Evergreen Springs

by RaeAnne Thayne

  As Devin guided Tricia from the wheelchair to the narrow bed in the room, the pregnant woman paused on the edge, her hand curved around her abdomen and her face contorted with pain. She drew in a sharp breath and let it out slowly. “Ow. That was a big one.”

  And not far apart from the first contraction she’d had a few minutes earlier, Devin thought in concern, her priorities shifting as Callie came in. “Here we are. This is Callie. She’s an amazing nurse and right now she’s going to gather some basic information and help you into a gown. I’ll be back when she’s done to take a look at things.”

  Tricia grabbed her hand. “You’ll be back?”

  “In just a moment, I promise. I’m going to write orders for the X-ray and the fetal heartbeat monitoring and put a call in to Dr. Randall. I’ll also order some basic urine and blood tests, too, then I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay. Okay.” Tricia gave a wobbly smile. “Thanks. I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

  * * *

  HE TRULY DETESTED HOSPITALS.

  Cole shifted in the uncomfortable chair, his gaze on the little Christmas tree in the corner with its colorful lights and garland made out of rolled bandages.

  Given the setting and the time of year, it was hard not to flash back to that miserable Christmas he was eleven, when his mother lay dying. That last week of her life, Stan had taken him and Tricia to the hospital just about every evening. They would sit in the waiting room near a pitiful little Christmas tree like this one and do homework or read or just gaze out the window at the falling snow in the moonlight, scared and sad and a little numb after months of their mother’s chemotherapy and radiation.

  He pushed away the memory, especially of all that came after, choosing instead to focus on the two good things that had come from hospitals: his kids, though he had only been there for Jazmyn’s birth.

  He could still remember walking through the halls and wanting to stop everybody there and share a drink with them and tell them about his beautiful new baby girl.

  Emphasis on the part about sharing a drink. He sighed. By the time Sharla went into labor with Ty, things had been so terrible between them that she hadn’t even told him the kid was on the way.

  “I’m bored,” the kid in question announced. “There’s nothing to do.”

  Cole pointed to the small flat-screen TV hanging on the wall, showing some kind of talking heads on a muted news program. “Want to watch something? I’m sure we could find the remote somewhere. I can ask at the desk.”

  “I bet there’s nothing on.” Jazmyn slumped in her seat.

  “Let’s take a look. Maybe we could find a Christmas special or something.”

  Neither kid looked particularly enthusiastic but he headed over to the reception desk in search of a remote.

  The woman behind the desk was a cute, curvy blonde with a friendly smile. Her name badge read Brittney and she had been watching him from under her fake eyelashes since he had filled out his sister’s paperwork.

  “Hi. Can I help you?” she asked.

  “Hi, Brittney. I wonder if we can use the TV remote. My kids are getting a little restless.”

  “Oh. Sure. No prob.” Her smile widened with a flirtatious look in her eyes. He’d like to think he was imagining it but he’d seen that look too many times from buckle bunnies on the rodeo circuit to mistake it for anything else.

  He shifted, feeling self-conscious. A handful of years ago, he would have taken her up on the unspoken invitation in those big blue eyes. He would have done his best to tease out her phone number or would have made arrangements with her to meet up for a drink when her shift was over.

  He might even have found a way to slip away with her on her next break to make out in a stairwell somewhere.

  Though he had been a long, long time without a woman, he did his best to ignore the look. He hated the man he used to be and anything that reminded him of it.

  “Thanks,” he said stiffly when she handed over the remote. He took it from her and headed back to the kids.

  “Here we go. Let’s see what we can find.”

  He didn’t have high hopes of finding a kids’ show on at 7:00 p.m. on a Friday night but he was pleasantly surprised when the next click of the remote landed them on what looked like a stop-action animated holiday show featuring an elf, a snowman and a reindeer wearing a cowboy hat.

  “How’s this?” he asked.

  “Okay,” Ty said, agreeable as always.

  “Looks like a little kids’ show,” Jazmyn said with a sniff but he noticed that after about two seconds, she was as interested in the action as her younger brother.

  Jaz was quite a character, bossy and opinionated and domineering to her little brother and everyone else. How could he blame her for those sometimes annoying traits, which she had likely developed from being forced into little-mother mode for her brother most of the time and even for their mother if Sharla was going through a rough patch?

  He leaned back in the chair and wished he had a cowboy hat like the reindeer so he could yank it down over his face, stretch out his boots and take a rest for five freaking minutes.

  Between the ranch and the kids and now Tricia, he felt stretched to the breaking point.

  Tricia. What was he supposed to do with her? A few weeks ago, he thought she was only coming for Thanksgiving. The kids, still lost and grieving and trying to settle into their new routine with him, showed unusual excitement at the idea of seeing their aunt from California, the one who showered them with presents and cards.

  She had assured him her doctor said she was fine to travel. Over their Skype conversation, she had given him a bright smile and told him she wanted to come out while she still could. Her husband was on a business trip, she told him, and she didn’t want to spend Thanksgiving on her own.

