Betting on Hope

by Debra Clopton

  Maggie glared at him. “I’m not. She’s making a mistake and I can feel it. She’s strong enough to do this, but she has a messed-up vision of what is best for her baby.”

  Tru looked suddenly stricken, but he ran a hand over his face, then confronted her again. “Maggie, that’s not true. She came here to Over the Rainbow and she’s showing amazing care and strength. Sometimes pieces don’t always fall into place like we want them to. Life is not fair. You know that. Some decisions require you to detach from your emotions no matter how hard it is, in order to make the right choice. And it’s usually the choice that goes against what your heart wants to do.”

  Maggie knew in her heart of hearts that what he said was true. Jenna had, at high risk sought out excellent care. Still, she didn’t like it. The baby needed to know how desperately its mother loved her. Tears threatened to overtake Maggie. She needed to ride. She needed to get rid of this pressure in her heart. Looking at Tru was only making it worse. And he wasn’t understanding at all.

  “Look, I don’t have anything against those couples who want Jenna’s baby. They’re wonderful people, I’m sure. And they’ll make great parents for someone’s baby. But not Hope. Why am I the only one who sees this as a mistake?”

  “Maggie, this kid knows she would have a hard time. She’s alone. She’s not even seventeen. She’d have to work, and provide day care. Plus deal with the stress of being a new mother. Not to mention healing from the birth. If she had a parent to help her, or a boyfriend or a husband, it might be a different story.”

  Okay, so he was reading her mind. He had the uncanny ability to anticipate what she was thinking sometimes. “She doesn’t have to give up hope.”

  “It’s heartbreaking, but it’s not hopeless. Jenna is going to give her baby a chance to be loved and nurtured by a couple she handpicked. And she’s going to give herself a shot at a new life. It’s only hopeless to you.”

  Letting out a frustrated groan, she stalked from the stable, stuck her foot in the stirrup, and pulled herself into the saddle. She knew she was being unreasonable. She could feel it, but she couldn’t make herself listen to reason.

  “This is a mistake,” was all she could say and then she rode Stardust toward open pasture. This was a mistake.

  Peg had told her the legal papers were all being signed and arrangements were being made . . .

  Maggie knew there was nothing more she could do. Except pray.

  Tru grabbed the stall with both hands and bit back saying something he really didn’t want to say. He wanted to tell Maggie that he loved her and that he wanted to marry her and keep her safe for the rest of his life. He wanted to give her those babies she wanted and the life of happiness she dreamed of. But this conversation confirmed that telling her he loved her would be a mistake. Her view on adoption said everything—proved he’d never be the man she’d need.

  If she hated the thought of Jenna letting her baby be adopted by a loving couple, then Maggie would hardly want to be the one forced to be in their shoes.

  It wasn’t anything to hold against her or anyone who felt that way. It just left him with no options.

  Maggie had no idea how much he and Jenna had in common right now.

  24

  “What if we assure her that here in Wishing Springs she’d have a support group?” Clara Lyn said that evening to Maggie, hunched in a booth at the Bull Barn. They happened to be in the booth where Maggie had done her interview with Tru. He stared down from his many pictures and she turned slightly so she didn’t have to look at him.

  After her fight with him, Maggie had ridden for an hour and then decided to try and see if there was anyone else who could help her come up with a solution for Jenna. She’d immediately turned to Clara Lyn and Reba.

  “The problem . . .” Reba toyed with her glass of soda, stirring the straw as she thought, “. . . lies in the fact that it would be hard for her.”

  Maggie’s shoulders slumped along with her spirit. She thought of Amanda and how her friend had lent her moral support and even helped her financially by letting her live rent free in her apartment until Maggie could contribute.

  “With all of us around here, she would have an unending stream of babysitters when she needed us,” Maggie said.

  Both ladies met her with curious looks. “Are you moving here?”

  “I’ve been toying with the idea. I love Wishing Springs.” She wasn’t sure how that would work with Tru, but she could manage. “If I could help Jenna, then, yes.” Maggie felt a little panic at what she was doing.

