“Oh, dear God,” Roxanne said. “He’s already bribing the kid. Dad, have you no shame?”
Quinn chuckled. “None whatsoever. I want to hold my grandson. Come on over, Josh.” He raised his hands to shoulder height and wiggled his fingers. “My family wants a photo op.”
Without warning, Josh launched himself in Quinn’s direction.
Gage gently transferred the baby to Quinn as phones lifted along the sidelines to record the moment.
Emma cursed her own lack of planning. Her phone was in the backpack Gage had slung over his shoulder. But Kendra was snapping away, so she’d likely share whatever she’d taken.
A photo might not capture what was happening with Quinn, anyway. He’d gathered Josh against his chest. Her son was gazing up at him as if trying to figure out how this new person fit into his life. Then Quinn leaned over to murmur something to Josh that was clearly meant to be private.
Emma strained to hear it, anyway. Sounded like I’ll love you forever, little buddy. Her throat tightened. If Gage hadn’t come to see her, none of this would have happened. But he had, and because of that, her son was in the loving arms of his grandpapa.
Chapter Ten
Emma was still focused on the sweet tableau when Gage laid a hand on her shoulder. “Dad, I’d like you to meet Josh’s mother, Emma Green.”
Quinn glanced up and smiled. “I’m happy to meet you, Emma Green.” Shifting Josh to his left side, he held out his hand. “And grateful.” His grip was warm and strong.
“I’m happy to meet you, too, Mr. Sawyer.” Judging from the kindness in his eyes, if he hadn’t been holding Josh he would have hugged her.
“Just Quinn, ma’am.”
“It’s a pleasure, Quinn.” No wonder Gage thought so highly of his dad. He exuded positive energy.
“And this is my sister Roxanne.”
Emma held out her hand. “I’m glad to—”
“I’m thrilled that you came down.” Roxanne’s dark eyes sparkled as she grasped Emma’s hand in both of hers. “And Josh is absolutely adorable.”
“Thank you.” Roxanne’s gaze was familiar, so like her son’s…and his daddy’s.
Roxanne turned to the broad-shouldered man at her side. “This is my fiancé, Michael, and I think you’ve already met Wes and Ingrid.”
“Not officially, though.” Emma shook hands with everyone. “Wes, you were a lifesaver yesterday.”
“Glad I could help.”
“And last, but not least,” Gage said, “there’s my big brother Pete.”
“Who’s also known as Uncle Pete, now.” He gave her a broad smile. “Pleased to meet you, Emma.” His large hand engulfed hers. “I plan to study up, find out what this uncle thing is all about, make sure I get it right.”
She laughed. “No worries. I’m sure you’ll be great at it.”
“Hey, yeah,” Wes said. “I’m an uncle, too. I forgot that part.”
“Personally, I think Auntie Roxanne has a musical lilt to it.” Gage’s sister glanced up at her fiancé. “Uncle Michael sounds good, too.”
“But should I be Uncle Michael or Uncle Mike?”
“Or Uncle Mikey,” Pete said with a grin. “That has a certain ring to it.”
“Okay, okay, you uncles, aunties and grandpapas.” Wes turned to survey the group. “Now that Emma’s been introduced to all the usual suspects, are we ready to play some football?”
“Normally I’d be rarin’ to go,” Quinn said. “But as I seem to have my hands full, I’m hoping Emma will agree to take my place for a bit.”
“I’d love to.”
“Excellent. Thank you.”
“Here’s the baby backpack, Dad.” Gage set it down beside him. “In case you need anything.”
“You know what?” Kendra gazed at Quinn and Josh. “I think I’ll sit out for a while, too. I’ll go tell Ryker.”
Emma looked at Gage. “Who’s Ryker?”
“Her oldest son. He’s team captain and center for the Rowdy Reds. Big guy, ex-military.”
“Who’s our team captain? Oh, wait, I’ll bet it’s Wes since he’s handing out the flag belts.” She moved into a lunge position to stretch her leg muscles.
“Well, now.” Gage folded his arms. “Something tells me you’ve done this before.”
