On Friday morning Avery splurged on a long-distance call to her boss, Denise. Working at The Icing On Top was a dream job, and she wanted to reassure Denise that she’d be back to work as planned in a few days. Denise had been incredibly sympathetic to Avery’s situation, giving her whatever time she needed after Crystal’s death. Instead of applying for parental leave and trying to make do on a reduced salary, Denise had even allowed Avery to bring Nell to work at the bakery. Once Nell was older, Avery knew she would have to put her in day care, but for now, during these first precious months, Avery was able to keep Nell with her. She was getting quite good at decorating with the baby in the Snugli carrier, and she kept the playpen in the back office and a baby monitor in the bakery kitchen. When the time came for Denise to expand, Avery wanted to be first in line to manage the new location.
She owed Denise a lot, and the last thing she wanted to do was take her generosity for granted. She wanted to reassure Denise that she’d be back to work first thing after her return.
Denise’s voice sounded stressed on the other end of the line as she finally answered on the sixth ring. “Hey, I was going to call you today,” she said.
“Is something wrong?”
“Not wrong, per se. Just…you don’t have to hurry back this week after all. The bakery’s going to be closed for a few weeks for repairs.”
“Repairs? What happened?” Avery sat heavily on the bed as she counted the missed wages in her mind.
“A fire at the pizza place next door. We’re okay—just some damage to the front awning which is easily replaced. But the electrics are a mess and there’s a fair bit of water damage. There’s no way we can reopen until that’s taken care of.”
“Oh, Denise. I’m so sorry.” She knew what having to close would do to a bottom line.
“I know. But that’s what insurance is for.” Denise paused. “How are things going, anyway?”
“I really don’t know.” Avery sighed. “Callum is very different from the guy I remember, and he’s not too keen on Nell. I haven’t seen him in a couple of days. We’re going for a paternity test in a few minutes.”
“Well, that’s sort of what you wanted, right? Full custody without a bunch of drama?” Denise’s voice was hopeful. God bless her, Denise always tried to look on the bright side.
Avery shrugged even though Denise wasn’t there to see her. “I don’t really know what I want. I want Nell to know her father like I never did, but I want to have her all to myself, too. Trying to figure out how to have it both ways is proving a challenge.”
“Well, if anyone can do it, you can. You remember that. You’re way stronger than you think. Not everyone could have stepped in and done what you’ve done the last few months. Keep your chin up and I’ll be in touch when I know more about a reopening date.”
“Will do. And thanks,” she added warmly. “For everything.”
“I know, I know. Boss of the year.”
Avery could picture Denise’s crooked smile. “Decade. Century, even.”
After they hung up Avery let out a big breath. She was still trying to process the news when Callum’s truck pulled up outside the bed-and-breakfast. Nerves churned in Avery’s tummy. She hurried to grab the carrier and diaper bag so he didn’t have to wait. When he met them on the walkway below the veranda, he hesitated only for a moment before turning and heading back to where his vehicle was parked.
Still avoiding any eye or physical contact, then. She didn’t know why they were both so tense. It was just a swab test. No results would be had for at least a week. And she was in no doubt of the results, after all. Crystal might have kept secrets, but she wouldn’t have lied to Avery about that.
Avery carried the car seat to the waiting vehicle, a crew cab half-ton built for function but without a lot of bells and whistles. Once the belt was fastened securely, she stepped up into the front seat. “This thing is huge.”
“It does the job,” he replied, starting the engine. Avery felt weird sitting there with him, enclosed in the cab with no escape, with the scent of his aftershave filling the air. It was just her dumb luck that she’d thought him handsome from the beginning. It made her feel awkward, and she hoped he didn’t pick up on it. How embarrassing.
Thankfully it only took a few minutes to get to the small, neat building that housed the doctor’s office. Callum hopped out and then came around the truck and opened her door before she even got the diaper bag over her shoulder.
He let her carry the car seat with Nell in it. She bit down on her lip. To her recollection, he’d never called Nell by name, always referring to her as “the baby.”
And not once had he touched her or bothered to pick her up.
Today, Avery realized as she stepped through the door he held open, was truly a formality. Because Callum was definitely no father.
Callum’s heart wouldn’t settle down from the weird pattering that pressed against his chest. This was stupid. It was a simple test. A mouth swab and it was all over. Results in a few days that would prove…
He clenched his jaw as Avery passed by him, her light floral scent teasing his nostrils. He didn’t seem to remember her being this headstrong. She’d been a bit of a wallflower at the wedding. But the woman with him today was tough and determined. And beautiful. Her skin practically glowed and he noticed a few freckles dotting her nose, making her seem younger than he knew she must be. And when she smiled at the receptionist and announced their arrival, he caught his breath.
Her hair was back in a ponytail, but a few pale strands had come loose and framed her face. She looked pretty in a natural sort of way. So unlike her sister, who’d been fond of bright colors and painted nails and flawless makeup. There wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t have had his head turned by Crystal Spencer. She was a knockout.
