“He’s a big baby now,” Dr. Forest said as he slid his arm around Darlene. He wasn’t her boss anymore; he was her boyfriend.
Boyfriend? That made Darlene think of teenagers, not people pushing their mid-fifties. But Forest made her feel like a teenager again, like Sadie looked when she was with Lem.
Sadie and Lem.
Maybe that was who Trish Dempsey needed. Darlene had obviously scared her that her babies were going to be too much work. Sadie and Lem might be able to convince her that Trish would have all the help she ever needed.
Or maybe Brett Lemmon, who insisted on getting every animal Trish had liked, would be all the help she needed and wanted.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Brett wasn’t surewhat had happened: one moment Trish had been glowing with happiness and the next she was quiet and withdrawn. He’d had to talk her into the animals Darlene had said she’d wanted.
“What happened?” he asked once they were back on the road to the Four Corners.
“What?” she asked as if she hadn’t heard him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you feeling all right?” Maybe she’d overdone it at the vet practice. He’d been trying to get her to spend less time on her feet, and it hadn’t worked. She’d walked every inch of that huge barn with Darlene.
Darlene had looked concerned about her, too.
“Do I need to bring you to the doctor?” he asked.
“I feel fine,” she said. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“I don’t believe you,” he admitted.
She sucked in a breath as if offended. Then she sighed and some of the tension drained from her. “Darlene just mentioned that her son and daughter-in-law have twins.”
“Yeah, Dusty Chaps, the former rodeo champ, is her son,” Brett said.
“Like Liam? Didn’t your brother used to be in the rodeo?”
“Billy the Kid,” Brett said with a flash of pride. “Liam got hurt not long into his career. He never made the championships like Dusty did.”
“Maybe that’s why it’s tough on Dusty’s wife with the twins,” Trish said softly. “She’s alone a lot.”
Brett shook his head. “Melanie is never alone at Ranch Haven. Her mom lives there, too, and Dusty retired from the rodeo—although he did buy the Cassidy Ranch to start breeding rodeo animals there. But they live at Ranch Haven, where they have all kinds of family helping them with the twins.”
Now he realized the reason she’d grown so quiet. She was alone. A single mother about to give birth to not just one baby but two. “You have support, too, Trish,” he assured her.
She shook her head. “I didn’t want support, though. I wanted to raise my babies alone. I wanted to do the camps and petting zoo on my own. And now I wonder how realistic I’m being. You all had to step in to help me, or I wouldn’t have gotten anything done yet.”
“You are very pregnant,” he reminded her. “You have to take it easy. And we’re all happy to help.”
She snorted with apparent disbelief. “All of you? Even you?”
“I’m helping,” he said. “You don’t need to worry about how happy I am.” But hewasworried about her happiness; that—and Trish—were all he thought about lately.
“This isn’t fair to you,” she said. “Me making all this work for you and for everyone else. I don’t know if I made the right decision about anything right now.”
“Trish?” He was really worried. The last time she’d been this upset he’d had to take her to the hospital. “Because of your blood pressure, you need to stay calm. You shouldn’t be getting worked up about this.”
She drew in a deep breath, let it out and then drew in another. “Okay, okay…” she murmured. “I don’t know why I’m freaking out.”
“I don’t know either,” he said. “You were so certain that you’re doing what you want now for what might be one of the first times in your life. Don’t doubt yourself.”
She drew in another breath and lifted her chin. “You’re right. This is what I want. I just panicked for a moment. As much as I’ve always wanted kids, I haven’t had that much experience with them. I didn’t babysit. I didn’t have any younger siblings. Just Frankie, and she’s always been independent.”
