by Amy Lillard
“You make it sound so simple.”
“Honey, it is simple. You’re the one making this complicated.”
She shook her head. “It’s not like I’ve been invited or anything.”
“Then move to the hotel in town.”
“I’ve started sketching again.”
“Oh, honey, that’s great.” Excitement filled his voice. “Then you definitely gotta stay.”
“I’m mean it’s not jewelry or anything, but I’m drawing.”
“I think it’s fantastic. Maybe your cowboy is a good muse.”
Scenes of Jake on the back of the bucking horse, Jake stepping from the shower, even Jake at dinner the night before flashed through her mind’s eye.
“I suppose.” Or maybe she just wasn’t ready to face the big ol’ empty house where Emery had grown up. There was no need for one person to have a house that large. Even with a baby coming. But putting it on the market would be like losing another part of her sister. One day, there wouldn’t be anything left. When that happened she wasn’t sure what she would do.
She ran a hand over her growing stomach. “I have a doctor’s appointment anyway.” In fact, this whole trip had put her a week overdue for her next checkup.
“Then quit dragging your feet and get to packing.”
Bryn smiled. That was just like Rick. Get right to the point and move on. “Yes, sir.”
He chuckled on the other end of the line. “Seriously though, be careful and call me when you get to Louisiana.”
“I will,” she promised.
She hung up the phone and turned to go back into the house.
“Bryn? Is that you?” Grandma Esther came out of the kitchen, a mug in one hand and her cane strangely absent.
“It’s me,” she said.
“Good. I want to talk to you.”
For a moment she wasn’t sure what to say, but in the end she simply nodded.
The older woman led the way into the living room, easing down onto the sofa and motioning Bryn into one of the armchairs.
“Where’s your cane?”
“Posh,” she said. “I only carry it because Evie’s afraid I’ll fall. Hell, I’ve tripped on that thing more than I’ve tripped on my own.”
Bryn didn’t try to stop her smile. The woman was a jewel. “So when she’s not around you leave it behind?”
“Ex-actly.” She took a sip of what looked to be tea, then brought herself up. “Did you want a drink?”
Bryn shook her head. “I’m fine.”
Esther nodded. “Okay, then. I’ve been thinking, and I think you should stay here a bit longer. Evie’s gone and Jake’s always working. How can you really get to know us if we’re always off running around?”
She’d just been given the perfect excuse to stay and now she couldn’t accept. “I have to go to the doctor.”
“We have doctors in Texas, you know.”
“Of course, but—” She stopped.
“But what?”
“I don’t think I should go to a different doctor. I mean, that is what you’re suggesting.”
Esther shook her head. “Baby’s gonna come when a baby’s gonna come. All these trips to the doctor ain’t gonna change that.”
Bryn wasn’t about to debate the merits of good child care with the woman. Still, there was a little bit of truth in her words. Babies were a mystery the rest of the world was still trying to figure out. And going to a new doctor for one visit wouldn’t hurt anything. It might even be helpful to get another opinion. Though she knew, new doctor or not, she was going to be fussed at for her weight gain. She was as big as a house. Yet she wasn’t uncomfortable, not yet anyway. And since she had taken care of the last of Emery’s wishes, she felt better than she had in the year since her sister’s death.
“You don’t have to decide right now,” Esther said.
“I’m supposed to leave in the morning.”
The older woman gave a quick nod then stood. “That should be plenty of time to decide to stay.”
• • •
Jake,” Esther called the following morning. “Tell her she needs to stay.”
Bryn, Esther, and Wesley were sitting at the kitchen table as he came through the glass doors. He looked good. Better than good in his standard cowboy/rancher attire. Even the scowl he wore couldn’t detract from his handsome features.
Why was he scowling? Wasn’t that what he wanted? For her to stay. If they got married, did he expect her to head on back to Georgia? She would never understand men.
“She’s a grown woman, Grandma. Perfectly capable of making her own decisions.”
Was she? Bryn had spent most of the night thinking about staying and the rest of it talking herself out of the idea. She couldn’t hide out in Texas forever. Did she really like it here or was she just avoiding the inevitable, walking back into the house knowing it was time to let it go?
Jake got a drink of water and turned back to her. Their gazes caught and held as he sipped from the bottle.
“I have a doctor’s appointment.”
She thought for a moment that he paled a bit under his tan, but she decided it was a trick of the lighting. The brim of his hat still shaded his face a bit.
“She can go to the doctor here. Tell her, Jake.”
“You’re leaving?” Wesley pinned her with those wise yet cheerful brown eyes.
Suddenly guilt flooded her. She hadn’t told Wesley she was staying, but she hadn’t told her she was leaving either.
“Midland,” Jake rasped. “You could go to the doctor in Midland or San Angelo.”
Esther shook her head. “Dr. Gary is a good boy, and he’s a damn sight closer.”
Bryn shrugged. “It’s just one appointment.” But she could tell that Jake was uncomfortable with the idea. Or maybe he was ready for her to leave and too polite to say as much.
