“Well, what is it? What’s wrong?” Elsie demanded, her gaze bouncing first to Ruby, then to Avery, then to Paige.
“No doctor yet,” Paige answered for her.
“What?” The woman pinned her hands to her hips, which somehow made her seem taller. “Whyever not?”
“ERs are notorious for taking forever,” Julia said, spinning her chair in circles to make Lily giggle.
But Elsie looked downright offended. “Well, that’s ridiculous. You’re expecting a baby, for heaven’s sakes! They need to get on this.” She stalked to the door. “Don’t you worry, dear. I’ll take care of this right now.”
“That’s okay. I—”
But Elsie left the room in a cloud of obvious disgust. The woman’s tenacity made her smile. She should know better. Never try to stop Elsie when she’s on a mission.
“So now that they have a lead on Brookie, is Sawyer on his way?” Julia asked, wheeling herself closer to the bed.
“No. He doesn’t know.” Ruby extended her arms, and Julia helped Lily climb up onto the mattress. Ruby pulled the girl in close, inhaling that powdery, baby-fresh scent. “And no one’s going to tell him, either.” She shot Paige and Avery a look. “Not until Brookie is found.”
“Understood.” Julia slipped her hand into Ruby’s and squeezed. “From what I hear, they’re gonna find her real soon.”
Her throat started to close up again, so she simply nodded and buried her nose in Lily’s soft hair. God, she couldn’t wait to hold Brookie. Couldn’t wait to hold her and Sawyer’s sweet baby in her arms.
“Not to worry, dear.” Elsie paraded back into the room, the beaming smile on her face indicating that she’d accomplished her mission. “I’ve found the best doctor in the business.”
Meg Carlson, a longtime friend of the Walker family, followed Elsie into the room. Ruby had met her a handful of times at various events, but she’d never really talked to her.
“So I hear I’m late,” Meg said with her friendly smile.
Ruby’s face heated. “No. I mean, I wasn’t complaining.”
“Don’t worry about it.” The woman rolled over a stool and sat. “We’re always late around here. But I did take time to read through your chart.” She held up a clipboard.
Ruby braced herself. “Do you know why would I be cramping?”
“Not yet,” she said, but she quickly reinstated her smile. “It could be a variety of different things.” Her eyes scanned Ruby’s check-in papers again. “During pregnancy, your body is undergoing a ton of changes. So it could be muscle related. Everything is stretching out a bit. Your body’s trying to make room.” She flipped the chart to the next page. “And I see the nurse wrote down that you haven’t had anything to eat or drink yet today.”
“No. I haven’t been able to…” Instead of explaining the situation again, she let the words trail off.
“Elsie filled me in,” Meg said sympathetically. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
“Thanks.” Ruby glanced at the clock over her shoulder. Almost noon. Brookie had been gone at least five hours…
“So the problem with not eating or drinking during pregnancy is that dehydration can also cause cramping. It’s important to take care of yourself. That’s the best way to take care of the baby.”
“So that’s all it is, then?” Elsie asked, hands clasped hopefully in front of her chest. “Dehydration?”
“Hopefully.” Meg stood. “But with your history, I’m concerned enough to run some tests. I’d like to start with some blood work. And I’ll call your OB and see if he’d like us to do an ultrasound.”
Ruby nodded. “Yes. Anything.” Anything to make sure this baby was completely healthy.
“I’ll put in the orders and we’ll take a look at the lab results, then go from there.”
“Okay.” Relief pulled the knots out of her shoulders. She relaxed against the pillows, suddenly so exhausted.
Elsie squeezed her hand. “It’s all precautionary, dear. Just to make sure. Isn’t that right, Meg?”
“Yes. We want to make absolutely certain that the baby is one hundred percent healthy.” She backed toward the door. “Do you want me to call Sawyer?”
“No.” It came out fast and harsh. “I mean, not yet.”
Meg glanced at Elsie, then back at her. “You might want him here, Ruby. Especially when we get the test results back.” There was a hint of a warning in her tone. And Ruby got it. The woman had to prepare people for bad news all the time.
