“What day is Catherine due?” She rifled through her day timer and furrowed her brow.
Today was February 29. Her little friend appeared like clockwork every month, but she’d missed her period due February 20. Too much stress explained it—the recent move, living in a hotel room, the temporary new job. She’d simply wait for Mother Nature to put in an appearance on her own schedule.
That afternoon, Amanda’s nose was buried in a mound of spreadsheets that littered her desk when she heard someone march into her office and demand, “Could I have a word with you?”
Amanda’s head whipped up, the spreadsheets forgotten, and she met Catherine’s smiling eyes. “You startled me. Judging by that grin, you purposely sounded like a disgruntled customer.” Amanda wagged her finger at Catherine. “Don’t do that again.”
Catherine laughed and lowered herself into the client chair opposite Amanda. “You were studying those figures so intently I hope there isn’t a problem.”
“No way. Everything is buzzing along like a well run beehive. But the Queen Bee still hasn’t given birth.” Amanda pointed to Catherine’s middle. Was it possible she’d grown bigger still?
“Actually, that’s why I dropped by.” Catherine paused for a sip of water from the plastic bottle she brought with her. “The twins are due today, February 29. My husband drove us to town, and I’ve been walking about for some exercise while he’s ordering feed and mailing a package at the post office.”
“I’m happy you stopped by since you’re probably due for a rest.” Amanda smiled, leaned back in her executive chair. “What would be the chances that the babies arrive on their due date?”
“It happens. Mother joked about my brother Tom, something like, ‘He arrived on his due date, and he hasn’t been on time for anything since’. And she’s right. The guy will be late for his own funeral.”
Amanda smiled. “My sister’s the same way, late for every Sunday dinner. If Mom intends for everyone to sit down to eat at five o’clock, she tells my sister we’re eating at four. Usually, she still arrives late.”
“While it would be quite a novelty, I hope the twins wait a day or two. Babies born on February 29 should only celebrate a birthday every four years. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?” Catherine smiled.
“I’m certain you’d spoil them rotten with armfuls of presents and two big cakes with candles every year.”
Catherine struggled to the edge of the chair. “Yes, you’re right. Well, I’d better go. This little rest was exactly what I needed.”
Amanda leapt to her feet and helped Catherine out of the chair. “Drop by anytime. I’m always delighted to see you.”
The two new friends exited the office and started down the hallway in the direction of the side door. Suddenly, Catherine’s face paled. “Oh-oh.”
“What! What’s wrong?” Amanda swallowed, hard.
“My water just broke.” Catherine peered down at the telltale puddle between her feet and, eyes wide, she looked at Amanda. “I’ve been experiencing mild contractions all morning. I think I’m in full-blown labor.”
“Oh, hell. Oh, shit.” Amanda’s head spun. “What do I do?”
“Take a deep breath.” Catherine patted Amanda’s hand. “And then you drive me to the hospital while I call my husband on his cell phone.”
“Mr. Wainwright! Miss Pringle!” shouted Amanda. Both of her employees came on the run. “Miss Pringle, please mop the floor before someone slips and falls. Mr. Wainwright, you’re in charge while I drive Catherine to the hospital.”
Catherine grimaced with a contraction. Walter paled and appeared ready to faint, but Miss Pringle pulled her shoulders back and took a step forward.
“Go, go. We’ll handle things here,” she ordered, waving Amanda and Catherine toward the door.
For a brief second, Amanda considered the possibility she’d put the wrong person in charge. Catherine moaned. “Okay, we’re going,” Amanda called on the way out the door.
Amanda helped Catherine into her BMW, silently thanking the salesman who’d talked her into leather seats. She raced out of the parking lot and headed toward the hospital, tires squealing, turning onto Washington. “Hang on, Catherine. We’ll be there in five minutes.”
“Slow down for crying out loud. I can almost see the darn hospital from here.” Catherine gasped and grabbed her middle. “Another contraction. They’re definitely getting stronger than they were this morning.”
