by Emily March
“No one is sick. We’re fine. I didn’t mean to worry you. I just wanted a chance to visit with you without all the interruptions we had this weekend.”
“It’s been a busy weekend.”
“Yes, and a wonderful weekend. It’s so good to see Jackson happy again. I wish his parents were here to meet Caroline. I know they’d have loved her, but I’m sure they watched the festivities from celestial seats.”
“I don’t doubt it, Mom.”
As she used a pair of tongs to flip the bacon she was frying, she casually asked, “So what’s up with Tucker and Gillian? I haven’t seen so many sparks fly since the bonfire your father built in 2012.”
“That was one great bonfire.” Eagle eye Quetta. That’s my mom. Boone poured himself a cup of coffee. He needed to watch his words here. He wouldn’t betray his cousin’s confidence. Still, Tucker’s love life might be the distraction he needed to keep the conversation away from himself. “I think Tucker definitely has a thing for Gillian Thacker.”
“I like Gillian very much. Do you think there might be a future there with Tucker?”
Boone sipped his coffee. “Well, I would definitely bet on a present. If it makes it to the future is anybody’s guess.”
“Hmm,” Quetta McBride said. “Well, if Tucker decides he wants her, I’ll put my money on him. He might not be quite up to your standard when it comes to pursuing what you want, but he’s close on your heels.”
Boone wouldn’t bet against Tucker either.
“And speaking of what you want,” his mother continued as she removed crispy bacon from the frying pan onto a platter. “Dare I get my hopes up about Hannah?”
“No,” he fired back quickly. Too quickly, because she pinned him with a suspicious look.
“What’s wrong with her? I liked her very much too.”
“Nothing’s wrong with her. As far as I know. I guess something might be wrong with her, but I don’t know it yet. I don’t know her well enough to have discovered it.”
“Well, I’m a good judge of character, and I think she’s lovely. Quietly classy. Not a snow bunny gold digger like that last girl you introduced to us.”
“C’mon, Mom. The only reason I introduced you was due to some spectacularly bad timing.” It had been one of the most embarrassing moments of his life. What were the chances that his parents would book the same intimate bed-and-breakfast near Wolf Creek ski resort as he, and exit their room at the exact moment Boone was unlocking the door to his room with his date’s hand in his pants?
Quetta McBride’s lips twitched as she reached for her own coffee cup and took a sip. “Well, I’m glad to see you dating a woman your age.”
“I don’t discriminate based on age,” Boone defended. He’d dated plenty of women older than he. But then he’d dated plenty of women, period. That probably was not a direction he wanted to take the conversation, so he said, “Anyway, Hannah is not a permanent resident of Eternity Springs.”
“Unless you decide you want her to be one.”
“Mother.” Boone snitched a slice of bacon off the platter and got his knuckles slapped for the effort. “Your confidence in my ability is gratifying but misplaced.”
She made an unladylike snort.
“Okay, I’ll admit to being dogged in my pursuits, but anything between Hannah and me is truly in the puppy stage. I don’t want you to get your hopes up where my love life is concerned, Mom. I have bigger fish to fry at this particular moment.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he’d made a mistake. Dang it. This was why he’d tried to steer clear of his mother this weekend.
She pounced like a cat. “What fish? You have another project cooking, don’t you, son? I knew it. You’ve been avoiding me all weekend. What is it this time? A new business in Redemption? That’s it, isn’t it? Have you come up with the idea that will bring you home to Texas? You know if you settle in Redemption along with Tucker and Jackson and you all marry and start families, your father and I might need to buy a vacation home down there. It would be so lovely to have family around us once again. Why I wouldn’t be surprised if your sisters moved—”
“Mom. Whoa.” Boone held up his hands, palms out. “Slow down. You’ve leaped in a seriously wrong direction. I don’t have any more plans for businesses in Enchanted Canyon.”
“Seriously?” Her smile drooped. “Not even anything with Ruin?”
