Angel's Rest (35 page)

“It’s the babies. Don’t you see? I can move on from Jen, but not from Matt. Never from Matt. Haven’t you noticed that I seldom talk about him? I can’t. His smiles haven’t faded in my mind. His giggles still ring in my ears. Sometimes I swear I still feel him wrapping my finger in his tiny fist. That’s why these babies frighten me so much. If you’d lost them this morning … they are people now. They have fingers and toes and little button noses. I couldn’t see that. I couldn’t be part of it.”

“And I could? I could do it alone?” She stood straight and tall and proud. Furious. “You left me there in a cold and lonely hospital to wait out tests to see if our children would survive. Do you have any idea how long that wait was? I’ll tell you. It was the longest half hour of my life. And I did it alone. No husband. No friend. No one. Do you know how awful that was?”

He closed his eyes. He didn’t have a response for that.

“Look, Gabe, it’s true you’ve walked a path no one should be forced to travel. But, frankly, your grief and your fear are your problem. I’m done letting them be mine. I refuse to let them be these babies’ problem. Once upon a time, I thought that the best thing I could do for my children was to give them you as a father. I don’t think that anymore. What you did today devastated me. I won’t give you the opportunity to hurt our babies.”

“What are you saying?” he asked, raking his hand through his hair. “Look, Nic, I screwed up. Big-time. I realize that. Dropping you off at the hospital is one of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made and I’m ashamed for
having done it. But I’ve learned from it. Nic, I’ll go to grief counseling. It won’t happen again.”

“Fine. Good. I hope you do go to counseling because I’ve never known a man who needs it more. However, it’s not my concern. Not anymore. I’m leaving, Gabe.”

“You’re what?” He’d heard her wrong, hadn’t he?

“I’m moving to Denver.”

He’d heard her right.
Oh, hell
. He took a step back, reeling from the blow. He’d hurt her worse than he’d realized. She was leaving him. Giving up on him.

It was his fault. He’d done this himself. To himself. To them.

“After today, I want to be near a newborn intensive care unit until the babies are born.”

He blinked. “Is there a problem with the pregnancy? Did the doctor tell you to do this?” He held his breath, waiting for her answer.

“No, it’s my decision.”

“Okay. Good. I think that’s good.” He straightened his spine and declared, “I’ll come with you.”

She looked away from him and blinked back tears. Angry tears, he knew. She wasn’t sad. She was furious. Coldly, bitterly furious.

He was losing her. Losing his family. Again. Only this time, for the first time, it was all his fault.

He knew what she was going to say before she opened her mouth.

“No, you won’t,” she replied, her voice calm and matter-of-fact. “I’m not just leaving Eternity Springs, John Gabriel Callahan. I’m leaving you.”

Nic didn’t think twice about using the credit cards and accessing the bank account Gabe had set up for her to fund her summer in Denver. She didn’t spend foolishly, and besides, he was living rent-free in her house, wasn’t he? Ali had helped her find a pretty duplex to rent ten minutes away from both her perinatologist’s office and the hospital she’d use if she had trouble, and then she nested.

She enrolled in classes her doctor recommended for her. She joined a Mothers of Multiples group, wandered the aisles of Babies “R” Us, and spent a good portion of every day off her feet as directed. Most of all, she tried not to think about Gabe Callahan. Doing so invariably raised her blood pressure, and that wasn’t good for the babies.

She also entertained visitors. Her friends gave her the solitude she requested—up to a point. At least one of them called her every day to check on her and update her about summer events in Eternity Springs. The most welcome news was the return of normal summer sunshine. The town had dried out, the tourists had returned, and the season was in full swing. The June art festival had been a rousing success. The summer solstice 5K run went off without a hitch, and the theater group performed the new play based on the Lost Angel murder mystery to record crowds and Celeste’s disdain. Dear
friends that they were, they never said a word about Gabe.