Amanda careened down Oak and wheeled into the hospital emergency entrance. She slammed the car into park and turned off the ignition. “Thank God, we’re here.” And then she noticed the police cruiser parked behind her, lights flashing and an angry-looking deputy at the wheel.
Catherine shook her head. “These babies won’t be born for hours yet, and you can explain your Indy 500 driving to Deputy Medicine Crow.”
Amanda raced around to the passenger side and helped Catherine clamber out of the car. Adam started to climb out of his cruiser and spotted Catherine.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes, thank you. I’ll just help her into the hospital. Sorry, I may have been speeding a little,” called Amanda, over her shoulder.
Adam Medicine Crow shook his head, glanced at the BMW. “Speeding a little? I’d better not catch you flying low on the highway.” He slid back behind the wheel and drove away.
Once processed and settled into a laboring room, Catherine anxiously waited for the soon-to-be new father to arrive to lend moral support and carry her suitcase in from his truck.
Amanda remained at her side. “Can I get you anything?”
“No, I’m okay. The doctor says I’m nowhere near ready to deliver. David will get here in time. Thank you for staying.”
Amanda paced the hallway floor while the doctor examined her friend. A few minutes later, she returned to Catherine’s side and settled back in her chair. She jumped when her cell phone sounded notification of an incoming text message. “Darn it. Miss Pringle just texted me, requested my immediate return to the bank. I totally forgot about an interview with a young couple facing a potential bankruptcy.” She touched Catherine’s arm. “I hate to leave you alone.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll probably pass David in the hallway.”
“I’ll phone later and see if there’s news.” Amanda quickly hugged Catherine.
“I’ll be fine. Go.” Catherine breathed normally between contractions and waved her on her way. “First babies take forever and my husband will arrive any minute now.”
“Where’s my wife?” shouted a deep masculine voice in the hallway.
“Sounds like your husband just arrived. I’ll phone you later,” called Amanda, dashing out the door.
****
At noon the next day, Amanda shifted the crystal vase filled with roses and orchids to her other hand and knocked on the door to Room 22 at the Bandit Creek Hospital.
“Come in,” called a cheery, familiar voice.
“How’s the new mommy?” Amanda peeked around the hanging white cotton drapery and met Catherine’s smiling face. “I hear you’ve acquired two new roommates.”
“I’m doing just fine.” Catherine spotted the flowers. “Those are beautiful! Thank you so much. Set them on the window ledge and come meet my little guys.”
Amanda set the flowers on the ledge, set her purse down beside them, and then crept over to the two bassinets lined up beside Catherine’s hospital bed.
“My two new favorite guys in the world arrived within three minutes of each other starting at one a.m.” Catherine wore a pretty pink robe which gave color to her face. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she beamed with pride.
Amanda smiled down at the two sleeping infants swaddled in matching blue blankets and wearing tiny blue woolen hats with only their two little faces showing. “You guys blew it. You missed your due date by an hour,” she whispered. “But I’m sure your mommy is pleased that you did. March 1 is a more sensible birth date.”
Ca
therine laughed. “David was pretty stressed out by the whole labor and delivery thing. He fainted dead away on the floor after the second one arrived.”
“Is he okay?” Amanda frowned, concerned for the new father.
“Aside from a badly bruised ego, no harm was done.” Catherine shifted on the bed. “Hand me Alexander David, please, we’re calling him Alex. He’s the baby on the left. Robert Edward is the other little guy. You can hold him if you want.”
Amanda passed Alex to Catherine and then settled into an upholstered chair with Robert in her arms. “He’s so tiny!” Amanda snuggled the perfect little creature close and felt his warmth through the soft blanket. She’d hoped to become a mother someday, but she brushed her wishful thinking aside. Now, due to the cancer treatments she had a better chance of winning a lottery.
“Robert was the heavy weight, weighing in at five pounds ten ounces. Alex weighed five pounds two ounces. A little smaller, but both babies are full-term, healthy, ten fingers, ten toes. They’re absolutely perfect. This opinion may be biased, though.” Catherine laughed.
