The Baby Trail (Baby Bonds #2)

by Karen Rose Smith

  Beginning her descent down the mountain, Gwen realized how careful she’d have to be. The light layer of snow made the roadway slick. As she rounded a curve, she felt the van wheels slip and antilock brakes take hold. Proceeding at a crawl, her hands tight on the wheel, she peered ahead into snow that was swirling now. On the same side of town as the airport, Gwen didn’t think twice about heading for Garrett’s hangar rather than driving into town.

  She veered off the drive to the airport, taking a snowier road that circled around the main building to the private hangars. When she pulled into the parking area beside Garrett’s, she was surprised to see her dad’s car. She was sure that was his car. The blue Toyota had a bumper sticker that read, I BRAKE FOR GRIZZLIES.

  The giant doors where the plane went in and out were closed, she supposed to keep out the snow. Going to the side door, she opened it and went inside.

  Garrett’s hangar, like the others for small planes that were connected to it, was a large, mostly empty space. In one corner there were two stuffed chairs that looked like renegades from a thrift store. Between them sat a table with a lamp and a radio. Magazines were stacked on top of a small refrigerator. There were also two folding chairs and a large toolbox against another wall. Garrett’s mechanic, Dave Johnson, was pacing, a cell phone at his ear, something that looked like a walkie-talkie in his other hand.

  She waited until he snapped the phone shut, his expression much too sober.

  “I thought I saw Garrett take off this morning. I was hoping he was back.”

  “Not yet. He’s on his way.”

  “In this storm?”

  “He didn’t have a lot of choice. The front moved in faster than anyone expected. Your dad spotted the kid, though, right before it did and the ground search-and-rescue team moved in to pick him up.”

  “My dad’s with Garrett?”

  “Yeah. Garrett tried to talk him out of going. He knew the weather was going to turn, he just didn’t know when. Apparently your dad called him when he heard on the news that a teenager had a fight with his dad and had taken off into the Bighorns. He’d been gone a couple of hours before one of his friends got worried and told the parents.”

  “Are you in touch with them? Garrett and Dad, I mean?”

  “Sure am.”

  “So can you tell me what’s happening?”

  “They’re in a snowstorm in a small plane. Garrett’s an expert pilot and he’s using his instruments. He should be checking in again with me shortly. All we can do is wait.”

  Gwen wasn’t good at waiting. Never had been. Never would be. Her mind raced with probabilities and possibilities. While Dave called someone on his cell phone, she turned back time. She thought about Mark, meeting him at the hospital, dating him, becoming engaged to him. It had been a very practical and convenient relationship. Safe, too, in its way. No fireworks. No extreme highs or lows. It had been predictable…until Mark hadn’t shown up to marry her. He had been the smart one.

  Would anything have been different if she’d given him more? If she’d really become vulnerable and put her heart completely on the line? Had he returned to an old love because the newer one hadn’t worked? Because the woman before Gwen had stolen his heart and kept it?

  It didn’t matter now, because Gwen had met Garrett, and any idea she’d had about love being convenient or practical had evaporated when she gazed into his gray eyes. She’d felt the burn of desire from the moment she’d laid eyes on him and he’d laid eyes on her. Their first kiss had defined fireworks in a new way. Not only that, but they complemented each other. He treated her as an equal and she felt like his partner, when they were searching for Tiffany and when they were in bed together.

  Everything that had happened between the two of them played over and over in her mind. The baggage she carried had made her doubt him. She knew he was a man of integrity. She knew he was a protector. She knew he was honest.

  How could she have doubted him?

  That was easy. She loved him more than she’d ever loved anyone. She loved him so high and deep and wide, the extent of it had made her afraid…afraid she was loving alone. Afraid he couldn’t accept her and her flaws. Afraid of giving her heart freely and unconditionally, without asking for his in return.

  She had to tell him. She had to ask for his forgiveness. She had to give him her trust along with her love.

