Follow Me Home

by Leona Karr

  Hal remembered how he teased the Scotsman about spending money on something that kept him informed of problems at his resort, when he could have been blissfully ignorant of them while he was away from the place. Now he was damn grateful. “Where’s your truck parked?”

  “A few hundred feet down your driveway. I had to abandon it before I made it to the house. It stalled and the snow was piled too high to drive any closer. I hiked the rest of the way.”

  “Well, grab a shovel. You, too, Zack. We’ve got some digging to do. The stork’s moving in faster than we expected. We’ll have to get your phone, Scotty, bring it back to the house and keep in touch with medical help as we need it.”

  Scotty brushed back a shock of reddish hair. “Can’t do it.”

  “Why not?” he demanded impatiently. “We dig a path out to the pickup. Get the phone. Bring it back to the house—”

  Scotty interrupted him. “The phone’s power base is the car’s battery. I didn’t buy the kind you can carry around with you. Sorry. You’ll have to transmit from the truck. Too bad. I can see what you were thinking.”

  Hal’s hopes faded for minute-by-minute medical assistance as the delivery progressed, but all was not lost. “All right, we’ll have to make the best of it. Maybe we can get the pickup into the garage, so the phone will be more accessible. We can still keep in contact and get the necessary instructions for delivering the baby.” He mentally cursed himself for letting the battery on his Bronco go dead. They might have been able to transfer the cellular to his vehicle but now that was out of the question. They would have to use Scotty’s truck.

  “Have you looked outside, boss?” Zack asked. “Even finding the pickup in this whiteout will be a miracle, let alone trying to move it through a mountain of snowdrifts.”

  “You won’t catch me out in it,” Larry said, glaring at Hal as if he were some kind of commander giving orders to a recruit.

  “Maybe it looks worse than it is,” offered Scotty. “We could give it a try, Hal.”

  Kirby spat, “Don’t be stupid. Folks freeze to death just a few feet from their door in weather like this.”

  Zack nodded in agreement. “Can’t see your nose in front of your face. Better let things be, if you ask me.”

  Hal fought back a sharp retort born of utter frustration. He knew they spoke the truth, but it galled him to give up without even trying to get to the phone. He knew better than to think he could dig his way to the truck alone. And he couldn’t put other lives in danger by forcing them out in the storm.

  “I’m willing to give it a try if you are,” Scotty offered. “I’ve got a camper shell on the back. We could hole up there if we can’t get back.”

  Hal hesitated and then shook his head. Even if they made it to the phone, what good would it do just to alert the authorities that they had a woman in labor? No one could get to them. At least not until the storm lifted. Having a cellular phone in the pickup was of little help unless they could get to it easily. During the height of a fierce blizzard, there was little chance of that.

  Hal didn’t know what to do. He had prided himself on being able to confront problems and solve them by his wits, but he’d never been faced with a situation completely beyond his control. How in heaven’s name could he waltz upstairs and tell Jill Gaylor she was on her own?

  SUE’S CONTRACTIONS were now coming more frequently and were much more painful. When Hal appeared in the bedroom doorway later in the morning, Jill knew from his sober face that the news wasn’t good.

  She went out into the hall with him as he explained the situation. She only half listened to him, as her mind was racing a mile a minute, but she knew what he was telling her—no cellular telephone, no minute-by-minute medical assistance, and no help of any kind forthcoming. She moistened her dry lips. “I see.”

  “You don’t have to shoulder this alone, Jill. Just tell me what I can do to help.” He lowered his face close to hers, and as his fingers gently smoothed wayward hair from her cheeks, he gave her a wry smile. “You want me to go boil some water?”

  She laughed softly. The old cliché suddenly lightened her mood, and the deep intimacy in his eyes gave her the strength she needed. “No, let’s let Gary do it. He needs something to keep him busy. And when things start happening, I think he should stay downstairs.”

  “How soon do you think—”

  “Not for hours yet. At least, I don’t think so. Things aren’t moving very fast.” When she thought about what lay ahead, her pulse missed a beat. “I guess I’ll know what to do when the time comes.”

