“Why did you send her to get me instead of sending her to get J.T. right away?”
Phelan flinched at the sound of my voice, half twisting toward me. The sun was slipping beyond the trees, shadows stretching long and blue against the snow as he perched on what I’d started calling Thom’s rock, since I so often saw my husband sitting there despite the cold.
“Tala and the babies are settled, then?”
“Kurt’s asleep and she’s nursing Gwen.” I shoved my hands deep into my pockets. “Are you going to answer my question?”
“Jacqueline could have delivered those babies without J.T.’s help,” Phelan said. “But Tala wouldn’t have weathered it very well if you hadn’t been there.”
“All I did was hold her hand,” I said. “That’s not much.”
“Sometimes, that’s all you need.” He watched me for a long moment, then asked quietly, “What did you see while it was happening?”
I shivered, knowing better than to ask how he knew. I squeezed onto the rock next to him and shook my head. “Better left unsaid.”
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t want to discuss it, Phelan.” I drew a knee up to my chest and rested my chin on it. “And you still should have sent Carolyn to get J.T., not me.”
“Everything turned out all right,” he said. “So settle down.”
“Sooner or later, you’re going to lose the right to just say that and expect me to do it,” I told him. I looked at him sidelong and sighed quietly.
“But that’s not happening today, is it?”
“No,” I admitted. “No, not today.”
He settled his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me in a brief, warm hug. “Everything’s starting,” he said quietly. “You can feel it the same as I can.”
I nodded slightly, staring at the snow sparkling in the dying light of day. “But I don’t have all the stories and tales and legends that you have to know what it all means, how it all fits together.”
“You’re happier not knowing,” he said softly.
Somehow, I knew he was telling the truth.
That went well. Of course, who knows what the next day will bring.
Love the story. Thanks for another update.