His Motherless Little Twins

“It puts everything into proper perspective, doesn't it? Makes you truly believe all's right with the world.”

“All
is
right with the world…their world. And that's the way it should be.”

“And then they have to grow up,” she said on a wistful sigh.

“Like I said before, you'll be a good mother, Dinah.”

“My life is too up and down to drag a baby into it right now.” But in the future? Admittedly, she could almost see that happening—with Eric.

“Only if you want it to be up and down.”

“That's not what I want, but so far it hasn't been under my control.” Spinning away, Dinah headed off, half expecting Eric to follow, but when she didn't hear the clicking of his heels on the tile floor she decided it was for the best. Being around him almost made her believe she could have it all.

Almost.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the most idyllic spot I can imagine—White Elk. It's a perfect little village nestled in the valley between three looming mountain peaks called the Three Sisters by the locals. The people are friendly, the village is picturesque and, according to Indian lore, the Three Sisters protect everyone within their shadows.

Does White Elk exist? In a sense, yes. My husband's parents retired to a place much as I envision White Elk to be. It's lovely. The people there smile at strangers and welcome them in. And the mountains…I love to stand in the valley and look up at them. But, more than that, I enjoy going up to the various peaks and looking out across the valley. I'll admit to being a city girl, but when I write these books I rarely give them urban settings because I love to escape, just for a little while.

I hope you enjoy your visit to the little village of White Elk as much as I did!

Wishing you health and happiness!

Dianne Drake

P.S. I love to hear from my readers. Please visit my Web site at www.DianneDrake.com. Also, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] and tell me about the places in this world you love.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

“I'
LL
be there in thirty or forty minutes, and don't even think about going out on your own. It's too dangerous.” Dinah Corday had been studying the
Welcome to White Elk
sign for the past ten minutes, creeping inch by inch down the main road into the little village, along with the rest of the jammed-up traffic. Right this very moment, her heavily pregnant sister, Angela, was on the verge of braving the spring storm to go and stay with a pregnant friend, and Dinah wanted to get to her before she did that. But the rising waters weren't being accommodating. Nothing was. “Just don't do it, OK? I know you want to be with her, and I'm doing the best I can to get to you, but it's crazy out here. So just be patient.” Easy to say, not so easy to do under the circumstances.

Glancing up at the three mountain peaks, Dinah sighed impatiently. The mountains looming over the valley, affectionately called the older, middle, and younger Sisters, were said to have magical powers. According to Ute Indian legend, they protected those in their shadow, and while she'd never given much credence to mystical things, she hoped that this one was true. Because Angela would
absolutely
go out in this flood to help a friend as surely as Dinah was stuck in the slow lane, getting more frustrated with each passing second.

Ahead, she saw people on the street running about in a congested knot like ants scattering after the demise of their anthill. Traffic was lined up bumper to bumper. Detour signs were being erected on the streets. Streetlights weren't working. And the wind was blowing so hard the water pooling in the gutters was flowing in small waves. “Promise me you're not going anywhere until I get there to take you. You're too far along…” A smile found its way to Dinah's lips. She was going to be an aunt in a little while. That was nice. Their family needed something good to happen to them for a change. It was overdue. “Just, please, stay there and take care of yourself. I'm on my way.”

Angela assured her she wouldn't budge, but that didn't relieve Dinah's anxiety. Of course, that anxiety was pelting her from so many different directions these days, she feared turning around lest something else came hurtling at her. Today, though, her mind was on Angela. Nothing else mattered.

Except the traffic. That mattered, and she wanted to honk her horn, pound on her horn actually, but what good would it do? She wasn't the only one stuck in this mess and, most likely, everyone else had somewhere important they needed to be, too. So as the radio weather forecaster was predicting more rain, she crept forward like the rest of the people were doing, one car length at a time, while the waters outside were getting deeper.

After listening to another ten mind-numbing minutes of dire weather warnings, Dinah finally turned off the news station and dialed into a soft jazz station then leaned her head against the headrest, hoping to relax. She needed to be calm, not agitated, when she got to Angela. “Calm…” she muttered, while she studied the raindrops sliding their own little paths over her windshield. Some hit and trailed down in a straight
line, never veering off an imaginary course, while others meandered, winding in and out, joining with other raindrops to make fatter, more interesting trails. Yet some hit, bounced, and seemed to disappear before they had their chance to slide downward to a new, unknown destiny. That was her, she thought. Hitting, bouncing, disappearing from view before her trail carried her to where she wanted to be. Hers had always been a destiny of chance, or one out of her control, like the raindrops that splashed themselves into oblivion even with so many interesting choices ahead.

