Home to Laura

chapter TWENTY



TY HAD INVITED Laura for Thanksgiving dinner so Nick drove her out with Mort and Emily.

She insisted on sitting in the backseat so Emily could sit up front with him.

At the ranch, Tammy and Callie embraced her into their fold so Nick didn’t have to worry about her.

He kept Emily close with his arm around her shoulders, trying to make up for being so harsh with her the day before. She kibitzed with his brothers and seemed to be in a good mood as long as she didn’t have to spend time with Laura.

Dinner went well until dessert was served when Laura jumped up and ran to the bathroom. She returned moments later, wide-eyed and nervous.

“Callie,” she said, “may I borrow Gabe for a few minutes?”

“What’s happening, Laura?”

The tension among the women had Nick jumping out of his seat. “What’s going on?”

Laura picked up the purse she’d left in the living room. “Gabe, would you drive me to the hospital, please?”

“What is it?” Nick stepped in front of Laura. “I’ll drive you.”

“I’m spotting. Stay here with your daughter.” She walked to the front door, her back ramrod-straight, her neck stiff, trying to shrug into her jacket. “Gabe, can we go? Now, please.”

“You don’t have to bother Gabe. I’ll take you.”

“No, Nick.”

“I’m the baby’s father,” he shouted.

“Nick, calm down.” Ty took his arm, but Nick shrugged him off.

“Why is Gabe taking her? If anything goes wrong, I should be there.”

Ty leaned close and whispered, “She’s right. Emily is here right now. Stay with her.”

Nick turned to find Emily staring at him, her eyes huge saucers in her pale face.

He walked to her, pulled her out of the chair and held her while Laura left the house with his brother.

“What’s happening, Dad? What’s spotting?”

“It means the baby might be coming. Laura’s going to the hospital to make sure that isn’t what’s happening.”

“So what if the baby came?”

“It would be so small, it might not live. Or it could have medical complications.”

Emily shook in his arms.

“Emily,” Tammy said. “Do you want me to make some hot chocolate? You look cold.”

“Yes, Auntie Tammy.”

Ten minutes later, Tammy returned with a steaming mug. Everyone sat down again to dessert, but the mood had shifted, worry evident on everyone’s faces.

Callie began to talk about Gabe’s preparations for the dogsledding season and Nick sat with his arm across the back of Emily’s chair, his fingers resting on her shoulder, and everyone knew it was all for Emily’s benefit.

She sipped her cocoa, but then said, “I don’t like this, Dad. I don’t like that she’s having a baby and now might lose it. She’s making everyone feel sorry for her.”

Nick straightened away from her. “This isn’t something Laura’s manufactured to make us feel sorry for her. This is real life. It’s a real life-and-death situation. I don’t want this baby, but I don’t want Laura to lose it, either. She’s in love with it already. She’ll make a great mother and deserves to have a shot at having a healthy child. Understand?”

Emily nodded. Why was adolescence so hard? Had Nick screwed up Emily so badly that she would never accept another child into her father’s life? He was only thirty-two. He had no plans to marry and no plans for more family. But what if he did? Would Emily never be okay with that? Was the problem immaturity or had she been screwed up by him beyond the point of repair?

By the following morning, when he left Emily asleep at the B and B to pick up Laura from the hospital, he still didn’t have an answer.

Gabe had returned to Ty’s late last evening to tell them that Laura and the baby were fine, but that they were keeping her overnight for observation.

When Nick said he would pick her up in the morning, Emily had started to object, but he’d stopped her with one look.

He knew enough about this fatherhood business, even if he was coming to it late in Emily’s life, that sometimes you just had to be tough.

At the hospital, Laura was sitting up in bed waiting, dressed and with her socks and shoes in her hands.

“I thought Gabe was coming to get me.”

“You’re stuck with me instead,” he said, not too happy about the game of war he felt part of between Laura and Emily.

Without a word, he put on her socks and shoes and took her home.

“Don’t come over today, Nick. Stay with Emily.”

“I’ll come later, the same as I did earlier in the week.”

“That wouldn’t be wise. Stay with Emily.”

Despite what Laura said, he came over later, but the back door was locked and he didn’t have a key.

He knocked, and knocked, and then knocked some more, but Laura didn’t answer.

He went downstairs and took a look at the renovations. Everything was running smoothly, so he picked up Emily and Mort and drove out to Ty’s, where they helped him do chores with the bison.

The following day, he dropped Mort off at the home and took Emily out to Gabe’s, where they admired Gabe’s progress on the house and where Emily could talk and laugh with the dogs to her heart’s content.

