Raw with fear and grief, Michael called Dylan and left a message on his voice mail. Then, though he’d always been a man with a heavy dose of skepticism about God, he began to pray.
Moments passed like hours, and Michael paced the small waiting room feeling like a caged animal. He had wasted so much time. Now he would give anything for another moment with Kate. In her gentle, persistent way, she’d tried to show him the way she saw him, as a good man. She’d tried to love him, but he hadn’t let her.
Hearing footsteps behind him, he quickly swung around to see Dylan and Justin. Both wore expressions of concern. “I came as soon as I picked up your message,” Dylan said, patting Michael on the back. “Any news?”
Michael shook his head. “The prognoses for both Kate and the baby are uncertain.”
Justin winced. “Sorry, guy. If there’s anything we can do—”
The heavy weight in Michael’s chest grew heavier. “If you’ve got a direct connection with the man upstairs, I could use it now.”
Justin shifted uncomfortably and popped an antacid. “I’ll get you some coffee.”
Michael felt Dylan’s gaze. “Do you know what happened?” Dylan asked.
“She fell. She was helping decorate a Christmas tree,” he said, hearing the catch in his voice and unable to prevent it. He closed his eyes. “Oh, God, I’ve wasted so much time. I’ve been so focused on preventing a takeover I may have missed out on the best thing that ever entered this life.”
Dylan sighed, squeezing Michael’s shoulder again briefly. “You won’t be the first of us to let a woman slip through your fingers. I’m still paying for my stupidity in college, but that’s another story. You might still have a shot at it,” Dylan said with a force that belied his usual casual, careless manner. “If you do, don’t mess it up.”
A nurse dressed in scrubs appeared in the doorway with a baby bundled in a blanket. “Mr. Hawkins, here is your daughter.”
Michael froze. “Daughter?” he repeated.
“Yes,” she said, putting the soft weight of the baby in his hands. “She’s fine.”
Michael stared into his daughter’s tiny face and clenched his body to keep from trembling. “Kate?” he said, unable to keep the desperation from his voice. “What about my wife?”
“The doctors are still working on her. The baby was in better shape than we expected, but the baby usually gets the easy end of the deal with a cesarean section. We’ll call you as soon as your wife is in recovery.”
Almost afraid to hope, he shook his head. “Is she going to be okay?”
The nurse nodded. “It was touch and go when she first arrived, but she must have acted very quickly when she fell.” She glanced at the baby and smiled. “She must have been determined to bring her into the world safely.”
The relief that rushed through him was so powerful it hurt. He looked down at his daughter and saw Kate in her sweet face. A tear streamed down his cheek, and Michael could have sworn that in that moment, he grew a heart.
Before he had time to catch his breath, another nurse appeared in the doorway. “Would you like to see your wife?”
Baby in hands, Michael plowed into Justin as he entered the doorway, splattering coffee on Justin’s shirt. “Sorry,” he said. “Kate’s okay. The baby’s okay. Congratulations,” he said impulsively. “You are co-godfathers.”
“Co-godfathers!” Justin and Dylan said at the same time.
“Why would I want to be a godfather with you?” Justin demanded.
“Because you’re so obsessed with the stock market you probably couldn’t do it by yourself,” Dylan told him.
Hearing his friends’ argument, Michael’s heart grew a millimeter lighter as he walked toward recovery. The moment he saw Kate, his breath stopped. “She’s so pale,” he said to the nurse.
“She lost a lot of blood, but she’s going to be okay. Expect her to be groggy.”
Kate heard Michael’s voice as if it were coming from far away. She struggled to get closer to it.
“I’m giving up the company,” he told her. “I walked away from the table. I’ll just start another one if Wayland won’t accept my conditions. You’re too important and I don’t want to miss another minute with you.”
I must be dreaming, she thought, feeling a dull pain in her abdomen.
“Katie, love,” he said, his voice strained. “I wish you would wake up so you could see our little Cupcake.”
