Small-Town Brides (6 page)

What if the old man, Elmer, fell asleep? Or the younger man, Conrad, didn't really know where things were in all of that darkness? Was there a chance Clay could be lost himself?

She heard the coffeemaker signal that the pot was full. She was glad she could at least do this much for him.

T
he blizzard had almost completely died down and Rene could see thin streams of light coming through the windows in the pastor's study. Time had slowed down until every second had an impact. She had just finished feeding Mandy some soup and the young woman was calm for the moment.

“Is that them?” Mandy asked as she looked up from the sofa.

She had asked the same question every time there was a door opened or shut in the past hour. But Rene didn't mind.

“Let me go check.”

“Wait!” Mandy said before Rene could stand. “How does my hair look? I don't want Davy to see me with funny hair.”

“If he knows what's good for him, he'll be glad to see you no matter how your hair looks,” Rene said a little fiercely. The more the young woman talked the less Rene was sure that this Davy was good enough for her.

Mandy's voice got quiet. “Do you think he is really going to marry me? My mother used to say he was just taking me for granted.”

Rene patted the young woman's hand. What could she say? “If he really is taking you for granted, you're better off without him.”

When she met this young man, Rene intended to take him aside and talk to him. He had some explaining to do.

“I wish he'd be a little jealous or something,” Mandy continued. She sounded like she wasn't hearing anything Rene was saying. “Just so I'd know he felt the same way I do.”

Rene gave up. Pure wistfulness filled Mandy's voice. Being in love could be lonely. Rene knew that. For herself, she was surely missing—Rene stopped. She almost forgot. She should be missing Trace. But the face she wanted to see right now wasn't his. She had a sinking feeling when she realized the face she was hoping to see belonged to Clay. She was no better than Mandy, longing for something that just wasn't there.

“How's she holding up?” Charlie asked as he walked into the room. He'd gone to make another phone call to the small hospital in Miles City.

“Worried,” Rene said with a smile toward Mandy.

“They'll be back soon,” Charlie said as he bent over Mandy. “Then we'll take you to the hospital. Just as a precaution.”

“I could go without Davy if I have to,” Mandy said with a quick glance at Rene. “He can follow me for once.”

“Good for you,” the older man said as he straightened up and looked at Rene. “You need to eat something, too. There's more soup in the kitchen. Go get yourself a bowl. I'll wait with Mandy.”

“I'm fine,” Rene said.

“That's an order,” the older man said. “I don't want to have two patients.”

Rene had to admit her legs were a little cramped from sitting on that folding chair. “I'll be back.”

“Maybe you can see them from one of the windows,” Mandy said.

“I'll look,” Rene said as she walked out of the room.

She hadn't let herself think about what it meant that the men weren't back yet. They obviously hadn't found Davy right away or they would all be sitting in the church by now warming up.

Rene walked down the hall and crossed the back of the sanctuary to get to the entryway. She opened the door and walked out on the front steps. The blizzard had stopped and everything was quiet. The sky was growing lighter in the east as the sun started to rise. She looked down the only street and saw the tracks of Clay's truck. The houses were all white with snow, and the little town looked peaceful. There was no sign in the distance of Clay's truck coming home, though.

If there was anything but snow-covered hills around, she would wonder if Davy had taken this opportunity to leave Mandy. It was hard to respect him when he hadn't already married the young woman. No one needed to wait until Idaho to take their wedding vows. Mandy had assured her that they were both eighteen. There were churches all along the road there and any number of ministers willing to marry them. She wondered if the guy was a complete flake.

Rene turned around and went back into the church. All they could do was to wait.

 

Clay was fed up with love. He and Conrad had managed to find the missing Davy just before daybreak and they'd worked hard to bring him back to the road. The skinny kid had cramps in his legs and his feet were half-frozen. But
instead of letting them put him in the truck, he'd used what little strength he had to walk over to the car he'd almost driven in the ditch just hours before. He stood there and refused to go anywhere until Mandy came back.

“I can't leave her. I love her,” the exhausted young man said as he held onto the door handle of the car for support.

“She's safe,” Conrad told him for the third time, trying to coax him over to the truck. “She's waiting for you in the church in Dry Creek.”

Davy looked pathetic, but he didn't move. “She's going to have my baby. She's everything to me. And I haven't even married her.”

Clay shook his head. Davy didn't look any older than Mandy. Both of them were too young to be parents, in his opinion. He would have thought the realities of life would have knocked some of that love out of them by now, too. They both talked about it like they were sincere, though.

“Just get in the truck. I'm cold and hungry and your girlfriend is waiting for you at the church—well, unless they found a way to get her to the hospital,” Clay said.

“The hospital?” Davy looked up in alarm.

At least that seemed to get the guy's attention. Clay had to admit the young man was probably making all the connections as fast as he could. His brain must be still frozen. Davy had been lost in the snow for hours by the time they found him. Fortunately, he had been wearing a heavy coat and had found a bit of shelter next to some squat trees on the side of a gully.

Davy let go of the door handle to the car and held his hands out to Clay and Conrad. “Take me to her.”

“Finally,” Clay said as he stepped forward.

By the time they got to the outskirts of town, Davy
seemed reasonably thawed. He was sprawled out between Clay and Elmer on the front seat of the truck. Conrad was squeezed into the small back seat, his legs almost to his chin. No one had the energy to talk or move until Clay drove into town. He wondered if anyone else had managed to get through the snow by now. The blizzard was over and the sun was starting to rise. It made him feel downright triumphant.

