CHAPTER2
Nick Carr followedthe signs to the neonatal ward of Granite Falls General Hospital. He was late tonight. The Joneses’ kitchen remodel job he’d started a few days ago ran into a snag. He stopped outside the large glass window and watched the tiny babies sleeping in their incubators or plastic bassinets. His heart swelled as he found his daughter—Bailey.
Tanya, the night nurse, smiled at him from inside the nursery and gestured for him to come in. He opened the door that led into a small room where he slipped a gown over his clothes. He’d missed her nightly feeding, but he still couldn’t wait to see her.
He’d been coming every day since she was born two weeks earlier. Her delivery had been difficult, but the doctor did his best, and she survived, coming early, fighting her way into a world that would be a challenge for her without a mom. And with him for a dad. He didn’t know the first thing about babies, or fatherhood, but he was determined to try. She deserved that and so much more.
Shelley would have been a great mom. His chest tightened and a blanket of sadness enveloped him as he once again thought about how badly Shelley had wanted her baby. How excitedly she’d been planning for her arrival. He approached Bailey’s incubator. He looked up at Tanya. “You’ve removed her tubes. Does that mean she’s breathing on her own?”
The nurse smiled. “We took them out earlier this evening. She is doing so well. The doctor said you should be able to take her home at the end of the week.”
“I will?” Panic seized him. He wasn’t ready.
Shelley had done a lot to get the nursery ready, but he’d been so busy getting his business up and running, he hadn’t paid attention to everything she said they still needed to do. He never thought for an instant she wouldn’t survive the delivery. That she wouldn’t be there to take Bailey home.
He fought the heaviness bearing down on him. He could do this. For Shelley and for his daughter. The nurse lifted Bailey out of her incubator and handed her to him. He took her in his arms and sat in the nearest chair. She was so tiny, swaddled tightly in her baby blanket. She opened her little eyes and looked at him. Instantly something warm and almost painful expanded within his chest.
He smiled, overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotions. “She’s looking at me.”
“Do you want to feed her?” Tanya asked.
“I thought I missed feeding time.”
She smiled. “She eats every two to three hours. That’s something you’ll have to get used to. That little one has a voracious appetite.”
He grinned. “Just like your daddy.”
She handed him a warm bottle. He rubbed the bottle’s nipple against Bailey’s lips, and she took it into her mouth and instantly started sucking, her gaze locking on his.
“She’s so beautiful.” He wrestled hold of his emotions as he stared at the thatch of dark curls topping the crown of her head and sticking out from beneath her little cap. He pulled down the pink hat, covering more of her head. He didn’t know how much time had passed as he watched her perfect little face, marveling at her tiny fingers when he heard a knock on the glass. He looked up to see Mike and Belinda Reaves standing outside the nursery window, glowering at him. He swallowed the sour taste in his mouth.
“The grandparents,” the nurse said. “They come every night too. Mrs. Reaves is going to be upset she didn’t get to feed her.”
“She’s been feeding Bailey too?”
“Every chance she gets. I’m glad you were able to do it tonight.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Shelley’s parents hated him. They were furious he didn’t marry Shelley as soon as she discovered she was pregnant, but their relationship wasn’t like that. To her parents’ shock and horror, they weren’t going to get married. He and Shelley had been friends for years, and the night they conceived Bailey had been a fluke, an accident, a one-time thing. He stared at his baby.
A blessing.
Both of them wanted her and agreed to raise her together—as friends. He hoped her parents would come around once Bailey was born. But then Shelley died, and instead of rallying together, they blamed him and had been making his life miserable ever since.
Bailey finished eating and fell asleep in his arms. He stood and handed her back to Tanya then left the nursery, hoping the Reaves had also left. They hadn’t.
“What are you doing here, Carr?” Mike demanded as he reached the elevators, his face full of fury.
“Visiting my daughter. Like I do every night.”
“You have no claim on her.” Mike’s gray hair, which usually fell in neat rows behind his ears, was sticking out in a haphazard mess.
“Of course I do, she’s my daughter.”
“You weren’t married,” Mike sneered. “And if you’d been paying more attention, you would have known Shelley was in trouble.”
Nick had often wondered that himself, and he hoped it wasn’t true. The doctors said there was no one to blame for what happened to Shelley. “She had preeclampsia. There wasn’t anything any of us could do.”