Hummingbird Lake (4 page)

“Sure,” Ali told her. As Sarah hurried off, Ali brought the conversation back to Gabe’s landscape design. “I especially like the rock work around the pool that’s off by itself.”

“I haven’t seen it yet,” Nic said. “I learned early on that the smell of sulfur and pregnancy don’t mix for me.”

A note in Nic’s voice had Sage giving her a close look. She spied lines of tension on her friend’s brow and around her mouth. Something was up. Softly she asked, “Nic?”

Nic pasted on a bright but not quite genuine smile. “In fact, even though the prevailing breeze shoots the sulfur fumes away from the estate, I’m catching a few
whiffs now, so I think I’ll change my venue for a bit.” Nic linked her arm through Ali’s. “I haven’t seen the wedding gown quilt our Patchwork Angels bee completed. Ali, could I talk you into showing it to me?”

Sage thought Ali might have picked up on something in Nic’s demeanor, too, because she looked hard at Nic for a moment before brightly saying, “I’d love to show you. It’s in the Aspenglow suite, and it’s one of my very favorite rooms at Angel’s Rest.”

Nic glanced at Sage. “You’ll come with us?”

“Absolutely.”

Nic called out to Gabe, “Honey? I’m going up to the house with Ali and Sage to see our completed wedding gown quilt.”

“Okay.”

The three friends made their way toward the old Victorian mansion, others slowing their progress with greetings, comments, and questions. Once, Nic stopped beside a cottonwood tree and rested her weight against it, her eyes closed, breathing deeply.

Sage checked her watch, and Ali mouthed the words, “Oh no.” By the time they reached the house and entered through the kitchen door, Nic’s expression had tightened. The moment they were alone, Sage stated, “You’re in labor, aren’t you?”

Nic chewed her lower lip and grabbed the handle of the refrigerator for support. “Yes, I think I am. Will you check me?”

Ali’s eyes widened with concern. “Um, don’t you think we should call the doctor?”

Nic and Sage shared a look, then Sage said, “Actually, I am a doctor. I trained as a pediatric surgeon, but I’ve delivered my fair share of babies. I’ll ask you to keep that to yourself, Ali. Now, let’s get you upstairs, Nic.”

Ali held back any comment until they’d entered the Aspenglow suite and she shut the door behind them.
Then as Sage ducked into the attached bathroom to wash her hands, she said, “I admit I’m surprised, Sage. Reassured for Nic, but surprised.”

Her voice tight with pain, Nic said, “It’s her deep, dark secret.”

Ali stripped the beautiful wedding gown quilt off the bed and helped Nic onto it, asking, “Why is that?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t talk about it,” Sage told them when she reentered the bedroom. “Especially not now. We have bigger fish to fry.”

Ali started to leave the room, but Nic said, “No, Ali. Stay. Sage might have delivered babies, but you’ve had them. I’d appreciate your input on this.”

Moments later, Sage scowled. “For crying out loud, Nicole. You must have been having contractions at the church this morning. You’re in active labor. We need to call for the helicopter.”

“It’s that close?” Nic asked as Sage offered her a hand to pull herself up to a seated position.

“Only if you don’t want your babies’ birthplace to be the top of Sinner’s Prayer Pass. You are too far along to risk going in the car.”

“Oh, dear. I really didn’t think this was it. I’ve had so many aches and pains and pressure that I kept thinking it would stop like all the other times.”

“This time it will stop with two babies being born,” Sage told her. “Not before then.”

“So, okay. Let’s call for the helicopter.” Nic grimaced as another pain hit her, then said, “Gabe probably won’t be happy.”

“No, he probably won’t,” Ali agreed.

“I don’t have my camera, either.” Nic pursed her lips in a pout. “Do you think Celeste has one around here that we could borrow?”

“I have one in my purse downstairs,” Ali said. “I’ll get it for you on our way out.”

As Sage phoned for the medical helicopter, Ali walked with Nic toward the staircase. Halfway there, Nic stopped abruptly and said, “Oh my.”

She glanced downward as fluid gushed from between her legs.

Ali took one look and called, “Sage? Her water broke.”

At that point, Nic gasped and bent over, her pain obvious. “Oh … Ali. I can feel … oh. Oh, whoa. Whoa. Whoa. They’re coming. They’re coming now!”

