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asking, “Why is that?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I don’t talk about it,” Sage told them when she reentered the bedroom. “Especially not now. We have bigger fish to fry.”
    Ali started to leave the room, but Nic said, “No, Ali. Stay. Sage might have delivered babies, but you’ve had them. I’d appreciate your input on this.”
    Moments later, Sage scowled. “For crying out loud, Nicole. You must have been having contractions at the church this morning. You’re in active labor. We need to call for the helicopter.”
    “It’s that close?” Nic asked as Sage offered her a hand to pull herself up to a seated position.
    “Only if you don’t want your babies’ birthplace to be the top of Sinner’s Prayer Pass. You are too far along to risk going in the car.”
    “Oh, dear. I really didn’t think this was it. I’ve had so many aches and pains and pressure that I kept thinking it would stop like all the other times.”
    “This time it will stop with two babies being born,” Sage told her. “Not before then.”
    “So, okay. Let’s call for the helicopter.” Nic grimaced as another pain hit her, then said, “Gabe probably won’t be happy.”
    “No, he probably won’t,” Ali agreed.
    “I don’t have my camera, either.” Nic pursed her lips in a pout. “Do you think Celeste has one around here that we could borrow?”
    “I have one in my purse downstairs,” Ali said. “I’ll get it for you on our way out.”
    As Sage phoned for the medical helicopter, Ali walked with Nic toward the staircase. Halfway there, Nic stopped abruptly and said, “Oh my.”
    She glanced downward as fluid gushed from between her legs.
    Ali took one look and called, “Sage? Her water broke.”
    At that point, Nic gasped and bent over, her pain obvious. “Oh … Ali. I can feel … oh. Oh, whoa. Whoa. Whoa. They’re coming. They’re coming now!”
    Sage took one look at Nic, and her stomach rolled. No, no, no . She didn’t want this. She couldn’t do this. For a few long seconds that lasted like hours, she was back in the stifling heat on a rutted dirt path, supporting the weight of a laboring mother walking to assist nature’s work.
    The sound of her name was a gunshot. “Sage!”
    She jerked back to the present. Nic. Her friend. I have to do this. I promised her. I can do this. I will do this .
    Sage reached down deep inside of her, past the fear and the ugliness and the grief, to find Dr. Anderson. “Okay, I guess we’re doing this here,” the physician said. “Ali? You want to go get Gabe?”
    “I’m on my way.”
    Gabe Callahan was talking with Henry Moorland, owner of the Double R Ranch, repeating the story about the time he and his brothers had had the bright idea to ride a local rancher’s bull. “Two of my brothers are identical twins,” he said, grinning at the memory. “Mark and Luke peeled off their shirts and went into the pasture and—”
    He broke off abruptly when he heard Ali Timberlake call, “Gabe!”
    He whipped his head around at the note of urgency in her voice. The moment he met her concerned gaze, he started moving toward her. “Is it Nic?”
    “She’s in labor. The babies are coming. Now.”
    Gabe took it like a punch to the gut. She’s in labor. The babies are coming . “Okay, I’ll go get the car.”
    “No, Gabe. The babies are coming now . There’s no time. Don’t worry, though. Sage is with her.” Lowering her voice, Ali added, “She’s a doctor.”
    Don’t worry? Don’t worry? Grimly he asked, “Where is she?”
    “Up at the house.”
    He took off running.
    He covered the distance to the house in record time, and bounded up the steps and into the house. “Nic?” he shouted.
    “Up here, Gabe,” Sage called.
    He had a lump the size of Texas in his throat as he took the stairs three at a time, following the terrifying sounds of his wife’s groans and Sage Anderson’s calm voice. “That’s good. You’re doing fine, Nic. Now, push. Push, push,