Their Small-Town Love Read online

  He kept on in that vein until they pulled into the driveway of the Halsey house, where a horrific sight met them. Rose leaned on Ivy’s supportive arm as she hobbled toward her minivan, her olive knit slacks stained. Ivy clutched a stack of towels even as she rushed Rose toward the drive, the boys on her heels.

  Daniel bailed out of the car even before it came to a complete stop, screaming, “What happened? What happened?”

  “I think her water just broke!” Ivy exclaimed.

  Rose reached for her husband as he ran toward her, saying calmly, “I called Dr. Harpetra. He’ll meet us in Duncan.” She gasped and grabbed her belly with both hands.

  “Can you hold on that long?” Daniel asked in an agonized voice.

  “No choice,” she managed as Ryan arrived. Ivy stepped aside, and Daniel slid into place, wrapping both arms around Rose to help support her weight.

  Together Daniel and Ryan helped Rose take a few more steps to the van and handed her through the open sliding door. Ivy passed the towels to Daniel, and he climbed in next to Rose. Ryan and Ivy looked at each other.

  “Someone has to stay with the boys,” she said, an arm around each of the two raven-haired kids, both with wide, fearful eyes.

  Ryan glanced at his car and then the van before digging into his pocket for his keys. “Move my car out of the way, will you?”

  “You’ll call as soon as you can?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Ivy sent the boys to the house and poked her head into the van. Ryan hurried around to the driver’s seat, hearing her say, “Rose, I love you. Don’t worry about anything here.” With that, she ran for the sedan.

  Ryan slid behind the steering wheel, snatching the keys that dangled from Daniel’s trembling hand. Taking a deep breath, he backed the vehicle down the drive and aimed it toward the two-lane highway that would take them the thirty-five or so miles north to the hospital in Duncan.

  Once they reached Highway 81, Ryan took out his phone and hit the autodial to call his grandfather and spread the news.

  “I’ll call out the troops,” Hap said. “You tell Rose we’re praying for her and the baby. I’ll get in touch with her pastor, too, so their church will know.”

  Ryan passed that information along, and Daniel immediately seized on it. “That’s good. That’s good. Isn’t that good, honey?”

  Rose grit out, “Yes,” and after several moments of rough panting said, “Good for Ivy to stay with the boys, too.”

  “Let’s don’t worry about Ivy right now!” Daniel snapped.

  Ryan felt compelled to point out that having Ivy there to stay with the boys was a blessing.

  “For her, too,” Rose muttered, but then she moaned and began to sob.

  Ryan didn’t know beans about having babies, but this scenario struck him as all wrong, from Rose’s size to the blood he’d seen and her continuous state of pain. A chill swept over him. Feeling considerably more urgency than before, he picked up his prayer again, a steady stream of words falling out of his mouth with more eloquence than they formed inside his head.

  “Father God, Creator of life, Keeper of souls, help us in this our hour of need…” he said and pressed the accelerator, hard.

  Chapter Six

  “Rose is stable,” the diminutive doctor said in his lilting foreign accent. “No pain at all for present, just discomfort now.”

  Daniel closed his eyes. “Thank God. I’ve never seen her like that before. Her labor with the boys was different.”

  “No labor,” the doctor said. “This was not labor.”

  “So the baby’s not coming, yet?” Daniel asked, sounding confused. “I thought once her water broke that the baby had to come.”

  Dr. Harpetra bobbed his head and continued in his melodic voice, “Her water, it did not break. The bleeding from secondary source.” He went on to explain, in more detail than Ryan frankly wanted to hear, what had happened, finishing with, “This is now under control.”

  Olie rushed into the small private parlor where they had waited to hear the doctor’s report. Daniel had called him from Ryan’s phone as soon as Rose had started receiving treatment in the Emergency Room. “How is she?” Olie demanded breathlessly. Everyone turned his way, and brief introductions were made.

  “Your daughter is stable,” the doctor explained, “but she has lost much blood.” He turned his intelligent gaze on Daniel again and gently added, “The concern now is for baby.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This has been difficult pregnancy from beginning, as we know,” the slight physician said. “High pressure with excess fluid can compress placenta, which maybe does not properly feed child as she develop in utero.” He patted Daniel on the upper arm, adding, “Now Mama rest. Then we test for viability of infant.”