“He’s still out searching for Brookie. I don’t want him to know. Not until she’s safe.” She snuggled Lily again. “Besides, I have plenty of support.” All of her best friends were crowding her with their love.
Meg smiled again. “Okay. That’s your decision. Let me know if you change your mind. I’d be happy to call him and ease his concerns, if that would help.”
“Thank you,” she murmured. But a conversation with a doctor would not be enough to ease his concerns. He’d already lost a baby once. If he found out she was here, he would come.
“All right, then. I’ll check back in after we get the labs.” With a wave good-bye, she trotted out the door.
“All good news,” Elsie insisted, stealing Lily from the bed. “Soon we’ll have answers. And Brookie will be home. And we’ll all be gathered tomorrow for your beautiful wedding.”
Ruby closed her eyes and held on to that word.
Soon.
Chapter Nine
The Walker Mountain Ranch had always been Sawyer’s second home. A refuge of family and comfort and safety. He’d spent so much time there growing up that he knew the land, the steep slopes, the rocky cliffs that loomed above the lodge. Now the mountains beyond the log structure seemed cold and treacherous. There were so many places to slip and fall. There were the resident bear and mountain lions. As a kid he’d never given the dangers of this land a second thought, but the knowledge that Brookie might be out there—a tiny needle in the haystack of thousands of acres—made his lungs fill with sand.
“Still can’t find Moose,” Bryce said, trotting up to him. “He’s gotta be with Brookie. He wanders, but he always comes when he hears the whistle.”
Why hadn’t the dog heard it? Because he was too far away? Because he wouldn’t leave Brookie’s side and she wasn’t able to walk? He shoved the thought out of his mind and faced his cousin. “I called Thomas. They’re headed over.” The four of them wouldn’t be able to search the acreage alone. Ben and Isaac were already scouring the cabins and the interior of the lodge. He and Bryce had swept the land that lined either side of the driveway, but there’d been no sign of her. No sign that she’d been here. Maybe they were wrong…
Bryce clamped a hand onto his shoulder. “She’s gotta be here. With Moose. We’ll find her.”
Sawyer scanned the acreage spread out all around them. Hope waned. They had so much ground to cover. “Thomas also said he called out search and rescue. They’re hoping the weather clears so they can get the chopper up.”
From the look of the clouds building above them, he wasn’t too optimistic. Which meant they’d better get going. “We can search the back of the property while we wait for everyone else to get here,” he said.
“Sounds good,” his cousin agreed. “I’ll take the stables.”
“I’ll check out the maintenance barn, then head on up to the north.” Sawyer jogged in the opposite direction, trying to peer into the shadows between the evergreens while he made his way to the back side of the lodge.
“Brookie!” he shouted, the smallness of his voice mocking him. Like she’d ever be able to hear him out there.
He sprinted past the woodpile and along the north side of the lodge, but the back patio sat vacant. Passing the swimming pool, he skidded down the small dirt embankment to where the trees grew thicker, darkening his vision, hemming him in, unearthing a memory.
He’d been lost in the forest once. The summer after he’d turned six his
dad had taken him on his first backpacking trip. While his father was setting up the tent, Sawyer had wandered. He hadn’t meant to go far, but he’d heard a hawk crying out somewhere nearby so he’d tried to follow the sound. Next thing he knew, he stood in a valley instead of on the swell of land where they’d decided to make camp. When he’d glanced around, he’d realized everything looked the same. The trees and the rocks and the carpeted forest floor. He couldn’t even see the peaks; the trees were too tall and too thick. That’s when panic had spurted through him.
If you’re lost, you stay where you are. Don’t move, he’d been told his whole life. So he’d sat underneath a pine tree, huddled and terrified, sure his dad would never find him—that he’d have to learn to hunt and live off the land, build his own shelter and figure out how to start a fire. There was no better feeling he could ever remember than that moment when his father had rescued him from the spreading darkness.
