Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch)

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  Both Rossen and Sean cracked up again as they said in unison. “Burped.”

  By the time Slade and Isabel came in five minutes later, they were all in stitches and Naomi had no clue how to corral them. Isabel went straight to the baby and took her from Treyne without even asking. She unwrapped her blanket and held her up to look at her in wonder. “Holy Moly, she’s a miracle.” She snuggled her up to her neck. “And she smells like heaven.”

  She handed her to Slade who looked like he was afraid she’d break if he moved wrong. Rob came in and tried to take her from Slade and whined, “Naomi, Slade’s hogging the baby. Tell him to share.” Every one of the brothers went into fits.

  ****

  When Kit dragged back in she looked confused and didn’t understand why Naomi handed her the baby and told her not to let anyone else near her. That breakfast was the silliest meal she had attended yet and that was saying something.

  Seth called that day to find out who Kit’s doctor was so he could help her get a birth certificate. Joey had been the one to answer the phone and they ended up talking for half an hour. He asked her out for the next night. She got off the phone with the most unusual smile. Rossen didn’t think he’d ever seen her like that.

  That afternoon Kit came into the great room to sit down next to Rossen on the couch. She was moving slow and he could tell she was sore. As soon as she got settled, the baby began to cry from her room and she unconsciously let out a small sigh. Before she could start to get up, he stood. “I’ll get her and bring her to you.”

  She grabbed his hand to stop him. “No. It’s okay. I’ll have to take her back in there to nurse her anyway.”

  Naomi piped in from the kitchen, “No you don’t, Kit. I always felt like I had to go to the dungeon to feed my babies. I vowed that would never be the case in my own house. Just keep a blanket over you. These guys will need to get used to it sometime. They’ll all have wives and babies. If you’re not comfortable that’s fine, but don’t feel like you have to go.”

  Kit smiled shyly at Rossen as she slowly got up. “It’s not them that have to get used to it. It’s Tawna and me. You’d think humans could figure this out better than farm animals, but that‘s not necessarily the case.”

  He carefully nudged her back down. “You stay. I’ll go out for a while after I bring her to you.”

  ****

  Over the next couple of days, Kit felt like she was beginning to figure this motherhood thing out. She and Tawna got used to each other and nursing got easier, until the morning of the fourth day. Kit woke up and was amazed when she looked in the mirror. Her milk had come in and she had become markedly voluptuous overnight. It was extremely painful and she was miserable. She didn’t have a clue what to do about it and hurriedly dressed to go in search of Naomi.

  She stepped into the hallway just as Cooper walked past and his eyes grew wide. He turned back around in the hall and went toward his parent’s room yelling, “Mom! Mom! Come quick! Kit’s gonna blow!”

  Naomi and Rob reached her at the same time Rossen came around the corner. They all stopped dead still and stared at her for a second. Rossen punched Cooper in the shoulder. “Have some respect, dude. Knock it off.”

  “What do you mean? I could never have anything but respect for a figure like that!” Cooper winked at Kit as Rob intervened.

  “That’s enough, Coop. You owe her an apology.”

  Cooper tried to look penitent as he said, “I’m sorry, Kit. I’m sorry I said you have an especially nice figure this morning. Will you forgive me?”

  Kit smiled shyly. “Cooper, you’re terrible. Just remember I owe you.” He was the perfect little brother and she thought he was adorable even when he embarrassed her.

  Naomi put an arm around her shoulder in concern and said, “Oh, honey.” She took Kit back into her bedroom to help her as Rossen shook his head at Cooper.

  ****

  Rossen couldn’t even be mad. Cooper was right.

  ****

  After a few days the household got used to having a new baby. The boys quit fighting over her, mainly because if they did Naomi would put her in time out and then no one got to hold her except Kit.

