Читать книгу Evergreen Springs - RaeAnne Thayne - Страница 8

CHAPTER TWO

“THAT WAS A good show,” the adorable boy declared when the closing credits to the animated Christmas show on the television started to roll.

His sister gave a dismissive shrug. “I guess. I thought the elf was kind of stupid. I mean, why didn’t he just give the girl’s letter to Santa in the first place instead of trying to answer it himself because he was trying to be such a big deal?”

“People can make all kinds of crazy choices in stories,” Devin pointed out. “If Elvis had given the letter to Santa, the story would have ended there and he never would have learned to care more about helping other people than about how important he looked to them.”

“Maybe.”

Jazmyn looked doubtful, not particularly swayed by Devin’s thoughtful analysis on the nature of elves in fiction and the character journey of this particular elf.

“When is Aunt Tricia gonna be done here so we can go home?” the girl asked. “We haven’t even had dinner yet and it’s almost Ty’s bedtime. I’m okay, but Ty is starving. He has to keep his blood sugar steady or he gets crazy.”

“I do not,” Ty protested.

“You do. That’s what Mom used to say all the time, remember?”

“I guess.” He looked upset at the reminder. From what she had seen, the boy was extremely sweet, with those big soulful dark eyes and endlessly long eyelashes. “I guess I am hungry.”

“If your dad doesn’t come out in a few moments, I’ll grab some crackers and cheese for you. Maybe that will hold you over until you can get some dinner.”

“But when can Aunt Tricia go home? Is she done with the ’tractions?” Jazmyn asked.

“Did she have to get a big cast on her leg?” Ty asked before she could answer his sister. “My friend Carlos broke his arm on a trampoline and had to get a big cast. It’s camel-flage.”

“Camouflage, you mean,” Jazmyn corrected him.

“That’s what I said.”

“Your aunt has to stay the night so we can take care of her leg—which isn’t going to need a cast but will probably be in a brace that she can take on and off. I’m not sure if we have one in camouflage but I can see.”

“What about her babies?” the girl asked. “She’s not going to have them tonight, is she?”

Devin hoped not. “I don’t think so. They’re a little too small right now.”

“She’s having a boy and a girl,” Ty informed her. “The boy is going to be Jack and the girl will be named Emma. That was my grandma’s middle name. I never met her because she died. Aunt Tricia said I can hold them anytime I want.”

“I’m sure you’ll be a big help.”

“I’m going to. She said I could even feed them a bottle if I wanted.”

“Lucky.”

“You don’t even know how to feed a baby a bottle,” his sister said skeptically. “I do. I fed you when you were little.”

Since Jazmyn was only a few years older than her brother, Devin doubted the veracity of that claim, but she wasn’t about to call her on it.

“With two babies, there will be plenty of chances for everybody to hold them and feed them.”

“Don’t talk about food because I’m starving,” the girl moaned dramatically.

“I’m sure your dad will be out soon to take you back to your house for some dinner.”

“It’s not my house,” she muttered.

“It is so,” Ty argued. “Dad said so. We live with him now.”

“Not for long. Grandma Trixie says she’s going to fight for custody so we can come live with her in California, just as soon as she finds us all a good place to stay.”

Why would a grandparent think she could possibly win a custody fight against a parent? What was the background? Where was their mother, first of all, and why hadn’t they been living with their father before now?

Cole’s life seemed a mad tangle of complications.

“I don’t want to live with Grandma Trixie. I like living with Dad,” Ty said, his voice small. “We have our own rooms now, which we never had before, and a yard to play in and Dad says I can even get a horse of my own after I learn how to ride better.”

“Who wants a stupid horse?” Jazmyn tossed her brother a disgusted look. “With Grandma Trixie in California, we could go to the beach every day, even in the winter, and maybe even see movie stars.”

“I’d rather have a horse and live with Dad,” Ty muttered. Devin had the feeling this wasn’t the first time the two of them had engaged in this particular argument. To keep the peace, she opted for distraction.

“Let’s go see if we can find some crackers and juice. Ty, why don’t you give me a hand?”

