Midwife's Marvel

by Caroline Lee

  But instead of glazing over, her eyes had gone wide again. “So you must be pretty wealthy, huh?”

  She’d figured that out on her own? “Um…what?”

  “There’s a big need for super-efficient, eco-friendly fertilizers. I’m assuming you’ve sold the patent for a percentage of the profits?”

  Now it was Joshua’s turn to be surprised. “Yeah…that’s it exactly! You know, not many people keep up with chemical engineering advancements.”

  “Well, what can I say?” She lifted her shoulders in a quick shrug, and there was a definite twinkle in her eye. “I like to read too. And my grandfather used to always say the way to get rich is to find something with a byproduct—like factory waste—which someone will pay you to get rid of, then find someone else who’ll pay you to take it off your hands. You’re turning literal waste into fertilizer!”

  He had to laugh. “Guilty as charged.”

  “That’s amazing! Congratulations on such a cool accomplishment. Companies must’ve been fighting over that formula.”

  He didn’t like to brag how much his discovery had netted him, and he didn’t get the sense she actually wanted to know, so he merely nodded modestly. “Since my contract finished, I came back to the ranch for some R&R and to watch Will’s parents renew their vows. “ He nodded to where Bobbi Weston was now cheering on her husband’s attempts at nose-paddle-balancing. “And finish my book.”

  “Your book?” Allison leaned back against the tree’s trunk, looking totally at ease.

  Somehow, her ease put him at ease. Maybe it was the fact she was the first woman since Paradise Space Flight who seemed to care about his accomplishments. Maybe it was the fact she was the prettiest, most serene woman he’d ever met.

  Whatever it was, Joshua sipped his root beer and didn’t feel at all awkward launching into an explanation. “I previously wrote a textbook for undergrads—chemical engineering, my major. I worked on it for years, but I didn’t have a lot of time to write because of the hours I was putting in at the private space firm where I worked. ”

  “And now that you don’t?” She smiled and flicked her eyes towards the lake. “Now that you’re living in real paradise?”

  He shrugged. “I’m already working on my next book. PhD-level stuff. My professors told me I had a talent with the way I explained things, so I’m giving it a try again. My publisher is excited, but gave me a tighter deadline this time.”

  Her grin grew and seemed genuine. Genuine and calm and beautiful, just like the rest of her. “I’m very happy for you, Joshua. Sounds like you have a lot to be proud of.”

  Her praise flustered him. He took a too-fast sip of the root beer and started to cough, which rattled him even more. He flapped his hand dismissively and shook his head, all the while trying to convey that he wasn’t actually choking to death.

  When he finally managed to not die, he cleared his throat. “No! No, I’m just— I mean, that’s not— How about you?” Oh, real smooth.

  “What about me?”

  “Well…” Think! “Tell me about yourself.” He winced at how stupid that sounded.

  But she just shrugged. “Not much to tell. I’m a traditionalist, a Bitterroot Salish Native American from the Rez in Montana. Just turned forty, married to my work… What else?” She pursed her lips while she thought, and Joshua did his best not to stare at them. “Oh, my favorite food is barbeque ribs, I believe in cloth diapering to minimize landfill waste and save our planet, I think it’s wrong to drill for oil on sacred land—but I think most ancestral land is sacred, so that presents complications to my own philosophy, which I can acknowledge—and I like root beer…but not nearly as much as Ellie and Will, because they’re borderline obsessive.”

  Wow. There was a certainty, a knowing, that hit Joshua all at once. I like her. He liked that she was confident in herself and confident expressing her opinions. She’d thrown in the bit about being married to her work; he figured that was her way of mentioning she didn’t have to share her time with anyone else. She was strong and independent and Joshua found himself romanticizing everything she’d just said. Get a hold of yourself.

  “So…cloth diapering huh?”

  His response obviously took her by surprise, judging by the laugh that burst from her lips. “What? No, I mean—that’s just something— You said ‘tell me about yourself’ so I spouted off a bunch of stuff. That’s what you picked up on?” She was half-incredulous, half-teasing.