Nor did they settle for just phone calls. Ali welcomed Nic into her world and included her at weekend barbecues and on shopping trips as she and her daughter prepared for her senior year of high school. Sarah visited Nic her second week in town, Celeste the third. Even her mother and aunt flew in from Florida to visit, and they only agreed to return home when Nic promised to call at the first sign of labor. When her doorbell rang the first week of August, Nic figured the rotation was back around to Sage. Instead, she opened the door to find Lori, Chase Timberlake, and Tiger on her doorstep. Nic smiled with delight. “What a great surprise. What are you two doing in Denver? I talked to Celeste a little while ago, but she didn’t mention you were in town.”

Shocked, their wide-eyed gazes locked on her belly, they failed to answer her question. “Whoa, Dr. Nic,” Lori said. “You look like you’re about to pop.”

“Or explode,” Chase said.

“Gee, thanks, you two,” Nic said as she looked up from greeting Tiger, who was circling her and barking with joy. She stepped back to let them in. “I’m so glad you came all this way to tell me I look fat.”

“Not fat,” Chase hastened to say. Unlike Lori, he didn’t know Nic well enough to be aware that she was teasing. “You look gorgeous as always. Just, well, bigger. We’re here because I need to visit my folks and Lori wanted to see you.”

“You look like you’re trying to sneak a beach ball into a rock concert, only you didn’t get the memo to bring the inflatable kind,” Lori said, her lips twitching. “A really big beach ball.”

“Brat.” Nic pulled Lori into her arms for a hug, then gave one to Chase for good measure. Stepping away, she rested her hands on the small of her back. “I am much
more sympathetic now to animals who deliver litters. Carrying two is challenge enough. Can you imagine having five?”

Lori shuddered. “I can’t imagine having one. I think when I decide to have kids, I’ll adopt.”

Nic laughed as she cleared the quilt square she’d been working on for the Patchwork Angels Quilting Bee’s second project from the couch, then gestured for her visitors to have a seat. “Make yourselves at home.”

“If it’s okay with you, Dr. Callahan, we thought Lori could visit while I go do my errand at home. I can pick her up in about an hour?”

“That’s fine.”

After Chase departed, Nic sent Lori to the kitchen to pour glasses of lemonade for the two of them, then lowered herself into her chair, propped her feet up on the ottoman, and took note of the time. She needed to stay off her feet for at least half an hour.

Lori returned to the living room a few moments later, handed Nic her drink, then took a seat on the sofa. Nic studied the young woman. Ah, she knew that look. This was obviously not a simple pleasure trip. How many times had she played the role of arbitrator between mother and daughter?
Ah, sweetheart, growing up is hard, isn’t it?
“So, child of my heart, what is wrong? Are you having boy trouble with Chase?”

“No. He’s a good guy. I’m a little sad that he’ll be leaving Eternity soon. He’s been the best summer romance.”

“Nothing more?”

The girl shrugged. “We’re too young.”

Nic nodded. “How’s your mom doing?”

“Okay. She’s still weird about me being a senior this year, but the summer has been so busy that she’s not acting as crazy as she did there for a little while. She’s not
the person I’m worried about now, though. Nic, you have to do something about Gabe.”

“I don’t want to discuss Gabe.”

“Okay, we don’t have to talk about it. You just need to read this letter from Celeste.” Lori pulled an envelope from her bag and handed it to Nic. “She said to tell you she thought it best you read the letter first, then you should call her if you have any questions.”

Nic set the envelope down without opening it.

“She said it’s important,” Lori added. “A matter of life and death.”

Nic pursed her lips and frowned. She didn’t want to read the letter. She didn’t care what defense her women friends mounted in his behalf; it wouldn’t change the way she felt.

“Please, Nic?”

Nic scowled. How downright sneaky of Celeste. She knew that Nic had no will against Lori’s puppy dog eyes. She’d never been able to tell that girl no about anything. Releasing a long, heavy sigh, she picked up the envelope, removed the letter, and began reading.

Pam had called Celeste because she was worried about Gabe. She’d told Celeste that when Gabe was keeping vigil with her at her husband’s hospital bed, he had confessed a frightful tale about a near suicide attempt last fall. As Nic read the details, her blood ran cold.

