by Cora Seton
“And show some respect.”
“Sure thing, Pops.”
‡
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I can’t get comfortable,” Mia complained as she helped Autumn wash up the lunch dishes. It was the first week in July and she hadn’t worked for a week now. She thought she’d enjoy the rest, but the truth was she didn’t know what to do with herself. At least her ordeal with Warner was over. She, Inez and Luke had gone to meet the police who were working on the case, and given their statements. They had met another young woman there who had also come up against Warner. She was seventeen, and she was the one who had reported him to the police. Mia was in awe of the bravery it had taken for her to speak up and told her so.
The detective she and Inez spoke to said that it was unlikely they’d have to testify, after all, since there were several girls willing to do so whose assaults had happened so much more recently. Warner wasn’t behind bars yet, but Mia was confident he would never judge another pageant again.
“You did a good thing here,” Luke had said on their way home. “A brave thing.”
“Inez is the one who was brave,” Mia responded. “I’m glad she gave me the chance to speak up.”
Now that she didn’t have Warner to worry about, and she didn’t have any work to do either, she found herself trailing Autumn and Arianna around the guesthouse as Autumn prepped for her next set of clients.
“Is it your back?”
“Yes. Down here.” She patted the base of her spine awkwardly. “It aches all the time.”
“Why don’t you sit down and put your feet up?”
“I’m sick of sitting. I’m sick of waiting for this baby. How am I going to last another two weeks?”
“You’ll manage,” Autumn said, eyeing her. “Maybe it won’t be two weeks. That baby looks like she’s sitting awfully low.”
“Everything’s uncomfortable. I just feel… ow.” She pressed her hand to her back again. “Oh… ow!”
“Mia? Are you okay?”
“Yes. Oh—oh—I don’t know. Ow!”
“Are you having a contraction?”
Mia couldn’t catch her breath. She couldn’t talk. A band of steel tightened around her midsection and squeezed until she gripped the counter in pain. “Oh my God! Autumn!” Something gave within her and wetness drenched the lightweight pajama pants she wore. “Autumn—my water just broke!”
“All right, we’re going to get you to the hospital. Let me grab my keys!”
But Mia was already in the grips of another contraction and this one nearly brought her to her knees. She didn’t recognize her voice in the sound that she was making—guttural and fierce. The vise that gripped her body seemed determined to push the life out of her.
“Mia! What are you doing? You can’t bear down. You just started your contractions!” Autumn’s voice rose as she juggled Arianna into her carrier car seat, strapped her in, then grabbed her phone.
“Nine-one-one? It’s Autumn Cruz.” She gave her address and a brief rundown of the situation. “Do I put her in my truck and drive? Or do I wait for an ambulance?”
Mia cried out again, sinking to her knees, still gripping the kitchen counter and arching her back with the pain. “Autumn!” She panted when the contraction was finally over and looked up to see Autumn staring back at her helplessly. “Call Luke!”
Autumn straightened. Ended the call with the emergency worker and made a new call. “Luke? It’s Autumn. Mia’s having her baby. We’re at the ranch. In the guesthouse. No—it’s happening too fast!” She turned back to Mia. “We’ve got to move you, honey. Can you walk?”
“I don’t think so.” Mia cried out with renewed force as a new contraction—an even stronger one—squeezed her so hard she could barely breathe.
As soon as it ended, Autumn moved to her side and got her shoulder under Mia’s arm. “Come on, we’re going to get you to your room.” Mia didn’t say anything, just moved in the direction Autumn pulled her. The stairs were the worst. A new contraction brought her to her knees halfway up and they knelt there together through the long round of pain. Afterward, Autumn half-hauled her the rest of the way to her bedroom. “I don’t think that ambulance is going to make it. Come on, climb onto the bed.”
“I can’t believe it’s happening like this. I thought it was supposed to take hours.”
“So did I.” Autumn faced her. “I think in both our cases, it actually took days. You’ve been complaining about pain for a long time now, just like I did. Neither of us put two and two together. I’ll be right back.”
