Heartstrings (26 page)

The doorbell rang, and she turned off the vacuum cleaner. She opened the door and swayed a little. What the hell was Tammy Jo doing at her door?

“Hello, Abby.” Her hazel eyes flashed.

“Tammy Jo, what a surprise.”
Surprise
didn’t even touch what she was feeling.

Tammy Jo looked past her into the entry. “May I come in? I need to speak with you.”

She was tired of feeling like she was the one with the big scarlet A on her chest when she was with this woman.

She stepped back to let Tammy Jo step through the door, gesturing toward the living room. “Come on in.”

Tammy Jo looked around and rubbed her hand over her extended belly. “This is nice.”

She about fell over. Tammy Jo was offering her a compliment? “Thanks. Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you.” Tammy Jo moved around the room, looking at the photos hanging on the walls. Most of them were of Emily and her parents. “You know we all must have been blind. She looks so much like Seth.”

The earth swayed under her again. What was she up to? “What’s this about, Tammy Jo?”

She turned toward her. “Mike told me you lied and tricked him into marrying him.”

She sat on the wingchair. Something about her tone had her asking, “But you don’t believe him?”

Tammy Jo sat on the couch and continued to rub her belly. “I don’t know what to believe, but I know he hasn’t been completely honest with me lately.”

She focused on Tammy Jo’s pale face and the strain and dark circles she’d tried to cover with makeup and powder. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’ll be all right.” She squinted as if fighting a wince. “Last month before John Kendall died, I hired a private eye to follow Mike and you.”

“Why?”

“I thought you were having an affair.” She smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Mike and I are–were nothing but friends.”

Tammy Jo nodded and rubbed her belly again. “I figured that out. But the PI found out some things about Mike that shocked me. He’s been diverting money from my trust fund into a private account he has set up in Mexico. He also sold the story about you tricking him and having Seth’s baby to the tabloids and received a substantial payout. That, too, went into his secret account.” She paused and looked down at the floor. “But the worst thing the PI discovered is Mike may be involved with some kind of illegal dealings. He might be transporting illegal aliens over the Mexican border.”

Dear God! She wanted to ask her more about Mike’s actions, but Tammy Jo was distraught enough. “I’m sorry. I can ease your mind about the article because it isn’t true. Mike threatened me he’d sell the lie that I’d tricked him into marrying him if Seth and I told Emily the truth about him being her father.”

How could Mike do this to her–to Emily–to his wife?

Tammy Jo took a deep breath. This time she couldn’t hide the wince. “So, he’s always known?”

“Yes. Mike married me for my money to save the Circle R.”

“He never used your money for the R. He set up his illegal ring. That’s how he saved the ranch.”

Her heart twisted and her gut clenched. “What?”

The other woman looked away. “I’m sorry, Abby, that’s all I really know. Did Seth know about the baby?”

She took a deep breath, folded her hands into a tight knot in her lap. “Yes, he knew before the talent show, and I planned to wait for Seth to come home. But I was so afraid of what people would say about me when they found out I was pregnant. I didn’t tell anyone except Mike.”

She told Tammy Jo everything–about Mike’s lies and betrayals. And her reasons for not going with Seth.

Tammy Jo’s face became paler, and she fisted her hand over her swollen belly. “He lied to me.” She sniffed and seemed to melt. Her eyes glistened, but she covered the pain with anger. She stood, rubbed her back and paced in front of the windows, her low heels clipping sharply on the floor. “I hated Harvard. But Daddy insisted I major in business and finance and forget my dreams of being a model. I was there a month, and I’d call Mike every night. God, I loved him. But Daddy hated him.”

She paused and picked up a wooden frame containing a photo of Mike and Emily together when she was a toddler. “So, I devised a plan for us to run away. I began drawing money from the account Daddy set up for me and transferring it into one I’d opened. He called me about the money and told me he’d cut me off if I was planning something with Mike.” She stopped and met her eyes. “I didn’t care. I’d been already offered a modeling job.” As if fighting a war with her emotions, Tammy Jo blinked and sniffed. “I called Mike with my plan. I’d send him a plane ticket to New York and meet him there.”

Abby didn’t like the way Tammy Jo looked. Lines of both emotional and physical pain riddled her stunning face. She stood and went over to Tammy Jo. “You need to sit down.”

Tammy Jo didn’t fight her as she helped her onto the couch. Abby took her wrist and felt for a pulse. As she concentrated on the too-fast heartbeat, Tammy Jo went on with her story. “He broke down and told me that you’d seduced him and were pregnant, and he planned to marry you.” She shook her head, the first of her tears flowing in big drops down her smooth cheeks. “You never seduced him, did you?”

She let go of Tammy Jo’s hand and laid her hands over the swell of her belly. If her suspicions were correct, she should be able to feel the next contraction as a subtle jerking of the muscles beneath the surface. “No, I never seduced Mike or anyone else. I’ve always known he loved you, and he’s always known I loved Seth. He told me you and he broke up, and that he hated to see me alone. At the same time, rumors of Seth seeing Amanda Lang surfaced, and I freaked, I guess. I agreed to Mike’s idiotic plan and married him.”

Tammy Jo’s belly jerked under her hands. Tammy Jo winced and laid her hands over hers.

“How long have you been having pains?”

Tammy Jo’s eyes widened and her breathing came in quick spurts. “I’ve had Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks, but this is different.”

“How long have the pains been different?”

“Since last night. I thought it was just the stress of everything going on right now.” Then fear mingled with the pain in her wide eyes. “God, it’s too early to be in labor. I’m not due for another three weeks.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think this guy’s gonna wait that long.” She felt the beginning of the next contraction as the muscles under Tammy Jo’s skirt hardened, and it was stronger than the last one.

