“Ah, but I see the woman in my mind’s eye with her Spanish face and red dress in your fiancé’s apartment. And I know her name.”
Caitlin stared at her in disbelief. Stefan’s apartment, the dress. This fortune teller had nailed it. “Lucky guess.”
Lila snapped the notebook shut. “Thank you for the lovely tea,”she said, pulling on her coat. “I knew this would be fun.”
“More than ‘fun’,” Madame Tallulah said, doing air quotes with her fingers. “Life changing. Just you wait and see.”
“Do you take credit cards?” Caitlin asked, handing over her American Express.
“Mais oui,” Madame Tallulah said with a flourish. She swiped the card and handed over the receipt and a pen for Caitlin to sign.
Caitlin added a tip, the fancy tent suddenly taking on an air of shabbiness with its worn furniture. Even so, Madame Tallulah had been entertaining on a chilly evening. Better than the same old television shows.
Madame Tallulah inclined her head as they walked toward the drapery doors. “Your New Life awaits you, Miss Kitty Caitlin.” Her rich, dark hair spilled across her face as she leaned close to say goodbye. “Come back and see me when it all comes true.”
A shiver ran down Caitlin’s neck.
Madame Tallulah’s eyes said that she believed what she had just told her. Like truly, actually, deep-down-in-her-Southern-sugar-and-spice-heart believed it.
Chapter 3
“Can I have that notebook where you wrote down all my fortunes?” Caitlin asked at the bus stop. Lila was heading home while Caitlin was going to the hospital. A text message had just come through. One of her patients had gone into labor.
“Seriously?” Lila laughed. “The whole experience was just for kicks.”
“I was too caught up in Madame Tallulah’s atmosphere to pay that much attention.”
“You really believe what she told you?”
“Maybe I’ll show it to my mother as entertainment.” Lila laughed again and Caitlin added, “Hey, you’ve been psychoanalyzing me ever since I broke up with Stefan. Just hand it over, the bus is coming.”
Headlights came toward them and then the sound of brakes squealing.
“You paid her for her time and costume and the orange blossom tea. Not prophecies you’ll hang on to for the rest of your life.”
Caitlin felt annoyed. “You’re the one that dragged me into it. Besides, you’re always telling me to get a life.”
“This conversation sounds like high school.”
Lila could be so patronizing when she exerted her Psychology PhD degree attitude. Caitlin needed to psychoanalyze her sometime!
Lila slapped the notebook into her hand just before Caitlin climbed the bus steps and plopped down into a cracked plastic seat. Another text message pinged. “Baby coming, get here ASAP. Patient only wants you!”
Rushing up the back stairs to the second floor, Caitlin was breathless when she reached the labor and delivery ward. In three minutes she was in clean scrubs and pulling on sterile gloves.
“Hey, Amy,” she said, walking into the labor room as if they were old friends chatting in the kitchen. “Think we’re having a baby tonight?”
The young woman was lying on the bed in her nightgown, high on the pillows, while her husband David held her hand. She gave Caitlin a nervous smile. “Pain’s getting worse. I didn’t think I wanted meds, but I’m thinking about giving in.”
David leaned close to Amy, speaking in a soothing tone. Caitlin was glad to see that he appeared relaxed and supportive. The two of them had done well in the birthing classes and were one of the few couples who actually practiced their breathing every night.
Caitlin turned to Marlena, the charge nurse on duty. “Who’s our labor anesthetists tonight?”
“Mark and Brian,” she answered. “Check her stats, and then we’ll talk some more in a few minutes.”
Caitlin nodded. “Let’s see how much you’re dilated and how the baby is doing?”
While she studied the monitors that were keeping track of Amy’s and the baby’s heart rates and blood pressure, Caitlin pulled on a fresh pair of sterile gloves and performed a pelvic exam.
“Don’t hold your breath, sweetie,” she said. “Just nice and easy. Stay relaxed.”
“Oh!” Amy suddenly cried out. “Another contraction’s coming.”