  “Viability,” Daniel whispered. “You’re telling me that we could lose the baby?”

  The doctor merely gave the worried father a consoling smile. “We will talk more later.” With that, he left the room.

  For a moment, all three men stood in stunned silence. Then Olie shifted his feet. Looking a little lost and uncertain, he asked in a thick voice, “Where’re the boys?”

  Daniel shook his head as if still trying to make sense of what the doctor had told them, so Ryan provided the answer, thoughtlessly muttering, “At home with Ivy.”

  Olie erupted, throwing up his arms and yelling, “Ivy! At home with Ivy?” He grabbed Daniel by the arm, demanding, “Are you out of your mind? You know what she is! You know that—”

  “Shut up!” Daniel yelled, turning on him. “I don’t want to hear it! I’m sick of hearing it. Rose is sick of…Rose is sick,” he finished in an agonized voice.

  Olie’s eyes sparkled with tears, but he turned down his mouth and huffed, “I blame her for this. She never should’ve come back. Disaster follows wherever Ivy goes.”

  Ryan could not believe his ears. “That’s an outrageous thing to say. You heard the doctor. This has been a difficult pregnancy from the start. You can’t blame Ivy for that. Ivy was there today when Rose and Dan needed her,” Ryan pointed out harshly. It incensed him that Olie couldn’t give her that much credit, at least.

  “And maybe they wouldn’t have needed her if she hadn’t been there!” Olie cried. “She obviously upset Rosie!”

  “You don’t know that Ivy upset Rose!”

  “I know that if Rose hadn’t been dealing with her no-good sister, maybe she’d be home right now with her feet up like she’s supposed to be!”

  “You just want to blame Ivy,” Ryan accused.

  “She’s got you fooled, I see,” Olie sneered. “But I know her.” He thumped himself in the chest. “Just like I knew her man-crazy mama!”

  “Enough!” Daniel snapped at his father-in-law. “Either shut up or go, Olie. I don’t have the patience for one of your rants.”

  Olie steamed, glaring at Ryan, but in the end, he turned and walked over to a chair, dropping down between its lightly padded arms. Ryan glowered, more than a little irritated with both of them, himself and Olie. It had been a long time since his temper had ignited so easily, and now twice in as many days he’d lost it. He knew that Olie was upset about Rose and the baby. They all were. Still, Olie could not have chosen a less appropriate time to vent his spleen. Olie seemed to have a problem with that, at least so far as it pertained to Ivy. Whatever she had done, it couldn’t have merited such venom.

  Daniel eased up to Ryan. “I hate to impose on you anymore. You’ve already done so much.”

  “No, no. I’ll help any way I can.” Ryan hung his head, feeling guilt. “And I apologize for my part in the argument, but his attitude toward Ivy borders on irrational.”

  Nodding, Daniel leaned closer still and whispered, “That’s why I need you to check on Ivy and the boys.” Ryan felt the familiar mix of dread and excitement. Dan passed a hand over his forehead, saying, “They must be so scared.”

  Ryan softened. Of course, Daniel would be concerned for his son
s. What father would not be? Ryan had to return to the house for his car anyway. Besides, he had promised to call Ivy with news, and news like this ought to be delivered in person. “Okay. But will you be all right here?” He glanced at Olie.

  “Yeah, yeah. He’s got it out of his system for the time being.” Daniel scrubbed a hand over his face and said, “I’m not going anywhere until I know everything’s all right, and my folks are on their way here, so will you ask Ivy to stay with the boys tonight or at least until I can arrange something else?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Ryan told him. “If for some reason Ivy can’t stay the night, my family will be glad to take care of the boys. I’ll stay myself if necessary, though my experience is with older kids, as you might imagine.”

  Daniel looked relieved. “I appreciate that, Ryan. As for the van, just leave it at the house for now. We’ll figure out how to get it back up here later.”

  Davis Latimer, the young pastor of the Magnolia church, arrived just then and walked straight to Daniel with his arms outstretched. The two men embraced. Then, with tears standing in his eyes, Daniel thanked him for coming.