Past tense, he reminded himself as he stood beside Avery. And Avery was as different from her sister as night and day. Oh, there was a resemblance he could see now, in the tilt of her nose and the shape of her eyes. But there was something different about her, something easier. Simpler. Crystal had been a bombshell, but Avery was the girl next door.
In her own very natural way, Avery Spencer was stunning.
He was still reeling from that realization when they sat to wait in the quiet waiting room. Callum closed his eyes briefly. Confidentiality be damned; before the day was out people would know he’d been here with a woman and a baby. Even if they knew nothing about the paternity test, assumptions would start. Things had a way of spreading through a small town like wildfire.
He looked over at Nell, who was sitting on Avery’s lap happily shaking a rattle shaped like a giraffe. His throat tightened. Deep down he knew what today’s test was going to say. He had seen it first in the hair, but then he’d dug out an old family picture. His first impressions were correct. The resemblance was there, especially to his little sister, Taylor.
Nell was a Shepard through and through. His daughter. The very thought was enough to send his stomach plummeting to his feet. What on earth was he going to do with a kid?
This whole thing opened up too many old wounds. He couldn’t stop thinking about Jane and the baby she’d had. Not to mention the fact that she’d lied so easily to his face for weeks before breaking his heart.
Dr. Lazowski called them in and the three of them entered the exam room together. No questions asked, just the quick procedure and they were done. “I’ll send this off to the lab immediately,” he said, writing in a chart. “And the results?”
“To my mailing address,” Callum said tightly.
“And to mine.” Avery stepped forward and gave him her address in Ontario. Suddenly Callum realized that this meant she was really leaving. And taking Nell with her. Just like that it was done. He wasn’t even used to the idea of them being around and they would be out of his life.
“Thanks, Dr. Lazowski,” Callum said, and they were back out in the waiting room again. It almost seemed like it had never happened. Nothing felt different
, except knowing that now it was over, Avery and Nell would be flying back home in a few hours to wait for the results.
What was he going to do when they came back positive? Because he was sure they were going to. He’d been trying to come to grips with it over the last few days. He had a daughter. A child—something he’d never thought would happen. Not after everything in his past. Not after Jane and definitely not after what had happened overseas.
They got back in the truck and Callum paused. “Did you want to grab some lunch?”
Avery shook her head. “Our flight leaves in a few hours, and I have to take my rental car back. I’ll just get something at the airport.”
He deserved that; he’d turned down her offer the other day, after all. “That’s fine, then.”
He refused to look at her, or over his shoulder at Nell. It was probably just as well. Even if Nell was his—which he was now very certain she was—he had no business trying to be a full-time father. She belonged with Avery. And Avery’s life was across the country, in her trendy apartment working in her trendy bakery while his whole savings—and a sizable loan—sat right here on his farm.
She insisted she didn’t want financial support and he wasn’t making a lot of money, but he would help out. It would be bad enough being an absentee dad, but no one was going to accuse him of being a deadbeat.
It was the very least his conscience demanded. So why did he feel like he was taking the easy way out?
Back at the inn he’d barely shut off the ignition when she was out of the truck and opening the side door to get Nell. She’d clearly planned ahead because she went inside and came right back out rolling her suitcase and carrying the packed-up playpen. The umbrella stroller was snapped up and stowed in the trunk of her car in no time flat and there was nothing more to do than say goodbye.
It was not how he’d envisioned this morning going. Not with her so…cold. He didn’t quite know what he’d done to set her off, but she wouldn’t even look him in the eye.
She turned to face him and pasted on a smile so fake it looked plastic. “I’ll be in touch after we get the results.”
“Right. You’ve got everything?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t need…” He didn’t know how to finish the question. What was he trying to ask? Why was this so hard? He should be relieved that things were going back to normal, so why was he drawing the moment out rather than just opening the damn door for her?
“I don’t need anything from you, Callum.”
Well. That was clear, and a common enough refrain when all was said and done. Feeling helpless, he reached down and opened her car door, watched as she buckled Nell’s seat into place. He swallowed, staring down at the tiny face with the innocently blinking eyes. He slid his gaze to Avery, who refused to look at him but slid behind the wheel. When he hesitated shutting the door, she finally looked up.
“It’s time to go,” she said, a tad bit impatiently. The tone rode on his nerves.
“Did I do something this morning? Something to make you rush off like this?” He didn’t like leaving things on a sour note. Not when they were going to have to stay in touch for…
For years to come. Years. They would always be connected by Nell.
“Not at all,” she answered. “This morning just reminded me of our positions in this whole thing. There’s simply no sense prolonging things, don’t you agree?”
No, dammit, he didn’t agree, but couldn’t say so without getting in over his head.
“Drive carefully,” he said finally, and shut the door while she started the engine.
He watched her car go out the driveway and turn onto the dirt lane that connected to the paved road. It felt wrong watching her drive away like that, but what else was he supposed to do? She wanted nothing to do with him. Oh, perhaps she’d been curious, just like him. He hadn’t imagined the way her eyes had snapped to his now and again, or the color that rose in her cheeks when he was around. She’d blushed that morning on the park bench.
