“I know. But I feel sorry for her. She sees us eating good stuff and probably wonders why she’s being tortured.”
“At least she’s not crying,” he said. “And if I can get a bit more down her, I’ll let her have ice cream.”
Maeve was being adorable tonight. She’d even allowed Callie to talk to her without dissolving into a mess of tears. Callie was surprised at how quickly she was taking to the baby. She’d always been so nervous around them, but the more she was around Maeve, the more comfortable she felt.
“Would you mind if I tried to feed her?” Callie asked. “If she cries, I’ll give the spoon back to you.”
Tyler shot her a wry grin. “Oh sure. Get her to cry, then expect me to take over.”
“How will I ever learn to be a mommy if I don’t start somewhere?” she asked.
Both his brows quirked and it suddenly dawned on Callie how presumptuous and suggestive she’d sounded.
“Oh, I, uh... That didn’t come out right,” she stuttered as her cheeks flamed with embarrassed heat. “I didn’t mean to be, uh, a mommy to Maeve. I only meant in general terms.”
He chuckled and relief poured through her.
“Don’t be silly, Callie. I never thought you were trying to give me a hint.”
She blew out a long breath then let out a short, self-incriminating laugh. “See, I told you I was constantly putting my foot in my mouth. My sister used to accuse me of being a rattlebrain, that I didn’t think before I spoke. But it’s more like I use all the wrong words.”
Smiling, Tyler handed Maeve’s spoon over to her. “Here. Give it a try. I think she likes the carrots better.”
With the spoon balanced tightly between her fingers, Callie looked at the jars of baby food and then at Maeve. The baby was watching her with curious blue eyes, as though she didn’t know what to expect next.
“Okay, Maeve,” Callie said in a soft, coaxing voice. “Will you be a good girl and take a bite for me?”
Callie dipped up a bit of the mushy orange food and drew it near Maeve’s lips. To her utter surprise and delight, the baby opened her mouth and allowed Callie to tip in the spoonful of carrots.
“Oh, yummy, yummy,” she crooned to the baby. “And you’re such a good girl.”
“I’m in shock,” Tyler murmured more to himself than Callie.
Slanting him a hopeful glance, she said, “I think this might work. You go ahead and enjoy your meal while I have baby training 101.”
“Good luck,” he said with an amused grin. “You’re a brave girl. That’s all I can say.”
He picked up what was left of his hamburger and began to eat. Callie offered another spoonful to Maeve. The baby didn’t hesitate to open her mouth and accept the food. By the third spoonful, Maeve decided it was a fun experience to have Callie feed her. Between mouthfuls, she made happy sounds, kicked her feet, and joyfully slapped her hands on the high chair tray.
Callie couldn’t help but laugh at Maeve’s antics and, the more she fed her, the more lost she became in the playful interaction. Before she realized how much time had passed, the spoon hit the bottom of the jar.
She glanced questioningly over at Tyler, “Have I given her enough? I don’t know how much a baby eats.”
His gaze slipped over her face as though he was seeing her in a different light. And perhaps he was, Callie thought. Being with him and Maeve was definitely making her feel like some other woman. Not the shy Callie who was often unsure of herself.
“That’s plenty, Callie. You did great.”
His compliment shouldn’t make her feel like she was sitting on top of the world, but it did.
“I don’t know about being great. But I’m making progress. I must not look as scary to Maeve now as I did at the bridal shower.”
“That night she was tired and needed sleep.”
Callie picked up a napkin and carefully wiped the last of the carrots from Maeve’s face before she turned her attention to the last half of her burger.
“To tell you the truth, Tyler, I was bored out of my mind. I yawned so many times, Vanessa scolded me.”
“I was bored, too,” he said with a guilty grin.
“Well, you had a right to be. You’re a man,” she reasoned. “Women are supposed to get excited over kitchen appliances and fancy linens. I couldn’t work myself up over any of it.”