Sage took one look at Nic, and her stomach rolled.
No, no, no
. She didn’t want this. She couldn’t do this. For a few long seconds that lasted like hours, she was back in the stifling heat on a rutted dirt path, supporting the weight of a laboring mother walking to assist nature’s work.

The sound of her name was a gunshot. “Sage!”

She jerked back to the present. Nic. Her friend.
I have to do this. I promised her. I can do this. I will do this
.

Sage reached down deep inside of her, past the fear and the ugliness and the grief, to find Dr. Anderson. “Okay, I guess we’re doing this here,” the physician said. “Ali? You want to go get Gabe?”

“I’m on my way.”

Gabe Callahan was talking with Henry Moorland, owner of the Double R Ranch, repeating the story about the time he and his brothers had had the bright idea to ride a local rancher’s bull. “Two of my brothers are identical twins,” he said, grinning at the memory. “Mark and Luke peeled off their shirts and went into the pasture and—”

He broke off abruptly when he heard Ali Timberlake call, “Gabe!”

He whipped his head around at the note of urgency in her voice. The moment he met her concerned gaze, he started moving toward her. “Is it Nic?”

“She’s in labor. The babies are coming. Now.”

Gabe took it like a punch to the gut.
She’s in labor. The babies are coming
. “Okay, I’ll go get the car.”

“No, Gabe. The babies are coming
now
. There’s no time. Don’t worry, though. Sage is with her.” Lowering her voice, Ali added, “She’s a doctor.”

Don’t worry? Don’t worry?
Grimly he asked, “Where is she?”

“Up at the house.”

He took off running.

He covered the distance to the house in record time, and bounded up the steps and into the house. “Nic?” he shouted.

“Up here, Gabe,” Sage called.

He had a lump the size of Texas in his throat as he took the stairs three at a time, following the terrifying sounds of his wife’s groans and Sage Anderson’s calm voice. “That’s good. You’re doing fine, Nic. Now, push. Push, push, push. Take a breath. Push, push, push.”

She’s pushing
. In that second, due to previous experience and the refresher childbirth class he’d taken in Gunnison this past summer, Gabe recognized that the situation was indeed too far gone to transport her to Gunnison. That meant no hospital. They were doing this here.
Thank God Sage is a doctor. Please, God. Please, please, please, please
.

He burst into the room. “Nic?”

“Wash your hands, Gabe,” Sage instructed. She was behind Nic on the bed, supporting her body while she pushed. “That’s it, sweetheart. You’re doing great. Now rest.”

Gabe ducked into the bathroom and hurriedly washed his hands, then rushed back to Nic. “Are you okay?”

“So far, so good.” She smiled up at him tremulously. “I’m sorry, Gabe. I didn’t mean to do it this way.”

“That’s okay. I’ll yell at you about it later.” Without being told, he took Sage’s place and supported his wife just as she sucked in a breath. “Here comes another one.”

From that moment on, time passed in a weird progression of agonizingly slow seconds and fast-as-lightning minutes. The dressing table mirror was arranged in such a way that he could see what was happening at the bottom of the bed, and he only vaguely noted that Ali Timberlake arrived with a camera in hand.

“Did you track down the supply cart?” Sage asked her.

“Yes. Celeste is on her way with it now.”

“Oh, heavens,” Nic said, panting.

“Get her up,” Sage instructed. “There you go, girlfriend. Push, push, push.”

Gabe kept his gaze glued to the mirror. Nic moaned and groaned.

Sage encouraged, “Attagirl. You can do it, Nic. We’re almost there. Almost.”

Nic let out a scream and a little head popped out.

“Dear Jesus,” Gabe prayed as seconds later Nic gave another push and the baby slid out into Sage’s waiting hands.

“We have a girl,” Sage said.

For a heartbreakingly long few seconds, nothing happened, then Gabe and Nic’s daughter drew air into her lungs and let out an angry mewl.

Crying and laughing at the same time, Nic said, “She sounds like a little lamb.”

“So says the veterinarian,” Sage said as she tucked the little one securely into the crook of her arm. “Ali? How long will it take Celeste to—”

“I’m here.” The older woman blew into the room
pushing a medical cart. “I decided it was easier to bring the whole thing. Colt carried it up for me. What do you need?”

“Sterile scissors, to begin with,” Sage said.

With Celeste acting as a competent assistant, Sage saw to the baby’s immediate needs, then handed her to her mother. “You three say a quick hello, because there is more work here to be done.”

