Chapter Fifteen
Chapter
Fifteen
Brooke slipped inside the big barn and heard a low
groan.
“Baby?” Henry stood beside Noah, holding a small goat in his
arms.
Noah was carefully inspecting another goat’s hooves. They
were set up with Noah’s veterinary kit, and it looked like someone had been
taking notes on the care of hooves, specifically in horses, goats, and cattle.
“It’s Braxton-Hicks.” Nell wore a long skirt and a matching
shirt, her brown hair up in a ponytail that was only slightly messy. Her hands
were on the small of her back as she turned to her husband. “It’s nothing to
worry about. I still have a couple of weeks.”
“I’m not sure. Caleb says the baby is getting big.” Lucy
occupied one of the camp chairs they’d set up around the barn. She glanced down
at her watch. Nell and Henry weren’t the only ones learning new talents. “I
think we should start timing them.”
Oh, she was walking in on some serious drama. “Everything
okay? Can I get you anything, Nell?”
She’d been around her sister-in-law enough to know this was
a delicate stage of pregnancy. Nell was huge and having trouble moving, and
everything could feel like a train was coming to hit her. At least that was how
Rachel described it. There was a lot of worry and anxiety surrounding the last
couple of weeks.
Nell glanced over and gave her a smile. “I’m fine. Henry’s
being a worrywart.”
Lucy held up a hand. “I am, too. Not the fine part. The
worrywart part.”
Brooke gave her friend a smile. “I thought you were moving
into management at the inn. Why are you suddenly studying midwifery?”
Lucy stood and moved closer to her. “You know everyone in
Bliss has a couple of jobs. Like Gemma’s a lawyer but she works most of the
time running the sheriff’s office. Which could be a serious conflict of
interest anywhere else. Callie works at Trio, but she also teaches part time
with the nursery school kids. The Farley brothers have like ten jobs.”
“You do not need another job. You literally have three
incomes,” Brooke pointed out. Her guys had good jobs. Ty was an EMT, and
Michael worked for the US Marshals.
“I think it’s wonderful that Lucy wants to help out.” Nell’s
smile was bright but slightly strained.
“I want to get to know a little of what Ty does,” Lucy
admitted. “Let’s face facts. If I’m going to help one of my guys out at his
job, it’s going to be Ty. I’m done fighting criminals. Also, everyone’s worried
that Naomi isn’t coming back from Dallas. That Dawson guy kind of stole her. I
don’t know if she’ll fall for him or just take the big wad of cash he offered
and enjoy the rest of her life when the job is done. That means a new nurse,
and finding one who’s willing to work with Doc might be harder than we think.
With all the pregnancies around the town, I want to be able to pitch in. We had
a woman give birth out at the lodge, and I helped Ty. It made an impression on
me, and I want to know more.”
Lucy had her dream job.
Lucy worked hard to get where she was. And she wasn’t
stopping there. The job wasn’t the destination. It was part of the road, and
the road kept going. She kept trying to find a place to stop, but life didn’t
stop. What if she was looking at it all wrong? What if the job wasn’t the most
important thing? What if the road was? The journey itself. What if some power
position wasn’t the destination at all, and the place she was looking for all
her life was right here in front of her?
“Hey, are you okay?” Lucy put a hand on her arm. “I tried to
call you when I figured out who our annoying guest was. I’m sorry he surprised
you. He’s an ass, by the way.”
Brooke felt something wet on her cheek and wiped away a
tear. Damn men were making her feel too much. “He doesn’t matter but I do want
to talk to you. Would you leave the lodge if you decided you wanted to be a
nurse?”
The men were talking in the background and the baby goat was
braying, but Brooke found herself completely focused on Lucy.
“I love what I do.” Lucy seemed to understand this was
serious for Brooke. Her tone gentled, and she gave her friend a squeeze. “But
yes, I would if I decided I wanted something else.”
“But you worked so hard. People helped you along the way.”
“And I’ll pay that forward.” Lucy sighed. “Sweetie, you get
to change your mind. No matter what the world has given you, you can change
course. I know what you’re thinking because we’ve been friends for a long time.
You think your brothers will be disappointed.”
“Rye said he was.” She could still see him staring at her.
A gasp came from Nell’s mouth. “He said that? Henry, we’re
protesting Rye.”
Henry gave his wife a thumbs-up even as he scrambled with
the baby goat. “Sure thing, babe. Are we protesting his business practices?”
“No, his human ones,” Nell replied primly.
Henry nodded. “I’ve got signs for that, too.”
