The Rancher's Baby Surprise (Bent Creek Blessings Book 2)

by Kat Brookes

  She placed her hand on his shoulder. “I miss her, too, Dad. But our focus right now needs to be on getting Austin home, and giving him the happy childhood Heather would have wanted for him.”

  He looked up at her. “Are you ready for this?”

  “I have to be,” she answered honestly. “I just pray that I can be the kind of mother Austin deserves.”

  “You will be every bit the mother your sister would have been,” he replied, his gaze dropping down to the babe in his arms. “How could you not be? You were both raised by an incredible woman who exemplified what a mother should be.”

  Hannah nodded. “She was the best.”

  “That she was.”

  Hannah watched her father as he held his grandson, his eyes filled with such love. Rocking slowly, he examined Austin’s tiny fingers and toes. Then he smoothed the side of his finger along the infant’s baby-soft cheek. “Your grandpa can’t wait to have you home with him.” He glanced up at Hannah, adding with a tender smile, “Both of you.”

  * * *

  Garrett looked up from the magazine he’d been skimming through as Hannah’s father stepped into the waiting room that sat just outside of the NICU’s doors.

  The older man made his way over to Garrett who was rising to his feet to greet him. “Your turn.”

  “My turn?” He’d driven them to the hospital but hadn’t counted on getting to visit Austin with only two visitors being allowed.

  “I thought you might want to go in and see Austin. Hannah tells me you’ve formed a special bond with my grandson.”

  Garrett couldn’t deny that he felt a deep emotional connection to Hannah’s son. With Hannah, too. They’d been through so much together in the weeks since the flood. “I can’t answer for Austin, but I can tell you that he’s definitely touched a big part of my heart.” Just as his mother had.

  “Then why don’t you go on in and see him?” James Sanders suggested.

  “I wouldn’t feel right taking time away from your seeing him,” Garrett said honestly.

  Hannah’s father smiled. “I have a lifetime to spend with my grandson after we take him home. I think I can share a little time with you while we’re here.”

  Garrett glanced in the direction of the NICU doors. While he’d known Hannah would be leaving and taking her son with her, hearing her father talk about it really made it hit home.

  “Garrett,” her father said, drawing his gaze back his way. “I know I’ve already expressed my gratitude for everything you’ve done for Hannah and my grandson when you called to tell me about the shower, but words don’t seem to be enough. Not for all that you’ve done.”

  “I’m just grateful the good Lord set me on the path I was on that day the flood struck,” Garrett replied.

  “Be that as it may,” Hannah’s father said, “you are the one who risked his life to save my daughter and her unborn child. You are the one who got them safely to the hospital when the storm rendered the main road impassable. And you are the one who has given Hannah emotional support when I wasn’t here to do so. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost them, too,” he said, his voice cracking. “So, if there’s ever anything I can do for you, all you have to do is ask.”

  Garrett hesitated, his heart pushing him to open up to James. To at least try to work something out before the woman he loved drove away with not only his heart, but with the child he’d grown so very fond of. He cleared his throat, gathering up his nerve. “There is something,” he told the older man. “I’m just not sure how to approach this.”

  James Sanders motioned to the empty waiting room seats. “Have a seat, son. Then you can approach whatever it is you have to say the same way you live your life. With honesty, and good measure of faith thrown in.”

  Garrett sank down onto one of the padded chairs and waited until Hannah’s father had taken the seat beside his before saying, “I love your daughter.”

  “Well, that’s getting right to the point,” James teased. “But it’s nothing I haven’t already figured out.”

  “You knew?” Garrett said, shocked by the older man’s response.

  “Son, I knew something was building between you and my daughter by our third phone call. And you aren’t the only one who wore their feelings on their sleeve when I talked to them. My daughter is quite taken by you to say the least.”

  “I’d like to ask Hannah to marry me,” he announced, his heart pounding. “And I’d like to ask for your blessing.”

