by Amanda Renee
“Slow down. What’s going on?”
“Where’s Brandon?” She was panting.
“They saddled up and took off about ten minutes ago,” Aaron replied. “What’s wrong?”
“I think Vicki’s in labor.” Miranda wrung her hands.
“For heaven’s sake and you left her alone?” Aaron turned Miranda around in the direction of the house. “Go back in the house and I’ll ride out after them.”
“I’ll call an ambulance,” Kiley said as she reached for her cell phone.
Miranda bolted through the kitchen door. Paper towels covered the floor.
“I’m so sorry, Miranda.” Horrified her water broke, Vicki frantically mopped the floor with her foot on the towels, while she braced herself between the counter and a chair. “I had no idea.”
Miranda ushered Vicki over to one of the chairs and helped her sit down.
“It’s okay.” Miranda laughed nervously. “But it seems Brandon and Jesse took a ride. Aaron is looking for them now.”
“Of all the times... Oh!” Vicki stood up. “Oh, I don’t think there’s time. This baby’s coming now!”
“Now?” Kiley shrieked from the doorway. “Right now?”
Vicki rattled off Brandon’s cell phone number, saying she hoped he hadn’t left it in the truck. The women looked at each other when a ringing sound came from outside. Well, it wasn’t in the truck, but the porch was no better.
“Leave it to my absentminded husband,” Vicki joked through gritted teeth.
“Maybe you should lie down,” Miranda said, afraid the baby would fall out with the way Vicki was walking around the kitchen.
“I read walking helps aid the delivery process,” Vicki said as she paced the floor.
“Well, stop aiding it!” Kiley shrieked. “Wait for the ambulance to get here.”
“I think we should drive you to the hospital,” Miranda said.
“Oh!” Vicki doubled over in pain. “There’s no time.”
“No time!”
Miranda gave Kiley a look that said “shut up” in no uncertain terms. With a scared pregnant woman about to give birth in her kitchen, she didn’t need a crazed buxom blonde flipping out on top of it.
“Miranda,” Vicki pleaded, “you have to deliver this baby.”
“Me?” Now Miranda started to sweat. “I never birthed a thing in my life.”
“And I have?”
Don’t we need to boil water or something? Miranda ran through the episodes of Maternity Ward she had seen on The Learning Channel. They made it look so easy on TV. If only Jesse or Aaron were here. With all the calving and foaling they’ve done, they would be more help than she was right now.
“You’ll do fine,” Vicki reassured. “If Sally can do it, I know you can.”
“Sally? Who the heck is Sally?”
“My...dog. She...had...puppies,” Vicki said through Lamaze breaths. She braced herself between the arch of the living room and Miranda. “A few weeks ago...by herself with no trouble. We can, ow, do this. It’s, ow, perfectly natural.”
“Kiley, grab towels from the bathrooms upstairs and some sheets from the linen closet. How long does it take Mable to drive her sister home?” Mable always knew what to do in any given situation.
Miranda led Vicki to the living room. Upstairs they heard Kiley slam doors and drawers trying to find what she needed. Another contraction swept over Vicki.
Miranda looked at the kitchen clock. Too close. They are too close together.
“Where are those sheets?” she yelled to the ceiling above.
Loud footsteps bounded down the stairs.
“Here!”
Kiley tossed the sheets at Miranda as if they were on fire. After they smacked her square in the face, Miranda shot her a look that would have killed most people on the spot. She began to spread them out on the couch when Vicki started to protest.
“I already made a mess out of your kitchen floor. I’m not about to ruin your new couch.”
Miranda ordered Kiley to grab the shower curtain liner out of her bathroom so they could use it under the sheets. They lowered Vicki onto the couch as another contraction came. She squeezed the back of the couch as she let out a scream of agony.
What was taking the ambulance so long to get here? And where were the men?
“Now,” she spoke through her Lamaze breathing. “It’s happening now.”
“Stand by with those towels!” Miranda yelled to Kiley.
* * *
“VICKI!” BRANDON SHOUTED as he burst through the screen door and slipped on the paper towels. Jesse and Aaron steadied him as Kiley motioned to them to keep it down. She led them to the living room, where Vicki held a tiny bundle in her arms.
“Meet your daughter.” Vicki gazed at her husband with tear-filled eyes.
Brandon stood frozen, staring at his wife and new baby. It was as if someone glued his boots to the floorboards. Jesse and Aaron looked at each other, shrugged and nudged him forward. He knelt down beside his wife.
“I’m a mother?” he asked. Everyone laughed. “I mean, I’m a father?”
“Yes, dear.” Vicki moved aside the towel so he had a better look at his daughter. “Randi Lynn Slater, meet your daddy.”
“She’s so beautiful,” Brandon said through his tears.
“I named her after you, Miranda Lynn Archer.” Vicki turned to Miranda and smiled. “I hope you don’t mind my shortening her first name to Randi. You brought her into this world.”