Tears were flowing down Nic’s face as she cradled their daughter against her. “Oh, look, Gabe. She’s beautiful. Isn’t she beautiful?”

She was a wrinkly, squiggly thing covered with blood and cheesy-looking stuff, but he agreed. “Absolutely gorgeous.”

Love filled his heart as he watched his daughter and her mother, and when the memory of another birth arose in his mind, he refused to let it steal his joy. He would never forget the son he had lost or the woman who had given birth to him, but this was a moment for the future, not the past. Then Nic let out another groan, and he focused his mind on the present.

“I need another pair of arms here,” Sage said. “Celeste? Ali? One of you take the baby.”

“Let me,” Sarah Reese said. Just when she’d joined the gathering, Gabe didn’t know, but he was glad to have her here. It felt right for Nic to have her closest friends with her now. Sarah held out her arms and cradled the baby, now swaddled in the receiving blanket Celeste had brought along with the medical cart. “Well, now. Aren’t you the prettiest little thing?”

“A little angel,” Celeste said.

At that point things got busy again. Twelve minutes later, Nic delivered Gabe’s second little girl.

By that time, a crowd had gathered downstairs and the helicopter was waiting to take them to the hospital. After a brief discussion and a phone consultation between
Sage and the obstetrician in Gunnison, the decision was made to send the bird back without any patients. Nic and the girls were doing fine.

Nic and the girls. His girls.

Emotion shuddered through him, and Gabe closed his eyes and fought back tears. Celeste shooed him out of the room to announce the births to those gathered downstairs while the women tidied up. He was glad to have a brief escape. He needed to get hold of his emotions before he broke down and bawled like a baby.

Walking to the landing and gazing down at the gathering in sort of a shell-shocked gaze, Gabe felt a sense of belonging that went all the way to the bone. As he fumbled for words to express himself, Lori Reese lost patience.

“Well?” she demanded. “We heard crying. What did she have?”

His smile broke like sunlight on Easter morning. “Girls. Nic and I have girls. Mama and babies are doing great.”

A cheer went up, and Gabe gave a little wave, then turned away. He didn’t want anyone to see the tears he no longer could quell. He retreated down the hallway toward the room where his family awaited, then collapsed against the wall. He closed his eyes and his fingers found the small silver medal he wore around his neck, the gift from Celeste designed by Sage that the older woman had called the “official healing center blazon awarded to those who have embraced healing’s grace.”

Gabe didn’t know about that. He wore it as a symbol of his own rebirth. He was John Gabriel Callahan, son, brother.

Husband.

Father.

When he opened his eyes, Celeste stood before him,
her smile warm, a tender look in her eyes. “Congratulations, Gabe.”

“Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

“You are very welcome. Now, you have three ladies waiting on you inside. The three of you need some alone time.”

“Okay.” He pushed away from the wall, but before he could take a step, Celeste placed her hand on his arm.

“You should get in touch with your family, Gabe. Tell them your glorious news.”

He nodded. “You’re right. I’m ready. I think I’ll do that. Or, better yet, once the girls are old enough to travel, I think we should pay them a visit.” A wistful smile touched his lips. “Maybe for Christmas.”

“Yes. The season of miracles. It’s fitting.”

Gabe bent and kissed her cheek, then walked into the bedroom, where Nic had one baby at her breast. Sage sat in the rocking chair with the other. The babies appeared to have been washed, and Nic’s hair was freshly brushed. “You are so beautiful,” he said to her.

Sage rose from the rocker. “It’s about time you came back, Daddy,” she said, handing the baby over to Gabe. “I have it on certain authority that there’s a plate of barbecue waiting for me downstairs in the kitchen. Holler if you need me, but I don’t expect you will.”

As Sage quietly left the room, Gabe kicked off his shoes, then sat beside Nic in the queen-sized bed. “I love you, Nicole Callahan.”

“I love you, too, Gabe Callahan.”

He smiled from one baby to the other. “I want to say that to these little bits, but I don’t know what to call them. Do you?”

“I thought …” Nic glanced up at him. “Maybe after our mothers?”

Gabe thought back to when his mother was still alive,
and his father’s pet name for her. “Meg, for Margaret? Or Mary.”

“Meg, I think. And Carolyn for mine? Meg and Cari Callahan?”

“Works for me. What about middle names?”

“Hmm …”

“I have an idea,” Gabe said, gazing at his girls. “It’s probably hokey.”

“Tell me.”