High Country Baby

by Joanna Sims

  “Yeah...” he agreed a moment later. “You know—talk, catch up, I tell you about my day, you tell me about yours...if you went to the doctor, that’s a part of your day—I want you to tell me about it if you want to...”

  Taylor smiled a pleased smile. She had become accustomed to talking to Clint—she was happy that he seemed to miss speaking with her as she had with him. In fact, he actually seemed a little nervous talking to her. It showed a vulnerable side of the tough, bull-riding cowboy—it was endearing.

  “If I could, I’d talk 24/7 about my baby—so if you don’t mind me talking about it, I am more than happy to share.”

  “You know I have this iPhone deal now, right?”

  “That was an odd segue, but yes—I was there—I told you to join the twenty-first century and get a smartphone, yes.”

  “It’s got this video dealio...”

  “You want to learn how to use video chat?”

  “Yeah—why not? I’ve got it—why not use it?”

  “Hang up, then.”

  “Hang up?”

  “Hang up, then press the video icon, select my number and voilà! You will be officially video chatting. Trust me. Hang up.”

  * * *

  The next week she was at her first ultrasound appointment. If she couldn’t hear the heartbeat, she could wait. But what she had to know—what she had been up all night worrying about—was would the doctor see a heartbeat? Was it a viable pregnancy? The only time she had conceived with Christopher, they couldn’t detect a heartbeat at the eight week mark. After years of trying, after years of disappointment and thousands of dollars down the drain, they had lost the child.

  After that, Christopher wasn’t willing to spend one more penny on IVF. She didn’t know it at the time—how could she have known?—but that was the end of their marriage. For her, it was the end of her chance to have a child and she never quite forgave him for making the decision for both of them. For him, as he was quick to tell her any time they had a disagreement, she had wasted the money for the Porsche he wanted, the boat he wanted, the vacation to Tahiti he never got to take...

  “Okay...” The technician, who had been completely quiet during the first few minutes of the intravaginal ultrasound, turned the screen toward her and pointed to a little flicker on the screen. “There is the heartbeat.”

  The technician had no idea how much those four words meant to her. She left the ultrasound appointment feeling better and happier than she could remember ever feeling. This was, to date, one of the best days of her life. And, the first person she wanted to tell about it? Clint.

  But first things first. She stopped by the agent who was in charge of the rental house catty-corner to Luke and Sophia’s house, filled out the paperwork and signed a one-year lease. It was unfurnished, which wasn’t ideal. All of her furniture was in storage and she didn’t want to spend the money to replace everything. She would have to work out the furniture situation—there was time.

  If she had to buy some pieces to make the rental livable, then that’s what she would have to do. It didn’t have to be perfect. And even though she’d like to be out of her cousin’s cabin and into her own place sooner rather than later, there was no rush. At the very latest, she wanted to be moved into the rental during her second trimester.

  “Hey! There’s my pretty lady.” Clint was now a regular user of the video-chat feature on his smartphone.

  “Hi.” She smiled more broadly. He said the same thing every time they video chatted, but it never got old. “You look tired.”

  “I am all the way worn out. I keep drivin’ but I can’t seem to get the heck outta Texas.”

  Clint shifted and she saw him wince.

  “How’s the shoulder?” she asked him, concerned. The last time Clint had climbed onto the back of a bull, he’d held on for eight “incredible” seconds and then he jumped off and executed what would have been a perfect tuck and roll—if his right arm had been in the right position. But, since the right arm wasn’t in the right position, he had twisted his shoulder out of joint.

  “I’ll live.” Clint winked at her. “I didn’t call you to hear myself complain—I want to hear about you. How are you?”

  “Wonderful.” She beamed. “I had an amazing day.”

  “Oh, yeah?” he asked before he lit a cigarette.

  “Oh, yeah, I did! I had my six-week ultrasound today.”

  She was so glad that they were using video—the expression on Clint’s face was the cherry on top of her ice-cream sundae of a day.