Now it was Miranda’s turn to cry. Her hands still shook from the delivery.
“You brought her into this world. All I did was catch her on the way out.”
“I think it’s a perfect name for a perfect little girl.” Brandon kissed his wife. “You did good, sweetheart.”
“Oh, well, thank you.” Vicki laughed. “That’s mighty nice of you to say.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
“Well, it’s about time!” Kiley said. “Where were they? Stuck behind a tractor full of manure?”
The paramedics took both mother and baby to the hospital. Brandon thanked Miranda repeatedly on his way out. Kiley rambled a mile a minute as she told Aaron how Miranda delivered the baby. He ushered her out the door so Miranda and Jesse could be alone.
Miranda collapsed on the love seat. “Did what I think just happened, really happen?”
Jesse sat beside her and she laid her head on his shoulder. He ran his fingers through her hair as she closed her eyes.
“You were incredible today,” Jesse said softly. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“You?” Miranda lifted her head. “I didn’t know I had it in me, either.”
“What on earth happened in here?” Mable stood between the kitchen and the living room. “Who was in the ambulance that flew out of here?”
“Vicki.” Miranda smiled.
“And her daughter,” Jesse added.
Mable’s hands flew to her round cheeks. “You mean to tell me she had the baby...here?”
“Thanks to Miranda,” Jesse boasted.
“You delivered a baby?” Mable laughed. “What do you know about birthin’ babies?”
“Eh, nothing to it.”
“You scare the horses with the sound of your voice. You probably scared the child right on out of her.”
“So that’s how you did it,” Jesse teased.
“Get out of here, both of you.” Miranda tried to
rise from the love seat.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jesse pulled her back down.
“To take a bath.”
Jesse smiled provocatively at her.
“Alone, Jesse.”
He pouted and swatted her bottom as she stood. “I’ll be here when you’re finished.”
“Mable, remind me to buy a new shower curtain liner,” Miranda said from the stairs.
“What happened to the one I just bought?”
“I found another use for it.”
* * *
MIRANDA TURNED THE WATER to hot and waited for the steam to build. She sat on the edge of the tub and reran the events of the past hour in her head.
She helped bring a new life into this world. Never had she been so scared and so happy at the same time. It was amazing how two people could create a perfect little person.
Miranda ran her hand over her abdomen. Now she finally had a home. But, home to her always meant a husband and children. She had neither. While she had feelings for Jesse, she wasn’t sure where they would lead in the future. Their bet was still on the table, and neither of them was about to give up.
The fear of his leaving for Abilene soon loomed overhead. There were no guarantees in life except death and taxes, her mother used to say. Miranda knew enough not to get her hopes too high.
After her bath, Miranda padded into her bedroom and found the coverlet and the sheets on the bed folded down. A bouquet of wildflowers sat in a mason jar on the bedside table. The windows were open, inviting the breeze to waft in.
Jesse wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
“Do you like the flowers?”
“They’re beautiful.” Miranda turned in his arms to face him. “Thank you.” She rose on her tiptoes to kiss him softly on the lips.
Jesse took her by the hand and led her to the bed. She stopped short. Fear swept through her. She wasn’t ready for this.
“Relax,” Jesse said as he eased her onto the bed. “I just want to hold you for a while. Nothing more.”
Tension lifted from Miranda’s body as Jesse ran his hands up and down her back. His fingers worked the knots in her shoulders and the stiffness from her neck. She swung her legs up on the bed and lay back, taking him with her.
Jesse held her close. She listened to his heartbeat and the rhythmic sound of his breathing. As she drifted into sleep, she could have sworn she heard him say, “Someday, it will be us starting a family.”
Chapter Ten
Fourth of July morning the townsfolk began to arrive. Jesse scrambled fresh eggs in an iron skillet the size of Texas over the barbeque pit. In another skillet, he fried up a mess of bacon and sausage. Mable brought out stacks of homemade biscuits and a giant kettle of grits for everyone to dig in to.
Cole joked he felt like he was on a cattle drive, eating a chuck wagon breakfast. It was just the feeling Miranda hoped to convey. Traditionally the picnic didn’t start until noon. This year, she wanted to start the festivities early so everyone could eat breakfast outside together. She wanted a warm atmosphere, and what better way than to fill everyone’s bellies with a fresh, hot breakfast? Jesse and Miranda agreed to put their bet aside for one day.
By noon, Miranda found a moment to relax and enjoy the scene she had created. Everything from casseroles to cakes lined the red-and-white-checked tables. She secured the corner of each table with red, white and blue ribbons. Kiley placed salads in bowls of ice. No one arrived empty-handed.
In the center of each table, Miranda placed a pot of artificial bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes and white verbena she’d picked up at the dollar store to create a Texas patriotic floral arrangement. Aaron hung a twenty-foot American flag on one side of the barn roof and on the other side, the Lone Star flag.