  Garrett’s headset enabled him to communicate with Russ, as well as radio Dave. Glancing at the older man next to him, Garrett saw no fear on his face. Maybe he had too much confidence in his pilot. Conditions were deteriorating.

  Garrett spoke to Dave, knowing Russ could hear him, knowing Russ knew the danger almost as well as he did. “The wind’s starting to gust. Visibility’s diminishing. ETA fifteen to twenty minutes. Over.”

  “The runway’s drifting,” Dave told him. “Over.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Over.”

  “One more thing,” Dave said. “There’s a lady here waiting for you, so don’t screw up the landing. Over.”

  “Gwen’s there?”

  “Roger that,” Dave acknowledged.

  After Garrett absorbed that information, he ended the call.

  Russ remained silent as the snow swirled and the strobe lights on the wings cut through it, freeze-framing the flakes. If Garrett had to rely on his own senses, rather than instruments, he’d think they were suspended in time, going nowhere, with no up or down…no left or right…just a white cocoon where they could float forever.

  He’d been floating the past few years. He just hadn’t known it. He thought he’d been living. But he hadn’t been. He’d realized that the moment Gwen stood in his shed. She’d taught him that life was about more than going through the motions. It was about more than working and searching for lost children. In the course of his search today he’d realized he could find every lost child in the world, but if he didn’t forgive himself for Cheryl’s miscarriage, he’d never be happy.

  It was his own fault Gwen doubted him. Everything she’d said the other night had been true. He’d kept his heart locked. The past few days, he’d been functioning on autopilot, missing her, trying to untangle his thoughts and his life. Now as he peered out into the white-gray world, one fact was clear. He loved Gwen Langworthy. He loved her and they were going to make a life together. If she would accept his apology. If she would forgive his denial of feelings he’d been afraid to confront. He had to unlock his heart…for her…for them. If he really opened up to her and told her how much she meant to him, maybe then she could learn to trust him.

  “It’s something up here, isn’t it?” Russ asked.

  “Something dangerous right now,” he answered wryly.

  “Not if you know what you’re doing. And you know what you’re doing. I wouldn’t be up here with you if I thought differently.”

  After a few moments passed, Garrett said, “Tell me something. If someone hurts Gwen, is she likely to forgive him?”

  “You mean like that guy who didn’t show up for what was supposed to be the most important day of her life?”

  “Do you think she forgave him?”

  “Yeah, I think she did. Actually she took the blame on herself just like she did with me. Every time she gets hurt she thinks she’s the one at fault. Her real parents left her. What was wrong with her that they did? Her mom walked out. What did she do to cause that? And then there was me. I turned to a bottle instead of caring for her. She thought she could have been a better daughter.”

  “We talked about that and I told her she’s not to blame for any of it. There’s nothing wrong with her.”

  “Of course there’s not. But I think she needs someone with no ax to grind to show her that. Not just tell her. She needs someone who will put her first. She needs someone who can be loyal and true. Are you up to the job?”

  “She told you—”

  “She didn’t tell me a thing. But I’m her dad, and I’m sober now.”

  Garrett’s gaze made the stan
dard T-scan of instruments.

  “Once we get these wheels on the ground you don’t have to worry about somebody being loyal and true to Gwen for the rest of her life.”

  “I don’t know whether you want it or not, but you’ve got my blessing.”

  Garrett could feel the older man’s kind gaze on him. Just because Russ Langworthy was on his side didn’t mean Gwen would welcome him with open arms. But somehow he’d prove to her he wasn’t the SOB she thought he was. Somehow he’d prove to her that he loved her.

  Peering up into the sky from the wide-open hangar doors, trying to see through the snow, Gwen heard the buzz of an engine. Closing her eyes, she prayed Garrett would have angels under his wings. He might be an expert pilot, but in these conditions…

  In spite of the weather, she stepped outside. She heard Dave call her name, but she couldn’t stay still…couldn’t stay inside…couldn’t not see Garrett fly in.

