Halfway to the car, Eve slipped and fell.
“Oh, God.” Cat raced to Eve’s side and placed a hand under her elbow. “Are you okay?”
“I think so.” She struggled to stand. Once on her feet, she clung to Cat. “Oh, damn. I wet my pants.”
When Eve bent over and grabbed her side, Cat knew her grandbaby was coming. “Stay here. I’m going to get Tanner.”
“No.” Eve moaned.
“Your water broke. The baby’s coming. We need his help.” Cat placed Eve’s hands on the car. “Stay put. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
She found Tanner coming out of the house. “Tanner, come quick. It’s Eve.”
“What’s wrong?” His face looked like a Colorado thunderstorm, dark and dangerous.
“The baby. It’s coming.” She grabbed his sleeve. “Hurry.”
He raced after her. They found Eve kneeling in the snow, holding her stomach with both hands. She moaned. “I think you’re right, Mom. She’s coming. My water broke, I think.”
In her fear, Cat almost missed it. Then what Eve said dawned on her. Mom. Her daughter had called her Mom. Her heart swelled with joy. “We have to get you to the hospital.”
Tanner picked Eve up in one fell swoop. “Let’s take my truck.”
Cat hurried ahead of him and opened the truck door. Zach sat hunched inside. “Start the truck,” she ordered.
Startled, he scooted to the driver’s seat and turned on the engine.
Still holding Eve, Tanner slid into the backseat. “Zach, move. You’ve been drinking. Cat, take us to Silver Springs Hospital. Eve’s baby is coming. Drive carefully. Zach, call the doctor and let her know we’re on the way.”
Taking a cue from his calm tone of voice, Cat took a steadying breath and dug in her purse for her cell phone and handed it to Zach.
He looked at her with wild eyes. “Oh, shit.”
“Do what Tanner asks,” Cat asked. “Please make the call.” Then she started the engine and backed out of the driveway.
He nodded and blew out a breath. “Okay.”
After he explained the situation, Doctor Henshaw assured them she would meet them at the hospital in half an hour.
From the backseat, Eve moaned again. “It hurts.”
“I know, baby.” Tanner soothed her in quiet tones. “Everything will be okay.”
• • •
Tanner and Zach sat in the waiting room, in silence. An old comedy show rerun played on the TV hanging in one corner, but the sound had been turned off. Even if it would’ve had sound, Tanner wouldn’t have been able to concentrate well enough to watch. His mind never strayed past Eve. If something was wrong with her baby he’d never forgive himself. She’d run from the house because of something he’d said. He threaded his fingers together and undid them. Over and over.
After an hour or so, Zach spoke. “I know this is my fault. Go ahead and yell at me and get it over with. I already feel like shit. You can’t make it any worse. I couldn’t even drive her here. I know you blame me.” He looked like he might cry. “And if Eve or her baby dies — ”
“Nobody’s dying.” Tanner cleared his throat. “And if I’m blaming anyone, it’s myself. I’m the one who caused my daughter to run out of the house.”
Zach hung his head. “I took her to the party where I drank.”
“Hey.” Tanner waited for Zach to lift his head. “You messed up. Everyone does.” He reached over and grabbed Zach by the back of his neck, tugging him close. “You’re forgiven.”
“Thanks, Tanner,” Zach said in a choked up voice.
Tanner let go and stood. “I’m going to go check on Eve.”
Zach stood too. “I think I’ll find coffee. Want some?”
“Sounds good.”
They parted ways and Tanner headed for the room where Eve labored. She had not wanted him to come with her. He couldn’t blame her. Giving birth was messy and it left no room for modesty.
Banned from Eve’s birth, but present at Sutton’s, he hadn’t been completely prepared for the intense pain Jillian endured. The thought of his teenage daughter going through that kind of trauma made his gut clench.
A nurse met him at the door. She shook her head. “Nothing yet. But the labor is going well.”
“Will you let Cat and Eve know I was here?”
She patted his arm. “Of course.”