  Clara Lyn studied her. “We would love to have you, Maggie. I can’t help but wonder if you’re getting in too deep with Jenna. There is only so much you can do. And didn’t you say the papers were being signed? Honey, why is this so important to you?”

  Why was everyone so intent on telling her she was getting too personal? “I’m just trying to help. I am the one who found Jenna on the side of the road that day. I guess I feel responsible for her in some ways.” With a sigh she told them about her past. To the same extent that she’d told Jenna. It wasn’t as if she was going to go around telling everyone she met about her past. And certainly not about her father or Shane.

  “I don’t think the papers were going to be signed ’til later. I just feel like I need to try one more time. I really needed someone to tell me I wasn’t crazy.” She turned her back a little more to Tru’s picture.

  Men, what did they know anyway?

  “I pledge to do what I can to help Jenna and Hope.” Reba clasped her hand over Maggie’s.

  Clara Lyn laid hers on top of Reba’s. “Count me in, too, and I’m sure we can get several more to help. Including Pebble. But Maggie, I still have reservations. You are a young, single woman. This is something that will change your life forever.”

  Maggie’s heart squeezed tight. “Thank you.”

  “Now, don’t you have someplace to get to?” Reba asked. “That girl needs to know she has options.”

  Maggie got up and was so thankful the restaurant was slow for three in the afternoon. She walked out into the bright sunlight and found her past waiting beside her car . . .

  Even though it had been almost ten years since she’d seen him, she knew her father instantly. Tall, lanky, and with hollow cheeks, he looked ridden hard.

  “Hello, Trixie, how’s tricks? Or should I call you Maggie?”

  The moment she saw him a chill rolled through her. Maggie glanced around. “What are you doing here?”

  “What, no hug for dear old Dad?”

  “No.” She wrapped a hand around the back of her neck while her stomach continued to roll. Her dad had always been a schemer. She saw it in his eyes. Maybe there was something wrong with her, but instead of feeling any kind of good emotion at seeing him after all these years, she only felt apprehension. What was he here for?

  “That’s kind of harsh, don’t you think? Especially since you’re doing so well for yourself. What—don’t you think your poor old dad could use some help getting on his feet?”

  “Money.” She should have known. It didn’t take her a split second to decide. “If you’ll leave, I’ll give you something to get you on your way.” It was all she could come up with. She didn’t want him around ruining everything she’d worked so hard for.

  A slow, slick, con-man smile slipped across his face and his eyes shuttered. “I thought you’d want to help me. I think ten thousand would be a good number to start with. What do you say?”

  A chill raced over Maggie. Giving him a little cash out of her purse to get him on his way was one thing. But this—she snapped her attitude into place. “No way. I’m not going to do that.”

  He stood and stepped close to her just about the time Clara Lyn and Reba came outside. Maggie’s pulse grew sketchy and her mouth went dry.

  “Who’s your friend?” Reba asked, from the porch. Their car was on the other side of the parking lot.

  “Drew Danner,” her father said, giving a false name, adding to
the knowledge that she had just become the target of one of her father’s scams.

  “I was asking this nice lady how the food was inside the diner.”

  “You can’t beat it.” Clara Lyn looked from him to Maggie. “Maggie, you better hurry if you’re going to make that appointment you were going to. It was nice to meet you,” she said to Maggie’s dad. “But we have to hurry or we’re going to hold up our appointment.”

  Maggie turned back to the man who’d fathered her. “Leave.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I need a stake, and with my daughter being famous now and all, I deserve it. That was a lot of years to spend in the pen.”

  “You’re going to go back there if you start this all over again.”

  “I figure if you changed your name there was a reason. So you’ll need dear Dad to stay in the background, and you’ll give him what he wants. I’ll be around. But I need my money by tomorrow noon. I’ll be parked right over there waiting. If you don’t give me what I want, I’m going to have to sell my story to one of those tabloids. I hear they pay well.”

  “They won’t care about me.”

