The Midwife And The Lawman

Devon opened her mouth to say she’d be in at her usual time, and then changed her mind. She could use a few hours to herself. “All right. I will. Good night, Lydia.”

“Good night, Devon.” She replaced the receiver.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes. One of my patients is spotting a little. She’s still early in her first trimester, so it’s probably hormonal. The cervix is very sensitive at this point, so it could also be that she and her partner were just a little too energetic in making love.”

Miguel lifted his hands in a time-out gesture. “Whoa. That’s enough.”

Devon laughed. “I’m sorry. I was thinking out loud.”

He was smiling, but he looked distinctly uncomfortable, and totally, breathtakingly male. Her stomach tightened in response and she felt her pulse speed up.

“That’s more information than I really need,” he said.

“I’ll remember that.”

“Are you heading back to the clinic?”

“No. My grandmother is going to check Carla over. She’ll call me if she needs me.” She caught a glimpse of the smooth, bronzed skin of his throat. She had kissed him there that night, and the taste of his skin had been like sunlight and sagebrush. She forgot what they’d been talking about. She forgot what she was going to say next. “I really should be going,” she finished in a rush.

“You don’t have to run off, Devon.” He kept the width of the table between them, but she felt as if he was only inches away. She wished he was only inches away.

“I…” She stopped and got hold of herself. “Would you like me to drop by and check on your grandfather while I’m out that way tomorrow morning?” They were neighbors. Neighbors did things like that for each other.

“The Belton place is five miles from Granddad’s.”

“I thought I’d drive on up to Silverton. I haven’t been there since I got back.” Silverton was an old abandoned mining town in the hills north of Enchantment. Horseback rides, picnics, a played-out silver mine and false-fronted wooden buildings slowly falling into ruin. It had been one of her favorite places as a girl.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. We’ve been getting a lot of calls about stuff coming up missing out that way. Probably just kids, but with the INS cracking down on border crossings, the Coyotes are working their way farther north all the time.”

Coyotes, the unscrupulous men who transported undocumented workers across the border from Mexico and sometimes left them to die a terrible death in the desert.

“I’ll be careful. Thanks for the warning.” But the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to go.

Devon had gotten up as she spoke and was heading into the main room of the cabin, with its whitewashed walls and shiny, wide-planked wood floor. A big fireplace made of river rock stood against one wall, flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows. Hanging on the opposite wall was a gorgeous hand-woven Navajo rug in warm earth tones. Miguel’s aunt, Carmella Elkhorn, was a master weaver. The rug was most likely her work.

“Thanks again for the sandwich and the tea,” Devon said. “I’ll talk to Kim as soon as I check in tomorrow.” She reached to open the door.

Miguel circled her wrist with his hand. His grip was painless but strong. She would have had to use her other hand to pry his fingers loose, and she didn’t trust herself to touch him even that much. “We have to talk,” he said quietly. “And not about the party.”

She started to shake her head in an instinctive denial. They hadn’t seen each other a half-dozen times in the past ten years. Before that they’d parted in anger and hurt. Then the first time they were alone together, she fell apart in his arms and into his bed. He must think she’d lost her mind.

She wasn’t sure she hadn’t.

“I know we have to talk,” she said, refusing to meet his eyes. “But not now, please.” She was too vulnerable, her nerves rubbed raw by fatigue and the temptation of his nearness. “All I can say now is that I’m very sorry about…that night. And I promise you it will never happen again.”

CHAPTER THREE

“SHE’S ADORABLE, Lacy.” Devon handed the sleeping infant back to her mother reluctantly. She loved holding babies.

“She looks just like Angie did at that age.” Lacy settled the baby on her shoulder. “She’s nursing well, too. I was a little worried. I didn’t have as much milk as I needed for Angie. I had to put her on a bottle way sooner than I wanted to.”

“Any problems this time?” Devon asked, putting her stethoscope and blood pressure cuff back in her tote.

“Heavens no. My milk just gushes.”

“No redness or sore nipples?”

“A little,” she said with a grin. “She has an excellent sucking response.”

“Great. That’s what I like to hear. I’ll leave you some cream for the soreness. It should help.” Devon stood up and reached down to touch a fingertip to the baby’s silky cheek. “You did good, Lacy.”

“Thanks, Devon. Maybe we’ll do it again sometime.”

“You’re planning on having another baby?” When Devon let herself daydream about a family of her own, she always pictured herself with four children. She was an only child and had always envied big families.

Lacy nodded. “Not right away. But Tom and Luke want a boy to even out the numbers. And I like the idea of this little angel having a sister or brother close to her own age to grow up with. I hope The Birth Place will still be operating in a couple more years.”

“It will be.” Devon said what Lacy expected her to, but the truth was she didn’t know how long the clinic would stay in business if her grandmother retired. The other midwives were dedicated, but they couldn’t be expected to shoulder the responsibility of keeping the always cash strapped clinic afloat.

That would be up to her.

If she gave up her practice and her life in Albuquerque.

That was a big if.

“I’ll see you to the door.” Lacy put her hand on the arm of her chair as if to rise.

“Stay put,” Devon said, bending to pick up her bag. “I’ll see myself out.”

“Thanks. I’m still a little stiff.” Lacy settled back into the rocker. “Tom took the kids to town to buy gifts for the new baby with their allowances. They’re going to fix me a special dinner and then we’re going to pick a name for the baby.”

“Sounds like a wonderful evening.”

She smiled down at the sleeping infant. “It will be.”

Devon’s heart contracted. It always happened. She didn’t think she would ever grow blasé about watching a mother with her newborn at her breast. “I’ll stop back in a few days. We’ll fill out her birth certificate then.” The clinic usually did two follow-up visits after a birth, more if the midwife thought it necessary.

“Thanks, Devon. Say hello to your grandmother for me.”

“I will.” She let herself out of the cabin into the bright sunshine of the summer morning. The sky was so blue it hurt to look at it without sunglasses, but off to the south was a ridge of dark clouds. One of the thunderstorms she’d heard predicted on the TV the night before? This one looked to be a long way off, and moving away, so it shouldn’t spoil her trip to Silverton.

But first she’d stop and pay her courtesy call on Miguel’s grandfather.

Daniel Elkhorn had been working as a carpenter on a remodeling project at the clinic when she was fifteen. She had been born and raised in San Francisco, but long visits to Lydia in Enchantment were the highlights of her childhood. That was how she’d first met Miguel—he’d been helping his grandfather during summer vacation. Daniel had been patient with all her questions about Navajo customs and way of life. He never once asked her if her sudden interest in his heritage had anything to do with her very obvious crush on his grandson.

She had no trouble finding the turnoff to the Elkhorn place, although it had been a long time since she’d been out this way. Daniel lived in a mobile home, white with green shutters and a steep-pitched snow roof suspended above it on wooden posts. A small barn housed a couple of milk goats and a chicken run. A swaybacked roan horse grazed in a fenced pasture that would be in shade when the sun dropped behind the ridge line. A dusty, dark-blue pickup was parked alongside a newer dual-cab pickup. She wasn’t Daniel’s only visitor, it seemed.