She couldn’t explain to Tyler that her lack of excitement stemmed from having no man in her life. Or no plans for a family of her own. It was too embarrassing.
“I’m glad we were both there,” he said. “And that Erica introduced you to me.”
His remark put a detour on her dark musings. Perhaps he did like her company. But that didn’t mean she should allow her burgeoning feelings for Tyler to get out of hand. For both of their sakes, she needed to slow down and give him the time he needed to get accustomed to being with a woman again.
“I’m glad, too,” she murmured and then turned a smile on Maeve. “And Maeve will be happy when she gets ice cream.”
Feigning a weary sigh, he stood. “Ice cream coming up. Would you like some, too? Dipped in chocolate?”
Chuckling, she said, “You’ve been gazing into Winona’s crystal ball again.”
Amused, he arched a brow at her. “Does she have a crystal ball in her fortune shop?”
“I’ve never gone into Winona’s shop. But I have a feeling if she does have a crystal ball, I’d probably gaze in it and see your face.”
He shot her a wry smile. “You just might, at that.”
* * *
By the time they returned to Callie’s apartment complex, Maeve’s little head listed to one side of the safety seat and drool oozed from the corner of her parted lips.
“I was going to ask you in for coffee, but you probably don’t want to wake her,” Callie said.
If Tyler had any sense, he’d go straight home, put Maeve in her crib and call it a night. But what would that accomplish? He’d end up staring at the walls and wishing he’d stayed here with Callie.
“I doubt she’ll wake up if I carried her inside,” he said. “Her tummy is full and she hasn’t had a nap in hours.”
Callie looked at him and the eager little smile on her face was impossible for Tyler to resist.
“Then you’d like to come in?” she asked. “I have a whole box of pastries left over from the office today. You need to eat them before I do.”
He chuckled. “I see. You need me for a food disposal. Okay, I’d like to come in—for a few minutes.”
“Great. I’ll go unlock the door and turn on the lights while you get Maeve,” she told him.
A couple of minutes later, he carried the sleeping baby into the apartment. As he surveyed the living room in search of a safe place to lay her, Callie said, “I wish we had a crib to put her in, but the armchair might be large enough to hold her.”
“That ought to work. As long as she doesn’t decide to roll.”
Callie glanced around for a solution. “We can push the footstool against the front of the chair,” she suggested. “That way Maeve would have to roll several times before she hit the floor.”
“Good idea.” He placed Maeve in the chair and, after pushing the stool into place, stepped aside to let Callie cover the baby with a soft afghan.
“She looks pretty comfy.” She straightened to her full height and turned to face him. “Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll bring the coffee and pastries in here. That way you can keep an eye on her.”
She was standing less than an arm’s length away. Close enough for him to smell the scent of flowers on her skin, to see the amber flecks in her brown eyes, and the faint lines in her lips. Those oh so soft lips.
Drawing in a deep breath, he shoved mightily at the urge to grab her and kiss her until neither one of them could breathe.
“Uh, th
anks,” he managed to say. “I’ll...um...do that if you can manage in the kitchen.”
“I can’t cook, but I can make coffee,” she said wryly. “Make yourself comfortable and I’ll be right back.”
After she left the room, Tyler took a seat on the couch. The picture window was directly in front of him and beneath the glow of the lamps situated around the U-shaped courtyard, he could make out the image of the tree and the bench beneath the drooping limbs. Even if he lived to be an old man, he knew he’d always remember how it had felt to have Callie’s lips softly yielding to his.
“Here it is,” she said quietly as she entered the living room carrying a red plastic tray loaded with cups and a plate of pastries. “I brought cream and sugar, too. I noticed the other night at DJ’s that you drank it that way.”
From the moment Tyler had picked her up this evening, he’d been charmed by how cute she looked in skinny blue jeans and a pink T-shirt that hugged her upper body. Now as she placed the tray on the coffee table and sat next to him, he couldn’t help but notice the way her rounded breasts strained against the jersey top and how the faded denim outlined her thighs.
