Because of the Baby(61)

“No. I’m guessing they were original to the building, but no one bothered to get rid of them when the fireproof ones were brought in.”

“They look old enough to have been worth something before the tornado struck.”

The cleanup crew had been steadily working in their direction, and now they began to toss bits of the shattered cabinets into the bucket of the loader idling nearby. While Keaton gave Stella an update on the progress made that day, the loader moved off to empty its bucket into the nearby construction dumpster. When it returned, Keaton and Aaron stepped to opposite sides of the mostly intact cabinet and picked it up.

They’d shifted it several feet when Stella called out, “Wait! There’s something caught underneath it.”

Keaton glanced in her direction as she ducked down and came up with a yellowed piece of paper. “Is that it?”

“I think so.”

He and Aaron finished moving the cabinet to the loader, checking for more loose paper before returning to Stella. They found her studying the document with interest.

“What is it?” Aaron asked, peering over Stella’s shoulder at the paper she held.

“Looks like a bill of sale for some land back in 1880.” Her gaze shifted to Keaton. “Is Edwin Holt any relation?”

Something about the way she asked the question made Keaton’s heart thunder in his chest. “My great grandfather many times over.”

“Good thing we found it. I think it’s the bill of sale for your land.”

“My family settled here in the 1860s.”

“Are you sure?”

Keaton nodded. “Edwin Holt came here not long after the Civil War ended.”

“Maybe they didn’t buy your family’s ranch until much later. Take a look.”

But even as Stella held out the document, Keaton knew what he’d see. And yet it seemed impossible. All the times he’d hope the bill of sale would be rediscovered had been little more than wishful thinking.

He stripped off his gloves in order to handle the aged paper with utmost care. With his thoughts a chaotic swirl he had a hard time discerning the words. After blinking a few times, the thin, spidery script began to make sense. He grew lightheaded at what he read.

“What is it?” Aaron pressed, as the silence dragged on.

Keaton lifted his gaze from the document, scarcely believing what he’d seen, mind reeling at the implications. “I think it might be the missing document that started the feud between my family and the Taylors.”

And the basis for a new cycle of conflict between the families.





Twelve

Lark rubbed her eyes and yawned. At three in the morning, the ICU was relatively peaceful. Machines beeped and whirred, keeping their patients alive. Once again Marsha had called in to say she couldn’t make it, so Lark had agreed to stay on a few extra hours. How much longer was the senior nurse going to tolerate this? By Lark’s estimate, Marsha was out for one reason or another three or four times a month. Marsha had probably gotten away with it this long because of the way she made her boss feel sorry for her.

“How are things going?”

Turning, she spotted Becky Jones, the head nurse in charge of ICU. “Fine. It was a quiet day, which is turning into a peaceful night.”

“You look half-dead on your feet.”

“Grace had a hard time settling down after her feeding last night and I missed a few hours of sleep.”

Even though it had been Keaton’s night to get up with Grace, she’d been so miserable that she and Keaton had taken turns trying to calm her. In the end it was Nicki who’d convinced the baby to settle down by gently nudging her until Grace stopped crying. After two hours of frantic crying, the abrupt quiet had been nothing short of amazing.

Becky smiled in sympathy. “I remember my two at that age. I swore there was some magic switch that flipped on in them as soon as the sun went down.” She shook her head. “The good news is it won’t last long. Pretty soon she’ll be sleeping through the night.”

“I hope so.”

“Judy should be back from her break in a couple minutes,” Becky said. “Why don’t you go sit with Skye for a while? I can handle things here.”

“Thanks.”

“No, I should be thanking you. It’s been great having you here in the ICU. I’m going to miss you when you go back to surgery.”

Lark smiled at the compliment. Becky wasn’t usually one to hand out praise. “It was nice of you to let me transfer into your department so I could stay close to my sister.”

“She needed you. And it turns out we needed you, as well. Our efficiency has gone up dramatically thanks to you.”