“And once Lyric gets older,” Grady added, “we can all tour together.”
“Lyric?”
“Oh, I forgot!” Joss cried. “That’s what we named her. Do you like it?”
“It’s perfect. She’s perfect.”
“I know! Right? Except for her head, but that should go down soon.”
As the men wandered over to the crib with Lyric, tears flooded Joss’s hazel eyes. Reaching out, she took Raney’s hand. “Isn’t it amazing, sis? Me, wild child and dream chaser, now a mother. Crazy, huh? But I’ve never been happier.”
Raney could see that. She had read somewhere that childbirth was a natural high. Maybe it was true. Her sister certainly looked happier and more radiant than she had six hours ago. A baby and a fiancé and a songwriting career, all in the same day. Yet, somehow, the family had survived.
Raney glanced over to see Grady reluctantly hand over his daughter to Dalton. The look on Dalton’s face as he smiled down at the baby brought a catch in Raney’s throat. He was such a good, dear man.
“Let’s hope Len is as lucky with Ryan,” Joss said, yawning again.
Realizing she hadn’t seen her older sister and her husband since she and Dalton had returned, Raney asked where they were.
“On their way to the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.”
“Really?” Raney thought they were hardly speaking. “Where are they going?”
“Hawaii. On a long-deserved second honeymoon, Ryan said. He already had the tickets when he arrived. First class. They fly out tonight, that’s why they had to rush off. With the four-hour time difference, they’ll arrive in time for a fabulous oceanside dinner at their resort—some big, fancy place with so many vowels in its name I can’t begin to pronounce it. They don’t even have time to pack. Ryan said they can buy whatever they need while they’re there. Isn’t that romantic? I told them if they waited a bit, Grady and Lyric and I could go with them. Sort of a two-honeymoon deal. But Len said they had to go now while the kids are at camp.”
Raney could imagine her older sister’s panic at that suggestion. But she was glad Len and Ryan were trying to work things out. “Did Ryan say anything about Len’s surgery?”
“Not in front of me. But I think it surprised him. He kept looking at her funny.”
Across the room, Grady wore a worried frown and held out his hands, obviously anxious to have his baby back in his possession. Raney thought it amusing that Dalton, who might never have held a newborn before, seemed more relaxed handling an infant than Grady did.
“Where’s Mama?” she asked Joss.
“At the hotel, checking out. She’s been waiting for you and Dalton to come back so she can go home and sleep in her own bed. Dr. Jamison thinks we can go home day after tomorrow, too.”
Joss let out a deep sigh and looked over to where Dalton and Grady were making faces at her daughter. “Oh, Raney, it’s all so wonderful. This has been the most wonderful day of my whole life! Other than the actual birth, of course. That was awful. But look what I got for all that hard work. My turn, Daddy,” she called, holding out her hands.
Grady came and gently laid the infant in Joss’s arms. Seeing the look on her sister’s face gave Raney a twinge of envy. Would she ever be so happy and so in love and so fulfilled?
She might.
With Dalton.
So why was she fighting it?
CHAPTER 23
Poor Mama must have been exhausted. She slept most of the way to the ranch. Raney was tired, too. She’d never realized having a baby could be so tiring for those waiting for it to happen. When they finally got home, it was almost midnight. With muttered good-nights to Dalton, she and Mama stumbled upstairs.
The next two days were blessedly quiet. Mama said to enjoy them, as all would change once the new parents arrived with that precious, beautiful little baby—Mama’s words, not Raney’s. And she was right.
On the afternoon of the third day, Joss and Lyric and Grady descended. And right behind them came a mountain of baby things Mama had ordered—a stroller, car seat, playpen, toys and more toys, a baby bathtub complete with tub pals, monogrammed hooded towels, bibs for every occasion, picture books, mobiles, enough stuffed animals to fill a zoo, and tiny hangers full of hideously expensive but adorable little outfits that Lyric would outgrow in a month.
Seemed like a lot of stuff for a baby who couldn’t hold up her head yet, or focus her eyes well enough to see her new belongings. But such was the power and spending habits of grandmothers.
As Mama had warned, literally overnight, life as they knew it changed forever. Crying at all hours—the baby, too. Puking, peeing, and pails of dirty diapers to cart out. Careful examinations of every small scratch or bump or flake of dry skin—on the baby, too. And general, continual chaos. All because of one tiny, square-headed, seven-pound-eleven-ounce scrap of wailing humanity. And the baby’s mother, too, bless her heart.
After two weeks, Grady decamped, giving the paltry excuse that he had to make a living and find a place for his new family to live. Raney wouldn’t have been surprised if they never saw him again. Not that she would have blamed him.
Then they all settled in for the siege. The baby ate and grew. The new mother ate and whined. The grandmother struggled to maintain reason. And with Raney trapped in Babyville trying to help, she got a taste of life without Dalton, except for hurried dinners at night. She didn’t like it.
September passed in a haze of exhaustion. Raney helped as best she could and escaped to the barn whenever she had the chance, which wasn’t often enough. She had heard that all babies came into the world as sociopaths, totally fixated on their own needs and wants, with no concern whatsoever for the people around them. Then over the
