A Proposal to Remember

Feeling cold fingers of panic down her spine, Zan looked at Diane. ‘I can’t deliver the shoulders.’ Zan kept her voice calm but both she and Diane understood the seriousness of the situation. Impacted shoulders were an obstetric emergency.

Vicky was breathing rapidly, dread showing in her eyes. ‘What’s the matter with the shoulders? Why can’t you deliver them?’

‘I’ll fast-bleep the obstetrician,’ Diane said immediately, and Zan turned her attention back to Vicky and her unborn baby.

‘It will be all right,’ she said quickly, praying that it was true. ‘Sometimes the shoulders don’t move into the right position and we have to give the baby some help.’

Diane reappeared only seconds later, accompanied by Carlo.

In the meantime Zan had made another attempt to deliver the shoulders and failed.

Zan looked at Carlo, her heart thumping in her chest. She knew just how serious the situat

ion was. ‘The anterior shoulder has failed to rotate. I’ve tried doing it manually, and I’ve checked that the hand isn’t alongside the head.’

‘So we’ll try and deliver the posterior shoulder first.’ He was amazingly calm, talking quietly to Vicky as he washed his hands and tugged on sterile gloves. ‘Vicky, I need to change your position. The baby is stuck and we need to give him more room to be born.’

With Zan’s help he adjusted Vicky’s position and then he slipped his fingers behind the posterior shoulder and rotated it into the hollow of the sacrum.

Still talking quietly to Vicky, he did something magical with his fingers and the baby slithered out into his waiting hands. He lifted it straight onto Vicky’s tummy.

Zan gave a gulp of relief and exchanged amazed looks with Diane, who grinned.

‘Now I know it’s Christmas. The time for miracles. Done that before, have you, Mr Bennett?’

‘Not too often, fortunately.’ Carlo smiled, his eyes on Vicky and the baby just as the paediatrician rushed in.

‘Problems?’

Diane let out a long breath, not bothering to hide how thankful she was. ‘Not any more—but now you’re here you might as well check the baby.’

* * *

Carlo grabbed his coat and sprinted down the stairs to the front of the hospital.

Had he missed her?

He slammed through the main door and into the freezing air and then looked left and right, cursing the call from the ward that had slowed him down.

‘Looking for someone?’

Her voice came from behind him and he turned, sighing with relief as he saw her standing there, dark hair pushed up inside her woolly hat again, her green eyes wary.

‘I’ve been looking for you.’

For most of his adult life.

‘Why’s that?’ Zan tried to sound casual but he could see the hurt in her eyes and he didn’t blame her. He was only too aware that he was giving her mixed messages.

‘I thought you were going to buy your tree.’ He smiled down at her, remembering what she’d said the night before about getting a tree that would fill her flat. ‘The big tree.’

‘I am.’ She stuffed her hands in her pockets and looked at him. ‘Did I mention that you were great back there, by the way?’ She rubbed her boot in the snow and avoided his eyes. ‘You saved that baby’s life. I’m impressed.’

So was he. He’d hurt her feelings but she was still generous enough to offer praise.

He took instant advantage. ‘Impressed enough to cook me that dinner you promised me?’

He knew he shouldn’t see her again, and he knew Matt was going to kill him, but he couldn’t help himself. If Zan was a drug then he was well and truly hooked.