Joan Pickart – Soon To Be Brides: The Marrying Macallister / That Blackhawk Bride (страница 13)

“Cork it, Mathis.” Matt glared at Bud.

The bus driver made a sudden sharp turn, and moments later they rattled to a stop in the circular driveway in front of a modern high-rise hotel.

“We have arrived,” Elizabeth said. “This is a lovely hotel, and you’ll be very comfortable here. I’ll check us in as a group again and hand out the key cards. It would be best if you’d wait in the lobby, though, while I telephone Dr. Yang and find out what time the vans are coming to take us to the orphanage. That will save me having to call each of your rooms to let you know. Okay?”

Elizabeth received quick, affirmative and excited answers to her request. The group was soon standing in the spacious, nicely furnished lobby with luggage at their feet and key cards in their hands as they waited to hear the outcome of her call.

They were all booked into the fourth floor, Elizabeth explaining that it kept crying babies from disturbing other guests. Matt glanced at Caitlin’s key card, then his own, and nodded in approval that they were in side-by-side rooms.

Good, he thought. He’d be close at hand if Caitlin needed help with Miss M. She didn’t have any experience with babies, while he had years of it due to being a MacAllister.

A MacAllister. Ah, yes, the powerful and well-known family of Ventura, the movers and shakers, the overachievers, who seemed to excel in whatever career choices they made. As each new generation came along, the pattern was repeated. Pick a subject? There was a MacAllister who did it…extremely well. Lawyers, doctors, architects, police officers, the list was endless. If you were a MacAllister, by damn, you’d better be top-notch at whatever you did or…

Whoa. Halt. Enough, he thought, frowning. Where was all this coming from? He was standing in a hotel lobby halfway around the world from Ventura and his clan. Why was he suddenly focusing on something that had hovered over him from the time he was a kid? A kid who wasn’t good at sports in school, who had been an average student not a super brain, a kid who looked at the Mac-Allisters surrounding him and continually wondered why he fell short time after time after…

“Matt?” Caitlin said.

“What?” he said, looking at her.

“Do you have a headache? You’re frowning and rubbing your forehead. Are you okay?”

“Oh, sure, sure, I’m fine.” He forced a smile. “Just suffering from a bit of jet lag like everyone else.” He paused. “Maybe I should figure out the time difference between here and Ventura and decide when I can call the hospital and see if everything is running smoothly.”

Caitlin sighed. “I wondered how long it would take before you felt the need to do that. You’re not focused on a new daughter like the rest of us. You’re centered on your work.”

“That’s not true. I’m really eager to see Miss M., Caitlin, I told you that. Remember? I said there was nowhere else I’d rather be than—”

“Calling the hospital in Ventura,” she interrupted, lifting her chin and meeting his gaze.

“Forget the call. I’m not going to do it. I’m not telephoning the hospital and checking up on things.”

“Right.” Caitlin rolled her eyes.

“I mean it. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. Oh, hey, here comes Eliza beth.”

No one spoke as Elizabeth rejoined the group.

“Okay, we’re on target,” she said. “It’s four o’clock. Go unpack and be back down here at five ready to go to the orphanage.”

“Oh,” Caitlin whispered. “Oh, my goodness.”

Three new mommies-to-be burst into tears.

“Shoo, shoo,” Elizabeth said, laughing and flapping her hands at them. “Go to your rooms. There. I sound like a stern old auntie. I’ll see you all back down here in an hour.”

Everyone collected their luggage, and Caitlin and Matt headed to their rooms.

Matt stopped as Caitlin poked the key card in the slot when they reached her room, then opened the door when the green light blinked on. She stepped inside the room far enough to hold the door open with her bottom and look back at Matt.

“I see the gizmo on the wall for the card so I can turn on the lights,” she said, laughing. “I’m a quick study.”

“Good for you, but maybe you should turn around and see what they’ve put in your room.”

Caitlin frowned slightly in confusion, turned, then a gasp escaped from her lips.

“Oh. Oh, Matt, look. It’s a crib. A port-a-crib. It’s Miss M.’ s crib where she’ll sleep after I bring her back here tomorrow. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

Matt’s gaze was riveted on Caitlin as he heard the awe, the wonder, the heartfelt emotion ringing in her voice.

