“Hey!” Mel objected. “Excuse me?”

But Jack got a funny, dreamy look on his face and said, “Yeah. Let me bring her out. Let me. Since you’re right here…” All these months of insisting this wasn’t what he wanted and suddenly it was all he wanted. He’d pulled the last one right out of her body and he felt as if he’d gone to heaven, it was such a trip. He gloved up real fast. “There won’t be anyone for Mel’s back,” he said.

“I’ll take her back, and I’ll coach you,” John offered. “But you’re okay, you know what to do. Go for it, man. It’s your baby.”

“Okay,” he said, getting himself settled on his knees, right at the foot of the bed, and waited through a few more contractions, and then she delivered the baby’s head. Without even being told, he checked around the neck for the cord. John left Mel for a second to look over his shoulder to be sure. Then Jack supported the baby’s head with a large hand and John told Mel to give them a little push. The baby came out slick and easy, mucky and screaming.

Jack held another life he’d produced in his hands. No one should be this lucky, he thought. No man on earth should have all this.

John spread the baby towel over Mel’s belly and Jack placed the baby there and began to dry her off so he could wrap her in a clean, dry blanket. He clamped and cut the cord.

“Okay, I’ll take care of the placenta,” John said. “You get that little girl to her mother, then to the breast.”

Now Jack was on terra firma—he’d done this before. He wrapped her, moved her into Mel’s arms and got down on his knees to watch as his baby daughter nuzzled against Mel’s warm flesh for a little while, then rooted and finally latched onto the breast, suckling. “Aaah,” he said, smiling. “Another genius.”

He pulled off the gloves and ran a couple of fingers along Mel’s cheek, then over the baby’s head. She turned her watering eyes up to his face. “You’re getting pretty good at this,” she said in a weak whisper.

“I am, huh. So are you. Mel, she’s gorgeous. Positively gorgeous. She’s going to look like you.” He leaned over the baby to put his lips against hers. He moved over her mouth lightly. “God, I love you.”

“She’s smaller than David,” Mel whispered.

“She’s a good size,” Jack said, as if he knew. “God, she’s gorgeous.”

“Jack?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“You do this to me one more time without my permission, you’re a dead man.”

“Sure, honey. I’ll be careful…”

“And all those people out there?”

“Yeah?”

“You get out there and tell them, if they mess up my clean house, they’re going to pay. Pay, do you hear me?”

He grinned at her. “I hear you, Mel.”

Walt Booth was just dishing up dinner—two plates of fish he’d steamed in foil packages on the barbecue, wild rice and fresh broccoli—when the phone rang. The answering machine was in the kitchen and he decided to listen before picking up. “Dad? Dad, are you there?” Vanessa asked.

He picked up the phone. “Right here. Everything all right?”

“We’re all at the Sheridans’. Mel’s in labor! We’re waiting—and according to Mel it isn’t going to be long. Want to come over?”

“Hmm,” he said. “I’m just about to eat some fish I cooked. I’ll be along…”

“Good,” she said. “I’ll have Paul save you a cigar.” Then she hung up.

Walt looked over the kitchen counter at Muriel, who was still on one of his bar stools with a glass of wine. She tilted her head and smiled at him. He brought the plates to the table. “I think you’re about to have your debut,” he said.

“You think so, huh?”

“Mel, the local midwife, is in labor, and it’s kind of a tradition around here for friends to gather at the house, see the baby fresh out of the chute, have a drink and a cigar. It’s a girl, I hear. We should go.”

“I’ve met Mel. Just as I thought,” she said. “You didn’t tell your daughter you were having me to dinner.”

“Of course not,” he said, sitting down opposite her. “Vanessa would have stayed home. That didn’t fit into my plans.”

Muriel laughed and dipped into her fish—sea bass that Walt had seasoned wonderfully. She sighed and let her eyes drift closed for a second in appreciation.

“There you go,” he said, smiling. “You could do that. I could teach you.”

“I’ll pass.”

“We’ll enjoy dinner, leave the dishes in the sink and then run out to the Sheridans’. How does that sound to you?”

“I’d love to see the baby,” she said. “I’d like to meet your daughter and little grandson. After all, I introduced you to Luce.”

“The thing is,” he said, “this is going to get Vanessa a lot more excited than Luce was when she met me.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Muriel replied, thinking of her Lab’s wild reaction every time she saw Walt.

Thirty minutes later they were en route in Walt’s SUV, having left Muriel’s truck at his house. Their timing was perfect; the little baby girl was just making her first public appearance. And when Walt walked into the house with Muriel, Vanessa’s chin almost dropped to the floor. “Vanni, meet our new neighbor, Muriel St. Claire. Muriel, this is my daughter. And this,” he said, turning toward Jack, who held a small pink bundle in his arms, “must be the new Sheridan.”

“Oh my God,” Muriel said. “Oh my God, look at her! I’ve never seen a baby this new! She’s amazing!”

“Want to hold her a second?” Jack asked.

