Evergreen Springs

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “Oh!” Ty gave a disappointed look. “I wanted you to stay for dinner. We’re having chicken strips and baked fries. Letty makes the best fries.”

  “Why are they still called fries when they’re baked, not fried?” Jazmyn asked.

  “I’m not sure. Whatever the reason, your dinner sounds delicious. I’m sorry to miss it but I have to leave. Can I have a hug?”

  Ty jumped up, wrapping his arms around her waist tightly. She clung to him for a long moment and finally kissed the top of his head, which smelled of shampoo and little-boy sweat.

  “Goodbye, my dear.”

  Jazmyn stood more slowly, her gaze narrowed as if she suspected something wrong but couldn’t figure out what it might be.

  She gave her a hug, then stepped away, still looking at her with suspicion in her eyes that looked so much like her father’s. “Bye, Devin.”

  “I hope you have a wonderful Christmas,” she said. To her dismay, her voice wobbled a bit on the last word and she quickly ordered her features into smooth lines.

  “Christmas isn’t for four more days. Won’t we see you before then?” Jaz asked.

  “I doubt it. I’m going to be very busy working through the holidays. People still get sick at Christmas, I’m afraid. But merry Christmas. I’m sure it will be magical. Christmas always is. Goodbye, my dears.”

  She walked out before the sharp-eyed little girl could see the tears brimming in her eyes.

  Out in the hall, she paused only long enough to grab a tissue off a handy box on the console table there. To her dismay, Letty followed her, concern on her features.

  “Is everything okay, Devin?”

  “Yes. Fine. I think my sinuses must have been affected by the minerals in the water today. Listen, thanks for the cookies and hot chocolate. Everybody loved the little post-soak party.”

  “It was Cole’s idea but I was happy to help.”

  “Thanks, especially for being here for Cole and the kids.”

  “It’s been my pleasure,” Letty assured her, still looking at her with concern. “I feel lucky to have the chance.”

  “Take care of them,” Devin said. Somehow she mustered a smile from somewhere deep inside, then walked out into the cold and the gathering darkness.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  A HOSPITAL CAFETERIA was a lousy place to celebrate Christmas Eve—even when you were one of the medical professionals and not a patient or member of a patient’s family.

  The staff had done their best to make the cafeteria as cheerful as possible. A Christmas tree glowed in one corner and paper garlands created by the pediatric patients and staff had been looped around the doorways.

  Festive decorations aside, it was still a hospital cafeteria. Christmas Eve was for home and hearth, for gathering around the fireplace and telling stories, singing songs, playing games, enjoying time with family. Not for being in the clinical setting of a medical facility.

  Devin tried not to feel too sorry for herself. Okay, her brown-bag turkey sandwich wasn’t her ideal late lunch on Christmas Eve but she had known what she was giving up when she volunteered to fill in during the holidays for the regular emergency department physicians. They all had families at home. Since she had only a couple of cats who barely deigned to notice she was there most of the time, she had been willing to make the sacrifice.

  She refused to let herself dwell in self-pity. She was so tired of herself after the past few mopey days.

  How were the children? she wondered. Were they excited about Santa coming that night? Had Cole found the last few items on their wish lists?

  She hoped Ty received the LEGO set he had his eye on and that Jazmyn got the American Girl doll she had mentioned only about a dozen times.

  Devin sank into a booth in the mostly deserted cafeteria, wishing she had at least asked one of the nurses working that day to have lunch with her.

  She wouldn’t feel lonely. That was a choice, a voluntary one that she refused to make. She would sit here and eat her turkey sandwich and leaf through the favorite collection of inspiring Christmas short stories that she reread every year.

  Her holiday wouldn’t be all bad. Though her mother was on an extended cruise with a friend, Devin and McKenzie were planning to get together the day after Christmas.