Drawing in a deep breath, he forced his eyes onto the tray. “My brothers call me a wimp for drinking it that way. But their teasing doesn’t bother me. My mom’s dad, Abel McEntire, always took his coffee with cream and sugar and he was a mountain of a man.”
“Is he still living?”
He shook his head. “No. Grandad Abel passed about three years ago. He was a coal miner for most of his life and a Viet Nam veteran. He received a Purple Heart, but he hardly ever talked about his service in the army. I always made a point to tell him how proud I was of him. Not only for his service to our country but because he was a good man all around.”
She handed him one of the coffees and a spoon.
“Hearing such admiration from his grandson must have made him feel good,” she said.
“Actually, whenever I bragged on him, it always brought tears to his eyes. Even though he was a big, tough man on the outside, on the inside he was a marshmallow.”
Stirring the cream and sugar into his cup, he thought about the past three years of his life. He’d gained a beautiful little daughter. But he’d lost his Granddad Abel and Luanne. And throughout it all, Tyler had continued to push himself forward for Maeve’s sake. He’d promised himself that the passing of time would dim the grief and the memories. But so far he was still waiting.
Her brown eyes met his and she smiled ever so gently. “Then if I were you, I’d be proud to drink my coffee like him.”
Outside of their compatibility in the bedroom, Luanne had never understood what made Tyler tick. How was it that Callie seemed to recognize what was important to him and brush aside the things that weren’t? He’d never had a girlfriend exactly like her. To be honest, it was a bit unsettling to admit she could be that in sync with him.
His thoughts, plus the quietness of the apartment left him feeling restless. In an effort to relieve it, he leaned forward and took a glazed bismark from the stack of pastries. “Vanessa isn’t home tonight?” he asked.
Callie squared around on the cushion so that she was facing him and rested her shoulder against the back of the couch. “No. She’s out at Jameson’s ranch.”
“I imagine you miss her,” he said.
A wan smile touched her face. “You can tell?”
“I can hear it in your voice—like you’ve lost your best friend,” he explained.
“Oh. Well, I haven’t exactly lost Van. She’ll always be one of my very best friends. But she’ll be moving out soon and...” She paused and blew out a heavy breath. “You’ll probably think this is funny, but I have to admit that it’s been kinda hard on me seeing all my friends getting engaged and married. They’re all moving on and starting new lives. I’m still wondering if I’ll ever find the right man for me.”
The odd little pain he heard in her voice made him wonder if she’d really loved her ex and just hadn’t wanted to admit it to Tyler. He hoped not. He hated to think of any man breaking her heart and tossing aside her dreams.
“I don’t think that’s funny, Callie.”
“Thanks,” she said, then smiled and asked, “You knew that Winona Cobbs is Vanessa’s great-grandmother, didn’t you?”
“I overheard my parents discussing it one evening when all of us brothers were having dinner with them. Mom said that most of the folks around Bronco were shocked when they learned that Winona had had a secret affair with Josiah Abernathy.”
“Not only that, she had his baby and the Abernathys told Winona the child was stillborn! Poor woman, it’s no wonder she had to be institutionalized from a mental breakdown. None of that would’ve happened if the Abernathys hadn’t slunk out of town during the night and taken the baby with them. They didn’t even have the decency to keep the baby for Josiah’s sake. They adopted her out.”
“I hope you’re not lumping that set of Abernathys with my branch of the family.”
“Oh, not at all,” she assured him. “It’s obvious your family is nothing like Josiah’s was back then.”
“I can tell you that my parents were both stunned when they heard the story,” Tyler told her. “Why did you ask about Winona anyway?”
“Yesterday, Van told me and my coworker that Winona had more or less opened her eyes to what she wanted for herself and the future.”
