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All is good. Little Abby weighs almost nine pounds and has a great set of lungs. Debbie is fine, too, she wrote back.
Did you arrive in time to witness the birth?
I did.
When will you be coming back?
Not sure. Depends on whether Paul shows up at the diner tomorrow. If he doesn’t, I’m thinking I may have to go back to Seattle before I empty my aunt’s house. We have great employees, but we’ve never left them alone for this long.
How’s business? Have you been checking the daily receipts?
I have. So far they’re remaining consistent.
That’s encouraging, at least.
When he didn’t write anything else, she assumed that was the end of the conversation. It was late, after all; he was probably in bed and had drifted off to sleep. So she was surprised when her phone lit up again. She thought it was Brant, saying good-night, but this text wasn’t from him.
She’d finally heard from Paul.
Where are you?
What do you mean?she asked.Where are YOU? You just disappeared off the planet.
I think I’m at your aunt’s house. Someone at the gas station in town told me how to find it, so I’m pretty sure this is the right place. But there’s no one here.
Talulah clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no,” she whispered into her palm. Paul had gone to Coyote Canyon.
Sixteen
The next morning, Talulah bent over Debbie’s hospital bed to kiss the fuzzy head of the new baby. Scott was out hunting down something for breakfast, which had given Talulah a moment alone with her sister and niece. “I have to go. But it was great getting to spend the night with you.”
“Really?” Debbie said, sounding surprised. “Because I don’t think you slept very well.”
“It was comforting just to be with family, especially for such a special event.”
“I’m glad you could make it. That means a lot to me.”
“I’m sorry Mom’s not here,” Talulah said, taking her hand.
“It’s okay,” she insisted. “She’ll see Abigail when she gets home.”
Talulah refrained from pointing out that Abby would be a year old by then.
“Are you heading back to Coyote Canyon?” Debbie asked.
“Not yet.” After what had happened with the broken window and that car creeping by her place so late, Talulah had locked up the house as tightly as she could and removed the Hide-A-Key. She’d thought she’d be coming back alone and wanted to do what she could to avoid any nasty surprises from Charlie or Averil. But that meant Paul hadn’t been able to get into the house, not without breaking out more of the window and trying to climb in over the sharp glass. When she returned his message last night, he’d told her he just rented a motel room for the night so he could get some rest. “I’m going to shower at your place, if that’s okay. Then I’ll meet Paul for breakfast.”
“Here in Billings?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought I was dreaming last night when you told me he’d driven to Montana.”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Why isn’t he waiting for you in Coyote Canyon?”
“He wanted to keep coming so I wouldn’t feel I had to rush back.”
