Diana Whitney - Ooh Baby, Baby

“I know, sis.” He leaned back, understanding that his sister feared his feelings were hurt, but not certain how to explain that when it came to their mother, he couldn’t recall enough to have any feelings at all. “I know you and Mama were real close, and I know how much you miss her. Thing is, I don’t, because I can’t remember anything about her.”

“I wish you could.” Sue Anne fiddled with the microphone cord. “You missed out on so much, Travis. That pains me.”

“I didn’t miss out on nothing. I had you.” He glanced up and sighed. “Aw, geez, you’re not going to tear up on me, are you?”

“Getting a cold, that’s all.” Sue Anne sniffed and cleared her throat. “I shouldn’t have left you so soon.”

“You didn’t leave me. You got married. There’s a heap of difference.”

“You were just a kid.”

“I was nine, old enough to take care of myself.”

“No, you weren’t.” Sue Anne rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands, just as she’d done years ago when she’d been a tearful sixteen-year-old creeping into her baby brother’s room to tell him she was running off to get married. “I should have taken you along instead of leaving you with him.” She spit the last word out like a bad taste, then issued an irritated grunt and spun back to the console. “Go take a nap, Travis.”

“Is that a boss-type order, or a mommy-type order?”

She glowered over her shoulder. “You aren’t too big to whup, boy.”

“Hell, no one’s too big for you to whup.” Travis stood, rolled the kinks out of his shoulder and strode across the room. “Jimmy still have those chain saws out in the shed?”

Sue Anne was on her feet now. “What are you up to?”

“Same as always, about five foot ten.” Grinning, he tipped his hat. “If you need me, I’ll be on Rourke Way. You’ve got the address.”

With that, he sauntered out the door, whistling.

* * *

From her third-floor window, Peggy gazed out at the dark town. A few lights were visible in the distance—glowing windows in the police station across the square and in a squat building down the block that she thought was the telephone company. Apparently, those locations were relying on generators, as was the hospital. Everything else was black, cold. Dead-looking.

She shivered.

“What are you doing up, Mrs. Saxon?” The night nurse scurried across polished linoleum, whispering loudly enough to rouse the other occupant of the ward, a woman who’d given birth only a few hours ago. “It’s after midnight,” the nurse scolded. “You should be sleeping.”

“It’s too hot to sleep.”

“There’s not enough power for air-conditioning,” the nurse murmured, stopping beside Peggy’s abandoned bed long enough to indulge in a pillow-fluffing frenzy. She looked up and brightened. “A sponge bath might make you feel better. Shall I bring a water basin and a washcloth?”

“No, please don’t bother. I’ll be fine.” She gazed back out the window, fighting fingers of fear that she couldn’t quite identify and was powerless to control.

Clucking her tongue, the woman snagged Peggy’s arm, hustling her back to bed. “My dear, you really must get some rest. You’ve a big day on Monday. The blackout will soon be over, and you and your beautiful little ones will home, starting your new life together. Isn’t that wonderful?” Without waiting for an answer, the nurse tucked in the bedclothes, patted her patient’s stiff shoulder and left the room.

Peggy winced, swallowing a sudden surge of tears. She wasn’t really going home. Home was a cheery clapboard house a thousand miles away, a place where her beloved mother had once baked cookies, bandaged skinned knees and hugged away loneliness. There had been nothing on earth that Peggy’s mom couldn’t fix with a loving kiss, a soothing word. She’d raised her daughter alone, without the slightest hint of financial or emotional support from the husband who’d abandoned the family when Peggy was barely four. Her mother had worked, slaved, sacrificed everything for her child. When she’d died, Peggy’s entire world had collapsed.

So Peggy didn’t have a home anymore. All she had was temporary use of a dilapidated structure in a town of friendly strangers, a town in the throes of crisis. Like her mother, Peggy had been abandoned to raise her family alone. Unlike her mother, Peggy didn’t have the foggiest notion how that could be done.

Although Peggy had squirreled away as much money as possible during the past six months to get her through the upcoming maternity leave, but she’d still have to dip into her small savings for food, baby supplies and medical costs until she could return to work.

And then what? Even if she could afford the exorbitant price of good day care, how could she hand her precious children over to strangers?

How could she not? She had to work, had to support her babies.

“Oh, God, Mama,” she murmured into the darkness. “I wish you were here.”

Then she turned into her pillow and wept.

* * *

The moon was out. Travis thought that a good sign. No more rain, at least for a while. Grand Springs could dry out, clean up. Clear the roads.

The last item was the most important, at least to Travis’s mind. He gazed past Sue Anne’s frilly curtains to the sturdy pickup with the weatherproof Fiberglas shell that had served as his permanent home for more years than he cared to remember. It was a good truck, dependable as a well-broken roping horse. He and that old diesel had ridden a lot of miles together, seen a lot of fine country. Grand Springs was a nice-enough place, but it was small, kind of stifling for a career cowboy like Travis John Stockwell.

Travis John.

He smiled, turning away from the window, savoring the image of a screwed-up little face framed by wispy feathers of auburn hair. His namesake. Lordy, the thought sent a proud shiver down his spine. It was almost like being a daddy.

Or, at least, it was as close as Travis would ever get, since fatherhood had been crossed off his list a long, long time ago. Kids were too special, too vulnerable to be stuck with a broken-down rodeo bum—Peggy Saxon’s decisive voice boomed into his mind. I take umbrage at the term ‘bum.’ You’re a fine man, and I won’t allow you to make light of yourself.

Properly chastised—again—he felt himself flinch, then grin stupidly into the darkness. No one had ever scolded him for thinking too little of himself. Truth was, he kind of liked it, liked the spitfire spunk in Peggy Saxon’s eyes as she’d stood up to him without a second thought. Most women were kind of wishy-washy, always trying to please a man, butter him up with wiles and such. Not Peggy. She wasn’t afraid to stand up in a man’s face and tell him what was on her mind. Travis liked that.

And he liked her, too. Feisty women intrigued him. He admired their spunk and independence. Most of all, he liked that they didn’t need him.

Not that he minded helping folks out now and again, but he didn’t want to be needed, to be smothered by the clingy weakness of those who didn’t have enough gumption to face the world on their own.

Peggy Saxon wasn’t like that, he decided. She was a tough woman, and smart, too. He liked the way she spoke, using educated speech the way rich folks used money—by tossing it around without a worry in the world. He admired that, admired her. There was just one small problem. Travis couldn’t seem to get the gutsy little redhead out of his mind. For a man who’d already taken the road as his lady, that was bothersome. And it was scary.

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