  She'd become comfortable enough with nursing to throw a blanket over her shoulder to feed Tawna without having to leave the room, and she grew accustomed to the fact that Rossen would come and take the baby to burp her after. He started calling her Mimi because of the way she made this little “mm” sound when she was sad and it stuck. The whole family called her Mimi Star and the world pretty much revolved around her.

  One day as they were clearing breakfast, Rossen walked over as Kit finished nursing and she automatically handed him the baby to burp. He patted her back until she belched and then played with her shamelessly until she started to fuss. He took her back over to Kit and handed her back, saying, “Here, Momma. Time for her second course.”

  Kit took her and fed her on the other side and then he automatically took her and burped her again and began to play with her. A few minutes later she got whiny and Rossen handed her back and went outdoors while Kit went to lay her down.

  ****

  Rob leaned against the counter and watched this whole thing as Naomi finished loading the dishwasher and started it. He turned to Naomi with a puzzled expression and asked, “Did they get married and I just missed it? I swear they can read each others minds.”

  Naomi smiled her mellow smile. “They’re very good friends. They’ve been through a few things together. They’re close enough that I almost worry sometimes. Rossen thinks he’s sending her off to college here in a couple months, only he hasn’t told her that. She’s not going to just mind him like he thinks she is, and if she does, it will kill him. I have no idea what to do about the two of them. Just pray. I guess that’s all anybody needs though.”

  She put her arms around him. “You don’t have to be married to read each others’ minds. We were like that before we got married.”

  “Yes, but we were planning to get married. He thinks she’s too young.”

  “She is.”

  “Naomi, would you have wanted to be single in her situation? I think it would be hard to be a nice girl who was also an unwed mother in a largely religious community. How does he expect her to act like an incoming freshman and date and attend a singles ward and the whole nine yards with Mimi? I mean, it can be done. And it certainly would weed out the wishy-washy men. But I can’t see her being a good mom and doing all of that on a long term basis. If I were her, I’d hate it. I’d just want to settle down and get on with my life.”

  Naomi nodded in agreement, but then said, “But there’s the flip side. What if she settles down at seventeen, never having gone to school or traveled or even attended a prom? Later, won’t she regret that bitterly? Won‘t she feel like she missed something her whole life.”

  He kissed her. “I suppose you’re right. You always have been the ultimate wise woman.” He kissed her again. “But just to be on the safe side, we’d better keep praying for them.”

  She smiled at him. “I wasn’t planning on stopping anytime soon.”

  Chapter 11

  They blessed Mimi when she was just two weeks old. Kit asked if they could do it at home because she was still somewhat worried about gossip. Rossen did the actual blessing with all the other men standing in the circle. It was the fruit she'd been talking about that she wanted in her daughter’s life. It was a good day.

  Mimi fit right in to the Rockland Ranch lifestyle. Kit would put her on a blanket on Rossen’s office floor when she was working for him or near her in her studio. Sometimes others would take her off to play while Kit was doing something, and they all adored her completely. Kit was so grateful for them. Her baby didn’t have a full-time father, but she didn’t lack for care from any of them.

  One day when Mimi was not quite three weeks old, Kit looked out the window of her studio to realize Rossen had her with him in the arena on a horse. Kit wasn’t worried, but when Naomi caught
him, she was hot. Kit could hear her, “Rossen Robert Rockland” clear inside.

  That night Mimi was hopelessly fussy and finally, at two thirty, Kit put her in her tummy pack and slipped out the French doors to take her outside, so she didn’t wake up the entire house. Not three minutes later she heard Rossen calling her name as he hurried to catch up to her.

  She waited for him and asked, “What’s wrong?” She wondered why he had come out.

  “Nothing. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t go climb in that pond this soon after you had a baby. It isn’t clean enough.”

  She turned to stare at him even in the dark. “How do you know I sometimes swim in the pond?”

  He put up a hand defensively. “No, I haven’t been spying on you in the pond. But I do always make sure you come in safely.” He must have felt he needed to clarify. “Actually the first time you went swimming I was worried and went to check on you, but after that I only waited for you to come in.”