“You’re staying?” Wesley asked. Her brow furrowed in confusion. She looked from her father to Bryn and then back again.
Jake nodded, his gaze locked on Bryn. “If that’s what you want.”
But he couldn’t hide that panicky look in his eyes. Or was that fear? She knew that Wesley’s mother had died in childbirth, and she could understand his concerns. But Bryn’s faith was strong. Life was about love and loss, and there was no getting around it.
He turned and headed back out of the house.
“It’s best this way,” Esther said. “Evie won’t be back for a couple more days.”
She would like to get to know Jake’s mother better. Bryn had no sooner got to the ranch than Evie had to leave. Bryn thought it a bit odd that she had left like that, but she chalked it up to ranch work. It wasn’t like her trip had been planned months in advance. She couldn’t expect everyone to drop their entire lives just because she was around.
“Excuse me.” She stood and started after Jake.
She caught him before he stepped off the large stone porch. “I won’t stay if you don’t want me to.”
His eyes were unreadable. “You do what you have to do.”
“What exactly does that mean?” She was done playing doublespeak with him. Kiss and not kiss. Stay and leave.
He propped his hands on his hips and exhaled heavily. “Of course I want you to stay. I asked you to marry me. If I didn’t want you to stay, would I have done that?”
She shook her head. “I guess not. No.”
“But you need to go to the doctor in Midland. Mama will be back tomorrow. She’ll tell you.”
“If you’re sure.”
Jake frowned. “Of course I’m sure she’ll tell you.”
“If you’re sure about me staying.”
Something raw flashed through his eyes, but it was gone before she could give it a name. “I’m sure.”
• • •
&nb
sp; You didn’t have to come here, you know.” Bryn shifted uncomfortably in her seat and glanced around the office. It was the typical doctor’s office with pastel pictures of flowers hanging on beige walls, toys for the children to play with, and old magazines.
Evelyn had come home the day before, glad to hear that Bryn was staying and promptly declared Gary Stephens a good enough doctor to see Bryn for an impromptu appointment.
“What was I supposed to do? Stay at home?”
Bryn glanced around the office, überaware that the rest of the ladies were staring at her and Jake. One woman even sent them a little wave. “And why is everyone staring at me?”
“Small town and they know you”—he seemed to catch himself—“don’t live here. Everybody knows everybody in Cattle Creek.”
“So they know you, but not me, and they are trying to figure out why we’re here together.”
“Something like that.”
“Should I tell them I’m your long lost cousin?”
Jake shook his head. “It wouldn’t work anyway.”
“Bryn Talbot?” the nurse called from the doorway leading to the exam rooms.
Bryn stood. “Are you coming or staying?”
The look he gave her was so pained she almost laughed and cried at the same time. “What do you want me to do?”
“That’s up to you, cowboy.”
He looked so uncomfortable sitting there in a pink upholstered chair that she thought for a minute that he just might go back with her. Then he shook his head. “I’ll just stay here, if that’s okay with you.”
She had been going at this alone for the last seventeen weeks. What was one more? “I’ll see you in a bit, then.”
He swallowed hard and nodded. She thought perhaps he was about to change his mind, then the door shut behind her and the opportunity was lost.
The nurse looked at the papers on her clipboard, then flipped the top page over. “So you’re here visiting?”
“That’s right.”
The woman nodded and motioned for Bryn to step into a small open door space with a scale, a chair, and not much else. “Let’s get your weight.”
The time of reckoning was near. Bryn stepped on the scale and closed her eyes. She didn’t need to see it to know that she had gained a lot of weight.
“And you’re seventeen weeks, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“You haven’t had your glucose test yet, correct?”
“No.”
“Hmm,” the nurse said. “The doctor may want to have you do that. When are you going back home?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You’re staying with the Langstons, is that right?” There was a gleam in her eye that belied any medical interest. This was pure small-town gossip at its finest.
“That’s right.”
The nurse led her down a short hallway and into a small exam room. “The doctor will be in soon.”
Bryn thanked her and eased on the exam table.
She didn’t have long to wait before the doctor knocked on the door. He was younger than she had expected, maybe even around Jake’s age. His sandy blond hair was cut neat and short, and his blue eyes held a kind light.
“Welcome to Cattle Creek, Miss Talbot.”
“Thank you.”
He sat down on the stool with wheels and rolled toward her, chart in hand. “And you’re only seventeen weeks?” He cast a dubious look at her midsection.
“I know.” Bryn gave a small chuckle. “No matter how closely I watch my weight, I seem to be getting fatter and fatter.”
“Uh-huh.” He clicked the end of his pen and made a note on her chart. “That can be from a number of things. You could just be carrying a big baby.” He stood and set her chart on the nearby counter. “I see you haven’t had your glucose test yet.”
“I’m going to do that as soon as I get home.”
He nodded. “Let’s have a listen,” he said. “Lie back.”