Tammy Jo cried out as it hit the peak. Sweet Jesus, she was in full-fledged labor.

“I should call Mike.” Tammy Jo gasped at the end and reached for her handbag, but Abby beat her to it and handed the expensive leather purse to her. “Thank you.” Tammy Jo called her husband. He wasn’t answering his cell, so she left a message. She hung up and dropped the smart phone back into her bag. “I don’t know where he is. He’s supposed to be at the fairgrounds overseeing the carnival rides people. Ahh! God!”

Tammy Jo arched her back with the pain, a dark wet stain spreading on her skirt.

Abby jumped into action, grabbed Tammy Jo’s shoulders and helped her lie on the couch.

“What’s happening?”

“Your water just broke. You need to remember to breathe through the contractions. It’ll help with the pain. I’m going to get some towels and call 9-1-1. I’ll be right back. Okay? Who’s your doctor?”

“Dr. Richard Mason in Amarillo.” Tammy Jo’s eyes were wide as she looked down at the wet gush staining her skirt, the couch, and the floor. “Oh, God. Hurry. I’m scared.”

Abby squeezed the woman’s shoulder. Scared? She was petrified. An ambulance was at least twenty minutes away, and the hospital Tammy Jo was probably hoping to deliver in was an hour away. She prayed she could get Tammy Jo out of her living room before the baby came.

Tammy Jo screamed, and she realized she wasn’t moving and kicked it into gear. She called the ambulance, ran to her bedroom, grabbed a bunch of towels and a sheet, then her stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff she had shoved in the back of the bathroom closet. She washed her hands and threw a bottle of alcohol and a pair of scissors into the laundry basket in which she’d tossed everything else. Then she looked around for something to clamp the umbilical cord with. She found a ponytail band on the windowsill and grabbed. Praying the elastic would do the trick and that the alcohol would sterilize everything, she ran out of the bedroom.

“Oh, God! The pains are coming too fast.” Tammy Jo thrashed on the couch as she entered the room.

“Breathe through it, Tammy.” She set the basket down, knelt beside the couch, slipped the blood pressure cuff around her arm and took the reading.

As she removed the stethoscope buds from her ears, she said, “The ambulance is on the way, but I have a feeling we don’t have that much time.”

Tammy Jo shook her head and tears ran down her face, taking what little makeup she wore with it. “No, oh, God, no.”

“Tammy Jo, listen to me.” She removed the blood pressure cuff and took her hand. When she sobbed again, Abby squeezed her hand and repeated her command. “No, listen to me.”

Tammy Jo looked at her.

“Remember, I’m a nurse. It’s been a while since I’ve worked labor and delivery, but we can do this.”

Slowly, Tammy Jo nodded, and Abby smiled. “Good. Now, here’s what I need to do. I’m going to check to see what’s going on down there. Is that okay?”

Another contraction hit, and Tammy Jo screamed again but this time she tried to breathe through it. Abby listened with the stethoscope at her belly for the baby’s heartbeat. She breathed out a long sigh of relief when the gentle beating came to her strong and steady.

When the contraction was over, Tammy Jo met her gaze and licked her dry lips. “Help me, Abby. Please, don’t let my baby die.”

She pushed back Tammy Jo’s damp hair from her forehead. “Let’s do this.”

She discovered Tammy Jo was fully dilated and the baby was ready to crown, then covered her with the sheet. Tammy Jo’s contractions went from coming every one and a half minutes to coming every thirty seconds. Like it or not, Baby Ritter was being born right here on her couch, and she was the only one to help him into the world.

Talk about freaking cosmic irony.

Tammy Jo suffered through another contraction.

“Tammy Jo, I need you to listen to me and things will go better for all three of us.”

Tammy Jo nodded and stared up at her, wide eyes made glossy with her pain and fear.

“The ambulance is at least another fifteen minutes away. They were on another run when I called in. But we can do this. From the looks of it, he’s ready to meet his momma and is in a damned big hurry to do so. I can bring him to the world, but you need to help me, understand?”

Another contraction hit and she screamed, “I just want him to be okay!”

She moved down to kneel next to Tammy Jo’s legs, laying out a bunch of the clean towels between her thighs. “He will be great. His heartbeat is strong and your blood pressure is a little high, but not unusually so. On the next contraction, I want you to push as hard as you can. Got it?”

“No, can’t we wait?” She thrashed her head from side to side as another contraction came on strong and nature took over.

“Push! Tammy, push!” She put her stethoscope buds in her ears and laid the drum on Tammy Jo’s belly. The baby’s heart rate was faint but steady.

When the next contraction started, Abby didn’t even have to tell her to push. Tammy Jo screamed her way through the pain and bore down as hard as she could. Abby quickly poured the alcohol over the scissors and the ponytail band and laid them on a towel to dry. With the next push, the baby’s head fully crowned. She laughed at the sight of the dark hair. “That’s it, Tammy. Push!”

With the next pain, Tammy Jo delivered her son with one gigantic push. Abby caught the baby and immediately used a towel and her fingers to clean his face, mouth, and nose.

He instantly let out a howl to fill his lungs with air.

Tammy Jo moaned the same time the siren of the ambulance squealed in the distance.

“Let me see my baby.” Her voice was raw from screaming and weak from her ordeal. But it was full of awe.

Abby laid the squirming, crying baby on his mommy’s belly. Using the elastic band, she crudely clamped the umbilical cord then cut it with the scissors and wrapped him up in a fresh towel. She’d let the hospital make the final ties to the cord.