Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
111
But she and Maggie had been jabbering nonstop. He
picked up only about half of it.
“I wish I could speak better English,” he thought she
might have said at one point. “I’m afraid I will not understand
the doctors and nurses when I am in labor.”
“You will be fine,” Maggie assured her. “What about
the baby’s father? Does he know English?”
Carmela looked nervous suddenly and slanted a
cautious look to Jake. “He won’t be there.”
She said something else too fast for him to understand
but he thought he picked out the word deporte and
deduced that the baby’s father was in the country illegally
and either had been deported or was in danger of it.
Maggie squeezed her hand, sympathy in her dark
eyes. “Well, do you have a friend who could go with
you? A mother or a sister?”
Carmela shook her head. “Ninguna.” No one.
She looked down at the floor, then back at Maggie.
“I am frightened,” she whispered. “So frightened. Would
you come with me? The doctor could tell you when I
am delivering and you could help me so I’m not alone.”
Jake listened to the fear in her voice and wanted to
kick himself. He should have thought to ask Carmela if
she had someone to help her during labor and delivery.
It was a basic question he asked all his pregnant
patients, but he had always been so busy trying to get
past the language barrier with Carmela—to get her to
even talk to him, it had never occurred to him she was
heading into all this alone.
“Please.” Carmela begged. “I am afraid I will not
know what to do and I will hurt my baby.”