. He refused to think about the fact that he’d already lost her in the only other way that mattered.
“No, he can come with me,” she said, sniffling.
“We don’t know what the situation is. I promise once you’re stabilized, I’ll come get him,” the nurse said, turning the chair so she could back herself and Maxie through the entrance.
He met Maxie’s tearful gaze as she was wheeled away, the big doors closing behind her, leaving him to wait. Alone.
* * *
Maxie woke with a start, and a cloud of depression immediately cloaked her in fog. She didn’t have to think to know the world as she knew it had ended. She blinked and tears streamed down her cheeks unchecked.
“You’re awake.”
Lucas. She forced herself to roll to her other side and face the man who’d done everything he could to help her. Without success. The blood had been a shock. The debilitating pain had begun almost as soon as she’d entered the hospital. The rest was a horrific blur of words the doctor had used, each one an agony-filled stab in her heart. Late-term miscarriage. Nothing she could have done to prevent it and nothing she had done to cause it. Probably due to chromosomal abnormality. Rare occurrence. I’m sorry.
“Maxie? I asked if you’re okay? I mean—”
“I know what you mean.”
Lucas was worried about her.
“I don’t understand. I wish…” Her voice caught on an unexpected sob.
Lucas was by her side in an instant, pushing his big body onto the small hospital bed along with her and pulling her close. He smelled delicious, a citrusy masculine scent. It comforted her. He comforted her and she burrowed in closer.
“The nursery’s all painted, the crib nearly done. I named him—” She choked back a cry.
“Let it out,” he said, holding on to her tightly.
He was so solid. So there. Unlike her husband, who, from the minute she’d seen blood, was nowhere to be found. He hadn’t even returned her call. She hadn’t checked her cell since being in here, but she had no doubt Lucas had tried to reach him.
But it wasn’t Keith she needed now, it was Lucas, and true to form, he was there. The one to make her feel better when she was hurting, the one to comfort her when she had problems. He’d been her next-door neighbor since they were ten years old, her best friend, the one she could count on, always. But when her teenage feelings had changed, deepened, she’d kept them hidden.
Good girls didn’t make a play for boys, her very religious mother had hammered into her. And Lucas, well, he’d been different back then. Less confident. He hadn’t acted on any change in dynamic between them either. The timing had never been right. They had never been.
“Lucas…”
“I’m here, baby. For anything, I’m here.”
“I know. And thank you.”
The tears began again, the thought of the fear when she’d seen blood, the sheer panic when she’d realized she was alone. Her absolute refusal to face what was so obviously happening. She’d dialed Keith, but her heart had wanted Lucas, and when her husband wasn’t reachable, she’d called the one man she knew she could count on.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you.” She’d dampened his shirt but he didn’t seem to care.