According to his dad, he was missing for only about twenty minutes and he was only a quarter of a mile from where they’d pitched the tent. But he remembered how the stark loneliness had hollowed him. He’d never felt so alone. Until now. The moment he’d realized Brookie was gone, he’d shut out everything else, isolating himself in a wilderness of emotion he couldn’t express. Even to Ruby. The one who’d reached out to him such a short time ago and reminded him that he wasn’t alone.
Hunger pains stabbed his gut. He wished she was with him now, holding his hand while they searched for Brookie together. He needed her. God, he needed her. But she hadn’t even called him back. Probably because he’d been such as ass to her.
Outside of the maintenance shed, he stopped and dug out his phone. He had to hear her voice. Had to beg for forgiveness for trying to keep her out. After ripping off his glove, he dialed her number, holding his breath until the line clicked and she answered.
“Sawyer? Did you find her? Did you find Brookie?”
He let her voice fill him, let it seep into those cracks in his heart. “No. Not yet,” he murmured. “But I think we’re close.” They had to be close.
“Okay,” she whimpered. “Okay. I know you’ll find her.”
“I’m so sorry I tried to keep you out,” he said, closing his eyes against a sting of emotion. “I want you with me, Ruby. I need you.” The confession broke him free. “Can you come?”
“I want to.” There was a catch in her voice, as though it were on the verge of breaking. “I want to so much. But I can’t.”
Can’t. The word stunned him into silence.
“You were right,” she almost whispered. “The stress. It’s too much.”
The wilderness seemed to close in on him. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“Yes,” she said with a fortifying strength. “Everything’s fine. I just need to rest a while.” In the pause, he thought he heard something in the background. A radio? “I’ll let you go so you can look for her,” Ruby said quickly. “I love you, Sawyer.”
“I love you, too,” he managed before the line clicked. A thread of worry stitched his chest tight. Earlier she hadn’t cared how tired she’d been. She’d stormed the streets driven by the same conviction that had enabled her to overcome so much in her life. But now she wouldn’t come. No. She said she couldn’t come. And Avery had been acting so weird on the phone earlier…
“Hey!” Bryce’s shout snapped up his head. “You find anything yet?” his cousin called from the other side of the shed.
“No.” He tried to clear his head. Ruby had said the baby was okay…
“We need the ATVs to search the hills.” Bryce swiped sweat from his forehead and shed his coat. He must’ve sprinted all the way from the stables. “Just heard they’re calling for snow tonight. Up to a foot.”
Urgency pounded through Sawyer. Snow meant freezing temperatures. Hypothermia. “Okay. The ATVs. Yeah. You can take one out to the west and I’ll go—”
Woof!
“—north.” Sawyer choked on the word. Bryce’s head lifted, and he scanned the trees. Neither of them spoke. Sawyer couldn’t. He swore that was Moose’s low bark. Swore it.
“Moose!” Bryce’s shout echoed back to them. His stuck his fingers in his lips and whistled.
Woof!
He hadn’t imagined it. That was Moose barking. Not close, but not miles away, either. He strained his ears.
“I think it’s coming from this way.” Bryce yanked on his arm and they raced around the maintenance barn, hoofing it down the narrow path that skipped over a small brook and ended at the trailhead to the waterfall. The secret Walker Mountain Ranch oasis, where Ruby had placed a memorial to his unborn son, Matthew.
Woof! Moose bounded out of the woods, ears flapping, tail lashing the trees.
“Good boy, Moose!” Bryce called, clapping his hands. Both of them shot up the trail while Moose ran circles around them.
“She’s at the waterfall. She has to be.” Brookie knew it well. They’d hiked there so many times this fall to visit her brother’s memorial…
His cousin halted. “I’ll go back and get the ATV. Meet you up there.” He shot down an embankment and disappeared.
Sawyer flew over the packed dirt, unsure how his legs were even moving. At the top of the first incline, he spotted Brookie’s pink bike stashed in a bush. She couldn’t have ridden it all the way to the waterfall. It was too steep.
“Where is she, Moose?” Sawyer gagged out, still afraid to believe. So close. This whole time she’d been so close.
