Chapter 20
twenty
Taggart Crow smiled and started to sink onto the couch as he extended the mug of hot chocolate to his wife, Opal. “Here you go, honeybee,” he murmured.
“Thank you.” She took a sip, her own smile prevalent as they both watched four-year-old West play with his trucks and toys.
“All right, sorry about that.” Gerty exhaled heavily as she came out of the hall leading further back into the farmhouse where she lived with her CEO husband, Mike. She perched on the arm of the couch and beamed at her son. “Are you ready, baby? We’re going to do our Christmas Eve presents.”
West jerked his head up and looked at his mother. “Cwristmas pwesents?”
The little boy would be five next month, and he really was the most adorable thing on the planet—even Tag thought so.
“Remember, you can only pick one from your stocking, and Momma and Daddy have one to give you.”
West got to his feet and parked himself right in front of the Christmas tree. “Not one of these.”
“Nope, not one of those, buddy,” Mike said. “Momma’s got your present over here. You get to pick one thing from your stocking.”
Tag happened to know that there was only one present in the stocking. After all, Santa Claus hadn’t come yet, so how could there be more?
He and Opal had spent Christmas with Mike and Gerty last year, and he did enjoy their family traditions of opening pajamas on Christmas Eve and putting one small amazing thing in their son’s stocking.
A year ago, Opal had helped West pick his present from the stocking, but today she remained steadfastly on the couch.
Only ten days from delivering their daughter, she moved much slower these days than she had last year or even last month, and Tag reached over and threaded his fingers through hers.
He cherished her every day, thanking God that He’d allowed Tag to meet her and somehow orchestrated it so she fell in love with him.
She looked over to him and smiled, and Tag returned it, mentally mapping out their own family Christmas traditions for a year from now. They’d have so many firsts this year, and Tag wanted to experience all of them.
“All right, has everyone got their present?” Mike handed Opal a pair of packages as he spoke.
She kept the one wrapped in bright red paper with twinkling gold stars and passed him the one that looked like a Christmas Eve night sky, the navy blue and gold reminding him so much of what he imagined the night Christ had been born looked like.
“Ready, Daddy,” West said, his package perched on his knees as he knelt in front of the Christmas tree.
Mike got down on the floor with his little boy. “All right, let’s open ‘em.”
The sound of ripping paper and crumpling filled the air, and then West gave the biggest gasp any small child could do.
“Momma!” he yelled. “Mine be Buzz Lightyear!”
He jumped to his feet, shaking the last of the wrapping paper from his pajamas—which wasn’t a two-piece set, but a onesie.
“I wear it right now, Momma! I wear it right now!”
Gerty set aside her pale blue silk pajamas as West threw his Buzz Lightyear onesie at her and started taking off his shirt.
“Yeah, you can put it on right now, buddy,” she said. “But Daddy’s down there to help you.”
She tossed the pajamas over to Mike, who caught them and flapped them out, saying, “Come over here, bud. I’ll help you.”
West had already stripped down to his underpants, which coincidentally, were also Buzz Lightyear-themed, and with his chubby toddler body, he rushed over to his father.
“Put ‘em on, Daddy.”
“I’m putting them on. Turn around, my friend.
” Mike got West to turn and back right into him, and the little boy practically sat on Mike’s shoulder as he lifted one foot and then the other to put on his new pajamas.
Mike zipped him up to the waist, and then turned him so he could finish, and Tag started to clap.
The others joined him, and then West thrust both hands up in the air as if he had transformed into a superhero, and he buzzed and made truck beeping noises as he flew around the room.
“What’d you get, Gerty?” Opal asked.
Gerty showed her the blue silk pajama set. “They’re my favorite. I’m like an otter in the sheets, slipping around.” She grinned and nodded back to her. “What about you?”
In Opal’s condition, she didn’t exactly enjoy wearing pants, and she’d been opting to wear big, loose dresses for the past couple of months. Thus, Tag had picked out a nightgown for her in a pale peach color that highlighted the darkness in her hair and the olive tone of her skin.
“Oh, that’s so pretty,” Gerty said as Opal held up the nightshirt. “What’d you get for Tag?”
Tag looked down to his lap and lifted his black and white pajama set. “This seems to be made of flannel. I’m going to be way too hot in these.”
“No, they’re shorts.” Opal reached over and moved aside the top to reveal the bottoms.