  She was still looking at him and she was glad it was dark as he asked, “Are you mad?”

  She shook her head. “No. I told you before, it’s impossible to be mad at you.” She wasn’t mad. She loved being watched over. She’d never had that kind of care her whole life.

  Nodding at the baby, Rossen asked, “How come she’s so fussy?”

  Kit couldn’t hide the smile in her voice. “Maybe she wants to go horseback riding.”

  “I guess you heard my mom bust me. I don’t know why she was mad. She knows I take good care of her.”

  Kit laughed. “I think it’s a hoot when your mom gets after you. That’s the only time she ever uses your middle name. She’s so cute when she’s all motherly.”

  ****

  One day, toward the end of May, Naomi came in to sit down next to Kit as she nursed the baby and asked, “Kit, have you got a minute?”

  Kit laughed softly. “Naomi, you know as well as I do, how many hours today I’ll sit and feed this baby. I think I spend about a third of my time doing just this.”

  Naomi smiled. “Doesn’t it just make you proud to look at her and know you’ve done this marvelous work? I sometimes still feel that way when I look at my kids.”

  Kit mused, “I guess I’ve never thought of it that way. Without you, I shudder to think how I’d have ever managed Mimi at all. Thank you for all you’ve done for me. I know I don’t thank you enough, but please know that I'm eternally grateful.”

  “I think we should be thanking you for how much we all enjoy her.” Naomi played with a tiny stocking that poked out from under the baby blanket and went on, “Speaking of her, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about. I kept her little umbilical chord and sent it in to be paternity tested. I want to go after your foster father so he can’t abuse any more young women. What would you think about that?”

  “I’ve thought about it a lot actually. When I first came here I didn’t think he could be stopped, but I’ve grown so much here and I can’t help but think there should be someone who can bring him to justice. Honestly, the thought of ever seeing him again scares me, but the thought of him doing what he did to me to someone else is worse. If you can figure out how to go after him, I’ll put everything I’ve earned working for Rossen into the pot to help pay for an attorney, and I’ll support you all the way, even if I have to testify against him.”

  Naomi was thoughtful. “I’m wondering if with such concrete evidence as an umbilical cord of a baby conceived by a seventeen year old girl, if you’d have to testify at all. I'll have affidavits from people like your doctors with it. And as far as attorney fees, I’ll handle this myself. I’ve kept my license up to practice in Arizona. I’ll probably have to fly out there a few times, but I can do it all.”

  Kit turned to stare at her. “What are you saying, Naomi?”

  “What do you mean, sweetie?”

  “What is it that you’re saying you’re licensed to do?”

  “Practice law, Kit. What do you think I’m saying?”

  Kit was stunned! “You’re an attorney?”

  Naomi nodded. “Of course, I’m an attorney. Didn’t you know that?”

  “I’ve lived with you for five months and haven’t had any inkling you practiced law!”

  Naomi laughed, “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Attorneys typically don’t have very nice reputations. It’s probably better not to act like one.” She patted Kit’s hand. “Now that that’s settled, let’s talk about college. We have your high school diploma and we should see about having you take the ACT. With your intelligence it’s really just a hoop to jump through, but you might be able to get a lot of scholarships. Who knows? And then you can decide where you want to go and we’ll start to make arrangements for all the loose ends from there. What do you think?”

  Kit just looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Naomi, I know you mean well, but can you just picture me doing what I’m doing right now at a college apartment? It’s not going to happen. It’s not fair or right that I won‘t be going to college, but to take a phrase from Rossen, it is what it is. How can I go to college and take a baby?”

  “Oh, come now, Kit. There are mothers all over the world in college. Parenthood doesn’t preclude higher education. It just makes it less convenient. But there isn’t one thing in the world that children don’t make less convenient.”