Raindrops and unknown destinies…

Well, so much for clearing her mind and relaxing, she thought, trying hard to let the mellow wail of the tenor sax coming from the radio lull her into a daze. Dulcet tones, honey notes, all slipping down into her soul. This was a good day to be lulled. But as she willed the easy mood on herself, trying to force calm to her soul for Angela's sake, a thud on her bumper from the vehicle behind cut off all hope of calmness, sending her car pitching straight into the bumper of the car ahead. Not a hard impact but definitely a jarring one.

Twisting, Dinah looked into her rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of the perpetrator, but all she saw was an up-close image of a truck's shiny silver bumper…and the truck was already backing away from her. Right off, she opened the car door, ready to hop out regardless of the rain and see to the damage, but the man behind her beat her to it by stopping then jumping from his truck and running forward. He was a big, imposing man in a bright yellow slicker, the dress of choice for most of the people she'd seen here so far. Except he didn't come forward to her door like she'd expected he would. Rather, he got as far as the front of his truck, surveyed his bumper then hers, and that was as far as he went.

“Any damage?” she shouted, wishing she had one of those yellow rain slickers.

If he answered, she didn't hear him. But the rain was noisy, so were the road noises. So, after she'd fumbled an umbrella from the back of her car and opened it overhead, she tried calling to him again. “You're not hurt, are you?”

He didn't answer this time, either, so she tried once more. Admittedly, getting a little perturbed. “Did it cause any damage?”

His only response was a wave on his way back to his truck…waving with one hand, clutching a cell phone to his ear in the other. “I can't stay,” he yelled, and she did hear that. “Jason, the man in the car ahead of you, said he'll take care of it, and…” The rest of his words were gobbled in a clap of thunder, and by the time it had rumbled on through, he'd jumped back into his truck and pulled around, stopping briefly at the car in front of her.

“You arrogant…” she yelled, slamming shut her car door and marching straight forward to catch him before he sped away altogether. She didn't need this today. Just didn't need this. And now, with this added delay, she was even more worried that Angela would try to get out in this storm on her own.

“You OK, Jason?” the man from the truck called to the man in the car she'd hit, who was beginning to climb out of his front seat. He, too, was dressed in a yellow slicker.

“What about me?” Dinah yelled, catching up to his truck and running to the window on the driver's side. “Don't you want to know how I am?”

The man who'd hit her did turn around in his seat, giving her a long, hard stare. “You're not hurt, are you?”

“No, but—”

“I'm sorry,” he said. “But I can't deal with this right now.
Like I told you before, Jason will take care of the details because I've got an emergency, and I've got to get back.” He paused then smiled. “I'm really sorry about this.”

He seemed sincere enough, his smile was…nice. But she didn't trust nice smiles, and sincerity was easy to fake. If anybody knew those two things, she did! Yet as she was about to shut out that nice smile altogether and demand he step out of the truck regardless of what his other obligations were, a gust of wind caught her umbrella, turned it inside out, then ripped it from her hands. Unfortunately, it tumbled end over end across the road, leaving Dinah standing in water up to her ankles, with her long, auburn hair soaked and shaggy, and nothing to protect her. She was barely even noticing the rain, though, because at this point she was too angry. “You can't just leave the scene,” she yelled at the man. He was going to leave, though. That's what men did. They left. And she couldn't stop him. Couldn't stop any of them. Father, husband, fiancé, brother-in-law, strangers…all alike.

Before the stranger pulled away, though, he handed an umbrella out the window to her. “I'm sorry, but I can't deal with this right now. So, please, step back. I don't want to splash you…” He took a good look at her waterlogged state and grimaced visibly. “Don't want to get you any wetter than you are.”

Well, she could step in front of his truck and stop him, or grab hold of the handle on his door. But there was something in his eyes…a look she knew. Not a malicious one, not even a little mean-spirited. For an instant, something so deep there grabbed hold of her senses, willed her to step back. So she did, immediately regretting that, once again, she'd let herself be taken advantage of by a good-looker. In her life, trust amounted to betrayal. She almost counted on it, and that was a huge regret, too.

The proof of her regret was in the blow of black smoke from his tailpipe as he sped away from her, while she remained standing in the downpour, watching him, gripping his umbrella in a stranglehold, getting wetter and wetter.