The agreeable boy slid off his chair and followed her to the reception desk. “Hey, Brittney. My man Ty here is hungry and so is his sister. Any chance we could grab a few of those cracker packs and maybe some cookies from the food room?”

“Sure, Dr. Shaw.” The young receptionist hopped up. “I should have thought of that. What a dope I can be. I’m sorry. Just give me a sec.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

The receptionist hurried away. While she was gone, Ty became interested in the small Christmas tree on the desk, made entirely of inflated nonlatex gloves cascading down with an elastic bandage garland.

“Are those all balloons? Did somebody have to blow them all up?”

“I would guess so,” she answered.

“I bet that took forever.”

“It’s not that tough. Here, I’ll show you.” She grabbed a glove from the box tacked to the wall and quickly showed him how to bunch the end together and blow it up, then tie the end like a balloon. “And now look.” She grabbed a Sharpie from the canister on the reception desk and doodled a face on it, with the thumb sticking out like a long nose, much to the boy’s delight.

She might not be able to knit, but who said she wasn’t crafty?

She had learned the fine art of glove creature creation during her first surgery, when she’d ended up staying ten days because of an infection. In the children’s hospital in Boise, she had met Lilah, another teenage girl with cancer. It was Lilah, she remembered, who had shown her the trick of creating creatures from surgical gloves. They used to make them for the younger kids receiving treatment.

Lilah had lost her battle just a few months later.

Devin thought a silent prayer for her friend and for the others she had said goodbye to along her cancer journey.

“Can you make one for Jazmyn?” Ty asked.

“You bet.”

In a minute, she had another inflated glove. This face she drew with long eyelashes and puckered lips. Ty quickly took it over to his sister just as the receptionist came out with a handful of treats.

The kids were eating crackers and cheese with enthusiasm—pausing every few moments to bop each other on the head with their inflated glove creatures—when their father walked back into the waiting room.

She suddenly felt as if all the air had been sucked from the room, which she was fully aware was a completely ridiculous reaction to a gorgeous man.

“Hey, kids.”

“Where’s Aunt Tricia?”

Cole glanced at Devin, looking rather endearingly uncertain, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to tell his kids. “She’s sticking around here for the night. Dr. Shaw wants to keep an eye on her and the babies a little longer.”

“Who’s going to fix us breakfast and get us on the bus?” Ty demanded. “We don’t even have Mrs. Lynn to help us anymore.”

“I can do that just as well as Tricia or Mrs. Lynn.”

“Aunt Tricia said you can’t even make toast without burning it,” Jazmyn informed him.

“Aunt Tricia talks too much,” he muttered. “Between you and me, we ought to be able to handle things for a few days, don’t you think?”

“I guess,” she said doubtfully.

“Get your coats and gather up your things so we can take off,” he ordered. “We need to get Aunt Tricia’s bag out of the car, then grab some dinner so I can get you two to bed.”

“Can we take these?” Ty asked Devin, holding out his inflated glove.

“Of course,” she answered. “I’ll warn you, they might start to lose air pretty soon.”

When they were just about ready to go—mittens found, beanies adjusted—Jazmyn turned contrary.

“I need to use the bathroom,” she suddenly declared. The girl was quite a character. She could have gone anytime in the past fifteen minutes but she had waited until she knew her father was in a hurry.

“Can’t you wait until we get home?” Cole asked.

“No. I have to go now.”

“Fine. Go ahead.”

She headed to the ladies’ room just off the lobby. “You need to go?” Cole asked his son. The boy shook his head, content to toss the rubber glove balloon into the air and catch it again.

“Thanks for keeping an eye on them,” Cole said to her.

“No problem. They’re fun kids. How old are they? I didn’t have the chance to ask.”

“Jaz is eight going on about thirty-six and Ty just turned six.”

“Those are fun ages at Christmastime. Still young enough to believe in the magic and old enough to appreciate the wonder of it all.”

“I guess. I’m not sure any of us is in the mood for Christmas this year,” he said, his tone rather bleak.

Why? What was the story here? She wanted to ask but decided it wasn’t her business. “You said you had a bag of your sister’s?”

“Yeah. I guess she’s had a hospital bag packed since before she came out to Idaho. She threw it in the truck before we left the house. Mother’s intuition or something. Apparently it contains a few necessities like magazines and slippers.”