  James studied him for a moment before saying, “The two of you haven’t known each other for very long. Are you sure about this?”

  “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life,” Garrett replied. “And I can’t blame you for questioning my feelings for your daughter. I would do the same thing if I were in your shoes. But what I feel for Hannah is beyond anything I’ve ever felt before. And we’ve spent hours, days, weeks, getting to know each other. I know what her hopes and dreams are, and I know her fears. We share the same faith and family values.”

  When James said nothing, just stood there watching him, the knot of anxiety in Garrett’s gut grew, but he went on, needing Hannah’s father to understand how very much he had come to love his daughter. “I’ve seen how incredibly brave and strong your daughter can be in the face of adversity. I’ve watched her with her son, knowing without any doubt that she was put on this earth to be a mother. When I think about Hannah going back to Colorado, I know without a doubt that she’ll be taking my heart with her.” A heart he never thought would feel again after losing Grace.

  “I don’t like to speak ill of people,” James began, making Garrett wonder what he was about to say, “but I don’t think Hannah’s first husband ever fully appreciated those qualities in my daughter.”

  “He gave up someone truly special,” Garrett said.

  “She reminds me so much of her mother.”

  His heart went out to the man for the loss of his wife, the woman James had spent so many years loving, had raised a family with, had given his heart to. It had been hard enough for Garrett when he’d lost Grace, and they had barely begun to share all of life’s experiences together. He just prayed that if Hannah agreed to marry him they would be blessed with a long, happy, marriage, just as their parents had been. “I’m sorry I never had the chance to meet Hannah’s mother. I would like to have asked for her blessing, too.”

  The older man glanced heavenward and then back to Garrett. “Something tells me she would have happily given it to you. Your love for my daughter is evident, son. I could hear it in your voice every time you called to give me an update on Hannah and my grandson. I see it on your face whenever the two of you are together. Her face as well,” he said, emotion thick in his voice. “My daughter deserves the happiness she was denied in her first marriage, and, after getting to know you over the past several weeks, I believe in my heart that she can have that with you. But Hannah wouldn’t be bringing just herself into any long-term relationship. She’ll be bringing Austin.”

  “Your grandson snagged a huge piece of my heart from the first moment I held him in my arms. I would feel blessed to be able to raise that little boy as my son. And, just so you know, I’m going to ask Hannah to marry me, but I don’t intend to rush her into setting a wedding date. I know there are some things we need to work out first, but I’m more than willing to wait until the time is right for her. And for you. Because you are a very big part of what I hope will be our future.”

  “I would be proud to have a man like you as my son-in-law,” James said with a smile, “so I’m giving you my blessing. But the decision is Hannah’s to make.”

  “That means a lot to me,” Garrett said with the utmost sincerity, because Hannah’s father could one day be his father, too, if everything worked out as he prayed that it would.

  Chapter Ten

  The entire family had gathered on Garre
tt’s parents’ front porch to welcome Hannah home with her newborn son. Or, at least, welcome her to what had been her temporary home during her stay there. A stay that ended with Austin’s release from the hospital. Hannah and her father were leaving to go back to Steamboat Springs the following morning. But not for good if Garrett had his way.

  He helped Hannah down from the backseat of his truck where she had been seated next to her son, who was tucked securely inside his brand-new car seat. The one his mother and father had bought for the baby. Her father was already on his way to the house, carrying the bag of baby items they’d brought home from the hospital, including the stuffed bear with the bright blue ribbon his brothers had bought for the baby right after Austin was born.

  “I’m sorry about this,” he said, inclining his head toward the house. “I should have thought to tell them to give you a little bit of breathing room when we got home.”

  “I don’t mind,” Hannah replied as she turned to get her son from the car seat. Other than a few coos to Austin during their drive home, they were the first words she’d spoken since leaving the hospital.

  “Let me,” Garrett told her. “It’s a bit of a reach for you from where you’re standing.”