Mia was barely aware of Autumn’s movements as her friend brought towels, a glass of water and other supplies. Mia groaned with the pain and tried to find a comfortable position, finally ending up on all fours.
“I’m never… doing… this… again,” she panted after a contraction ended.
Autumn laughed. “I remember that feeling. Luckily it passes. You’re doing great, honey.”
“Mia!”
Both women started at the sound of Luke’s voice downstairs. They heard his footsteps as he climbed the staircase, two steps at a time, by the sound of it. “Mia!”
“In here,” Autumn called.
A second later, Luke burst into the room. “Are you okay? Let’s get you to the hospital.”
A contraction overtook her before she could answer and Mia’s momentary embarrassment about Luke seeing her in such an extreme moment disappeared as she felt the baby move lower within her. The contraction seemed to go on and on, and the interval between it and the next one was so brief she could only say, “No time. She’s coming!”
Mia lost track of everything after that except her own body, her straining muscles, the band of steel that was the contraction itself. She gave in to the pain and cried out, the sound ending with a moan that tore itself from her lungs.
“You’re crowning. I can see her!” Autumn cried. “You’re doing great, Mia!”
“Honey, she’s coming. Our baby’s coming—I can see the top of her head. She’s got pretty black hair, just like you!”
Luke’s voice gave her the strength to push again, and this time Mia felt her baby being born.
“That’s it! That’s it!”
“Mia, I can see her face—just one more push, baby!”
Mia gasped for breath, waited for the contraction to start again and pushed with all her might.
“I’ve got her! I’ve got her, Mia!” Luke’s voice broke. “Darling, she’s beautiful! She’s as beautiful as her mother.”
Mia collapsed as she heard the high-pitched wail of a newborn ring out. Almost simultaneously, another voice called out from downstairs.
“Hello? It’s Emergency Services!”
Autumn rushed to go meet them, and in the moment of calm, Luke bent down to guide the baby up to Mia and laid her on her chest.
“Meet your daughter, Mia. Look at her.”
Mia did look at her, from the dark cap of hair on her head to her blue eyes to the tip of her button nose, to her little round belly and tiny feet. In an instant Mia fell in love with what she saw. “Luke—”
“I know, sweetheart. I know.” He sat down next to her and kissed the top of her head. “You were amazing, you know that? If we weren’t already engaged, I’d have to ask you to marry me right now.”
Mia laughed, but it came out half a sob from exhaustion and her high emotions. She couldn’t believe how fast it had all happened. She couldn’t believe how the process of giving birth had overtaken her body.
The emergency team swept into her bedroom and the moment was gone, but Mia knew that she’d always remember her first sight of her baby—in Luke’s hands.
When the ambulance crew swept in and took over, Luke staggered out into the hallway.
He’d seen births. He’d seen dozens of births. Just like when Autumn was in labor, he recalled his experiences with the farm animals he’d tended all his life.
This was different though. This was the woman he loved.
This was her baby—their baby—being born. This was a true miracle.
And he’d gotten to be there for it. According to Autumn, he was the one Mia called for. He was the one she wanted.
And he wanted her—more now than ever before. He remembered how calm he’d been standing outside Autumn’s door four months ago, guarding her birth. He hadn’t been calm at all with Mia. He’d been overcome with emotion. Overcome with love. Overcome with fear—just for a moment—that something might go wrong. But it all was so evidently right he couldn’t stay scared, and he’d been back to love and awe in just an instant.
“You okay, Dad?” Autumn asked, appearing by his side with a glass of juice. He took it, uncomprehending, until she gestured to it. “Drink up. I think you’re in shock.”
He did so. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“It’s a hell of a thing, isn’t it?” She waved a hand at Mia.
“Yeah. A hell of a thing.” He focused on Autumn. “You must have wanted Ethan there with you when you had Arianna—not me.”