That had been right before she’d met Gabe.
Oh, my
. The information landed a solid blow against her anger at her husband.

“Now he’s holed up at Eagle’s Way again all alone,” Lori said. “You know how you said that Tiger had claimed Gabe as his person? Well, now the dog’s cut him loose. Tiger won’t stay with him. That’s why we brought him down to you.”

Nic worriedly eyed the dog. “Gabe didn’t mistreat Tiger. I can’t believe he’d do that.”

“No, that’s not it at all. I think Tiger is as fed up with Gabe as you are. Now, though, Gabe doesn’t have anybody. As far as I can tell, he just sits around brooding. Sage went up to Eagle’s Way on an errand for Celeste. She said he wouldn’t talk to her, he looked like he’d been drinking, and he hadn’t shaved in a while. You have to talk to him.”

Nic stood up and started to pace the room until she remembered she was supposed to be sitting down and returned to her chair. Lori didn’t understand what she was asking. “If he’s shutting people out, what makes you think I’ll be able to reach him?”

“Because he loves you! It’s obvious.”

Nic rubbed her belly with both hands. She didn’t want to call him. She’d sworn to herself that she wouldn’t contact him until the babies were born, and even then all she intended to say was that they were healthy. But if he’d really considered killing himself in the past …

“Please, Nic.”

She blew out a sigh, took a sip of lemonade, and said, “Oh, all right. Hand me the phone.”

Gabe sat on a boulder beside the bubbling mountain creek downhill from Eagle’s Way and tried to work up the enthusiasm to fish. Davenport was coming out on Saturday and he’d promised him trout for supper. Considering that he’d yet to stock the freezer with a single fish since his return to Eagle’s Way, he needed to get a hook in the water.

But fishing wasn’t any fun anymore. Not without Nic. Without his family.

Gabe watched a small green leaf turn and swirl its way downstream

“Carried along to its destiny by forces beyond its control,”
came a voice from behind him. “Do you feel that way, John Gabriel?”

Startled, he almost fell off the boulder. “Celeste? Where did you come from?”

She waved toward where her Honda Gold Wing stood in the parking area, not fifty yards from where he sat. How had he not heard her arrive?

Immediately a more pressing thought occurred. Why had she come? His blood turned to ice as the likely reason exploded like a nuclear bomb in his brain. Nic. Celeste had his phone number. She’d have called unless it was something big. Something bad.

Had Nic gone into labor? It was too early. Despite the miracle of modern medicine, the babies might not survive this early. Was that why Celeste had come? To deliver that news?

Gabe shoved off the rock and turned to face her, his hands fisted at his sides, bracing himself against the news he’d anticipated for weeks. “What happened?”

“Nic and the babies are just fine, Gabe. I spoke with her this morning. You, on the other hand …” Celeste clucked her tongue. “Aren’t you a sorry sight. Have you misplaced your razor?”

Gabe dragged his hand down the two-week-old beard he’d started growing for no good reason and ignored her question to ask one of his own. “Is there a problem at Angel’s Rest?”

“No, no problem. You’ve brought in good people to do the necessary work.”

“In that case, what brings you to Eagle’s Way?”

“It’s a good day for a drive, and besides, I have a gift for you.”

“A gift? What for?”

“We’ll talk first. Walk with me back to the house, will you? You’ll have better luck fishing later. I have a feeling.”

Talk. Ugh
. Gabe nodded, picked up his fishing pole, and followed Celeste back toward the house. It appeared that the time had come for the talk he’d expected from Nic’s friends since the day Nic left town and he’d quit answering the phone. He wasn’t surprised that they’d sent Celeste. Sarah would go after him with a shotgun. Sage would look at him with those big, sad green eyes and sigh at his stupidity.

Celeste, on the other hand, was certain to ask questions. Probing, personal, rip-his-heart-out-to-answer inquiries into his emotional health. Still, he guessed he should be grateful he’d had this much of a reprieve.