  Stepping aside, she waited as Garrett leaned in to unlatch the safety belt that held her son in, and then gently lifted him from the car seat.

  “Everything okay?” he asked as he turned to place the tiny, sleeping bundle into Hannah’s outstretched arms.

  She smiled, but Garrett could tell it was forced, and he found himself hoping that she was as troubled by her leaving as he was. “A little anxious,” she replied. “I’m about to be someone’s mother all by myself.”

  “You won’t be alone,” he told her as he closed the truck door. Then, wrapping a supportive arm around her waist, they started across the yard. “You’ll have your father. And you’ll have us.”

  “I know,” she said with a sigh. “And I’m so grateful to have you all in my life. But knowing that this precious child will be dependent on me now for his every need, to give him guidance, to assure his happiness, and to do things I don’t even know I’m supposed to be doing as a mother, is a little daunting.”

  Her silence on the way home made much more sense to him now that she had told him what was troubling her. He smiled down at her. “You are and will continue to be an incredible mother, Hannah Sanders. Don’t you doubt that for even a second.”

  “The baby’s here! The baby’s here!” Blue squealed as she bounced down the porch steps and hurried across the yard to meet them.

  Garrett chuckled. “Ready to face your welcome committee?”

  Hannah nodded, this time with a genuine smile. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Tucker jogged after his daughter, catching up to her not quite halfway across the yard, and swept Blue up into his arms. Then he turned and waited for Autumn who was trailing after them.

  “But I wanna see the baby,” Blue whined as she peered at the bundle in Hannah’s arm from over top her father’s shoulder.

  “We will,” Autumn said. “But we have to wait for Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Jackson, so we can meet Austin together.”

  His parents caught up to them with Jackson moving in unhurried strides behind them.

  Garrett’s family formed a human circle around Hannah and him, effectively blocking out the chilly breeze. James Sanders stood a few feet away, grinning as he watched the excitement his grandson was causing.

  “I can’t see him,” Blue muttered with a frustrated frown as she looked down at the bundle from her perch in her father’s arms.

  Smiling, Hannah peeled the blanket away from her son’s face, just enough to give everyone a peek at her son without exposing him fully to the crisp fall air.

  Blue let out a little gasp. “He looks like a baby doll.”

  “Give him a few months,” Garrett said with a chuckle.

  “Oh, my,” his mother sighed, a hand going to her heart. “He’s beyond precious.”

  Garrett’s father leaned in for a closer look. With a nod, his gaze lifted to Hannah’s. “Looks like you have yourself a fine, strapping son.”

  Her smile widened. “Hopefully, he will grow up to be as strapping and kindhearted as your sons.”

  “He’s named after one of them,” his father replied. “How can he grow up to be anything but?”

  Autumn, who stood next to Hannah, reached out to run a fingertip along the baby’s cheek. “He’s so perfect,” she said, her eyes misting over. “And seeing you holding your son makes me wish that I were already holding our baby in my arms.” Her softly spoken words of longing immediately drew everyone’s gaze her way.

  “Baby?” Jackson repeated, looking to Tucker.

  “Baby?” his mother repeated, her face lighting up.

  Their little brother looked to his wife, one lone brow lifting.

  Autumn giggled and, with a shrug of her slender shoulders, said, “Oops.”

  Grinning, Tucker shook his head. “It appears the cat’s out of the bag. Autumn and I were going to wait until Thanksgiving to tell everyone our good news.”

  “Why did you put a cat in a bag, Daddy?” Blue asked as she stood looking up at him.

  Jackson snorted. “I was wondering the same thing myself.”

  Tucker shot him a warning glance. “Just wait until the shoe is on the other foot.”

  “Never going to happen,” their brother said, some of the humor leaving his face.

  “Never say never,” their father muttered, no doubt having taken stances in his life that he hadn’t been able to hold firm to.

