Baby in His Arms (16 page)

“I’m Haley.”

“I know.” The voice was barely a whisper. “You have my baby.”

The anxiety ratcheted up again. “I’m taking care of an abandoned baby, yes.”

The girl blushed a deep scarlet. Her hands twisted together at her waist. “I’m sorry. Is she okay? I heard she was sick, but it took me a little while to get here. I had to hitch.”

“You hitchhiked? From where?”

The girl ignored the question, asking in that small, nervous voice, “Can I see her?”

“How do we know who you really are?” Creed asked. Haley could see his restraint and feel the tension in his body. “Why should we let you see her, even if you are the birth mother? You walked out on her. You abandoned her.”

Tears flooded the girl’s eyes. Haley’s compassion index rose. She squeezed Creed’s hand. “Creed, let her speak.”

“Can we go somewhere else?” The teenager glanced at the nursing staff, gazing on with curious expressions. “To talk?”

“Sure.” Gently, Haley took the girl’s bony arm and ached to feel her tremors. “Rose’s room is this way.”

Creed scowled, clearly disagreeing with her decision to let the teen see Rose. What else could she do? The girl was here. She was the birth mother. To send her away in anger would only make them all feel worse and might cause more of a problem. They might as well face head-on whatever the girl wanted.

With a quick warning grimace toward Creed, Haley led them back inside the unit. The teenager rushed immediately to the crib but didn’t touch anything, not even Rose. She crossed her arms over her bird chest and swallowed.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Haley explained as well as she could. The girl nodded. “Will she get well?”

“The doctors think so. She’s strong and spunky.”

A gleam of pride lit the girl’s eyes. There was love inside this young woman regardless of her actions.

“How old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

Dear Lord. “What’s your name?”

“Lizzy.” She fidgeted, dropped her arms to her sides and went to the window. “You probably think I’m terrible. And you’re right. I did a terrible thing.”

Haley shot Creed another look, afraid he’d agree with the girl and stop the flow of information. Even if Lizzy reclaimed Rose as her own, Haley wanted to understand what had driven her to leave a newborn baby at the church.

“You don’t seem like a person who would do bad things. Tell us what happened.”

“I got pregnant.”

“That happens, Lizzy. It doesn’t make you a bad person.”

“You don’t know my brother. I live with him and his family. He’s got a lot of kids and he told Hannah one more and he’d drown it. Our folks are dead or gone or something. I don’t know. He’d kill me if he found out. Besides, I don’t want him around any baby of mine. He’d teach it terrible things like he does his other kids. You don’t know him. You don’t know how he is when he gets mad. So I didn’t tell anyone.”

“How was that possible? You can’t hide a pregnancy.”

“No one looks at me much unless they’re mad. I’m skinny, too, so I just stayed by myself most of the time. No one cares. I don’t go to school or nothing. I have this special place in the woods. I had the baby there.”

Shock ricocheted up Haley’s back. She glanced at Creed, trying not to show her dismay, but probably failing. “By yourself?”

“Yeah. It hurt a lot. I wrapped her in a red tablecloth. I’m sorry. That’s all I had.”

Dear God, help this child.

Haley looked to Creed again. His anger was gone. Pity was written all over his face.

“Lizzy, I’m sorry about what you’ve been through. Maybe we can help.”

Lizzy touched Rose’s foot. The baby jerked, pulling her leg up. The girl smiled for the first time. Her teeth were bad.

“She’s so pretty. I prayed for this moment, to have a chance to see her again. I know I shouldn’t have left her in that church, but I didn’t know what else to do. The idea came to me when I prayed under Whisper Falls. I thought God was telling me to go to the church. I thought leaving her was the right thing. But maybe it wasn’t. I don’t know.”

Haley’s heart lurched. “Are you planning to take her away? When she’s well again?”

The girl looked up, bewildered. “Didn’t you understand what I said? I can’t take her.”

“You care about her, though.”

