Millie
The day after Jesse had stopped by and had dinner with Addy, the hot weather broke and a thunderstorm hit. The skies turned black and thunder rumbled deep and angry and Addy was petrified.
“Hey, come on, sweetie,” I soothed as I rocked her in my arms. “It’s just God moving the furniture, that’s all. It’s nothing to be scared of.”
“I want my daddy,” she sobbed, clutching tightly to my t-shirt. “Please, Millie, I want Daddy.”
I gave Bonnie a withering glance as she came in to the room with the house phone. She shook her head. “I can’t get through, it’s going straight to voicemail.”
“What about the radio?” I asked.
“Tried every frequency and can’t get neither him, Ted, nor Garratt. Can’t get anyone in fact. This storm is real bad, honey.”
I sighed and pulled Addy closer to me. She was slowly getting hysterical, giving great hiccupping breaths.
“Is she always like this?”
“Never seen her this bad. But we haven’t had a storm like this for a long time.” Bonnie came and sat next to us and held her arms out. “Let me try for a while.”
I passed Addy over to her grandmother, but knew it was pointless. We’d both tried to calm her down for the last hour, but it seemed Jesse was the only person she wanted.
“Come on sugar,” Bonnie whispered. “Try to stop crying for Granma.”
“D-d-d-daddy.”
I went to the window and pulled back the curtains, staring into the blackness outside.
“Don’t even think about it,” Bonnie said from behind me.
I turned and shrugged. “What else can we do? She’s going to make herself ill.”
At that moment, another huge clap of thunder sounded over our heads and Addy screamed.
“I’ll have to go,” I said, rushing towards the kitchen. There was a mud room at the end of it where a selection of boots and wax coats were kept.
“No, Millie, it’s too dangerous, and you have no idea where to go or even how to ride a horse to get there. Please, honey, she’ll be fine soon.”
“I had riding lessons when I was a kid,” I protested.
“No, honey.” Bonnie stroked Addy’s head as she pleaded with me. “Why don’t you try his cell again?”
With a sigh, I picked the phone up from the chair where Bonnie had thrown it. “What’s his number?”
“Oh, just press the redial, he was the last number I called.”
I pushed at the button and held the phone to my ear, not expecting it to be answered, but after a few rings, Jesse’s voice boomed down the line.
“Mom,” he shouted over the background noise of the storm. “Everything okay?”
I moved out of the lounge area towards the dining room, not wanting Addy to hear that I’d got through to Jesse. I didn’t want her to be disappointed when he couldn’t or wouldn’t come back to the house.
“Jesse, it’s Millie.”
“Millie, what’s wrong…hang on a second…Derek,” I heard him shout. “Brandon just radioed through, he’s got four pairs but said there’s another three pairs heading west towards the dry creek bed…sorry Millie, what’s going on?”
“It’s Addy…” I began.
“What’s happened? Is she okay?”
I paused for a second as I heard more horse’s hooves and someone shout Jesse’s name; it sounded like Ted.
“One minute, Dad,” Jesse called. “Millie tell me what the fuck’s wrong. I’ve got cattle running everywhere, spooked by this damn storm.”
He didn’t need this, the cattle and the men needed him out there and Addy wasn’t in any real danger.
“She’s fine, she just wanted to be sure that you were okay, and wants to know if you’ll stop by later.” I closed my eyes and hoped that Addy would forgive me for not getting Jesse to her.
Jesse gave what I think was a sigh of relief down the line. “Yeah, Millie, tell her I’m fine and I’ll come over later. She’s okay, though?”
“Yeah,” I said shakily. “She’s fine. I’ll let you go.”
“Okay, tell Addy that…”
The line went dead.
I went back in to the lounge area to see that Addy now had her hands over her ears and was crying louder than before. Bonnie looked at me expectantly, but I shook my head. Thank goodness, Addy’s crying had masked the noise of my voice on the phone.
“I got through, but he couldn’t hear me,” I lied.
“Oh well, we’ll just sit it out and hope she tires herself out.”
“I’ll make use some coffee,” I said, turning away before Bonnie could see the guilt on my face as another rumble of thunder and a crack of lightning caused Addy to scream.
After almost an hour and twenty minutes, Addy finally fell asleep. The storm had subsided about thirty minutes into our nightmare, but Addy had worked herself up so much that she couldn’t settle or regulate her breathing properly. We didn’t dare give her any medicine in case she choked, because she was taking in great gulps of air and her breathing was so irregular, so I got her to breath into a paper bag. After a while, Bonnie made her some warm milk with a couple of child’s ibuprofen dissolved into it. After putting the milk into one of Addy’s old Sippy cups, we finally got her to drink it and within ten minutes, she was starting to calm down.
