by D. L. Roan
“It is,” she said in a stunned whisper, turning to meet her mother’s gaze. “It’s perfect.”
“Oh, honey.” Gabby’s eyes glistened with tears as she rushed across the room. She held Dani at arm’s length and looked over the dress, smiling when she met Dani’s gaze. “You’re so beautiful.” Her teary voice cracked as she pulled her into her arms. “I’m so glad you like it.”
“I love it.” Surprised at the lump in her own throat, Dani hugged her mom tight, grateful she hadn’t given up. She studied her reflection in the glass doors as Gabby zipped up the back, falling deeper in love with the dress with each passing second. She couldn’t wait for Clay to see it.
“We can have it altered if it’s too loose or too tight,” Gabby said as she fiddled with the fabric.
Dani shook her head, her smile so big her cheeks hurt. “I wouldn’t change a thing,” she said, capturing her mom’s roving hands. “Mom, I’m so sorry,” she said when Gabby met her gaze. “I know I’ve been difficult, but—”
“Pfft.” Gabby dismissed her with a flip of her wrist.
“No, Mom, I should have told you earlier. I’m so grateful for everything you’re doing. Thank you.”
Gabby’s excited smile relaxed into a motherly grin as she squeezed Dani’s hands. “Thank you for being my daughter. Ohh!” She squealed and pulled Dani into her arms again. “I love you so much, and I’m so happy for you!”
“You gals are gonna ruin that pretty dress with all those tears,” Uncle Cade said from behind them. When Dani glanced over her shoulder, she caught him wiping his eyes. “What?” He shrugged innocently. “I’m not crying. You’re crying,” he chuckled and disappeared into the kitchen, shouting for his French toast.
Lighthearted laughter filled the house as Gabby helped her out of the dress and folded it safely back inside the box before they joined Cade and the others at the breakfast table.
“I have to go to the bathroom, first,” Chloe said as she set the half gallon of milk on the table. “I swear, it’s like I have a bladder the size of a pea these days.”
Dani watched how Jonah watched her until she disappeared around the corner, noting how much he looked like Grey with his worried scowl.
“Leon seems cool,” he remarked when he turned around, then stuffed a piece of French toast into his mouth.
Cade scoffed. “Sure, if you’re into needles and daily nasal probes.”
Papa Daniel nudged his arm. “He’s just doing his job.”
“Yeah, well.” Uncle Cade shrugged. “I didn’t know sadism was a medical profession.”
Papa Daniel snorted as he reached for his glass of grapefruit juice. “You don’t like him because he doesn’t put up with your bullshit.”
Dani laughed when Cade glared at Papa Daniel. Nothing good could come from that much side-eye. Relieved to see him feeling so much better, she took a bite of her sandwich, having opted for the grilled cheese they’d made earlier.
A faint rumbling sound preceded a sudden vibration that radiated through Dani’s seat. She looked across the table and frowned when she saw the milk rippling against the glass.
“Does anyone else feel that?” Cade asked. “Or am I trippin’ on the shot of morphine Leon gave me earlier?”
“Is that…an earthquake?” Gabby asked.
“Sounds like it’s coming from the ranch,” Papa Daniel said, rising from his chair.
Dani followed him to the kitchen window that overlooked her parents’ house. “What in the world is that for?” she asked when she saw the ginormous backhoe Grey was driving down their driveway.
Gabby joined her at the window, then hung her head with a strangled moan. “What is he doing now?” she whined.
“Oh, cool. That’s like the ones I worked on up in Alaska.” Standing behind her, Jonah peered over her head as the tractor slowly moved down the slope toward the creek. “I overheard Matt and Mason talking about the guesthouse this morning.”
“Told you,” Cade winked at Gabby. “But why does he need an industrial-sized backhoe to build a one-room bunkhouse?”
“Maybe he’s digging a basement,” Papa Daniel suggested with a shrug. “Or a mote.”
“A mote would be awesome!” Jonah cheered.