Boone hesitated. Ruin was the ghost town at the far end of Enchanted Canyon, an outlaw conclave occupied in the latter part of the nineteenth century and part of the McBride family’s recent inheritance from a distant relative. Boone sincerely believed it was a gold mine waiting to be worked. Tackling that project had been next on his to-do list after helping to launch Tucker’s Enchanted Canyon Wilderness School.
All that changed with a phone call from Fort Worth.
The phone call he couldn’t mention to his mother. Yet. “Ruin is on my list, but I’m going to have my hands full in Eternity Springs this summer.”
“So you do have a project,” she stated.
He said the first thing that popped into his mind. “Maternity Springs.”
“Excuse me?”
Well, he’d jumped into this pool. He might as well start swimming. “It’s a new retail business. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve had a serious population boom here in town. Our residents have nowhere to shop. Plus, we have tons of grandparents who are in the market for those NANA WENT TO ETERNITY SPRINGS, AND ALL I GOT WAS A LOUSY T-SHIRT shirts. Stock some stuffed bears and elk and raccoons I think we can sell a bundle of souvenirs during tourist season. Then the rest of the year, we can sell to residents. People prefer to shop locally, if at all possible.”
Despite being an off-the-cuff idea, he floated it with enough detail that his mother obviously bought it. Warming to his subject, he elaborated, “I picture something about the size of Claire Lancaster’s Christmas shop. Have rooms set up like nurseries. What do you think?”
She pursed her lips, tilted her head to one side, and considered his idea. “I like it. Cute name, but I think you should add something to it. Like, Children’s Shop. Maternity Springs Children’s Shop. That way, people will know you sell more than just maternity clothes.”
“Great suggestion,” he replied, meaning it. And seeing his opportunity, he followed up by asking, “So what sort of things would you suggest we stock in our children’s store?”
She set down her tongs, folded her arms, and accused him in a snippy tone. “You mean the grandparent gifts? Now, how would I possibly know?”
“Moth-er,” he whined like a ten-year-old.
Her expression softened. She reached out and up to cup Boone’s chin, and they shared a smile. The fact that she felt she could tease him about the subject of grandchildren demonstrated how far they’d come in recent years. At that moment, he was tempted—oh, so tempted—to tell her about Trace. However, the memory of her devastation in the wake of his failed adoption attempts stilled his tongue. He had good reasons for his silence. He couldn’t forget that.
That said, he didn’t need to miss this chance. “Not grandparent gifts. Basic stuff for babies. Like clothes. What are the basic clothes you need when you bring a baby home?”
“Why? You won’t run this business yourself. You’ll have a manager in charge of buying, won’t you?”
“Sure. It’s just food for thought.”
She shrugged and added more bacon to the skillet. As she placed the plate of bacon into the oven and returned to the stove, she spoke about swaddles and onesies and sleepers. Boone resisted taking his phone from his pocket to make notes. The conversation moved on to the summer tourist season in both Redemption and Eternity Springs. When she made a move to bring the discussion back around to Hannah Dupree, he wasn’t nimble enough to ward her off.
“What does she do for a living?”
Well, he wasn’t sure, but she was living on life insurance proceeds if he had to make a guess. That’s noth
ing he wanted to share with his mother. “I don’t know. She hasn’t volunteered, and I haven’t wanted to ask.”
“She told me she graduated from Brown.”
“An Ivy Leaguer, hmm? Well, that’s an interesting tidbit. Good job, Mom.” He paused a moment, then asked, “So what else did you weasel out of her?”
“I didn’t weasel. I politely inquired during a social conversation. And I didn’t learn much of anything else, I’m afraid. She’s sharp. She deflected most of my questions with ease and experience and grace. She impressed me. You should keep seeing her, Boone.”
He was saved from replying when his father entered the kitchen along with one of the twins. The opportunity for a private conversation with his mother ended. Boone made biscuits, Frankie scrambled eggs, and his dad went to pouring orange juice. They all gave Lara a hard time when she arrived just in time to sit down to eat. It was a talent of hers. Of course, family rules meant that she always had to take point on cleanup. It was an ordinary, everyday family interaction, and it gave Boone a bittersweet sense of regret for days gone by. He hated to see them leave. When would they next share a moment like this with the whole family together for breakfast?
