The Cowboy's Triple Surprise

by Barbara White Daille

Oh, no. She also wasn’t falling into that trap.

  “Your mommy’s the one in charge around here, and she’s perfectly capable of taking care of you all by herself.”

  She didn’t need the help of a rodeo cowboy.

  Thanks to her father, she knew all about the lies they told, the promises they broke, the important events they didn’t attend, the holidays they missed. She would be doing her babies a favor by keeping Tyler out of their lives.

  * * *

  THREE DAYS LATER, Tyler sat in his truck outside Shay’s house. He tried not to think about what had happened inside that small two-story building on his last visit, and especially not what had happened when he’d gone upstairs with her the previous summer.

  After bringing her home with the bounty from her baby shower, he had spent the next couple of days seething over her insults—which, unlike his unfortunate turns of phrase, were very much intended. First, her hint that he’d said things to her just to get what he wanted, and then her odd emphasis when she’d called him only a rodeo cowboy. Both had been designed to hit him right where it hurt.

  He glanced down the empty street. Jed had assured him Shay would be there within the hour. Tyler had no doubt the old man was up to something.

  These past few days, Jed had gotten him to spend plenty of time helping his granddaughters around the hotel. Their grandpa also had taken every opportunity to make sure his new assistant wasn’t far from Shay whenever she came to work at the Hitching Post.

  He could see right through the older man’s scheme. Jed had accepted his statement about not being interested in matchmaking services. In fact, he had seemed relieved at not having to risk his perfect record. Still, he appeared to want to help pave the way to a truce.

  Tyler didn’t have the heart to tell the man again he was wasting his time and talents.

  From the other end of the block, a car approached. He recognized the sedan’s outlines, then the dust covering every inch of the vehicle and, finally, the silhouette of the woman inside. He braced himself for the unhappy reception he expected. He didn’t have long to wait.

  Before she’d even put the car into Park, he could see Shay’s frown. She had been brief and formal when she’d thanked him for his help the other day. At the Hitching Post in the presence of others, she had been civil enough. Now, evidently, it was a case of her rodeo, her rules. He slammed the door of his truck and went to meet her at the walkway to the house.

  Her face looked drawn and tired. Her gaze seemed unfocused with fatigue. He clenched his fist by his side to keep from reaching up and smoothing away the lines in her forehead. It was almost a welcome relief to see a fire suddenly light her eyes.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

  “I’ve come to help you set up the baby’s room.”

  “Jed told me he would have Cole do that, which is why I hurried home from the shop. What happened to him?”

  “He’s still out riding the ranch.”

  “And Pete?”

  “Waiting for the vet to take a look at one of the foals.”

  “And Mitch?”

  He held back a growl. Barely. “I imagine the deputy sheriff’s busy keeping your fair town safe from evildoers. And before you ask, the rest of the cowhands are taking care of their chores and the stable boy’s mucking out the stalls and Jed’s too old to be moving furniture—but don’t tell him I said that. So the deal is, you’re stuck with me.”

  “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

  “And not have the room put to rights before the kids come along?”

  Her face settled into the determined scowl of a bull protecting his territory. Likewise, he felt himself stiffening, preparing to dig in his heels. Whether or not Jed had misguidedly instigated this arrangement on his behalf, he had agreed to help, and that’s just what he intended to do.

  And, unlike last time he’d come here, he also intended to keep his hands off Shay.

  “Look,” he said patiently, “once I left town last summer, I couldn’t have known you’d gotten pregnant, but I know it now. You don’t want me to have a role in the kids’ lives. I get that, and I told you I don’t want to be a daddy, anyway. But I’m leaving in a few days. I want to make sure you’re all set up before the babies come. And then after I’m gone, I’ll send you money every month to help take care of them. It’s the least I can do.”

  Now her expression changed to disbelief and distrust. The sight hit him harder than the verbal insults she’d thrown at him.

  Who would have won the standoff, he didn’t know. As it turned out, events didn’t have time to come to a head.

  The front door of the house opened, and Shay’s grandma stepped onto the porch. She was carrying a handbag and a couple of plastic sacks. As she came down the steps, she left the door open behind her. Tyler had met the woman at the Hitching Post, though they hadn’t yet had a private conversation. Maureen, her name was. She had told him to call her Mo.

  He didn’t know if she knew he was the father of Shay’s babies, and she’d never given him an indication one way or the other. But she had both a head of white hair and a sharp eye in common with Jed, and the two older folks appeared to have a shared interest in helping Tyler’s cause.

  “Ah, Tyler,” she said with satisfaction. “Jed told me you’d be here shortly. I’m glad you’ve made it and Shay is home now, too. I have to run, and it wouldn’t have been much of a welcome to leave you sitting out on the porch.”

  He hadn’t received much of a welcome, anyhow. “It wouldn’t be a hardship to spend some time in that porch swing up there,” he countered, a pleasure he and Shay had never shared.

  “Well,” Mo said with a smile, “maybe you’ll have that opportunity after your work is done today.”

  The look Shay shot him told him he’d have no chance of that. Her expression softened as she turned to Mo. “Don’t you want to stay and help us set up the room?”

