UnBreak My Heart_A Snow Valley Romance Read online

  After the Cardalls checked out Monday morning, there was nobody until later in the week. A group of young adult friends, it appeared, were apparently coming for cross-country skiing. They had three rooms booked, double occupancy. Then a family was expected for a few days.

  Her schedule looked like it was going to be busier than she had first anticipated.

  8

  Carrying a breakfast tray up the stairs, and turning right at the landing to Rayna and Wade’s room during construction, Caitlin passed Quentin once more.

  Seeing him on the stairs of the main house surprised her, but they didn’t speak. Apparently he’d been consulting with Rayna. Passing each other in silence was awkward, but she tried not to let it bother her. Perhaps Quentin had decided she was too testy to interact with.

  “Good morning, sweet Caitlin!” Rayna called when she entered. “This looks great. Except for my showers, a couple of walks to the window, or a peek at Quentin’s construction, I just lie here all day. And yet I’m starving all the time.”

  “We’ll have to weigh you,” Caitlin told her with a raised eyebrow. “Maybe put you on a diet of no more Big Sky breakfasts.”

  “I’m only big where this baby is,” Rayna said with a pretend pout as she dug into the food. The morning news was blaring on the TV.

  “Mind if I look over your medical files while you eat?”

  “They’re on the desk over there,” Rayna pointed out. “I got a copy from Doctor Taggart. You must go meet him if only to drool over the man. A fine male specimen.”

  Caitlin blinked and gave a laugh. “I figured he was some old guy ready to retire.”

  “Nope. Our little town doctor is a hunk. Tall, built, and with gorgeous blue eyes. His wife, Lucy, is also expecting their first baby. The two of them met on an airplane a couple of years ago and she kissed him in baggage claim even when they were total strangers. Lucy was trying to prevent her old high school boyfriend from proposing, but it took awhile for him to get the hint. The Taggarts have a great story about how they met.”

  “Sounds like it! Lucy sounds daring, much more than I am.”

  “That’s not true at all,” Rayna countered. “When I talk to your mother I get so jealous of you living in the romantic city of San Francisco. Engaged to a famous musician no less.”

  Caitlin’s face flamed as her stomach dropped. “Oh, didn’t she tell you?”

  “Tell me what?”

  “I broke off the engagement two weeks ago.”

  Rayna’s mouth dropped open with shock. “Oh, honey, I am so sorry. No, your mother didn’t tell me. Maybe she wanted you to have the chance. Your mother isn’t one to gossip.” She grinned at Caitlin. “In that way she isn’t the typical interfering mother, is she?”

  “That’s true. So, just to get it out in the open. Stefan cheated on me.”

  “No! Oh, sweet Caitlin, that is the absolute worst. I’m surprised you’re upright and not curled into a fetal position.”

  “You should have seen me a week ago.” Caitlin made a face, blinking hard to keep the tears from suddenly spilling.

  “Now I feel so guilty that you’re recovering from a break-up and agreed to come help me.”

  Caitlin shook her head. “No guilt, please! At first I balked, but I needed to get away. I caught him in the act at his own apartment with the other woman. Right as his band got a big recording deal.”

  “That just makes it all the worse. What a horrible ordeal.”

  “Hey,” Caitlin said. She appreciated the sympathy, but needed to change the subject. “Speaking of Doctor Taggart’s blue eyes, your contractor has a pair of stunning blues himself.”

  “Quentin Hudson is a fine-looking man, yes, indeed. Although nobody compares to my Wade.” Rayna polished off her eggs and sausage links in short order, despite her chattiness. She leaned back against her pillows, slowly eating her biscuit and watching Caitlin. “A man like Quentin can make you forget Stefan ever existed,” she teased.

  Caitlin snorted. “I hardly think so. We got off on the wrong foot yesterday and I think he despises me.”

  “Quentin doesn’t despise anyone. He may be a redheaded Irish man with a hot temper once in awhile, but I’ve known him for years. He’s a mush ball inside.”

  “He can be very direct.”