  How the hell was he supposed to have figured out she was running away?

  He sighed. His life had seemed so much less complicated two months ago.

  He couldn’t say it had ever been uncomplicated, but he had found a groove the past few years. His world consisted of the ranch, his child support payments, regular check-ins with his parole officer and the biweekly phone calls and occasional visits to wherever Sharla in her wanderlust called home that week so he could stay in touch with his kids.

  He had tried to keep his head down and throw everything he had into making Evergreen Springs and his horse training operation a success, to create as much order as he could out of the chaos his selfish and stupid mistakes had caused.

  Two months ago, everything had changed. First had come a call from his ex-wife. She and her current boyfriend were heading to Reno for a week to get married—her second since their stormy marriage ended just months after Ty’s birth—and Sharla wanted him to meet her in Boise so he could pick up the kids.

  Forget that both kids had school or that Cole was supposed to be at a horse show in Denver that weekend.

  He had dropped everything, relishing the rare chance to be with his kids without more of Sharla’s drama. He had wished his ex-wife well, shook hands with the new guy—who actually had seemed like a decent sort, for a change—and sent them on their way.

  Only a few days later, he received a second phone call, one that would alter his life forever.

  He almost hadn’t been able to understand Sharla’s mother, Trixie, when she called. In between all the sobbing and wailing and carrying on, he figured out the tragic and stunning news that the newlyweds had been killed after their car slid out of control during an early snowstorm while crossing the Sierra Nevada.

  In a moment, everything changed. For years, Cole had been fighting for primary custody, trying to convince judge after judge that their mother’s flighty, unstable lifestyle and periodic substance abuse
provided a terrible environment for the children.

  The only trouble was, Cole had plenty of baggage of his own. An ex-con former alcoholic didn’t exactly have the sturdiest leg to stand on when it came to being granted custody of two young children, no matter how much he had tried to rebuild his life and keep his nose out of trouble in recent years.

  Sharla’s tragic death changed everything and Cole now had full custody of his children as the surviving parent.

  It hadn’t been an easy transition for any of them, complicated by the fact that he’d gone through two housekeepers in as many months.

  Now he had his sister to take care of. Whether her ankle was broken or sprained, the result would be more domestic chaos.

  He would figure it out. He always did, right? What other choice did he have?

  He picked up a National Geographic and tried to find something to read to keep himself awake. He was deep in his third article and the kids on to their second Christmas special before the lovely doctor returned.

  She was every bit as young as he had thought at first, pretty and petite with midlength auburn hair, green eyes that were slightly almond shaped and porcelain skin. She even had a little smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Surely she was too young to be in such a responsible position.

  He rose, worry for his sister crowding out everything else.

  “How is she? Is her ankle broken? How are the babies?”

  “You were right to bring her in. I’m sorry things have been taking so long. It must be almost the children’s bedtime.”

  “They’re doing okay for now. How is Tricia?”

  Dr. Shaw gestured to the chair and sat beside him after he sank back down. That was never a good sign, when the doctor took enough time to sit down, too.

  “For the record, she gave me permission to share information with you. I can tell you that she has a severe sprain from the fall. I’ve called our orthopedics specialist on call and he’s taking a look at her now to figure out a treatment plan. With the proper brace, her ankle should heal in a month or so. She’ll have to stay off it for a few weeks, which means a wheelchair.”

  His mind raced through the possible implications of that. He needed to find a housekeeper immediately. He had three new green broke horses coming in the next few days for training and he was going to be stretched thin over the next few weeks—lousy timing over the holidays, but he couldn’t turn down the work when he was trying so hard to establish Evergreen Springs as a powerhouse training facility.

  How would he do everything on his own? Why couldn’t things ever be easy?

  “The guest room and bathroom are both on the main level,” he said. “That will help. Can we pick up the wheelchair here or do I have to go somewhere else to find one?”

  The doctor was silent for a few beats too long and he gave her a careful look.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.

  She released a breath. “Your sister also appears to be in the beginning stages of labor.”

  He stared. “It’s too early! The babies have to be too small.”

  Panic and guilt bloomed inside him, ugly and dark, and he rose, restless with all the emotions teeming inside him. She shouldn’t have been outside where she risked falling. He told her she didn’t have to go out to the bus to pick up the children. The stop was only a few hundred yards from the front door. They could walk up themselves, he told her, but she insisted on doing it every day. Said she needed the fresh air and the exercise.

  Now look where they were.

  “We’re monitoring her condition and I’ve been in consultation with the best ob-gyn in the valley. We’ve given her some medication to stop her contractions and put the brakes on. It’s been less than an hour, but so far it seems to be working.”

  He sat back down, relief coursing through him. “Okay. Okay. That’s good. Isn’t it?”

  “It’s still too early to tell. We have to keep her overnight up on the obstetrics floor to continue monitoring fetal activity.”

  “Sounds wise.”

  She paused for a long moment and he tried to sort through her silence for whatever else she might not be telling him.