  “I beg to differ, you being involved in this show with Tru Monahan. I think your newspaper would care too. You giving out advice to folks when you ain’t nothing more than a con-artist.”

  The ground shifted beneath Maggie’s feet. What was she supposed to do now?

  “I’ll be waiting,” he said and sauntered toward the diner, then stopped. “You tell anyone and I’ll ruin you. Right now I’m just Drew Danner, passing through. But—that can change whenever I want it to. Understand?”

  Maggie was still shaking when she got far enough down the road to pull over without him seeing her. She gripped the steering wheel and dropped her forehead to rest on her knuckles. What was she supposed to do now?

  Everything she’d worked for was at risk. She felt like her life was falling apart. Unraveling stitch by stitch. Think, Maggie. Think.

  Go see Jenna.

  She needed to see Jenna. Not think about her dad. Her life. She looked up and focused down the road, steadying her emotions. None of this mattered right now. The baby was what mattered.

  “Go see Jenna,” she said out loud, her voice weak.

  Hands shaking, she put the car into drive and headed toward Over the Rainbow. Her mind reeled as the realization surfaced—her father had been sending the notes.

  As she pulled onto the road again and pressed the accelerator, the blast of a siren sounded. Glancing in her rearview she saw a fast-approaching ambulance with lights flashing.

  She yanked the wheel and drove her car to the shoulder again, letting the emergency vehicle have the road.

  She hadn’t thought her emotions could take another hit in a single day but she knew . . . pressing the gas she followed the ambulance. And just as she feared it turned at the road and headed straight up the lane to Peg and Lana’s.

  And Maggie’s gut told her it was Jenna.

  Tru burst through the doors of the Kerrville Hospital and stalked down the hall into the waiting room of the maternity wing. His spurs sang as he went, but he wasn’t singing along as he scanned the crowd in the waiting room. His gaze found Maggie almost immediately.

  “Maggie.” He spoke her name and she turned from the window. Her expression lined with strain but when she saw him relief transformed her face. Automatically he opened his arms and she launched herself into them.

  “Tru, she’s in surgery. She hemorrhaged. Peg was able to stabilize them both until the ambulance arrived.”

  “Are they doing ok?”

  She looked up at him and he pulled her close. “We don’t know yet.”

  Tru hated this. “Jenna’s tough and baby Hope is going to be her mother’s child. After all she did to get that child to safety, it’s going to be good. God’s got this, Maggie.”

  He held her for a moment, then they walked over to everyone else. They all said a prayer together and then they waited.

  “Peg, did this happen after they got the papers signed?” Maggie asked.

  Tru hadn’t figured she’d let up on this. Not after how mad she’d been that morning.

  “Yes. She signed.” Peg looked worried. “I have to say I’m worried about this whole situation. Normally, the girls who come to us are happy about the decision they’ve made. It’s hard on them, but they aren’t prepared to be mothers on their own. Jenna is different.”

  “She’s grieving,” Lana added.

  “Maggie.” Tru stroked her arm with his thumb.

  “I think it’s because she wants someone to love so badly. I know for me, I can’t wait to have a houseful of children to love.”

  Tru’s gut soured again.

  “Where is the couple who are wanting to adopt the baby?”

  Peg looked serious. “They’re on their way.”

  “I just feel like this is a mistake.”

  “Maggie, it’s not for you to decide.” Tru had to say it. And wasn’t surprised by the glare she shot him.

  “That’s true,” Peg agreed. “We can only encourage her, but she has to make the choice in the end. You might help, but you also might make this harder on her. Have you thought about that?”

  “You asked me to talk to her before.”

  “Yes, but she’s made her choice now. I’m not telling you what to do. Just letting you know. It’s a hard decision for her.”

  “But, she needs to know she has options. I could help her.”

  A pretty lady in scrubs and a surgical cap came into the waiting room and conversation halted as she walked over to them.

  “Peg,” she said, as if they knew each other, “Jenna is fine. A little weak and tired, but she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She wants to see someone named Maggie, if she’s here.”