  “How are they?”

  Before Dan could begin an explanation of the situation, Ryan took his leave. “Call if you need anything else.”

  Daniel gripped his hand. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

  “I’ll keep in touch. Try not to worry. Lots of prayers are going up.”

  The pastor seconded that, and Ryan left the two men talking softly. As soon as he got out of the building, he phoned Ivy at Rose’s house, telling her only that Rose was stable and in no pain.

  “I’ll fill you in on the details when I get there,” he promised, noting that he had left Daniel in the company of his pastor and her father.

  Ivy sucked in a deep breath and said only, “I’ll be waiting.”

  Ryan walked out to Rose Halsey’s minivan with a heavy heart and mixed emotions. So much for not getting sucked in. Part of him thanked God that he’d been with Daniel when Ivy had called, the other part wished he had been anywhere else.

  Sitting forward on the couch, Ivy stopped herself before she could push up to her feet. Pacing would do no good, and the boys were already on edge, wondering when Mom and Dad would be home. Hunter had enough understanding of the situation to inform his little brother that their parents would be returning with a baby, but Scott hotly denied any such thing.

  “Uh-uh. We gettin’ a sister.”

  “That don’t mean we’re not getting a baby, goof.”

  “Babies is boys.”

  That momentarily stymied Hunter, as he clearly remembered the advent of a baby brother into his personal realm. “Well, you were an ugly one,” he declared, “and stinky, too.”

  The resulting fight consisted of two poorly aimed blows and a lot of wailing. Afterward, at Ivy’s suggestion, they apologized to each other, a skill at which both seemed to have lots of experience. Then the two of them crawled up into Ivy’s lap for “a read,” as Hunter put it. It was nice, Scott allowed, that she had room for both of them.

  “We have to sit beside Mom,” Hunter pointed out.

  “But we can sit in her lap when the sister comes,” Scott remarked, offering Ivy a choice of his favorite books by smacking her in the chin with them.

  Later, with much advice from Hunter, Ivy cobbled together a simple dinner of fish sticks, green beans and shoestring potatoes liberally adorned with ketchup, which taught her never to allow little boys to serve their own condiments. Bellies full and mess cleaned up, they sprawled on the family room floor scribbling in coloring books while Ivy tried to find some way, with the dishes done, to occupy her thoughts.

  She dared not think of the child Rose might even now be having or the darker worry that hovered in the back of her mind. Having had some familiarity with childbirth, Ivy knew that what Rose had experienced that afternoon when she’d suddenly doubled over in screaming pain was not the norm, but she had tried mightily not to dwell on that.

  The sound of the doorbell gave her a reason to get up and fix her attention elsewhere. Swiftly, she walked down the long, narrow hallway to the front of the house. Ryan stood on the other side of the glass storm door, still wearing the same green jogging suit with “Coach” emblazoned on it in yellow letters outlined in white. Full night had descended, and she switched on the lights, inside and out, while releasing the latch.

  “How was she when you left?”

  “Just as I told you on the phone, stable and in no pain.”

  “They’re expecting a short labor then? They’ve already given her the spinal block?”

  Ryan rubbed his jaw, rough with the golden glint of day-old stubble. “I’m, um, not very good with the vernacular of childbirth. Why don’t we sit down? I’ll tell you what I think I heard the doctor saying.”

  Nodding, she led him into the center of the house. The boys sat cross-legged, facing the doorway expectantly. Ryan smiled at them, then glanced a warning at Ivy. A chill of foreboding swept over her, the same chill that she had been holding at bay all evening. Turning to the boys, she put on her lightest expression.

  “Hunter, would you like to take your brother into the kitchen for a snack? I left half a dozen cookies on the table.”

  She’d meant them for a bedtime enticement, expecting that she would be here at least long enough to bribe them into crawling between the sheets. The boys scrambled up and flew into the kitchen amid cries of, “Me first!” Ivy smiled at their greedy delight before inviting Ryan to take a seat next to her on the blue sofa. She had the feeling, one with which she was all too familiar, that she ought to smile while she could.

  “Something’s wrong,” she surmised softly.

