Chapter Twenty-Two
“You have visitors,”
the nurse said from the hospital room doorway a few hours later.
Helen came through the door first, followed by the sheriff and his wife, Molly, then residents of Fortune Creek, including Ash.
They came with flowers, chocolate and cute baby clothes.
But what touched Cat the most was the present from Helen, a knitted pink sweater and booties.
She looked up, tears in her eyes.
“These are so adorable.
Helen, thank you.”
The older woman looked embarrassed.
“She’s going to need something to wear until it warms up.
This is also for you.”
She handed over a large wrapped bundle.
It was the blanket she’d been working on those past few weeks before Cat had gone into labor.
Cat held it to her.
“It’s so soft and warm.
Thank you so much.”
Helen bobbed her head and said she needed to get back to the office.
“Someone should be working,”
she said in the direction of the sheriff as she left.
Brandt chuckled.
“Seems you and Helen got on just fine,”
he said, sounding surprised.
All Cat could do was smile.
“I might have her teach me how to knit.”
The sheriff’s wife spoke up.
“You’re braver than me.
I get the feeling she thinks I stole Brandt from her.”
They all laughed, especially Cat since she knew it was true.
Ash brought her the donuts she loved, then sat and visited for a while.
Cat thought he really needed to find himself a good woman and told him so.
“Not every woman wants to come live in Fortune Creek in an old haunted hotel.”
“Is it really haunted?”
Cat asked in surprise.
“That’s what they tell me,”
was all he would say.
Ash gave her and her daughter a ride back to her apartment over the sheriff’s office the next day.
Cat heard from Dylan.
He’d gone to the state capital in Helena to finish the paperwork to get his nephew and buy more baby books.
“It’s going to be fine,”
she told him, chuckling at how nervous he sounded.
She’d seen what the man could do under pressure.
She had no doubt that he could handle a baby.
She’d also felt his love and affection and knew that his nephew was in great hands.
When she arrived at the apartment, there was a beautiful bassinet full of baby things and flowers, all from Dylan with a note that read, According to the books I’ve been reading, these are things you’re really going to need. D
Cat smiled and found that he was right.
She’d planned to let her daughter sleep with her for a while, unsure how long they would be in the upstairs apartment.
Now that they were staying for a while, the bassinet was perfect.
She texted him a thank you.
You were right! I needed all of this! I just hadn’t realized it yet.
Thank you for such a thoughtful gift.
Time passed quickly as she found herself immersed in all things baby.
In the meantime, she really needed to give her daughter a name.
She had wanted to wait until the baby was born.
Now that her darling little girl was here, she couldn’t put it off any longer.
The hospital had called again today about the birth certificate.
She finally decided on Lizzie Taylor Jameson, naming him after her mother, Elizabeth, and her daughter’s father, Taylor.
Dylan called every evening, filling her in how things were going at the ranch.
The ashes and debris from the big house had been carted away.
A foundation would soon be laid for the new house.
For hours, they designed this new house, discussing what it should look like, what rooms were needed, what appliances it should have.
For Cat it was like building a house online, just a dream of what she’d want if she ever got to design her own house.
It was a game to her.
She had no idea if Dylan even took her suggestions seriously.
They also talked about the adoption and how it was going.
He’d gotten to spend time with his nephew so they also talked babies.
He’d been reading baby books.
When he learned about something that worked well, he would send the item to her as well as buy one for himself.
Her apartment was now filled.
“Do babies really need all this?”
she’d asked him, laughing.
“Apparently,”
he’d said.
“Who knew?”
She often fell asleep talking to Dylan about everything from air fryers to unidentified aircraft he’d once seen.
She knew his favorite color and he knew hers.
He knew what kind of sheets she liked and why.
Just as she knew what kind of coffee he preferred and how he was allergic to shellfish.
Often they would be giving a bottle to the babies when he called during his visitations with his nephew.
Cat loved the closeness she shared with him.
In the meantime, she marveled at how Fortune Creek felt like home even though she’d been there for such a short time.
It had been bumpy at first, trying to fill Sheriff Parker’s big boots.
But ultimately, she’d held her own.
With spring turning to early summer, she often took her daughter out in her expensive stroller—thank you, Dylan—for a walk around town.
Everyone would make a point of coming out to greet them, so she got to know more residents.
Sometimes she and her daughter would go to the café for lunch.
Her daughter loved all the attention she got.
As she sat on the couch, she looked into the bassinet at Lizzie.
It really had been such a thoughtful gift from Dylan, and she hoped she got to tell him so in person soon.
Her cell phone rang and she picked up at once when she saw it was Dylan.
“I’m downstairs.
Is this a bad time?” he asked.
“It’s a perfect time,”
she said.
“Come on up.
It doesn’t lock anymore after Ginny let herself in.”