  She must have been able to see that Kit wasn’t buying in, because she added, “Okay, but can I just ask you one thing? Would you promise to at least take this idea out and examine it? Give it an honest analysis. Whether you get a college degree doesn’t matter a hill of beans to me, but being able to feel like you didn’t miss any important steps in your life later on means a great deal. I don’t want you to look back in ten or twenty years and say I wish I’d tried to go to college. Deal?”

  “You sound just like Rossen.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  Kit smiled at her. “It is. I’ll think about it. I promise.”

  ****

  Naomi filed charges for several different crimes against Kit’s foster father, only a few of which Kit would have even thought of. When Naomi had been doing the research for the case, she'd found that because Kit was part Indian, she was actually under a number of jurisdictions.

  Kit had thought her real father was half Papago Indian, but Naomi had dug and found he was actually one quarter Papago, although they disliked that name and called themselves another, and one quarter Apache. So Naomi was attempting to have the different Indian nations and their law enforcement departments work with the local law enforcement and the state of Arizona’s Department of Family Services.

  She'd gone after him for his sexual abuse and also child abuse and neglect. She also tried to have him charged with fraud in his use of the foster system money. Then she filed several civil suits in Kit’s behalf. She asked for financial remuneration for what Kit had been forced to go through during her abuse and because of it, with the assault in Vegas and the baby. She also filed civilly for any Indian moneys he'd been given for Kit, for wages from her job and the labor she'd done at their hotel and never been paid for, and even for foster care money that had never been spent on her and child support for the baby he'd wanted aborted.

  She filed charges with both Indian nations, because they actually sometimes function as sovereign nations, and with the state. Then she asked that his wife be charged as an accomplice to all of it. She knew she wouldn’t get all of it, but she wanted to put this guy out of action with foster kids forever!

  ****

  When Mimi was two months old, Kit’s doctor told her she could go ahead and ride a horse and even go in the pond if she wanted. Kit had loved riding behind Rossen in the winter and she wanted to learn to ride on her own. Rossen set her up with a sweet old horse and the tack she would need, then took her to the arena to learn to saddle up and all the basics. He even took her and bought her a pair of cowboy boots, saying they were safer and easier to ride with. After awhile, she felt like sh
e could handle the horse well enough to ride in the hills with him.

  At first Naomi insisted they leave the baby with her, but as she got bigger and stronger, they took her with them. Rossen would put her in the tummy pack and keep her with him, so Kit could focus on riding.

  Kit loved it all. She loved the horses and the country and the fact that this man adored her daughter so. She would have added this man to the list, but she knew that was against an unspoken rule. It was a stupid rule, but for now she would go with it.

  Who did he think he was kidding? She could see it in his eyes. But then again, he was such a white knight kind of a guy he might never give in to his feelings. For now she was content to be with him and follow the stupid rule and hope one day either he’d change his mind about her being too young, or she‘d finally grow old enough. As she rode beside him, she wondered how old, old enough was. It was an intriguing question. She’d have to ask him one day.

  Although she knew Rossen had rodeoed with Slade full time the last three years, this year they'd decided to retire from full time and it was the Fourth of July weekend before she finally got to go to a rodeo. They had someone come and watch the ranch, and for about a week Kit got to see what the rodeo life was like. Rossen and Slade roped together, and so did Rob and Sean. Even Ruger and Treyne went a couple of times. Rossen and Slade let her and Mimi and Isabel stay right in their trailer with them. The rest of the family stayed in Rob and Naomi’s.

  Kit had never seen anything like it. She was fascinated by the actual rodeo, but honestly, other than the team roping, which Rossen and Slade invariably won, she enjoyed the behind the scenes stuff even better. She loved watching the guys warm up their horses, wearing their competition shirts with all the sponsor patches. She loved it when even the cowboys in the warm-up arena all took off their hats at the same time to show respect to the flag. She loved watching them saddle up and get themselves and their horses mentally ready to compete. She loved watching the barrel racers before they actually came into the arena. Their horses were so keyed up that sometimes they had to come in backwards or have somebody lead the horse to the gate.