He turned and headed back for the waiting room.
• • •
Eve had given birth to a healthy baby boy, and Cat was eager to tell Tanner the news. She leaned against the wall for a minute to gather her thoughts. Exhaustion, love and awe fought to claim her. As she thought of how Tanner would react to the birth of the baby, she couldn’t help but replay a memory.
Cat stared at the wall, her hands folded over her empty belly. She’d never felt so alone in her life. She’d given birth just over an hour ago, and before she even had a chance to see her baby, the nurse had hustled the newborn out of the delivery room. Over Cat’s protests, the nurse was adamant that Cat not hold her own daughter.
“It’ll be too painful for you to let her go if you hold her.”
If she hadn’t already been in so much mental agony, Cat would have laughed. Too painful? She thought she might shatter. She knew letting her baby go would hurt, but she hadn’t expected it to rip her heart out and stomp it to pieces.
Someone knocked lightly on the door.
“Come in,” she said, wiping away tears with the back of her hand.
Tanner stepped through the door, baseball cap in hand. “Hi.”
She struggled to sit up a little bit, hope surging through her. Maybe he’d seen the mistake they were making and changed his mind. “Hi.”
He moved closer, twisting the cap in his hands. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head, mute.
“Did it … hurt?”
Like being ripped apart by a chainsaw. But that didn’t matter now. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I know.” She gripped the sheets with white fingers. “Tanner, I don’t want to give our daughter away. It’s not too late. We can still change our minds.”
“I can’t.” His voice was anguished. “You know we can’t.”
“Please, Tanner. We don’t have to get married. I could keep living with Gran. You could come over there to see me and the baby.”
His face took on that closed down look she hated so much. “No. It won’t work.”
“I can’t go through with this. I want my baby.” She heard herself begging, but she didn’t care. Pride be damned. All that mattered was keeping her child. Desperation filled her. “I’ll get a job. Gran said she’d let us stay with her.”
“Your gran is old. She can’t handle a baby. And you’re too young to have a job. Even if you could get one, you’d be a waitress or a housekeeper at one of the ski resorts. They don’t make any money.” He began to back away. “We have to go through with the adoption. The papers are signed.”
“We can rip them up. Tanner, please.” She held out her hands to him, but he stayed out of reach.
“Cat, you’re making this harder than it needs to be.” He sounded so harsh, do distant she didn’t recognize the boy she’d loved so fiercely. He became a stranger in front of her eyes. “Be strong.”
“I hate you for making me do this,” she screamed and heaved a pillow at him.
He caught the pillow and placed it on a chair by the door. “It’s better this way.”
“Get out! Just get out and don’t come back!” She turned her face away as he went through the door. After the door slammed shut behind him, she buried her face in her remaining pillow and let the sobs come.
• • •
Cat shook off the memory as she walked to the waiting room. She didn’t want to spoil today with bitterness. Tanner stood as she approached. His worried expression touched her more than she wanted to admit. When had she fallen back in love with him? Maybe she’d never stopped. “We have a grandson.”
“A boy?”
She nodded. “Yes. A perfect little boy. So handsome and strong. 7 pounds and 21 inches.” She held her hands apart. “Huge.”
“How’s Eve?” Tanner’s eyes misted. “Is she all right?”
“Tired, but fine.” She took his hands and squeezed them. “Oh, Tanner. I can’t wait for you to meet our grandson. He’s perfect.”
“He didn’t come too early?” He sagged with relief.
“No. Not at all. Doctor Henshaw said Eve must’ve had some of her dates mixed up because she said the baby came right on time. He’s not early at all. And he’s too big to be early.”
“The fall didn’t cause Eve to go into labor?”
“No. She was already in labor all evening. She just didn’t recognize the signs.”
Tanner slumped back on the couch, pulling her with him. He re-threaded his fingers with hers. “Thank God.”
“Eve wants to see you. They’re taking her to a room now.” She let him hold her hand. “Oh, Tanner. That was the most amazing thing, seeing our grandson come into the world.”
