A Father in the Making

She gave him a wavery smile and Nate had to resist the urge to slip his arm around her shoulder and support her. But he caught himself in time.

He had nothing to give a woman like her. She needed someone stable, strong. Someone who could be a father to her kids.

Instead, he turned to Josh, feeling a rush of empathy. Hospitals could be intimidating and scary places. Nate crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet, his hands dangling between his knees. “Hey. How are you feeling?”

Josh gave him a smile that echoed his mother’s. Trying to be brave. “I was scared in the fire,” the six-year-old said. “And then I saw Mr. Deptuck and he got me and Angie out.” His lower lip trembled and Nate guessed he would have a few bad dreams the next while.

Nate put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. “You’ll be just fine, champ.”

He straightened and caught Mia’s gaze, her eyes holding a stark look, a direct contrast to the forced smile that held her mouth captive.

She was trying so hard to be brave, he thought. Brave for her son.

“And Jeff?” he asked.

“I’m not sure.” She shot him a frown. “Are you sure you shouldn’t see the doctor, as well?”

The concern in her voice created a flicker of warmth, but he waved off her suggestion. “I’m fine. Throat’s sore, but I’m okay.”

She looked at him like she didn’t believe him and for a moment, he found he couldn’t look away.

Stop this, he warned himself. Don’t do this.

Then he heard the sound of a baby’s whimper and he spun around. Denny and Evangeline returned with the girls. Both babies rubbed their eyes, their cheeks flaming pink.

“Oh, girlies,” Mia said, reaching out for one of them. “You are exhausted.”

Evangeline released the one baby to her and Mia held her close, tucking her little baby’s head against her neck and rocking her. She had been through a lot and was still giving her babies comfort.

A loving mother.

“So we need to figure out what to do with you and the kids,” Evangeline said, her voice taking on a brisk, no-nonsense tone. “Denny and I think you should come back to the ranch with us.”

“I can leave if you need the space,” Nate said.

“No. Your horse is in no shape to travel,” Denny replied. “We got it figured. Evangeline can’t go back to her apartment above the store until things are cleaned up so Mia, Evangeline and the kids can move into the house with Olivia. Me and you get the trailer,” he said to Nate.

Nate wanted to protest, but knew he wasn’t in any position to. His horses needed to recuperate and he needed to be close to them. The foals the mares carried were part of his stake for a new venture he hoped to set up someday. When he was ready to settle.

“So, Mia, it’s decided,” Denny said with what sounded to Nate like a forced heartiness.

“I don’t know,” Mia said, glancing over her shoulder to the examining rooms. “I don’t want to put you out. I could stay with my mother and father.”

Seemed like she didn’t want to stay on the ranch any more than he did, Nate thought.

“Your parents live in a minuscule apartment in Nelson,” Evangeline said. “You can’t go there with four kids.”

Mia sighed and closed her eyes as if she still wasn’t sure what to do.

“Just come for the next couple of nights,” Evangeline said, slipping her arm around her friend’s shoulders. “Don’t think too far ahead.”

Mia nodded and released a sigh. Denny rocked the other baby watching both of them with a fatherly look.

Nate stood on the edge of the group feeling like the outsider he was.

Then the curtain dividing the waiting area from the emergency department swished aside and the doctor stood in the entrance, motioning for Mia to come.

And he wasn’t smiling.

Chapter Three

“So you’re saying he can’t talk because of the trauma he experienced?” Mia rubbed her index finger over her chin in a nervous gesture. Nico lay on the hospital bed, looking small and helpless, his gaze fixed on the ceiling. His brown hair was tangled and messy and his eyes red and bloodshot from the smoke.

“Physically, he’s fine. For that we can be thankful.” Dr. Brouwer looked over at Shannon, the Emergency Department nurse, who was also his wife. “Do you mind watching Nico for a moment?”

Shannon nodded, then gave Mia a comforting pat on her shoulder.

As Mia followed Dr. Brouwer out of the cubicle she shot another quick look at her son, but Nico kept looking up as if trying to find something on the ceiling.

As Ben Brouwer closed the door of an empty examining room behind them, he gave her a tentative smile that made her even more wary. “We’ve done all we can for Nico,” he said, folding his arms and resting his hips against the door behind him. “The fact that he’s not talking is not connected to anything physical. It’s often called Selective Mutism. Sometimes that term applies to shy children, children who will speak at home, but not in public, or in Nico’s case, children who won’t speak after a stressful trauma. A counselor can properly diagnose this.”

“So he might not talk again?”

“The mutism is generally temporary, but because it’s psychological rather than physical we have no way of knowing how long it will last.”

“So why is Josh okay?”

“Each child is different. Stress manifests differently in them. It might be Nico’s way of controlling a world that, a few moments ago, fell apart for him in a dramatic and traumatic way. I would highly recommend seeing a counselor. I can set up an appointment with a Dr. Schuler in Cranbrook if you want.”

Mia nodded. “Please. I want Nico to get help as soon as possible. And what do I do for him until then?”

“Give him peace and quiet. Return as much as possible to some type of routine. And don’t pressure him to speak.”

Peace and quiet. Mia could do with some peace herself, she thought, rubbing her chin again.

“Do you and your children have a place to stay?” Dr. Brouwer continued, his deep voice soothing. A good doctor’s voice, Mia thought. “I understand from the paramedics that your apartment is unlivable.”

She and her children had no place to return to. They had nothing but what they wore.

“Evangeline and Denny have offered us a place on the ranch,” she managed to say.

But she wasn’t sure she wanted to stay there. Nate created emotions a mother of four children had no right to feel. Emotions she didn’t dare let in her life again.

“I suggest you take the offer. Moving Nico away from town and away from the physical reminder of what he has just been through would be a good solution.”

Mia massaged her forehead, the headache that had hovered at the back of her eyes all day now increasing. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and retreat from thinking and planning.

Only her bed was probably a charred hulk.