Winning Over the Rancher

by Mary Brady

  “What does Baylor say?” Surely they would have called him in Denver.

  “Haven’t been able to get a hold of him. Before he left he told me to handle things until he got back. Guess he meant it.”

  They had called Baylor and he hadn’t answered, hadn’t even called them back. A flash of cold fear swept through KayLee, held her in a tight taloned grip and kept her scrambling for a reason—any reason. “Why wouldn’t Baylor call back?”

  “J&J Holdings hasn’t heard from him, either. They phoned last Thursday for him to come over for a few days. He turned them down. Said he had something else to deal with.”

  No. No, he didn’t, she thought, still grasping for the logic and not finding it. “How could that be? J&J had some calf disease he was going to go help them with.”

  “Scours. He handled that on the phone.” Lance stared at her hard. “Have you got any idea where my little brother might be?”

  “Me?”

  “Holly says somebody’s been using our…um…the supplies we keep in the trucks.”

  She wasn’t sure who was more embarrassed. “So everyone knows?” He nodded.

  “He—no, I don’t know. He said he was going to Denver.” He lied to me.

  They started for the shed door in silence.

  She sifted through Lance’s information and decided she had to think about getting the flow of materials restarted. She could think of Baylor when she had the time and the courage. She had made it very clear he didn’t owe her anything, apparently not even the truth.

  “I thought Baylor’s job would swing the bank loan in your favor.”

  “He hasn’t taken the job yet and the bank said they couldn’t release more money on a promise like that. Holly took Dad into Kalispell to see what he can do.”

  “What are the chances?”

  Lance glanced at her and then stared forward as they headed for the house. “Slim to none. We’re pretty extended.”

  “Are there other arrangements that might be made?”

  “Sell some land, but that’s not a real solution. Eventually you have to sell the house out from under yourself.”

  And then it would all be gone. The lifestyle. The family would, out of necessity, shatter.

  She couldn’t let that happen. This family gave her a chance when no one else would. They saved her from isolation and abandonment. She needed to keep her promise and bring this project in on schedule.

  “We’ll work it out,” she finally said. “We’ll work something out.”

  No way would the Doyles consider borrowing her child’s life insurance money. What if she bought the land for her child with the money, stipulating she would not sell, except to the family, unless the Doyles wanted to sell the rest. Land was a good investment, wasn’t it? She had to invest part of the proceeds from the life insurance policy and her baby wouldn’t need it for at least eighteen years, when he or she started college. She could put, say, a fifteen-year limit on her not selling outside the Doyle family.

  As they reached the ranch house, Holly and Curtis arrived. At Lance’s questioning look, Holly shook her head and pressed into his arms for a comforting hug.

  Curtis, in the meantime, put his arms around them both; an obvious slump to his tall physique.

  The more she looked at the Doyles, the more she knew she had to make it right. No one would release supplies on her word, but they would release them for a solid promise of cash.

  “I need to go,” she called to them. “Don’t give up hope.”

  She climbed in her car and headed toward town. She wiggled in her seat as she gripped the wheel. She hadn’t realized how much worse her back pain had gotten.

  When KayLee got home Abby was in the yard hanging sheets and towels on the clothesline in the warm afternoon sun.

  KayLee greeted Abby, grabbed the other end of a sheet and together they shook out the wrinkles. They folded it in half as if they had done this before, and they had. KayLee had learned to love the smell of line-dried sheets and towels. Abby tossed her a clothespin from the pouch at her waist and they each pinned their end to the line. Abby put the third clothespin in the center.

  “S’up?” Abby asked as she grabbed the empty basket to take it back into the house.

  “Can I run something by you to see if I’m totally crazy?”

  “Come inside.”

  KayLee followed Abby into her kitchen and sat at Abby’s table.

  “Shoot,” Abby said as she put on the kettle.

  KayLee told her about her idea to invest in the Doyle ranch. She also told her about the back pain.

