The Surrogate's Secret (4 page)

As
Miguel watched, Sheri stared at the pediatric cardiologist, a stunned expression covering her face.  “How can he have a congenital heart defect, and me not know about it before this? I took him to a local doctor a week ago, and she never said a thing. She suggested a humidifier and putting saline solution in his nostrils to help clear the passage. I followed her instructions. I thought he had a cold. That it was putting him off his food, and making his breathing raspy.” Tears gushed as she spoke. They dripped off her cheeks, becoming lost under the lace at the top of her blouse.

In a matter of seconds,
Sheri’s face changed from natural and glowing to pure white.  He caught her before she hit the floor and guided her to the chair. She gazed upwards, pleading for consolation, assurance that everything wasn’t as bad as it seemed. An expression appeared that every man instinctively recognized.
Do something!

He did what came naturally and took control. “
What exactly needs to be done to help the boy?”

The attractive woman turned to Miguel, and covered her assess
ment with professionalism. “First step is x-rays, then a number of tests including an electrocardiogram to confirm that the diagnosis is correct. Eventually surgery if what I suspect turns out to be true. It’s unfortunate we can’t do anything until the antibiotics we’ve administered have a chance to work on clearing what’s turned into pneumonia.”

“How long will that take?” Miguel questioned, expecting immediate answers.

“A few days, maybe less, depending on how fast the drugs take affect.”

“
Is there a qualified surgeon on staff?”

The doctor’s eyes narrowed, and then she shrugged. “We are a large hospital, and there is more than one cardiologist
who works in the OR. I’d recommend you request Dr. Marcus Patterson, who is a specialist and very well known. He’s older, with years of experience, but he doesn’t come cheap.”

“The cost will mean nothing. I want the best for my nephew.”
By narrowing his eyes, Miguel conveyed his message that money wasn’t a problem. Being nobody’s fool the woman’s manner shifted.  “Then I’ll get back to you soon. For now we’re doing everything we can.” She swayed towards the door, stopped, and flashed him an assured smile that earned a respectful nod.

Guess I’m just not that important, Sheri decided, after first being ignored by the woman with the stethoscope, and then having to wait for what seemed like hours
for the surgeon to appear. She stifled her anxiety.  Miguel’s a lot more influential than I am, and right now, that’s all that matters. 

After Miguel’s insistence for the best care possible, they
whisked the baby away for necessary analysis, and a young nurse had returned moments later to where she’d waited.

“They’ve taken your son to the
pediatrics wing on the fifth floor. If you follow me, I’ll take you to him. Your husband is there now.”

Sheri shrugged, gathered her belongings, and ignored the girl’s mistake.  Let her think what she wants.
As long as it meant better treatment for Rafael, Sheri didn’t care.  

The young aide pushed the elevator button and smiled reassuringly.
“I’m surprised that a private room became available. It’s been hellish here over the last few weeks. This heat is a brutal for many of the little ones.” Soon, she led Sheri to a beautifully bright room decorated with a small child in mind. On one of the walls an artist had painted a colorful mural of a forest vibrating with sunlight. Cheerful animals peeked out from behind lush trees and bushes. Soothed by the atmosphere, Sheri felt slightly better. The baby’s hospital bed took up the middle of the room while a nurse worked at her charts in a chair nearby.

“You must be Rafael’s mother?” The dark-haired nurse, young and pretty, spoke in a gentle voice. “He’s resting comfortably, but will be happy to see his mommy when he wakes up.”

“Were the tests very uncomfortable?”

“Not at all
but he missed you.” She gathered up the baby’s clothes to put into a bag, which she indicated was for Sheri, and then slipped out of the room.

Sheri moved closer to Rafael. Her hands trembled as they reached out to her sleeping boy
. She gently tucked in the blankets that swathed him. Blowing her nose once again and mopping the escaping tears, she stuck the damp tissue in her pocket to mingle with the others.

Her
fretful baby had grown listless during the drive to the hospital. Now inert, Rafael’s breath rasped with each movement of his tiny chest. Surrounded by medical paraphernalia, he appeared very ill. The tiny body looked frail and lifeless and her motherly instincts were to lift him into her arms and never let him go.

Sheri’s
despair deepened as pain pooled in her chest, which forced her stomach muscles to clench in the same way as her fists. Rafael’s tiny head covered in silky dark hair drew her lips and her hands very gently caressed his gripping fingers.

Forcing in a deep
gulp of air, she let her glance wander and the surroundings caught her attention. The windowed walls at the end of the room allowed one to see the comings and goings in the busy area of the nurse’s counter. Everything looked modern and efficient and pricey.   Her hands covered her eyes and rubbed. 

