I said I was sorry to hear about her.” Getting his temper under control, he asked, “Did it happen while you were in Europe?”
She looked out the window on her left. “Yes.”
He felt pity stirring within him. “That must have been awful for you, having her die and having no one to turn to.”
She blew out a breath. She didn’t want his sympathy. She didn’t want anything from him. Still looking out the side window, she said, “I managed.”
“We’re here,” he announced, and just like that, the topic was closed.
For now.
Rounding the truck’s hood, Cole came to the rear passenger door and opened it before Stacy could. Bending down, he got a firm grip on the wicker basket and drew it out of the truck. The babies were just beginning to wake up again.
“I’ll get the door,” Stacy volunteered, sliding down off her seat as soon as he had the basket. Before she hurried to the clinic’s front door, she paused to look at the babies. One of them was beginning to squirm just enough to throw the basket’s weight off while Cole was carrying it. “You want help with that—um, with them?” she corrected.
Was it his imagination, or was she trying too hard to appear unaffected by the sight of the twins? For now, Cole dismissed the thought, but it continued to hover in the back of his mind.
“Just get the door,” he told Stacy. “I’ve got the basket.”
For the briefest of moments, Stacy allowed herself a fleeting smile.
“Yes, you do,” she said, adding, “You surprise me.” When he raised an eyebrow in silent query, she explained, “I didn’t think you’d be any good with babies.”
He supposed he could see her point. She hadn’t been there to see him with either Devon’s baby or the one Cassidy rescued. “I guess we never know what we’re capable of until we’re confronted with the situation.”
“I guess not,” she agreed.
It hurt, Cole thought, talking to Stacy like this. The only thing that would hurt more would be not being able to talk to her. When she’d suddenly taken off the way she had, he’d thought he would never see her again. He hadn’t understood just what hell he’d been in these last eight months until just a few minutes ago, when he saw her walking into Miss Joan’s.
Lord, but he’d missed her.
Cole cleared his throat. “Just get the door,” he told her gruffly.
Stacy squared her shoulders as she pulled open the front door, then stepped to the side as far as she could, clearing the space for him. The basket was obviously unwieldy, despite his efforts to hold it steady, and she didn’t want Cole dropping the babies.
The second they walked in, they became the center of attention.
As usual, the clinic was full. It was the only available medical facility within a fifty-mile radius, so everyone who had a complaint of some sort, or found themselves in need of a checkup, came here. These days there were two doctors on the premises, as well as two nurses. Even so, the clinic was open from around eight, sometimes earlier, until eight, sometimes later. The doors were never officially locked until every patient in the waiting room had been seen.
Initially, the din in the clinic today was a little louder than usual, with fragments of conversations crisscrossing through the air. All that came to an abrupt, startled halt when Cole walked into the reception area carrying the wicker basket with the two babies in it. The fact that Stacy, his former girlfriend, came in right behind him was missed by no one.
Jackson’s wife, Debi White Eagle, was behind the desk when they walked in. She immediately rose to her feet, ready to help Cole with the infants he had in the basket.
“Cole, what have you got there?” Debi asked, even though she was actually looking at Stacy when she asked the question.
Cole appeared almost sheepish as he explained, “They were on the doorstep when I left the bunkhouse this morning. I really could have used you,” he added, looking at Debi.
Debi had crossed the reception area and was beside him now, getting a closer look at the babies.
“Well, you seem to be doing all right with them,” she told Cole with approval. “Whose babies are they?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Cole admitted.
His response had a room full of patients murmuring to one another.
“There was no note?” Debi asked, looking from Cole to Stacy.
Cole shook his head. “Nothing,” he answered.
Stacy merely shrugged. “I wasn’t there.”
“If you ask me, I’d say it’s finders keepers.” Ted Reynolds, an old ranch hand, chuckled.
“The poor darlings,” Amanda Rice, the grandmother of three, cooed as she came over to join the widening circle of people admiring the babies. “Where’s your mama, darlings?” She raised her eyes to look at Stacy. “And when did you come back into town, Stacy?” she asked warmly. “You’ve been missed,” the older woman told her.
“Did you bring the babies in for one of the doctors to examine?” Debi asked, wanting to take control of the situation before things got out of hand.
“Well, yes,” Cole confessed, “but I didn’t think that there’d be this many people here already.” He looked at Debi apologetically. “I’ve got to get back to my family’s ranch—”
“Well, if it helps, you can go ahead of me,” Ted Reynolds volunteered. “I’ve got no real plans for today. Nothing that can’t wait, anyway.”
“And me,” Amanda said. “You can go ahead of me,” she told Cole. “At my age, the best part of coming in to see the doctor is socializing with whoever’s waiting on him, too.”
Several other voices chimed in.
“I can wait,” another patient spoke up.
“So can I.”
“Me, too. This is the first break from work I’ve had in over a month,” Jeremy Jones said to no one in particular.
Debi held up her hand before anyone else gave up their place to the babies. There were a lot of people in the waiting area and if they all spoke up one by one, this could take a while.
She looked around at the seated people. “Can I assume that it’s all right with all of you if I just let Cole go on ahead and bring the babies in to see the doctor?”
A cacophony of voices rose in response to her question. The gist was that the patients in the reception area were all in agreement about letting Cole go in first.
Debi turned toward him. “All right, Cole, you heard them.
