by Taryn Quinn
I tried not to grimace as I listened to Kelsey. Dear God, I hoped I wasn’t going to puke from nerves before our date.
Then the door opened again and I shifted that way out of habit, a ready smile on my face even as the baby clutched at my hair.
And my gaze connected with Murphy’s.
He was clad in a dark vest and pants with a crisp white shirt. Looking so buff and sexy that I forgot how to breathe for so long that Kelsey thumped me on the back when I sputtered.
“You okay?” Her gaze followed mine to the door and she smiled knowingly. “Ahh. Your baby daddy has arrived.”
As soon as the words were out, her blue eyes widened in almost comical horror. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I said that. He could just be a friend. A hookup. Shoot, I need gum glue.”
Laughing felt easy. Natural. It helped that my gaze was locked on Murphy’s as if neither of us could bear to look away. “He’s a friend. A very good friend.”
I didn’t know if he’d heard me, but either way, he’d understand, right? We weren’t about labels.
And I was all about pretending I wasn’t in deep enough to drown.
Murphy approached our small table and leaned down to brush a quick kiss over the top of my head. “Hi there. Sorry I’m late.”
“You’re late?” I blinked. “I think you’re early.”
His gaze lingered on my face before shifting to my wrap dress. “You look incredible.”
“Thanks. So do you.”
His attention shifted to Sean. “Hey, little buddy. Haven’t seen you around town too much.”
“He makes all the ladies fall in love with him, so I keep him under lock and key.” Kelsey laughed as I proved her point by adjusting Sean’s blanket, stealing a tickle while I was it.
“He’s a charmer already, aren’t you, cutie pie?” Sean gave me a drooly smile and I grinned up at Murphy, who was now watching me with a wrinkle between his eyes. I shifted on my seat and offered him the baby. “Want to hold him?”
Kelsey sighed. “Oh, no, did he fill his diaper again already?”
“No, just spreading the baby love.”
But Murphy wasn’t taking him. He just shook his head and tucked his hands in his pockets. “He looks good in your arms.”
“Does he?” I glanced down at Sean and smiled, rubbing my fingers over his pink cheek. “He’s a sweetheart.”
“Trust me, he’s usually bawling his head off by now. You have a way with the little ones, Vee.”
Smiling, I rocked him and basked in the moment.
Holding him felt so natural and perfect. I hadn’t grown up with siblings or young cousins, so I hadn’t experienced holding babies until friends had given birth. But cradling a baby might as well have been something I’d done a million times before. No awkwardness or worry. Just joy that this one thing was something I was meant to do. Even more than baking and preparing food and coffee for others to enjoy.
I was meant to be a mother.
“Would you mind watching him while I run to the ladies’ room? I never get a moment to myself anymore. I’d love to put toilet paper down and commune with my thoughts in privacy. If you don’t mind?” Kelsey was already on the move. “Be right back,” she called over her shoulder.
Murphy dropped into Kelsey’s vacated seat and leaned forward to smile at me across the table. “She’s right, you know. You’re a natural.”
“I guess I like making people happy. Big people with their hit of java and a scone, little people with their sticky fists.” I chuckled as Sean grabbed a chunk of the hair I’d left down and gave it a surprisingly strong tug.
“You’re good at it.”
“Yeah?” I cocked my head at him. “You’re good at making people happy too, Mr. Masterson. Since my boss has been teasing me for the last half hour about how I’m glowing.”
His smile as he reached over to poke Sean’s chubby belly made me smile back. And offer him the baby again.
This time, he didn’t hesitate. Watching him carefully tuck the little boy into his big, strong arms made my stomach swim in the best possible way.
“You’re a natural too.” God, I hoped my voice wasn’t wobbling.
He didn’t seem to notice as he grinned down at Kelsey’s son. “Lots of practice with my niece. My brother Travis’s girl.”
Murphy had such a big family. He was forever naming people and I was beginning to think I needed a chart to keep up.
My own world was so empty. Oh, sure, in the center of it was my job and my friends and lots of reasons to keep busy. On the edges though there was nothing but the horizon.