  “True. He also did the beautiful work of remodeling this old house. The crown molding and woodwork is just like it looked in the 19th century. He’s a very talented carpenter. Not just basic framing and putting up sheetrock.”

  “The house is truly stunning, I love it. You must be so proud of the Starry Skies.”

  “I adore how it all turned out, thanks to Quentin. And meeting Wade was the best thing to happen in Snow Valley.” Rayna lowered her voice, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “You know I robbed the cradle, too, didn’t you? He’s five years younger than me.”

  “You lucky woman.” Caitlin was happy for her cousin, despite her own heartache. “Time for an exam now.”

  “I have to put down the food?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Caitlin spent the next hour performing a physical on Rayna. Feeling the baby through her enlarged abdomen. And going over the medical chart. She’d brought her stethoscope, a box of sterile gloves, and blood pressure cuff with her in her luggage among an assortment of other medical paraphernalia.

  “Blood pressure is good, but since you’re older and on bed rest we’ll take it every day to make sure it doesn’t rise.”

  “Why is that bad?”

  “High blood pressure could be an early sign of pre-eclampsia. Don’t want that at all,” Caitlin told her. “Distressed babies are not happy babies. But you are perfectly healthy.”

  Rayna nodded and shifted her legs under the sheet.

  Bright sunlight spilled through the room’s east windows. Moving south as the clock moved closer to noon. The room was warm which was good. And lots of sunlight would help prevent Rayna from getting stir crazy or depressed.

  “The baby is in the correct position, head down. Just what we want. You are having slight contractions, but probably Braxton Hicks. They’re not strong enough to be concerning. But Doctor Taggart says in his chart that they were getting stronger and closer together several weeks ago, which is why he put you on bed rest.”

  “They were keeping me awake at night. I got so exhausted.”

  “I’m glad you hired Mrs. Davies.”

  “Best move ever, especially with Wade’s schedule,” Rayna agreed. “At least it isn’t summertime with a heat wave and no rain. Then there’d be fires everywhere and I wouldn’t see him for days at a time. The summer before last was bad. But that was the summer his crew slept on the lawns of the B&B and we fell in love.”

  “Sounds like a good summer to me,” Caitlin said with a grin. She glanced down at the chart again. “Doctor Taggart wrote down that at your last appointment with him you were one centimeter dilated. Now you’re two.”

  “Is that really bad?”

  “Not necessarily, although we don’t usually see that much movement until closer to due date and you still have about seven weeks.”

  Rayna made a face, fanning out her legs and arms under the sheets, her belly a huge hump like a camel. “So what do we do, Miss Midwife?”

  “We stay down as much as possible. Quick showers. No roaming the house. No cheating.”

  “Yes, ma’am. But how do you know I cheat?”

  “Because you’re too energetic and vivacious to stay still for very long. Maybe I can take pictures of the nursery’s progress and show them to you on my iPad?”

  “Well, that’s no fun!” Rayna said with a laugh.

  “Take heart. Dilation is only one thing. The thinning of the membranes means the baby is really pushing and your body is going into true labor but there’s no sign of that yet.”

  “Okay, good. Now can I have some cookies after all this work?”

  “Maybe tomorrow. You’re a couple of pounds heavier than we’d like to see, but not
too bad. Probably your age more than anything, as well as being so sedentary.”

  “I’ll just have to exercise like crazy when it’s all over.”

  “For now, take a little nap. I’ll take this tray downstairs and I’ll let you know when I leave for town.”

  Rayna reached out and took Caitlin’s hand. “Thank you for coming. I mean it. Just having you here helps my spirits and my mental state. Despite how much I love movies, I can only watch two a day before I start throwing pillows and having crying jags.”

  Grinning, Caitlin gave a wave with one hand, carrying the tray and her bag of medical supplies in the other.

  She took the dishes into the kitchen and finished stacking the dishwasher, then cleaned the granite counters and swept the floor.

  After checking the cleanliness of the dining room, she went into her bedroom and set down her medical bag, fluffing at her hair in the mirror over the dresser and reaching for her handbag for lipstick. If she left now she could get back for a late lunch with Rayna.