“David, do your breathing with her,” Caitlin ordered. “This is the toughest part, just like we talked about, but you’re doing a wonderful job.” Amy and David were right on target with their breathing through the next hour of contractions, having her change positions, and, at one point, walking about the room to help the baby come faster.
“You’re close to ten centimeters now,” Caitlin said, checking her one last time.
Not more than two minutes later, Amy let out a yelp. “I think I have to push!”
“I want you to pant right now,” Caitlin instructed. “Five breaths out, then two slow, deep breaths in. Give it one more contraction. The baby’s head is about to crown.”
The next contraction sent Amy through the roof. “I have to push!” she cried out.
Caitlin held the young woman’s eyes with hers. “You’ve already been through the worst of the transition. Just think about the baby you’re finally going to see after all these months. You’re doing great and we’re almost there.”
A minute later, the baby’s head crowned. Indeed, over the next several contractions Amy focused on pushing, and all at once, the baby’s head was out. A moment later, the shoulders slipped through and Caitlin scooped him up.
“It’s a boy!” she exclaimed. Quickly she clamped the umbilical cord and placed the wailing son into Amy’s arms.
The new mother’s face glistened with perspiration, but she smiled with relief. “My baby, you’re finally here,” she whispered, staring down at him.
David stroked his son’s head while he and Amy oohed and aahed over his dark damp hair and tiny fingers. It had been a perfect, textbook delivery.
“He’s beautiful,” Amy said. “Thank you, Caitlin, thank you.”
“What are you going to name him?”
“Chad,” David said. “After my father who passed away last year. Chad Daniel. That’s my middle name, too.”
“Perfect name, perfect baby.” Caitlin said, unable to stop smiling. See, she wasn’t going anywhere, she thought. Delivering babies was her calling in life.
Madame Tallulah probably told everybody three things: that they would go on a trip, meet a handsome stranger, and win the lottery.
All things that were impossible. But real life didn’t work like that. Especially not hers.
A wistful, melancholy feeling came over her. She had hoped to have children with Stefan, and now that was most definitely not going to happen.
Her eyes stung while she watched Amy, David and their new son together. The perfect little family. She wished them every happiness, but it still hurt.
“Break room here I come,” Caitlin thought once Baby Chad was in the arms of the night nurse for his weighing and measuring in the nursery.
Caitlin was ready to eat a giant Snickers with a Big Gulp to drown her sorrows in.
The moment Caitlin had her candy bar unwrapped in the break room, her cell phone rang. “Lila, knock it off,” she muttered, glancing up at the clock.
Three-thirty a.m. It wasn’t Lila. It was her mother instead. Warily, she hit the talk button.
“Hi Mom, what are you doing up in the middle of the night?”
“Oh, you know I have these hot flashes now and again. I have to go downstairs and raid the ice cream I hid behind the frozen peas.”
“Didn’t those start about five years ago?” Caitlin said, taking a bite.
“Are you eating something? You sound odd.”
“Dinner,” Caitlin said, swallowing too fast. She choked and took a big gulp of her soda.
“It’s a candy bar, isn’t it?” her mother asked. “I can always tell.”
�
��Chewing sounds like chewing. I could be eating a ham sandwich.”
“Intuition, dear daughter. You’re still drowning your sorrows in chocolate. Big fat chunks of chocolate, nuts, and caramel.”
“And that is why I’m eating it. It’s heaven. And I have no will power any longer as you can clearly see. Plus I just birthed a baby.”
“I hope you mean someone else and not you.”
“Very funny, Mom.”
“Congratulations, boy or girl?”
“A strapping, healthy boy. All natural, except the new mother will probably be sore for a few days.”
“Aren’t we all after having a baby?”
“Um,” Caitlin said. “Not all of us are mothers yet.”
“You will be one day. Even if Stefan is not the father.”
“That’s a done deal.” Caitlin’s voice turned cranky.
“But you’ll birth more babies for other families and make them very happy. For instance, you cousin Rayna.”
