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“Oh…a girl?” Maya breathed. “A little girl? Just like Selene said….”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Selene asked softly. “Help ought to be here soon. At first light Mr. Cooper headed back to town. Said he’d go straight to the sheriff’s department and let them know the situation.”
Maya frowned tiredly. “How was he going to do that?”
“Same way he got out here with Caleb,” Kara said. “On his bulldozer.”
Maya blinked in shock, tipping her head backward to stare up at Caleb. “You came all the way out here last night on a bulldozer?”
He shrugged. “Hey, I was looking for a snowmobile, but I figured I’d better take what I could get.”
“But it must have taken over an hour—and in that storm…God, Caleb, it was a crazy thing to do.”
“Walking would have been crazier,” he told her. And his eyes got that look again. All…deep and potent. “But I would have, if that was the only way to get to you last night.”
Her brows came down. “How did you know?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t….I just had a feeling that I had to get here. That you needed me.”
“I was sending a telepathic 911,” Selene confessed from across the room.
But Caleb’s gaze never moved from Maya’s, as she whispered, “So was I, Caleb. I was wishing for you so much…and you came. You came.”
“I always will,” he promised her. And for the first time, she believed it with all her heart.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
She’d been resting in the hospital all day. Heck of a way to spend Christmas Eve. Caleb had been in and out a half-dozen times, each time seeming a little more tense. He brought flowers the first time, candy the second, a pair of giant teddy bears the third. He kept saying he had a very busy schedule today, but that he couldn’t stay away from her and the babies for more than a couple of hours at a time.
She wished he wouldn’t say things like that unless he really meant them—at least, the way she wanted him to mean them. She was sure he was sincere where the babies were concerned, but she was equally certain he could bear to be away from her just fine, if need be.
At any rate, he certainly was heroic. She’d had the TV on for the past hour, and the coverage of the storm told her more than she’d already known about how bad it had been last night. The last time a blizzard of this magnitude had hit Big Falls had been in the latter part of the last century. Caleb had literally risked his life to get to her.
Her admiration for him—her love for him—grew even deeper at the knowledge.
The door opened, and she looked up, wondering which of her frequent visitors would appear there. Selene, Kara, her mother, Caleb—or Mel, who was in a room down the hall recovering from her brush with hypothermia. Aside from a touch of frostbite, she was going to be just fine. They’d promised she could go home today. Maya and the babies would be released on Christmas morning.
But the visitor was none of those people. It was, instead, Cain Caleb Montgomery II. He hesitated in the doorway, peering in at her, leaning on his cane. “I can come back later, if you’re resting,” he said.
“No, no, please come in.”
He did, his cane thumping the floor with every other step.
“Have you seen the babies yet?”
He looked at her with a smile…an actual smile. She hadn’t seen one on him until then. “I’ve been in the nursery for the past half hour.” The smile grew. “They let me hold them. I didn’t want to put them down.”
“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” she said. “Come in and sit down, Mr. Montgomery.”
“Oh, now. You call me Cain.” He sat down, pursed his lips. “Actually, I’m hoping that, down the road, you might want to call me Dad, instead. I mean, you know, since you’re marrying my son.”
Her hand touched her chest involuntarily—in response to a small flutter there. “I haven’t called anyone that in years.”
“Yes, well…” He cleared his throat. “I owe you an apology, Maya. I came here judging you, insulting you and your family, and the truth was, I was only reacting out of fear that you were going to take my son away from me. Instead, you’ve given me…such a precious gift.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she said nothing.
“I want you to know that Caleb and I have had a long talk. I’ve told him already that whatever he decides to do or not do with his life is fine with me. Just so long as I have plenty of time with his…his family.”