With the best of intentions, Miguel had begun a different kind of a nightmare for her to agonize over. How was she going to pay for
Rafael’s care? She knew medical expenses could bankrupt most people, and Miguel’s demands to have the very best would leave her in a terrible mess. Since basic insurance was all her budget allowed, she would need to deal with this situation eventually. She’d see Felipe’s business partner, Philip Knowles, and find out about the settlement for the children from their father’s half of the business.  Until then, she guessed she’d have to leave the money worries to their rich uncle.

Just then,
Miguel scared the hell out of her by coming up unnoticed and touching her shoulder. She jumped a foot and glared her resentment.

“Don’t sneak up on me.” Strain made her voice break.

“I’m sorry, Sheri. I didn’t want to disturb the boy. I forget about my military training. Does he have everything he needs? I’ve left instructions that they aren’t to quibble over anything; I want him to have the very best.”

“They’ve got him connected to oxygen and he’s being monitored by different instruments, which all make him look so pitiful, I want to rip the
m off and take him in my arms.”

Her voice broke and she buried her face in her hands. Before she knew how it happened, he’d pulled her close to his body and she fit perfect
ly. His arms wrapped around her back and he cradled her like one would with a beloved friend or relative. His husky voice, deeply accented, spoke low, mesmerising. The sound vibrated from the top of her head to the tips of her curled up toes, creating tingles that soon turned to shivers of delight.

“I know how you feel. I’d give anything to take the little fellow away from this if I could, but we cannot. I’ll stay with you
and we’ll see this through together. Neither you nor Rafael will be left alone to deal with this disaster.”

For the next while, Sheri’s days and nights were full to bursting. Caring for her sick child with the help of a special nurse, receiving calls from Charly every few hours to cheer her up and taking taxis home periodically to feed and care for her daughter became her routine for the days.

Each night she slept in the hospital room on the cot made available to her. A few times, she awoke to find Miguel sprawled in the room’s single, uncomfortable
chair sound asleep. During this nightmare of agonizing worry, she learned one important lesson—South American men had loving natures and big warm hearts.

Earlier she’d returned to the hospital room to find the big man wearing a blue mask and gown cuddling her baby in his arms,
both sleeping, nestled in the chair and looking content. He’d obviously taken care with all the tubes and had moved the chair as close to the crib as he possibly so as not to disturb anything vital.

Seeing this
, Sheri’s heart thudded to a stop, and restarted in a new rhythm. A rhythm with warmth and caring for a strong decent man whose recent ill-health still showed clearly.

Later
, during a quiet moment, she’d gotten up the nerve to ask him if he’d suffered an illness, and why he and his mother had been away from Chile when Felipe and Mary-Anne were killed. She’d recoiled at the haunted anguish he couldn’t hide. Seeing him so troubled made her feel weepy and very sad. Sickness started to flare deep in her stomach and the discomfort spread to her heart. Her hand rose to clutch her throat and she had to swallow a number of times before her next words sounded normal.

“It’s okay.
Don’t talk about what happened.” Her clenched fist thumped her chest more than once. “I know in here that it had to be something drastic that kept you away from your brother’s funeral.”

His lengthy penetrating stare triggered
embarrassment, until his sudden smile disarmed it and had her smiling in return. Sheri had never known a man like Miguel who had the power to make her react the way he did.

D
uring her afternoon trip to the apartment, she’d opened her laptop and scrolled through the photographs Mary-Anne had sent to her during her honeymoon with Felipe. The pictures of her brother-in-law were like those of a different person. The gaunt, lean physique sitting across from her now in no way resembled the man of two years ago. Neither did the smiling features of a happy guy satisfied with his life resemble the cynical, haunted face of the male she now watched.

She looked over at the tall man folded into the small lumpy chair and smiled, then tried to hide it behind her hand. Arrayed the way he was, he looked rather endearing.

“You like me suffering, don’t you Chica? I can see you trying to conceal your amusement.” He teased, his accent noticeable, and she relaxed even more.

“It’s not that. You could take the bed, and I’d rest in the chair. I wouldn’t mind.” As she snuggled into the pillow, she grabbed at the mass of flyaway hair and wound the works under her head. Darn stuff! She loved long hair, if only it were more manageable and not so flippin’ curly.

He watched her and she saw him grin. “You need your sleep, Sheri. Rafael isn’t used to me yet, otherwise I would stay, and you’d go home for a good night’s rest. You’re exhausted.”

She loved the sound of his accent when tenderness dominated. “I’m not leaving my son for a whole night, Miguel. If I didn’t need to be with Carrie-Anne every day, I’d never leave him at all.”

His face softened. “You’re a wonderful mother, Sheri. I see how much you care about your babies.”