  “I saw my baby’s heartbeat today. I couldn’t hear it yet, but I saw it.”

  The cowboy appeared to be stumped for something to say. It took him a moment to formulate the words. “That’s good news, Taylor. I’m really happy for you.”

  “Thank you. I’m happy for me, too,” she said to him. “But do you know what’s better than seeing one heartbeat on the monitor?”

  Clint blew out a stream of smoke before he asked. “No. What?”

  “Seeing two.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Thirty weeks into the pregnancy Taylor was settled in her bungalow—she had relented and bought new furniture for the house. It was a fresh start, after all. No sense dragging all of the furniture she had purchased for a house she had shared with her ex-husband all the way to Montana. Down the road, she would figure out what to do with everything she had in storage. It was too late for a yard sale.

  “Oh, babies—you are going to be so happy in this room.” Taylor rested her hands on her round belly.

  She knew that she looked more pregnant than her seven months because she was carrying two beautiful angels instead of one, and she loved it. Yes, she had chronic hemorrhoids and indigestion and had to pee every five minutes. She didn’t care. She loved being pregnant. None of the bad, or the uncomfortable, outweighed the miracle of her unborn twins.

  Somewhere in her cozy bungalow her phone rang. Taylor walked quickly down the hall toward the kitchen. Halfway there she felt a wave of dizziness hit her. She stopped, leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. This wasn’t the first time this week that she had gotten dizzy, but then again, she had been having so much fun decorating the nursery that she must have overdone it. Now that she was happy with every square inch of her beautifully appointed nursery, she would force herself to take it easy.

  By the time she reached the phone, the caller had been sent to voice mail.

  “Casey.”

  Taylor redialed her sister. Even though Casey was in another state, her sister had been with her every step of the pregnancy.

  “Hey—I was just leaving you a message.” Casey smiled and waved.

  “I’ll listen to it later.” Taylor smiled tiredly at her sister. “I want to show you the progress on the nursery.”

  When she reached the end of the hall, Taylor turned the camera toward the interior of the baby room.

  “Can you see it?”

  “Oh, Tay—I love it!”

  Taylor took her sister on the virtual tour—she started with the brand-new identical cribs, moved to the new changing table and the refinished rocking chair she had found in an antique store, and ended with the handmade quilts that their aunt Barb had gifted to the unborn babies.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful room. It’s the happiest nursery ever.”

  Taylor sat down in the rocking chair. “I think so, too! I couldn’t have done it without the family. Sophia and Luke and Aunt Barb—they’ve all been so supportive. Six months ago I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how much help I was going to need....”

  “I’m glad Aunt Barb’s been able to smooth things over with Uncle Hank.”

  “I know. I love him so much, but the man is permanently stuck in the ’50s.”

  Taylor had to ad
mit that she hadn’t exactly handled the situation with as much diplomacy as she could have. Once she found out that the pregnancy was viable and decided to rent the house, and after confirming with Clint that she could rip the Band-Aid off and reveal the pregnancy and the paternity in one fell swoop, that’s what she did.

  Her mother, in typical fashion, drowned her disappointment with Xanax and zinfandel. Her father quietly supported her decision and went back to working at the law firm from early in the morning to later and later in the evening. Uncle Hank went into his icy mode, refusing to talk about it or acknowledge it—Taylor was actually glad that Clint was out of the state. And Aunt Barb—dear Aunt Barb, had the most motherly response—she balanced lecturing with nurturing and quiet disapproval with very vocal joy.

  “So, what else has been going on with you?” Casey asked.

  “You know what? Why don’t you talk for a while and I’ll listen?” Taylor rocked gently in the chair and closed her eyes.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I think I am. Just really tired. I may have overdone it a little. I’ll take it easy all day tomorrow. But I’m not ready to get off the phone yet. You talk, I’ll listen.”