  He shrugged. “I don’t have any real opinion on oil drilling on Native American lands, although I’d welcome a deeper discussion. And I like ribs and root beer too, but not nearly as much as Will.”

  “Root beer was originally made by Eastern tribes from the Sassafras root, you know.”

  Joshua’s brows went up. “I did know that actually. You know what else Sassafras is used for?”

  “Gumbo seasoning. Also a Native American recipe.”

  He tipped his root beer in a silent toast. “So, see? We covered everything else, including midwifery. So tell me about the cloth diapering.”

  That sparkle in her dark eyes was back, and he found himself totally entranced. Her teeth were white and even when she smiled, and she had just enough lines at the corners of her mouth to show she’d spent nearly forty years laughing plenty.

  Yeah, he definitely wanted to get to know her better.

  “Well, what do you want to know about cloth diapering?”

  “I remember my mom saying something about using them when I was a kid, but by the time my younger sister was born, she was glad for the disposables. Of course, Sess is much younger than me. She used to tease me about dinosaurs pulling my wagon to school, instead of buses. So cloth diapering was considered pretty old-fashioned around our house, I guess.” He winced. “I’m not sure why I told you that, since it makes it sound like I’m calling something you believe in old-fashioned. I don’t. I mean, I don’t have any real opinion—“ Just stop talking! “I’ll shut up now.”

  Luckily, she was chuckling by this point. “No, it’s okay. Cloth diapering is old-fashioned. I mean, it’s pretty much the definition of old-fashioned. But the modern ones are nothing like the cloth diapers we used as babies. Those were a real pain to wrestle onto the baby, and gross to clean. These new ones are self-contained, all in one, super-absorbent and easy to use. And they’re so expensive that people resell them after the baby has potty-trained. This set I brought for Ellie’s baby, I bought off a mother in Coeur d’Alene.”

  “Really?” He was learning all sorts of things from her. And to someone like him, who loved to learn so much, that was the highest praise he could offer. “I just bought them a bouncy chair off their registry.”

  She burst into laughter, and he fell just a little bit in love with the sound.

  “Well, if they registered for it, I know they’ll love it.”

  Joshua still felt like a fool, staring at her so raptly. He forced his mouth to say something, but he didn’t expect what came out.

  “Will has set up canoe races for later. Will you be my partner?” He gestured, flustered, with his cup. “I mean, we have to partner up for the races. I just thought it would be fun, if maybe, you know. You and I—“

  “I would love to partner with you for the canoe race, Joshua.”

  Wow. Okay. Okay, you got this. “That would be awesome. Think we have a chance at winning?”

  She nodded seriously. “It’s a canoe race, and not to be stereotypical, but my grandfather taught both of us—my brother and me—how to paddle at a young age.”

  He laughed and offered to get her a cup of root beer from the refreshment table. She insisted on going with him, and he felt about ten feet tall when she walked beside him across the clearing. If he could talk her into sitting beside him at the planned lunch later, he might even work up the guts to ask her on a date.

  He was busy resisting the urge to grab her hand, because it felt so natural, when he looked up and caught Aunt Jaclyn’s eye. The old lady winked at
him, and Joshua almost stumbled over his feet.

  He knew it was her way of saying, “I told you so,” and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sure, he hadn’t intentionally crossed the clearing to speak with Allison, but he was certainly glad he had.

  Had it really been his heart nudging him in that direction? Had he done exactly what his great aunt had asked him to do: listen to his heart?

  As he sent her a scowl for good measure, and focused his attention once more on the serene woman beside him, he knew one thing: I might’ve listened to my heart, but I’m not going to go start believing in fairies anytime soon.

  CHAPTER THREE

  A date! An actual, official date! When was the last time she’d been on one? Allison couldn’t remember, and frankly, didn’t care. She refused to think of past dates, when she could be thinking about Dr. Joshua Hardy instead.