No ports in the storm, metaphorical or otherwise.
I’d thought I was fine living alone. On my own in most ways. No family dinners to be had, no annoying squabbles with siblings, no teasing arguments—and even not-so-teasing ones—with parents. But hearing all that he had in his life made me wonder what it was like.
God, I wanted family. My family. And maybe I wanted to share his too.
If there was room for me.
“What’s that look for?”
I made myself smile. “Just thinking about what might never be.”
He nodded at Sean. “You mean one of these?”
Because it was easier, I nodded. “Big piece of the puzzle.”
“You can’t think that way. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. And God, Veronica, you deserve the world.” The fierceness of his tone made my eyes fill.
I whisked away the tear that sneaked down my face with the side of my fist. Classy to the end, that was me. “Thanks. I guess we’ll see.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, leave me the hell alone.”
Murphy’s eyes widened as he moved to cover Sean’s ears while I shifted to follow the irritated voice I recognized as Rylee’s. She was surrounded by Macy and a few other customers and was staring up at them with pure fire in her eyes from where she sat.
On the floor.
“How did you even get down there?” Macy demanded. “You were just sitting up here, now you’re down there.”
“I can move, okay? How do you think I got knocked up in the first place? Back up.” Rylee pointed at Mrs. Gunderson, who was trying to close Rylee’s rather indiscreetly splayed legs. “Childbirth is fucking natural, all right?”
I slid a glance at Murphy. “Sometimes I wonder if Macy influences her or it’s the other way around.”
His lips quirked as he nodded at Rylee. “She’s about to go into labor if she isn’t already. You should go sit with her. You’re the voice of reason.”
“How the hell do you know that?” At his raised brows, I hung my head. “I hang out with Macy too.”
“She’s got that look about her. Your calmness will help.”
“Okay, if you say so.” I’d no sooner risen that Rylee let out a wail.
“I want Gage here. Not any of you people. Just Gage and my sister. Where is my sister?” Rylee gripped Macy’s arm and twisted her neck to try to see around the growing crowd. “Did she leave me to the wolves?”
Macy heaved out a breath and tried to move away from Rylee. “If I’m a wolf, can you stop breaking my damn arm?”
“No. I need you. I love you.” Rylee turned her head and sobbed into Macy’s shoulder. “There’s a wild animal in my uterus and it. Is. Going. To. Kill. Me.”
I cleared my throat and glanced at Murphy, who appeared surprisingly smug. “Is the universe trying to tell me to back away while my womb is still blinking its neon No Available Rooms sign?”
“More like maybe you shouldn’t turn down the drugs if they’re offered to you.”
I let out a laugh, earning Rylee’s narrowed-eyed wrath. She was quite fearsomely beautiful, like a warrior princess with a swollen belly. “You stole my sister’s baby and left her for dead.”
Macy patted Rylee’s head as if she was a cranky toddler. “Ignore her. Her husband is on his—”
The café door swung open hard enough to nearly fly off the hinges. “Rylee.” Gage
’s panicked shout echoed off the walls as his gaze swung to and fro until he located his now weeping wife on the floor in the reading nook. “There you are. Are you okay, baby? Baby, are you okay?” He rushed toward her with all the drama of a soap opera entrance right before the camera panned away.
Rylee sobbed and reached for him, holding on tight as he swung her up into his arms.
Which was sweet enough to have a few people dabbing their eyes—even me—until Rylee grabbed him by his ears and pressed her forehead to his, speaking loudly enough that Gage’s brother Dare could probably hear her next door at the auto shop.
“If this baby kills me, I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your natural born life.”
Dare picked that moment to step into the café and motioned to Gage, who hadn’t so much as paused while his wife was hurling death threats.
He had to be used to it by now, I was figuring.
“Truck’s at the curb. We’ll—” Dare paused at the sight of Murphy holding his son without his wife anywhere in sight. “Hi, who the hell are you?”
Well, that proved that everyone in Crescent Cove didn’t actually know everyone else. I’d wondered.