  For the next fifteen or so minutes, Casey talked while Taylor listened. She was about to doze off when Casey asked her about her second favorite subject behind her babies—Clint.

  “Have you talked to Clint lately?”

  Taylor’s eyes opened up with a smile. “We talk all the time.”

  “All the time, huh?”

  “He calls to check on me every day,” Taylor said. “Sometimes we talk for a few minutes and then other times we talk for hours. I feel bad for saying this, but when I first met Clint, I didn’t think he was all that smart. But he loves history and astronomy...he reads...”

  “Literacy is always a bonus.”

  Taylor laughed. “You know what I mean. He’s different than I expected. He’s really rough on the outside—even a little intimidating—but on the inside... I don’t know...he has a very kind heart.”

  “Huh...”

  The look on Casey’s face reflected her sister’s thoughts perfectly.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Casey...and you’re absolutely right.” Taylor rubbed her hand over her belly. “I think I may have fallen for my baby daddy.”

  After she ended the video chat with her sister, she went to her bedroom to lie down. Just talking had worn her out. If she couldn’t shake this feeling of exhaustion, she would have to call her OB/GYN. Her doctor monitored her carefully and wanted her to report any unusual symptoms as they developed in real time.

  It was still daylight when she crawled into bed, but it was dark outside when she finally awakened. She didn’t sit up. The nap hadn’t really helped—she could gauge that right away. Her head was killing her, and she wasn’t prone to headaches, so that set off alarm bells. Her full bladder finally drove her out of bed and into the bathroom. She turned on the light in the bathroom and the glare hurt her eyes so much that she shut it off and used the bathroom by the light of the night-light she had plugged into the wall.

  She got back into bed and curled up onto her side. Walking the short distance to and from the bathroom had made her feel out of breath—she felt hot and there was an odd pain under her right ribs.

  Okay...okay...keep calm...just keep calm. Think.

  It took her several minutes to process, and then accept, the fact that something was wrong. She reached for her phone on the nightstand and dialed Sophia’s number.

  “Hello?”

  “Luke? Is that you?”

  “Yes,” her cousin confirmed.

  “I was...looking for Sophia.”

  “She’s giving Danny a bath. I’ll have her call you back when she’s done.”

  “No...wait...”

  She could hear the distress in her own voice—she knew that Luke heard it, too.

  “What’s wrong?” Luke asked her.

  “I’m not feeling very well. Horrible headache, a lot of pain right under my right rib—I feel sick to my stomach...” Taylor told him. “I need to go to the hospital.”

  * * *

  Oh, the joys of the emergency room. It was never any fun, but an emergency room while pregnant with twins—the worst. Checking in, waiting, hard chairs, cold rooms that smelled faintly of isopropyl alcohol and disinfectant—even in a small-town hospital, nothing moved quickly. Then came the vital signs—her blood pressure was too high—and the wristband and then she was taken back to an exam room. Soon after she put on her gown, the nurses were in to insert a catheter.

  Luke, who had been a silent Rock of Gibraltar, waited just outside of her room while the nurses collected a clean urine sample. Because she was pregnant, and had presented with high blood pressure, they expedited the lab results. Taylor was savvy enough to know they were looking for protein in her urine. The diagnosis, when it came back, wasn’t a shock. Preeclampsia—gestational high blood pressure.

  The diagnosis wasn’t a shock, and neither was the fact that her OB/GYN, through the emergency room staff, had determined that she needed to be admitted to the hospital. Luke stayed with her until she was situated in her hospital room, then he went home to watch the kids so Sophia could come to the hospital. While she waited for Sophia to arrive, Taylor left a message for Casey. Casey would make sure that their parents were informed and play the buffer, if need be, with their mother.

  “Hi...” Sophia knocked quietly on the hospital room door.

  Taylor waved her hand for Sophia to come in. “Thank you for coming.”

  Sophia came over to the bed and gave her a solid, reassuring hug before she pulled the visitor’s chair over to the side of the bed.

  “How are you doing?” her friend asked her.

