Carolyn Davidson (24 page)

“Yours weren’t almost ten pounds,” Cassie had grumbled later. Born during a snowstorm, Adam Tolliver made his arrival in the same bed in which he was conceived, right after the New Year. He was to be the first of many sons, his father said, once he’d gotten over the agony of bringing a child into the world.

He’d held Cassie, groaning with her throughout each pain, until old Doc threatened to send him from the room. He’d rubbed her back, let her pull on his hands until they were red and scratched to smithereens, and then knelt beside the bed to press his face into her pillow as she cried out at the last.

Two days later, clutching the tightly wrapped bundle to her breast, Cassie received company. Her mouth pressed tender kisses against his wrinkled brow as her son nursed, and in the chair across the room Louise rocked with a babe in each arm.

“They’ll be good friends,” Cassie predicted, and Louise nodded agreement.

“You’ll have to hurry to produce a little girl to keep mine company,” she said with a smile.

“Not me,” Cassie told her vehemently. “At least not for a year or two. Maybe Elizabeth can do the trick.”

“Elizabeth?”

Cassie grinned. “She told me yesterday. It’s due late summer.” She tipped the baby over her shoulder and patted his back. “Do you think she’ll have a girl?”

Louise snorted, an inelegant sound, but permissible since there were no menfolk present. “Don’t count on it. Samuel’s still determined to have a boy named John.”

Cassie shook her head. “He may have to settle for a Joan or Joanna. Who knows?”

“Life’s good, isn’t it, Cassie? With you and Will and Jeremiah showing up and the both of them working the
farm. Clara was so pleased that Will married you.” Louise rocked steadily, looking the picture of mother love. “You really love him, don’t you?”

Cassie nodded, deep emotion so close to the surface it almost lit her face from within. “More than I can say. When I think back to what might have been, and what Will made of my life, I can hardly believe it.”

“When Will did what?” His low voice from the doorway brought Louise to her feet, and she whispered a goodbye as she left the room, grinning widely at Will as she passed him in the doorway.

“Will! Come see your son.” Cassie waved him near, and he obliged, sitting on the edge of the bed, bending over his wife and child.

“When Will did what?” he repeated, his mouth brushing against the black downy fuzz that covered his son’s head.

Cassie reached for him, her fingers tender against his face, her eyes glowing with a love she could not conceal. “When Will brought me here and learned to love me,” she said.

“Will still loves you,” he told her. “With all he is, he loves you, Cassie.”

“I know,” she whispered through happy tears. “I know.”

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