“Don’t protest my brother.” She appreciated the gesture
since protesting was definitely Nell’s love language. “He’s trying to catch up.
I can see where he might be upset about me abruptly changing what I want from
my career. After all, he spent years doing a job he didn’t love so I could have
this chance.”
Nell rubbed her lower back as she spoke. “Sweetie, your
brother loves you, and whatever he actually said, he is not ashamed of you. No
one is. You’re our girl. We watched you grow up. I remember you graduating from
high school. The whole town came out.”
Lucy got a little teary. “They did.”
“They always do. For everyone.” Brooke didn’t want Lucy to
feel left out.
“Of course they do, and I can’t tell you how much I wished
I’d been living here at the time. I didn’t make it to my own graduation. I had
to watch my siblings.” Lucy wiped away a tear but there was a smile on her
face. “I did for my younger siblings what Rye did for you, and I need you to
understand if they decided not to use their degrees or the training classes I
paid for, if it turned out they could be happier with something else, I
wouldn’t care. I would be thrilled for them. Brooke, are you hurting anyone?”
She hadn’t realized how much she needed this. “No. I think I
might be finding myself again. I think I got lost somewhere in trying to be
successful.”
Nell was crying, too. Not that it took much these days. “The
only real success in life is to love and be loved. It’s to leave this world a
better place, to experience the human range of emotions.”
Lucy laughed. “Don’t talk like that around Mel.”
Nell frowned, but it was an amused expression. “Mel knows my
stance on interstellar visitors. We should talk to them. The galaxy is our
home. Though I do take the beet regularly because beets are an excellent health
food.”
“Don’t let her fool you,” Henry called out. “She took extra
because Cass told her there’s a group of non-corporeal aliens who sometimes zip
into the unborn.”
Nell put a hand to her belly. “Well, one can’t be too
careful, but what I’m really saying is the world is a big place and you
deciding you want to change your mind about something, well, that’s normal.
Open your heart and ask yourself what you truly want.”
That was oddly easy. “I want to work with Cleo for a while
and see how I like costume design, but more than that, I want them. I want Bay
and Shane, and it’s too early to ask them to follow me. It’s too early for me
to give up my career for them and start working at the Stop ’n’ Shop.”
“Nah.” Henry joined them. The goat he previously held was
happily running around the barn now. “Those two won’t mind. Shane will find his
way. That boy can make a home out of almost anything, and Bay has his art. He
can create anywhere. Those boys know what they want. Don’t break their hearts
and yours because you think it’s too soon to know. I’m the one who knows that.
I cost us months and months because I didn’t think I could change. I’d already
changed. I changed the minute I met Nell. I became a different person, but I
fought it because I thought I owed other people. You don’t, Brooke. Not Stef or
the town. Not your brothers. Yes, they sacrificed for you. Pay it forward. Help
out others because once they helped you.”
“Love your niece and your nephews,” Lucy advised. “Come home
when you can and be with your family. That’s all your brothers are ever going
to want. I think that’s why Rye is so touchy right now. You’ve been gone a long
time.”
She loved her family so much. What if she could have the
best of both worlds? A career and her men, new places to see and worlds to
design, and the comfort of knowing she could always come back here. To her
physical home, where the door was always open and she was always wanted.
She’d been so wrong this morning. She absolutely should have
yelled at Bay because his hands were far more valuable than the joy she got
from Mark taking a punch to the face. But she should have hugged him and been
kinder.
She was going to have to make up for that, but somehow she
thought it would all be okay.
Nell gasped and stepped back. “Oh, shit. Oh, no. I said
shit. I don’t know why I said that. I don’t curse.”
Lucy’s eyes had gone wide. “Because your water broke.”
Oh, shit. Brooke did curse and often. She took a deep
breath. “Hey, Noah. We’re about to have way more than baby goats in here.
Nell’s in active labor.”
Henry had gone pale. “Oh, no. She’s been having the pains
for a couple of hours now. We need to get her into town.”
Nell clutched her husband. “I’m not due for another two
weeks.”
Noah put his bag down and started for the barn door. “You’re
fine, Nell. It’s always an estimate, and you’re well within a safe time to
deliver. I’m more worried because your last delivery was a c-section.”
“Caleb said I could try,” Nell informed him. “Poppy was
late, and she was too big for me to deliver naturally. He said this one might
be okay.”
“I want you in the clinic no matter what.” Henry’s hands
were shaking slightly.
“I’ll grab some towels and I’ll bring my SUV around.” Noah