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“Yes.”
“Such a pretty name.” With a warm, motherly smile, she introduced herself.
Hannah nodded, unable to speak as a groan slid past her tightly compressed lips.
Garrett couldn’t suppress his worried frown as he looked up at his mother. “Her pains are coming about six minutes apart.”
“Then I’m here just in time to take over,” his mother said, giving his arm a comforting pat.
“I’ll just wait out on the front porch,” Jackson said as he backed out through the open door.
Garrett started to stand, to join his brother, but Hannah latched on to his hand, her grip firm. He glanced down to find glistening, fear-filled eyes staring back at him, and he couldn’t bring himself to leave her side.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. Just then, thunder rumbled outside, rattling the windowpane and Garrett was pulled back to the past.
“I’m scared.”
“You’re going to be okay, Grace. I won’t let anything happen to you,” he promised. And then she was gone.
A firm hand came to rest on Garrett’s shoulder, pulling him back to the moment. “Honey,” his mother said softly beside him, “I’ll see to Hannah now. Why don’t you go wait with your brother and watch for the ambulance to get here? They might get the road cleared sooner than expected.”
He looked to Hannah, torn between the need to stay with her and the need to distance himself from the bad he knew could happen so unexpectedly.
“It’s okay,” Hannah said, slowly slipping her hand from his. “I’ll be fine.” She sent an appreciative smile to his mother.
If it was okay then why did he feel like he still needed to do more?
Before Garrett could respond, Autumn, new bride of his youngest brother, Tucker, stepped into the room. “Water is heating on the stove.”
“Thank you, honey,” his mother replied.
“Jackson called you and Tucker, too?” Garrett asked with a frown.
“He didn’t call them,” his mother replied as she returned to Garrett’s side. “I did. I thought it would be good to have another woman here to help out, just in case the ambulance hasn’t arrived by the time Hannah’s little one is ready to make his grand entrance into the world.”
“And Blue?” he asked, referring to his niece, Tucker’s little girl.
“Is back at the house, coloring with her grandpa,” Autumn answered.
“Hannah, honey,” his mother said, “this is my daughter-in-law, Autumn.”
“I’m so sorry you all had to come out on a day like this,” Hannah said, tears filling her eyes. Before either Autumn or his mother could reply, she gasped, and then clutched at the mound beneath the blanket he’d covered her with while they had waited for his mother to get there. Her pretty face contorted in pain, and her breaths became panicked, coming short and fast.
His mother nudged him from the chair. “Time for you to go join your brothers out on the porch.”
He nodded and stood, knowing his mother was right. He needed to leave the room, but it was killing him to do so. His gaze moved once more to Hannah and the pain he saw there grabbed at his heart. Lord, please find it in Your heart to ease her pain. He looked to his mother. “Call me if you need my help.”
“I will,” she said calmly.
“Garrett,” Autumn said softly from behind him.
He turned to look at his sister-in-law.
She offered a calming smile and said in that sweet, Texas-accented voice, “Your momma and I are gonna take real good care of Hannah and her little one.”
“Honey,” his mother said as she settled into the chair he had just vacated, “ask Jackson if he has a hair dryer. I don’t want Hannah catching a chill with her damp hair. We’re going to be needing some clean towels, and something to cut and then clamp the umbilical cord with. Sterilize them with rubbing alcohol, if your brother has a bottle of it on hand. And please ask Jackson to bring us that water Tucker put on the stove to boil.”
“I’ll see to it,” he replied, grateful to have something to do other than just stand around wondering when the ambulance was going to get there. He just prayed it would be soon.
“Thanks for calling to let me know,” Garrett said, relieved to hear that Justin had been able to help his mare deliver her foal safely into the world. Now he just prayed Hannah would be able to do the same with her baby.
“Keep me updated on Miss Sanders,” Justin said. “In the meantime, I’ll see to it the road to the washed-out bridge is closed.”
“I will,” Garrett said, ending the call. Then he turned and started back across the porch, shoving his cell back into the pocket of his jeans.
“You’re going to pace a hole right through my porch floor,” Jackson grumbled as Garrett passed by the rustic wooden chair in which his brother was seated.
Tucker nodded in agreement from where he sat stretched out in the matching high-back bench. “If he paces any faster, the floorboards are likely to spark into a trail of flames.”