  “I would love to, lass, but I’m on my way to the community center.”

  “I’m sure they could manage without you for once.”

  “Not this time.” Mo gestured to her sacks. “I’ve got the rest of the yarn for our current project, and the knitting circle can’t make progress without it. No, you two go along and get to work. I’ll be up to see the room as soon as I’m back again.”

  She stepped aside on the walkway, giving them space to pass her, and stood there smiling. And waiting.

  He could see Shay struggling, unwilling to give in and accept his help. Maybe what he had said about not having the room ready in time finally swayed her, because after another beat of silence, she nodded. “All right, see you later.”

  As Shay started up the walkway toward the house, Mo patted his arm encouragingly.

  This time when the urge to smile struck him, he didn’t fight it. He’d have to save his battle strength for when he and Shay were alone.

  * * *

  AFTER TYLER FOLLOWED Shay upstairs to the bedroom that used to be hers, she quickly ran down a list of what needed to be done. Of course she wouldn’t want him spending any more time here with her than he absolutely had to. As she probably had it figured, the sooner she outlined what he had to take care of, the sooner he could get to it and be on his way.

  “The cribs still need to be assembled, and when that’s finished, we can set them up with the changing table and bureaus. And then I can fill the drawers.” She gestured across the room. “You can see I didn’t make much progress with the bags from the shower,” she mumbled.

  He’d wager she wouldn’t confess to what he knew had to be the reason, that she was more worn out than she let on.

  As he worked on unboxing the first crib, she moved around the room, unpacking bags and going back and forth to put things in the closet. When he started his assembly, she was at his side, helping to steady the railing as he lined up the head-and foot
boards and slipped the bolts into place.

  He frowned. “Shouldn’t you be taking it easier?”

  “I’m just holding on to a strip of wood.”

  “You’re on your feet. And you’ve been on your feet a good part of the day. Don’t you want to sit down?”

  “Don’t you want to get this done?”

  He tightened one of the bolts. “I’m not in that much of a hurry.”

  “Well, I am.”

  With one hand, she stroked her round belly, a move he’d seen her make many times at the Hitching Post. Now, he saw her belly move in response. He stared as the stripes on her shirt rippled like a windblown wheat field. His heart thumped and his throat tightened and for the first time the truth of what she had said to him the other day hit home. These were three babies she was carrying, three lives she would soon bring into the world.

  “The babies are active today,” she said, looking down, a soft smile curving her lips.

  Once, she had shared those smiles with him. Those days were gone. The thought left him feeling hollow.

  “Guess the kids are getting ready to come take up residence in these cribs.” Suddenly, he felt less irritated about her need to hurry him along. Maybe it wasn’t directed solely at her desire to get him out of her house. Maybe she knew more than she was telling him. His hand slipped. The tool that had come with the kit nicked a tiny scratch into the wood of the headboard. “You’ve still got a couple more weeks left, at least, right?”

  She laughed without humor. “Are you worried I might go into labor as we speak?”

  “Heck, no,” he fibbed. “Just thinking about how long it might take me to set up three cribs. It’s not as easy as just one.” He paused, then said, “Raising three babies at once can’t be as easy as just one, either.”

  “I don’t know about that. You just batch tasks and get everything over with at once.” The twitch at one corner of her mouth told him she was teasing and trying to hide a smile.

  Suddenly he felt a little less hollow.

  “That’s providing all the babies cooperate.” Again, he hesitated, but her reaction had seemed to lower the wall she’d erected between them by a few inches. “How did you take hearing the news you were having the triplets?”

  “About as well as you did.”

  “It was that obvious, huh?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Her gaze met his then lowered again to her belly. “It’s a lot to deal with at once. Overwhelming. But exciting.”

  “And scary.”

  “And scary,” she echoed.

  And she would have to face every overwhelming, exciting, scary step all on her own.

  On her own except for her grandma and all their friends, as she had been sure to tell him when she had said she didn’t need him along for the ride. That was okay with him. He hadn’t signed on for a ride like this one. He only wanted her to agree to take help from him, and then he’d be out of here, his obligation fulfilled and Cowboy Creek in his rearview mirror.

  His hand slipped again. No scratch this time, but it was a close call. He wiped his palm on his jeans. “I need to get out. To the truck. For another screwdriver. The tools they give you with an assembly kit don’t always do the best job.”

  “All right.” One hand on her back, she made her way to the doorway ahead of him. “I think I’m going to go and put my feet up for just a minute.”

  He watched as she moved down the hallway, her pace so slow and steady no one could have noticed anything awkward or ungainly about her progress. Probably no one would even realize she was pregnant and carrying three babies.

  He knew. And that hand at the small of her back bothered him more than he could say.

  He went down the stairs to the first floor at about Shay’s speed, his thoughts still upstairs with her. She was independent, not a bad trait to have and one he hoped she passed along to the kids. But as for that danged stubbornness—

  He hadn’t yet made it to the front door when she called his name, her voice shrill.

  Frowning, he about-faced and went up the stairs again at a run. The hallway was empty. He didn’t know where she had gone. As he passed the babies’ bedroom, she called him again.