“She’s so pretty.” Lizzy rubbed a finger up and down Rose’s leg. “Like a perfect doll.”

“What about the baby’s father?” Creed asked, “Will he have a claim on her?”

Lizzy’s gaze skittered to Creed and then away. “No. He’s dead. I don’t want to talk about him. He was bad, but it’s not the baby’s fault. She’s perfect. Not like him. Or me, either.”

Haley was afraid to delve too deeply into the girl’s statement, but clearly she’d had a difficult life.

“Let us help you, Lizzy. If you’re in a bad situation, we know people who can get help.”

“It’s my baby that matters.”

“You matter, too,” Creed said softly.

“No, I’m okay.” The greasy ponytail swayed as she shook her head. “I have a boyfriend now. He’ll take care of me, but he doesn’t want someone else’s baby to feed. That’s the way my people are.”

“Fifteen is a little young, Lizzy.”

“I didn’t come here about me. I can’t stay very long, but before I leave I have to be sure.”

Haley’s heart bumped. “Of what?”

“The nurse told me you’d both been here every minute. You’ll take good care of her. I know you will. I can tell.”

“You can count on it,” Creed said.

“You’ll raise her right and take her to church and let her be a cheerleader if she wants? Maybe even let her have her own room?”

Haley’s whole being ached at the simple, childlike requests. A room of her own. And a cheerleader. That’s as far as Lizzy’s vision could reach. Even though she’d been through a pregnancy and delivery alone, Lizzy was still very much a child.

“I’ll make sure she’s well-cared for, Lizzy. You have my promise.” Somehow, someway, regardless of where the future took Rose, Haley silently promised to be her advocate.

The girl smiled again, a radiance damaged by sorrow and bad teeth. The sight pierced Haley’s soul.

“I prayed for God to send her the perfect parents and he did. A real daddy and mama to love my baby. My prayer was answered.”

Haley saw Creed jerk as if he, too, had just realized what Lizzy was asking. The teen thought she and Creed were a couple. That they were adopting Rose—together. Haley couldn’t speak for Creed, but she loved Rose Petal and wanted to adopt her.

Hope was a butterfly fluttering in Haley’s chest. Was such a thing possible for a woman whose life had been lived in short-term increments?

Her gaze locked with Creed’s for one long moment, pleading with him to keep silent about their relationship. Let Lizzy believe they were a couple. Let Lizzy believe with confidence that she was doing the right thing for Rose Petal.

She watched his face, praying until his confusion and worry changed to compassion and decision.

“We’ll do everything in our power to give her the best life any little girl could have,” he said softly.

Even though there was much more to the story, he’d told the truth. They would do their best.

Haley slipped an arm around the sad young woman and hugged her side. “We call her Rose.”

“I like that.” Lizzy cupped Rose Petal’s dark cap of hair in a gentle caress. “Rose. A perfect flower.”

“Would you like to hold her?”

The girl’s eyes widened. She shook her head and backed away from the crib. “No, I can’t.”

Haley touched her arm. “I understand.”

If Lizzy held Rose, she might not be able to let go. And this incredible, sacrificing young lady wanted to give her child more than herself.

Chapter Sixteen

C
reed moved through the line in the hospital cafeteria, filling his tray. He’d left Haley and Lizzy alone to talk, but the truth was, he’d had to get away. He needed some time to think and pray as well as to return a half dozen telephone messages.

His brain was a fog. Something earthshaking had occurred inside Rose’s hospital room and he had to sort it out.

“Roast beef,” he said to the gloved woman behind the glass. He added a hot roll, a side of corn and a dish of strawberry shortcake, figuring he’d earned a hearty meal after days of grabbing a sandwich here and there.

The back of his neck tingled from fatigue and his eyes were gritty. But he had far deeper concerns on his mind.

Taking the tray, he found an empty table next to a nurse who was deep into reading a book as she absently nibbled on a sandwich. The spot was quiet enough for phone calls.