How could his brothers just sit there, sipping at their coffee and making jests as if it were just another ordinary day? It wasn’t. Truth was, riding bulls and climbing atop broncs during his rodeo days had been less nerve-racking then this. “Do either of you realize how serious this situation is?” Garrett demanded as he continued pacing. “It’s not time for her baby to come.” He looked toward the door. “I should be in there with her.”
“She’s in good hands,” Tucker said soberly.
“Best thing you can do for her right now is pray,” Jackson suggested.
“And what if those prayers go unanswered?” he asked, as they hadn’t been with Grace. “Hannah’s too young to die.”
“Hannah isn’t going to die,” Jackson said firmly. “She’s young and healthy.”
“She’s been in labor for nearly three hours.”
“Babies come out when they’re good and ready,” Tucker replied, “If God planned to call Hannah home, He wouldn’t have seen to it that you were there to save her and the child she’s carrying from those flood waters.”
He prayed his brother was right. Yet, despite his brother’s reassuring words, Garrett couldn’t quell the restless energy that filled him. So, he continued pacing the length of the porch which ran all the way across the front of the cedar-sided ranch house.
The front screen door creaked open, bringing Garrett’s steps to a halt and drawing all three men’s gazes that direction. Autumn stepped out onto the porch and Garrett swallowed hard. It had only been forty-five minutes since he’d left Hannah in his mother’s and Autumn’s safekeeping, minutes filled with searching glances toward the distant road for an ambulance that had yet to arrive, minutes filled with anxious pacing and fervent prayers. Why wasn’t his sister-in-law still inside helping his mother? Unless...
Garrett’s heart thudded as he zeroed in on Autumn’s face. Hannah had said herself that it was too soon for her baby to be born. Not that babies didn’t arrive early all the time, but usually they were delivered in a hospital with medical equipment readily available to care for a premature baby. His fears were laid to rest the moment he realized that his sister-in-law was smiling.
“Hannah?” Garrett asked, the word coming out of a raspy croak.
“Tired, but doing well.”
Jackson sat upright and pushed to his feet. “And the baby?”
“He’s tiny,” she said, and then seeing Garrett’s worried frown, added, “but that’s to be expected seeing as how he came early. And he’s breathing on his own.”
“Thank the Lord,” all three men muttered in unison.
“No sign of the ambulance?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Tucker answered with a shake of his head.
A slight frown pulled at her lips at hearing that.
“I’ll call and see if I can find anything out,” Jackson offered.
“That would be good,” she said with a nod. Then she looked to Garrett. “Hannah’s asking for you.”
“She is?” he said, feeling a surge of something he couldn’t explain move through him. And then, without waiting for a reply, he hurried into the house. Long strides carried him down the hallway to his brother’s guest room. He needed to see for himself that Hannah was all right. That her baby was all right.
His mother looked up from where she sat watching over Hannah when he stepped into the room. “Perfect timing,” she said with a smile as she rose from the chair. “I’m parched. While you sit with Hannah and her little one, I’m going to go fix Autumn and myself a cup of tea and call your father.”
Garrett looked to the bed where Hannah lay, her face blessedly pain-free. She looked tired—understandably, after all she had been through—but there was a glow about her that hadn’t been there before. Her long hair, now dry with the exception of a few sweat-dampened spirals, fell about her face and down over her shoulders. It was the most vibrant shade of copper-red he’d ever seen, reminding Garrett of a fall sunset. Something he hadn’t picked up on in the dark of the storm.
His gaze fell to the towel-wrapped bundle Hannah held in her arms as she lay there and the tiny face peeking out of it. So very tiny.
“He doesn’t bite,” Hannah said with a sleepy smile as she looked down at the babe in her arms. “You can come closer.”
“He’s perfect,” Garrett said in awe as he moved to settle into the straight-backed chair his mother had just vacated. Despite his slightly wrinkled, blotchy red skin and scrawny little limbs, her son was perfect. The baby had a dusting of strawberry blonde hair on his head and big, slate blue eyes.
“He’s so small,” Hannah said with a worried frown as she looked down at her son. Then her gaze lifted to meet Garrett’s. “But he’s here. Without you, he might have...” Tears filled her eyes. “We might have...”
“But you didn’t,” he said, not wanting her to dwell on what could have happened. It hadn’t. “And I think the Lord played more a part in it than I did,” he added with a warm smile.
“That might be the case,” she agreed. “But you were the one He sent to save us. The man who risked his own life to save ours. The man who helped to calm me, finding us shelter during the storm. I can never thank you enough for what you did for us.”