“You were a good substitute, but yes—I hope next time Ethan’s there.” In answer to his unspoken question, she said, “No, there isn’t a next time on the horizon yet, but I hope there will be in a few months. I’ve always wanted a house full of kids.”
“I guess that’s what I want, too.”
And for the first time, he had a feeling he would get to have them.
“So what’s it like to plan your own wedding?” Rose asked a month later. Mia was sitting with her at the dining room table of Luke’s cabin—their cabin, now—studying bridal magazines.
“It’s fun. Especially now I’ve had some practice.” She grinned at Rose, snuggling baby Pamela, who she cradled in her arms.
“If it’s even half the wedding you threw for Rose, it will be fabulous,” Hannah put in.
“Exactly,” Rose said.
“I’ll say one thing. Luke is going to have to build me an addition to hold all my wedding planning stuff. I don’t have anywhere to put it.”
Rose looked around the small kitchen at the stacks of magazines, clipboards, fabric swatches and more. “I see what you mean. You need an office. Somewhere clients can come to meet with you.”
“You’re right. Linda’s Diner doesn’t exactly cut it. Even if the coffee is good.”
“And I need a gallery space,” Rose said. “I feel like I could sell some of my paintings—especially to tourists—if people could see them. Waiting for one of the local venues to show my work is really frustrating.”
“Do you think you’d earn enough from sales to make a dedicated gallery worthwhile?” Mia asked, then smiled privately. Carl’s business sense was definitely rubbing off.
“I’ve been thinking I need a sideline, too. Something that always sells, that draws people in to see my art.”
“Like jewelry?” Hannah said. “I still think you should buy Thayer’s. You’d be a natural.”
Rose made a face. “That’s a going concern. I wouldn’t have time to paint.”
“Sure you would,” Mia said. “You’d hire help, just like Emory always did.”
Hannah looked from one to the other. “You two don’t even see the possibilities, do you? Mia, you could pair up with Rose and open your event planning business there, too. Thayer’s has a lot of odds and ends that I don’t think sell very well. Distill the jewelry part of the business down to the important things, use the walls for Rose’s art, and enclose a corner for your office, Mia. People will come in to buy a ring and end up booking a wedding!”
Mia stared at Rose. “That’s not a bad idea at all. What do you think, Rose?”
“I think I don’t have the money to buy Thayer’s.”
“I do.”
“You’re going to buy Thayer’s? How?” Luke stared across the kitchen table at Mia, who was nursing Pamela. He didn’t want to raise his voice and scare the baby, but Mia wasn’t making any sense.
“Remember how I said Ellis gave me some money before he walked out?”
Luke still hated the man’s name on Mia’s lips. “What about it?”
“You jumped to the conclusion it was a few hundred dollars and I didn’t correct you. At the time I didn’t feel like it was your business.”
“Now you do?”
“Now I do. It was a few hundred thousand dollars. Two hundred thousand, to be exact. I’ve barely spent any of it yet. I’d like to use it as a down payment on Thayer’s.”
Two hundred thousand dollars? Luke sat back, stunned. His bank account never contained more than a couple of thousand at most. Ellis had given Mia a present that he could never hope to match.
“I gotta go.” He stumbled to his feet. “I forgot…something.”
As he strode to the door, Mia called after him, “Luke? What is it? I thought we were going to have lunch.”
“Be back… soon.”
Outside he kept walking, his long strides eating up the ground until he’d passed the main house and all the outbuildings and was heading toward the far pastures.
“Luke? You forgot your horse!” Ten minutes later, Ned caught up to him easily on Silver and reined her in to walk beside Luke. “Where are you going?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did something happen? Is Mia all right?”
“She’s fine. She’s more than fine. She’s rich.”
Ned swung out of the saddle to the ground and began to lead Silver at a walk beside Luke. “Mia’s rich? Did someone die?”
“I wish.” Luke got himself under control. “Ellis bought her off with two hundred grand. Now she wants to buy Thayer’s with Rose and run her wedding planning business out of it.”
“That’s an interesting idea. Rose would go back to selling rings?”
