Dakota let out a long string of expletives as the medics bumped the gurney over the threshold of the home.

“It’s going to be a long day!” Mary whispered to herself.

Chapter Two

Thank goodness someone had the sense to invent the hands-free car phone. By the time Mary had packed up all of Dakota’s things, she was a good ten minutes behind the ambulance. It didn’t help that Mary had to run across the street and tell Leroy the plumber to lock up when he left.

Instead of calling the ER directly to catch Walt, she went for his personal cell phone. He answered on the fifth ring. “Dr. Eddy.”

She’d been practicing this call for a good five minutes in her head. “Who is going to be a daddy today?”

Silence met her ear.

“Walt?”

“Mary?”

“Well, now that we have the names straight, I thought you might like to know that Dakota’s in labor.”

She heard him suck in a breath before blowing it out.

“Labor?”

Mary felt a smile teasing her lips. “First there is sex, then there is conception . . . nine months of baking . . . then labor. Didn’t they teach you this in medical school?”

“Okay . . . yeah . . . all right. Labor. Okay. I’ve gotta . . . damn it . . . is she there? Let me talk to her.”

“Nope, she’s in the ambulance. I’m behind her by ten minutes.”

“Ambulance? Why? Was she delivering?” Poor Walt was working himself up.

“No.” Mary looked over her shoulder and attempted to merge into traffic. “She couldn’t walk.”

“What? Why?”

The BMW behind her wasn’t letting her in without a little persuasion. She nudged the nose of her Honda into the other lane in hopes the other driver would show a little compassion. “She fell down the stairs.”

The Beemer ignored her like she wasn’t there. “Thanks, dude.”

“Fell down the stairs?” Walt’s voice elevated.

Looked like the Subaru was going to cut her a break. “Yeah, broken leg. I’m sure she’s fine. Broken, but fine.”

“What the hell! Back up, Mary. What are you talking about?”

Now that she was in the correct lane to merge onto the freeway, which would bring her to the hospital faster, Mary focused on the conversation. “Dakota’s water broke, she slipped, fell . . . she thinks she broke her leg.”

“You’re serious.”

“Yep.”

Walt offered a few expletives before asking which hospital the medics were taking his wife to.

“I’ll call your parents and Dakota’s. Just get to the hospital.”

It sounded as if Walt was rushing around the ER, barking orders while carrying the phone pressed to his ear. “And call Monica. Let her know what happened, that she and Trent need to take the conference call without me.”

Monica was a new friend to her and Dakota, and a nurse practitioner who worked alongside Walt with his Borderless Doctors and Borderless Nurses organization. Trent was Monica’s husband and one of the Fairchild brothers who owned Fairchild Charters, a private jet and helicopter company that had recently started working with Borderless Doctors for humanitarian relief.

“I’m on it, Walt. Just stay calm and drive safe.”

He paused on the line. “I’m going to be a dad.”

Mary grinned as she exited the freeway. “Get a hustle, Daddy.”

“Right, right . . . I’m on my wa—” He didn’t finish his sentence before the line went dead.

Dr. and Mrs. Eddy were quick to answer the phone and tell her they would be booking flights and awaiting word.

Dakota’s parents weren’t as easy . . . well, not Elaine in any event. “She isn’t due for two more weeks.”

“Tell that to the baby.” Mary was attempting to find a parking spot in the elevated structure.

“Well, that is very inconvenient.”

There were some times Mary realized not having any parents could be a blessing. “I’m not sure what to tell you, Mrs. Laurens, your daughter went into labor, and I think she could use your help after the baby arrives.” And if Dakota had in fact broken a leg . . . then she’d take all the help she could get. Including her uptight mother.

“Well, bless her heart. Who goes into labor early on their first baby?”

Mary rolled her eyes.

Once again, Mary gave Elaine the hospital information and asked that she inform Dakota’s sister.

“We’ll do our best to get a flight in the next day or so.”

“That would be great.”

“Leave it to Dakota . . .” Elaine’s voice trailed off as she hung up the phone.

Mary squeezed her car between a long-bed dually truck and a minivan. There wasn’t much space between the cars. The truck looked relatively new, giving her the sense that maybe the owner would be extra careful not to ding a door when sliding inside. The minivan, on the other hand, was oxidized and a couple of decades old. Mary went ahead and backed out of the space and pulled back in a little closer to the truck.

She left the engine running while she fumbled through her contacts in her phone in search of Monica’s number. On her third time through her list, it dawned on her that she hadn’t replaced all the numbers when she’d upgraded her cell earlier in the year.

She considered calling Walt back, then decided against it. The man would be stressed enough. If he didn’t know Monica’s number from memory, he’d be fumbling with a cell phone while on the highway.