“Handy.”

“I guess.” He looked around the empty waiting room, then back at her. “I’ve got to tell you, Doc, I’m still not convinced this is the best place for her and the twins. I can’t help thinking maybe the smartest thing would be to pack her up right now and take her to a bigger hospital in Boise.”

Devin ignored the little pinch to her pride. “I understand your concern. I told Tricia that’s a decision she can certainly make. I will tell you, we have a state-of-the-art facility here, brand-new in the last two years, with every possible advanced fetal and maternal monitoring capability and a couple of excellent specialists in the area who will be taking a look at her tomorrow. If at any time your sister feels uneasy about the care she’s receiving here, I would be the first to encourage her to transfer to a different facility. At this point, we’re dealing with a sprained ankle and contractions that currently appear to be under control. I would advise against moving to another facility far away from her family, but that’s, of course, her choice.”

“Yeah, she was quick to remind me of the same thing,” he said, his voice wry.

“Sisters. What can you do?”

He almost smiled but seemed to catch himself at the last minute as his daughter came out of the ladies’ room, wiping her just-washed hands on her coat.

He unpeeled from the wall. “Thanks for keeping an eye on them for me. Come on, kids. Let’s grab the bag for Aunt Tricia, then take off back to the ranch before that snow gets any deeper.”

Devin watched them walk outside, their faces colored by the blinking Christmas lights around the front door as snow swirled around them.

“I can’t believe how much snow has already fallen,” Brittney said, looking out after them.

Before Devin could answer, Callie appeared. “There you are. We just got a call from Dispatch. Paramedics are on their way to the scene of a three-car accident and they’re warning us to get ready for multiple injuries.”

So much for her relatively quiet evening.

She put the very sexy cowboy and his cute kids out of her mind so she could focus on the job at hand.

* * *

SHE DIDN’T HAVE the chance to check on Tricia again until several hours and two more weather-related accidents later.

Devin’s friend had been moved to a room on the obstetrics floor, the third floor of the hospital, where each room had big windows offering lovely views—in daylight, anyway—of the Redemption Mountains and the beautiful unearthly blue waters of Lake Haven.

On a quick break, Devin took the elevator up and headed to the obstetrics nurses’ desk. She found Tricia’s chart and saw that the contractions appeared to have stopped. Dr. Randall, the ob-gyn, had made a visit a short time ago and Devin sighed when she read his recommendation. As she had feared, Dr. Randall agreed with her and thought this was one of the rare cases when hospital bed rest was indicated.

That wouldn’t be easy for anyone—especially not Tricia.

Thinking she would just take a peek inside to see if her patient was sleeping, she cracked the door only a little. A light was on above the bed, she discovered. Tricia sat upright in the bed with her leg propped on a couple of pillows, hands clasped over her distended abdomen.

When she spied Devin, she gave a small smile and quickly tried to wipe away the tears on her cheeks.

Devin didn’t give another thought to the peanut butter and honey sandwich she had planned to eat during the break. Her patient was in distress and that was far more important.

She pushed the door open and walked inside. “Oh, honey. What’s wrong? Are you having pain? How’s the ankle?”

Tricia shrugged. “It hurts, mainly because I don’t want to take any heavy pain medication that might harm the babies. But at least it’s not broken. Mostly I’m upset because this isn’t the way I planned to spend the last few weeks of my pregnancy. Alone, on bed rest in a strange hospital.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Tricia sniffled and Devin handed her the box of tissues that was just out of reach on her bedside table. She grabbed one and wiped at her eyes. “So you heard?”

“I was just reading your chart.”

“Dr. Randall thinks I should stay here on hospital bed rest for the next week so they can continue monitoring things. I’m dilated to a three and twenty percent effaced, which makes the risk of premature labor high, and now I can’t even walk to the bathroom on my own. The stupid ankle is complicating everything.”

“I know it’s hard but this might be the best thing for all of you. You want to keep those little ones inside there as long as possible, trust me. In just a few weeks, they’ll be considered full-term and the risks of neonatal complications drop considerably.”

“I know. But I don’t have to like it. It stinks.”

