Chapter Twelve #2
She’d chosen to have her kids alone, so that she was the only one responsible for them, for taking care of them. So that no matter what, she would never lose them, even for the summers. They would be with her always.
“I’m fine,” she assured him and herself. She was strong now. And the doctors had assured her that the babies were strong, too. She could do this…alone.
* * *
Brett’s call from the hospital had rattled Frankie, and guilt had overwhelmed her because of how distant she’d been with Trish.
Like Brett, Frankie had been avoiding her cousin as much as possible since she’d moved into the Four Corners.
Or as Brett had pointed out on his call, Trish hadn’t fully moved in.
She’d left all her stuff packed in her trailer.
She hadn’t touched a thing in her father’s room, hadn’t done anything to make the space her own.
And despite her plans for the petting zoo and the kids’ camps, she hadn’t pushed to start work on them.
And she shouldn’t have had to push. The ranch was as much hers as it was the other heirs. They had all inherited equal shares of it.
But it was clear that Trish didn’t feel equal to them.
She felt like an outsider. Had that added to the stress that Brett said was the reason for her visit to the hospital?
The stress he’d said that his sister warned them Trish couldn’t have.
While she hadn’t been in labor today like she’d feared, her blood pressure had been too high.
And that scared Frankie as much as it must have scared Brett.
He hadn’t sounded at all like himself on the phone.
And he didn’t look like himself, standing with Trish next to the passenger side of his truck.
He actually held her hands in his, like he was afraid she might topple over without his support.
“Are you okay?” Frankie asked as she hurried over to them.
Brett jumped and stepped back, and once he was out of her way, Frankie closed her arms around her cousin.
“I was so worried about you,” she said.
“I was pretty worried, too,” Trish said, and her body trembled. Or maybe that was the babies kicking again.
Her little cousins. Or, since Trish was more like a sister to her, her little niece and nephew. “And the niblings? They’re okay?”
Trish nodded and released a shuddery breath that stirred Frankie’s hair. “Yes, they’re good. We’re all okay.”
“Thank goodness,” Frankie said with relief. “And we’re going to make sure that you all stay that way.” She leaned back and studied her cousin’s face. With the circles beneath her eyes as dark as they were, she looked bruised and so very exhausted. “Let’s get you settled back into your room.”
Trish’s forehead furrowed beneath the errant curls that had fallen across it. “What do you mean?”
Frankie slid her arm around Trish’s waist and began to guide her toward the house, past her trailer. The back doors stood open now, and the only things inside the trailer weren’t Trish’s—they were Uncle Frank’s.
“It’s your room now,” Frankie said. “Blake, Liam, Elise and I packed up Uncle Frank’s things.
We put them in your trailer, so you can go through them when you’re ready.
When Brett called, he said that you wanted to donate them, but we wanted to make sure that we didn’t give anything away that you want to keep. ”
Tears filled Trish’s eyes.
Frankie panicked for a minute. “I hope that was okay. We didn’t want to upset you.”
Trish shook her head. “You didn’t. I know it had to be done. I was just overwhelmed with the thought.”
“Well, we got the room ready for you now. And we didn’t want you to have to worry about packing and unpacking…” Guilt jabbed her. “Well, Brett was worried. He was the one who thought of it and told me about his idea when he called from the hospital.”
“You guys got all this done since then?” Brett asked as he stopped at the rear of the trailer and peered inside.
“Yes, it’s amazing what we can do when we all work together,” Frankie said. “You don’t have to do anything on your own anymore, Trish. We’re here for you.”
A sob slipped out of Trish’s lips and then her shoulders started shaking. Alarm shot through Frankie. “Oh, no. I’m sorry. Was this a bad idea?”
“I’m sorry,” Brett added. “I didn’t want you to be stressed and—”
Trish grabbed his arm and Frankie’s, too. “No. I just…” Another sob cracked her voice. “I just really appreciate this.”
“Come see it,” Frankie said. “Your furniture looks so nice in the room. We unpacked the baby stuff and put it in the sitting area of the suite. That way they’ll be close when they come—” she patted her cousin’s belly “—when they’re supposed to.
” One of the babies shifted beneath her palm, then kicked, and Frankie laughed.
“Guess they don’t like being told what to do… ”
“They take after their aunt Frankie then,” Trish said with a watery smile. She hugged Frankie and whispered, “Thank you.”
“It was Brett’s idea,” she reminded Trish, not wanting to take the credit from him.
“But you guys did the heavy lifting,” he said.
Trish turned her watery smile toward him. “I don’t know…you did some pretty heavy lifting when you carried me out of the barn and then into the hospital.”
Brett’s face flushed as if he was embarrassed. He shrugged. “You were in so much pain…” And then the color receded from his face as if just the memory had made him feel sick.
Frankie felt sick herself. There had been more than enough pain and loss at the Four Corners. They needed happiness and love now. And something about the way that Trish and Brett were looking at each other made her wonder…
Could these two find love and happiness together?
Wow. She must have been spending too much time around Sadie and Lem. She was starting to think like them. But there was no couple more unlikely than Brett and Trish except maybe for Frankie herself and that sleazy lawyer. Now that would be an unlikely match.
Brett and Trish didn’t seem to have much more in common, though. Brett was a cowboy through and through, focused on the ranch, and Trish wanted a family. Something Brett claimed he never wanted.
No. Frankie doubted that even Lem and Sadie would be able to make this match happen.