  Meanwhile, she was doing something worthwhile with her holidays. She was here offering her help to people who needed it. She would be dealing with the food poisonings from bad potato salad, the overexertion from snow shoveling, the box cutter injuries from impatient people trying to open ridiculous packaging.

  And she would continue to do it with joy, she decided as she sat there in the cheerless cafeteria. No matter how down she might feel inside, she would bring her very best self to help people who weren’t at the hospital by choice.

  She was just indulging in a snickerdoodle she’d brought in from a plate one of her neighbors had delivered the night before when she spied a familiar handsome older gentlemen walk into the cafeteria.

  Cole’s father.

  She couldn’t seem to escape Cole, wherever she was.

  Stanford’s shoulders seemed more stooped than usual as he looked at the choices available for Christmas Eve lunch. The food service would be available only for dinner that day, so the options now mostly included premade sandwiches in the cooler, fruit and snacks.

  He grabbed an apple and a bag of potato chips, paid for them and then started to sit down when he spotted her in the corner and switched directions.

  “Hey, Doc.”

  She couldn’t help a pang of sympathy for the man. He looked more alone than she was.

  “I’m afraid the selection is limited for now but they’re serving a turkey dinner later, if you’re still around.”

  He held up the apple and chips. “This will do me. I just needed a little something to tide me over.”

  “I’m guessing you’ve been to see Tricia. I haven’t had a chance to see her yet today. I was planning to stop in briefly after I eat. How is she?”

  Worry creased his still-handsome features. “Tired of being here and ready to pop those babies, I guess. I don’t really know. She didn’t say much. She did seem more uncomfortable than usual today, though.”

  How did Tricia feel about her father visiting her? Devin had the impression by some of the things she had said that Tricia was a little more willing to let her father work his way into her life than Cole. She had been younger when the two of them came to live with their grandparents. That might be why she didn’t hold fast to the same bitter anger he did.

  Stanford’s features looked suddenly bleak and he gazed down at his apple as if he didn’t recognize what it was. “I had to visit her today. After the next few days, I don’t think I’ll be very welcome.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. “Why? Has something happened?”

  He gripped the apple more tightly, giving her a small smile that looked falsely hearty. “Oh, nothing. Never mind. You know, I’ve changed my mind. I think I’ll eat my snack on the way home. Buster will be ready to go out soon. Merry Christmas to you, Dr. Shaw.”

  “Merry Christmas,” she answered automatically.

  Still troubled by the cryptic conversation, she finished her sandwich quickly and then hurried out of the cafeteria toward Tricia’s room to ask her about it.

  As she made her way through the hospital, it occurred to her, belatedly, that Cole might very likely be there with the children, visiting his sister.

  She should have thought of that. She hadn’t seen him since the evening he had basically told her to keep away from him and his children, closing the door on her as effectively as he shut down his father.

  Her throat felt tight with the familiar aching sadness she hadn’t been able to shake since that day. She missed them all terribly and felt as if an
y joy she might have found in this wonderful season of hope and light had seeped out of her as she drove away from Evergreen Springs.

  She paused outside Tricia’s room. What would she do if Cole and the children were inside? She sighed. She would be professional and detached and as polite as she could manage. What other choice did she have?

  When she walked inside, however, she found Tricia alone in the room she had decorated to make it feel more like home. Her still-bandaged ankle rested on a pillow and she had a magazine propped on her huge-with-twins belly but seemed to be staring into space, not reading.

  “Hi.” Devin pinned on her brightest smile. Sometimes that confident, calming smile was the best gift she could give her patients. “How is everyone today?”

  Tricia shifted on the bed. “Achy. I can’t seem to get comfortable, no matter what I do. My back is killing me.”

  Devin looked at her more closely, taking in the tightness of her features, the flush in her cheeks. “Any contractions?”

  Tricia shrugged listlessly. “More Braxton Hicks.”

  “When was the last time Dr. Randall gave you an exam?”

  “Tuesday, before he left town.”