  A message on her phone said that Doctor Taggart had time for a quick meet-up at eleven-thirty before his lunch hour.

  Caitlin had just applied a thin layer of lip color, when, without warning, a horrendous noise shook the wall behind her.

  She turned around and stared at the wall where her door to the hallway was located. A piercing noise grew louder and she covered her ears.

  “What’s going on?” she yelled, but she knew that whoever was making the noise couldn’t hear her. It sounded like heavy machinery, but what would something like that be doing in the house? She’d recognize a hand saw or an electric motor, but this was different.

  A blast of cold air shot across the room when a crack split right down her bedroom wall. Before she could move, the crack grew with a speed that was shocking, snapping like a toothpick.

  A moment later the sheetrock pushed its way inside her room, falling in great chunks and then breaking the door jamb.

  9

  Pink insulation fell through onto her carpet. Dust clouded up into her eyes, and she began to cough.

  “Stop!” Caitlin cried out. Flinging open the door, she charged through into the work area. “Stop sledge-hammering my bedroom wall!”

  Caitlin stopped and stared. The downstairs master bedroom had been gutted and completely opened up, but the concrete floors were intact. Only the 2x6 framing was left. Bits of insulation and wood chips and muddy footprints were everywhere.

  A partial wall was still open to the outdoors. Sheets of heavy plastic were tacked to the opening, but icy cold air came through. An industrial sized heater was blasting heat to keep the work area above 32 degrees.

  Two guys turned to stare at Caitlin who was waving her arms like a crazy woman. She dropped her hands. Power tools and work benches littered the space. The ceiling was open to the new trusses, the scent of fresh pine strong.

  “You just knocked my bedroom wall down!” she yelled, pointing to the east wall.

  The men didn’t respond, just looked past her.

  Sensing someone behind her, Caitlin whirled around to face Quentin Hudson. “Are you trying to take the house down?”

  “Only your bedroom.” His mouth quirked up as if trying to get her to smile, but Caitlin wasn’t smiling.

  “Come and look.” She spun on her heels and led him into her room.

  Quentin studied the partial crack and the spilling insulation. Caitlin coughed again from the dust which was finally beginning to settle.

  “Hm. Didn’t think it had come through so far. The walls on the plans are incorrect. Come look.”

  “Look at what?” She was losing patience. “You knocked down one of the pictures on the wall, too. The glass is cracked. Rayna is going to be upset and I don’t want her worrying about anything right now.”

  Before he responded, Quentin reached down and picked up the painting of Snow Valley that Caitlin had admired the previous evening. “At least the painting is intact. That’s good. I can redo the glass and the frame.”

  “Rayna—I mean I will get it reframed. You have a new wall to fix, buddy.”

  “It’s my painting. I have the framing and matting supplies at home. I can do it tonight and it will save you time and the cost.”

  “What do you mean it’s your painting? It was on the wall of this guest room. My room.”

  Quentin didn’t answer her question directly. He pointed to the bottom right corner of the landscape. At first, Caitlin didn’t understand what he was trying to tell her and then she saw the artist’s initials, a thin black line of bold letters scrawled across. QCH.

  “QCH,” she said, realization dawning on her. “You’re QCH. You painted this?”

  He gave her a faint smile. “I gave it to Rayna and Wade for Christmas. She kept pestering me for one of my pieces.”

  Caitlin shook her head, trying to absorb what he was saying. “I thought you were a contractor. A home builder. Foundations, walls, roofs, that sort of thing.”

  “I am.” He shrugged. “But I have other hobbies. Do you?”

  “Do I what?”

  “Like to do anything besides nursing? Or midwifing? My mother was a nurse, too” Quentin said. “When I was young we had a neighbor who went into labor and her husband was out at the ranch. There were no cell phone towers out here back then so my mother delivered her baby at home.”

  “Why didn’t she take her to the hospital?”

  “No hospital back then either. And no time to get to Billings.”