She gave him a quick smile as she continued with her stretching routine. “Some.”
“Am I about to be really glad I asked for you to be on the team?”
“We’ll see, won’t we?” She strapped on the belt Wes handed her. “Let’s go play some football.” Energized by the prospect, she jogged out to the field.
The game turned out to be even more fun than she’d anticipated. She stole flags left and right, carried the ball several times and scored once. Being out there with Gage and working in tandem with him on some of the plays was a blast.
Eventually she managed to ID three McGavin brothers—Ryker, Cody and Zane. About the time she needed water and a break, Wes brought subs in for both Gage and her.
Breathing hard, Gage headed for the blue cooler, opened it and handed her a water bottle. Then he took one for himself. “Great job out there.”
“You, too.” She gulped some water. “That last spiral you threw was a beauty.”
“Thanks. You have good hands. I should have guessed you’d be excellent at this.” He wiped his face with the hem of his t-shirt, exposing his taut abs.
Oh, baby. She allowed herself one quick ogle before glancing away. “My brother taught me all I know.”
“Oh, yeah? I don’t think you ever mentioned his name.”
“It’s Connor.”
“Does he live in Wisconsin?”
“No, he’s off doing his thing down in Texas. He’s even picking up an accent. It’s very cute.” She finished off her water. “Speaking of cute, we need to check on Josh and your folks. They might be ready to play, now.”
“I don’t know about that.” He laughed as they walked toward the group of chairs. “They look mighty happy holding court with Prince Josh as the star attraction.”
“And Josh is soaking up the attention.” Currently Kendra had him in her lap while Deidre, also wearing a red shirt, was making faces at him. The rest of the Whine and Cheese Club had gathered, too. A woman she hadn’t met who looked to be six or seven months pregnant sat next to Quinn.
“Hey,” Quinn called out as they approached. “You two covered yourselves with glory. I have a hunch Emma’s played this game a time or two.”
“I have, and football’s my favorite sport to watch.”
“She’s a Packers fan,” Gage said. “She’s from Green Bay.”
“Well, have a seat, Packers fan.” He stood and waved her into his chair.
“I don’t need to take your—”
“No, no, I insist. Faith has been hoping to talk to you about baby stuff. Have you two met?”
“We have now.” Emma sat down and held out her hand. “Emma Green.”
“Faith McGavin.” She had a no-nonsense handshake.
“She’s Cody’s wife,” Quinn said.
“Cody! That guy’s one heck of a football player. He got my flag twice.”
“Yeah, he loves these games.” Faith tossed her blond braid over her shoulder. “I played, too, until running wasn’t so much fun anymore.”
“I can imagine.”
“Okay, Grandpapa Quinn,” Kendra said. “I’m handing Josh over to Deidre so you and I can go play some football.”
“Hallelujah! Come to Auntie Deidre, my little cutie patootie.”
“Da-da!”
Emma rolled her eyes. “It should be interesting next week when he doesn’t have his crowd of adoring fans.”
“He sure is social, though,” Faith said. “I hope I end up with one like that.”
“What’s your due date?”
“December seventeenth,” Faith said. “And I can’t wait.”
“Are you having a boy or girl?”
“We want that to be a su
rprise. We’ll be happy with either, but I’m pretty sure Kendra’s hoping for a girl after raising five boys.”
“I get that, although she’s been awesome with Josh.”
“Good point. She’ll fall in love with our little whozit no matter which we have. Our family is large and boisterous, though, so I’d love for our baby to be as easygoing as Josh. Is that something you’ve worked on?”
“He’s always been good-natured, but I’ve also established a routine and I think that helps. This weekend’s not so structured, but at home he’s on a regular schedule.”
Faith nodded. “That probably helps prepare him for something like this, where everybody wants to get acquainted with the little squirt.”
“Includin’ me.” A muscular guy in a red shirt approached the group. “Greetings, ladies, Gage. Miss Emma, Badger Calhoun at your service.” He sketched a quick bow.
She glanced up at him. “Nice to meet you, Badger. I’ll bet you hail from south of the Mason-Dixon line.”