“He promised,” Gabby mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief as she stared out the window.
“Promised what?” Jonah asked innocently.
“Not to start another project until he finishes the nursery.” Gabby paced to her purse hanging on a hook beside the front door and fished out her phone.
Jonah snickered as she punched impatiently at the screen. “He’s in trouble now.”
“It could be worse,” Uncle Cade said as he sat back down in front of his French toast. He cut off a large wedge and stuffed it into his mouth, his eyes closing on a sigh. “It’s a good thing he didn’t see you in that dress, Ace.” He chased his bite down with a couple gulps of milk before he cut off another piece, pointing his fork at her. “That would send him right over the edge and he’d be drivin’ in a crane crew to build a resort lodge.”
“Jonah!”
Chloe’s anguished scream froze everyone in their tracks.
“Jonah!”
Dani watched in horror as Jonah tore through the kitchen, tipping over chairs, his feet sliding out from under him as he raced down the hall to get to her.
Papa Daniel bumped into her, hot on Jonah’s heels, and knocked Dani from her shock. She followed everyone to the bathroom, where Chloe stood sobbing, her hands covered with the blood that was seeping through her yoga pants.
“Oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit! Baby, what’s happening?” Jonah knelt at her feet as he cupped his hands around her belly.
“I don’t know!” Chloe cried.
“Call an ambulance,” Papa Daniel ordered and squeezed through the doorway to get behind her, but Jonah scooped her up into his arms and took off.
“Jonah!” Gabby called after him.
“It’ll take the ambulance too long to get here!” Jonah opened the front door, flying down the steps and not stopping until he had her in the passenger seat of his truck. “Call Pryce!” he shouted as he rounded the front of his truck and jumped into the driver’s seat, the truck lurching forward the second the engine turned over.
Dani couldn’t move. Fear froze her in place as she watched the truck tear down the driveway and disappear on the hardtop road that led into town. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be real. Chloe’s baby had to be okay.
Chapter Nineteen
The overhead florescent lights cast a harsh glow on the narrow hallway Dani paced as she talked to Clay.
“Do you want me to fly up there?” he asked.
“No.” Dani swiped her tears away. “You have enough to worry about.”
Clay was quiet, a sign he was considering it anyway. “Who’s in the room with her?” he finally asked.
“Pryce.” She turned to look at Jonah sitting huddled in a chair outside Chloe’s room, his head in his hands, trying to hold onto his fragile control. “It makes me so mad they won’t let Jonah in there with her. It’s the twenty-first century, for crying out loud. When are they going to realize that some families are different.”
“They probably don’t want to overwhelm her,” he suggested. “The fewer people in the room, the less stress, you know?”
“Keeping him away from her makes it worse, not better!”
“I know,” Clay insisted. “I’m just saying that they probably think they’re helping. I get they aren’t, but they don’t know that.”
Dani shook her head. It was a useless argument. He didn’t know the kind of narrow-mindedness her family had dealt with over the years.
The floor tiles passed beneath her feet like a runway as she turned and started down the long hall again, but no matter how fast she walked, she couldn’t outrun the memory of the blinding terror in Chloe’s eyes, or the sound of raw anguish in Jonah’s voice.
“Don’t cry, beautiful. She’ll be okay.�
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She fought the ache building in her throat. “You don’t know that.”
“I’m coming up there,” Clay insisted.
“No, don’t. Please.” She sucked in a calming breath and swiped at her tears, but when she looked over and saw Jonah doing the same, more tears took their place.
“What about Molly? Can she come stay with you?”
“I’m okay,” she promised, the words unconvincing even to her. “I’m just worried about Jonah. Clay, I’ve never seen him lose it like this before.”
“I can imagine,” he sighed. “I remember what Jackson was like when Shannon had a scare like this with Paxton.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. About a month before Pax was born, her blood pressure shot up out of nowhere and she passed out. It scared the hell out of all of us, but Pax was fine, and with a little rest so was Shannon.”
