18
“MAMA, LOOK! It’s lower than before!” Horrified, Nelsa pointed to the monitor beside the bed. “We have to get someone!” She ran out of the room with her mother close at her heels.
“Hold on, baby,” Marian pleaded before she left. “We’re getting the doctors. Don’t you dare leave us!”
Her husband moved to one side of the bed and grabbed his daughter’s hand, and Dax, still fighting the little boy’s laughter in his head, gripped the bedrail in a determined effort to fight the pull of the little spirit. No way would he leave her now, and he prayed she wasn’t going to leave him…for good.
“She’s wanted you. Let her know you’re here,” Mr. Beauchamp demanded. “She hasn’t come to us. Maybe she’ll come to you.”
Dax gazed down at the woman he loved, and listened to the beats of her heart growing fainter. He blinked past the pounding in his head and said the words he’d only spoken once before.
“Celeste, I love you. Please, come back to me, chère. I’m here. Don’t-” He didn’t look up at Mr. Beauchamp to see his reaction, but simply forged on with what he believed she needed to hear. “Don’t try to get to me the other way, chère. I’m here. On this side. Don’t you dare cross without me.”
“No!” her father cried, and Dax heard the beeps growing further apart, at the same time that the little boy’s laughter got even stronger.
They were losing her because she was trying to go to him, trying to go the other way, to the Vicknair plantation. And if she did…
“Celeste!” Dax yelled fiercely. “Don’t leave me, chère, please. I don’t want to live without you.”
“Dear God!” Her father shook his head in denial. “No! Somebody help! Dammit, where is her doctor?”
Dax’s tears fell upon Celeste’s cheeks. “Don’t leave me.”
“In here!” Nelsa ran into the room with her mother and two nurses close behind.
“She’s crashing. Get Dr. Pavere,” one nurse directed, while the other relayed the information through the intercom by the bed. They quickly took over, with one of them examining the machines hooked to Celeste and the other one checking her pulse. Then a tall, bald man with glasses and a stethoscope rushed in.
“We need the room cleared,” he said briskly, stepping around one of the nurses to get to Celeste.
The nurse turned toward all of them, hovering helplessly around the bed. “I’m sorry. We need you to step into the hall.”
Nelsa wrapped an arm around her crying mother and ushered her out, while her father followed, but Dax stood-stock still, unable to leave her now that he’d found her.
“No,” he said. “She can’t die now.”
Amazingly, at that very moment, the little boy’s laughter grew softer, so faint, in fact, that Dax barely heard it at all.
“I’m sorry,” the nurse said, placing her hand on Dax’s arm and effectively turning him around toward the door. “You have to wait in the hall.”
“No! Celeste, this way! I’m here, chère!” He turned, pushed past the nurse and forced his way to the bed. Then he did something he’d never done before; he brought his hands to her face, and touched the woman he loved, tenderly stroking his own tears from her cheeks. “Don’t leave me, chère.”
“I’m sorry, but you have to leave,” the nurse repeated sternly as she reached for Dax and attempted to pull him away.
Dax glared at the woman. “I can’t leave her now. I won’t.”
“Dax.”
The voice was barely audible, but Dax heard it, recognized it. He turned sharply and saw the doctor staring disbelievingly at the woman in the bed, her eyes opened and peering…at Dax.
“Do-it again,” she said softly.
“Oh, my God,” the nurse beside Dax exclaimed.
His tears fell again, but these were tears of joy. She was back. Here. With him. And the beating of her heart, growing stronger with every second, said she’d stay here this time.
“Do what again, chère?”
She licked her lips, then whispered, “Touch.”
His laughter rolled out, and he leaned over her, cradled her face within his hands and smiled.
“Go get her family,” the doctor instructed the nurses. “They’ll want to see this.” He shook his head. “Ms. Beauchamp, I’ve seen a few miracles in my time-it comes with the territory,” he added with a grin. “But this is one for the record books.” He looked at Dax. “And it reminds me of the power of love. I’m going to let you have your reunion now, but I’ll need to come back later for a few tests, not that I think we’re going to find anything wrong, since we were just basically waiting for you to wake up, my dear, but still…”
Celeste nodded slowly, her own tears falling now.
Her parents and sister ran in and embraced Celeste. “It’s a miracle!” Nelsa said, crying and laughing and touching Celeste in disbelief.
Her father, however, looked directly at Dax. “Thank you, son.”
Celeste stared up at him. “Yes, thank you.”
Dax was shocked by her eyes, which were the most vivid moss green. “They’re incredible,” he whispered.
Celeste smiled. “Thanks.” Then she turned to her family on the other side of the bed and saw their baffled expressions, but rather than explaining why Dax was surprised by the color of her eyes, Celeste gave them something else to process. “I love him.”
Three sets of eyes, also moss green, all widened and focused on Dax, who grinned as though he’d just been guaranteed happiness for life. And he had.
Her mother stroked her fingertips down Celeste’s cheeks, then she looked tearfully at Dax. “You brought our daughter back to us. I don’t know how we can ever repay you.”
“Say you’ll give us your blessing,” Dax said. “And we’ll call it even.”
“Our blessing?” her father asked.
“Yes, sir, because, if she says yes, I plan to marry your daughter.”
Celeste beamed, and Nelsa nodded approvingly. “Oh, you’re going to fit into this family perfectly,” she said. “We’re kind of big on romance and happily ever after. Dad asked Mom to marry him after their second date.”
“Technically, it was the third, if you count that trip to the fair,” Marian clarified, smiling at the memory. “And we’ve always wanted our daughters to have that kind of love.” She looked at Celeste. “I suppose you’d like for us to move back out to the hall for a spell so you and Dax can talk about something in private.”
Still smiling, Celeste nodded.
“Let’s go, David,” she said to her husband, then kissed Celeste’s cheek.
“Just so you know, if she says yes, then you’ve got our approval,” David Beauchamp said. He turned toward the bed, and though Dax didn’t see it, he felt certain that Celeste indicated what her answer would be because the man nodded before leaving with his family.
Dax waited for the door to close, then lowered one of the bed rails and sat beside Celeste. “Celeste Beauchamp,” he said, his heart thudding loudly, “Will you marry me?”
“Oh, Dax, yes.”
Then he kissed her gently, while his hands tenderly caressed her face, then eased over her body, touching her the way he’d only touched her in his dreams.
The heart monitor began to beat fiercely, her heart rate increasing in rapid proportions as they lengthened the kiss and she moaned her contentment.
“Um, oh!”
Dax broke the kiss and turned toward the nurse in the doorway.
“I’m s-sorry,” she stuttered, “but her heart rate was going up so quickly that I thought something might be wrong.” She giggled. “But I see now that nothing’s wrong at all.” She turned and left.
Celeste grinned. “How about a Christmas wedding?”
Christmas was just four weeks away, and Dax loved the idea wholeheartedly. He finally had Celeste, the woman he wanted more than life, and he didn’t want to waste any time in sharing his name, sharing his life, sharing his heritage. “A Christmas wedding would be perfect,” he said.