Chapter Ten
Cassie’s eyes snapped open as a wave of nausea surged through her. Clutching her stomach, she bolted from the bed and made a beeline for the kitchen basin. The coolness of the floorboards barely registered against her feet as another wave hit, and she found herself hunched over basin, retching.
“Cassie?” Andy’s voice was groggy with sleep, but alert with concern. He shuffled in, rubbing his dark hair into further disarray, his eyes squinting against the early morning light seeping through the curtains.
“Are you all right?” he asked, standing beside her and placing a tentative hand on her back.
Cassie spat out the last of the bitter taste before she leaned back, resting against the wall. She met Andy’s worried gaze with a hesitant one of her own.
“Andy...I think—I might be...” Her words trailed off as she nibbled her lip, summoning the courage to voice her suspicion.
“Be what?” he urged gently, his hand moving in slow circles on her back, trying to soothe her.
“Expecting,” she whispered finally, the word feeling foreign yet heavy with implications.
“Expecting?” Andy repeated, his brain still foggy from sleep. “You mean—”
“A baby, yes.” Cassie’s voice was a mix of wonder and uncertainty. She watched as a myriad of emotions flickered across Andy’s face—surprise, confusion, and something that looked like hope.
“Cassie, you must be mistaken,” he said with a furrowed brow. “We both know that...well, I’ve always known children aren’t possible for me.”
“Maybe so, but my body feels different, Andy. I can’t just ignore it,” Cassie countered, her hands instinctively going to her abdomen as if to shield the secret it might be harboring.
“Perhaps it’s something you ate,” Andy suggested, trying to inject some practicality into the situation, though his voice betrayed a twinge of hope.
“Maybe,” she conceded, but her intuition spoke louder than reason. “Brenda mentioned a midwife nearby, Mrs. Blakely. She’d know for sure.”
“Then we’ll have her set things straight. First thing, you go see this midwife,” Andy decided, the words punctuating the silence that had fallen over them.
“Tomorrow,” Cassie said. “I’ll go first thing.”
“Good,” Andy replied, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly, offering a silent comfort amidst the uncertainty. “We’ll figure this out.”
Andy struggled to keep his focus as the cattle ambled around the dusty corral, their hooves kicking up small clouds that mirrored his scattered thoughts. Each moo seemed to echo with a question mark, reverberating with the soft possibility of “what if?”
“Confound it,” he muttered under his breath when the calf he’d been trying to herd darted off in the wrong direction once more. He wasn’t usually one to let his mind wander from the task at hand, but today, the fences and fields held no claim over his attention.
“Thinking about Cassie?” Bob, his ranch hand and friend, called out from atop the fence with a knowing grin. Andy nodded, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as hethought about the morning’s revelation. What if she really was expecting?
“I am,” Andy admitted, leaning against the wooden post for a moment’s respite. “She’s seeing Hortense Blakely today.”
“Ah.” Bob’s grin softened into a gentle smile. “That kind of visit.”
“Yep.” Andy pushed off the post, feeling a sudden surge of nervous energy. “We might be...expanding our family.”
Bob’s eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t think you two wanted children.”
“Neither did we,” Andy replied, his voice tinged with a cautious optimism that felt foreign on his tongue.
CASSIE’S HEART RACEDas she sat in the modest parlor of Hortense Blakely’s home, her hands folded neatly in her lap. The air smelled of herbs, a comforting scent that did little to ease the fluttering in her stomach.
“Mrs. Forsythe,” Hortense began, her tone professional yet not unkind. “I have completed my examination.”
Cassie met the midwife’s steady gaze, bracing herself for the verdict.
“Congratulations, my dear. You are with child.”
The words struck Cassandra like a summer thunderclap — sudden and startling, yet somehow expected. Her serious disposition wavered as she felt a smile tugging at her lips despite the gravity of the situation.