  She’d really enjoyed getting to know him at Ellie’s baby shower last week. Not only was he as handsome as she remembered, but he was funny, and polite, and smarter than anyone she’d ever met. And best of all, he seemed to genuinely like her as well. He wasn’t intimidated by all of her opinions, or her pride in her work. In fact, he seemed to applaud her desire to maintain traditions, despite him being a scientist and all. He was the first man in a long time to make her feel… Well, like she was doing something worthwhile and not crazy.

  You like him, Blackbird, her brother’s voice in her head teased.

  Well, so what? If Jonathan had been there, she would’ve stuck her tongue out at him like she did when they were both younger. Before he’d gotten all famous and important-Hollywood-actor-y.

  But if her little brother had been there, she would have made them both a cup of Grandmother’s special tea, and made him stay up late listening to how wonderful Joshua was. They’d had the most marvelous time in the canoe races at the shower, even though they’d lost both races. It was only by a little bit, and only because Will had teamed up with his brother Wade to win.

  Still, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed so hard, and Joshua had been the perfect partner. Despite having just met, they were so in tune with one another, their strokes had been in perfect rhythm.

  “Not many people can say that,” she’d told him, laughing.

  And he’d surprised her by asking her on a date. Even better than that, they’d spoken on the phone three times during this last week, for almost two hours each time! Allison almost didn’t miss her brother anymore, not since she had Joshua to talk to. These last few days, she felt like she was walking around on a cloud. Everything seemed brighter, the days sunnier, the birds’ chirping more cheerful. She felt as if her heart were lighter, somehow, while at the same time being fuller than she remembered.

  And if that wasn’t the silliest thing ever, she didn’t know what was.

  But still, she fussed over what to wear today, changing clothes three times before finally settling on a pair of jeans and her least scrub-like scrub shirt. She had appointments, after all, before her afternoon date, and she wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. He’d told her to meet him at the boathouse on the ranch to get a lesson in going faster that didn’t involve canoes, and to bring her bathing suit. It was all very mysterious, and she couldn’t wait.

  Standing in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom, Allison studied herself. Her long, straight hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Would Joshua prefer it in a bun like it had been last week? Maybe last week he hadn’t seen the streaks of gray that marred the once-smooth black strands. She was no longer a young woman, it was true. But she had been raised to believe that her worth was not tied to her age, her beauty, or her marital status. When she looked at the wrinkles around her eyes and at the corners of her mouth, she didn’t see them as marks of age, but rather of laughs shared with friends. Grandmother had always praised her choices in life and reminded her they didn’t have anything to do with a man. Still, it was nice to think a man might find her somewhat attractive.

  Scolding herself for her fretting, Allison stuck her tongue out at her reflection, then went out to her car. She may have a date today, sure, but first she had to go see some mamas.

  Her third—and last—appointment of the day was Ellie Weston. Allison was happy to note Ellie’s lowered blood pressure and reminded her to stay as relaxed as possible to keep it that way. Then she left her patient to fend off a well-meaning Border Collie’s kisses, and Will walked her to the door.

  He was chuckling as he looked over his shoulder at his wife. “Man, Indy hasn’t left her alone since she got pregnant. Even her new friendship with Rocky hasn’t distracted her.”

  “Rocky is one of the employees?” Allison asked, confused.

  That just seemed to make Will laugh harder. “No, he’s a search-and-rescue dog who just moved to the ranch. Indy is the one who’s made friends with him, not my wife.”

  Allison joined in the chuckles. “Yes, that makes more sense.”

  “Speaking of new friends…” Will held open the door. “Joshua told me his plans for today.”

  He winked, and Allison felt herself blushing. Blushing! Like she was a girl again!

  “He hasn’t told me what we’re doing yet. Said he wanted it to be a surprise.”

  “Then I won’t ruin it!” Will waved as she walked out to her car. “All I’ll say is next time, you’ll have to paddle faster to beat us!”

