Justice at Cardwell Ranch Read Free

BACK ON THE examining table, nervously picking at a fingernail. “I can’t remember the last time I saw my feet,” she said with a groan.
    Dr. Pamela Burr laughed. “This might feel a little cold.”
    Dana tried not to flinch as the doctor applied clear jelly to her huge stomach. She closed her eyes and waited until she heard the heartbeats before she opened them again. “So everything is okay?”
    “Your babies appear to be doing fine. Don’t you want to look?”
    Dana didn’t look at the monitor. “You know Hud. He’s determined to be surprised. Just like the last two. So I don’t dare look.” She shot a glance at her husband. He stood next to her, his gaze on her, not the screen. He smiled, but she could see he was worried.
    The doctor shut off the machine. “As for the spotting…”
    Dana felt her heart drop as she saw the concern in Dr. Burr’s expression.
    “I’m going to have to insist on bed rest for these last weeks,” she said. “Let’s give these babies the best start we can by leaving them where they are for now.” She looked to Hud.
    “You can count on me,” he said. “It’s Dana you need to convince.”
    Dana sat up and laid her hands over her extended stomach. She felt the twins moving around in the cramped space. Poor babies. “Okay.”
    “You understand what bed rest means?” the doctor asked. “No ranch business, no getting up except to shower and use the bathroom. You’re going to need help with Hank and Mary.”
    That was putting it mildly when you had a four- and five-year-old who were wild as the canyon where they lived.
    “I’m sure Hud—”
    “You’ll need more than his help.” The doctor pressed a piece of paper into her hand. “These are several women you might call that I’ve used before.”
    Dana didn’t like the idea of bringing in a stranger to take care of Hud and the kids, but the babies kicked and she nodded.
    “Doc said I was going to have to watch you like a hawk,” Hud told her on the way home. Apparently while she was getting dressed, Dr. Burr had been bending his ear, down the hall in her office. “You always try to do too much. With the kids, the ranch, me—”
    “I’ll be good.”
    He gave her a disbelieving look.
    “Marshal, would you like a sworn affidavit?”
    He grinned over at her. “Actually, I’m thinking about handcuffing you to the bed. I reckon it will be the only way I can keep you down for a day let alone weeks.”
    Dana groaned as she realized how hard it was going to be to stay in bed. “What about Hank and Mary? They won’t understand why their mommy can’t be up and around, let alone outside with them and their animals.” Both of them had their own horses and loved to ride.
    “I’ve already put in for a leave. Liza can handle things. Anyway, it’s in between resort seasons so it’s quiet.”
    September through the middle of November was slow around Big Sky with the summer tourists gone and ski season still at least a month away.
    Dana knew October was probably a better time than any other for her husband to be off work. That wasn’t the problem. “Hud, I hate to see you have to babysit me and the kids.”
    “It’s not babysitting when it’s your wife and kids, Dana.”
    “You know what I mean. There are the kids and the ranch—”
    “Honey, you’ve been trying to do it all for too long.”
    She had been juggling a lot of balls for some time now, but Hud always helped on the weekends. Their ranch manager, Warren Fitzpatrick, was getting up in years so he had really slowed down. But Warren was a fixture around the ranch, one she couldn’t afford to replace. More than anything, she loved the hands-on part of ranching so she spent as much time as she could working the land.
    When she’d found out she was pregnant this time she’d been delighted, but a little worried how she was going to handle another child right now.
    Then the doctor had told her she was having twins. Twins? Seriously?
    “Are you all