  “There’s a chance she might have to stay longer. I just want to make you aware of the possibility. She’s a complicated case—multiple births are always a little tricky. Add in an ankle injury that’s going to make it tough for her to get around at home and possible premature labor, and her chances of needing hospital bed rest go up. I’m consulting with the ob-gyn but that’s one of the options hanging out there.”

  Hospital bed rest. Damn. Could things get more complicated?

  “Okay. Thank you for letting me know.”

  She glanced at the children, then back at him. “You’re all welcome to go back and talk to your sister. I think she’s feeling pretty alone right now.”

  He nodded and rose again. “Thanks. Kids. We can go back now.”

  “But, Dad! This one is almost over!” Jazmyn exclaimed. “Can’t we wait ten more minutes to see the end?”

  He fought the urge to roll his eyes. First she didn’t want to watch the show; now she didn’t want to leave until she saw the end.

  That just about summed up their life together. She was never happy with anything he did. If he made pancakes for breakfast, she insisted she wanted French toast. If he tried, in his fumbling way, to put her hair in pigtails, she told him she wanted a ponytail that day.

  It was driving him crazy—and he had a feeling that was part of the reason both women he had hired to help him had lasted only a few weeks.

  The doc gave him a sympathetic look. “If you’d like, I can stay with the children for a few minutes until the show is over while you have a moment alone with your sister.”

  Her thoughtfulness surprised him. In his experience, physicians weren’t usually so solicitous. “It’s just a TV show. She can catch it online later. I’m sure you have other patients to attend to.”

  “Right this moment, no. You actually caught us on a slow night. I’ve got to answer a few emails, which I can easily do out here while you talk to your sister for a few minutes.”

  He hated needing help. It was the toughest thing about being a single father, but in this case, he decided it would be stupid to argue.

  “Thanks. The minute the show is over, you can send them back.”

  “No problem. I’ll buzz you back. She’s in room two.”

  She swiped her name badge across the door and he walked back into the emergency department. He found the room quickly. Inside, he found his baby sister looking pale and frightened, hooked up to a whole bunch of monitors.

  He hurried over and kissed her cheek. “How are things?”

  “I’ve been better.” She shifted positions on the bed to try for a more comfortable spot, something that couldn’t be easy given her advanced condition. “Did you talk to Devin?”

  “Briefly.”

  “So she told you the ankle isn’t broken.”

  “Yes. And that you’re in premature labor.”

  “The beginning stages, anyway. So far the contractions have stopped.”

  “What happens if they start again?” He didn’t even want to think about it.

  “I’ll probably be transferred to a bigger hospital in Boise with a higher level obstetrics department and larger newborn intensive care unit. Even if they don’t start again, I’ll likely be put on strict bed rest from now to the end of the pregnancy.”

  “Are the babies okay?”

  Her mouth quivered a little. “They seem to be. They’re not in distress or anything, at least for now.”

  “That’s the important thing. That you’re all okay.”

  Her eyes filled up with tears and her hands scrunched up the edge of the blanket. “Their lungs aren’t
fully developed yet. They’re still so tiny. If they’re born now, there’s a chance they’ll have to be on ventilators and might even have brain damage. Premature babies have all kinds of complications.”

  “Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened yet.”

  “I should have known I would screw this up, too.”

  He reached for her hand and gripped it in his, helpless and worried.

  “You need to call Sean and let him know what’s going on.”

  Tricia’s mouth trembled slightly until she straightened it into a thin line. “No. Absolutely not.”

  “Trish.”

  “No. Don’t go all big-brother protective and call him. Stay out of it. He made his wishes perfectly clear. He never wanted to be a father. He doesn’t want these babies and he doesn’t want me. If you call him, I’ll never forgive you. I mean it.”

  Cole wanted to tear his hair out—or his brother-in-law’s, at any rate. What he really wanted was the chance to take the man to some secluded canyon and beat the shit out of him for whatever he had done to devastate Tricia enough to walk away from their life together in California.

  As tempting as it was to jump in his truck and drive from Idaho to California, violence wasn’t always the solution. Cole would just end up in prison, which wouldn’t help anyone.

  Arguing with Tricia only served to make her dig her heels in harder, something she was very good at.

  He sighed. “I’m only going to say this one more time, and then I’ll let it drop. These are Sean’s kids, too. However mad you might be at him, I believe he has the right to know what’s going on with the three of you.”

  “Lecture duly noted,” she said, refusing to meet his gaze. Feeling like an ass at the tremble in her voice, he squeezed her fingers.

  “You’ll be okay, kiddo, and so will those little lima beans in there. I have a good feeling about this.”

  She sniffled a little and gave him a watery half smile. “Devin is admitting me. I guess she probably told you that.”

  “Do you trust this doc? You said you know her from way back, but is that the most important thing here? I’ve been in my share of emergency rooms when I was on the circuit and I do know you have the right to be transferred by ambulance to a bigger hospital in Boise if you want another opinion, maybe from somebody who’s watched a little more water pass under the bridge.”