 

“I'm glad Gabby has been such a good friend to you, especially since I haven't been of much use these past months,” Dinah said to her sister.

Angela laid her hand on Dinah's. “Not your fault. We all have our problems to solve. And I've been doing fine here on my own. Good friends, good care. Nothing to worry about.”

Except a cheating ski-bum of a husband who'd run away from Angela the moment he'd heard the word
pregnant
. “I'm your sister and I'm entitled to worry anyway. But like I said, I'm glad you've had Gabby here to help you get through.” Dr. Gabrielle Evans. Angela's friend, and her doctor, who was on the verge of giving birth right this very moment, fully in labor. “So, how are you doing, Gabby?”

Gabby nodded, panted, grasped the edge of the bed while Angela wiped her forehead with a cool, damp cloth and Dinah positioned herself to see how dilated Gabby was. Dinah had been a pediatric nurse, but she'd had good experience in obstetrics. While there was supposed to be a doctor on the way to deliver this baby, and since taking Gabby to the hospital in this weather in her condition would be a crazy thing to do, Gabby was ready to deliver this baby right here, right now, doctor or not. And it was beginning to look like Dinah might have to come out of her self-imposed retirement to bring the baby that Gabby was already calling Bryce into the world.

“Can I do anything else?” Angela asked.

“Just sit down and relax. I don't want you getting worked up and going into labor yourself,” Dinah said, truly concerned about the effect the strain of all this excitement could
have on her sister. Two women on the verge of motherhood. She envied them. Once, a long time ago, she'd thought that's what she'd wanted most in the world. But the marriage hadn't worked out, and she'd gone in another direction with her life. Then, years later, along had come Charles, the man she'd hoped would be…well, it didn't matter what she'd hoped. She'd been wrong about him, too.

Still, with all these babies coming into the world… “Relax, Gabby,” she said, as another contraction gripped the woman. “I think this is going to be over with pretty soon. Bryce is in position and he's about to make his grand entrance.”

“I hope so,” Gabby forced out as the contraction came to an end. “Because I'm tired of this part of it.”

Dinah laughed. “But you'll be a much better obstetrician for having gone through it yourself. At least, that sounds good in theory, doesn't it? And now, when you tell your patients you understand, you really will.” She laid a hand on Gabrielle's belly, felt the amazing stirring of a new life just under her fingertips. Suddenly, she was glad she was there, being part of it.

“Angela tells me you've quit nursing,” Gabby gasped. She was finally relaxing back into her pillows. But not for long, if her progression towards the birth remained this consistent.

“For now. I came here to cook for Angela while she's off on maternity leave, then I'll decide what I want to do after that.” Dinah's sister was the executive chef at the lodge on one of the Three Sisters and, like Angela, Dinah had also gone to culinary school. But she'd quit part way through to go into nursing. Culinary school, like her first marriage, had been a hasty decision, and not the right one. But nursing…she loved it. Missed it already.

Right now, though, with so many unresolved issues, she
had to step away. The reasons were complicated, and she didn't trust herself to make the right decision while she was still feeling the sting.

“I'm glad you can deliver a baby, because I didn't want to do this by myself,” Gabby said, as another contraction hit. “And I was afraid I might have to.”

The contractions were coming fast. In the hour they'd been there they'd sped up considerably, telling Dinah that Gabby was in an unusually fast labor. It was time to get her in position and hope the doctor arrived in time, that the floodwaters outside wouldn't hold him back. Or do what she had to do if he couldn't get through.

Funny, how she'd quit nursing, not sure she could ever go back to it. Yet here she was, doing what she'd promised herself she wouldn't do again until her life was in better control, if that were even possible now, and wondering if she'd made yet another bad choice by leaving the thing she most loved doing.

Which was the reason she'd had to leave. Because these days she was just…confused.

And sad.

 

Dr. Neil Ranard arrived in time to deliver Gabby's baby, and the first thing Dinah saw was just how much he loved Gabby. Angela had already told her that the baby wasn't Neil's, but deep down Dinah believed that Neil would raise that baby, because the look she saw in Gabby's eyes the instant Neil ran into the room said everything. It was nice. But what was even nicer was seeing that it was out there…true love did exist. Maybe not for her. But it was nice for others who were luckier than she was. Or smarter.

“Just one more push, Gabrielle,” Neil urged. “That's all I need. One more push and you're a mother!”

Dinah propped Gabby up into position, enjoying what she was doing, even if it was a little outside her nursing expertise. It was good to be useful again, good to help. For a while, the ache of missing it was eased a little.