  “This isn’t unexpected. I’m almost forty, this is my first pregnancy, I’m pregnant with twins—let’s face it—I check a lot of ‘high risk’ boxes. But I’m in the hospital now and I have to believe that it’s going to be okay. I have to believe that my babies are going to be okay.”

  She heard herself speaking the words, but who was she trying to convince? Sophia or herself? Her twins had been her job for the past six or so months. They were her whole, entire focus. She knew how serious a preeclampsia diagnosis was—she knew that the only treatment for preeclampsia was delivery. She was a long seven weeks away from that magical thirty-seven week mark when the lungs were developed.

  Her OB/GYN would be at the hospital to discuss the course of treatment, but she already had a general idea of what needed to be done. She needed to stay in the hospital, have the babies’ growth and status monitored, keep her high blood pressure managed and keep her twins in the womb for as long as possible.

  “They have an excellent neonatal intensive care unit here,” Taylor added.

  “They do...” Sophia put her hand on her arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Is there anyone you need me to call? Your parents? Have you called Barb and Hank?”

  “My sister will take care of my parents. I’ll call Aunt Barb tomorrow—I don’t want her to drive into Helena at this late hour and you know she will...”

  “True...” Sophia agreed. “What about Clint?”

  Sophia had gotten to know Clint during the time she lived at the ranch when they first moved back to Montana, and she liked him. So Taylor always felt comfortable talking about Clint with Sophia.

  “He’s on a long haul—he wants to pick up a couple of events in Ohio. He called earlier and left a message. If he doesn’t call back, I’ll wait to tell him in the morning.”

  “Don’t you think he’ll want to be here with you?” her friend asked.

  “He’s been talking about coming back for a visit for a while now.” Taylor’s eyes drooped closed. “But...”

  “If he wants to come, you should let him
.” Sophia stood up and kissed her friend on the forehead.

  Exhausted, Taylor fell asleep without noticing that Sophia had left the room. But for the rest of the night she could only catch small stretches of sleep because of the steady flow of nurses and technicians and phlebotomists. She was monitored, the babies were monitored, the machines were beeping, and carts rolled by. Her body wanted to sleep, her brain was onboard, but the routine of the hospital simply wouldn’t allow it. That’s why she was still awake when Clint called again just before midnight. If she didn’t answer it, he would worry. They hadn’t said the words “I love you,” but as an outcrop of their long-distance friendship, a deeper understanding, a deeper relationship, had blossomed.

  “Hi, cowboy.” She answered the phone with an honest attempt at sounding normal.

  “Hey, sunshine—did I wake you?”

  “No. I was already awake. Where are you?”

  “Casper, Wyoming. Today’s been a real crap day. Construction everywhere. The fifth wheel caught a nail in one of the back tires. Broke the lug nut tryin’ to change the flippin’ thing.”

  Taylor heard Clint light a cigarette.

  “You should probably go try to get some rest.” Taylor didn’t want to pile on any more bad news onto his already lousy day when there wasn’t a thing he could do for her.

  “Why’re you tryin’ to rush me off the phone? Is your boyfriend over?”

  “Ha! Not hardly.”

  “Talk to me then—I’ve been looking forward to hearing your voice all day—but if you’re too tired, just let me know...”

  “No, Clint...it’s not that.” Taylor closed her eyes with a sigh. “I wanted to wait until the morning to tell you this, especially since you’ve already had such a crappy day...”

  Clint didn’t say anything, but she could feel his energy shift on the other end of the phone. She could feel him listening to her more closely while he waited for her to finish her sentence.

  “My doctor had to admit me to the hospital.”

  * * *

  She hadn’t had the energy to talk Clint out of making a U-turn in Casper after he got the tire on the fifth wheel fixed. He was not going to be dissuaded from coming to Helena. Once he found out that she was in the hospital—and that there was a real possibility that she could be hospitalized for the duration of her pregnancy—it was decided.