“Yes, I’m looking at one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen.” He cleared his throat as he heard the rasp of building emotions in his voice. “I’ll knock on your door when it’s time to go back downstairs. Okay?”

“’Kay,” Caitlin said absently, starting toward the crib.

The door swung free and closed in Matt’s face with a thud. He stood statue still for a long moment, attempting to visualize Caitlin inside the room, maybe running her hand over the rail of the crib, or across the soft sheet on the tiny mattress, or perhaps just gazing into the crib and envisioning Miss M. sleeping peacefully there, where she belonged, with her mother watching over her.

He looked quickly in both directions to be certain that no one had seen him standing there like an idiot who was attempting to carry on a conversation with a closed door before trudging back to his room.

Everyone in the group was fifteen minutes early arriving in the lobby, but no one settled onto the comfortable-looking chairs and sofas, not having the patience to sit still.

“What time is it?” Marsha said to Bud.

“One minute later than when you last asked me,” he said, smiling. “Chill, pretty wife, or you’re going to pass out cold on your nose.”

“Oh, right,” Marsha said, frowning at him. “Like you’re Mr. Cool, huh? Might I mention that you forgot to tie your shoelaces?”

“Well, cripe,” Bud said, looking down at his feet.

Matt whopped Bud on the back as he bent over to tend to his laces.

“Little shook up, Daddy?” Matt said. “Mmm. Maybe we should check your blood pressure, Doctor. You’re in a high-stress mode.”

“Can it, MacAllister,” Bud said, straightening and glaring at Matt. “Caitlin, do something about this man.”

“Me? What man?” she said, laughing. “I’m such a wreck I’m having trouble remembering my own name.”

“The vans are here,” a woman said, more in the form of a squeal.

“So they are,” Elizabeth agreed, joining the group. “Is everyone ready? Let me count noses.” She did a quick perusal of the gathered people. “Right on the money. Let’s go meet some new baby daughters.”

The fifteen-minute ride to the orphanage was a total blur to Caitlin until they suddenly turned onto a narrow street lined with small, shabby houses made of a variety of nonmatching material. At the end of the street a tall, seven-story building could be partially seen.

“That’s the orphanage,” Elizabeth said. “It’s big, as you can see, and filled to the brim with kids. There are infant floors, where the little ones sleep two and three to a crib at times, toddler floors, then older children have several floors where they sleep dorm-fashion until they are fostered out to work in the fields in rural areas.

“There is no heat in that building. They have to layer the kids in lots of clothes in the winter to keep them warm. A portion of the fees you paid for this trip will go directly to the orphanage for food, clothes, medical supplies, what have you.

“The vast majority of the children are girls, as you know. The few boys that are brought here have some kind of medical problem, or perhaps a birthmark that is too noticeable, or they might have been the second boy in the family, breaking the law about only being allowed to have one child, and there isn’t a thing wrong with them. However, it’s rare for boys to be in the orphanages.

“And,” Elizabeth said as the vans drove around a circle driveway. “Here—” the vans stopped “—we are.”

Matt reached over and squeezed one of Caitlin’s hands, finding it ice cold.

“Calm down,” he whispered to her. “If you touch Miss M. with hands that cold she’ll have a screamer of a fit.”

Caitlin nodded jerkily.

A beaming Dr. Yang greeted the group as they entered the building. He was a slightly built man in his mid-thirties with handsome features and dark, almond-shaped eyes that seemed to be actually sparkling.

“I feel as though I know you,” he said, his English having only a trace of an accent, “because I’ve read all of your dossiers. Welcome to China. Welcome to Nanjing. Welcome to the humble place where your daughters are waiting to meet you. Our elevator is very small, so I’ll ask that you go up to the third floor four at a time, please.

“We will go into a living room, then I’ll tell the head of the orphanage that you are here and that the caregivers should bring the babies to where you are. My paperwork is upstairs that documents the matches.” He laughed. “Same as always, Elizabeth. You bring me people who are too nervous to speak.”

“Never fails,” she said, smiling.

“But soon they’ll be crying those happy tears we always see,” Dr. Yang said.