Page 47 of Missing Justice

Such a polite little girl. Matt nearly rolled his eyes.

“The caseworker,” Taylor said. “Is she a medical service provider?”

“She is actually a social worker with a master’s in social work. She’s working on her PHD so she is more than qualified.”

“Excellent,” Taylor said.

The blonde woman once again shot Taylor a look, clearly irritated over the interruption to Dottie’s spiel.Well, sister, get used to it.

An older woman wearing giant diamond stud earrings stuck her head in and Dottie stepped away to speak with her. A minute later, the woman left as quietly as she’d entered and Dottie resumed her pitch, highlighting items contained on the first page, top doctors, nurses with a minimum of ten years experience in labor and delivery, Lamaze coordinators, all of it handled via the caseworker.

Ever the curious one, Matt skipped ahead and flipped the page. Page two listed ten anesthesiologists. Ten. Looking into all of them would probably take more time than Taylor had. Although, depending on how long they’d been working with the center, one of them could have been Felicity’s choice. They’d have to look into that.

Taylor raised her hand again.

If Dottie was irritated with the interruptions, she hid it under a gentle smile. “Yes, Mrs. Dillinger?”

“The anesthesiologists, are we able to pick anyone from the list?”

“Of course. On the next pages, you will find full bios on each doctor. Our caseworker is happy to facilitate a meeting, if you would like.”

A meeting? With the drug guy? What did it matter if you liked him or not as long as he got that epidural rolling before the woman nearly broke in two?

“Excellent,” Taylor chirped again.

Sweet, cheerleader Taylor was almost too much and Matt couldn’t contain his smile.

“What?” she said. “You know how I am. I want who I want.”

“I hear you, girl!” the dark haired woman on the other side of Taylor said.

“Right? I mean, we’re the ones doing the work, we should get to choose.”

Matt and the husband exchanged a glance and both shook their heads.

“Unless,” the blonde snipped, “you’re doing a natural birth. Then it’s not an issue.”

“Wow,” the dark-haired woman said, “you’re brave. I want the drugs. Load me up.”

Taylor high-fived the woman.

Good God, he needed to get her out of here before she exchanged numbers with the dark haired chick. Or got clocked by the blonde.

“All that can be decided later,” Dottie said. “For now, I’ll give you a few minutes to peruse the books. We have two caseworkers and our Lamaze coordinator here tonight to answer questions. To save time, we’ll split up and have two couples meeting with caseworkers, one touring the facility and the other with our Lamaze coordinator. We’ll rotate everyone through.”

“Excellent!” Matt said, mimicking Taylor.

She smacked his arm, but grinned and, shoot, she was damned cute like this. Something in his chest hitched. All this baby talk and pretending to be a couple was making him soft. Still, he leaned over and kissed her. Barely a peck compared to the make-out sessions they tended to have, but Taylor squeezed his arm and let the kiss linger for a few seconds.

Yep, that was them. Just a happy couple in love.

“Oh, you two,” Dottie said. “I knew you were special the minute you walked in here.”

Ninety minutes later, Matt escorted Taylor from the birthing center, blue binder in hand. Right now, that item might be their biggest lead.

In the darkness of the parking lot, he opened the passenger door for his bride, swatted her very fine ass and waited for her to slide in before walking around to the driver’s side.

“You’re pretty good at this husband thing,” Taylor said as he fired up the Mustang.