“I’m Murphy Masterson. I work on Gideon’s crew among other things.” Smoothly, Murphy rose and held out a hand without losing his grip on the now restless baby. “You must be Dare. I’ve come into the auto body shop a time or two but usually dealt with Gage or one of the other guys.”
Dare shook his hand and took possession of his baby with the confidence of a man with two sons. “Pleasure. Where’s my wife?”
“I’ll go get her,” I said quickly. “She’s in the john. I mean, ladies’ room. Be right back.”
Dare nodded and turned to Gage, who was muscling Rylee out the door with Macy right behind him. Rylee had gone strangely silent, which probably had something to do w the stain on her pretty light blue pants.
The baby would be here soon. Murphy had been right.
I gave him a brief smile and squeezed his arm before hurrying to the bathroom. I knocked on the door and only heard the hand dryer blowing from inside. I knocked again. “Kelsey? It’s Vee. Your sister needs you and your husband’s here.”
Nothing.
I knocked again. “Kelsey? Are you okay?”
I finally chanced turning the doorknob and tentatively stepped inside. “Kel—” The question died on my tongue as I saw Kelsey sitting cross-legged on the counter with a pair of air pods in and her phone in her lap.
What the heck?
Kelsey glanced up and nearly slipped off the counter. “Oh, God. Oh, crap. I took too long. How long was I gone? Oh, fuck.” She slid off the counter and tucked her headphones and phone into her big purse. “Where’s Sean? I didn’t even leave you his diaper bag. I’m such a failure. Jesus.”
Her eyes welled up and I rushed forward, unwilling to face another crying Kramer woman this afternoon.
It was bad enough I’d cried myself, and that so wasn’t my thing. Usually. Must’ve been all the hormones in the air or something.
Or bitter reality crushing you like a hundred-pound anvil.
Yeah, whichever.
I gripped Kelsey’s shoulders and lightly shook her. “Your husband is here and he has Sean. And your sister is in labor, and the truck’s waiting outside, and you better hurry if you want to ride with them.”
“What? The baby? Oh. God, she said her back hurt. I knew it’d be soon, but you know Rylee can be a little temperamental.” Kelsey fisted both hands in her flame-red hair. “I have to be supportive. I can’t be a frazzled crazy lady who hides in café bathrooms to listen to dirty audiobooks so I feel like I have a semblance of my life back. I can’t listen at home, because what if I miss Sean’s cries—”
“Kelsey. Your sister. In labor. All the rest can wait.”
“Right. Right. You’re so wise. Thank you. I’ll go now. Thanks for watching my baby. If it turns out I’m incompetent at raising him, maybe you’d want to adopt him? His farts are horribly stinky, but he smells really good after a bath—” She waved a hand at her flushed face. “Okay, I’m going now. I can do this. I can do all of this, right?”
I gave her a wide supportive smile. “You absolutely can do all of this. Go be a supportive big sister to Rylee and help her have that beautiful baby.”
“I will. I so will. Thank you so much, Vee.” She gave me a quick hug and rushed out the bathroom door.
I let out a long breath and stepped out to find Murphy waiting for me, leaning against the wall. He straightened immediately. “Everything okay? I saw Kelsey run for the hills.”
“Yeah, she’s fine. Just a frazzled new mom.” I took his arm, squeezing it gratefully. “Since I think they have plenty of people with them at the hospital, want to go on that date now?”
“Absolutely.” He grinned. “I think we both could use a drink.”
“Or seven,” I agreed.
Fifteen
Vee
Cabin Fortress: Does texting you while you’re in the bathroom with Kelsey show I’m whipped already?
Vee: Nah. It shows you’re sexy AF.
Cabin Fortress: …
Vee: *giggle*
Murphy didn’t tell me where we were going for dinner. I was hoping for the Sherman Inn, just because it was super fabulous and a girl with a baker/barista’s salary didn’t get to eat at swanky places like that too often. My usual dates didn’t often visit establishments like that either. Typically, we’d hit some chain restaurant at best or McDonald’s after the movies at worst.