  What was Garrett thinking right now? What was her dad thinking? Two of the people she most cared about in the whole world were—

  The next moment she could make out the speck of color against the snow. The plane’s engine droned louder, the aircraft became visible and then it was coming down.

  She didn’t know anything about runways, but examining this one she saw the gusts of wind lifting snow, depositing it in mounds. Uneven mounds. Some places the surface was almost bare. Others had maybe two to three inches of snow. It looked bumpy and uneven, and she found herself holding her breath as snow collected in her hair, on her coat then swirled away in the force of the wind.

  Unable to take her eyes off the plane, she thought it looked as if it was coming in okay. It really did.

  Forcing herself to breathe, she watched until it ducked lower and lower onto the runway, watched as the angle changed and the nose slightly went up before the landing gear touched down hard. Very hard. Then it all happened fast. The plane seemed to twist sideways, slide and one wing tipped to the ground. After spinning around 180 degrees, it finally righted itself.

  She took off onto the runway even though Dave called her name again.

  The doors on the plane opened. First her dad got out, and then Garrett. Relief overwhelmed her. They were in one piece. They were fine. Everything was going to be okay.

  She kept repeating the words like a mantra as she ran toward them. All she wanted to do was throw herself into Garrett’s arms. But she knew he might not want that. She knew he might not want her.

  So she went to her dad first and gave him a giant hug.

  Snowflakes landed on her lashes as he pulled away and asked gruffly, “What in the hell are you doing out here?”

  “I had to make sure you were okay. I had to make sure Garrett—”

  Her dad grinned at her. “Go get him, baby.”

  Were her dad’s eyes twinkling? Misting over? No, it was just the snow.

  Men in down jackets were attending to the plane. Garrett was speaking to one of them. Then he focused his attention on her.

  She thought about going back to the hangar and waiting for him, but she couldn’t stand waiting another second more. As he strode toward her, his leather jacket repelling the white flakes but his hair collecting them, she froze in sudden panic. She’d made a spectacle of herself running out here.

  Garrett was just going to have to deal with it, and what she felt for him, because she couldn’t keep it in any longer.

  “Let’s go inside the hangar,” he said, his voice gruff.

  “Not yet. I want to apologize. I never should have doubted you. I’m sorry, Garrett. It’s just that I love you so much. I know you probably don’t want to hear that, but—”

  His hands came up to her cheeks and cupped them. His skin was warm in spite of the temperature outside. “This is not the place to do this,” he decided with a crooked smile. “I wanted to wow you with soft music, flowers, a little humble pie.”

  The wind buffeted them and his arms went around her to pull her tight and close. “I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry I didn’t understand how my lunch with Cheryl looked to you. I tried to convince myself it wasn’t important. I tried to convince myself it had nothing to do with you and me. But it did. It helped me put the past in the past. I know I’ve had my heart closed to you most of the time. But still, somehow, you’ve managed to slip inside. I love you, Gwen. I understand now that you didn’t trust me because you didn’t know how I felt. You didn’t know that no woman in the world is right for me but you. You didn’t know that I was finally learning the meaning of the word compromise. You didn’t know that I need you more than I need work or flying. Or even—” he grinned at her, “—chocolate cream pie.”

  Her tears were hot on her cheeks, and he ducked his head to hers and kissed them away.

  “I believe you’re the one woman who can accept the challenge of the life I want to lead,” he murmured. “And if you can’t, we’ll do something about it. I love you, Gwen. Will you marry me?”

  “I love you, Garrett, just the way you are. I know your work is important. I know searching for children is important. I know you can’t promise me you won’t fly in a snowstorm again. But I want you to promise me that you won’t take unnecessary chances, and you’ll remember how much I love you, no matter what you’re doing.”

  “It’s a deal,” he promised, his lips close to hers.

  Then he kissed her, standing in the midst of a snowstorm, allowing the Wyoming wind to buffet them but not affect them…because they were warm and safe, surrounded by each other’s love.

