CHAPTER 14

	Sandy sat beside Serena’s bed, listening to the other girl talking.  Even at a time
like this, she still managed to keep up her chatter.  Sandy decided letting her talk was
better for her than trying to keep her quiet.   Talking kept her mind off the fact that her
baby was coming much earlier than expected, and her husband was who knew how
many miles away. 
	She glanced at her watch.  Hopefully Ty had managed to find Bob by now.  Of
course, there was no telling how long it would take him to get back to Silverside from
wherever he was even if Ty had managed to reach him.  
	Thinking of Ty made her frown, and she stood up and walked over to the
window, standing with her back to the bed.  Had she been stupid to let him into the
house the way she had?  Maybe Mikki had been right afterall. He was a total stranger —
a fact that had been made all too evident today. 
	You sent me out here to do a job and I’m doing it. When I’m done, you’ll hear
from me.  The words rang in her head.  Who was this man — Cole?  Apparently he was
Ty’s brother, but what job had he sent Ty to do — at her house?   For a split second her
imagination ran away with her and she imagined Cole as a mobster, complete with pin
striped suit and fedora — and Ty as his contract killer.  Was he using her house as a
base, waiting for the right time to pop off whoever Cole had sent him to Silverside to kill? 
Or maybe he was a spy? He hardly looked like the type, but how was she to know what
a spy really looked like? She was pretty certain they didn’t all look like Sean Connery or
Roger Moore.  The whole idea of being a spy was to blend in and look inconspicuous,
was it not?  Infiltrate under cover!  All of these silly thoughts actually made her smile to
herself.  Had she been watching too much James Bond?
	“There’s another one!” Serena gasped, and Sandy looked at her watch.
	“Five minutes,” Sandy announced as she went back to the bedside and gave
Serena her hand to squeeze. 
	“I wish Bob were here.”  Serena cried through the contraction.
	“I know, but I’m sure Ty got hold of him, I’m just sure of it.  Ty is very —
resourceful.”  She frowned and pondered her own words for a moment.  She had been
going to say reliable, but did she really know him well enough to think so?  The Ty she
knew — the Ty she loved — was the most reliable and dependable man she had ever
met.  But had that all been just an act? Had he fooled her?  Had he fooled them all?
	I wasn’t in a position to tell you the truth before he had said.  She wondered what
he had needed to be so secretive about, what truths he had had to keep from her.   Who
had made him keep these secrets? Cole?
	It was a pretty good scheme, getting yourself in here, although she doesn’t look
like your type.  Those had been Cole’s words, and they rang in her head again and she
sighed. Was Ty just using her?  Had he just planted himself at her house to accomplish
whatever job Cole had sent him to do?  If she wasn’t his type, what was his type?  And if
she wasn’t his type, why had he said it had been so hard for him to keep his hands off of
her? Had that been a lie too, his skillful charm just to get her under his spell so he could
accomplish whatever he was there to do.
	“Another one!” Serena panted.
	Sandy looked at her watch and frowned. “Two minutes.” she announced, and
reached for the call bell.  The nurses had told her to call when the contractions were two
minutes apart.  Apparently it was the magic number.  She had hoped it would take
Serena longer to have this baby.  She had heard of women taking a full day of deliver.
That would have given Bob plenty of time to make it home before the baby arrived. 
Deep down inside, however, she knew that wasn’t going to happen and with Bob out of
town, Sandy was delegated the labour coach.
	But at least he would get there eventually, she reminded herself, as she held
Serena’s hand through another contraction. He would be there for Serena and her baby,
even if he was late getting there.  He would be there when they went home, as a family. 
She had no idea what to expect from Ty.  She had always known that there would come
a day when he would no longer be a part of her life, but she had thought she would have
time to prepare for that day.  Now, she wondered if that day had already arrived.  Would
he be there when she went home? Did she want him to be there?
	“How’s everything going Mrs. Mitchell?” asked Joanne, her delivery room nurse,
in a cheery voice as she entered the room. “Have we got to those two minute
contractions?”