  “Hey, if cabdrivers can deliver babies in a back seat, we ought to be able to do it.”

  We? The pronoun brought a foolish spurt of relief. The situation had strongly bonded them together in a way she wouldn’t have thought possible. Now she wasn’t alone, although she couldn’t have put the feeling into words, and for the moment, she didn’t even try. She simply mumbled an almost inaudible, “Thank you.”

  His warm breath bathed her face. “No, thank you,” he said, his voice betraying thick emotion. “When you need an extra pair of hands, let me know. Until then, I’ll stay out of your way. Okay?”

  “Okay.” She straightened her shoulders, impulsively squeezed his hand, and went back into the room to see how the mother-to-be was doing.

  All day long the time between contractions shortened. Jill was relieved that Sue was able to manage some controlled breathing that was part of a natural birth course she’d taken in Utah.

  “Good girl,” Jill said, encouraging her.

  “We took a few classes but never completed the program,” Gary admitted. Deep furrows in his forehead and a nervous twitch at the corner of his mouth matched his pale complexion. He kept moving his hands, rubbing them against his pant legs and tugging at his sweatshirt. Some first-time fathers might be an asset in a delivery room but Gary, obviously, wasn’t going to be one of them, Jill decided.

  Sue continued to give her husband weak smiles of encouragement throughout the day. “No need for you to fret so. My mother always said the women in our family were pioneers. So I guess I’m one, too. I’ll have this baby and everything will be just fine. Just fine. Just fine,” she kept repeating even when pain brought sweat glistening to her brow.

  As the time became nearer for the delivery, Jill prayed that Sue’s optimism would prove to be valid. She prepared as best she could with fresh linens, towels and a tray, which held a pair of sterilized scissors and white twine.

  By mid-afternoon, Sue’s contractions were a minute apart, and Jill knew it was time to get Gary out of the room and ask Hal for help. She sent the agitated father-to-be downstairs with orders to stay there and with a message for Hal. “Tell him it’s time to boil water.”

  When he came into the room a few minutes later, she gave him a grateful smile. His solid presence was needed. “I think we’re going to have a baby soon.”

  The marked emphasis on the “we’re” did not escape him. He briefly touched her flushed cheek and smiled back. “We’re ready.” The dire test facing them made them a team. He’d never experienced this kind of closeness before. A wonderment stirred within him that had nothing to do with the reality of the moment.

  “I’ll need you to stay at the head of the bed with Sue until she delivers,” Jill said, her voice surprisingly steady. “Then I’ll need your help with the baby.”

  Admiration suffused the smile he gave her. Faced with the inevitable, somehow she’d found a wellspring of strength and confidence. Impulsively, he put his arm around her waist and held her close for just a moment, breathing a prayer that all would go well.

  Sue bore down with each contraction and, like a cheerleader, Jill kept saying, “It’s coming…it’s coming.”

  Hal took Sue’s hand firmly in his and murmured encouragement as the miracle of life, with all its mystery, engulfed them.

  After what seemed a breathless eternity, the baby slipped into Jill’s hands. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and it was a mom
ent before she could say, “It’s a boy.”

  Hal left Sue’s side, washed his hands in a waiting basin and then quickly moved to help Jill. He held the baby steady while she tied and cut the cord.

  “Is he all right?” Sue asked anxiously.

  Jill took the infant and swatted his bottom. There was no responding cry. She exchanged an anxious glance with Hal. Why wasn’t the baby crying? The newborn was moving his arms and legs but did not seem to be breathing.

  She didn’t know what to do.

  “Let me have him.” Hal took the baby and turned him upside down. Then he stuck his little finger into the newborn’s mouth and cleaned out the mucus. A lusty cry rewarded his efforts. Just like a newborn calf, Hal thought with relief, knowing that sometimes mucus clogged the air passages at birth.