“Was she bleeding like Chloe, though?”
“No, but these things happen all the time, Dani. There’s just as much chance she’ll be okay as there is of something serious. You have to give the doctors time to figure it out.”
She nodded silently, afraid to speak.
“Go get yourself some hot chocolate or something. Have you eaten anything since breakfast?”
Dani frowned, the idea of putting food in her stomach revolting.
“Call me back when you know something,” Clay added. “Or even if you just need to talk—are you sure you don’t want me to fly up there?”
“No—I mean, yes. I’m fine.”
“If I leave now I can be there tonight.”
“No. Really I’m—”
“Fine. I know,” Clay chuckled. “I don’t need much arm twisting, though. Any excuse to see you.”
Dani’s lips twitched into a watery smile. “I’ll call you when I know something.”
“Okay.” Clay’s sigh was heavy with feigned disappointment. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
An hour later, the hallway was crowded with family. Her dads had arrived first. Grey sat beside Jonah, with Matt standing sentry on his other side. Mason sat across from them, her mom huddled in the crook of his arm. Con and Car had shown up soon after with Gran and Breezy, who’d spoken to all the attending nurses, but wasn’t afforded any more information than they already knew, which was practically nothing. She’d eventually taken Con and Car on a coffee run.
Aunt Bev had rushed to the hospital as soon as she’d heard the news, and now paced the halls opposite Dani like she’d already exceeded her caffeine limit. Papa Daniel had stayed behind with Cade, along with Joe, Nate, and Papa Jake, but they’d called or texted Gran every ten minutes to see if there’d been any news.
“When are they going to build a fire station near the ranch?” Dani asked Cory as she walked by where he was leaning against the wall, playing some kind of game on his phone.
“Yeah,” Cory snorted. “That’d be nice.”
“It takes forever for the Grassland station to get to the ranch. What if something life-threatening happened before Jonah could get her here?”
Cory shrugged, but didn’t look up from his phone.
Dani snatched it from his hand. “I’m serious, Cor.”
“What do you expect me to do about it?” Cory snatched his phone back. “I’m a rookie firefighter in a completely different county.”
“You can ask…somebody. I don’t know. Find out what it would take to make it happen. Something besides playing that stupid game all the time.”
“You need to chill out,” Cory said, his attention already refocused on his game.
Dani narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you even worried?”
Cory shrugged, only glancing up from his phone. “I see this stuff all the time. It’s probably nothing. Besides,” his lips curled up into a mocking grin, “you’re doing enough worrying for all of us, Grey.”
“Don’t do that. I’m not like—”
“You’re exactly like Grey,” Cory sighed and pocketed his phone. He slung his arm around her shoulders and turned them toward where Grey sat with Jonah. “The good news is, given the way he’s not pacing, puking, panicking, or even fidgeting, it looks like you’ll grow out of it, give or take twenty years.”
“Jerk.” Dani shoved him away, but Cory kept his hold on her shoulders, turning them back around and leading her down the hallway.
“Come on. Let this jerk get you something to drink.” When they passed the soda machine, and then the cafeteria, Dani gave him a skeptical look. “Trust me,” he said as he led her out into the parking lot.
The further away from the hospital they got, the more she worried. “Where are we going? We can’t leave.”
“I said—”
“Yeah-yeah. Trust you, but—” Her skepticism turned to elation when they reached his truck and he opened the passenger door, pulling out a bottle of whiskey. “Oh, thank God!” She snatched the bottle from him and hopped into the passenger seat. “Did I ever tell you that you’re my favorite brother?”
Cory raised an incredulous brow. “No. I don’t think you’ve ever said anything even remotely close to that.”
Dani unscrewed the cap and took a swig, wincing as the warm liquid sizzled down her throat and skipped right into her bloodstream. “Well…” She tipped the bottle out to Cory. “This just sealed the deal.”