Tyler was dumbfounded. “Don’t tell me that Vanessa had the old woman read her palm or gaze into that crystal ball we were talking about.”
Callie smiled and shook her head. “No. Van isn’t that mystical. She only meant that learning about Winona and Josiah’s love affair showed her that real love continues on—in spite of years of separation. Van decided that she wouldn’t settle for anything less than the deep kind of love her great-grandmother experienced. And, honestly, I want that same thing. I’m just not sure I’ll ever be lucky enough to find it.”
Yes, Tyler could understand Callie wanting to be a wife and mother. But right now, he didn’t want to think about her walking down the aisle with Mr. Right. He wanted to think about this very moment and how it felt to have her close to him, even if it was just to talk, to smile at him and to make him feel as though he was a better man than the one who’d caused his wife to die.
* * *
She was doing it again, Callie thought. Putting her foot in her mouth and talking about things that were making Tyler uncomfortable. No wonder there was a frown creasing the space between his brows.
She hadn’t purposely guided their conversation to the subject of love and marriage. His question about Vanessa had done that. But she should’ve had more forethought than to bring up Winona and Josiah’s love affair and how it had lasted all these decades. But it was too late to take it back. Now the only thing she could do was to steer their conversation to something mundane and safe. Like the weather. Or the price of cattle. Surely ranchers liked to discuss those subjects.
Callie glanced over at him with the intention of asking him about the cattle market, but when she saw him licking the crumbly glaze from the bismark off his fingers, she instantly forgot the question and jumped to her feet.
“Sorry, Tyler. I forgot to bring napkins for the pastries. I’ll be right back.”
He shook his head. “I don’t need a napkin.”
“Yes—yes, you do.”
She hurried around to the kitchen nook and with trembling fingers snatched several napkins from a holder on the counter. But instead of going directly back to join Tyler on the couch, she braced her weight against the cabinet and pressed a palm to her heated forehead.
She had to get a grip. Just because Tyler was in the apartment, sitting on her couch and looking like a sexy maverick in boots and jeans, didn’t mean she had to suffer a meltdown! It didn’t mean she had to rattle nervously on about things he probably considered as annoying as
fingernails scraping over a blackboard.
“Callie, is anything wrong?”
Dropping her hand, she saw Tyler walking toward her. A frown of real concern was on his face.
Oh Lord, now she was going to turn pink with embarrassment, she thought. He must be thinking she was the most immature twenty-five-year-old he’d ever met. And at this very moment, she’d have to agree with him.
“I, uh, I’m fine,” she said shakily. “I was just catching my breath.”
“Are you feeling light-headed? I’ll help you back to the couch.”
Callie lifted her gaze to his and the urge to laugh and cry hit her at the same time. In an attempt to swallow the impulses, a strangled sound gurgled in her throat.
“I’m okay, Tyler. Really. I’m just feeling like an idiot. That’s all.”
“Why?”
She groaned and though she wanted to cover her face with both hands, she forced them to remain at her sides. “Because—I don’t know, Tyler, something happens to me whenever I’m with you. I start talking and behaving like a fool. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to get the heck out of here.”
“Why?” he asked again.
“Do you have to ask? I talk about all the wrong things and I—”
“Callie,” he gently admonished, “don’t.”
He stepped close enough to pull her into his arms and Callie was too dazed to do anything but wrap her arms around his waist and lay her cheek against his chest.
Oh my, it felt so good to feel his solid strength next to her, the warmth of his arms holding her as though he considered her precious.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, her voice muffled by his denim shirt. “I shouldn’t be nervous around you, but I am. Because I—I’ve never felt like this before.”
His thumb and forefinger lifted her chin just far enough for him to look into her eyes. “I’ve never felt like this before, either.”
“You don’t have to say that to make me feel better.”
“I’m being honest.”
Her heart had already been tap dancing. Now it was madly jackhammering against her breastbone.
For His Daughter's Sake Page 9