He phoned his buddy Kyle, who had borrowed a chopper somewhere and was fulfilling Creed’s scheduled tours. That much, at least, was a relief. He didn’t want his business to get a reputation for being undependable.

Then he called his dad and told him about Rose’s birth mother.

“Sounds like the girl has had a hard time,” Dad said. “Anything we can do for her?”

The offer warmed Creed’s heart. Dad and Mom were like that. If someone was in need, they’d extend a helping hand. But, as he told his dad, Lizzy didn’t want a hand.

Lizzy, who’d never given a last name, had shocked him with her arrival and even more so with her decision. He was still trying to figure her out. So many unanswered questions that she seemed unwilling to answer.

“I’m glad she’s here, Dad, for Rose’s sake. Haley’s getting medical history from her now.”

“Got you thinking of your own situation, didn’t it, son?”

“Some.” A lot actually.

“Remember, I have a lawyer looking into your records. I could give him a call and hurry things along.”

“Except for the medical information, I’m not sure I want to know.” Not now. Not after he’d met Lizzy.

“Searching or not searching is completely your call.”

“I appreciate that, Dad.” Creed eyed the gray food tray. The scent of roast beef called to him, but his need for Dad’s quiet wisdom was greater. “What about Lizzy, Rose’s birth mother? Should I call Chief Farnsworth and turn her in?”

“You’re there with the girl. What’s your take? Is she a criminal? Does she deserve any more pain and suffering?”

“What she did was wrong.”

“In your view.”

He heard his father’s wisdom. It was easy to sit back and judge. “Are you telling me to walk a mile in her moccasins?”

“Something to consider. And pray about it. Pray for her. There’s always more to every human story than first meets the eye.”

They talked a few more minutes while Creed’s roast cooled and his soul was encouraged. Dad had that effect on him. He didn’t even want to imagine what his life would have been without Larry Carter as his father.

He squeezed his eyes closed in silent thanks. God had always met his needs. Even when Creed had been too young to care for himself, God had been at his side, providing, loving, guiding his way. The same way He had been doing for Rose.

The parallels were getting clearer.

After they ended the call, Creed dug into the tender roast, and continued to mull over the conversation. He wouldn’t report Lizzy to the police. As he’d told Dad, she was just a kid.
A kid.

He chewed and swallowed, washing the food down with milk.

Had his birth mother been a teenager, too? Had she been as painfully earnest and desperately alone as Lizzy? Was that what Dad was suggesting?

A hard place inside him softened. Had she, like Lizzy, given him up, not out of selfishness as he’d thought, but because she truly wanted a better life for him?

He closed his eyes and prayed again, this time not in blessing of his meal, but asking God to forgive the bitter feelings he had never acknowledged against a woman he had never known.

* * *

Haley awakened to the sun slicing through the window blinds like julienned lemons. As it had every day of the ordeal, her heart pounded and her stomach hurt until she’d gone to the crib to be sure Rose Petal’s chest continued to rise and fall. Never mind that she breathed with a ventilator. Haley had to see for herself.

This morning, however, a nurse and respiratory therapist were already hovering over the baby’s bed. Haley had never seen either before.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, hurrying to the crib side. And where were Creed and Lizzy?

A large African American man who looked more like a linebacker than a tender nurse, smiled at her. “Gonna get little miss off that vent this morning. Your family went out to the waiting room already.”

Her family? As irrational as it was, Haley liked the sound of that. They’d left the room because of a procedure. She was supposed to leave, too, but she couldn’t. No one was messing with Rose Petal until she knew more.

“You’re taking her off the machine? Is she breathing well enough? How are her lungs this morning? Did you do X-rays? What did Dr. Klein say?” The words rushed out as anxious as her jittery nerves.

“Lands alive, girl! You are a tiger mama.” The nurse laughed. “X-ray shows the lungs are up and running smooth as butter and the infection is practically gone. Rose is ready to kick this vent out the door and take charge.”

Relief as sweet as Miss Evelyn’s apple pie filtered through Haley’s sleep-muddled brain. “She’s really going to be all right now? The crisis is past?”

