Page 13 of Sterling Heat

Only I haven’t done anything wrong here today. This isn’t a crime scene. However, the last time I asked Stone this question, I found myself cuffed and hauled off in the backseat of a sheriff’s car.

“Dammit, Seb.” Stone swipes a hand over his head before twirling his hat in his other hand as if he isn’t already blaming me somehow, someway, for what happened in my bakery.

“Stone,” Vale intercedes like she always has between us, placing a hand on my brother’s forearm. “This was an incredible but stressful moment. Maybe you could find out more from the lady herself and let Seb and I clean up this place.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Vale doesn’t need to help me. In fact, I might find the mundane process of mopping my floor a relief. A moment to catch my breath and right my thoughts because I’m still reeling from Enya looking at me in her vulnerable position of knees bent and spread, and a baby coming out of her.

Do you trust me?

She didn’t hesitate. While the response was quiet, she had given me her confidence.

I wouldn’t harm her or her kid.

And fuck, if that didn’t make my chest expand and the pressure not to disappoint her build. When I looked at the wonder of a baby leaving her body, shock and awe hit me at the miracle of what a woman’s body can do and Enya was handling it like a champ without proper medical care or meds.

She was a fighter, like me.

“I got it.” Vale pats my arm and heads toward my office in the back of the bakery, and the closet where cleaning supplies are kept.

Speaking of cleaning, I need to have a tough talk with Rena. Taking a fucking smoke-break during that little scene was unacceptable. While the feisty redhead has been my employee for roughly a year, she doesn’t think sometimes. Did she not see the stress we were under? Did she not see the trooper Enya had been? Rena told me the scene made her anxious. However, Rena’s anxiety could kiss my ass.

I’m only grateful my part-time help Barnett wasn’t present. The high school teen would have been scarred. Then again, witnessing a birth would be a good lesson in safe sex.

“Any more questions, officer,” I mock Stone while I really do admire him. He is only doing his job. He’d also taken on the role of raising his youngest siblings, which never should have fallen on someone so young at the time.

“You did good here.” Stone nods at the mess behind me. His compliments are few and I hate the rush of giddy gratitude that ripples through me.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Stone awkwardly pats my shoulder. And not for the first time do I wonder how he ever gets laid. He’s like a wall. His name is appropriate. Affection isn’t one of his traits.

I watch as he exits, the tinkling bell over the door a sound that’s always annoyed me. However, the bell was a gift from Vale when I opened my business. She said every small-town shop needs the noisemaker.

For me, the sound will forever be synonymous with Enya scrunched up on the long bench giving birth to a kid that I strangely wish was mine.

Chapter 5

[Enya]

The past twenty-four hours have been hell.

Not only did I have my little angel in a bakery, but she went to the NICU unit upon our admission, and I’ve been sequestered in a separate hospital room because of blood pressure issues. As in, my blood pressure is too high, and I’m being monitored every fifteen minutes.

The pregnancy swelling had become a growing concern with my doctors. Being that I’m over thirty-five, I was already considered a high-risk patient. Another doctor’s appointment was scheduled for today, only I’d gone into labor yesterday morning.

Sebastian Sylver had been my hero again, and I’d finally learned his full name.

I’d really wanted him to ride in the ambulance with us. Or maybe follow me to the hospital. But he was under no obligation to my little cookie and me. We were our own team of two.

I needed to continually face the fact I was on my own with her.

Tears fill my eyes again. The shock of yesterday. The separation from my baby. Other than holding her briefly to my chest, she’s been removed from me for her care while my body tries to recover.

I just want this damn blood pressure to regulate. And as I don’t have someone who can wheel me down to see her in the NICU unit, I’m stuck.

More tears flow, silently slipping along my nose.

My hospital room door opens, and I keep my eyes closed, assuming it’s a nurse. I’m due for a blood pressure check soon and the nurses are used to the tears that keep leaking at random.