Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

Emma kept her hand on Sarah’s abdomen and felt it tense as her uterus contracted. There was no doubt in her mind that Sarah was in labour. She reached for the foetal stethoscope and checked the baby’s heartbeat, frowning when she discovered how slow it was. It was a sign that the baby was in distress and that they needed to take immediate steps to help it. She beckoned Daniel over to the bed.

‘The baby’s heartbeat has dropped. We need to deliver it as soon as possible.’

‘A Caesarean section, you mean?’

‘Yes. I know it’s not ideal to do it here, but we don’t have a choice,’ she said, hoping he wouldn’t disagree with her. ‘Even if the ambulance arrives in the next few minutes, it will take at least another hour to get Sarah to hospital. That’s way too long in my opinion.’

‘You’re right, we can’t afford to wait that long.’ His dark brows rose. ‘It’s been ages since I did my obstetrics rotation. I assisted with a couple of sections then but I’ve not done any since. How about you?’

‘I did one a couple of weeks ago,’ Emma told him.

‘Great! You lead and I’ll assist.’

It was all arranged with the minimum of fuss. Although it made sense for her to take the lead in view of her surgical background, Emma was a little surprised that Daniel had suggested it. It certainly didn’t gel with the idea of him wanting to cover himself with glory, did it?

There was no time to dwell on the thought, however. Emma unpacked the emergency medical supplies while Daniel explained what they were going to do. Sarah and Harry were naturally concerned, but once Daniel had told them that their baby was in distress, they agreed to go ahead. In a very short time, everything was organised.

Emma draped the bed with clean sheets while Daniel attended to the anaesthetic. Harry showed her where the bathroom was so she could scrub up. Daniel did the same and then they helped each other glove up. Harry had elected to stay with his wife so once Emma had swabbed Sarah’s abdomen with antiseptic solution, she set to work, knowing there was no time to lose.

Daniel handed her a scalpel, standing back as she made a horizontal incision just above the bikini line.

Any qualms she may have had about carrying out the procedure soon disappeared as she focused on what needed doing. Within a very short time she was able to lift the baby out of Sarah’s womb and hand it to Daniel, who wrapped it in a clean towel and carried it over to the chest of drawers that was doubling as an examination table. There was a moment when they all held their breath and then the baby cried, a tentative sound at first that soon grew louder.

‘Congratulations!’ Emma smiled at the couple. ‘You have a lovely little boy.’

‘A boy?’ Harry repeated. He appeared completely shocked after what had happened and stared at her in confusion. ‘We decided that we’d wait until the baby was born to find out what it was, but we were convinced we were having a little girl. Are you sure it’s a boy?’

‘Oh, yes, there’s definitely no mistake about that. He’s got all the necessary bits and pieces,’ Emma replied with a laugh. She delivered the placenta and checked that there were no bits missing from it then set about stitching up the wound. Daniel brought the baby over to the bed while she was doing so.

‘So who gets first go at holding him?’ he asked.

‘Sarah,’ Harry said promptly. He bent and kissed his wife tenderly on the cheek. ‘If it wasn’t for Sarah, we wouldn’t have this little fellow.’

Daniel placed the tiny mite in his mother’s arms, smiling as he watched Sarah pull back the folds of towel to perform the age-old ritual of counting his fingers and toes. Emma looked away when she felt a lump come to her throat. Once upon a time she had imagined just such a scene, only the baby whose toes were being counted had been hers and Daniel’s. That was how much she had loved him, enough to want to give him a child.

Tears stung her eyes as she busied herself, stitching up. Even though she was over him, it still hurt to recall how much she had once loved him. She had wanted the whole lot with Daniel—marriage, motherhood, years and years of happily-ever-after as a family.

Would she ever have a family now? she wondered suddenly. Ever experience the joy of holding her own child in her arms?

She tried to picture it but it was impossible to imagine a life not dictated by her work. It made her question if she was right to devote every waking minute to her job, and it was worrying to be beset by doubts. For the past five years her work had been what had kept her centred, what had given meaning to her life, but all of a sudden she found herself wanting more, a life that wasn’t shaped by the demands of her profession, and it was unsettling. However, the worst thing of all was that it was being around Daniel that had triggered such thoughts.

It was an effort to push it to the back of her mind as she finished off. She made Sarah comfortable and then Daniel helped her clear everything away. By the time they’d finished, the ambulance was pulling up outside. Sarah was reluctant to leave the house at first until Emma gently explained that she and baby Thomas needed to be checked over in the hospital’s maternity unit. Although little Thomas appeared to be fit and healthy, technically he was premature, and Sarah herself had lost a lot of blood: it would be foolish to take any risks at this stage.

She and Daniel waited while the family were loaded on board the ambulance then they got into the car and followed it back