“You won’t get an argument from me. I get it, believe me.”

She didn’t, really. She could understand and empathize on a clinical level but she didn’t really know what it was to be pregnant and frightened. That was something she would never be able to appreciate, except theoretically.

The ache in her chest was as familiar as it was unwelcome.

“I’m sorry I bothered you,” she said quietly. “Sleep is really the best thing for you and those kidlets.”

“I was sleeping until a short time ago, but then I had a bad dream that woke me.”

Devin tried to lighten the mood. “I hate that. A few nights ago, I dreamed I was the grand marshal of the Lake Haven Days parade but instead of riding on a float, I had to do cartwheels the entire parade route, all the way down Lake Street in front of everyone in town. My hands were killing me, even in the dream.”

As she hoped, Tricia smiled a little at the ridiculousness of Devin’s subconscious. “The mind is such a strange thing, isn’t it?”

“You said it, sister.” Devin slipped into the visitor’s chair next to the bed.

She felt a comfortable kinship with the other woman, though they had been separated for years and hadn’t stayed in touch. Some friendships were like that. Despite time and distance, coming together again was like slipping on a favorite shirt you misplaced for a while in the back of your closet.

“Is it still snowing out there?” Tricia asked. “I spoke with my brother before I fell asleep and he said they passed a couple of slide-offs on the way home. He said they already had four or five inches on the road up to Evergreen Springs.”

“We’ve had weather-related accidents all night. This is the first chance I’ve had to slip away to check on you. Your brother and the children made it home safely, though?”

“Yes. He said it was slick and they slid a little, especially going up the driveway, but nothing serious.”

“That’s a relief.”

Tricia was silent, her fingers tangled in the edge of the nubby hospital blanket. “I hate that I’ve complicated everything for him. As if everything wasn’t tough enough already—now he has to worry about me, too.”

“Why are things tough?”

Tricia made a rough sound. “I could paper the walls with all the reasons, starting with the kids. Jazmyn and Ty have only been with him a few months and they’re all still trying to find their way together.”

“Is that right?” She didn’t want to be nosy but she couldn’t deny she was curious about the situation.

Tricia sighed. “Their mom, Cole’s ex, was killed in a car accident just after her third marriage.”

“Oh, no. Those poor children.” Perhaps that explained some of Jazmyn’s surliness and the shadows in poor little Ty’s gaze.

“I know the kids miss her. My heart breaks for them. I don’t think Ty, at least, really gets what’s going on, but Jaz was super close to her mother and she’s devastated. It’s been so tough for all of them. I’m sad for the kids but I can’t honestly say I’m sorry Sharla is dead.”

Devin blinked a little, surprised by the other woman’s rancor. “Okay.”

“I know that makes me sound like a terrible person but I don’t care. She was a vindictive witch who did her best to keep Jaz and Ty away from Cole as much as possible, unless it was convenient for her to dump them off on him. She hopped from man to man, town to town, and put him and those kids through hell.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good situation for anybody.”

“It wasn’t. I hope things will be a little easier for all of them now. Maybe they can have some kind of stable home life for the first time, at least after Cole finds a housekeeper who will stick around for longer than a few weeks. You don’t know anybody looking for a job, do you?”

“As a housekeeper?” Devin asked. “I don’t, but I can certainly ask around.”

“He needs a nanny more than a housekeeper, really. He just can’t keep up with the ranch and the house and the kids by himself. He’s hired a couple of people to help but neither of them really clicked with the kids. Jaz can be...moody and difficult sometimes. As for Ty, he’s the sweetest thing, but he can be energetic when he’s in a mood. Neither of them has ever had any kind of structure or discipline. I’ve been helping him out these past weeks since the last housekeeper left before Thanksgiving. I don’t know how he’s going to juggle everything on his own without me.”

“I’m sure he’ll figure it out.” Cole Barrett struck her as a man used to taking care of business. She ignored the ridiculous little flutter in her stomach as she thought of the man. “You need to let your brother worry about his home life. That can’t be your concern.”