And of course, next time, there’d be another face at the table.
Excitement and anticipation replaced the regret roiling inside Boone as he rose to help his sister with the cleanup. He was itching to get this day going. He loved his extended family, but he was ready to enjoy his nuclear family. Trace. Time to get this daddy show on the road. “This goes against tradition, but Lara, I have this. Y’all go on and finish packing.”
“Are you sure, son?” Parker McBride said. “We’re just a tad behind schedule.”
“I’m sure.” He made a shooing motion with his hand. “Y’all get.” He winked at his mother and added, “I think I’ll try to set up a dinner date.”
Not with Hannah, but with Sarah Winston. The plan was for Boone to fly down to Texas later today, meet Trace tomorrow, and set the legalities into motion. He, his son, and his son’s nanny would return to Colorado as soon as the State of Texas checked off on it. Hopefully by early next week.
However, now that tomorrow was almost here, he had the notion of moving tomorrow up to today. With any luck, before he went to bed tonight, he’d be able to meet his new son.
Boone was wiping the table with a damp paper towel when his cell phone rang. It was early for anyone to be calling, so he checked the number. Sarah Winston.
Immediately, his stomach made a slow, sick roll. He didn’t believe that he’d conjured Sarah up by thinking about her a few minutes ago. Something was wrong. Why else would she be calling this early if something weren’t wrong? Even the hour’s time difference wouldn’t justify a simple looking-forward-to-seeing-you phone call.
He tossed the paper towel into his trash can and stepped out onto the deck. With his throat tight, his muscles tense, he asked, “Sarah? It’s early for a call.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I wanted to give you as much time as possible. Boone, we have a problem.”
Chapter Nine
Hannah slept a little later than usual and dawdled over her morning coffee, thoroughly enjoying the peace of the sunny summer morning. She had plans to rent a Jeep from Refresh Outfitters and play tourist today, driving the Alpine Loop up to the old mining town of Silverton. It was supposed to a beautiful trip.
She figured she’d have lunch there, poke around the shops, tour the museum, and check out the narrow-gauge train as it chugged into town.
The only problem with doing that meant that she’d likely face a barrage of children, because the train ride from Durango to Silverton was so popular with families. Best she decide ahead of time if she was ready for that.
For the past three years, she’d studiously avoided gatherings with lots of children. Between caring for Haley McBride and finding herself in the midst of a significant number of little ones at the wedding on Saturday, she was feeling a little raw.
Maybe she’d leave town before the train arrived. Give herself a little time.
Considering that she’d been little more than a traveling hermit for the past three years, she’d done okay at the wedding. She’d intermingled and conversed and even entertained with a story or two. And then that kiss with Boone. She’d done all right there too.
Feeling proud of herself, Hannah polished off her coffee, then showered and dressed. She’d just finished blow-drying her hair when she heard the banging on her door.
“Hannah! Hannah? I see your car.” Knock. Knock. Knock. “Hannah?”
She opened the door. “Boone! What’s wrong? Did someone get hurt?”
“No. It’s not that. Nothing like that. Thank God. I couldn’t handle that on top of this. Can I come in?”
She opened the door wide and waved him inside. He stalked forward into the living room, then halted abruptly and rubbed the back of his neck. “I need a favor, Hannah. A really big huge ginormous favor. The biggest favor I’ve ever asked of anyone in my life. Please say yes. I don’t know what I’ll do otherwise.”
She shut the door and walked toward him. “Boone, I’m happy to help if I can, but you sound like you need a kidney or something.”
“Shoot, I don’t need a kidney. I have two of those. What I need is a woman.”
She blinked. Her gaze reflexively dropped to Boone’s crotch.