  When he lifted his head, he scooped her up into his arms and began striding toward the hangar.

  “What are you doing?” she laughed.

  “I’m taking you someplace where it’s warmer. And then I’m going to take you home with me, make long, slow love to you and propose properly.”

  “Naked…on one knee?” she teased.

  He laughed, and the sound of it heated her as much as the strength of his arms.

  When they reached the hangar Dave looked on quizzically, but Garrett ignored him as he set her down.

  “I want to marry you today. But if you want a wedding with all the trimmings, if you want all your friends there, I can wait. Just not too long.”

  “Let me talk to Shaye and Kylie and Tiffany and we’ll see how soon we can pull it together.”

  Lacing his hands in her hair, Garrett kissed her again. The snow, the hangar, the soft sound of her dad’s words as she heard him say, “Thatta boy,” all faded away as her kiss promised Garrett her trust and her love. His promised her a fulfilling future together, absolute commitment and unconditional acceptance of who she was and who she wanted to be.

  This time after he broke away he looked serious. “Call Tiffany and tell her our good news. Tell her I landed safely and in a couple of hours we’ll pick up dinner at The Silver Dollar and bring it home.”

  “I have a commitment to her,” Gwen said softly.

  “I know you do. And so do I. We’ll work it out.”

  She knew they would. Because she and Garrett belonged together…for the rest of their lives.

  Garrett tested the latch on the stall door as Dylan poured feed into one of the bins at Saddle Ridge on Sunday afternoon. Looking over at Shaye’s husband, Garrett realized a friendship had developed between him and Dylan this afternoon as they’d helped feed the cattle and now did odds and ends around the barn.

  “Do you think it’s safe to go to the house yet? My stomach’s rumbling. Those casseroles Gwen baked for the shower smelled awfully good.”

  “So did the chocolate cake with coconut icing that Shaye brought along. What’s the worst that could happen if we go in?”

  “We’ll get drawn into a discussion of the best diapers to use and which car seat is safest.”

  Dylan laughed. “That’s not such a tough price to pay for good food.”

  “Shaye tells me you and Gwen are planning a simple wedding.”

  “It’s starting out that way. I don’t know how simpl
e it’ll be until we get finished with it. Gwen’s going to call the minister tomorrow for an available date.”

  “Shaye and I got married a week after I came to my senses. She and Gwen and Kylie pulled it together fast. We had a candlelight service in that old church over on Red Point Drive.”

  “How do you feel now about doing it so fast?”

  “Shaye and I had no doubts. And we’re still on our honeymoon.” He added with a grin, “That is, when Timmy lets us be on a honeymoon.”

  Garrett nodded. “Gwen and I are sure about this, too. I don’t know how Tiffany and Amy are going to play into it. Gwen and I talked about that last night. I told Gwen we could sell her house and add another room onto mine. We might need it eventually, anyway.”

  “Shaye and I want to give Timmy a brother or sister. But I think we’re going to wait until he’s out of diapers.”

  Garrett tried the latch on the stall one last time. “I don’t know how Kylie’s going to handle this place once her baby comes.”

  “She doesn’t want to accept help,” Dylan commented.

  “I know. She’s as stubborn as Gwen.”

  “And Shaye.”

  The two men exchanged a look that said they loved their women and wouldn’t have them any other way.

  Once inside the house Garrett realized the baby shower was still in full swing. Several women he didn’t know were chatting. He noticed a little girl of about ten who hardly left Kylie’s side.

  Gwen was setting the casseroles she had reheated in the oven on the table. He slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her neck. “Hey there, beautiful. How much longer is this shindig going to last?”

  “Just until everyone eats. Aren’t you hungry?”

  “Always. But more for you than the food.”

  When her cheeks reddened, he laughed. “We could sneak out to the barn.”

  “Yes, we could. Maybe when everyone’s eating they won’t notice.”