“I bet,” he murmured. “There’s nothing like it.”
She stiffened and pulled her hand from his. “Eve’s waiting.”
He grabbed her hand again. “Cat, there’s something you should know — I never quit regretting not getting to see Eve come into the world. I regret a lot of choices I made back then.”
She relaxed a little in his grip. “Really?”
His gaze was intense. “I was a dumb kid who didn’t man up and do the right thing. I let you down, I let Eve down. But maybe most of all, I let myself down. I don’t know what I would have done differently. But we shouldn’t have had to live with all this hurt for so long. Maybe we could start over. Build some kind of future from here.”
Some of the ice she’d carried around her heart for so long thawed. But she couldn’t just magically forgive him either. “Oh, Tanner. It’s impossible to just pick up where we left off before Eve was born.”
“I know,” he said. “But I have a long time to make things right between us. All of us.”
Her throat closed and she fought to speak. Some of what she’d waited so long to hear. “Yes. Go see your grandson. We can sort things out between us later.”
“Are you okay here alone?” He let go of her hand, stood and moved toward the door. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”
“Yes. Fine.” She eyed his empty coffee cup. “I think I’ll find a ladies’ room and freshen up before I find some tea.
“You look great,” he said.
She ran a hand through her hair. “Oh, I doubt that.”
“Don’t.” He stood. “You’re beautiful.”
She blushed. “Go see your daughter. She’s waiting.”
• • •
Tanner turned toward his daughter’s room, his steps heavy. He still loved Cat. Taking nothing away from Jill, he’d always loved her. Maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could make her understand giving Eve and her up had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. That he’d hated himself for it all these years. Because it had been the right thing to do hadn’t made it easy. Cat didn’t seem to blame him for last night, but he held himself responsible. If he hadn’t jumped on her, Eve wouldn’t have fled, and fallen in the process.
When Tanner lightly knocked on Eve’s door, there was no answer. He had started to turn away when a nurse opened the door. “You must be Dad. Come on in. Eve’s waiting to see you.”
He stepped past her with a nod. He held his Stetson, but placed it on the first chair he saw. His gaze focused on Eve and the baby she held in her arms. Something in him melted. On shaking legs, he made it to the chair at the edge of her bed and sat with a thud.
Looking at him with shining eyes she smiled. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself.” His voice sounded gruff.
“Do you want to see him?” She peeled the baby blanket back from the infant’s red face.
Tanner didn’t think he’d ever seen anything so beautiful. Somehow he managed to speak around the lump in his throat. “He’s something.”
“Yeah, he is.” She stared into the baby’s face as if she planned to memorize it.
His gut clenched. Had she changed her mind and decided to give up the infant after all? Tanner suddenly didn’t think he could stand it if she did. “What are you going to call him?”
“I don’t know yet. I was so sure he was a girl I didn’t pick out a boy’s name.” She placed her finger in the baby’s tiny palm and he curled his red, wrinkled fingers around it. “Do you want to hold him?”
“You bet.” Tanner scooted to the edge of his seat. Taking the baby from her, he cradled his grandson against his chest. He marveled at the size of the little being in his arms. He was so small, so frail. Just like his mother had been when he held her for the first and last time. Tears formed in his eyes and he blinked. Cowboys didn’t cry. He focused on the boy in his arms. If Tanner looked close enough, he thought he could see his mother’s smile.
“You okay?” Eve asked.
“Never better.” He tore his gaze from the tiny boy in his arms and looked into his daughter’s eyes. “Eve, listen. I’m sorry about last night. I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”
She twisted the plastic band on her arm. “You were right. If I’m going to be a mother, I have to be responsible. I can’t go out all the time anymore and stuff. Don’t be mad at Zach, okay? It wasn’t his fault. I knew what I was doing when I went with him. It kinda freaked me out when the doctor said I might have diabetes. I just wanted to go to one last party as a girl with no responsibilities, ya know?”
“You scared me,” he admitted hoarsely.