A few moments later, she opened the apartment door to him.
He handed her a bouquet of daisies.
In his other hand was a baby carrier, and she realized she was finally going to meet the baby she’d been so anxious to see.
“The adoption went through!”
she cried as she knelt down to pull back the small blanket to see his face.
“Oh, Dylan, he’s beautiful.
Come in, come in.”
She took the flowers and put them in a vase while Dylan freed his nephew from the carrier.
“Want to hold him?”
She nodded vigorously, and he placed the baby in her arms.
“Oh, look at those bright blue eyes!”
“He and your daughter could be brother and sister,”
Dylan said as he came to stand next to her, both admiring the little boy.
“He’s grown so much since the first time I saw him.”
Her daughter let out a squawk from her bassinet and they moved over to her.
“Thank you again for this,”
Cat said of the bassinet.
She handed him the baby and picked up her own.
“It’s perfect.”
“Just like your daughter.
What did you end up naming her?”
She told him with a laugh.
They had both agonized over naming the babies.
“I wanted to run it by you, but I had to give him a name for the adoption papers.
Meet Beauregard James Walker, named after his father and, Beau’s and my father.”
“That is a mouthful,”
she said with a chuckle.
“That’s why his nickname is BJ.”
“I like that,”
she said and presented her daughter.
“Meet Lizzie Taylor Jameson.
Named after my mother Elizabeth and—”
“And your daughter’s father,”
Dylan said.
“I think it’s wonderful.
She looks like a Lizzie.
She looks like you.”
They stood awkwardly for a few moments.
All the hours they’d spent on the phone, they’d grown closer.
But now being together after hardly seeing each other in person, they both felt shy.
“Any chance you’re free for dinner?”
he asked.
“BJ and I are celebrating his six-month birthday out at the ranch tonight.
I know it’s late notice.
I just realized the date.”
“I’m having steak and salad.
He’ll be having formula, but it won’t be long before he gets solids.
Check out his two teeth,”
Dylan said like the proud father he was.
“He is definitely a good eater.
We’d love for the two of you to come.”
Cat smiled.
“We’d be delighted.
Lizzie will be bringing her own bottle, but I’d love steak and salad.
What can I bring?”
“Just you and Lizzie.”
Dylan’s gaze met hers and held it.
“Look at the two of us,”
he said smiling.
Epilogue
Cat moved to the porch at the sound of laughter.
She couldn’t help but smile at what she saw even as her heart raced a little.
“Are you sure about this?”
she asked her husband a little anxiously.
Dylan laughed and turned to the two children sitting astride the horse next to him.
BJ had his arms around his sister who had one hand resting on the saddle horn.
Both gave her a toothy grin.
Both were dressed in what they called their cowboy outfits.
Checked shirts, jeans and cowboy boots and hats.
“I rode my first horse at two,”
Dylan said.
“We’re almost three!”
the two children said almost in unison.
Since they’d become brother and sister, they often finished each other’s sentences.
Anyone who didn’t know their separate stories would have sworn they were hers and Dylan’s biological children.
BJ and Lizzie were inseparable, both growing like weeds, both unaware of how they had come into the world.
Cat knew they wouldn’t be able to protect them from finding out someday, but for now they were just the intricate part of this family she and Dylan had made.
Cat often looked back, wondering how things had turned out like they had.
Dylan had invited her and Lizzie to dinner at the ranch.
There were other dates after that, both of them bringing their babies.
She often wondered what people thought—not that she cared.
She was too happy being with Dylan and BJ.
Lizzie and BJ had taken to each other from the start. Instantly babbling together, later crawling after each other and now trying to outdo each other.
On Beau’s six-month birthday and the first time he got solids, Dylan asked her to marry him.
She remembered his face in the flickering light of his son’s single birthday candle, him on his knees putting a beautiful diamond on her finger.
She’d said yes.
Their wedding was held at the ranch.
Dylan invited a few people from his past, but not many.
Same with Cat.
All of Fortune Creek had turned out.
A barbecue had followed with local beef and pork on a spit.
The day ended with them putting their children to bed. It had been perfect.
Since then, life had only gotten better, she realized as her hand went to her protruding belly and the two babies snuggled in there.
Another boy and girl.
She thought of the way Dylan had been shocked when they’d gotten the news.
“But I’m sterile,”
he said to the doctor.
“Apparently not,”
the doctor had said with a laugh.
“Why don’t we run some tests.”
They had.
Cat was surprised Dylan had taken the news so well.
There was a reason Ginny had been taking birth control pills.
Dylan wasn’t sterile.
His results had been doctored to make him think he couldn’t have children.
“How did we get so lucky?”
he asked as if in awe.
Had it been luck? Or fate? She liked to think it had been love.