On Sunday, he put them both on the plane for home.

He hugged Emily hard. “I love you. I wish you would believe me.”

“I do.”

“Then stop worrying that Laura’s baby will come between us.”

“I’ll try, but she is already coming between us. I’m going home and you’re staying here.”

“I don’t feel comfortable leaving her. She needs a friend right now. Someone who can run errands for her because the doctors won’t let her do anything. How’s she supposed to eat if she can’t shop for groceries or cook?” He tucked a strand of hair behind Emily’s ear. “Tammy has her baby to take care of. Callie is a bit more pregnant than Laura is and she’s got her hands full with her job and with getting ready for the baby. Laura needs a friend and that seems to be me.”

Emily stared behind his left shoulder, no longer mulish or sulky, but thoughtful.

“Call me?”

Nick hugged her again. “You’re my shining star. I need to talk to my star every night.”

He watched while she boarded the plane and, despite the tension of the past few days and despite his using his brothers and their wives as a buffer between him and Emily, he didn’t want her to go. He missed her already.

On Monday morning, Nick drove to Callie’s long-term-care facility.

She smiled when she saw him.

“Nick! What are you doing here?”

He’d come on an errand, but now that he was here, he found himself curious about Callie’s adventure and how she was doing.

Funny, in the past few months, he’d come to terms with her having “defected” to his brother. He wasn’t so blind that he couldn’t see that what they had between them was a powerful love. He wasn’t so petty that he couldn’t be happy for them.

He asked Callie for a tour of the home and got it. He was impressed.

“You’re doing a great job, Callie. This place is warm and homey rather than institutional.”

“Thank you, Nick. Your opinion matters to me.”

The quiet honesty of the statement touched him.

“Do you want to see Johanna while you’re here?”

“I’d love to see her.”

“She won’t recognize you.”

“That’s fine.”

He visited briefly and Callie was right. Johanna didn’t recognize him, but then, she didn’t realize Callie was her own daughter.

After they left her room, Nick said, “She doesn’t know us, but honestly, she’s doing well here. She seems calmer. Happier.”

“She is.” Callie gave a brief instruction to a passing nurse then turned back to Nick. “Why are you here? I know it wasn’t for a tour.”

“I want to borrow or rent a wheelchair from you.”

“A wheelchair?” Her eyes widened. “Oh, Nick, not for Laura. She would hate to be wheeled around.”

“I know, but she’s stir-crazy. I want to get her downstairs and into the wheelchair so she can visit her café and see her renovations and maybe even take a ride down Main Street without exerting herself.”

“That’s so thoughtful. You’re good for her, Nick.”

He shrugged. “I’m helping a friend.”

“You’ve come all the way from Seattle to do it. You’re staying in a hotel at your own expense. From what I heard, before Emily came for Thanksgiving, you spent every day with her.”

“There’s no better communication than the small-town grapevine.”

Callie laughed, a musical sound that Nick had forgotten. Then again, she laughed a lot more now than she had when she’d worked for him, so he hadn’t heard it often.

“Someday soon it wouldn’t hurt,” Callie said, walking with him to the front door, “for you to admit that you love her.”

“I don’t.”

“Here’s your wheelchair.” She picked up a folded chair from a rack by the entrance. “Keep it until Laura gives birth.”

Nick hugged her. “I still like you, Callie. I won’t hold that ‘you love her’ remark against you.”

Her laugh rang again, following him through the open door to his car.

He’d joked with her, but God, when were people going to stop shoving Laura down his throat?

* * *

HE HELPED HER down the stairs. She took them carefully, scared to death of falling and making her baby come early.

When she saw the wheelchair she frowned. “I’m not an invalid.”

“No, you aren’t. You’re going nuts inside your apartment, but you have to take it easy for the baby. Sit.”

She did and then he wheeled her down the narrow alleyway onto Main. “This is embarrassing.”

“What do you think of the weather? Nice, isn’t it?”

“People are staring at me.”

“The breeze keeps the sun from getting too hot.”

“Would you quit with the weather already?”

“Just trying to get you to stop complaining.”

She huffed out a laugh. “I am complaining, aren’t I? The sun is nice.” She closed her eyes and raised her face toward the sun’s rays.

He wheeled her into the café and everyone turned.

“Bringing your own chair with you?” someone who Nick didn’t know called out. “Good for you, Laura.”

Nick bought himself a coffee and Laura an herbal tea and got her to carry both of them while he wheeled her next door.

When he pushed her into the shop, he heard her breath catch.