	“Oh!” Serena gasped, as the next contraction hit her.  
	“Well now, you aren’t wasting any time, are you, honey. Let’s have a look and
see where you are, shall we?”  Joanne smiled at Sandy and pulled the curtain closed
around the bed.  Only moments later she was pulling it open again and hurrying past her
to the door and called to another nurse while Sandy watched her nervously
	“Time to go here, Donna. Better call the doctor or he may not make it on time,”
then she looked hopefully at Sandy. “Still no sign of the father?”
	Sandy shook her head.  “This is all happening a little sooner than any of us
expected. I’m sure he has been reached though, and is on his way. In the meantime, I
guess I’m it,” she smiled and shrugged.
	Joanne nodded and put her stethoscope to Serena’s belly just as Donna entered
the room. “Well, the baby’s heart beat is strong  She should be just fine,” she said,
wrapping her stethoscope around her neck once again.  The two nurses placed a
stretcher next to Serena’s bed and moved her onto it, just before another contraction hit. 
The nurses nodded to each other and began to wheel her out of the room, wasting no
time.
	“The doctor is on his way, honey,” Donna said. “He should be here by the time
we get you to the delivery room.”
	“Come with me, Sandy!” Serena begged, reaching for her hand.  Sandy glanced
at the nurses, who nodded, and they set out down the hall.
	“Sandy?” The stretcher was just moving down the hall with Sandy beside it when
Ty came racing around the corner as if it were his own baby that was being born. Donna
looked at the women questioningly, and Sandy shook her head, but it was Serena who
spoke.
	“That’s not my Bob. That one belongs to Sandy, but I hope he’s got good news.”
	Sandy glanced at Ty. That one belongs to Sandy.  The words made her breath
catch in her throat.  If only it were true, but she had a feeling that Ty McKinley didn’t
belong to anyone, and probably never would.  Ty fell into step beside the stretcher and
looked down at Serena with a worried expression.
	“They managed to get Bob on his CB radio and he called me back at Sandy’s. 
He was a couple of hours east of town, as it happens, and was going to turn his rig
around and head back right away.”  He looked at his watch.  “That should make him
here in a little less than an hour and a half now.”
	“Well, this baby isn’t waiting for that!”  Joanne said, as Serena gasped for
another contraction.  They had reached the delivery room and began to wheel the
stretcher inside.
	“You’ll have to wait out here, Sir.” Donna said, as they disappeared.  “Just your
wife is allowed in here with her.”
	Sandy felt her stomach tie itself into knots and her heart pound in her chest. Your
wife.  It was a simple mistake, especially after the comment Serena had made about Ty
belonging to her.  She glanced quickly at Ty to see how he was reacting to the
comment, but he was looking at them as if he hadn’t even heard it, simply staring after
them with a worried expression that Sandy imagined rivaled some of the expectant dads
around here.  Another heart-wrenching thought, she told herself. Get a hold on yourself,
you never had any delusions of having his baby, remember, she told herself. He’s
leaving, hitting the road, gone with the wind, going to be out of my life forever!  As she
watched the door closing on him she suddenly felt a panic wash over her, wondering if
that was the last time she would ever see him.
	“Thanks!"  she called back just before the door closed, then added “...for finding
Bob.”

	Ty paced the waiting room and kept looking down the hall toward the delivery
room door.  Several nurses passed him and smiled, and he tried to ignore them.  They
think I’m waiting for my own baby to be born, he thought to himself, and grumbled. What
kind of father do they think I am?  If my wife were in there having a baby I’d damn well
be right there with her!  That was a sobering thought, and he sat down for a moment to
think it through more thoroughly. His wife — his baby?  There had been a time when
words like that would never have even crossed his mind, when he would have glared at
those nurses and told them outright that there was no way there was a baby of his being
born in that room and they should get their facts straight!  In fact, there had been a time
when he would have been more interested in getting their phone numbers than worrying
about what was going on in a hospital delivery room!