Those words felt like balm to her worried spirit, and the way he spoke her name, made it sound like an endearment. “You’ve been wonderful also Miguel. Rafael turns to the sound of your voice now, and I’ve noticed that he seems quieter when you’re around.”

He didn’t answer.

Thinking h
e’d nodded off, she lay in bed and stared at the dark hair curled over the arm that pillowed his head. She scanned lower. A tanned chest, muscles rippling, revealed through the open-necked collar of his blue shirt, had her averting her gaze away from temptation and back to the silky material.  The color suited him, changing his sexy-slanted gray eyes to a more bluish hue. Wishing she’d inherited those long, thick eyelashes, she sighed.  

His muscled legs encased in loose jeans were long and well formed, even if they looked a mite slender. He’d lifted one leg to rest on top of the other, which tightened everything and pulled her eyes involuntarily to where no lady ever looked. She
shifted in her bed, and dragged her eyes away. 

S
he caught the scent of his man’s soap, or maybe cologne. It wafted past her whenever he’d step into her personal space, which was constant in the small room. Whatever the product’s name, it should be considered lethal and come with a full-page warning. In fact, she’d been walking around in a constant state of romantic curiosity since Rafael had started improving.

That thought brought her mind back to her poor little boy.
God, she hoped they’d get the go-ahead for the operation soon because making a fool of herself over her children’s uncle didn’t seem like a very smart idea. The sooner life got back to normal, the sooner she could forget about him. In the meantime, she had to admit she enjoyed having someone near she could trust and someone to lean on.

His next words broke into her trance
, proving he hadn’t been sleeping at all. “Sheri, what is your work? When I first went to your apartment, I couldn’t help noticing a children’s book cover on the wall with your picture as the author.”

“You have eagle eyes, Miguel. Hardly anyone sees that old cover anymore.”

“Part of my training, I guess. Without trying, I see much more than I want to sometimes. And don’t change the subject.”

She laughed and looked down at her hands. “I hate talking about myself.
I’m not very interesting.” The silence lengthened which made her look up. She caught his teasing glance and his lifted eyebrow.

“Then you’d be the first woman I’ve ever met who feels that way.”
As he finished speaking, she heard an edge to his voice that hadn’t been there earlier.

“Fine,
but don’t forget you asked. My work is to illustrate and write children’s novels. Up until a few years ago, I’d stuck mainly to doing covers for all genres. I’ve designed many, some for very well-known authors. However, my favorite assignments were always for the kid’s books. Then as I read more and more of the stories to get a gist of what artwork I should use, I found myself becoming hooked and decided to try my hand at writing my own tales. I’m happy to say my series took off.”

“Quite well from what I could see.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve checked up on me.”

“Okay, I won’t.”

“Seriously? You’ve looked at my books?” She didn’t know whether to be proud or annoyed.

“Of course I did. Then I bought the works and sent them to my cousin in Chile. She has four monsters that will love reading about your dragons and fairies.”

Pride had her sitting up. “That’s a lovely thing to say. Fantasy gets me. I mean, kids don’t get enough fun out of using their imagination, and I wanted my books to make them think anything is possible. Plus, being a children’s author is so enjoyable that it doesn’t even feel like work. An added benefit is that I can do it at home. It’s been a godsend with the twins.”

He pretended to snore as she wound down.

God, he was delicious
. “You asked. And don’t think you’re getting out of telling me about your work.” A definite twinkle lurked when he opened his eyes and sighed outrageously.

“Fine, I’ll tell you, but just so you know, my business isn’t quite as
pleasurable as yours would be. I’m stuck in a fast-paced world of big-business security, and neighborhood crime prevention.” He regaled her with tales of the jobs he and his men had been involved in to keep neighborhoods safe and homes secure. She giggled as he intended and never noticed how her relaxed posture erased the worry lines.

Just
then, her cell phone rang. She listened to Charly pass on the final day’s update on Carrie-Anne. Still feeling the upbeat effects of her conversation with Miguel, Sheri listened and then cheekily replied. “Charly, don’t ever leave me. You know you’re the love of my life. Anyone who can change dirty diapers, feed a spitter like Carrie-Anne and still want me in their world has to be the best girlfriend anyone could have.”

The slamming door brought her head around with a snap. Miguel had left without saying good-bye. What was wrong with
the man? Whenever she talked to Charly, he either disappeared or wore a sour look. Could it be jealousy? Was he threatened by her supportive pal? Well, he’d have to get used to her
reliance on her wonderful, kinky neighbor, a baby-loving gem who’d helped Sheri through the worst time in her life. She crossed her arms and rubbed her shoulders.
Men!