  The baby’s cry had brought Gary barreling up the stairs and into the room. He was in worse shape than his wife. The young father started laughing and crying and blubbering like an idiot. “Oh, my God. I’m a father. I’m a father.”

  The afterbirth was delivered easily and intact, and when Jill had her hands free, Hal handed her the infant and said with a grin, “I think he needs his first bath.”

  “Give me a few minutes to clean up your son,” Jill told the proud parents with a relieved smile. “Then you can start spoiling him. And, Gary, there’s fresh bedding on that chair. While we’re gone, see to Sue’s needs.”

  Jill was surprised how professional her voice sounded. She laughed at herself as she took the baby down the hall to the bathroom sink. Hal followed her, watching her handle the tiny body gingerly but firmly as she bathed him in the sink. Earlier in the day, she’d laid out the things she’d needed.

  “He’s perfect, just perfect,” she said, giddy with relief. To Jill’s inexperienced eyes he seemed like a full-term baby. Maybe Sue had her dates mixed up. She was amazed at how much she remembered from tending Randy when he was an infant. Maybe bathing a baby was like riding a bicycle, you never really forgot.

  She hid a smile as Hal looked over her shoulder. His laugh was almost as giddy as hers. “Wow, isn’t he something. Hard to believe a tiny baby like that will grow up into a strapping youngster like Randy.”

  “I know,” Jill said with a catch in her throat. Her newborn son had been the most beautiful baby in the world. How blessed she’d been to have him. More than anything, she’d wanted to have children.

  After she’d dressed the infant and wrapped it warmly in a blanket, they silently gazed upon its sweet, round face, tiny puckered mouth and a cap of soft fair hair. The moment was charged with emotion.

  “So perfect,” she murmured. “And when it’s your own, it’s unbelievable. There’s no feeling like seeing your child for the first time.”

  “No, I don’t suppose there is.” The raw longing in his voice was undisguised. The deep sadness was back in his eyes.

  She chided herself for being so insensitive. Impulsively, she held the baby out to him. “You hold him while I clean up here,” she ordered.

  “Are you sure?” He took the bundle gingerly, and a soft smile crossed his face as he looked down at the newborn in his arms. “Welcome to the old homestead, little fellow.”

  The storm and all its threats were forgotten. In an overflow of happiness, they returned the baby to the arms of his mother. Jill’s own eyes filled with tears, and she was pretty sure that Hal’s were misty, as well.

  “How can we ever thank you, the both of you?” Sue said, her expression tired but glowing.

  “All the thanks goes to Jill,” Hal said readily. “She had the situation under control the whole time. Just the way I knew she would.” He smiled at Jill, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “The only credit I get is for bringing her here.”

  They took their leave of the new little family a short time later, and Hal slipped his arm around her waist as they walked across the hall to her bedroom. As they paused in the doorway, she turned and earnestly studied his face—the finely drawn skin across his cheeks, the strong firm curve of his mouth and intense blue eyes that could change so quickly from dark to light, like winter skies to summer.

  “Why are you looking at me with such earnestness?” he asked with a soft smile.

  “I’m not sure. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen you before, not until now.” She put her hands lightly on his chest and lifted her face to his, knowing full well she was inviting his kiss.

  His mouth touched hers lightly at first, slowly lingering on her warm lips in a kind of amazement. His hands molded the curves of her waist and hips as the pressure of his kiss deepened, and she felt a powerful response vibrating through his body. When he lifted his mouth from hers, they stared at each other like two strangers drawn into an intimacy that left them both bewildered. A feeble warning that her judgment could not be trusted in the heightened situation went unheeded.

  In this quickening moment of physical desire, they were oblivious to the pair of eyes watching them from the shadows of the hall.

  What in the hell! The top of his head felt like it was exploding when he saw her in Haverly’s arms as they stood in the bedroom doorway. His stomach began to cramp, his eyes narrowed and the uncontrollable slither of a demonic anger twisted his insides like an ugly serpent coiled and ready to spring. He wasn’t about to lose her now. Not when he’d been so patient. So careful. He would have her…and soon. Anyone who got in his way would pay the price. His right hand clenched as if his fingers were on the cold metal of a gun.

