“I know dentists take some of the same classes doctors do. And so I was hoping that … do you know how to deliver a baby, Norman?”

There was a long silence from the backseat and then Norman chuckled. “I think I can handle it. It can’t be all that different from a root canal.”

Once she’d navigated the first few blocks, Hannah concluded that Mike’s Hummer was a perfect vehicle for such horrible weather. It plowed through dense drifts that would have stopped other trucks cold, and the traction was nothing short of miraculous on the icy patches of road. Under other circumstances Hannah might have enjoyed driving Mike’s prized vehicle, but not with the stakes this high.

Driving through town wasn’t bad, and Hannah was just starting to feel confident when she turned onto Old Lake Road. The things changed for the worse. The lad was flat here, and there were no buildings to act as windbreaks. Visibility was only a foot or two, and it was almost impossible to distinguish the ice-packed shoulder of the road from the pavement itself. Hannah forced herself to hold the wheel steady and prayed that she was on the right track. The snow swirling and whipping in front of the headlights didn’t help. It caused her to lose all sense of direction, until it was virtually impossible to tell left from right, or even up from down.

Somehow, Hannah knew she’d never be sure exactly how they’d made it, they arrived at the turnoff for Lake Eden Memorial Hospital and successfully navigated the circular driveway. H stopped only inches from the emergency room door and leaned on the horn with a vengeance.

“We’re here!” a burly orderly shouted out, opening up the rear door. “Lonnie Murphy called us to say you were coming.”

“Hannah?”

“Yes, Andrea.” Hannah turned back to watch the orderly help her sister out onto a gurney.”

“I don’t bake the cake.”

“What cake?”

“The Jell-O Cake. I buy a pound cake at the Red Owl. I just wanted you to know that. I don’t think you’re supposed to go into the delivery room with a lie on your conscience.”

Once Andrea had been whisked inside, Norman and Hannah spent a full minute in silence, she in the front seat and he in the back. Finally Norman broke the silence. “You want coffee?”

“Yes.”

“Inside?”

“Yes. Were you nervous?”

“Of course I was. I’m a dentist, not an obstetrician.”

Without another word they opened their respective doors and headed straight through the emergency room to the coffee machine in the lobby.

“Here, Hannah.” Norman handed her a small fortune in change. ”You get the coffee and I’ll find out where they took Andrea.”

Before the coffee had time to cool and turn into the tar that Hannah was sure it would, Norman was back. “Andrea’s in the maternity ward. That’s down at the end of the south wing. The nurse said we can go down there and wait in the expectant fathers room.”