at Livy. Now if she could bake a brown sugar cake, he’d be a happy man.
“I’m sorry Mary couldn’t come today, Mrs. Russell. She really wanted to but didn’t feel up to getting out in the cold.”
“I understand. We’ll do this again, as soon as she can come.” Mrs. Russell glanced at Tommy and the girls. “When everyone’s feeling better, all the children could come out, and we could enjoy a day of sledding. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Tommy?”
Tommy shoved a spoonful of peas in his mouth and grinned. “Yes, ma’am. I ain’t seen Georgie in forever.” He chewed and swallowed before muttering, “It’s all that ol’ Vulture ’Vinia’s fault.”
Jake almost spewed coffee across the entire table but managed to swallow it instead. Livy hid a snicker behind her hand. Her eyes met his, and they were filled with hysterical laughter.
“Tommy!” His mother frowned. “I won’t have that kind of talk at my table. Hear me?”
“Sorry,” Tommy mumbled around his next mouthful, not sounding the least bit repentant.
Jake’s mother cast him a beseeching look. He turned to his little brother, wincing at the bulge in the child’s jaw. “Tommy, quit talking with your mouth full or Ma’s going to make you leave the table. And if she doesn’t, I will. Is that understood?”
Tommy’s eyes grew wide and he opened his mouth. Jake shook his head, and Tommy remembered to swallow before answering. “Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Jake nodded.
“Livy, would you like some more pota—” His mother’s eyes grew wide at the sound of pounding hooves and a jingling harness careening into the side yard. “What in the world?”
“Mrs. Russell! Mrs. Russell!”
At the sound of his brother-in-law’s frantic voice, Jake jumped up, his chair crashing to the floor behind him. The door flew open, and Charlie rushed inside, eyes terrified, hair wild. “It’s Susie. She’s . . . she’s having the baby. I don’t know what to do.”
Jake’s gaze locked with Livy’s. She looked like she’d seen a ghost. Her hands gripped the table, turning her knuckles white. Her sister had died in childbirth. Suddenly, birthing babies didn’t seem so simple after all. A full-fledged panic hit him square in the chest. What were they going to do? Both girls started crying, and even Tommy looked like he might burst into tears. Jake turned to his mother. “Ma?”
“How far apart are her pains, Charlie?” His mother, who made worry into an art, calmly took off her apron and reached for her coat, looking as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
“Uh, five minutes. No. Ten.” Charlie ran both hands through his hair, making it stand up on end. The man, crazy with fear, didn’t even have a hat. “I don’t know. They’re close though. It’s too soon, isn’t it?”
“No. This baby is right on time.” She hugged the girls. “Hush, now. It’ll be fine. Remember what I told you? Clean up the kitchen and keep Tommy occupied. Before you know it, you’ll have a little niece or nephew. Charlie will come and tell you as soon as he can, okay?”
The girls sniffed and wiped their tears. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Mrs. Russell?” Charlie stood in the open doorway, letting in the bitter cold, but nobody seemed to pay him any attention, least of all Jake’s mother.
She turned to Livy and gave her a quick hug and a tremulous smile. “I’m sorry to leave like this, Livy, but I’m sure you understand.”
“Livy?” Jake moved to her side, reaching out to hold her upright. Her face looked as pale as his mother’s biscuit dough rising in the morning. She gripped his forearm and leaned against him.
Shell-shocked blue eyes met his before ricocheting toward his mother. She shook her head. “I’ll be okay. Take care of everybody else.”
One last hug and his mother hurried out the door.
Livy insisted on helping the girls clean up the kitchen, but Jake knew her heart wasn’t in it. She tried to act cheerful, but he could tell the news of the baby’s impending birth upset her.
An hour later he bundled her up and headed to town, promising the girls he’d be back as soon as he could to help them with evening chores.
Halfway to town, he cleared his throat and addressed the matter at hand. “Susie and the baby will be fine; you’ll see.”
“How can you be sure?” Her hands fluttered until she clasped them tight in her lap.
“I’m not.” He squeezed her fingers. “I just have to believe.”