  Third door on the left, into a smaller bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed with her arm cradling her belly. After one look, he went down on his knee beside her and took her free hand. It was shaking. Or maybe that was his. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, her voice still high. “I’m having pains.”

  “Hey, hey, calm down,” he said soothingly, he hoped. “It’s not too soon for the babies to come, is it?”

  “No. We were hoping they would hold out a bit longer, but my doctors told me I could go into labor at any time. It’s just...” She swallowed hard. “I’m scheduled to deliver in Santa Fe.”

  “And maybe you still will. Everything will be all right.” How would he know? But when she nodded, seeming calmer, he was glad he had given her the reassurance. “Why don’t you call your doctor and let him know what’s going on.”

  She nodded. “My cell phone. It’s in my bag. I think I left it on the couch when we came in.”

  “I remember. Be right back.” He strode along the hall and took the stairs three at a time. He’d told her to calm down, but who was there to say that to him? As he grabbed the bag, he stole the time to take one steadying breath before going back up the stairs. It wouldn’t help Shay if he fell all to pieces.

  She must have had the doctor on speed dial, because in seconds she was talking to someone on the other end of the line, explaining about the pains. Even as she described them, another one seemed to hit her. She gasped but kept her attention on the conversation. He paced the room, wondering how he would handle it if she had the babies right now.

  A few moments later, midsentence, she grabbed at her stomach and slammed the phone on the bed.

  He took the cell from her and spoke into it. “My name’s Tyler. I’m...here visiting with Shay. What should we do?”

  A reassuringly steady voice said, “This is Dr. Grayden. Have Shay lie down with her feet up. We’re sending an ambulance to her address. It’s already on the way.”

  “Are the babies on the way?”

  “I won’t know that until I see Shay.”

  He must have mumbled something, because the doctor said kindly, “Don’t worry, young man. Once the ambulance arrives, she’ll be in good hands with the EMTs and then with the staff at the hospital. Until that time, you’re to tell her she’s in equally good hands. Yours. Keep her calm and relaxed and remind her to practice her deep breathing. Understood?”

  “Understood.”

  “Good. I’ll be waiting when you arrive.”

  He disconnected the call. Shay stared at him, wide-eyed. He took her hand. “It’s okay,” he said firmly. “They’ve got an ambulance on the way. You’re supposed to lie down and practice breathing.”

  Nodding, she lay back against the bed. He lifted her feet so she could stretch out comfortably.

  “Want a blanket?”

  “No, I’m fine. But I’m supposed to be having the babies in Santa Fe,” she said again. “That’s where the specialist is. That’s where they have the high-risk NICU.”

  High risk? No wonder she was in such a panic. He took another deep breath. “Dr. Grayden says you’ll be in good hands at the hospital here.” He didn’t tell her what the doc had said about his capabilities in the meantime. With luck, the man was right about that, too.

  “I know,” she agreed, “but this isn’t what we expected to happen. One of the babies is turned. I can’t deliver. I’m supposed to have a C-section.”

  “And you will,” he said as soothingly as he could. “They can deliver the babies here in Cowboy Creek, can’t they?”

  She shrugged. “The specialist said they have a special care unit at our ho
spital. And a nurse on staff trained to handle multiple births.”

  “Then the hospital’s on alert and ready, right? And remember, you told me the doctor said anything can happen as far as the timing. Maybe the babies are just tired of waiting and eager to get here.”

  She gave a half laugh that made his heart flip. “Not as eager as I am.”

  “Well, then, that’s what we’ll keep thinking.” He squeezed her hand slightly.

  As another pain hit, she moaned and gripped his fingers.

  Chapter Nine

  Chasing an ambulance to Cowboy Creek General Hospital was another ride Tyler hadn’t signed on for. Driving white-knuckled and leaning over the steering wheel hadn’t helped to make the trip any shorter.

  The ambulance had seemed to take forever to arrive at the house. In reality, the clock on Shay’s cell phone when he dropped it into her bag showed only eleven minutes had passed since she’d called her doctor. One of the benefits of living in a small town.

  One of the drawbacks was now staring him in the face, her expression stern and forbidding above her nurse’s uniform. She was half his size and judging by her gray curls probably three times his age, and still she held the power to stop him in his tracks. “I’m sorry, but as I’ve told you twice already, no one but the designated support person is allowed beyond this point.”

  “But I followed Shay here in the ambulance,” he protested.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I have her bag.” He held it up as if it were a talisman that would magically grant him entrance through the doors just yards away.

  “I’ll see the family is notified when they get here.”

  “When will that be?” His voice had risen a few notches in frustration. The nurse frowned at him. He glared back. He wanted to throttle the woman. He wanted to push past her and go down the hallway and through the automatic doors into the bowels of the hospital, to wherever he would find Shay.

  In the minutes they had waited for the ambulance to arrive at the house, then for the medical techs to transfer her onto a stretcher and downstairs and into the emergency vehicle, she’d had a few more pains or contractions or whatever they might have been. The anguish on her face just before they’d closed the ambulance doors had torn at his heart.