Bryn did as he asked, feeling all the more like a beached whale. If she was this big now, how was she ever going to make it to forty weeks? She would be the size of a house!
The doctor lifted her shirt and pressed his stethoscope to her belly. He moved it around, listening intently. He even adjusted the earpieces. “Huh,” he said.
He removed the device and wrapped it around his neck. “Have you had any other testing since you found out you were pregnant?”
She shook her head.
“Not an ultrasound or an amniocentesis?”
“No. Nothing like that. Is everything okay?”
“Everything seems fine, but I do want to do an ultrasound today. You want to go get Jake? I assume that—” He waved a hand in the air, an expressive gesture than meant nothing and everything all at the same time.
Bryn nodded and pushed herself off the exam table. Her knees were shaking and her mouth dry as she went back out into the waiting area. “The doctor said you should come back.”
He stood and plopped his hat onto his head, then followed her back down the hallway and into the same room as before. Someone had pushed a portable ultrasound machine into the room. Just the sight of it made Bryn feel a little sick. Was something wrong and they weren’t telling her?
“Go ahead and hop up on the table,” Dr. Gary said.
Bryn did as he asked while Jake hovered nearby. He looked as worried as she felt. But in no time at all, the doctor had the lights dimmed and the test started.
The slushy thump of the baby’s heartbeat filled the room.
“You hear that?” Dr. Gary asked.
Tears rose into Bryn’s eyes. “Yes.” She looked to Jake. He swallowed hard and gave a quick nod. He might not have ever wanted this baby. But he was clearly moved.
The doctor moved the wand about on her belly. Pressing here and running over a spot more than once. “Just trying to get a clear picture and . . . there it is.”
Bryn turned to look at the screen. “The baby?”
Dr. Gary smiled. “The other baby.”
“I don’t understand.” The screen looked like a lava lamp with bad antennae reception.
“Twins,” he said. “That’s why you’ve gained so much weight. You’re having twins.”
• • •
I don’t understand.”
Bryn’s words came to him like he was underwater. They floated to him, waving on the current of thoughts.
“It’s pretty simple. There are two babies.”
Bryn shook her head while Jake stood there. Stupidly.
“But how can that be?” she asked. “I’ve already heard her heartbeat.”
“Babies are clever, and sometimes they like to trick us. Just when we think we have it all figured out, they throw us a curveball.”
Bryn stared at the monitor. The doctor had stopped the actual ultrasound, having found what he had set out to find, but the image was still there. Jake followed her gaze. Two little forms. Each distinct. Two babies. Twins.
He pushed himself off the wall, just then realizing that he had used it for support. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
Gary chose his words carefully. Jake could almost see him mulling over each one. “It can be, but it doesn’t have to be.”
“It can be?” His stomach knotted. “What do we do? She needs to be safe.”
“The usual things. Diet, exercise, prenatal care.”
“I feel fine,” Bryn said, but Jake didn’t know if she was informing the doctor or reassuring him. “In fact, I feel really good.”
Gary nodded and turned back to Bryn. Suddenly Jake felt left out of the entire pregnancy. He couldn’t let her leave Texas. He couldn’t let her take his baby—his babies—away.
• • •
You have vitamins, right?”
She had barely gotte
n into his truck and shut the door before he started asking her questions.
“Yes, I have vitamins.”
“The prenatal kind?”
“Straight from the pharmacy.”
“What’s that other stuff you’re supposed to take? Are you taking that?”
“Not sure.”
“Folic acid. That’s the stuff.”
They had reached a red light, and Bryn laid one hand on his arm. “Jake, I’m fine.”
“But—”
“No buts. We’re having twins. Allow yourself to enjoy the news and quit worrying.”
“Twins.” He whispered. He still wore that stunned look, and she wanted nothing more than to change it from worry to wonder.
She could reach over and smooth away the wrinkles, but what about his heart? That would be harder to change.
A horn honked behind them. The light had turned green while they sat there and stared at each other.
Jake gave a small wave and started the truck into motion.
All the way back to the ranch she could tell that he was trying to come to terms. She was a little shocked herself. She had come to terms with being a single mom. She was okay with that. But a single mom of one baby. Now there were two.
She rubbed one hand down her belly and tried her best to calm her pounding heart. This was a blessing, a double blessing, and she would look at it as such. But still, adjust was no longer the word for what she had to do.
Jake pulled the truck in front of the ranch but made no move to get out. She was certain he was trying to come up with the words to go inside and tell his family the news.
Or rather his mother and grandmother.
“Have you told Wesley at all?”
He shook his head. “I thought we might tell her together.”
That surprised her. Why would they tell her as a couple if she was going to be gone in a few days? She hadn’t exactly set a day of departure, preferring to leave it open. She wanted to stay. Get to know everyone a little better. And now . . . well, now they had even more to work out.
“Tonight?”
“What’s wrong with right now?”
Bryn blinked. “O-okay. Don’t you want to tell your mother first?”
“I got an idea. Why don’t we tell whoever we come to first?”