“I know. Grandma Leona told me you get grouchy when you get scared.” She looked at him through her lashes.
He grinned. “True.”
“Tanner?” She waited for him to look up from the infant. “I’m going to keep him for sure.”
“I’m glad,” he said sincerely. “I’ll help you all I can.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “You don’t hate me because I’m not giving him up?”
“No.” He had to swallow hard a few times. “I don’t hate you. I admire you for being way stronger than I was when I was your age.” He looked down into the baby’s face again. “I can’t bring those years back, but I can make sure the rest of our years together are good. What do you say? Deal?”
A tear slipped down her pale cheek. “Deal.”
He gently handed the baby back to her. “What would you think of calling your old man Dad instead of Tanner?”
Her damp eyes widened with shock. “Really? You want me to?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay, Da — Dad.” She smiled through her tears and his heart lifted.
“I’m going to let you rest now. I’ll bring Grandma Leona and Sutton by later. Zach’s been here all night. He’s anxious to see if you’re all right. Do you feel like seeing him for a minute, or would you rather wait?”
“I want to see him now.”
Tanner stood and brushed a kiss over her forehead. “I love you, Eve. And this little guy, too.”
“I love you.” She blinked a few times. “Dad.”
He didn’t think he’d ever heard sweeter words. “I’ll see you later. Get some rest, sweetheart.”
“Okay.” Already she had turned her focus back on the baby.
• • •
Zach entered Eve’s room after knocking.
At first he thought she was sleeping but she opened her eyes. “Hi.”
“Hey.” He didn’t know what to expect from her. For all he knew she planned to chew his butt off for last night. He stood at the foot of her bed. “Where’s the kid?”
She indicated the crook of her elbow. “Here. Come see.”
Zach inched around the bed and peered at the baby. He had a red, scrunched up face. Kind of looked like a scrawny monkey. “Cute.”
She beamed. “Thanks.”
“What are you going to call him?”
“Son,” she deadpanned.
He laughed. “Awesome. But really, what’s his name?
Gazing at the infant, she said, “I don’t know yet. Maybe Tanner for a middle name.” She looked in his direction. “I know you’re going to say something, so get it over with.”
“Nah.” He shrugged. “We’re sorta cool.”
“What? How?” She struggled to sit up a little bit without disturbing the sleeping baby. “I thought he would kill both of us after last night.”
“Yeah, me too. But things turned out okay.” He frowned. “It’s not like we’re tight or anything, so don’t get all worked up. But we’re talking a little bit.”
She took his hand. “That’s great. Family is so important.”
“Yeah.”
“Tanner asked me to call him Dad,” she confided. “And I said yes. If it’s okay with Cat, I want to call her Mom, too.”
“That’s cool.”
A nurse interrupted them. She looked at Zach. “Is this the father?”
“Hell, no.” He pulled his hand from Eve’s. “She’s my niece.”
“Oh, sorry,” the nurse said. “I just thought since you were holding hands … ”
Eve giggled. “He has a girlfriend. Her name is Brittany.”
Zach frowned. “I don’t think I do. She tore out of my house last night like the devil was after her. I doubt she’ll ever speak to me again.”
“Call her,” Eve urged. “I bet she’ll talk to you.”
The nurse smiled. “Well, Uncle, we’re about to feed the baby. You can stay if you want to.” She winked at Eve. “But new moms generally only want their mothers or husbands right now. The first time can be a little bit difficult. Getting the infant to latch on — ”
Zach jumped to his feet. “I gotta go. Later.”
“Bye.” Already Eve had turned her attention to the baby in her arms.
• • •
Cat found her tea, and carrying it with her, wandered back toward Eve’s room. Although her body felt like a hammered nail, her steps were light. She still couldn’t believe the baby had come. The whole thing seemed like some crazy dream.
Inevitable, she supposed, that memories of the night she gave birth to Eve surfaced at strange times during the delivery. Flashes of her mother and Gran’s worried faces flew through her memory.
And how anguished Tanner had been when he had come to see her after Eve’s birth.