As she slept in Bonnie’s arms, I felt I ought to come clean about my call to Jesse.
“Bonnie, I need to tell you something,” I said tentatively.
“What’s that, honey?” she asked as she stroked Addy’s hair from her face.
“I was actually able to talk with Jesse.” I winced as Bonnie’s head shot up; light grey eyes staring at me intensely.
“Please don’t tell me he refused to come.”
I shook my head. “God no, nothing like that. I didn’t tell him.”
“What? What do you mean you didn’t tell him?” Thankfully she didn’t look angry, just confused.
“It sounded like hell out there, Bonnie. He said that there was cattle running everywhere and he sounded so stressed. I just thought we would be able to handle it, eventually.”
Bonnie looked down at Addy and dropped a kiss to her forehead that was covered in a sheen of perspiration.
“Good call, honey. It’s dangerous enough out there when the cattle are spooked, he didn’t need to be worrying about Addy, too.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re not angry?”
“No, honey, you did right.”
I was just about to the get up and make us some more coffee when the front door burst open, and a soaking wet Jesse barged in. Water dripped from his hat onto his wax rancher coat, and then travelled down the length of it to puddle on the wooden floor.
“How is she?” he gasped, pulling his hat off and throwing it on the floor.
“Jesse, honey.” Bonnie’s eyes lit up at the sight of her son.
Jesse grabbed at the poppers on the full-length coat and shrugged it off before rushing over to Bonnie. He looked down at Addy and bent at the waist, put his arms under her body and pulled her to his chest. Cradling her in his arms, Jesse sat down on the recliner, placed one hand behind her head and dropped tender kisses on to her forehead.
Bonnie gasped and slapped a hand to her mouth, her eyes shining brightly with tears of happiness. I swallowed back a huge ball of emotion as I watched Jesse gently rub his cheek against his daughter’s tiny button nose.
“I knew,” he whispered. “I knew that there was something wrong; my instinct told me that my baby needed me. I came straight away, straight after the line went dead, but I came across a calf stuck in the mud and the mother was getting distressed watching her baby sinking. I had to pull it out. I couldn’t let it die, Mom.”
“Honey, it’s fine. You were on your way here, that’s the main thing.”
“She’s real hot, Momma. Is she okay?”
Bonnie got up to feel Addy’s brow. “She’s been upset, got herself into a state, I think it’s just that. I’ll put her in bed with me and she can sleep in her underwear. Your dad can sleep in Addy’s bed.”
Jesse shook his head. “No, I’ll sleep with her.”
Bonnie and I both stared at him wide eyed. He’d definitely been making progress with Addy over the last few weeks, but this was a major step forward.
“You’ll be cramped in Addy’s bed,” Bonnie said. “Your bed is made up.”
Jesse’s face blanched and I saw his grip on Addy relax, the hand on her back dropping to his knee. Then Addy stirred in his arms. He looked down and put his hands back on her, pulling Addy closer to him.
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll take her up.”
In one swift move, Jesse was on his feet and carrying Addy towards the stairs. As his foot landed on the first tread, he stopped and turned to me.
“Thanks for what you did tonight, Millie, but you could have told me.”
“Millie did the right thing, honey. She realized that you had enough to deal with out there.”
“Maybe, or maybe she thought I wouldn’t come, but I guess that’s not surprising since I’ve been a total idiot for the longest time.”
“Jesse…” I was about to say it was purely his stress that stopped me, but Jesse shook his head.
“It’s fine, Millie. I’ll see you in the morning. Dad and Garratt won’t be too long. Dad radioed me just as I got back, they’re on their way back in.”
Bonnie nodded. “Okay, I’ll get some supper ready. Do you want some?”
“No thanks, I’m beat. Goodnight.”
Bonnie and I watched him carry his precious cargo up the stairs and we both swiped away a tear.
“That boy,” Bonnie whispered.
I flopped back into the cushions on the sofa and thought about ‘that boy’. He was strong, brave, handsome, and grumpy as hell. He’d been nothing but rude to me, apart from when he was making me feel as though I was flying just from the use of his fingers, and he had more issues than Prime Minister’s Question Time, but when he took his daughter in his arms, that boy took my heart, too. I knew then that I was falling in love with Jesse Connor.