Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara

TWO BABIES, A COWBOY AND SARA

a Romantic Short by Grace Brannigan

Women of Strength Time Travel Series

Once Upon a Remembrance Book 1

Soulmates Through Time Book 2

Treasure So Rare Book 3

Women of Character Contemporary Series

Echoes From The Past

Once and Always

Heartstealer

Wishing on a Rodeo Moon

Romantic Short Stories

Deception (a touch of suspense)

Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara

Whisper Me Softly (a touch of fantasy)

Website: http://www.GraceBrannigan.com

Facebook: Grace Brannigan Author

Twitter: @GBranniganWritr

All Characters, places and events are fictitious and are not associated or inspired by any person living or dead. The author was not striving for historical accuracy as all places and events are purely fiction and not intended to be historically accurate.

Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara

Grace Brannigan

cover by Tatiana Villa

Copyright 2012 Elaine Warfield

ISBN: 978-1-939061-23-2

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Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara

Chapter One

Sara Holmes paced the hospital corridor, the walls the same suffocating white as every other hospital. Why wasn't there any news about Jilly and the babies? Gripping her coffee-stained Styrofoam cup, she walked back out to the main lobby and looked at the clock. Five more minutes and she’d check at the nurses’ station.

The hospital hadn’t been able to reach Lucas Stihl, the father of Jilly’s babies. Sara crushed the cup and dropped it in the garbage, never having understood how warm, impetuous Jilly ever got involved with Lucas. She’d only met him twice, but although she found him incredibly attractive, like his name he seemed to have a hard, unyielding edge.

Sara sat on the stiff-cushioned waiting room chair. When would they let her see her best friend and cousin Jilly?

Sara watched a doctor in green scrubs approach. He seemed to walk in slow motion, a certain resolve on his face. She was familiar with that expression, what she’d dubbed the professional face. Doctors and nurses worked with crisis situations every day, and it was essential they protect themselves from personal involvement. Sara ducked her head and stared at the gray specks on the floor. Someone was getting bad news. Perhaps the woman across from her whose husband had been in a tractor accident, or the teenager two seats over awaiting word on her injured boyfriend.

The doctor stopped in front of her. Are you Sara Holmes?

Moisture dampened her forehead, fear a hard knot in her stomach. She pushed herself from the chair and stood. Sara flashed back to three years ago, to the doctor’s eyes when he’d told her she had ovarian cancer. An echoing inside her head hurt, and that other doctor’s office filled her vision again. Now, as then, the words were unnecessary as deep fear crept into her heart.

The doctor motioned Sara into a small office off the waiting room. Stiffly she moved into the room, hardly aware he closed the door behind her. ...I’m Doctor Myers…I’m sorry, but Jillian Anderson sustained multiple head injuries in the car crash, we couldn’t save her…

The fear banding her chest let loose and empty loss rushed in. In her memory were the childhood tea parties and make-believe dates she and Jilly used to act out. Hopes, dreams and confidences shared. Lost. All lost. She sat down hard in a chair, gripping its arms while despair wrenched at her insides. No matter her personal demons, she should have come earlier to see Jilly.

Words stuck in her throat, the grief incredible as every part of her reacted with denial. Dazed, she realized the doctor still stood there. There were more words, but they made no sense to her. Were Jilly’s babies also gone? More pain filtered through, uncertainty stabbing like shards of glass. She was afraid to ask, yet the words poured from her throat. Jilly’s babies -- how are the babies? Not another tragedy, another child lost…a person could bear only so much loss in a lifetime.

He hesitated. An emergency C-section was performed and the babies are in a special ICU since they’re premature. We’ve been trying to contact the father. It helps if we have both parents’ medical history in case of an emergency.

Sara tried to focus. I left a message for Lucas. Are the babies in trouble?

We're being cautious, he said. Premature infants can experience any number of problems, which we’ll address if they arise. Would you like to see them?