“That didn’t come out the way I meant it. This isn’t a medical emergency. Well, not my medical emergency anyway. I didn’t accidentally take my father’s Viagra or something. Not that he uses it. I can’t imagine that he’d need it. My dad is—wait.” He held up his hand palm out and then gave his head a shake. “I’m babbling. I was nervous already, and now this.”
“What’s wrong, Boone?”
“I need help. I’m hoping you will help me, Hannah. Otherwise, I’m going to have to call my mother. I’ve tried my damnedest to protect her until everything is settled legally. The last thing I want to do is clue her into the situation now. Well, that’s not the very last thing. The very last thing would be my doing this thing alone. Hannah, I need you to come to Texas with me. I can probably handle things okay here at home by myself. I have friends who will help. But there’s no way I can manage traveling on my own. Please, Hannah. Say you’ll help. I’m desperate.”
The words settled legally made Hannah’s antennae wiggle. Still, even as she grew alarmed, she recalled that he was a lawyer. Lawyers do legal things. “You want me to come to Texas with you because…?”
He dragged his hand down his face. “Serena had an emergency appendectomy today.”
“Serena is who?”
He sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled in a rush. “My nanny.”
Hannah took both a physical and a mental step backward. “Your nanny.”
“Yeah.”
“You haven’t mentioned children.”
“I know.”
Wow. Boone had talked about the wife he’d lost. He’d spoken of relatives galore and introduced her to dozens of them. He’d talked to her about a new puppy he was getting, but he’d never mentioned a child? What kind of man was he?
“Actually, I did mention him, but I led you to believe he was a dog. Remember? Up at Lover’s Leap, I talked to you about needing to pick out a name for my new pup? I was really trying to come up with a name for the baby I’m going to adopt. I decided on Trace. Trace Parker McBride. Parker for my dad. Trace is an old family name. You helped me figure it out.”
“You are adopting a baby.” Hannah walked into the kitchen and popped a pod into the coffeemaker as she attempted to process the information he’d just shared.
“Well, that’s the plan. I have history here if you recall, so it’s something I’m afraid to take for granted. Say you’ll come, Hannah. Please? I’ll make it worth your while. Pay you whatever you want. Please say you’ll help me.”
“You want me to be your nanny.”
“Just until Serena recovers from her surgery. I’m going to fly do
wn to Fort Worth a little later today. We’ll return to Colorado as soon as I can make it happen. Hopefully by early next week. I’m going to buy a big, safe SUV in Fort Worth. You can make the drive in a day, but it’s a long day. I think that’s probably not doable with a baby.”
“How old is this child?”
“He’ll be three weeks old tomorrow.”
Boone McBride wanted her to care for a three-week-old child. Right. As if she could care for a baby when she could barely take care of herself. She was only now acclimating to being around little ones again. “Boone, I’m sorry. No. I can’t do it.”
“Why not? What are your objections? Allow me the opportunity to overcome them.” When she hesitated, he added, “You’re great with kids. You proved that with Haley.”
Hannah shut her eyes. This was just too much. Too hard. “And you don’t know what a big moment that was for me personally. It’s the first time I’ve interacted with a child since I lost Zoe and Sophia.”
He deflated like a bicycle tire pierced by a nail. “Oh.”
“I think being a child’s caretaker is a step too far for me at this point in my life.”
“Yeah. I can see that.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I should have realized it might be a problem for you.” In a lower tone, speaking more to himself than to her, he said, “Crap. I really, really, really don’t want to lay this on my mother.”
“Sit down, Boone. Let’s talk about the problem. Sometimes a second set of eyes can help reveal a solution.”
He nodded and took a seat on the stool at the bar separating the kitchen from the cabin’s main room. Without asking if he wanted it, Hannah set the cup of fresh coffee in front of him and set about making a second cup for herself.
“I don’t know where to begin,” he said.
“The beginning. How did this adoption come about?”
He told her about the phone call from a Fort Worth colleague, about his panic and soul-searching retreat in Texas, and his decision to take a leap of faith and make another run at fatherhood. “On the morning I met you, Celeste reminded me that family and friends are a Zippo in my pocket.”