“I don’t even know how,” Muriel said. There was that look, Walt thought. Vulnerable. He’d remember that. “Puppies and foals I can handle—human newborns…Maybe I shouldn’t…”

“You’ll be all right.” Jack laughed. “Support her head.” He shifted the baby into her arms. “There you go. It’s not that hard.”

Vanni was still staring openmouthed at her father, but Walt was completely oblivious to his daughter. He had a dreamy smile on his face as he watched Muriel. He had learned that there had never been children for Muriel, that she wished she’d had a long marriage like his and maybe a couple of kids. He hadn’t asked her a lot of personal questions about her relationships because he was a little afraid of the answers, but he knew this was new territory for her. It warmed him to see her experience this for the first time.

“Dad?” Vanni whispered, sidling close to him. “Were you spending the evening with Muriel?”

“I was cooking her dinner,” he said. “You should see the way she eats. Wouldn’t keep a rabbit alive.”

“But, Dad, you didn’t mention anything about—”

“Of course I didn’t, Vanessa. She’s a new neighbor. Only been in that house a couple of months. In fact, I didn’t even know she was around till I ran into her out on the trail. She has a couple of horses. Nice woman. You’ll like her.”

“Dad?”

He finally turned to look at her. “What?” he asked.

“Dad, do you realize that’s Muriel St. Claire? The actress?”

“Uh-huh. She mentioned that, yes. Nice woman, you’ll like her.”

Vanni just shook her head in confusion. But her attention was drawn back to Jack as he presented little Emma to the rest of the gathering, giving each one a chance to admire her.

“I’m sorry, Vanessa,” Muriel said. “I should have said how pleased I am to meet you—but I was completely distracted by the baby.” She put out her hand. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

Vanessa took the hand, but she said, “You and my father…?”

“Are neighbors,” Muriel said with a smile.

Then Jack took the baby back to his wife and invited the women to follow. They all did, including Muriel.

Muriel went straight to Mel, leaned over the bed and with a smile said, “Congratulations. Excellent work—she’s magnificent.”

“Muriel!” Mel exclaimed tiredly, clearly surprised.

“I was having dinner with Walt when the call came. I’m so glad I got to be a part of this. I held the baby,” she added a little conspiratorially.

“Ah,” Mel said. “I’m glad to see you again. But we’ll have to meet under other circumstances from now on. We’re not going to keep doing this. Jack has strict orders not to knock me up again without permission.”

“Very smart,” Muriel agreed.

Shots were poured for the men, and Doc showed up right about then as if he’d whiffed the whiskey. John Stone abstained because he had another woman in early labor, but he accepted the cigar. The women stayed with Mel in the bedroom, but Muriel stepped out onto the porch with the men. They all turned to look at her with puzzled expressions on their faces as she joined their group.

“I heard there would be a drink and a cigar,” she said with a shrug. “Isn’t that right?”

They all stared at her dumbly except Walt—he was somehow not at all surprised by this. “I can take care of that,” Walt said. He went into the house to pour her a drink and brought it back to her. By the time he’d returned, Mike Valenzuela had snipped the end of a big ugly cigar for her. She accepted her drink and waited her turn for the lighter. Once she had her cigar going, she lifted her glass. “To you, Jack, and to your amazing wife, and to the newest Sheridan. Congratulations.”

It was almost midnight when John Stone reached into his pocket and pulled out his pager. “I’ve got another one coming. They come in batches,” he said, jogging off to the ambulance. “Full moon,” he yelled over his shoulder. And with lights flashing on top of the Grace Valley ambulance, John was gone.

A few minutes later the birthing party packed up, leaving the Sheridans to themselves. When Walt and Muriel got back to his house he turned to look at her before opening the car door. “I’d just like to say one thing, Muriel. I thought it was going to be a real challenge, the way you eat celery and yogurt and little bitty slices of cheese, but damned if you aren’t a good time.”

She laughed at him. “Well, thank you, Walt. You’re not that dull, yourself. Your daughter’s going to have a lot of questions for you.”

He grinned at her. “She can ask all she wants. I don’t really have too much to say.”

“Walt, there isn’t much to say,” she reminded him.

“Yeah. Not yet, there isn’t.”

Thirteen

W hen Brie pulled up to Jack’s the early morning after the birth, she found her brother and nephew out on the porch. David was having his Cheerios, Jack was having his coffee. “Morning,” she said, getting out of the car. “Did you sleep at all last night?”

“I can’t sleep within twenty-four hours of a baby. Mel’s out like a light. And David wants her, of course. That’s why we’re out here.”

“Well, I’m here to help you out,” Brie said. She planned to spend at least the morning with her brother and sister-in-law, if not the whole day. She would take care of David and help around the house. “When I left last night there was a lot of laundry waiting.”

“Mostly done. But by this afternoon, I’m going to need a nap.”

She laughed. “I’ll cover for you,” she said. “How’s everyone doing?”

“Okay. We’re about due another feeding. Can you handle Davie? Morning bath and stuff?”