Let Me Call You Sweetheart Chapter 6, Page 54

Nathan stopped over by Faith's house to see Dee. "Hello sweetheart!" he greeted her as he stepped inside and kissed her.

"Hi honey! What a nice surprise, I was just going into town. Where are you coming from?" Dee asked as she saw he wanted to talk.

"Do you remember me telling you recently about the young girl and her baby Bill and I found out in a cabin?" Nathan asked.

"Yes, of course. You brought her into the infirmary so Faith could treat her. How is she?" Dee was concerned.

"She is anemic, and her baby has jaundice, so she is staying at Fiona's home while they get better. I just came from Fiona's house where she finally told me who she was and most of her story. I offered to go out to her family farm, but she is afraid to go back home as she feels that her father will tell her to give her baby away." Nathan explained.

"So now what can you do? She needs to find a permanent place to live." Dee was disturbed by the news.

"Well, this is a shocker, but she told us who Timi Anne's father is. It's Rick O'Neill's baby." Nathan continued with the story and Dee felt badly for all involved.

"Oh Nathan, that is a very troubling situation. How can you help?"

"I have to go over now to tell Bill and we can tell Rick at Billees. Hopefully, we can get both together to talk. I know Rick can support Christy and his baby working for Lee this spring, but the question is, is that the best option. I'm going to ask Pastor Joseph to go over there and help them discuss their options and think this through."

"Nathan, I am so proud of you! You go above and beyond your duty. You truly care about your people. That's what I love so much about you."

"I'm just hoping you don't feel neglected, especially with our wedding coming soon. I'm sorry I've left you with handling our wedding ceremony mostly by yourself." Nathan apologized. "Sometimes, I wish we would've just eloped, but I want to truly celebrate our love with our family and friends."

Dee reached up to Nathan and ran her hands through his long locks of hair. "You just do what you need to do. Don't be bothered by me. But I must confess, I think our wedding can't come soon enough." Dee said as Nathan held her tight.

Rosemary was on the phone with Dorothy talking about a bridal shower for Dee. They were planning it for two weeks away and they decided a Saturday luncheon would work well. Unfortunately, Dee's Mom, Bertie, could not come, on the stagecoach because of the cold winter weather, but she would make sure that Dee got a gift from her. Dorothy would be able to stay at Billees and Rosemary told her, her stay was 'on the house'.

Rosemary walked over to Dottie's Apparel to see how the renovation was going. Dottie told her to walk upstairs and check it out. The men that Henry had sent over had cleaned up the upstairs and given it a fresh coat of paint. The light-yellow walls brightened up the room and the windows both worked now. The chest of drawers, and the clothes trunk were both wiped clean, and the woodwork was polished making the furniture very appealing for display of the men's and boy's clothing.

"This looks amazing Dottie!" Rosemary called from upstairs. "I love the color of the walls and the display. When do you expect the shipment of clothes?"

"Soon, any time now." Dottie replied.

As Rosemary came down to the lady's apparel, she was very excited to see how the inside remodeling had made the shop look so lovely and appealing.

"Don't you just love it? I had Virlinda come over and arrange the clothes and accessories. Catherine will be doing the window display on a monthly basis." Dottie remarked.

"Oh, that woman from England? I thought she retired. Glad you thought of her."

"Yes, me too. Rosemary, will you please call and check on Dee's wedding gown? I'm getting a bit concerned about it arriving in time."

Rosemary called and was told that the gown was back ordered. They wouldn't give her a date of when they would ship it. "They won't give me a date. What should we do Dottie?"

"I've got a backup plan." Dottie affirmed. "Don't fret, our music teacher will marry her Mountie and do it in style!"

After speaking with Pastor Joseph, Nathan was over at Bill's office giving him the low-down on Christy Lipinski. "Thanks to Fiona, she opened up, and we really learned what we needed to know to help her. Now, we need to talk to Rick and arrange for him and Christy to meet. I also think we should invite Pastor Joseph to talk with the couple." Nathan updated Bill.

Within minutes both men were together talking with Rick at Billees. Rick sat stunned at the table not believing what he just heard. He was a dad! "Why didn't she tell me"?

"Rick, she felt she had to hide. Her dad told her to get out and she only told Maggie where she was. She's all right now, thanks to Cooper Canfield telling his dad about the smoke he saw coming out of the cabin chimney. If it wasn't for the Canfields no one knew she was there." Nathan explained to Rick.

"What do I do now?" Rick was confused.

"That's what we need to talk about. Christy agreed to meet with you over at Fiona's house so you could discuss just that and for you to meet your daughter, Timi Anne." Bill answered.

"Aww, she named her after my brother Timothy." Rick gulped. "My brother would kill me if he knew."

"Well, it's too late to think about that now. You did what you did and now you have to deal with it. One thing wonderful is, you have a precious baby daughter who needs to be loved no matter how she came into this world. She is deserving of all the love she needs. So, in order for her to have that, first, we want you and Christy to have some private time to see eachother and Timi. However, I asked Pastor Joseph to discuss with Christy and you all your options." Nathan said.

"That sounds good." Rick was shaking. "This is all coming so fast at me. I need to think, but I can't wait to see them."