Old-timers told stories of how they used to move cattle up and down trails for weeks on end. She admired their tenacity and the freedom they must have felt as they slept outside at night and enjoyed nature all day. The concrete jungle had gotten the best of her over the years. It wasn’t until now she realized what drew her to the ranch. The very scene played out before her. Community and family, together as one.
Miranda joined Charlie Slater and asked him about his new granddaughter. He told her how he ran out and bought new video and digital cameras to take pictures of the baby. The only problem was he couldn’t figure out how to load the film into the camera. When Miranda explained he needed a computer in order to use the digital camera, he made note of it and said he would go out tomorrow and get one. She offered to help him set everything up when he was ready.
Miranda was about to get up from the table when Charlotte Hargrove sat down directly across from her.
“Good morning, Miranda.”
“Good morning,” Miranda said flatly.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry.” She slid a small gold foil-wrapped box across the table. “For you. For the way I treated you at The Magpie a few weeks ago.”
“It’s forgotten.” Miranda slid the box to Charlotte. “I can’t accept your gift.”
“Please, take it as a peace offering,” Charlotte said. “Or if you rather I left, I would more than understand.”
“I invited everyone in Ramblewood.” She rose from the table. “You are welcome to stay as long as you’d like.”
“Please, Miranda.” Charlotte placed the box in Miranda’s hands and closed her fingers around it.
Miranda reluctantly opened the box to reveal a porcelain and silver hair comb. Her name painted on it with yellow roses entwining the letters.
“This is beautiful.” Too beautiful? Miranda faced Charlotte, trying to figure out the woman’s ulterior motive. “But you didn’t need to do this.”
“You’ve given Ramblewood a tremendous gift by carrying on the Carters’ tradition of this picnic. It was the very least I could do.”
“Thank you.”
Miranda talked to Charlotte for a while and learned she had six children. Two sets of twins, no less. Miranda thought of how nice it must be to have twins. Two in one shot. Not bad for a day’s work.
She watched everyone who arrived with children in tow. It wasn’t an outrageous request. Just a few children running around her house to make it complete. She watched Jesse as he taught his second cousin how to catch a softball, Max catching the balls he missed. He would make a great father someday. He truly seemed to love kids.
Miranda excused herself as she helped Aaron with iced tea detail.
“What’s the matter, sunshine?” Aaron asked, filling an empty glass. “You look all down in the mouth.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Miranda said, but she knew by the look on his face he didn’t believe her. “All right. With all these kids running around, I feel like my biological clock is ticking away without me.”
“Ah. I see.” Aaron set down the pitcher. “You help deliver one baby and now you want one of your own. I understand.”
“It’s not quite like that. You’re a man. Men don’t have biological clocks. You can keep making babies until the day you die. I figured by the age of thirty I would have had all the children I was going to have. Well, thirty’s less than a year away and even if I start now, it isn’t going to happen.”
“Your time will come.” Aaron gave her a quick hug. “Just be patient.”
* * *
JESSE WAS CLOSE ENOUGH to hear the conversation between Miranda and Aaron. He reached into his pocket to double-che
ck that the box he had been carrying around for the past few days was still there. He left breakfast duty to Beau and asked Miranda to take a walk with him.
“I heard what you said back there.” Jesse squeezed Miranda’s hand.
“I said a lot of things,” Miranda teased. “What would you be referring to?”
“About having children.”
Seeing his own children run around the Double Trouble Ranch had always been his plans for the future. Now that he was certain Miranda wanted the same thing, this was the moment he had waited for his entire life.
“Oh.” Miranda released his hand and started to walk more on an angle to put some distance between them. She made it clear she didn’t want to discuss the matter further.
“It’s okay, you know,” Jesse said as he doubled his steps to rein her in.
“What is?”
“Miranda, stop.” He took hold of her hands so she couldn’t walk away. “You’re not the only one who expected to have a family by now.” Jesse started to bend at the knees, when she released his hands suddenly again.
“Why don’t we talk about this later?” She motioned toward her guests. “I want to have fun today, not be brought down by what I don’t have in life.”
Not waiting for a response from him, she walked to one of the tables and struck up a conversation.
Jesse wouldn’t let anything deter him. If now wasn’t the right time to propose, tonight would be.
It took Jesse a while, but the more time he spent with Miranda, the more he realized this was where she belonged. She didn’t have anything to return to even if she had decided to pack it in. The bet didn’t matter to him anymore. The future, with Miranda by his side, was all he saw. The ranch was an afterthought at this point.
* * *
MIDAFTERNOON, MIRANDA BUZZED from table to table. People had surrounded her as if she were a movie star. They wanted to know who she knew in D.C. and if she ever met the president. Even he was surprised to hear she wasn’t interested in politics.