Or Wilder could take care of that for her. He’d mixed the formula enough times now that he didn’t even have to read the label anymore. But as much as they took turns with feedings and diaper changes during the day, sharing such duties in the darkness of the night felt like something else. Something more.
Like something a dad and mom might do—if they were a family.
And since he didn’t even know for sure if he was Cody’s dad, and she for sure wasn’t his mom, it would be a mistake—even bigger than the one they’d made last night—to pretend they were a family.
So instead of offering to help, he retreated to his own room like the coward that he was.
Chapter Thirteen
“Hey, big guy.” Beth crooned the words softly as she unfastened the tabs of her nephew’s diaper, hoping to soothe the baby but not wake the sexy cowboy asleep across the hall. “What’s going on in here?”
Cody’s big blue eyes were swimming with tears, his long, dark lashes wet and spikey. But his quivering lips curved, just a little.
“I bet you’re not just wet but hungry,” she said, as she slid a dry diaper under his bottom. “Because you’ve been down for almost six hours.” She stifled a yawn as she wiped his bottom. “Unfortunately, I’ve only slept about half that amount of time, so if you could go back to sleep without too much fuss, I’d appreciate it.”
Cody shoved a fist into his mouth.
“Yes, of course, I’ll give you a snack first,” she promised, as she fastened the new diaper, then snapped up his diaper shirt and sleeper again. “There. That’s better, isn’t it?”
Cody continued to gnaw on his fist as she carried him downstairs. Though she’d only been at the ranch five full days, she’d quickly learned her way around the house in the dark—a necessary skill considering the number of times she was up and down with her nephew each night.
She blinked at the light when she opened the refrigerator to retrieve one of the bottles she’d prepared earlier. She turned on the kettle to heat the water to warm the formula, then turned it off again as she recalled Sharleesa—a colleague from work and mother of three—mentioning that her kids all preferred a cold bottle when they were teething.
“Okay, we’re going to try something different tonight,” she said to Cody, uncapping the bottle and lowering the nipple toward his mouth. “Let’s see what you think of this.”
Cody thought it was just fine, apparently, as he latched on and immediately began sucking.
“Apparently you’re not afraid to try new things,” Beth mused as she headed back up the stairs again. “Which proves you inherited your mama’s adventurous spirit.”
As usual, thinking about Leighton led to worrying about Leighton. She wished she could adopt Wilder’s philosophy and not worry about things she couldn’t control, but she didn’t think that would ever apply to her sister.
“I didn’t make any resolutions this year,” she said, continuing to talk softly to Cody. “But maybe it’s not too late. Maybe this year, if I make more of an effort, your mama and I will learn to communicate better and grow closer.”
Of course, if she really wanted a better relationship with Leighton, she probably shouldn’t have slept with her ex, Beth acknowledged ruefully.
But maybe her sister wouldn’t ever find out what she’d done. Certainly Beth had no intention of telling her, and she couldn’t imagine that Wilder would volunteer the information. And since she was pretty sure their impulsive lovemaking had been the result of proximity and champagne, she was confident it wouldn’t ever happen again.
And that was for the best, because when Leighton came back and saw how good Wilder was with Cody, maybe she’d decide to give their relationship another chance—to give their son a real family.
It was what Beth had always wanted for Cody. So why, then, did the idea of her sister sharing Wilder’s life—and his bed—make her heart ache?
Was it somehow possible that, over the course of only five days, she’d developed real feelings for the cowboy?
Thinking about it now, she knew it wasn’t just possible but true. Because during that time, she’d had plenty of opportunities to interact with him and discover his true character.
Maybe he didn’t instinctively know how to be a father, but he’d proven that he was open to learning and willing to make the effort. And though she knew he had a reputation with the ladies, since she’d been at the ranch, he appeared to have made the little boy his priority over all else.
Even tonight, when he’d gone out to celebrate the New Year with his family, he’d come home early. He’d said he wasn’t in the mood for the crowds, but she suspected he’d really wanted to check on Cody. Because she knew, even if Wilder wasn’t ready to admit it, that the baby had already worked his way into his heart.
There was so much more to him than the picture of the wild and aimless cowboy her sister had painted. He was undeniably the most handsome man she’d ever met, but aside from his striking good looks and mouthwatering muscles, he was intelligent and charming, insightful and compassionate. He also had a good sense of humor and a strong sense of family loyalty.
And after only five days at the Ambling A and one night in Wilder’s arms, she was in serious danger of losing her heart.
* * *
“Why didn’t you tell me that Cody’s teeth had come in?” Wilder demanded, when he returned to the house following an early ride with his brother—and after hearing the news from his father, who’d puffed up like a proud grandpa as he delivered it.
“You didn’t stick around long enough for me to say anything,” Beth said, pointedly referencing his quick exit earlier that morning.
“I had to ride out with Hunter to check the fence.”
“I’m sure you did.” She dipped the spoon into the cereal bowl again and moved it toward the baby’s mouth.