  Will’s teasing had only piqued her interest more. What did Joshua have planned? She made her way towards the lake…

  “Jet skis!”

  Joshua’s announcement, when she finally met up with him at the boathouse, wrenched a surprised laugh out of her. Jet skis? It was a good thing she brought her bathing suit after all.

  “Why are you laughing?” He frowned at her in mock irritation. “I thought you would be all for going fast, after our disappointing loss on the battlefield.”

  His silliness just made her laugh harder, but she waved her hands, trying to convey that she wasn’t irritated, just surprised. His continued attempts to maintain a stern demeanor told her she’d been successful in communicating that message to him.

  “I’ve never been on a jet ski before,” she confessed, once she’d managed to calm down enough to form a complete sentence. “Are you sure I can trust you driving it?”

  “What kind of question is that to ask a man?” He drew himself up indignantly. “I’ll have you know I’ve only crashed once…maybe twice. Three times, tops.”

  That set her off again, and soon he was laughing right along with her.

  She needn’t have worried though; Joshua was an excellent jet ski driver, and she appreciated how he took the time to explain the machine‘s workings before they even got on the water. Still, that didn’t stop her from squealing and throwing her arms around him when he zoomed away from the dock. Behind her, she could still hear the nice young man who’d helped them—she thought he’d said his name was Soap, but surely she was mistaken—laughing at her as they sped away from the dock.

  Joshua’s laughter, on the other hand, was full of joy. She felt it reverberating through her, since she was pressed against his back. It was the most unusual, most wonderful feeling she could ever remember experiencing. It was on par with the heady feeling she got when she held a newborn infant and felt him take his first breath. Miraculous. Marvelous.

  Joshua’s laughter made her feel more connected to the world around her. Or maybe it was from her own joy, feeling the wind’s tiny fingers plucking at her face and hair.

  Laughter bubbling up inside her, and she squeezed Joshua tighter. To her surprise, he removed one hand from the handlebars in front of him and placed it over hers, where it gripped a strap of his life jacket. When he squeezed, her smile grew.

  They spent the next hour or so zipping all over the lake, avoiding the other rented jet skis and the smaller craft such as the canoes and paddle boats. He showed her how to jump the waves and how to spin so fast, the circular wall of water they created blocked out all
view of the rest of the lake. Then he took her near the shoreline and pointed out the wildflowers and a moose calf picking its way through the shallows. There was even a family of beavers making improvements to their home, and Joshua turned the machine’s engine off completely so the two of them could enjoy the sight. Allison was reminded of the times she spent with her grandfather, learning about the wonders of nature.

  That’s when it struck her why she was so comfortable with Joshua. Being with him felt…familiar. She’d known him less than a week, but they’d spent hours talking and laughing. Was this…?

  Am I falling in love?

  “Okay! Your turn!”

  Joshua couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun. Sure, it had been really cool pairing up with her for the canoe race. And he had to admit they made a really good team. And of course talking with her on the phone so much this week had been wonderful too. But getting her out here on the water? Showing her how much fun it was to zoom around at top speed? To feel her arms around him, and hear her laughter? Yeah. This was even better.

  Joshua had loved jet skiing since he was a kid, since the first time he’d gotten on one down at Lake Coeur d’Alene. Since then, he kept up with the latest models, always trying the newest and best. He couldn’t help it; it was as close to being an astronaut as he’d ever get. With his astigmatism, he’d long ago had to give up dreams of flight school. But being on the water, blasting off at top speeds… It made him feel like he was riding in one of the rockets he designed.

  And today, he got to share that feeling with her. He’d been thrilled by the way Allison enjoyed the ride, and now he wanted her to have a chance to drive. But apparently, she was scared.

  “Oh no! I’m perfectly happy back here!”

  He could feel her trembling slightly against his back, where she held onto him. “What? Don’t tell me you’re scared. A woman like you? Scared of a little speed?” He blew a dismissive raspberry, then felt her laughter.

  “Uh-oh! You brought fear into this? I’m not afraid…just cautious.”