	But he couldn’t help it. The woman he loved was in that room, and since he had
only just managed to admit that fact to himself he was getting impatient having to wait to
tell her so.  All these thoughts about what he would do if she were the one in labour,
having his baby, were just compounding the issue in his mind.   Of course, she might not
want to hear what he had to say to her, might not want anything to do with him anymore,
after what she had apparently overheard of his conversation with Cole.
	Ty frowned and looked down the hall in the opposite direction. He sure wished
Bob would get here soon.  The sooner the expectant father arrived, the sooner Sandy
could leave the delivery room, and the sooner he would know where his future was
headed.
	The sound of footsteps made him stop and glance back down the hall. He had
been doing this for the last hour, it seemed, to no avail.  Once again, some hospital staff
member who looked like an orderly this time, came around the corner and Ty felt his
shoulders sink.  Hurry, Bob, she needs you, he thought to himself, then swung around
once more as he heard yet another set of footsteps.   This time he breathed a sigh of
relief at the sight of a frazzled Bob Mitchell heading towards him.  He had just finished
grinning and taken one step to greet the other man when he heard a noise behind him. 
Turning around, he saw the door of the labour room open and held his breath.
	“Sandy?” It was Bob who spoke first.  He gave Ty a quick handshake and pat on
the back as he rushed past, but his eyes were on the woman at the door.  “Sandy, how’s
Serena? What about the baby? Are they all right?”
	Sandy looked tired, yet elated at the same time. She grinned and gave Bob a big
hug as he reached her. “Serena’s doing just fine, and you have a beautiful baby girl.”
	Ty felt as if a great weight had been lifted, and he sighed, then wondered why it
should have stressed him out so much in the first place.  Bob beamed, and gave Ty a
huge hug and a much bigger pat on the back.
	“Do you hear that!  A baby girl!  I know Serena wanted a girl, even though she
always said if I wanted a boy that was just fine. Did you hear that — a beautiful baby girl!” 
Bob couldn’t stop talking and shaking Ty’s hand, until at last Sandy drew him away to
take him to see his new family.
	After that, the waiting was murder.  There was no reason for her to take so long
any more.  The baby was born, the father was here, everything was under control!  He
imagined her sitting beside Bob and cooing over the baby, oblivious to the fact that he
was going insane waiting for her out here, and grumbled under his breath.  When she
finally emerged again, this time alone, he was leaning against the wall just outside the
door.  There was no way he had wanted to miss her when she finally came out that
door!  But as she walked toward him, he was completely lost for words.
	“Ty,” she nodded, a look of uncertainty on her face.  “I’m surprised to see you. I
wasn’t really expecting to find you still here.”
	He wanted to take her in his arms and tell her there was nowhere else in the
world he wanted to be, but he knew he had a lot of explaining to do first. “Sandy, we
need to talk.”
	She raised her eyebrow, but nodded.  “I suppose we do,” she said simply.
	“I owe you an apology,” he said, as he led her into the maternity waiting room.
	Sandy raised her eyebrow, but said nothing as she sat down.  She folded her
hands over her lap and looked up ad him, expectantly.  He frowned, and shuffled his
feet slightly and finally sat down beside her.  Obviously she was going to make him work
for this, he thought.  Slowly he began to explain Cole’s bet to her.
	She stared at him wide eyed.  “Why would a brother do such a thing?”
	Ty gave her a crooked grin.  “Don’t get things wrong, Sandy.  Cole is the best
brother a guy could ever have.  For the last half of my teens, he raised me. When I was
sixteen, my parents were killed in a car accident.  Cole came home and took over both
the company and me.  I guess I must have been more of a challenge than running the
company a lot of the time.   But he always wanted what was best for me, and could
always see the potential in me that I never recognized.  Even with this bet, no matter
how angry I was with him over it, there was a lesson to be learned, and Cole figured I
needed to learn it.  I — have to admit he was right, and  I probably would never have
learned it any other way.”
	She shook her head. “What lesson?” 