“Crisis averted. Miss Rose is on the mend.” The friendly nurse patted her shoulder. “Now, Mama, you go on out in the waiting room with the rest of the family and we’ll have Miss Rose fixed up in a jiffy.”

Tears slipped from the corners of Haley’s eyes. They had prayed and Rose was better.

“Thank God,” she said. “Oh, thank You, God.”

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Rose was off the ventilator and screaming her face red.

“I don’t think she liked that,” Creed said, hovering as if he’d punch the next person who made Rose cry.

“Not one bit. Listen to those lungs, though. Strong and loud. Here now.” The nurse handed Rose to Haley. “She needs her mama.”

The words were meant to be kind, but Haley was acutely aware of Lizzy standing stiff and wide-eyed near the door. The girl had stayed all of the previous night, roaming in and out of the unit while alternately napping in the waiting room. From all appearances, she’d slept little. Even though Creed and Haley had both urged her to take the couch, she’d refused. Now, Haley felt guilty for falling asleep while Lizzy and Creed stood watch. And she felt even guiltier for the rush of pleasure she’d experienced when the nurses called her Rose’s mama.

Drawing the baby to her heart, she rocked and cooed until Rose began to settle. Creed stood at her elbow, alternately kissing the top of Rose’s head and saying, “Shh. You’re okay. Shh.”

She
was
okay. That was the greatest gift. Rose’s breathing was almost normal and her skin was cool but no longer clammy.

Creed’s sweet, unwavering attention touched Haley to the soul. She was so glad he was here. How would she have made it through the past few days without him? She would have been a basket case, pure and simple.

Even though the thought scared her as much as his helicopter, she needed Creed Carter in her life.

“Her color is better,” she said into the dark eyes only inches from hers. She breathed in Creed’s masculine warmth, a scent that meant strength and protection to Haley. Could Rose Petal sense it, too?

For whatever reason, the baby began to settle. She looked much better without the tubes in her mouth and nose, though a nasal cannula still sent oxygen into her lungs and the IV draped from her arm.

“Maybe she’s hungry,” the nurse suggested, handing Haley a bottle of formula.

“That’s what I was thinking.” Haley shook the bottle, then tilted the nipple against Rose’s lips, teasing them open. With a gasp that made the adults chuckle, Rose turned her head and latched onto the nipple.

“Sure good to see her eating again,” Creed said.

“And breathing without that awful struggle. Look at her tummy.” Even though the baby was hoarse and stopped now and then to cough and splutter formula down the front of Haley’s dress, she was definitely mending.

Dr. Klein came and went, thrilled with Rose’s improvement. “Another day or two like this and you’ll be taking her home to Whisper Falls.”

Creed and Haley exchanged happy grins. Creed looked so tired that Haley longed to smooth the tiny lines around his eyes. Maybe she would when they were alone.

With a sudden adrenaline thrill, Haley let herself think about being alone with Creed. Just the two of them. Like a real couple.

After the doctor left, respiratory therapy arrived for another breathing treatment which caused Rose to cough up phlegm, a sound that struck Haley in the heart but the therapist proclaimed as good news.

Finally, after more than two hours of changes, the unit held only Haley, Creed and Lizzy along with the tiny patient.

Lizzy, who’d resembled a trapped deer during the proceedings, crept closer to the chair where Haley sat rocking the baby.

“She’s going to get well now, isn’t she?” The girl stood with hands clasped behind her back like a child afraid to touch a porcelain doll. Other than to answer questions, Lizzy had spoken little since yesterday when she’d poured out her story. She was a ghost girl, silent and sad and watchful.

“I have no doubt she’ll recover and go home very soon,” Haley answered.

“I prayed a lot,” Lizzy whispered.

“Us, too. Every minute. God answered our prayers,” Creed said, the warm timbre of his voice like a kiss upon Haley’s skin.

“Are you sure you don’t want to hold her?” Haley asked. “She doesn’t look as scary without all that equipment.”