  Garrett had done the same himself, vowing to never love again after losing Grace. But here he was, head-over-cowboy-boots in love with Hannah.

  Blue’s brows creased in confusion. “Why would Uncle Jackson wear his shoes on the wrong feet? That would hurt.”

  Garrett’s mother laughed. “I think we need to take this conversation inside, so Hannah can get her son settled in.” She looked to Autumn with a delighted smile. “And you can tell us all about your exciting news.”

  The circle his family had formed around them disbanded as everyone moved into the house. A bassinet had been set up against the wall where the living room opened up to the dining room. That way Hannah could keep an eye on her son during dinner and then afterward when they moved to the living room to share some lighthearted conversation.

  “Hannah...” Garrett said when there was a lull in the conversation going on around him.

  She looked his way with a soft smile.

  “Would you mind taking a walk with me?”

  Her gaze automatically went to the bassinet where her son slept.

  “He’s sound asleep,” her father assured her. “Go on and enjoy your walk. I think you have plenty of backup should my grandson awaken before you get back.” He looked to Garrett with a nod, and Garrett knew that it was time to lay his heart on the line in hopes of convincing Hannah to place her own heart into his safekeeping.

  * * *

  “It’s colder out than I thought,” Garrett stated with a frown as they stepped out into the starlit night, the decorative, battery-operated lantern his mother had given him dangling from his hand.

  Hannah snuggled deeper into her coat, her long, coppery hair whipping about in the breeze. “It’s the start of spring,” she reminded him as they stepped down from the porch, knowing that during that time of year the weather could go from decently warm to raining, or even snowing that same day. And, at that moment, it felt cold enough to snow.

  He paused at the base of the steps, looking about with a troubled frown.

  “Garrett?”

  “Let’s go to the barn,” he said. “It’ll be warm enough there.”

  “I thought we were going for a walk.”

  He looked down at her. “We need to talk, and
I don’t want you standing outside in the cold. Not with the wind kicking up the way it is.”

  “Garrett, please don’t make this any harder than it already is,” Hannah pleaded. Ever since he’d admitted to having feelings for her, asking her to give them a chance, and she’d had no choice but to turn him down, her heart had been aching.

  “I don’t intend to,” he said. “But there is something I need to say, and I’d rather do so where it’s somewhat warm.”

  “The house was warm,” she said, thinking it might have been best not to have accepted Garrett’s invitation for a walk that evening.

  “But not private,” he replied.

  With a nod, she conceded, and then started for the barn, her heart pounding. She didn’t want to talk about her leaving. Or about feelings neither of them would ever be able to act upon. And she didn’t want to cry, but even now her eyes were tearing up. She could blame it on the brisk breeze, but her heart knew better. She loved Garrett. And she was going to leave him. Not in the same way Grace had, but it tore at Hannah all the same. She didn’t want to be the cause of his closing himself off to love again. Garrett deserved to be happy, even if it couldn’t be with her. Lord, please help me to be strong. And please help guide Garrett down a path that allows him to find the happiness he deserves.

  When they entered the barn, Garrett closed the large door and then turned to face her, his gaze meeting hers. “I had planned to have this discussion out under the stars with the mountains in the backdrop gently lit by the light of the moon. I hadn’t counted on a cold front moving in.”

  A discussion under the stars? And with moonlight on the mountains. That sounded far too romantic a setting for a goodbye. Before she had a chance to dwell on it any further, Garrett closed the distance between them in three long strides and took her hands in his.

  “Hannah Sanders,” he began, the sound of her name on his lips making her heart race, “you came into my life so unexpectedly. So vulnerable, yet so very strong. From that very first moment when your fearful gaze met mine through that rain-splattered car window, I knew God had placed me there for a reason. What I hadn’t realized then was that it was to do more than rescue you from the storm. It was to save me from myself and the emotional isolation I had placed my heart in when it came to ever loving someone again. You made me feel again.”