	“Sandy, I’m a grown man who has never looked for a job in my life. I had a job at
M.C. virtually handed to me, no questions asked, mine for as long as I wanted it.  Who
could refuse job security like that!”  he laughed.  “But, Sandy, I don’t even have to work if
I don’t want to.  My father was a wealthy man, and I have a sizable trust fund just sitting
there growing interest in the bank. That could keep me in money for the rest of my life
even if I never did another day’s work.  Cole was given the company.  McKinley
Contracting is the biggest company of its kind for miles around.  And then there’s
McKinley Holdings.  Cole believes in diversity, and he is a wealthy man, but he hasn’t
lost sight of what it takes to get there.  He watched my father work his way up, and he
started from the bottom himself.   Me — I was so much younger, Dad’s wealth was
pretty much established by the time I was old enough to realize what life was like.  I just
sort of grew up always knowing money was there, never having to work for it.  Cole
decided it was time I did that.”
	“But — to send you off with nothing? Isn’t that a little extreme?” 
	Ty laughed.  “I hardly had nothing, Sandy. I could have gone back home or
withdrawn some money at any time. I don’t think you realize just how much money I
have. Three months of my trust fund wasn’t going to break me.  In fact, it would probably
do more good at Hannah’s charity than it is in my bank account. I wasn’t stuck out here
and I wasn’t going to starve,”  he shrugged and shook his head. “The only thing that
would have taken a beating if I had backed out was my ego.  Life back home would
have stayed exactly the same as it had been, I just wouldn’t have been Cole’s partner
that’s all.  The thing is, it wasn’t the prospect of partnership in the company that drove
me to accept the stupid bet in the first place. It wasn’t as if I had been hounding him to
make me partner — the idea had never occurred to me before.  It wasn’t exactly
something I wanted out of life.  No, what made me agree to this whole thing in the first
place was that he didn’t think I could do it, and  I had to prove to him that I could do it.” 
Ty chuckled and looked out the window. “Cole is a pretty sly man, I think.”
	“Why’s that?”
	“He knew that in trying to prove something to him, I’d have to prove it to myself
first.”
	Sandy couldn’t help but grin.  He was right about one thing, she had no idea how
much money he was talking about. She had never known what it was like to live in the
lap of luxury, but Jonathan had been a rich man.  At least, his grandmother had been
wealthy. He had sponged off of the old lady, which was why he had always done
everything the woman wanted, including agreeing to marry Sandy!  He was a greedy
leach, Sandy thought, and laughed.
	“What’s so funny?” Ty asked her, looking concerned.
	“Oh nothing.  I was thinking of someone else.”  When he looked at her
questioningly, she  sighed and continued. “Jonathan -- my ex-fiancé, remember? If he
had been in your situation, it would have been the prospect of partnership in the
company that would have driven him.  Money meant everything to him. He was a very
greedy man.”
	“But you almost married him,” Ty reminded her.  “You must have wanted a piece
of it too?  You must have seen what it was like to have money and wanted to live like
that, looked forward to being a wealthy man’s wife?”
	She shook her head and chuckled. “Oh no! I would have married him even if he 
hadn’t had a penny. At least that’s what I thought at the time. To tell you the truth, all that
money, and the way he was always trying to please his grandmother so he could get his
hands on it -- it made me uncomfortable.” She took a deep breath and sighed.  “But
then, if he had been poor, I never would have had to worry about him wanting to marry
me in the first place.”	
	Ty looked confused. “Why do you say that?”
	“Jonathan’s grandmother was very rich, and a very overbearing woman,  She
exerted a great deal of power over him.  I never realized it then, but the power was in his
greed for her money.  I thought it was just her personality that daunted him.  Anyway, he
and I became friends, and she decided to help things along.  She basically told him who
was acceptable marriage material, and I was it.  She wanted me, because I couldn’t care
less whether he was rich or poor, you see.  She figured I wouldn’t bleed him dry.”
	Ty nodded slowly and frowned. “You didn’t want his money, you just loved him.”