Cory’s lips twisted into a skeptical scowl. “The bar must not have been set very high,” he said as he opened the back door, then hopped up into the back seat before he took a drink of his own, his head falling back against the headrest with a heavy sigh.
“Your twenty-first birthday’s coming up. Got any plans?” Dani asked, nodding to the bottle of whiskey.
Cory opened one eye, the corner of his mouth cocked into a confident smirk. “Buying my first bottle of whiskey with my new I.D.,” he said with a wink.
“I’d say that deserves a toast.” Dani giggled and took the bottle, holding it up to Cory. “To finally being able to buy your own booze, instead of stealing mine,” she said, taking another shot.
“I never stole your—okay, yeah I did,” he admitted unabashedly as he took the whiskey back.
Silence fell between them as the alcohol worked to dull the jagged edges of tension cutting into her muscles. She looked back at her youngest sibling, taking in how grown up he looked. He’d changed a lot in the last six months. Well, the longer hair and new muscles made him at least look older.
“So, what else do you have planned?” she asked, not quite ready to go back inside.
Cory shrugged. He looked out one window, then slowly turned and looked out the other before his gaze dropped to the bottle in his hands and he blurted, “I applied for the police academy in Billings.”
Dani’s jaw dropped. “What? Why? I thought you liked being a firefighter.”
Cory shrugged, then took another sip before putting the cap back on the bottle and stashing it beneath the passenger seat. “It’s okay, I guess, but several of my friends have transferred out and seem to like it, and the pay’s better, especially with the Billings P.D. One of them put in a word for me, so…”
“Holy shit! So, you got in?”
Cory smiled.
“The police academy, or the Billings P.D.?”
“The academy, idiot. I have to finish training first,” he clarified. “But my friend says when I graduate, there’s a rookie spot for me if I want it.”
“You mean if you graduate,” Dani teased.
Cory narrowed his eyes, then raised both his middle fingers. “We can’t all be as smart as you.” He smirked. “Or as mean.”
“Yeah, well…” Dani grinned down at her boots. “That’s what you get for ruining my hopes of a Falcon Ridge volunteer fire department,” she said with a wink, still surprised by his unexpected news. It wasn’t that far off from being a firefighter, but she’d never imagined him as a cop. “So, is that what you want to do? Move to Billings?”
He glanced out the window again, then
gave her a silent but resolved nod.
“Have you told Mom and the dads yet?”
“No.” Cory slid out of the truck and Dani followed him, swinging her door closed before he clicked the locks.
“Why not?”
Cory stuffed his keys back into his pocket, shrugging as they made their way back to the hospital entrance. “With everything going on, your wedding, the baby, and Uncle Cade, now seems like a bad time. Well…” He snorted. “All the time is a bad time lately.” The doors to the hospital opened, and he let her go in ahead of him. “I figure one crisis at a time, ya know?”
“You going to the police academy isn’t exactly a crisis.”
Cory slanted her a sideways yeah-right glance. “You know how Mom worries.”
“At least you’re not fake-joining the military like Jonah did.” She pulled Cory to a sudden stop and turned him to face her. “You’re not bullshitting me, are you?”
Cory laughed. “No, I’m not fake-joining the police academy, but don’t say anything to anyone,” he made her promise. “You’re the only one I’ve told, so I’ll know if you do.”
“I won’t.” Dani turned an imaginary key between her lips, then tucked it into his hoodie pocket, patting it for good measure. “Your secret’s safe with me.” She threw her arm around him as they weaved their way back through the maze of cold hallways. “I’m proud of you,” she said, and, oddly enough, meant it.
When they entered the hallway where their family waited outside Chloe’s room, a team of doctors rounded the corner and stopped at her door. She sprinted to meet them, but they disappeared inside the room before she got there.
“What did they say?” she asked her twin.
Jonah sat stoic, broken, staring at the floor.
“They said they’d be out to inform the family once they talk to Chloe and Pryce,” Matt said with a bitter snarl.