When Cody opened up, she let him swallow the cereal, then used the rubber tip of the spoon to gently pull down his lower lip and reveal the bumpy ridges of white poking through his gums so that Wilder could see what all the fuss was about.
“Look at that,” he said, feeling his own chest puff up with pride, as if he was somehow responsible for the baby’s milestone. “He’s got teeth.”
“They’ve still got a way to go, but now that they’ve broken through the gums, he should be a little less cranky,” she said.
“That’s good,” he agreed.
Now if only he could figure out why Beth seemed so cranky this morning. Or maybe he already knew—which her next words confirmed.
“Should we talk about what happened last night?” she asked.
“If you want to,” he agreed cautiously.
“What I want is for things to not be awkward between us,” she said.
“Do things seem awkward to you?”
“It’s hard to tell when we haven’t been in the same room together for more than five minutes. Or maybe that is the tell,” she decided.
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” he promised. “Hunter texted this morning and asked me to ride out to the eastern boundary with him.”
“Why you?” she wondered aloud.
“Probably because he knew all our other brothers would be snuggled up with their wives.”
“Oh.” She blew out a breath. “So I may have overreacted,” she acknowledged. “I’m not very good at this. I don’t have a lot of experience with mornings after.”
“Just say whatever it is you want to say,” he suggested.
“Okay,” she agreed. “I think last night was a mistake. I mean, it was great, but it shouldn’t have happened. We shouldn’t have...gotten carried away.”
“Is that what happened? We got carried away?” he asked, wondering why her dismissal of their lovemaking bothered him when he’d arrived at the same conclusion.
“Isn’t it?”
“Sur
e,” he finally agreed. “We got carried away, it never should have happened, it won’t happen again.”
“Okay, then,” she said.
“If that’s all, I’m going to make myself a sandwich and then head back out to help my brothers fix the fence.”
“Of course,” she agreed.
He nodded brusquely and walked out, leaving Beth to wonder why, after he’d said everything she wanted him to say, she was so unhappy.
* * *
“What’s going on with you and Beth?” Max asked the following morning, when Wilder returned to the supply shed for the box of screws Knox had left behind.
“What do you mean?” Wilder asked cautiously.
“She put on boots and a coat to go out to the barn and ask Hunter to put Cody’s car seat in her vehicle.”
“And?”
“Why didn’t she ask you?”
He shrugged. “Maybe she figured Hunter has more experience with such things.”
His father acknowledged that possibility with a slow nod. “It would have been even easier to ask you to give her a lift into town.”
“She knows I’m still working with Xander and Knox to fix the fence,” Wilder told him, reminding his father of the barrier that had been destroyed when someone skidded off the road and crashed through it.
They didn’t know what kind of vehicle or who was responsible, as the driver hadn’t contacted Max to own up to the incident. But considering the damage to the fence and the fact that the vehicle had driven away, they suspected Butch Ferrell, who owned a jacked-up Escalade and had been known to get behind the wheel after a few too many drinks at the Ace in the Hole.
“Logan or Finn could’ve taken your place,” Max pointed out.
“And then accused me of skipping out on the hard work.” Wilder shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“You’d rather skip out on spending time with your son,” his father remarked with obvious disapproval. “Or maybe it’s Beth that you don’t want to spend time with.”
“If I had a choice between fixing fence and shopping, I’d go with the fence every time,” he told his father.
“Are you sure that’s all it is?”
“Why do you think it’s anything more?”
“Because recently it seems that every time one of you walks into a room, the other one walks out.”
“You ever consider that maybe we each have our own stuff to do in different places?” he suggested, because he couldn’t deny the accuracy of his father’s observation.
Or that, despite Beth’s claim that she didn’t want things to be awkward between them, they were.
His father sighed. “I thought the two of you were finally starting to get along.”
“We were. We are,” he corrected.
“Really?” Max challenged. “Because it doesn’t look like it from where I’m standing.”
“There’s no reason for you to worry, Dad,” he said, grabbing the box of nails.
“Has Beth mentioned when she plans to go back to Dallas?” Max asked, apparently not yet ready to let his son return to his duties.
Wilder shook his head. “Not before the DNA results are in. Why? Do you suddenly have an objection to her being here?”
“I don’t,” his dad assured him. “We’ve got plenty of space, and I’ve eaten more home-cooked meals in the past week than in the six weeks prior to her showing up.”
“Which only proves that we need to hire a cook,” Wilder said. “Because she’s not going to be here forever.”
“But she’s here now,” his father pointed out.
* * *
Beth obviously hadn’t thought this through.
She’d just wanted to get away from the ranch and the awkward tension with Wilder for a little while, and a quick shopping trip into town seemed the perfect excuse. But she didn’t have Cody’s stroller—and even if she did, she wasn’t sure it would navigate the snow-covered sidewalks—and it was awkward to wear his baby carrier over her coat and it didn’t fit under. Which left her with no recourse but to carry him in his car seat.