  Maggie’s eyes grew wide and she nodded. “Go,” Tru said, giving her a little nudge toward the doctor.

  Lana gave her an encouraging smile. “Go on. She thinks you hung the moon, you know.”

  “Give her a hug,” Peg said. “We’ll see her soon.”

  “I’ll tell her.” Maggie’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him, then followed the doctor.

  And Tru wished . . .

  But wishes didn’t always come true, and he knew that with every day that passed the time grew near that she would get in her car and drive back the way she’d come, leaving him and Wishing Springs in her rearview.

  And he would let her.

  Maggie pushed the door open and found Jenna holding baby Hope in her arms and staring down into her child’s tiny pink face. It was one of the most beautiful sights Maggie had ever seen.

  “Come meet Hope,” she said. Her big, weary eyes flickered to Maggie then returned to her child.

  Maggie crossed the room on a flying carpet, ignoring the worry that Jenna was going to hand Hope over to the nurse and her new parents at any moment.

  “Isn’t she beautiful?” Her awe shone clear.

  Maggie’s heart thundered. Since Jenna was holding her baby, did this mean she’d decided to keep her? “She’s perfect. Oh, Jenna, congratulations from all of us. Peg and Lana and Tru are out there and I’m sure before the evening is over there will be more.”

  Jenna held sleeping Hope’s tiny hand, caressing her fingers. “Maggie, I know you want me to keep her. But I’m looking at her and I know that I would give my life for my baby.”

  Maggie sat down in the chair beside the bed, so conflicted about what she should do.

  Jenna looked from Hope to Maggie. “And I almost decided to keep her. But once I held her, and looked into this sweet face, I knew for me to do that wouldn’t be the right choice for Hope. I know she’s going to be in better hands than mine with the Hansons. They’re going to love her, and send me pictures and let me be a part of her life if I choose to be.”

  Searing pain burned a way down Maggie’s windpipe. Air evaporated. She’d thought there was a chance to change Jenna’s mind and now she wasn’t sure if it was right for her to say anythin
g. Tru’s and Peg’s warnings rang in her mind and she didn’t know what to say.

  “Oh, Jenna—”

  “If you’re going to try and talk me out of it, please don’t. I just wanted you to get to see my little girl before the nurse comes to take her to her new parents.” A tear crept from her eye and she swiped it away, her nostrils flaring as she breathed in deeply, as if to calm her emotions. “This is a devastating decision. But it’s right. I know in my heart for Hope it’s right. The Hansons are a loving couple, with strong extended families. That was important to me. They have family. I have nothing.”

  Oh, Jenna. Maggie fought back the tears. Jenna was being strong and so would she. “What if you had support?” she couldn’t help but ask.

  Jenna shook her head. “It still isn’t right. All I can give her right now is my love. I have nothing but the hope of a future to offer her. And for some that might be enough—” she broke off, then, and hugged her baby, breathing in deeply of her child.

  Maggie’s heart expanded with pain so explosive she thought her chest would burst.

  “Do you have a camera on your phone?” Jenna asked.

  Maggie nodded.

  Jenna wiped her eyes and her nose. “Would you take my picture with my baby?”

  Emotion clogged Maggie’s throat. “Yes, I will.”

  Drying her eyes she pulled her phone from her pocket and took Jenna and Hope’s picture.

  And then she took several more.

  Maggie walked out of the hospital. Disbelief weighed heavy on her heart over Jenna’s decision. She told herself Jenna’s baby would grow up better than either of them had. That this child would be loved. And wasn’t that what was ultimately important? Not who was raising her. After all, she’d had two parents and both of them had tossed her by the wayside.

  But would Jenna ultimately grow to hate that she hadn’t kept her baby?

  Peg and Lana had hugged Maggie when she’d come from Jenna’s room. They’d reassured her that the Hansons were a wonderful couple. That the agency they used was as careful in their screening as any agency could be. Still, Maggie was stunned and her heart heavy as she and Tru walked across the parking lot.