But a little curiosity was a far cry from working together to raise a kid, wasn’t it?
If she’d wanted full custody, she could have just let things stand and he never would have known the difference. Instead she’d come to find him, determined that he—and her niece—deserved to know each other.
He had to admire that. Except Miss Spencer gave him the impression that she always did the right thing, and that was a damned hard example for a flawed human being to follow.
Restless, he turned back to his truck and noticed the back door wasn’t quite latched. He went to close it and when he looked in the window he saw the small stuffed giraffe. He reached in and picked it up. The fabric was soft and it made a jingling nose as he turned it over in his hand.
The scent of baby powder and soap still clung to the interior of the truck.
His kid. And he hadn’t even held her in his arms, not once. He recalled Jane’s voice explaining why she couldn’t go through with the wedding. That the baby she carried wasn’t really his; that she couldn’t marry a man who would never be there for their family. And he heard his own voice, explaining in no uncertain terms to Crystal last spring that he wasn’t interested in a wife and kids, when the truth was a family of his own had been all he wanted until Jane walked away, taking his dreams with her.
And then he’d gotten Crystal pregnant. And now, when faced with his biggest mistake, he was the one walking away. Perhaps Avery was the one driving, but he’d done nothing to stop her.
What kind of man was he?
An idiot, that’s what.
Before he could change his mind, he shoved the giraffe in his pocket and hopped up into the cab of his truck to go after her.
CHAPTER FOUR
A VERY PULLED INTO the service station to fill up the rental before taking it back. For the past fifteen minutes of the drive, Nell had been crying. In her haste to leave Cadence Creek, Avery hadn’t given her a bottle or changed her diaper.
She’d been too focused on getting away from Callum. The cold stranger who was so intent on not being a father that he insisted on a stupid paternity test when all the evidence he needed was right before his eyes.
She’d nearly forgotten that until this morning at the doctor’s office when it had been a quick swab and back out on the street.
Nell’s cries echoed through the closed window and Avery was embarrassed to find tears pricking behind her own lids, hot and humiliated. She clicked off the pump and printed out the receipt. She was just tucking it into her purse when a huge truck pulled in behind her and Callum jumped out.
Why did he have to be so dangerously good-looking? Right now he was walking toward her with long strides and his gaze was fixed on her face.
“Callum?”
He stood before her and she watched him swallow. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out Nell’s tiny stuffed giraffe.
“You left this in my truck.”
She reached out and took it, confused. “It’s a giraffe. You followed me all the way to Edmonton to give me a five-dollar toy?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I, uh…” He faltered and she looked up into his face. He was trying hard to keep from showing any emotion, any clue to his feelings, but she could tell it was costing him. A horn beeped; people were waiting to gas up and they were blocking the pumps.
“Can you pull into the parking area? Just give me five minutes. Please, Avery.”
He said “please.” And despite his best intentions she could see something on his face. Anxiety. Regret. She nodded briefly. “Just a few minutes. Sometimes it takes a while to get through security with baby gear.”
She pulled over into the parking area and he followed, parking his truck beside her compact.
He met her by the back of her vehicle, and for a few seconds he didn’t speak.
“You didn’t follow me here to give me back a stuffed animal, did you?”
He shook his head. Avery’s pulse started to thump. What
did he want? And why on earth should she feel excited? Ten minutes ago she’d been angry, on her way home with a clear conscience. It was simpler this way. So why had she felt so very glad to see him striding across the pavement?
“She’s mine,” he blurted out.
That was not what Avery had expected. “I beg your pardon?”
His face softened. “She looks exactly like my baby sister did at that age. Today’s appointment…it’s a formality, Avery. I know she’s mine. I’ve known it deep down for a few days now.”
Avery’s thoughts jumbled together. He had a sister? Callum was so gruff and solitary it seemed impossible to think of him surrounded by parents and siblings. And yet she knew he hadn’t just hatched, fully formed, into the broody recluse he seemed to be.
And then there was the heady fact that without proof he was actually acknowledging that Nell was his daughter.
She was happy about that. And scared as hell, too. The same feelings she’d had that first day came rushing back. Afraid of what he might demand. Afraid of losing the most precious thing in her life.
“What changed your mind?”
He sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“I have time.”
“Not if you have a plane to catch.” He took a small step closer. “Do you absolutely have to go today?”
What on earth was he asking? Avery took a deep breath, trying to sort out her thoughts and remain rational. “I’ve already rescheduled my flight once.”
“I know. And I know you have a job, but don’t you have a little more vacation? Just to give me a chance to…”
He turned his head and looked through the back window at the car seat.
“A chance to what, Callum?”
He turned back and met her gaze. She felt the eye contact right to her toes. Yes, he looked rough and dangerous. He also looked uncertain, a little bit vulnerable, and sexy to boot. It made him hard to resist—not that she’d ever admit that to his face.
“A chance to get to know Nell a bit before you take her back with you,” he answered.
Little Cowgirl on His Doorstep (Mills & Boon Cherish) (Cadence Creek Cowboys - Book 3) Page 4