Tag lifted them, and sure enough, the pajama set didn’t come with pants.
“And they have that cotton bamboo lining,” she said. “It’s cooling.” She put her fingers under the collar of the shirt and pushed it out so that he could see the inside lining of the fabric.
“Wow,” he said. “These are really nice, honey. Thank you so much.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“I’m the lumberjack,” Mike said, and he belted out a loud laugh as he lifted a pair of soft, elastic-waist pants that were the color of denim and a plaid shirt in red, brown, and white with an ax printed on the chest pocket.
Tag laughed too as the women giggled alongside them.
“You’re always saying you wish you had more time to be a cowboy,” Gerty said.
“You know you could quit,” Opal said. “You’ve been the CEO for a long time.”
“Five years is not a long time, sissy,” he said. “Daddy did it for thirty.”
“Well, you’re not Daddy,” she said.
Mike and Opal’s parents had been staying with them since Thanksgiving, and Tag glanced over to the pair of them.
Opal’s father was a tall, broad-shouldered man whose personality, intelligence, and quick wit had not been diminished by age.
He was pushing ninety now, as he hadn’t married his wife, Bree, until he was fifty years old.
“What’d you get, Momma?” Opal asked.
Bree lifted a very sensible set of pajamas that would work for a Colorado winter as well as it would a Wyoming one. She loved purple, and this eggplant set came with white trim along the cuffs, hems, and collar.
“I’m pretty sure this is the same set your father got for me last year,” she said, beaming at him with all the love in the world.
“Hey, when you’ve found a good thing, you don’t deviate,” Wes said. “I got a couple pairs of those slicky shorts I like,” he added, holding up a gray pair.
“Do you not wear a shirt to sleep, Daddy?” Mike teased.
“I do,” Daddy said. “Whatever I had on that day does a good enough job, so we don’t need to be spending money on a shirt just to wear to bed.”
“Yeah, it’s not like you don’t have the money.
Right, Daddy?” Opal grinned at him, and while she and Tag had talked extensively over the past couple of weeks about having her parents so close, and how sometimes her mom treated her like she’d never lived on her own, Tag knew Opal loved her parents with everything inside her.
She would sob uncontrollably when they finally had to return to Coral Canyon.
She’d been the last one to get married and the last one to start having babies, and Tag had known her long enough to hear her pray over her father, begging God to preserve his health and life just long enough to walk her down the aisle and then to meet their baby girl.
“Well, now that we all have pajamas,” Gerty said. “It’s probably time for some of us to get to bed.” She grabbed onto West, who erupted into a fit of giggles. “I mean you, mister. Come on.”
“I don’t want to go to bed, Momma.”
“Well, Santa won’t be able to come until you’re asleep,” she said. “That’s the rule straight from the North Pole.”
West sobered then and looked right into his mother’s eyes. “Do we have to follow all the rules, Momma?”
“Yes,” she said. “You have to follow all the rules.” She grinned at him. “It’s how you get the most blessings.”
Mike groaned as he got to his feet. “Come on, buddy. I’ll take you to the bathroom, and then Momma will come, and we’ll tuck you in.”
He swept his son up into his arms and paused at Gerty’s side. He whispered something to her, and she nodded. He turned around and stood at her side.
“Before we go put West to bed,” she said.
The atmosphere in the quaint, homey farmhouse changed on a dime. Opal pulled in a breath and reached for Tag’s hand.
“Mike and I wanted to announce that we’re going to have another baby next year.” Gerty grinned around at everyone, and then at her husband. Mike put his arm around her, tucking her into his side while he held West on his opposite hip.
“Oh, praise the Lord,” Bree said, and she pushed her way to the edge of the loveseat and stood. She reached Gerty and Mike first, enveloping them both in a hug.
Wes joined them, and Tag got to his feet and offered his hand to Opal, because he knew she would want to congratulate her best friend and sister-in-law.
“This is so exciting,” Opal said as she waited for her daddy to finish hugging Gerty. She took her turn, gripping the lithe, strong woman tightly with her giant pregnant belly between them. “When are you due?”
“Not until July,” Gerty said. “July fourth, in fact.”
Opal’s hand dropped to her belly, her eyes widening. “Oh, there’s a little bump there.”