“Brag all you want, Mommy. They’re so cute, and so small, and they smell so good.” Amanda smiled, weakly.
“Judging by your expression, you’re thinking about what might have been, aren’t you?” Catherine reached over and touched Amanda’s arm. “I’m so sorry. You could adopt, you know.”
Amanda dragged her eyes from Robert, glanced at Catherine. “First, I require a husband.”
“Missy Gibson didn’t. You’re emotionally and financially capable of raising a child alone.” Catherine met Amanda’s eyes, expectantly.
“I’ll give the idea some thought.” Amanda kissed the top of Robert’s head, contemplated the ramifications for her career should she decide to adopt. She would be absent from her job for three months. When she returned there would be daycare and doctor’s appointments. Working late would be a nightmare. Her mom would help whenever she could. But she shouldn’t call on her except in emergencies.
“I know what you’re thinking. How would such a decision affect my career? Amanda, I weighed all my options before I conceived these little guys. Now I can’t imagine why I waited so long.” Catherine shook her head. “It’s going to be so difficult leaving them and returning to work.”
“Well, enjoy your mat leave while you can. I’m amazed at the workload. But everything at the bank is running smoothly, so don’t be worrying about work.” Amanda dug in her purse with one hand searching for her digital camera. “Speaking of which, I’d better get back to the bank. I just dashed over here on my lunch break, but I did promise pictures.”
“My husband has probably shown off the twins to anyone willing to look at the pictures we took this morning.” Catherine laughed. “Set Robert up here beside Alex and take a picture of us for the gang at the bank.”
“Smile everybody,” encouraged Amanda, and then she clicked several pictures of the new family. Amanda and Catherine reviewed the pictures and deleted only one where the new mother blinked. In every picture, Catherine beamed proudly, while the twins slept through the entire photo shoot.
Five minutes later, Amanda bent over Catherine’s flowers, inhaled the intoxicating fragrance, and then collected her purse. “Do you know when you’re going home?”
“Tomorrow, maybe. You’ve got to meet my husband, Amanda. You two keep missing each other when you visit.” Catherine waved from her bed and then turned onto her side.
“I didn’t see anyone in the hallway when I left yesterday. Perhaps the nurses sidetracked him, insisted he sign insurance papers or something.”
“I’m going to catch a few winks before my two-man crew decides it’s time to eat.”
“Take care and I’ll call you tomorrow.” Amanda headed out the door.
On the drive to the bank, Amanda promised herself to check into the reason for her missed period. Hoping she’d conceived during her passionate night spent with the elusive Jeremy wasn’t worth considering, but after the medical battle she’d endured Amanda prayed the cancer hadn’t returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
On Monday morning, Amanda realized she’d been in Bandit Creek for over a month already. She paced the carpeted floor of her office while chewing on the tip of her artificial nail. For the next two hours, she ran a dozen scenarios over in her mind. Surely, it couldn’t be cancer again. She’d never felt healthier in her life. There wasn’t a logical explanation for her missed period. Except one. And she felt both elated and terrified at the possibility.
“Don’t even go there,” she warned herself, aloud. She would only be opening herself up for a devastating disappointment when her suspicions were proven false.
But she had to know for sure, one way or the other. The problem centered on how to go about proving her suspicions wrong. As a single woman in a small town, she certainly couldn’t rush out and buy a home pregnancy test at the drugstore without raising an eyebrow or two. And she couldn’t wait until she found the time to drive to Missoula.
Doctors were sworn to uphold doctor-patient confidentiality. A local physician was her best hope. She yanked the Bandit Creek telephone directory out of the bottom drawer in her desk, flipped through the pages, and dialed the number for the medical clinic. The upside to dealing with a small town clinic was shamelessly begging the booking nurse for the earliest available opening and receiving an appointment for an hour later at one o’clock.