There was no denying the immediate attraction she’d felt for Dylan.
He’d apparently felt the same way.
After going through everything they had, the danger had drawn them even closer together.
They seldom talked about the events that had brought them here or what they’d had to go through before becoming a family.
Cat had realized that she wasn’t going back into law enforcement.
She had babies to raise with her husband.
They often joked about what they would tell the kids when asked how their parents met.
“How about this,”
Dylan had suggested one night as they lay in their king bed in their newly finished house.
“Mommy came out to the ranch to arrest me.”
Cat had laughed and said, “Daddy saved me from his evil houseguest with a crush on him.”
“Not even funny,”
he’d said as he rolled her over on top of him and kissed her.
There had been an agreement between them when it came to having children.
“How about we have as many as we can afford,”
he’d suggested.
“Not a chance,”
Cat had said, shocked when she’d found out how much her husband was worth.
“Let’s just see how it goes.”
They’d created the twins she now carried that night.
Four children had a nice ring to it, but if she knew her husband—and she did—there would be more.
BJ and Lizzie were already excited to meet their new siblings.
Cat often marveled that Beau’s start in life hadn’t seemed to affect the sweet, thoughtful and caring child.
Dylan said his namesake had been the same way.
Cat knew that was probably what had gotten her husband’s brother into trouble. Lizzie was a spitfire like her mother.
“You wanted her to be just like me,”
she reminded Dylan often.
He would always laugh and nod and say, “Right, be careful what you wish for.”
It had been a grand day when they’d moved into their new home that she and Dylan had designed with children in mind.
It was a warm and welcoming place that often saw visitors from Fortune Creek.
The sheriff and Dylan had hit it off, talking horses and ranching.
Brandt and Molly had finished their house just in time since Molly was pregnant.
The four of them had become close, often having dinner at each other’s houses.
Both were great with BJ and Lizzie, though Cat often saw fear in their eyes at the thought of having one of their own.
When Molly announced that she was having a girl, Cat had reassured her the child would be nothing like Lizzie with her bright red hair, mass of freckles and stubborn, fiery disposition, all of which seemed to make Dylan love the child even more.
Cat felt as if BJ was hers, the baby she’d almost delivered in her office, the Baby Doe who’d gone missing that she’d prayed would be found, the baby that she’d held in her arms even before Dylan had gotten to hold him.
BJ was hers, just as Lizzie was Dylan’s.
He’d been there when she was born.
He’d bought her first bassinet.
He’d saved her mother’s life.
Helen often drove out to the ranch, offering babysitting services.
They had finally taken her up on it one Saturday and had gone into Kalispell for dinner.
When they returned they hadn’t known what to expect.
They found both children were tucked in bed sound asleep and Helen knitting next to the fireplace.
“Any trouble?”
Cat asked suspiciously.
“None at all,”
Helen said.
“Not even from Lizzie?”
she’d asked disbelieving.
“We’ve been having a time getting her to stay in her bed at night.”
Helen shook her head.
“It might be the way you tell her to go to bed.”
Cat was afraid to ask.
The older woman smiled.
“Maybe it’s the tone of my voice, but children seem to listen to me when I speak.”
She’d laughed as she’d looked over at Dylan who was grinning.
“Thank you so much.”
But when she offered Helen money, she’d declined.
“It was my pleasure.
I enjoyed them.
They’re very bright children.
Like their parents.”
With that she rose to leave.
“Stay the night,”
Dylan said, but Helen declined again.
“I know that road like the back of my hand.
I’ll be fine.
I actually enjoy the trip out here.”
“Then you’ll be back Sunday for dinner,”
Cat said and Helen smiled.
“I’d like that.”
“Ash is coming out with a date,”
she told her former coworker.
Helen wrinkled her nose.
“What a woman from eastern Montana was doing over here is anyone’s guess.”
Cat knew how Helen felt about outsiders—even ones from the same state.
“I’ve heard she is delightful.”
Helen huffed at that as she gathered up her things to leave.
“Helen, thank you again,”
Dylan said and only got a grunt as he walked her to her car, Cat watching them.
“How did you win that woman over?”
he asked as he joined her on the porch to watch Helen drive away.
“I have no idea,”
she said with a laugh and turned to her husband.
“How did I win you over?”
“It was that silver star on your tan uniform,”
he said pulling her into a hug.
“How could I not have fallen for you? A woman with more freckles than stars in the sky and eyes bluer than Montana skies.”
She chuckled as they stood like that looking out at all the stars over the mountains, both content in a way she doubted either of them had ever known before.
Looking up at the night sky, Cat wondered what Taylor and Beau would have thought of this family she and Dylan had formed.
She found herself smiling as the stars twinkled above them, and she nestled deeper into her husband’s arms.
She felt sure they would have been happy to see how things had ended.