In her anger, she had forgotten how torn up he actually was. Instead of talking to him, trying to help him heal his broken heart — and maybe letting him help heal hers — she had turned her rage and grief on him. And in the process she lost both Eve and the one man she loved like no other before or since.
She didn’t think she could ever completely believe they had done the right thing by turning Eve over to strangers. But for the first time, she was at peace with it. Maybe Eve’s decision to keep her baby boy had something to do with Cat’s state of mind. Or maybe the flashbacks she’d experienced through the night had cleansed her soul.
Turning the corner, she ran smack into Tanner’s solid chest. Her cup flew out of her hands, spewing all over the floor. “Oh, sorry.”
He grabbed her upper arms to steady her. “Easy there. You okay?”
“Just tired. But not tired either.” She tipped her head back to see his expression. He looked exhausted, but elated. Similar to how she probably did. “Did you see Eve and the baby?”
“Yeah. They look great.”
She let out a happy sigh. “Isn’t the baby precious?”
His voice deepened. “Perfect.”
“I’m so proud of Eve. She held up like a champ.”
“She’s strong, like you.” He continued to hold her arms. With a gentle tug, he had her against him. She tipped up her face, eager for his kiss. When it came, she melted into him as if part of his body. His lips seared across hers, leaving no question as to how much he wanted her.
“Uh, get a room.” Zach’s sardonic voice broke into Cat’s consciousness. Reluctantly, she pulled out of Tanner’s arms. There would be time to finish later.
“Hi, Zach. Did you see Eve?”
“Yeah. Cute kid.” He made a face. “Well, he will be.”
Cat had to laugh. “Yes, he will.”
Tanner glanced at his watch. “Mom will be up in a few minutes. I’m going to call her and let her know what’s going on. I need to drop off Cat and then take Zach home. I also need to feed the horses before I come back.”
“I’ll do it,” Zach offered. “If you’ll let me drive your truck, that is. I’m sober.”
Tanner nodded once. “Yeah. Thanks.”
Cat took his hand. “Let’s go home.”
“How about some breakfast first. I’m starving.” Cat shot him a horrified look and he added, “Not here. At the diner. I’m buying.”
She realized she was hungry. “Okay. Why not?”
• • •
Over pancakes, Tanner called Leona and told her about the previous night. She let out a war whoop that would have made her ancestors proud. “As soon as I feed the horses, I’m coming right in.”
“Zach is coming out to help you.” Tanner glanced at his brother. Somehow, when they cleared the air they found a path to a new understanding. He didn’t think they would ever be super close, the way he wished they could be, but they had made great strides.
“Zach?”
Tanner heard the disbelief in her voice. “Yeah. He’ll be there soon.”
“Okay, son.”
“Oh, and Mom?” He met Cat’s eyes across the table.
“Yes?”
“Eve is going to keep her boy.” He smiled at Cat and the light in her eyes lifted his heart.
Her disbelief turned to tears. “Oh, Tanner. That’s so wonderful.”
From across the table, Cat’s megawatt smile made his heart beat hard and fast. “I think so, too.”
She made a motion for him to hand over the phone.
“Mom? Cat wants to talk to you.” He gave her the cell.
“Leona? Isn’t it great?” She waited for the answer, before saying, “I know. I’m so happy. We all are. Okay. Listen. Eve doesn’t have a thing for the baby. Would you like to go shopping tomorrow? Wonderful. Bye.”
Tanner took the phone from her and took out his wallet. He found a credit card. “Get what she needs.”
“I have it covered,” Cat insisted stubbornly.
“Tell you what, let’s split it.” He pushed his credit card in her hand. “Okay?”
“Fine.” She shoved it in her purse and he knew she wouldn’t use it. Stubborn little kitten. Only one of the many things he loved about her.
He was in love with her.
Had been most of his life.
He’d loved Jillian and wouldn’t tarnish her memory by saying different, but if it had been the right time and place for them, he and Cat would have been together. He planned to convince her they should be again.