Never Let Go by Deborah Smith

under control. Just put that floor lamp close to the bed." Dinah looked down at Laurie and patted her hand. "So the doctor says you have a wide pelvis. Good. Me, too. And I didn't have any trouble."
    The girl's eyes fluttered shut. "I wish Sam was here to hold my hand."
    Rucker set the lamp down and plugged it in. "I'm good at hand holdin'."
    "I'd like that, Abe."
    He gingerly sat down by her pillow and grasped the small, calloused hand she raised. "You just hang on to my big ol' paw and everything'll be all right, missy."
    Dinah's chest tightened at the gentleness in his voice and face. She cleared her throat and smiled at Laurie. "I used to ... I call him the human tranquillzer. If you close your eyes and listen to his voice, all your worries will float away."
    "He has a moose voice." Laurie observed solemnly. "If a moose could talk, he'd sound like Abe."
    "Stop. I'm shy," Rucker protested.
    The girl winced as a new contraction hit her. "Talk to me, Abe. I know, tell me how you and Bethesda met. I love stories about stuff like that."
    Rucker's gaze rose to Dinah's. They shared a strangling look of sorrow. "I'll go put supper away," Dinah said quickly. "And clean up the kitchen. And I'll, hmmm, feed the cat and the chickens. Abe can tell you all about us."
    She hurried out of the room.
    ***
    They leaned against the back of the garden bench, kissing each other slowly and thoroughly.
    He held her and she nestled her head into the crook of his neck. Rucker rested his cheek against hers, his mustache brushing her skin. Under her cool, intellectual exterior was a woman who secretly wanted to have someone rough up her smooth edges, he realized. And he was the perfect man to do the roughing.
    "This is a helluva fantastic first date." he told her in a low, teasing voice.
    "This isn't a date," she argued. "It's ... I don't know what it is."
    "But you know what it's gonna lead to if I hang around your town a few more days."
    "I have a vague idea. I make no guarantees."
    But he heard a yearning tone in her protest. Rucker mustered all his restraint to keep from tilting her head back and kissing her longer, deeper, and slower than before.
    "Want me to leave?" he asked.
    "Would you leave if I asked you to?"
    "Of course not."
    She laughed, sounding resigned but not very upset. "Then I might as well not ask."
    "I sure am glad you're so smart."
    "There's nothing smart about this. Two people who barely know each other, who are so different—"
    "Who need each other," he countered. "Who fit together like two spoons in a tray. Who knew that the first night they laid eyes on each other."
    "I laid eyes on a man with a possum on his head."
    Rucker sighed confidently. "I'm just perfect. I admit it." He chuckled, loving the exasperated sigh his comment provoked from her. After a second she began to laugh, too.
    "I think 'unique' would be a better description, Mr. McClure." She paused, then slid one hand across his chest and patted the area over his heart. "Special." she amended softly.
    ***
    Rucker shook off the memory of that night as Laurie's whimpering cries of pain became louder. He hadn't told her anything remotely true about his and Dinah's early courtship. He made up a story, and because he was a master storyteller, she listened and believed. Rucker smoothed a hand over the girl's damp forehead. Where was Dinah? She'd been outside for more than thirty minutes.
    "Were you with Bethesda when she had y'all's baby?" Laurie asked in a weak tone.
    Rucker inhaled raggedly and was glad that Laurie had her eyes shut. He was sure that his expression would puzzle and frighten her. "No, I wasn't."
    "W-why? She loves you so much, and you're so s-aweet."
    Rucker squeezed the girl's hand and thought bitterly, I don't know if she loves me or not. She didn't want me to be with her.
    He heard a door open elsewhere in the house. "I'll be right back, missy," he promised.
    "H—hurry."
    Rucker walked quickly down a hall to the kitchen. Dinah closed the door to