“Rayna?” Caitlin echoed. She knew the name, but it wasn’t coming to her right away.
“Well, not your cousin, actually. Mine. But she’s quite a bit younger than me. And yet quite a bit older than you. My younger brother’s daughter.”
“Oh, okay, I know who you mean. She lives somewhere out in the boonies, right?”
“Snow Valley, Montana. Rayna got married last year to a firefighter at the age of forty and now they’re having their first child. Very brave of them.”
“Lots of women begin their families later in life,” Caitlin said, wondering for the second time why her mother was calling in the middle of the night. “There can be health issues but it’s safer than it’s ever been with lots of prenatal tests and procedures.”
“Well,” her mother stretched out the word. “Rayna is on bed rest. Premature contractions and she still has two months to go.”
“That’s too bad.”
“She also has the Bed & Breakfast to run there in Snow Valley.”
“Oh, right,” Caitlin said, beginning to get an inkling of where this conversation was headed.
“Her husband is the Fire Chief and his hours on the road “out in the boonies” as you call it, are a killer. Rayna insists on keeping the B&B, but it’s tough. Of course, it’s their home, too.”
“It’s probably pretty quiet right now though. I mean, nobody vacations in a place like Snow Valley during the winter unless they’re crazy, right?” Caitlin was trying to ward off the inevitable plea she knew was coming.
“Some people are avid skiers. Avid, I tell you! And don’t forget that December with the Christmas holidays is huge in Snow Valley. So yes, she’s usually got a few hotel guests. Rayna usually does most of the indoor repairs in January because the weather is often terrible. Three feet of snow right now.”
“Multiple feet of snow? I can hardly stand the fog and rain here.”
Her mother ignored the weather commentary. “Bed rest is proving a real problem. When Aunt Norma called I volunteered you! It’s perfect. You’re a midwife. You’re so capable at crisis management, sweetheart.”
“Not if you saw me the last week,” Caitlin said drily. “And I have a job. I’m employed, Mom. There’s nothing for me to do for Rayna until her delivery time.”
Caitlin crumpled her candy wrapper and tossed it across the room toward the wastebasket, missing the shot by an inch.
Her mother lowered her voice. “I was thinking you might want a change of scenery. I know it’s been difficult, honey.”
Difficult didn’t even begin to convey the pain Caitlin had been experiencing. Like getting divorced without ever being married. It was one thing to learn your fiancé had cheated, quite another to discover him in the act.
“Caitlin?” her mother said. “You still there?”
“I’m processing,” she retorted. “I can’t afford to take a leave of absence. You know I have tons of school debt, and if I leave, the hospital may let me go permanently.”
“Rayna and her husband plan to pay you for your time. That’s without question.”
“I have no idea how to run a Bed and Breakfast! Besides, doesn’t Rayna have a niece who helps her out? Rebecca, or something?”
“Becca. But only during the summers. And she’s married now to a nice young man who is a rancher.”
“Mom, I just can’t drop my entire life and go to Montana. It’s out of the question. ”
“Please just think about it.” Her mother paused. “This may be Rayna’s only chance for a child. Norma gave me the impression they’re worried she’ll lose the baby.”
“I’ll think about it, but I’m not promising anything. Surely they can find a local person to run the B&B, or another midwife in the area.”
“It’s a skeleton staff at the local clinic during the winters. Maybe it’s an actual hospital, but that town is small. Really small.”
“Goodbye, Mom. Hanging up now. Talk to you later.”
Caitlin drained her water bottle and went back on the floor, her mother’s phone call hanging over her. Leaving her job was impossible, despite the fact that difficult pregnancies were what she had trained for. Caring for a woman in a higher risk pregnancy was a chance to expand her knowledge and experience.
When she got home after her night shift, she fell into bed and slept for seven hours straight, only waking when a car horn honked outside and the rumble of the trash truck cruised by.
Caitlin dragged herself vertical, drinking OJ straight from the bottle out of the fridge.
She turned on the news while she jumped into the shower, suddenly wishing she could see Stefan. Caitlin knew it was obsessive, but she couldn’t stop wondering what he was doing each day.