“Looks good, doesn’t it?” he asked.

“It’s gorgeous.”

“Happy with the colors you chose?”

“I love them. Geordie,” she called.

The contractor stepped out from the kitchen, his coveralls stained with plenty of white and beige paint, but also plum and orange and red. Laura’s colors.

“What do you think?” Geordie approached, leaned forward and bussed her on the cheek.

“You’ve done a fabulous job.”

“You chose the colors. All I did was apply them to the walls.”

Nick sat on the floor and Laura in her chair and they talked about her plans for the place and the Opening Day party.

Later, he took her back upstairs, put her to bed and started to head to the B and B to concentrate on his own business.

On impulse, he stopped in to see the Gems, stepping around the counter because they worked exclusively in the back now, baking.

“Do either of you women know where I can find more of you?”

“What do you mean?” Norma asked. Or maybe it was Gayle.

“I want to hire more women for the Opening Day party that Laura’s planning after she opens up the wall.”

“We’ve already got our sisters on the front counter to replace ourselves.”

“Do they bake as well as you do?”

“Yep. Our mothers taught us.”

“Okay, all of you are hired to work overtime. How does time and a half sound?”

“Sounds good. I’ve already been to Denver twice since I started work here. I’m collecting a whole new wardrobe.”

“Okay, I’ll get Laura to write up a menu for you.”

He worked all afternoon, but got little done because much of the time was devoted to calls he needed to make. He was late getting to Laura’s and therefore late calling Emily. By the time he’d finished putting dinner together and eating it and cleaning up and then making sure that Laura was in bed, it was past nine-thirty.

“Dad, I thought you weren’t going to call.” He could hear her uncertainty and disappointment in her voice.

“Sorry, honey. Tell me about your day.”

By the time he hung up, he was yawning, but still had hours of work to do.

He thought it might have been sometime after three when he fell into bed.

His days fell into a routine in earnest after that.

As hard as he worked, he seemed to slip further and further behind at work. Mort called and chastised him for missing client phone calls and for not getting contracts returned on time.

If he could just get through the Opening Day at Sweet Temptations, things would slow down.

The day arrived with great fanfare. Nick had handbills printed up and delivered to every citizen in town and for miles around.

When he wheeled Laura around to the front of the building, there was a lineup down Main. They stepped aside so she could enter, then followed her in.

Tilly and the Gems and their sisters and the extra staff Laura had hired for the day all waited at the new counter to serve everyone.

Geordie had outdone himself. The place shone. The missing wall opened the room into a huge airy space full of tables and chairs covered in cloths to match the colors of the walls.

There was a coffee and a cinnamon bun free for everyone, along with trays of sweets that the ladies handed around. The children got either cold drinks or hot chocolate.

Even with the larger space, there weren’t enough chairs for everyone. The café would never house this many people on a normal day, though.

Laura glowed. The townspeople loved her.

Nick talked to everyone, helped the Gems clear tables, handed around sweets, but never lost track of where Laura was in the room, watching her for signs of fatigue or stress.

The music for the day had been chosen by both of them. They’d spent a pair of evenings burning CDs with Laura’s favorite artists. The music added to the ambience of the space.

At noon, he approached Laura. “Time to go upstairs.”

“Already?”

He nodded and smiled. “It’s a smashing success.”

She sighed. “It is, isn’t it?”

He made them a light lunch.

“I’m going home tomorrow, Laura.”

She shot him a startled gaze. “Really?”

“You won’t need me now. The shop is open and up and running and I’ve got bucket loads of work to catch up on.”

She fingered the crackers he’d served with the soup. “I don’t know how to thank you for what you’ve done for me.”

He stood to leave. She stood, too.

He leaned forward. Their lips touched. They stared. This close her eyes were golden, the hazel overtaking the brown.

“It was my pleasure,” he said and, to his surprise, meant it.

She walked him to the door, well, waddled really, but even this ripe with pregnancy, she was still beautiful. Radiant. Aglow.

He left with mixed feelings, sort of lost and lonely.

In Seattle, his daughter welcomed him home with squeals and opened arms.

They spent as much time as he could carve out of his evenings with her, then worked long into the night.

Two days before Christmas, they flew to Accord, he and Emily and Mort, to spend Christmas with the Jordan family. On the 28th, Nick put Emily on a plane bound for France and he and Mort headed back to Seattle.

Nick worked through New Year’s Eve and then fell into bed alone, the house hollow and still.

He had an early dinner on New Year’s Day with Mort and then went home and caught up on more work.

He wondered what his brothers were doing.