Gerty grinned and shook her head. She wiped her eyes and said, “No, there’s not. That’s just my food baby.”
“Congratulations,” Tag said, and he hugged Mike and then Gerty, turning to find that Opal had wandered into the kitchen with her mother.
She nibbled on a shortbread cookie, because she never really ate very much these days.
She wasn’t the tallest woman, and their baby had definitely moved a lot of her organs around, finally protruding straight out.
She couldn’t see her feet anymore, and she couldn’t put on her own shoes.
Watching her smile and laugh, though he knew how very miserable she was, made his heart fill with love for her all over again.
She was bringing his baby into this world, and no greater sacrifice could be made.
“Come on, Westy,” Gerty said, taking the boy from his father. “It’s time for bed.”
“Auntie Ope have a baby,” he said.
“Yep, Auntie Ope’s gonna have a baby,” Gerty said. “And Momma is too, in a few months.”
“Momma baby?” West asked, turning and putting his hand on his mother’s face.
She slid him to his feet and took his hand. “Yep, Momma’s going to have a baby, and you’re going to be a big brother.” She led him down the hall with her hand in his and Mike trailing along behind.
“Not long until you two will have your baby,” Wes said as he came to Tag’s side. “Have you guys decided on a name?”
“I think Opal’s pretty set on Rose,” Tag said. “But she changes her mind every now and then. So it could be Lily or Marigold. She really likes Mary, but not plain.”
He shook his head because he didn’t have much of an opinion on what they named their daughter. He only wanted Opal to be happy and healthy and have everything she wanted.
As he watched, she put one hand on her belly, then leaned into the counter with the other. He heard her gasp even from across the room, and something inside him shifted once more.
He immediately started toward her. “Opal?”
She swung toward him, her eyes wide and afraid.
“Hey, what’s going on, baby?” he asked, arriving in front of her only a moment later. He put both hands on her belly and felt how incredibly tight it had become.
“My water just broke,” she gasped out.
Tag backed up a step and looked down, and sure enough, the faintest trickle of liquid had puddled on the floor. Pure panic reared inside him, and every thought he’d ever had simply vanished. The farmhouse disappeared, and his ears ceased functioning.
He looked up at Opal, and when their eyes met, sound and life and the world rushed right back at him. “Let’s go,” he said.
“Momma, my water broke,” Opal said, her voice as panicky as Tag felt.
“Wes, can you help me get Opal in the truck?”
“Absolutely,” her daddy said, joining them as her momma said, “It’s fine, Opal. You guys have mapped the way to the hospital, and no first baby comes in only a few minutes.”
“Some people’s do,” Opal said.
Tag strung his arm through hers. “Opal, honeybee, we are not going to panic. We can have a baby here, or in the car on the side of the road, or at the hospital. It’s not going to matter. Okay?”
She looked at him, and after only a moment of hesitation, she nodded.
Tag adored the trust she put in him, and he got her outside and into the truck before racing around to the other side to get the engine started. He forced himself to drive at a normal speed as he trundled down the road the half-mile to their house.
“You stay right here. I’m going to run in and grab your baby bag. I know right where it is, and it’s packed.”
“I don’t want to have the baby on Christmas Eve,” Opal said.
“No problem,” Tag said. “You probably won’t have her tonight at all, and she’ll be born on Christmas Day.”
With that, he jumped out of the truck and ran inside. Opal did have her baby bag waiting at her bedside, sitting in front of her nightstand, packed and ready to go. Tag grabbed it and ran back outside, tossing it over the driver’s seat at the same time he climbed in.
Opal had both hands on the top of her belly, and as he pulled his seat belt across himself, he said, “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I had a contraction,” she said. “We probably need to start timing them.”
His eyes flew to the clock, and then he dug his phone out of his pocket. “Yep. Let’s start tracking ‘em.” He fumbled to get to the timer app and then pushed start. “We can add—what? Fifteen seconds to this when you have another one?”
She nodded vigorously, like it was all her head knew how to do. “Yeah, maybe fifteen or thirty seconds.”
“All right,” he said, handing her the phone. “Let’s go.”
He swung around their circle drive and aimed the truck down the dirt road, praying with everything he had that they could make it to the smoother, more solid asphalt quickly, so he could get his beloved Opal to the hospital.
Because while he had just said they could have a baby on the side of the road, he certainly didn’t want to do that.