“I can’t help it. I stress about him and the children. If he wasn’t so darn stubborn, the solution to the whole problem is right there at the ranch, staring him in the face. But that would be too easy and require my inflexible brother to bend a little. I mean, Dad is right there on the ranch, living fifty yards away, but Cole will gnaw off his own leg before he asks Stanford to lift a finger.”

“I take it your brother and father don’t get along.” The man really did have a tangled mess of a home life.

Tricia sighed heavily. “That’s an understatement. I’m not saying Cole doesn’t have his reasons for being angry, but people can change, right? Dad is trying.”

Devin didn’t quite know how to answer that, since she didn’t know any of the particulars, so she remained silent.

After a moment, Tricia winced. “Sorry. You didn’t come in here to be bored by my family drama.”

“I’m not bored. I just wish I could help somehow.”

“The housekeeper is the critical need, especially with me stuck here. They’re going to be eating frozen pizzas and cold cereals until I have these babies. He’s the kind of man who will never ask for help. He’ll just muddle through as best he can.”

She knew more than a few of those. “I’ll put the word out. It might be tough to hire someone right before Christmas but I’ll ask my sister if she can think of anybody. McKenzie is the mayor of Haven Point and she seems to know everything that goes on.”

“Thank you. Seriously, Devin. Thank you. I’m so glad you were here when Cole made me come.”

She smiled and rose. “I need to head back downstairs. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“You’ve done so much already.” Tears welled up in the other woman’s eyes again and Devin squeezed her fingers. This was a tough situation for anyone, especially when she was pregnant with twins and appeared to be alone.

Tricia hadn’t said anything about her husband, though she still wore a wedding ring. Devin took a chance and though it wasn’t her business as a physician, she wanted to think their old and dear friendship gave her a little more leeway.

“Have you been in contact with the babies’ father? Does he know what’s going on?”

Tricia reached for another tissue. “No. He won’t care, anyway.”

“Ah. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“Sean and I are...estranged, I guess you could say. It’s such a mess.”

“I didn’t mean to distress you, honey. Forget about it.”

“No. You should know what’s going on. It’s a long story but the core problem is he’s angry about the pregnancy. We have always been that couple who told everyone who would listen that they didn’t want children. We were both adamant about it. This was an oopsie of epic proportions...and wouldn’t you know, I’d get pregnant with twins?”

Devin forced a smile, though she felt that familiar little ache in her chest again.

“As soon as I found out I was pregnant, my whole mind-set shifted,” Tricia said, “and suddenly I loved and wanted Jack and Emma desperately, but Sean never came around. I thought he might eventually, but we had another big fight just before Thanksgiving. He couldn’t come to the last ultrasound. This is after weeks of him being too busy to come to other appointments. He was supposed to come out here with me, too, for the holiday, but at the last minute he volunteered for a business trip. It was the last straw, you know?”

She didn’t, but again, she nodded.

“It was plain to me things would never change. I decided I couldn’t raise my children in an atmosphere where they felt unwanted, even for a moment. I know what that’s like and I couldn’t put my children through that, so I decided to stay with Cole and the children, to have the babies here and stay at Evergreen Springs until I figure out what to do now.”

She sniffled a little and wiped at her eyes. “Now here I am in the hospital with a sprained ankle. I’ve made such a mess of things.”

Devin rubbed her arm. “You’re in very good hands here, my dear. We will take great care of you and your babies. I promise.”

“What about Cole and the kids? While I’m in here resting on my butt, he’ll be scrambling to do everything on his own. He’s a dear, dear man but he’s in way over his head with those kids of his. He can barely boil water. They’ll be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for every meal.”

Devin took her friend’s hands. “Your concern right now has to be keeping those babies safe and healthy and doing what you can to heal that ankle. I need you to promise me you won’t worry. It’s not good for any of you. We’ll find someone to help your brother.”

“You know, I believe you.” Tricia rested back on the pillows, some of the strain easing from her features. “That was always one of the things I loved best about you, Dev. If you said you would do something, you did it. You always kept your word.”

“You have to believe me about this. Your brother will be fine. We’ll make sure of it.”

She wasn’t sure how, she thought as she bid Tricia good-night and left the room. She didn’t even know the man, but she had promised her friend.

Cole Barrett would receive help, whether he wanted it or not.