  Abby smiled as if she knew something KayLee didn’t. “The back pain is pretty normal during this stage of pregnancy. Let me know if it gets worse.”

  “Do you think the Doyle family would go along with my providing the cash by way of a sale?”

  “They might. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but they are a pretty stubborn bunch.” Abby sat down across from her.

  KayLee laughed. “As a group, that family is quite formidable. As a part of this community, I used to think they were invincible, but I guess everyone has places where they need help.”

  “They might consider it if it was presented in a way that made it seem fair and even beneficial to you and your little one. Wouldn’t that mean you sticking around in St. Adelbert? Wouldn’t that be too—”

  “Painful? Yeah. I’ve been a fool, Abby. I told myself in the beginning not to get too close to him, but I convinced myself it was lust and lust is a great deal of fun and then it fades. Thought I’d be fine.”

  Abby grinned. “Well, one of you two seeing the light is good news.”

  KayLee frowned. “It won’t change anything. He’s driven to leave the valley for something and he needs to do it without me. We thought we were being so honest with each other. At least, that’s how it started. We’d just be friends.”

  “Just friends?”

  “I love him, Abby. For whatever that’s worth, and he’s gone.”

  KayLee hugged her arms around her chest. And he lied to me.

  Abby put her hand on KayLee’s. “Don’t lose faith in him. Whatever is bothering him, he’ll tell you, it just may take some time.”

  “He hasn’t involved me so far.” The cup of tea Abby had made her was hard to swallow.

  “That’s Baylor. He’d take a hit for you, but he won’t show you what’s in his heart.”

  Talking about Baylor only made the ache worse. KayLee expelled an exasperated breath. “So about offering to temporarily own some of the Doyles’ ranch. Is that ridiculous?”

  “They decided to trust you, KayLee. They might be willing to extend that trust, especially since you are living here and not commuting back and forth to California. The people here feel more comfortable if they can look a person in the eye and make a judgment. The world might be a small place these days, but it’s always been small in St. Adelbert.”

  “I’m going to see what I can do.”

  “Finish drinking first.”

  KayLee did and then got up to leave, anxious to find out what she could do next.

  “Keep me posted on that back pain.”

  “Yep.”

  Abby grinned again and KayLee marched across the street with hope for the construction to restart. She’d check to see how much time it would take to release money based on the life insurance policy and then— She paused in the middle of the street when a sharp pain seized her lower back.

  When the pain subsided, she continued across the street and up the stairs to her apartment. When she arrived at her door, a flood of liquid soaked her clothing and splashed all over the landing.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  KAYLEE STOOD AT THE TOP of the stairs and cried with overwhelming happiness. She was going to meet her child at last. Nothing in her life had ever been better than that.

  Boy or girl, dark blond hair like hers, dark hair and eyes like Chad. Cute. The baby would be the cutest thing she’d ever seen. She’d hold a
nd protect her child for as long as needed. She’d love that child for no other reason than she or he was her child.

  She took the first of many deep cleansing breaths.

  Here goes, Chad, she thought as she let herself into her apartment to get dry clothing and to make all sorts of phone calls. She’d take good care of their child.

  Whatever she and Chad had done to each other and to themselves was all in the past. Her child would know the fun, wild and exciting side of his or her father and would know that Chad had loved his child.

  “Ow!” Now that was a contraction.

  When the back pain she had been experiencing found its way around to her abdomen, KayLee admitted that she must have been in labor for a while. Now that her water had broken, the pains came harder and there was no doubt.

  She called Abby and Dr. DeVane, cleaned up the landing and then she made sure the coffeepot was unplugged and the garbage disposal had baking soda in it. Silly things, as if she’d be gone a month.

  She went into the nursery and ran her hand over the rocking crib that Baylor had brought up the day he carried the rest of the things Amy and Holly loaned to her. The newborn Doyles must have slept here.