The girl swallowed, her chest rising and falling as if the decision was too much to bear. She tucked her lips, moistened them and swallowed again. In the whisper they’d grown accustomed to, she said, “Maybe for a minute, if you think it’s all right.”

The unspoken question tugged at Haley’s heart. She glanced at Creed and saw that he, too, was affected by the girl’s deference. Rose was her child by birth, and yet she’d asked permission. In that instant, Haley let go of any residual fear and jealousy. Lizzy was not a threat. She was a hurting young girl, doing what she considered best for her child.

“Of course it’s all right.” Haley exchanged places with Lizzy and once the teen was seated in the chair, carefully transferred the soft bundle into her arms.

Wonder moved across Lizzy’s young face as she awkwardly cradled her baby in one arm. With one fingertip, she traced Rose’s nose and ears and chin. She explored her fingers and toes. As if memorizing this moment, Lizzy stared and stared at the child in her arms.

Tenderness twisted in Haley’s heart.

“Haley,” Creed said softly, holding out a hand. “Want to walk down to the coffeepot with me?”

Haley knew what he was doing and loved him for it. He was giving Lizzy time alone, time to cry and mourn her loss, time to be certain, time to love.

Even though a tiny part of Haley feared Lizzy would take Rose and run, she refused to give it place. God was in this, as Creed kept reminding her. Let His will be done in Rose’s life.

She joined her hand with Creed’s, thankful for his strength and support. Thankful that he’d not allowed their disagreements to keep him from her side. She’d never met a man like her flyboy. He was different, and that difference gave her such hope.

“Sure. Coffee sounds good.” She loathed the muddy stuff.

Lizzy’s head jerked up, her eyes widening in alarm. “No, don’t go. She might get sick again.” She started up from the chair, unable to rise with a baby in her arms. “Here, you should take her. I’m finished.”

“Hold her as long as you like, Lizzy,” Creed said, squeezing Haley’s hand in silent communication. “We’ll stay.”

“No, take her.”

Haley and Creed exchanged questioning looks but Haley did as the girl asked. “I think I’ll put her down and let her sleep. She’s been through quite an ordeal this morning.”

As she placed the sleeping child back into the crib, Lizzy moved toward the door. “I, uh, think I’ll walk around awhile.” She swallowed again, her anxiety thick in the hospital scented air. “Thanks for letting me hold her. For everything really. I’m glad she’ll have you for parents. You’re exactly what I prayed for.”

With that, the teen hurried out, pulling the door closed behind her.

Haley moved as if to follow. “I should make sure she’s all right. She’s about to break down.”

Creed caught her arm. “I think she was holding in the tears for our sakes. Give her some time alone to cry.”

“Of course. You’re right. This must be so hard for her.”

“My thoughts exactly. She’s a kid, bearing a heavy load all alone.”

* * *

Sometime later when Lizzy had not returned, Creed went to look for her.

“Nothing,” he reported.

“Let me check in all the restrooms. She might be there, still crying her eyes out.”

Haley, too, returned without finding a trace of Lizzy. “Maybe she walked to one of the nearby stores.”

“I don’t think she had any money.” Creed had purchased Lizzy’s meals without even asking.

By noon reality set in. Lizzy was gone.

Haley stared at the sleeping baby and then at the dark, handsome man who needed a shave and a week’s sleep. “She was telling us goodbye, wasn’t she?”

“I think she was.” He lowered himself to the couch, rubbing at his scratchy beard, as stunned as Haley by the teen’s sudden departure. “She was such a sad little thing.”

“I wish she would have let us help her in some way.”

“She didn’t want our help, Haley. She wanted to be certain she’d made the right choice.”

Haley sat down on the couch beside him, thankful for his nearness. Creed was right. Lizzy had needed closure. She ached for the poor, lonely girl. The weight of her responsibility for Rose increased. For Lizzy’s sake as well as Rose’s, she had to do the right thing. Whatever that might be.