I didn’t mind. I didn’t have fancy tastes, and besides, I could make a lot of things I enjoyed myself despite being more skilled at baking than cooking.
So, I should’ve been excited when Murphy pulled up down the street from The Hummingbird’s Nest. The bed and breakfast had a lovely restaurant, or so I’d been told. I’d never eaten there.
“This is the surprise?” I tried to sound enthusiastic as Murphy turned off the car.
“Yes. Sage moved our reservations back a few minutes due to the baby hijinks. She’ll be heading to the hospital soon.”
“Oh, good.” I cleared my throat. The green-eyed monster inside me that reared up every time I heard Sage’s name in relation to Murphy could leave anytime now, thanks. “I mean, what a shame we won’t be seeing her.”
“Actually, she’s sticking around to say hi before she heads to the hospital.”
“Yay. How nice.” I picked up my purse and climbed out of the truck before I said something I’d regret later.
Hopefully, I’d regret it later. I truly didn’t know what my problem was. Okay, I knew. I was ridiculously jealous of Sage’s past with Murphy. I wanted to know details I had no business knowing. Especially if I was acting this irrational without knowing much, imagine if I had a little information to torment myself with?
And it didn’t make sense. Before all this, I’d really liked Sage. I still did. She was happily married to someone else, and Murphy and I were doing just fine as…well, whatever we were.
I wasn’t normally the sort of chick to worry about other women. I believed in female empowerment and one for all.
Except when it came to Murphy Masterson apparently, who caused me to act more bloodthirsty than Jaws.
As I stepped out of the car, Murphy frowned and stopped beside my door. “I was coming around to open it for you.”
Who was this man? Although I’d gotten to know him much better, I still couldn’t believe his manners. “Was your mother June Cleaver?”
“No, JoAnn Cleaver.” He held out his arm for me and I couldn’t help laughing as I accepted it.
“Have you ever eaten here before?” I asked as we ascended the wide steps to the bed and breakfast’s separate side entrance for the restaurant.
“No, never. I cook for myself a lot.”
“Me too. I work my budget like a street corner.”
He laughed and opened the front door for me. “Well, no budget tonight.”
The
foyer was crowded and there was already a line moving toward the stand for the maître’d. We joined the back of the line and made small talk as it inched forward.
Until loud feminine laughter made my ears prickle.
No.
Couldn’t be.
There was no way she could be in town. Not without letting me know.
Just the same, I gripped Murphy’s arm as I craned my neck to try to see around the people milling about in the entrance area. Then I caught a glimpse of familiar jet-black hair, wound up in her usual mile-high bun with colorful sticks, and my empty stomach fisted.
“So, how do you feel about meeting my mother tonight?”
Murphy frowned. “Here?”
“Apparently.” I narrowed my eyes at the suited man she was cozied up to, tucked into his side as if he was a lifelong friend.
Make that a lover.
She leaned up to kiss him and he palmed her ass with his left hand. Where he wore a wedding ring.
My mother was a lot of things, but messing with a married guy? Really?
Of course if you came to town for the first time in forever and didn’t bother to let your only child know first, probably anything went.
Murphy reached down to rub my hand where it clenched his arm. I was probably cutting off his circulation. “Point her out to me.”
But that turned out to be unnecessary, since she turned her head and let out a gasp. “VeeBee! Oh my God. You’re here!” She rushed toward us, her face wreathed with a huge smile. The colorful silk scarves wrapped around her waist like a belt fluttered through the air as she reached for me, pulling me into a hard hug. “You look amazing. A little skinny,” she pinched my hip, “but amazing.” She made a show of lifting her own boobs and grinning before shifting her attention to a dazed Murphy.
Or maybe I was the dazed one. My mother was a whirlwind.
And I was lying on the shore, broken from the wreckage. As always.
“Who’s this handsome fella?” She smiled up at Murphy.
“Mom, this is Murphy Masterson. Murphy, this is my mom, Andrea.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Dixon.” He held out a hand.