The babies? She hunched her shoulders, rubbing her forehead. No. I-I -- Sara tried to think. Jilly was gone. Her babies fought for their lives; they at least had a chance. A sudden, urgent need gripped her. Yes. She had to see for herself they were okay. Surely she could handle that much. She had to be there for Jilly’s babies.

I’ll send for someone to take you upstairs. Again, I’m sorry, Ms. Holmes.

Through blurred vision Sara watched him open the door, look back at her, then walk away. She tried to gather her thoughts, walked slowly back out into the main waiting room. The others in the room looked at her with sympathy, but it didn’t touch Sara. Jilly’s last letter had been artfully vague, but she’d expected a normal, uneventful birth for her twins, and she’d urged Sara to come home…again.

Sara looked at her hands, vaguely noted the half-moon crescents where her nails had dug into her palms. What would happen to the babies? Jilly had planned on having them live mostly with her. Jilly had always said Lucas had an incredibly busy work schedule.

Jilly was gone. As teenagers, they’d been the best of friends and as close as sisters. She felt empty, yet a hard ache pulled at her insides. This was a nightmare. How could Jilly be gone just like that…she’d never had a chance to say goodbye.

Ms. Holmes? Dr. Myers asked me to take you upstairs.

Sara looked at the young woman who’d come to stand beside her and she nodded, making some kind of response, she supposed, because the woman indicated she should follow. In a daze, Sara followed her to the elevators. Thoughts crowded her brain as she tried to think clearly. She kept seeing Jilly’s smiling face, the devilment that was always in her eyes. When they were kids, she’d been game for anything.

As they walked down a long corridor Sara clenched her cold hands.

Lucas should be here. She’d left a frantic message with his brother Mark, but she hadn’t been able to tell him anything except that Jilly had been involved in a car accident. Sara closed her eyes tightly, squeezing back the tears, the harsh strangling in her throat.

They stopped in the hallway and the woman indicated the wall on their left. This is a special nursery where they monitor the babies continuously. I’ll go speak with the nurse in charge so she can give you any information they have so far. The woman touched her arm. Will you be all right?

Of course. Thank you.

When she left Sara braced herself, slowly faced the glass panel set in the wall. The room beyond the glass held a frightening abundance of equipment.

She pressed her fist to her mouth, biting back any sound. Jilly’s babies lay in separate incubators, tiny, dark-haired little human beings. Needing something to lean on, Sara pressed her palms against the cool glass and blinked rapidly, her knees trembling. The babies wore only diapers, their frail arms and legs sprawled on the white material, laden with tubes and wires. So many lights and monitors…Sara wanted to crawl into a corner somewhere and avoid all of this. It was worse than she’d expected. Why had she come up here? There was nothing she could do; it was up to the doctors…

The babies remained unmoving, and if it weren’t for the flashing digital lights, she might have thought they were lifeless. Just like Jilly. Sara leaned her head back against the glass. Jilly had emailed her an ultrasound picture of the twins. Sara recalled the dart of envy tinged with resentment she’d felt that it was Jilly who was pregnant and not her. Jilly was having the babies Sara could never have. Guilt wrenched Sara as those thoughts slipped in. Her chances had slipped away three years ago. How could she be envious of Jilly, who had stood by her all through the cancer treatment and recovery?

Sara.

She jerked away from the glass and turned, saw the man moving toward her in the hallway. She drew hardly a breath as she watched Lucas, and how could she not? She'd never said he wasn't drop dead handsome, those gray eyes intent as he drew closer. Slung over one shoulder was a dark brown canvas duster, and she could see the spatter of rain on the material. Dark hair swept back and parted off-center, skin touched by the sun and shoulders wide enough to cry on. Lucas. He had come. His lean countenance was the only familiar face in this heart-wrenching place, and maybe that’s why she felt a rush of relief. Quickly, she searched his eyes, wondering how much he already knew.

His glance moved past her and she knew the exact instant he saw the babies. There suddenly appeared a deep welling of emotion in his eyes. Sara had thought Lucas cold. Seeing the unguarded emotion on his lean face, she knew that this man’s heart bled for his babies lying so still in the next