	Sandy sighed, and nodded as well, staring off into space.  “At least I thought I
did,” she said, shaking herself back to the present with a smile.  “I realize now that I
didn’t.  Jonathan did me a bigger favour by running away with Maggie Pruitt than he will
ever know!”  She narrowed her eyes and looked at him sternly, reminding herself that
she was angry with him, and that there were still several unanswered questions.  “But
we’re not here to talk about me, McKinley.  Except for the fact that you used me to get
what you wanted. Me and my little house didn’t really mean anything to you did we? 
Just like I didn’t mean anything to Jonathan except his ticket to his grandmother’s
money.  You were just going to use me and my house as your ticket too, weren’t you,
biding your time until you could go back to Cole, and your company, and forget all about
us.”
	Ty winced at the hurt in her words. “Sandy, I’m sorry.  I admit, that first night, that
was pretty much the plan.  I think the world of my brother, but to be honest, that night I
didn’t like him very much.  The last thing I wanted to do was crawl back to him and tell
him he’d won -- tell him he had been right about me.  You were my last chance, Sandy. 
All I can say is, thank God your roof was leaking that night!  If you hadn’t taken me in, I
was headed right back to Cole in the rain. ”
	“And don’t forget your company. You would have lost that too,” she reminded him
with a sarcastic smile.
	He shook his head.  “The company was just icing on the cake.  I didn’t care
whether I ever became partner at M.C. or not, but I was damn well not going to give 
Cole the chance to stand there and say I told you so.”
	She actually laughed at that. “Oh, that’s right, you had to save your ego.”  She
couldn’t decide which was worse, a money hungry man like Jonathan, or one with a
huge ego that couldn’t stand to lose.
	Ty gave her a crooked grin.  “Yeah, something like that,” he admitted reluctantly.
	“Well, it’s lucky for you I was pretty gullible, then, isn’t it.”  She turned her head
away, unable to look at him.  She went on, for she had to know.  “So tell me, Ty, what
was the purpose of sleeping with me?  Was that to soften me up so you’d have no
problem getting me to let you stay until the bet was over?”
	Ty winced,  “Ouch.  I guess I deserved that.”
	She stuck out her chin and threw back her shoulders.  “Yes, you did. I would
appreciate it if you would at least humour me with an answer.”
	He reached a hand out, and tried to turn her to face him, but she resisted. 
“Believe me, Sandy, nothing could have been further from my mind.”
	“No?  Then why?  According to Cole, I’m not at all your type, so there must have
been some ulterior motive?”  She didn’t move, just looked at him expectantly, her arms
crossed, waiting.
	Ty sighed, and shifted in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and running
his hands through his hair.  “Cole was right.  At least about the old Ty. You weren’t  my
type at all.  My type had always been the glamorous socialite, bleached blonde, blue
eyes, sexy, all the right dresses and jewels for the occasions — and easy, with no
expectations for the future.  They suited my purpose just fine.”  He frowned, and
straightened, looking at her with an urgency that startled her.  She had dared to look at
him as he had spoken, but now she quickly turned away again.  “Sandy, I may have kept
from you the reason I was in Silverside, and who I really was, and how rich I was, but
nothing I ever said to you was ever a lie. That first night we met, I figured it would be no
problem to stay with you, and work for you, and when my time was up I would just move
on out and head home.  You were no threat, because you weren’t my type.” He paused.
“But then, Cole was right about more than one thing.  I was butt-headed stubborn, and I
needed to grow up. I never was very good at seeing what was standing right in front of
me until it was too late.   I didn’t count on falling in love with you.”
	There was a painful silence during which he waited for her to react but she said
nothing.  When he thought she never would, he turned his head to look out the window. 
Outside, a couple was strolling across the lawn, hand in hand, gazing up at each other
and laughing happily.  He sighed, thinking for certain he had lost her, and he would
never get to walk like that with her.  He heard her take a deep breath, but didn’t dare turn
to look at her. Then, her soft, shaky voice finally broke the silence.	
	“Well then, I guess that makes two of us,” she said.
	The look on his face was almost comical, Sandy thought.  A mixture of shock and
relief that would  have made her laugh if she hadn’t been so shocked herself.  But then
he leaned in and kissed her, and she felt like the happiest girl in the whole world.