Amanda skipped lunch, too nervous to even consider eating anything. She drove around town, drove out past the Old Hawe’s House to the campground and back again. And then she cruised past the school and smiled at the students racing each other around the playground on their noon break. She arrived at the clinic at five to one and dashed inside.
Amanda quickly filled in the new patient sheet the nurse handed her and then she waited in an examining room. She checked her watch a dozen times convinced the battery had died. Finally, the door opened and a gray-haired fellow in a white lab coat walked in.
“Good afternoon, Miss Bailey. I’m Doctor Crosby. I understand from my nurse that your medical issue is quite pressing, requiring immediate attention.” The doctor peeked over his eyeglasses. “Tell me what’s wrong?”
“My period is late. It arrives regular as clockwork.” Amanda paused, took a deep breath. Just talking about this with someone helped calm her anxiety. “For the past year I underwent surgery, chemo and radiation treatments, and then recuperated from a cancer diagnosis. It’s all recorded on my sheet. My doctors warned me I’d probably never conceive, however. I don’t believe I’m pregnant. But I’m concerned that the cancer might have returned.”
“A recurrence is possible I suppose. Let’s first begin with a pregnancy test to rule out the obvious, regardless of the unlikelihood. Remember, even the pill isn’t one hundred percent effective and condoms have about a three percent failure rate.” Doctor Crosby smiled.
“If I conceived it happened February 6, but we used condoms.” Amanda nodded. “With the cancer treatment and using a condom, there’s no possible way that test could be positive.”
“Well, let’s be certain before we consider pursuing other avenues. I’ll send in a nurse, and we’ll get started.”
Amanda twisted a corner of her scarf in her hands. “Doctor Crosby, confidentiality is important to me.”
“Miss Bailey, my staff respects the privacy of all my patients. You’ve nothing to be concerned about.” He patted her hand. “Let’s run that test.”
Amanda submitted to the blood test and waited in the examination room for what seemed like an eternity. She prayed the test would be positive. And then considering the disruption a pregnancy would create in her life at the present time, she prayed the test would be negative. She cursed the waiting time. And then she prayed again for forgiveness for her impatience. God had spared her life once, and annoying Him wasn’t a smart move if the cancer had returned.
Finally, Doctor Crosby entered the room and closed the door. Without uttering a word
, he seated himself at the small desk and buried his nose in her chart. After a minute, he peered over his eyeglasses. “We ran the test twice to be certain. Miss Bailey, you are definitely pregnant.”
Amanda’s world tilted on its axis for a moment. Pregnant! She couldn’t believe her ears. “Are you certain? The other doctors held out so little hope.”
“There’s no mistake. You are absolutely one hundred percent pregnant, Miss Bailey. You represent that three percent I mentioned concerning condom failure.” Doctor Crosby leaned back in his chair. “I can’t tell from your expression if this is good news or not.”
“It’s good news, very good news. I never dreamed it was possible.” Amanda blanched. “But I’m single, and it happened one night with a total stranger.” Amanda fought to regain her equilibrium.
She couldn’t believe what he’d told her. Pregnant! She recalled another single female employee at the Helena bank who’d raised a baby alone. These days, someone in her situation couldn’t be fired or forced to resign from her position at the bank, but she couldn’t dismiss the impact a baby would make on her career. The physical and emotional toll on her body would be an issue. Reduced hours would be a must; no more sixty hour weeks. She experienced a moment of anger when she considered she might be forced to forfeit a promotion to manager. Damn! Why now? She wanted desperately to be a mother…someday. Now wasn’t the ideal time. But should she complain about the timing? For months now, she’d believed this day would never come.
Could she do this alone? Her substantial inheritance from her paternal grandmother would ensure finances weren’t a problem. Amanda squared her shoulders, realizing it was too late to contemplate what if. “I’m totally delighted with this news,” she announced. Was she hoping to convince herself or the doctor?
“Congratulations, Three. Doing a quick calculation, I believe the evening you spent with this young man fell during your most fertile time. Your baby should be born around November 8th.”
A Bandit Creek Miracle Page 4