Cupcake! The baby. Kate remembered her fall and panic hit her. “The baby,” she murmured, struggling to open her eyes. Her eyelids felt as if someone had put two-hundred-pound weights on them. She finally succeeded and saw Michael holding a bundle of blanket. Her brain was too scrambled to make sense of the images. Why was he holding a blanket?
“Michael.”
He bent toward her. She was astonished to see a tear on his face.
“I love you,” he told her. “You and the baby are the most important things in the world to me.”
Kate closed her eyes. “I’m dreaming.”
Michael gently shook her shoulder. “Don’t go back to sleep. Please stay awake.”
The pleading note in his voice tore at her, and she struggled to open her eyes again.
“I need you,” he said. “I didn’t want to, but I think I always have. Before I even met you, I needed you.”
She looked into his raw, desperate eyes and lost her heart again. “Am I dreaming?”
He shook his head. “No.” He lowered the bundle of blanket, and showed Kate the baby. Their baby.
Her heart soared. “Omigod, it’s Cupcake.” She reached out her fingers to touch her baby’s head.
“She’s okay,” Michael said. “I’ve counted her fingers and toes. You got her here in time.”
Michael set the baby in the bed beside her and took Kate’s hand. “You and the baby are the most important things in the world to me. Never forget it.”
Kate looked into his eyes and saw the awesome focus and commitment she’d seen before for other things, but this time she could see what she had always seen. Michael was no Tin Man. He had the biggest heart in the world. He just had hidden it well. No more, she thought. He finally knew it too.
One month later, Kate was giving Michelle Justine Hawkins her bath and telling her a love story. “You’re such a lucky girl. You have a great daddy. Your daddy loves us so much he would give up his big company for us.”
Michelle blew bubbles.
“He tells me he loved me before he even knew me. He tells me I gave him a heart.” Kate sighed and wrapped her precious child in a hooded towel and held her close. “When you grow up, darling, I hope you will find a man who loves you like your daddy loves me.”
“She will,” Michael said, surprising her from the hallway. “She comes from a long line of lovers.”
Kate stood and smiled at him. “What are you doing here?”
Michael kissed her, then took Michelle from her arms. “Since Wayland caved in to my demands, I promoted one of my project directors to VP of Operations. That will free me up a little more.” He glanced down at Michelle as she yawned. “A bath makes her sleepy every time. I’ll put her down.”
He returned in no time and walked with Kate to the couch in the sunroom. He pulled her into his arms and Kate closed her eyes at the sensation of being held by him. It would never get old for her. Since Michelle’s birth, he’d taken more time off from work, and he often came home early. The un-husband had turned into the perfect husband. She almost couldn’t believe how lucky they were.
“Having a VP of Operations is the best professional move I’ve made in a long time,” he said. “But my best move ever was hiring you.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Marrying you.” He deepened the kiss and drew back after several moments. “Loving you,” he finally said.
Kate felt her heart spill over. “The Granger Home for Boys sent us one of their newsletters today.”
“Oh, really?” he said in a disinterested tone that didn’t fool her one bit.
“Yes, it seems a mysterious donor has contributed a fund for a ten-year supply of gourmet chocolate chip cookies for the home’s cafeteria. Gosh,” she said in a mock innocent voice. “I wonder who would make such an eccentric donation.”
“I have no idea.”
She let him keep his little secret since he shared so many of the important ones with her nowadays. She sighed. “Well I would do some pretty amazing things to a man who would give that kind of donation.”
He hesitated. “What amazing things?”
“It would probably involve my mouth,” she said and met his extremely interested gaze, “and every other part of my body.”
He stared at her, his gaze growing warm. “I thought the doctor said—”
“The doctor released me this morning.”
He gave her a look that said come and get me, and her heart turned a flip. “I think you should show me what amazing things you’re thinking.”
Kate loosened his tie and began to unbutton his shirt. “You do?”
He brushed his lips against hers, and the moment, like their lives, was filled with promise. “I do,” he said. “Forever.”