“And her paintings, I guess.”
“Seems like that could work.”
“That’s not the point. The point is Ellis gave Mia two hundred grand.”
Ned shot him a look. “Let me guess. You think that makes him the better man?”
“In her eyes, yes.”
“Luke.” Ned stopped and Luke stopped, too, although he didn’t want to. “She isn’t marrying Ellis Scranton. She’s marrying you—because you’re the kind of man who sticks with a woman, who offers her his home. His heart. Ellis is the kind of man who fools around with a woman, throws money at her and heads for the hills.”
Luke shook his head. Those were just words. Money was money.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Ned went on. “You’re part of this ranch and it’s worth a lot. It might not be cash in the bank, but it’s still something. Mia knows that.”
“That’s not all of it.” Luke adjusted his hat, looking at the mountains in the distance, the cattle in the pastures—anywhere but at his brother. “I’m still in debt, even though I sold my truck.”
Ned nodded slowly. “I think we all were until we started to get paid some. How bad is it?”
Luke named a sum.
Ned made a face. “That’s not too bad. You can pay that off in a couple of months if you put your mind to it.”
“I’m marrying Mia next month. I want to take her on a honeymoon. I want to help build her an office for a business.”
“You don’t need to build her an office anymore, do you?” Ned was practical. “Put off the honeymoon until you can afford it. And tell her exactly what you just told me.”
“About the debt? Hell, no!”
Ned leaned closer. “About everything, if you’re smart. Starting with the debt.”
By the time Luke got back to his cabin, Mia had already eaten her lunch and was packing up the remains.
“There you are. Is everything okay?” she asked when he walked in.
“Yeah, it is.” He fiddled with the doorknob, noticed what he was doing and moved farther into the house. “Actually, it isn’t. But it will be.”
“Is this about money?”
Luke stopped. “How’d you know?”
“Because we were talking about it when you hig
htailed it out of here.” She sighed. “I knew you wouldn’t like it that Ellis gave me all that cash.”
“This isn’t about Ellis. It’s about me.”
“I love you. You know that.”
She looked so worried, Luke moved to her and pressed a kiss on her mouth. “I do know that. Just give me a few minutes to say what I have to say.”
“All right.” Mia sat at the table. “Go ahead.”
He sat down across from her. “You know Dad kept us all on a short leash for a long, long time. We all pitched in and worked the ranch, but he didn’t pay us a lot for that. Since we’d been doing chores here all our lives, we didn’t think much about it until recently.”
“Until Rob decided to marry Morgan?”
“That’s about the size of it. It’s easy to be single with a little cash when your house and food are paid for. But when you take on a wife and start a family, things change. Now we all take a salary based on the amount of work we do. The thing is, I still have some debts from those days. Credit cards. That kind of thing.”
Mia expelled a breath. Was that relief he wasn’t mad at her? Luke wasn’t sure. He went on before she could say anything, wanting to get it all out at once.
“I want to give you things. I want to take you on a honeymoon, and help you buy Thayer’s, if that’s what you want. I want to support you, Mia. I’ve always wanted that. I need time, though.” He braced himself. He knew what would happen next. Mia would offer to pay his debts with Ellis’s money. He didn’t think he could stomach hearing that offer.
Mia surprised him, though. “I can give you time. We’ll go when you’re ready. Between us, Rose and I have enough to buy Thayer’s and get a start. Since the jewelry business is already established, we’ll have enough income to pay our mortgage. We’re working out the details.”
“I wish I could just buy it for you.”
“I know that, but here’s the thing.” She gathered her thoughts. “I like business. I like thinking about it, planning for it, figuring out how to make it grow. I like talking about it, too—that’s why I kept meeting with Carl. I’m not afraid of money anymore. And you and I—we’re a partnership. You don’t have to buy me things. You don’t have to do everything all on your own. Look what you’ve already given me.” She gestured to the cabin. “More importantly, you’ve given me your heart. That’s what I want from you. The rest we’ll do together.”