At least when she got inside the store, she was able to sit his car seat in the cart while she did her shopping. She only needed a few things, but after paying for her groceries, she was faced with the logistical problem of having to cart the baby, his diaper bag and three bags of groceries out to her vehicle.
She might have asked Natalie for help, if the woman she’d met on her first trip into town had been working, but she hadn’t seen her anywhere in the store. Thankfully today’s clerk—identified as Nina by another customer—anticipated her dilemma and called a stock boy to carry Beth’s purchases out to her car.
After all of that, she decided she deserved a treat and headed over to Daisy’s Donuts, the reputed mecca of everything sweet and delicious in Rust Creek Falls. An examination of the offerings in the display case required several minutes of careful study, leading Beth to conclude that the reputation had not been exaggerated.
An opinion that was further bolstered by her first bite of chocolate silk pie.
“Hey, stranger.”
Beth glanced up as Natalie Crawford slid into the seat across from her. She lifted a hand to wave, unable to offer a verbal reply because her mouth was full.
Natalie eyed the plate in front of her. “Mmm...is that Eva’s chocolate silk pie?”
Beth nodded and swallowed. “Do you want me to ask for another fork?”
The other woman shook her head regretfully. “Don’t think I’m not tempted, but I’m actually here to pick up a Neapolitan cake for my mom’s birthday and if I let myself indulge in two desserts today, I’ll never squeeze into my favorite jeans tomorrow.”
“Your call,” Beth said, as she dipped her fork into her pie again.
“So what brings you into town today?” Natalie asked.
“Cabin fever,” she said.
“We all suffer from a bit of that during the winter,” the other woman said sympathetically.
“And since I needed an excuse to go out, I decided to pick up a few groceries to make chicken and dumplings for dinner.”
“You’re going to spoil Max and Wilder with all your fancy cooking,” Natalie warned.
“It’s the least I can do,” Beth said. “And I don’t really do anything else.”
“I would imagine this little guy keeps you plenty busy,” Natalie said, glancing at the baby in his carrier on the bench seat beside his aunt. Then she smiled. “He’s watching you move that fork from your plate to your mouth and wondering why you’re not sharing with him.”
“Because it’s a little too sweet and rich for a baby who only recently started eating cereal,” Beth said, directing her explanation to Cody. But she dipped the fork into the whipped cream on top of the pie, then touched the tines to his lips so that he could have a tiny taste.
He rubbed his lips together to sample the cream, then his eyes grew wide and his feet kicked.
“I think he likes it,” Natalie said.
“Apparently he’s got a sweet tooth like his aunt,” Beth noted.
“Or maybe two of them,” the other woman said. “When did he get those?”
“Just yesterday.”
“New teeth for the New Year. Speaking of which... I didn’t see you at the party at Maverick Manor.”
“Because I wasn’t there,” Beth admitted.
“Surely Max invited you?”
“He did,” she confirmed. “But I opted to stay home with Cody.”
“Just with Cody?” Natalie teased.
“What do you mean?”
“Wilder skipped out early, causing much speculation about where he was going and who he was going to be with,” Natalie confided. “Because everyone’s waiting to see if Max’s matchmaker goes six-for-six, and a lot of the local girls are hoping to be the s
ixth lucky bride.”
“Is that what passes for entertainment in Rust Creek Falls?” Beth wondered, feigning only mild interest.
“Well, we’ve got to do something,” the other woman said. “We don’t even have a movie theater in town.”
She smiled at that, remembering a similar discussion she’d had with Wilder on the same topic.
“In that case, I’d put my money on Max,” Beth said. “He doesn’t strike me as a man who ever gives up before he gets what he wants.”
“And Wilder seems equally stubborn.”
“Could be,” she acknowledged.
“But if you were going to throw your hat in the ring...” Natalie let her words trail off suggestively.
“Me?” Beth immediately shook her head. “I’m only here because of Cody.”
“That’s too bad,” Natalie said, sounding disappointed.
Maybe she thought so, but Beth knew it was for the best.
* * *
By three o’clock that afternoon, Wilder was rethinking his choices. Because a trip into town to do some shopping with Beth and Cody had to be better than freezing his ass off in single-digit temperatures trying to rebuild a fence.
“We should sue Ferrell for damages,” he grumbled.
Though it wasn’t the cost of the materials that annoyed him so much as the inconvenience of having to make the repair—and the shirking of responsibility by the idiot driver who’d crashed through the fence.
“Good luck proving it was him,” Xander said.
“I heard he took his truck to a body shop in Kalispell for repairs,” Knox chimed in. “Claimed someone hit his vehicle while it was parked.”
“With a two-by-four?” Wilder asked facetiously, rubbing his hands on his thighs in an effort to restore some circulation to his numb digits. “Because you can bet whoever does the repair finds splinters of wood while banging out the dents.”
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