  The crib didn’t belong where it was. She grabbed an end and tugged until it rested beside her bed. No way was her baby sleeping in the next room. There would be plenty of time for that when the child was older. Ten, she thought and smiled. Twenty.

  While she waited for Abby to get her nephew squared away, KayLee mused about her own calmness at this critical moment in her life. Then she realized it was numbness to disguise the gaping, echoing hole in the middle of her.

  Somewhere deep inside, she had come to believe with all her heart Baylor would want to be a part of this birth. That, at least for that, she would have her friend nearby.

  Now that wasn’t going to happen, and she wanted to feel like kicking something. Instead she felt an emptiness on what should be one of her happiest days.

  She brushed at the new tears as she opened the bag she had packed and repacked to take with her to the clinic. She held up a tiny onesie with a baby dinosaur on the front and green trim. She had been an outside-the-box girl and had preferred dinosaurs to little purple ponies, rag dolls to the ones that talked and played alphabet games.

  She snapped the lid to the suitcase closed and found her mobile phone.

  “Sharring and Sharring, how may I help you?”

  “Put Mr. Sharring on the phone.”

  “I’ll—”

  “No, Ms. McCall. This is K. L. Morgan and I don’t have time for the games today.”

  “Yes, Ms. Morgan. I’ll put him on right away.”

  KayLee could hear the amusement in Randolph’s assistant’s voice and wondered how long she had been waiting for someone to insist she bypass Randolph’s screening process.

  “KayLee?”

  “Randolph, tell me again about the insurance policy proceeds, please.”

  “As part of Chad’s estate, the funds belong to you. You may do with them whatever you choose.”

  “Randolph, I need your help.”

  She asked Mr. Sharring to make inquiries at the bank in Kalispell about using the insurance proceed to restart the materials flow.

  She put the papers she’d need to fax to the bank into her leather bag and went downstairs to tell Cora and Ethel she was on her way to the clinic and the next time she’d see them, she’d have her baby in her arms. The two women danced and hugged and promised to have things perfect for her arrival home. KayLee smiled at their antics and wondered what perfect meant to them. She didn’t care, they would do well.

  On the way to the clinic in Abby’s car, she couldn’t help but notice her friend’s grin. Sure, Abby would be happy for her, but…

  “Abby, you seem overly happy with my condition. Is your husband looking more sexy to you these days?”

  “Outrageously,” Abby replied.

  “When?”

  “December. A Christmas baby.”

  “Congratulations. I’m so happy for you and, Abby, you will make the most perfect mother.”

  “I’ll look to you for helpful hints.”

  They passed John Miller and his partner in front of their hardware store. The men grinned and gave a thumbs-up.

  “They know?”

  “You live upstairs from Cora and Ethel.”

  “I do.”

  KayLee sat forward suddenly. “Oh, my God, the play.” The words came out as a strangled squeak as another forceful contraction squeezed.

  “Don’t yelp,” Abby said with a hand to her chest. “You scared me to death.”

  KayLee leaned back into the headrest as the contraction subsided. “Sorry. I’ll have to call Becca Taylor. She’s only sixteen but she’s really stepped up. She was my understudy. And Mrs. Pierre. She’ll help Becca if she needs it, but she probably won’t need it. They are going to do a full dress rehearsal tonight, and I’ll miss the first performance tomorrow. Unless—”

  “No unlesses. You’ll miss the play. They’ll do fine and it’ll give Becca something great to put on her résumé. So, how are you feeling?”

  “Excited. Scared, but not so scared as I’d be if you weren’t with me.” KayLee rubbed an ache in her side. “And I know it’s silly, but I miss him.”

  “It’s not silly. If you feel half as much for Baylor as I do for Reed, then it should be driving you nuts.”

  “It is, but he was so very honest about it. I knew he was leaving.”