Clay honked the horn on his truck briefly. That should get them a welcome.

Sure enough, the door to the church flew open. There had to be a half-dozen people crowded in the doorway. Clay had to squint to figure out which one was Rene.

Elmer opened the passenger side of the truck and climbed down. Clay had his hand on his own door handle when the minister came running up to his window.

“Thank God you're back,” the minister said when Clay rolled down his window. “You need to take Mandy to the hospital in Miles City. Something is going wrong.”

Clay didn't like the way the minister looked; the man was worried.

“I'm ready to go,” Clay said as Conrad climbed out of the backseat and stood by the passenger-side door.

It didn't take more than a few minutes for Rene to squeeze into the backseat and for the men to lift Mandy into the front seat next to Davy.

“Charlie's inside talking to the hospital on the phone,” the minister said. “They'll be expecting Mandy. Go now. Call us when you get there.”

“Shouldn't Charlie be coming, too?” Clay asked as he looked up at the door of the church. No one else was standing in the opening.

“He gave me instructions,” Rene said. “I'm all set.”

Clay nodded and the passenger door was closed. Mandy sighed deeply as she leaned against her boyfriend while he put his arm around her. Clay started the truck and backed up so he could turn around to take the road into Miles City.

“Remember to stay calm,” Rene said as she reached over and touched Mandy on the shoulder. “Try to think of something else.”

“The sun's up,” Mandy said. “That's nice.”

“Yes, it is,” Rene agreed.

Mandy took a quick breath and then closed her eyes on a pain.

“Maybe you should count,” Rene said. “Charlie said you needed distractions.”

“Charlie's a good man,” Clay offered. “It's best to do what he says.”

Mandy opened her eyes and looked over at Clay. Rene could see how the sun shined from the east and highlighted Clay's profile. She wasn't sure what Mandy's slight smile meant, though, until the younger woman spoke. “We should add hats to the list.”

“Huh?” Davy said as he shifted his arm so it would go behind Mandy more fully. “You want to buy some things? We could do that.”

Mandy shook her head. “No, I'm adding it to the husband list. Me and Rene are making our lists.”

Rene half-choked. Did Mandy mean she was making a list, too? “I thought you—” Rene stopped. What was Mandy doing?

“A hat just looks so masculine,” Mandy continued. “Yes, we definitely want a man with a hat—a big cowboy hat.”

“But I wear a cap,” Davy protested. “Remember, I like the baseball brim?”

Rene thought she heard Mandy purr for a second and then the younger woman said, “Clay wears a cowboy hat.”

Clay could feel everyone in the truck staring at him, and not all of the gazes were friendly. He swore he didn't understand women. He did recognize the glare he was getting from Davy, though. “I hear baseball caps are popular these days.”

The young man grunted.

“Not every man can wear a cowboy hat,” Rene agreed emphatically.

Clay remembered that Trace wore a Stetson. Of course, Rene would put that on her husband list.

“It's just that a cowboy hat looks so romantic.” Mandy finished her comment with a sigh. “And what woman doesn't like a little romance in her life?”

“I can be romantic,” Davy said stiffly.

Clay was starting to feel sorry for the young man. Just then Mandy gave a deep gasp that had Clay hunching forward over the steering wheel again. They were a good ten miles from Miles City. Fortunately, the roads had become better as they got closer. The snowplow must have cleaned some of the snow off last night.

They were quiet for miles. Clay figured Mandy and Rene must have given up on their relaxation goal. How could anyone be totally calm when Mandy was sitting there with her lips pressed tightly together in pain?

 

Clay didn't know what to do about it, but it looked to him like the young woman was going to have her baby early. He was relieved when he saw a cluster of buildings come into view. It was Miles City.

A large sign led to the hospital, and Clay drove the
truck up to the front entrance. Snow covered the parking lot, but there were enough footprints in it to show that the place was open.

Davy was closest to the passenger door and he carefully moved his arm, which was holding Mandy, so that he could open the door.

“I'll come around,” Clay said as he turned the engine off.

“Maybe you should go inside and get a wheelchair,” Rene said from the back. “Charlie said they have them right inside the door here.”

Clay nodded as he opened his door and climbed down. He hurried around the front of his truck and went inside the building.

“Wheelchair?” Clay demanded of a matronly nurse who was walking by. “We have a pregnant woman outside.”

“Charlie's girl?”

“Yeah.”

“I'll get some help.” The nurse turned to the reception area.

Clay thought he could relax once he got Mandy inside the hospital, but he was wrong.

 

“You're sure you don't know what insurance she has?” the woman at the reception desk was asking Davy. “She said she'd been seeing a doctor in Minneapolis.”

“She was at her parents'. It was their insurance,” Davy said, leaning on the shelf by the receptionist window.

“Maybe you could call them up and get the information,” Rene suggested. She was sitting on a chair nearby.

“I don't know their number. Besides, they hate me.”

Clay was standing beside the window and he hadn't said a word. Those two young people thought it was enough that they loved each other, but they were wrong. It
was never all a couple needed. He could see why their parents were concerned.

“Can't you just admit her now and figure out the insurance later?” Clay turned slightly so he could smile at the receptionist. Being cordial was the last thing he wanted to do right now, but he didn't see any other way out of this. A smile often worked.

The woman didn't relax a muscle.

“We have policies,” she said. “We need to know the bills will be paid when we admit someone.”

“I'll pay,” Davy said fiercely. “I've got a job waiting for me.”

The receptionist looked down at the form Davy had partially filled out. “I don't see your name here. My understanding is that the young lady is not married.”