“Seeing that you’re both all right is enough for me,” he said, noting that she could barely keep her eyes open.
“I should leave you to rest,” he said.
“I’m so tired,” she admitted with a soft sigh.
“Then close your eyes and get some sleep,” he told her.
Worry creased her brows. “I don’t dare. Not while I’m holding him. He could fall from my arms if I relaxed in sleep.”
“I could hold him for you,” he heard himself offering before he thought things out thoroughly.
“If you don’t mind,” she agreed with a sleepy yawn. “I know he’ll be safe with you, and I’ll only close my eyes for a short while.”
She was trusting the most precious thing in the world to her into his safekeeping. Garrett’s gaze came to rest on the sweet face of her newborn son. He was so small. Hardly bigger than his own outstretched hand, he thought with a surge of panic. Not that he hadn’t handled other small newborns before, but those had been in the form of bunnies and puppies and kittens. This was a baby, and he would never have one of his own.
“Garrett?”
He looked up at Hannah. “I’ve never held a baby before. I’m not sure I would even know how to go about it.”
“That’s how I felt when your mother laid him in my arms. But it’s much easier than you think,” she said with a reassuring smile. “But you’ll need to wash your hands first.”
Of course. He knew that. He should have done so before ever coming into the room, but he’d been so eager to see for himself that Hannah and the baby were all right. “Be right back,” he said, hurrying off to the washroom.
When he returned, Hannah smiled up at him. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Okay, now hold out your arms and I’ll hand him over to you.”
He did as she said, feeling an overwhelming sense of awe as she settled the babe into his outstretched arms. So, this is what becoming someone’s father would have felt like.
“Now bring him to your chest,” Hannah coached softly. “It will help to keep him warm. Just make sure his face isn’t covered. He doesn’t have as much body fat on him as a full-term baby would have had.”
As he settled the towel-swaddled infant against his chest, Garrett felt his heart swell.
“I’d like to name him after you,” Hannah said, her eyes drifting shut.
Garrett’s gaze snapped up, her words taking him by surprise.
“That is, if it’s all right with you,” she mumbled sleepily.
“I’d be honored,” he said. Truth was he couldn’t have been more honored. This child she’d given birth to was all she had left of her sister and he was going to carry Garrett’s first name. And it wasn’t as if he’d ever have children of his own to pass his name down to. His heart had died with Grace that day, along with his dreams of having a family of his own.
“What’s your middle name?”
“Austin,” he replied, his attention centered on the tiny face before him.
“Garrett Austin,” Hannah said with a sigh. Her soft, even breathing told him she had finally fallen into an exhausted slumber.
Garrett looked down at the precious bundle he held in his arms and smiled. “Welcome to the world, Garrett Austin Sanders.”
He sat holding the infant for nearly half an hour, his mother and Autumn popping in and out to check on Hannah who was still sound asleep. Both had offered to take the baby, but he’d refused to part with the sleeping infant. While holding something so small—a living, breathing little something—terrified him, Hannah had entrusted him with her baby’s safekeeping. He would keep her son cradled in his arms until she awakened.
That determined thought had no sooner passed through his mind when the sound of the baby’s breathing changed. Not significantly. If he hadn’t been holding the bundled infant against his chest, he might not have even noticed. But it had definitely quickened, the urgent little breaths enough to stir unease in his gut.
He crossed the room and stepped out into the hallway. “Mom,” he called out softly, not wanting to startle the baby.
A second later, she was in the hall, moving toward him. “Honey? Is something wrong?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered with a worried frown as he looked down at the baby. “His breathing seems a little off. I wanted to see what you thought before overreacting.” Preemies might have issues with underdeveloped lungs, but that wasn’t always the case.
Concern lit her features as she leaned in to check on Hannah’s son. That concern remained as she lifted her gaze back up to his. “His coloring doesn’t look good. We need to get him some immediate medical care.”
Care that Garrett couldn’t provide. “Take the baby and have Autumn get Hannah ready to leave.” He started for the front door.
“What are you going to do?” she called after him.
“Whatever it takes,” he answered as he let himself outside.
Minutes later, Hannah was lying across the backseat of his truck, her newborn son held securely in her arms as they drove across the range, along the fence line that ran parallel to the temporarily impassable road. He hated that they didn’t have a car seat for her son, but there was no time to wait for the ambulance to be able to get through. Jackson and Tucker had gone on ahead of them to take down a section of the fence for them to drive through in order to safely access the road beyond the downed wires.