The dog leaped and spun in another circle, barking like he’d lost his mind. Then he tore up the trail and out of sight.
Sawyer’s lungs burned. His quads pinched, but he sprinted hard up the switchbacks, seeing nothing but the trail and his boots until the trees cleared and it was right there—the falls, the pool, the bench.
Brookie. Curled up on the bench. Sleeping.
A surge of joy he’d never before experienced caught him up and pushed him to her, heart reeling from the relief of waking from this nightmare. Colors flooded his vision again, where everything had gone gray. His lungs unlocked and let in the sweet mountain air.
Moose beat him to the bench and licked the girl’s face until she stirred. Her head lifted and she saw him.
“Daddy.”
He would always remember the way she said it. That look of pure wonderment on her face. He knew that feeling. The one where you were being rescued, pulled out of a lonely dark place when you thought maybe you would have to live there forever.
“You’re here,” his daughter sighed, her dark eyes drooped and groggy.
Sawyer caught her in his arms, not caring that he might be crushing her. “My princess,” he breathed. “Oh God, my little princess.”
He held her that way for as long as it took for his heart to stop thrashing his ribs, feeling her warmth, her soft cries against his shoulder.
“We were so worried, Brookie. We missed you so much.”
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, tearing herself away from him, peering up at him with a look that broke him. “I couldn’t sleep anymore. And I wanted to be with Matthew.”
“You could have woken me up. I would’ve come with you.” Tears mingled with the sweat that ran down his face. “I’d go anywhere with you. Anytime.”
“I didn’t want to bother you.” In between sniffles she hiccupped. “Now you have a baby coming…”
His hands cupped her cheeks and guided her gaze to his. “You are just as much my child as the baby is.” He knew she might not believe him now. But he would prove it to her every day. Eventually his love for her, Ruby’s love for her, would undo the damage her heart had sustained over the years.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’m so sorry, Daddy.”
“I know. It’s okay, baby.” He hugged her. “We have to call Mom. She’s so worried. We’ve been searching everywhere for you.”
He dug out his phone and dialed, then held the phone between him and Brookie.
The speaker crack
led. “Hello? Sawyer, dear, is that you?” Aunt Elsie. Why was Aunt Elsie answering Ruby’s phone?
“Yeah. It’s me. And Brookie.” Those hot tears singed his eyes. “We found her. Where’s Ruby?” He couldn’t wait to tell her, couldn’t wait to hear the same relief he felt in her voice.
There was a long pause. “Ruby is in with the doctor right now,” Aunt Elsie said quietly. “We had to take her to the hospital.”
“Mom’s in the hospital?” Brookie cried, tears clouding her eyes again. “Because of me?”
“No,” he assured her as he clicked off the speaker and brought the phone to his ear. He clenched his hands into fists so Brookie wouldn’t see him shaking.
“What happened?” he asked his aunt, bracing himself against the fear that tried to claw through his happiness.
“She’s had some pain and cramping. She didn’t want you to worry, dear. She wanted you out searching for Brookie.”
Pain and cramping. That was exactly what his ex-wife had experienced before she’d miscarried…
“The doctor is running some tests. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about, but I know she’d love to have you here.”
Nothing to worry about? His jaw locked. “Yes. I’m coming. We’re coming,” he sputtered, body already in motion. He whisked Brookie into his arms so he could run down the trail and meet Bryce. “Tell her I’m on my way.”
Chapter Ten
Ruby had never cared much for doctors. The few she’d seen in her unsettled life had been formal and indifferent. But Meg had this easy way about her. Maybe it was the freckles and the cropped blond hair. She could’ve been a teacher or a perky barista at the local coffee shop. If it weren’t for the white coat and scrubs, you’d never know she’d spent the better part of her life in school.
“So the blood work looks okay,” Meg informed her, rolling the stool closer to the gurney.
“That’s good, right?” Paige asked. She was the only one who’d stayed in the room when Meg had come back. Elsie, Julia, and Avery had wanted to give them some space, Ruby suspected, though they’d claimed they needed to use the bathroom.
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