Was he still with Sophia? When was Painted City leaving on tour? Did Stefan miss her?
If Lila knew Caitlin’s thoughts, she’d probably tell her to go scrub her brain with Clorox.
A huge part of her life was suddenly gone. Her wedding plans and future scraped like leftovers into a garbage can.
Maybe getting out of town for awhile would help clear her mind. But it could take weeks to do the paperwork for a leave of absence—and Rayna might deliver before she could get there. Besides, would the hospital keep her job open for her? She didn’t have that much seniority. Not like the nurses and midwives who’d been with the medical center for years.
When her cell rang, Caitlin was toweling dry. She went searching and finally found the phone at the bottom of her purse, smashed down by a notebook. A small red notebook. For a moment, she wondered if she’d accidentally swiped it from the hospital. But there were no hospital markings on it.
The missed call had come from Susan at HR at the hospital. That was strange.
That’s when it hit Caitlin. The notebook!
Perching on the edge of her bed, Caitlin opened it up to see the notes Lila had scribbled from Madame Tallulah.
She read through them briefly, and then sucked in a gulp of air about the prediction of traveling to a distant land. That was an odd coincidence, although Snow Valley Montana certainly wasn’t Paris or Rome.
After throwing on jeans and a sweater, Caitlin got out a large sheet of paper. She was going to write down the predictions just to prove how silly they were.
#1. A cheating musician boyfriend with a girl whose name began with the letter S. S for Sophia.
That had already come true. But the specific details were disconcerting. As though Madame Tallulah was trying to prove her powers.
#2. She’d take a trip and have an encounter with a diesel truck.
Shivers ran along Caitlin’s arms. Snow Valley Montana was full of ranchers—with trucks. “Please God, don’t let me die from a truck.”
Lila had written down the next one exactly as Madame Tallulah had said it:
#3. “From the cusp of death a new day will dawn and all your dreams will come true.”
Sounded like a bunch of phony-baloney.
#4. An unexpected fortune will come your way.
&nb
sp; “Typical prediction,” Caitlin said aloud. “Not impressed yet.”
#5. The man of your dreams will be strong and tough, but not what you expect.
“If you think I’m going to go to Snow Valley and marry a cowboy, you are seriously mistaken, Madame Tallulah!”
Lila had also written, “No name for this mysterious man of your dreams. She says that you’ll figure it out. P.S. Caitlin, this is soooo ridiculous.”
“Very funny, Lila.”
The prediction of a mysterious “man of her dreams” was much too convenient.
“Nope,” Caitlin said, punching in the numbers to return Susan’s call. “Finding your true love is the one thing in life that is completely unpredictable and inconvenient.”
Chapter 4
Half an hour later, Caitlin was stunned into silence, reaching blindly for a candy bar that wasn’t there.
It had happened. She was going to Snow Valley, Montana. Susan had told her that the hospital had provisions to grant unpaid leave for a six to eight week period, and that her job would be held for her upon her return to San Francisco. After some simple paperwork, she could leave.
Getting up, she stood at her bay window that hung out over the street. The rows of attached houses were painted in pastel yellows and blues. Down at the corner, she could see the neighborhood market with its ethnic foods and the Indonesian restaurant next to it.
She loved living here—and now she needed a Snickers, even a mini size, but her candy bowl was empty.
Susan had begun the conversation by telling her that they were experimenting with a new aspect of the midwife program and, with her request to care for a 40+ high risk pregnancy, they said it would be a great opportunity.
“We’d like our midwives to gain more experience away from big hospitals where the maternity wards are predictable and doctors are on call at all times. Often, the doctors take over because they’re used to being in charge. Therefore, our midwives are not getting a varied work experience. We want you to be more prepared to meet emergencies, especially if there are women who want to deliver at home, or find themselves unable to get to a hospital in time. The situation with your cousin in Montana sounds perfect for this program.”
Winter in Snow Valley (Snow Valley Romance) Page 12