  He had gone to Utah for a ski vacation with his family. Devin had talked to him before he left about the possibility that Tricia might go into labor and they had agreed that she and his colleague Dr. Strong would deliver in that case.

  “When was the last time the nurses hooked you up to the monitors?”

  “This morning. Everything was fine then.”

  A great deal could change in a few hours. “I’d like to take a look at things, if you don’t mind, and perhaps have the nurse hook you back up to the monitor.”

  A few moments later, she pulled off her gloves. The exam confirmed what she had seen on the printout from the monitors. She gave Tricia that comforting smile again and reached for her friend’s hand. “Guess what? Those aren’t Braxton Hicks.”

  Tricia sucked in a breath. “Are you serious?”

  “Full-fledged labor, my friend. You’re dilated to a four already. Merry Christmas, Tricia. Looks like you’re going to have two more presents than you were expecting.”

  “Now? Today?”

  “Apparently.” She paused, feeling her face heat in a way that was completely unprofessional. “Do you need to call your brother?”

  “He’s on his way, actually, and should be here in a few minutes. He and the kids are having their Christmas Eve dinner here with me—a spinach lasagna you and your friends brought over for them. Jaz picked it for their dinner because it was red and green, Christmas colors.”

  “Clever. But you’re going to want to hold off on lasagna—and anything else—for now. Don’t eat anything. I’ll call Dr. Strong and let him know.”

  “Will they be all right?” Tricia asked, her voice thin-edged with fear. “Are they big enough?”

  “They’re thirty-seven weeks today, which is officially considered full-term. They’ll probably be on the small side, which they would have been anyway, being twins, but I have a feeling they’ll be fine.”

  Tricia leaned back against the pillow, her eyes dazed. “They’re really coming today. I can’t believe it. My babies.”

  Devin smiled, folding Tricia’s fingers in hers. This was one of her favorite parts of being a family physician, helping to bring new life into the world.

  It was also one of the hardest, emotionally. While doing her residency and internship and since she had opened her practice, she had been involved in dozens of deliveries. Each was an amazing experience, life-affirming and joy-filled, even on the rare occasions when things didn’t go as expected.

  They were also emotionally draining and clawed at the scabs around her heart.

  “Since this is your first pregnancy, it might take a while,” she said calmly to Tricia. “It’s nearly two-thirty now. There’s a good chance they might not be here until Christmas Day. On the other hand, your body has been getting ready to deliver since your accident, so things might progress faster than expected. I’m going to call the nurses in and get you moved up to the labor and delivery floor and call Dr. Strong and Dr. Randall on his vacation to let them both know what’s going on and see how they want to proceed.”

  She regretted the necessity, but she would also have to call in someone to cover for her in the emergency department. Her partner—and Ben Kilpatrick’s father, Russell Warrick—was the logical choice as he didn’t have young children. He had grandchildren but she knew he was going to visit them Christmas evening.

  Tricia was her friend and she was alone. Devin wasn’t going to miss this delivery.

  While she was going over what she had to do, she suddenly realized Tricia had gone quiet, her features pale.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She gripped Devin’s hand. “I’m not ready. How can I do this by myself?”

  “You won’t be by yourself. I’ll be there the whole time, along with Dr. Strong and an excellent team of nurses and techs on the labor and delivery floor.”

  “I don’t mean the delivery itself, though I’m scared to death of that. I mean afterward. I don’t know if I can handle twins by myself. What if I’m a terrible mother?”

  Devin shoved aside her to-do list and her own emotional scars that had no place here. “Listen to me. You’re going to be a fantastic mother, Tricia. I’ve seen you with Ty and Jazmyn and you’re great with them. And you won’t be by yourself. You’ll have Cole to help you and Letty, who can’t wait to take care of you and those babies of yours. Your father, too, if you let him.” She smiled. “And don’t forget Jazmyn. Knowing her, she’ll insist on being your number one helper, whether you want her to be or not.”

