“What’s up?” Hunter asked, walking into the dispatch room.
Callie’s heart came to a skittering halt, then took off double time. If she’d thought he looked good in jeans and a T-shirt, it was nothing compared to the way he looked in his flight suit. The one-piece coverall emphasized the impossible width of his muscular shoulders and narrowness of his trim waist.
“Just some girl talk,” Mary Lou said, winking at Callie.
“Which one of us guys are you dissecting?” Hunter asked, grinning.
His comment had been for both she and Mary Lou, but when his gaze caught Callie’s, she felt warm all the way to her toes. If he wanted to, she had a feeling Hunter O’Banyon could charm a little old lady right out of her garters with that smile of his.
And he thought they could be just friends? She almost laughed. The way he was looking at her, there was a better chance of elephants roosting in trees.
“Don’t worry, big guy.” Mary Lou cackled. “We weren’t taking you to task for anything. This time.”
He arched one dark eyebrow. “This time?”
“We were discussing when Corey would show up,” Callie added.
Hunter’s skeptical expression turned to one of understanding. “Corey had some important personal business to take care of up in Odessa. He’ll be here as soon as he can.”
“You know what’s going on, don’t you?” Callie guessed.
“He came by yesterday evening to ask me and Mike what we thought he should do about the situation,” Hunter said, nodding.
“That little skunk told me I was the only one he’d talked to about it,” Mary Lou said, obviously put out that the confidence wasn’t as big a secret as she’d thought. “Just wait until I—” Mary Lou stopped abruptly when the emergency phone rang.
Callie listened as Mary Lou asked several questions in Spanish. Great. Corey wasn’t back yet and on the Evac II team he’d been the only one fluent in Spanish.
“Come on, Callie. We don’t have time to wait for Corey,” Hunter said, heading for the door. “As it is, we’re going to have to race the stork to the hospital.”
“Is it Juanita Rodriguez again?” Callie asked, thankful that Hunter had obviously understood Mary Lou’s end of the conversation and would be able to interpret for her.
He nodded as they climbed into the helicopter and put on the headsets that would enable them to communicate over the engine noise. “She’s definitely in labor this time. From Mary Lou’s questions, I could tell that Juanita’s water broke and she’s home alone.”
“Where’s her husband Miguel?”
“He’s in El Paso at a National Guard meeting this weekend. We can radio his armory and have him meet us at the hospital.”
While Hunter started the engine, Callie strapped herself into one of the jump seats in the back and listened to Mary Lou’s voice give the coordinates for the Rodriguez ranch to Hunter. They had about a fifteen-minute flight to reach their destination, then another thirty minutes on to El Paso. Mary Lou was going to stay on the phone with Juanita until they got there, and hopefully Baby Rodriguez would wait to make his or her grand entrance into the world until after they made it to the hospital.
When they lifted off, Callie began to mentally run through emergency birthing procedure on the outside chance that she would have to deliver Juanita’s baby, and it took a moment for her to realize Hunter had spoken to her. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I asked if you’ve delivered a baby before.” His deep baritone coming through the headset was oddly intimate and sent a shiver straight up her spine.
She gave herself a mental shake. Hearing Hunter’s voice through the headset was no different than when she’d communicated with George or Corey on a flight.
“I’ve delivered a few babies—one of them in the back of a taxicab when the E.R. doctors were busy treating victims from a bus accident.”
“But you don’t speak or understand Spanish?”
She sighed. “No.”
They fell silent, and in what seemed record time, Hunter was setting the helicopter down in a field next to the Rodriguez ranch house.
Removing her headset and unfastening her seat belt, Callie grabbed one of the medical cases containing sterile dressings, latex gloves and other medical supplies and hurriedly slid the side door back. She bent slightly to avoid the rotor blades, then, once she was clear of the helicopter, she jogged the short distance to the house. Fortunately the front door was unlocked, and she walked inside without so much as a second thought.
“¡Por favor ayúdeme!”
Callie followed the frantic cries and found Juanita in one of the bedrooms. Drenched in sweat, the young woman was practically hysterical and instead of working with the contractions she seemed to be fighting them.
“¡El bebé está listo!” Juanita repeated, clutching at Callie’s hands.
“What’s she saying about the baby?” Callie asked Hunter when he appeared in the narrow doorway.
“She said the baby is ready.”
“Tell her that I need to check to see how close she is to having the baby,” Callie said, slipping on a pair of sterile latex gloves.
While Hunter assured Juanita that everything was going to be all right, Callie checked to see how many centimeters the woman had dilated. “The stork is going to win this one,” she said, reaching into the medical case for clamps, a sterile drape and antiseptic. “The baby’s head is crowning.”
As she arranged the medical supplies she would need for the birth of Juanita’s baby, Callie listened to Hunter reassure the woman. She had no idea what he was telling her, but it seemed to calm Juanita as well as send warmth throughout Callie’s body. She’d always thought Spanish was a beautiful language and she didn’t think she’d ever heard a more sexy sound than Hunter’s deep voice flawlessly pronouncing the words.
“Do you have any kind of experience being a breathing coach?” Callie asked as she prepped Juanita for the delivery.
He shook his head. “No. We covered it briefly in EMT training, but that’s it.”
“You’ll do fine.” Using the two-way radio clipped to the epaulet on the shoulder of her jumpsuit, she advised the hospital in El Paso of the situation, then turned her full attention on the task at hand. “Tell Juanita to breathe, then show her how. She’s tensing up instead of relaxing her pelvic floor and allowing the baby to pass through the birth canal.”