  “Do you think he was honest?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Abby continued up Main Street, and they were almost at the clinic. “Well, he knew he was leaving and when he told you that, it gave him free reign to feel whatever he wanted about you. If he broke a heart it would only be his.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “It might. How would you feel if you thought he felt about you the way you feel about him?”

  “I don’t know. Mad at both of us for doing that to ourselves. Depressed because when we’re together it’s so right, but it’s not our time.”

  Abby drove up the ramp to the emergency entrance of the clinic and KayLee got out of the car and into the wheelchair that Phyllis—another nurse—had waiting for her.

  Abby waved and left to park the car.

  Another contraction distracted her from anything except herself and her baby.

  “Thank you, Phyllis,” KayLee said when the nurse stopped the chair in the birthing room. “I love this room. The green and yellow colors are so soothing, kind of nonjudgmental under the circumstance.”

  She and Phyllis chatted about when her water broke, how long she had been having contractions, how KayLee felt in general. Phyllis measured her vital signs and said, “Dr. DeVane will be in to examine you in a short while, so put on the gown and robe, but you can pace or sit or whatever feels best until she’s ready.”

  KayLee sat. She had things to do before she got down to baby-birthing business. She called about the play and then she called the bank. Randolph Sharring hadn’t failed her. The branch manager took her call right away. A couple of faxes back and forth on the clinic’s fax machine, and everything would be set to start the supplies moving again.

  Abby stopped in but left again when she saw KayLee didn’t need her at that moment.

  KayLee supposed she should talk to the Doyles about the bank transactions, but the most harm she could do was a few loads of building materials. Unlike the bank, KayLee trusted the Doyle family to make good on the money.

  Besides they’d already be “hammered in place” as Lance had said before anybody knew she put up the money. The details of what could be done in the future could be figured out after her child was born.

  When she finished her business calls, she dialed Baylor’s phone and it went directly to voice mail.

  As the afternoon finished up, the contractions came harder and longer and Abby stayed with her while KayLee walked, sat, curled up on her side in bed—whatever fe
lt best at the time.

  As the pains occurred closer together, KayLee found herself longing to see the face of her friend, of the man who could love her if he tried.

  “I hope he’s okay, Abby. Lance said he didn’t call them back. They don’t know where he is. Maybe he didn’t even go to Denver. Maybe he’s never coming back.”

  Abby smoothed her damp hair away from her face. “I know you miss him and I also know you will do a great job giving birth to your child.”

  Out the window of the birthing room, the sky changed to a purple-red before falling into darkness.

  Abby rubbed KayLee’s back and gave her sips of water and apple juice. “You are doing so well, KayLee.”

  “Thanks, Abby. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I guess I’m going to try to rest now. You can go out for a while if you want.”

  KayLee faced the far wall and tugged the sheet over her to keep the chill of the ventilation away. She was tired, but sleep didn’t come. She forced her eyes to stay closed, but a couple minutes later they popped open again.

  She heard voices in the hallway and Abby came back into the room. “Are you up for a visitor?”

  KayLee sat up, her heart beating fast with anticipation. “Who is it? I mean, sure.”

  “Come in, Sheriff.”

  A second later Sheriff Potts entered hat in hand.

  KayLee smiled at the man who had been so nice to her the first day she was in town.

  “How are you, Ms. Morgan? My wife, Flora, sends her best wishes and says if it’s all right with you, she has families ready to drop food off at your house for the next couple of weeks.”

  KayLee felt a new rush of warmth for this small town. “I’d love that. Tell her thank-you.”

  Abby handed her a tissue and she wiped away a tear.

  “And I have someone else who wants to see you if you’re up to another visitor.”

  She nodded, wondering who the sheriff could possibly have brought to see her.

  Sheriff Potts stepped back and Baylor filled her field of vision. The world could have fallen away then and she wouldn’t have noticed. Her friend had come back. He wore a stoic rancher expression and the “uniform” she had come to love, the open-necked, button shirt of soft sandy-colored cloth with faded jeans and boots.