  Tricia gave a small laugh, the color returning to her features. “Yes. Yes, of course. You’re right.”

  Her features suddenly tightened and she pressed a hand to her abdomen. “I can’t believe this is it. The real thing.”

  “Yes. And what a wonderful Christmas it will be for all of you.”

  She smiled, gave her patient’s hand another squeeze and then hurried out of the room to start the wheels in motion for everything she needed to do to help Tricia’s twins arrive safely.

  * * *

  FIVE HOURS LATER, as darkness descended and Christmas lights popped around the lake that gleamed a shiny black outside the window, it became obvious Devin’s prediction would come true.

  Labor had progressed quickly and it appeared as if Tricia would indeed have a Christmas Eve delivery.

  “You’re doing great,” she told her friend. “A few more hard contractions like that and we’ll be in transition and ready to rock and roll.”

  “What’s this we business?” Tricia muttered, though she gave a tired smile as she said it.

  Devin checked the monitors on the babies. Both had healthy, regular heartbeats, and all seemed to be proceeding normally. The babies were both in good position.

  Because everything was normal and routine, even with the multiple birth component, Dr. Strong hadn’t been eager to abandon his family’s Christmas Eve party if he wasn’t needed here. He had stopped in a few hours earlier and seemed content that Devin had things under control.

  “I wouldn’t do a single thing differently. Nothing,” he had told her in consultation out in the hall. “She’s obviously more comfortable with you than me, since I’ve only met her once. I’m fine with letting you take point on this one, if you’re okay with it.”

  “I am,” she’d said. She appreciated his confidence in her and this wasn’t her first time delivering twins, but she was still anxious for Tricia’s sake.

  “I’m only five minutes away if there are any complications at all or if you think we might be heading toward needing a C-section at any point. I’ll lay off the eggnog at the party, just in case I’m needed here.”


  “Thanks, Kent. I’ll keep you posted.”

  She was grateful to know he was close if Tricia ran into any difficulties, but so far everything was going smoothly.

  “Thank you for everything, Devin,” Tricia said after the next contraction. “I’m so glad you’re here, even though I know this wasn’t the way you planned to spend your Christmas Eve.”

  “No. I planned to be in the emergency department, dealing with all the domestic fights and the food poisonings and the stitches from people not knowing how to work their new electric knives.”

  Tricia’s weak smile fell away at the sudden noise of commotion out in the hallway.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, craning her neck to hear better. “That sounds like Cole.”

  Devin’s shoulders went taut. Over the past five hours, Cole and the children had been in and out of the room. Things had been predictably awkward and they had hardly exchanged two words, both focused on Tricia and trying to ignore the tension between them.

  The loud male voices in the hall continued and Devin could see it was distressing her patient.

  Sylvie Taylor, the maternity nurse helping Tricia, looked at the door. “Do you want me to check it out?”

  “No. Stay here. I’m sure it’s nothing but I’ll go take a look.”

  She headed for the door, just as they distinctly heard the words my wife, which elicited a gasp of shock from Tricia.

  “That’s...impossible!” Tricia exclaimed.

  “What is?” Devin asked, just as the door burst open and a tall, wiry, handsome man burst through with Cole close behind and lurched toward the bed.

  “Patricia.”

  “I’m sorry, sis. I tried to stop him.” Cole followed the man, looking big and tough and dangerously angry.

  “You’re in labor,” the man exclaimed. Devin hadn’t expected the British accent from Tricia’s husband—or that Sean Hollister would look haggard, unshaven and wan.

  “You’ve been in hospital for two weeks and you never bothered to say a word to me. You blocked my calls, you didn’t respond to my messages or my emails. I get one lousy text message saying you’re staying with your brother and I’m not to contact you. You didn’t seem to care that I was going crazy for worry. I told myself you’re pregnant and hormonal and not yourself, thinking you’ll come to your senses and be home any day. But then the days turned into weeks and you still wouldn’t answer my calls.”