  Chapter Five

  Hal couldn’t sleep. The ticking of his bedside clock reminded him that it was well past midnight. He thrashed about the bed, fighting a legion of warring emotions. His body remembered every touch of her soft skin, the searing warmth of his lips on hers, and the exploding desire to make love to her. The incredible real-life drama that had played out before them had washed away all strangeness between them. But everything was moving much too fast. He’d always prided himself on his self-control. But what on earth had happened to his usual grasp of common sense? How had Jill gotten so deep under his skin that his whole life suddenly seemed out of focus?

  Even as he denied it, he knew the answer. He was afraid of opening himself up to love. He remembered the pain, the devastation. He hadn’t thought about his old sweetheart for a long time. They’d just been kids when they became friends in the small country school, and somehow, in the process of growing up, they’d become a couple. Even when he went away to the University of Nebraska, he’d been happy and secure in knowing that he had a sweetheart who would become his wife, the mother of his children and his partner on the ranch. And he’d been happy for Carrie when the chance came for her to take a trip back East to visit a relative in New York. Then the whole fabric of his life unraveled when he got her letter, brief and to the point. She wasn’t coming back. She said she was sorry, hoped that he would understand, but she’d found a new life and a new love. She wished him well and was sure he’d find his own happiness. Hurt and anger had stayed with him for a long time, until he’d buried the old dream deep enough to give him peace.

  Tonight when he’d held the baby in his arms, the old dream had surfaced, bringing disturbing longings that he’d thought he’d buried forever. Until Jill Gaylor invaded his house, he’d been satisfied with the way things were in his life. It had been a long time since he’d even thought about sharing himself with anyone, let alone a woman who had city roots. A couple of times in recent years, he’d brought some gal he’d met and liked to the ranch, but the relationships never took. A brief vacation was one thing for an attractive young woman, but he’d watched the romantic glow of living on a ranch quickly fade in the reality of the demanding daily workload. How could he expect things to be different with someone as city-bred as Randy’s mother? She was an intelligent, competent woman, and he’d be a fool to think that a struggling rancher could hold her affections for long.

  JILL SLEPT for a couple of hours and then relieved Gary, sending him into her room to catch so
me sleep. She curled up in the easy chair beside the sleeping child and mother, but her vigil was uneventful until after midnight, when Sue woke up, glanced around the room and frowned. “Gary?”

  “He’s sleeping across the hall in my room,” said Jill, quickly getting up from the chair where she’d been curled up under a thick quilt. “Do you want me to get him?”

  Sue shook her head. A faint smile crossed her lips. “Let him sleep.”

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Not really.”

  “Maybe some warm milk and toast? You’ll need some nourishment to nurse the baby.”

  Jill took the baby out of the cradle and handed him to his mother. True to his word, Hal had polished the cherry wood to a glistening shine and had found a firm pillow to put in the bottom. Jill’s heart tightened a little when she thought of the robust man who had once been a tiny infant rocked in this very same cradle.

  Sue touched the small bundle at her side. “He’s so tiny,” she murmured in wonderment.

  “They don’t stay that way.” Jill chuckled as she thought about her own strapping son. “It’s unbelievable how fast they grow up. Sometimes you wish you could keep them little for a longer time,” she added wistfully. Thinking about Randy brought a tender mist to her eyes. She knew he was all right, but they had rarely been separated even for a night, and she felt as if a part of herself was missing. She suffered a moment of regret that she had left him, then she gave herself a mental shake. Her task at the moment was to take the best care she could of Sue and her baby. She’d be back with her son soon enough, and she’d have to tell him he’d been right about Hal Haverly. She’d changed her mind about him, but just how much, she wasn’t ready to admit to herself.

  “I can’t thank you enough, Jill,” Sue said. “And Mr. Haverly, too. He really gave me courage when I needed it.”

  Jill could have echoed the same sentiment. Just the thought of having tried to handle the delivery by herself was overwhelming.