  As if to confirm her suspicions, Ryan grasped her hand in his. “There was some kind of bleeding, not the normal kind, but the doctors stopped that. I don’t understand it all, and I don’t think I want to, but from what I gleaned, Rose will be okay.”

  “Rose,” Ivy repeated warily. “Please tell me she hasn’t lost the baby.”

  Ryan’s big, warm hand squeezed hers. “No, but it doesn’t sound good. As soon as she’s rested, they’re going to do some tests to check on the baby. The term ‘viability’ was used.”

  Ivy squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. Her poor sister. To lose a child was the worst of pains, especially when everyone expected and wanted, looked forward to, a healthy baby. She shook her head, refusing to give in to pessimism and fear.

  “It could still turn out all right. It’s early for the baby but not terribly so. God is in control here. We have to hold on to that.”

  “Yes. That’s right,” Ryan said with a smile. “The tests could all show a healthy baby.”

  “When will they know?”

  He shook his head. “No one said, but Dan asked if you could stay the night.”

  She nodded vigorously. “Of course. No problem. Except…all my things are at the motel.”

  From the kitchen came the sound of a screeching chair and then the bellow, “Give it back!”

  Ivy lifted her eyebrows and rose to her feet, saying, “Excuse me a moment.”

  With Ryan following, she hurried to the kitchen, where she found Scott standing on a chair and holding a cookie as high over his head as he could manage while Hunter fumed with folded arms.

  “That’s my cookie! He gobbles his, and then he takes mine!”

  Scott didn’t wait to be instructed to return the cookie in question, just tossed it and plopped down. Hunter made a good catch and began nibbling on the prize, taking the smallest bites imaginable. A thoroughly unrepentant Scott looked at Ivy and demanded, “Milk, please.”

  She heard a muffled chuckle behind her as she went to the cabinet for a glass.

  “Who’re you?” Hunter asked.

  “Mr. Jefford,” Ryan said. “I work with your dad.”

  “Oh. That’s why you got the same clothes, I guess.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Orang
e cup!” Scott yelled at Ivy.

  “Blue,” Hunter corrected, adding, “He wets the bed if he gets the orange cup ’cause it’s too much.”

  “I don’t wet the bed!” Scott refuted, scrambling once more to his feet. “I got pull-ups. See?” With that he dropped his jeans, shoved them right down to his ankles, demanding, “Orange cup!”

  “Blue,” Ivy said firmly, turning for the refrigerator. She took out the milk and carried cup and carton to the table, where Scott still stood on his chair with his pants around his ankles. He gave Ryan a look that seemed to ask what he was waiting for. After a moment, Ryan ambled over and yanked up the jeans.

  “I think you’d better learn not to stand on chairs,” Ryan said, hiding a smile behind a stern expression, “because you can fall and hurt yourself.”

  “Okay.” Squatting, Scott stretched out his legs. Planted once more on his bottom, he reached for his cup.

  Ivy saw the amusement in Ryan’s green-and-gold eyes. “You go get your things,” he told her. “I’ll stay here until you get back.”

  She looked at the boys, then smiled at Ryan. “Thanks. I won’t be long.”

  Hurrying from the room, she heard Hunter say, “I want milk, too. Orange cup.”

  “Yes on the milk,” Ryan said. “No on the orange cup. If your brother can’t have it, neither can you.”

  Not a single word of argument followed, just the sound of heavy footsteps crossing the kitchen floor and a little boy giggling into his milk.

  “Your mom’s in the hospital,” Ryan explained, “so the doctors can take care of her, and your dad’s there so she won’t be scared.”

  “Is she coming home?” Hunter asked, the huskiness of his tone revealing his concern.

  “Sure.” Sitting between them on the couch, Ryan gave the older boy’s head a rub. “Could be a few days, though. But don’t worry. Your Aunt Ivy is coming back to spend the night.”

  “Who is Aunt Ivy?” Hunter asked.

  Confused, Ryan gave him the first answer that came into his head. “The lady who was here earlier.”

  “No, I mean, who is she? Aunt Lolly is Daddy’s sister, and Aunt Moon is Grandpa Halsey’s sister, but whose sister is Aunt Ivy?”