“I’m a Georgia boy, ma’am. I can see by your perplexed expression you’re wonderin’ how I fit into this crowd.”
“Actually, I was wondering how you got the name Badger.”
“Explainin’ that would take longer than a Southern preacher’s sermon, so it’ll have to wait for another time. But I sure would love to meet this little bundle of joy y’all made.”
“I’ve got possession, Badger, sweetie,” Deidre said. “You can hunker down and say hello, but you’ll have to wait your turn if you want to hold him.”
“Badger!” Ryker shouted from the field. “You’re in for Pete!”
“Aye, aye, Cowboy!” He glanced at Josh. “Catch you later, little dude. My team captain calls.” He trotted onto the field.
Pete arrived, breathing hard, water bottle in hand.
Gage left his chair and clapped a hand on Pete’s shoulder. “You okay, bro? Saw you take a tumble a few plays ago, but I didn’t think—”
“That was nothing.” Pete grinned and shoved his fingers through his sweat-darkened blond hair. “Noticed Badger poaching the nephew I have yet to hold.” He took a swig of water. “Asked Ryker to switch us.”
Deidre sighed. “I suppose you have dibs, then, Pete. But please give him back when you’re done.”
“I can do that, ma’am.” He put down the bottle and wiped his hand on his shirt before holding out his arms. “How about it, big guy? Want to soak up some honest sweat from your Uncle Pete?”
“Pa-pa!”
“Whoops, got some confusion going on there,” Deidre said. “Here you go, Uncle Pa-pa.”
“Deidre!” Ryker’s commanding voice rang out. “You’re in for Roxanne!”
Deidre stood with another resigned sigh. “Guess I should have seen that coming. Auntie Roxanne doesn’t want to be left out.” She gave Josh a quick kiss on the cheek. “Don’t have too much fun without me, snookums.”
Roxanne arrived, snatched up a water bottle and handed Deidre her flag belt. “Thanks for going in for me.”
“I get it, Auntie Roxanne. I was just warming him up for you two.” She hurried toward the field.
Roxanne put down her water bottle and smiled at Pete. “A nice brother shares with his sister.”
“But I just got him.”
“Okay. Timed possession.” She looked at her sports watch. “You get ten minutes and I get ten minutes.”
“Deal.”
A whistle blew. “Halftime!” Wes called out and the entire field of players started in their direction.
Emma got up and stood beside Gage. “I wonder if anyone’s coming this way hoping to hold Josh.”
“If so, they’re out of luck.” He seemed amused as he watched Pete making faces at Josh and Roxanne consulting her watch. “You don’t mess with timed possession.”
“Sawyer family tradition?”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “I’d forgotten about it. Mom taught us that. Usually put an end to our arguments.”
“Great idea.”
“She had a lot of them.” His smile faded. With a quick swallow, he glanced away.
Chapter Eleven
Normally, Gage had very few flashbacks about his mom. He was having more now because he was hanging out with Josh. That much was obvious. But after all these years, they shouldn’t pack such an emotional punch.
He didn’t like it, especially because Emma’s concerned expression told him she’d noticed. Time to change the subject. “Will you be ready to go back in when the break’s over?”
She took a moment to answer, as if she was onto his avoidance maneuver. Luckily she didn’t press the issue. “I’m ready to go back in, but Josh is due for a nap.”
“How do you want to handle that?”
“I managed to cram one of his thin blankets and his favorite stuffed animal into the backpack. I’d like to find a spot where we can put him down on the grass for a little while during the second half.”
“I know just the place.”
“Great. Let’s go tell Roxanne that we’ll take him when her time is up.”
“Follow me.” Taking her hand, he worked his way through the crowd until he stood next to Roxanne. “Hey, sis. When your time’s up, we need to take that little guy. Emma thinks we’d better put him down for a nap.”
“With all this commotion? How would that work?”
“We have a plan.”
“Oh. Did you hear that, Josh? They have a plan to get you to take a nappy-poo.” She leaned forward and rubbed noses with him, which made him giggle. “I hated naps. I’d pretend to be asleep, but as soon as they left me alone, I’d get up and play.”