  “Okay,” Caitlin said, brushing back her hair. “That’s pretty fascinating. But you’re telling me you’re an artist? Like with oil paints and brushes.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I use. Sometimes water colors. I don’t actually call myself an artist, but I guess so.”

  Caitlin looked down at the painting again, the swirl of his brush, the vibrant colors, the details. “It looks like a photograph. You’re incredibly talented.”

  He lifted his shoulders. “Thanks. You haven’t answered my question yet.”

  “What question?” Caitlin frowned. “Oh, you mean—” she stopped, suddenly aware how hard her heart was beating. “I actually love art galleries. And music. I like music.” Tears pricked behind her eyes. Good grief, was she going to cry in front of him now? Music had always meant Stefan. And now he was gone.

  “Do you dance to this music?”

  “You’re awfully nosy, but yes, I do like to dance. I used to dance a lot, but not so much anymore.”

  Before Quentin responded again, he bent over and picked up a paper that had fallen off the wall. Caitlin stared, blinking to bring it into focus. Her Fortune Teller list!

  “That’s mine!” she yelped, lunging forward to snatch it out of his hands. He caught her fingers in his as the paper changed positions. His hands were warm and when their skin made contact something strange happened inside Caitlin. She felt breathless. Excited. Nervous. And then, she was furious at herself.

  No, she wasn’t going to fall for this annoying, red-haired Irish lumberjack man. Despite his sapphire eyes that made her lose her balance and all sense of reality.

  Quentin held onto the corner of the paper for a moment longer, glancing at the black marker numbered list and scotch tape. Finally, he released it into Caitlin’s hands.

  “It looks like you enjoy fortune telling, too.”

  “Don’t you dare laugh, Quentin Hudson. You have no idea what this is. No idea!”

  His face was stoic. “I’m not laughing, Miss Caitlin Webster. Not at all. I’m merely intrigued.”

  “Well, stop being intrigued because you’ll never know. End of story.” She quickly folded up the paper and tucked it under her arm so he couldn’t reach it any longer, desperately trying to regain her dignity.

  “If you say so.”

  “So.” Caitlin gulped in air. “What about my bedroom? What the heck are you doing knocking out half my wall?”

  “As I was saying before we started discussing paintings and dancing and f
ortune telling, my guys were off by about half a foot. The original plans to this house I got from town hall are a little wrong. We had to move some electrical wiring. I’ll fix the wall and have you patched up by tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? Do it now.” Caitlin stopped, realizing how demanding she sounded. This wasn’t her house after all. “Actually, I’m leaving right now. I have an appointment, and I don’t want to be late.”

  Quentin gave her a small salute and departed. Cold air seeped through the split in her wall and she shivered. Perhaps Rayna had a room heater she could borrow later. Tucking her Fortune Teller List into her purse, Caitlin stomped to the laundry room next.

  Her coat was hanging there on a rod, clean and brushed like new, for which she silently thanked Mrs. Davies.

  When she walked down the hall to head to the foyer, she passed the construction space where the master suite was being renovated to make room for the baby’s nursery. She felt eyes on her and tried not to give in and turn around.

  Once outside, she shivered like crazy just opening her car door. Her hand shook when she inserted the key into the ignition, and it took all the way to town before the car was warm.

  She recognized the Snow Valley clinic when she arrived. Parked, and found Doctor Taggart exactly where he said he’d be.

  She was ushered into his private office and a handsome, regal-bearing man entered a few moments later.

  “I’m pleased to meet you, Doctor Taggart,” Caitlin said.

  “And I you, Miss Webster.”

  “Please call me Caitlin. Even where I come from, we’re casual at work. Except the nurses still call the doctors, Doctor,” she added with a smile.

  He smiled with her. “Did you get a chance to look over Rayna’s records?”

  “Yes, and I did an exam this morning. She’s dilated to two but holding steady as are the contractions. They stop when she’s in bed, which is good. Everything else looks great. Her health is good. Baby is active and perfectly in size for thirty-three weeks.”