“Don’t go giving him ideas, sis.”
“But that’s what aunties do, big brother.”
“Did I hear that somebody’s going down for a nap?” Ryker walked toward them.
“If he doesn’t, he’s liable to get cranky,” Emma said.
“This sweet little darlin’?” Badger came over and joined them. “The one who’s always smilin’? Your mama doesn’t know what she’s talkin’ ‘bout, does she, Josh?”
“Ma-ma.” He reached out both hands toward her.
“Aww.” Roxanne gave him a kiss. “If you want your mommy, then over you go.” She passed him to Emma.
Gage glanced at her. “How about asking my dad and Kendra if they’ll watch him for a bit after we get him settled? Then we could play some more.”
“That would be great, if they want to.”
“I’ll bet they will.” With Emma by his side, he headed toward his dad and Kendra. As he’d predicted, they were delighted with the plan.
Scooping up the baby backpack, he led Emma and Josh over to a quiet spot under a maple tree. It was a fair distance from the field so the noise would be somewhat muted. The leaves were just starting to turn, with a few bright spots of red in the thick foliage. The grass underneath was still green and soft.
He glanced back at Emma. “How’s this?”
“Perfect. If you’ll hold him, I’ll get out the stuff. I want to give him some water in his sippy cup once we have him on the blanket.”
He put down the backpack and took charge of the baby. “You know what, Josh? Your mom’s very organized. I’ll bet that’s one of the reasons you’re so calm. You know you can depend on her.”
“Thanks for that.” Emma shook out the blanket, soft blue with rainbows on it. “Bartending taught me a lot. If you don’t plan ahead and make sure you have everything you need, you get unhappy customers. And lousy tips.”
“I can’t believe you ever got a lousy tip.”
“A couple of times, but that was on them, not me. Some people are just cheap.” She poured a little water in Josh’s sippy cup and snapped on the lid. “You were always generous.”
“As I’ve established, I was trying to impress you.”
“Well, it worked.” She gave him a quick smile.
“Yeah, but you quit that job. How am I supposed to impress you, now?”
She glance
d up. “Do you want to?”
He’d been joking around. She’d gone and tossed that joke back at him, giving it significance he hadn’t intended. He knew the answer, though. “Yes, ma’am. I do.”
She held his gaze. “Then just keep doing what you’re doing.”
Oh, boy. He had absolutely no clue what he’d been doing, but if he said so, he’d look like a doofus. After the first shock of discovery, he’d been playing it by ear, going with the flow. He had no plan. Maybe she thought he did and if so, he wouldn’t disabuse her of that.
He took a deep breath. “Okay, I will.” Whatever that meant.
She smiled, so it must have been the right answer. “Here’s what I’m thinking for Operation Nap. You sit him on the blanket and I’ll immediately hand him his sippy cup to give him something to do. If we plop down on either side of him, we can grab him if he decides to crawl off. Once he finishes his water, I’ll give him his birdie.”
“His what?”
“It’s a little plush toy, a bluebird of happiness. He loves birds so much I got him this when he was about six months old. It’s his favorite and he sleeps with it.”
“Huh. That’s cool. Okay, let’s see what happens.” He lowered Josh to the blanket so he was sitting squarely in the middle of it. Emma gave him the sippy cup and he started drinking.
Gage sat on the baby’s left. “So far, so good.”
Emma eased down on the opposite side. “I have no idea if he’ll sleep.”
“Well, yeah. The game’s kind of loud, but I don’t know what we can do about that. Take him back to the car, I guess.”
“I’d rather not. It’s so nice out here. If we once get him to sleep, noise won’t bother him. One time he was taking a nap and a neighbor decided to cut down a tree with a chainsaw. Josh slept right through it.”
“Amazing.”
“But he’s never taken a nap outside, so I don’t know if the unfamiliar surroundings will keep him awake. This spring and summer he played outdoors quite a bit, but I’ve always taken him in when it was nap time.”
“Then let’s try it and see what happens. If he won’t go to sleep, then there’s always the car.”
A Cowboy's Baby (The McGavin Brothers Book 11) Page 7
