“Bring the stroller too.”
We put everything in Quinn’s truck, and then Maddox helps us install the baby seat. Quinn stares into the back. “Never thought I’d see one of those in here. It’s a Ford F-150, not a damn minivan.” We get in the front. Quinn stares in the rearview mirror, positioning it so he can see the car seat. “With it turned around like that, I can’t even see her.”
“It’s safer for babies to be facing the back.”
“How will we know if she’s okay?”
“I’m sure she’ll tell us.” I try not to laugh. “Want me to sit in the back with her?”
He puts the truck into gear and takes my hand. “I like you up here with me.”
He holds my hand all the way to Target. It’s an odd feeling—something I never thought I’d want—but at the same time, it’s weirdly wonderful.
We don’t hear a peep from the baby, yet Quinn keeps obsessively looking in the rearview mirror. When we pull into a parking space, I begin to understand why. “Stay in the car,” he says.
“Why?”
“I think my uncle was following us.”
“We’re in a public parking lot. He wouldn’t try anything here.”
“I don’t want you anywhere near him.”
He gets out and a man with olive skin walks over to him. My window is cracked, so I can hear everything.
“Well, well, well,” Jon says. “If it isn’t my ungrateful nephew.”
“If you think I have any reason to be grateful to you, you’re even crazier than I thought you were.”
Jon laughs snidely. “If your grandfather knew what a weasel you’d grow up to be, he never would have left you any money. Living on Devil’s Horn Ranch? Are you fucking kiddin’ me?”
“Is there a point to this conversation?”
“Your mama tells me you done gone to the other side. I’m just here to deliver a message. If you ain’t my friend, you’re my enemy.”
“I’m not your goddamn friend.”
“So that’s how this is gonna go?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Jon lifts his chin at me. “That your girl?”
“That’s none of your fucking business. Why don’t you go crawl under a rock or something before you get yourself thrown back in jail?”
He laughs again. I really don’t like his laugh. It’s dangerous, and not in a good way. “I’ll be seein’ you around, nephew.”
“Unlikely.”
“I think you underestimate me.”
In the mirror, I see Quinn cross his arms. “Are we done here?”
“We ain’t never gonna be done.”
Quinn stares at him. “You look old. Prison didn’t do you any favors. It’s a shame you’ll have to rely on your money to get women to notice you. It must sting a little bit to know your ex-wife moved on with a younger man who doesn’t look like a bull trampled all over his face.”
Jon takes an aggressive step toward him. “Watch your tongue, boy.”
“I was a kid when you got locked up. Take a good look, because I sure as shit ain’t one anymore.” He gets in Jon’s face. “You’d do right to keep your distance.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be.” He nods to Jon’s truck, which is blocking us in. “Now leave.”
Someone honks and yells for him to move his truck. Jon flips them off. “You best watch your back. You and everyone on that pansy ranch.”
Quinn steps aside. “Buh-bye.”
He leans against the truck and watches Jon pull away. His tires screech and he almost hits a woman coming out of the store. Quinn doesn’t move until the truck leaves the parking lot. He opens my door, still looking at the road.
“Wow,” I say.
“Sorry about that.”
“No. I mean, I am so hot for you right now. The way you stood up to him, a hardened criminal. I would take you right here in this truck if it weren’t for the baby in the back.”
He pulls me so I’m sitting on the edge of the seat, facing him. He spreads my legs and stands between them. “Tell me what you would do,” he whispers in my ear.
Josie squeals from the back. I guess she only likes being in the truck when it’s moving.
“She’s a little cockblocker, isn’t she?” Quinn says.
“I think all babies are.” I kiss his nose and scootch around him. “We’ll continue this later.”
“If I’m not dead from exhaustion.”
“Come on,” I say. “Let’s go get her things. I might even buy her a cute new outfit.”
“I don’t think you should bother.”
“Just because she might only be with you for a few days doesn’t mean we can’t spoil her, Quinn. All babies deserve to be spoiled.”
“Fine. But I draw the line at you getting anything that says daddy.”
I giggle. Then it really hits me. Quinn could be a daddy. The last twenty-four hours have been chaos. A comedy of errors. We’ve been playing house. Babysitting, essentially. But this could actually be his life. I stare at Josie as we snap her car seat onto the stroller. She looks like an angel. I feel sorry for her. She has no idea that her mother walked away and left her with strangers. She has no idea Quinn is only going along with this charade to appease me. She has no idea that if he finds out he’s not her father, she’ll be left alone once again. Maybe even if he is the father.
I turn to him. “What will you do if she’s your daughter?”
“She’s not.”
“Okay, but let’s pretend for a second that she is. What then?”
“I don’t know, Amber. I haven’t thought that far ahead. I guess I’d try to get Michelle to take her back.”
“So you’d only see Josie on birthdays and holidays, and she’d be back with a mom who doesn’t want her?”
“I don’t want her. I know that’s not what you want to hear, being who you are and all, but it’s the truth. I never wanted to be a dad. I come from a fucked-up family. Believe me, nobody around here wants to be a Thompson.”
“Who says you’d have to raise her here?”
“Can we just get this shopping excursion over with?” he asks. I nod sadly. He glances down at Josie, looking guilty. “Listen, I’m sure I could work something out if it turns out that way. Obviously, I have plenty of money to support her. But we don’t have to think about that right now. We’ll probably know by the weekend. You’ll see I was right, and then we can go back to normal.”
“Normal?”
“You, me, a quiet and empty apartment, and I’m thinking some kind of melted chocolate.”
I laugh as we walk toward the store. I laugh even though I know something has changed deep inside me. Something that, as crazy at is sounds, wants the chaos. Well, chaos and melted chocolate.
Chapter Twenty-one
Quinn
We get Josie situated in the baby swing. She seems to like it. I like it because it gives us a reprieve. “How in the hell do people ever get any work done with babies? There are two of us here and we can barely manage.”
“I guess it worked out that you don’t have an actual job to get to.”
“I have a job,” I say defensively. I turn to see her smiling. I chase her around the couch and then pin her to the wall. “Watch your mouth, sweetheart, or I might put something in it to shut you up.”
She wiggles against me. “Yes, please.”
My dick swells and I wonder how much time we have until the baby needs something. I’m about to get naked when my phone rings. “Damn. Lawyer.” I answer. “This is Quinn.”
“Mr. Thompson, this is Angela Nessman. Jason Truly referred you.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thanks for calling. Did he tell you why I need a lawyer?”
“He did. And I’ll be happy to meet with you, but there’s really no point until you get the paternity results. If the child isn’t yours, there will be nothing to discuss.”
“I suppose not.”
“My advice for now: keep re
cords of everything. Conversations you had with the mother. Dates, times, anything you can remember. And make sure you use a reliable lab for the test. Any doctor should be able to do it for you.”
“I’ve got an appointment for Thursday.”
“Go ahead and send me whatever you have so I can get right on the case if need be. I’ll look forward to your call afterward.”
“If all goes well, I hope I don’t need to call you.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Thompson.”
I hang up. “I’ve got a lawyer on call. A doctor’s appointment. Is there anything else we need to do?”
She holds up her phone. “I don’t know about you, but I need to get some work done.”
“Work. But…” I glance at the wall she was pinned against a minute ago.
“Don’t worry, cowboy—we’ll pick that up later.”
I look at Josie. “What about her?”
“I said I’d help, Quinn, not do everything. I’ve got an important Zoom meeting I have to prepare for. I’ll be in the spare room. Please consider me unavailable unless there’s an emergency.”
“Like if she cries?”
“No, not like if she cries. Like if the house catches on fire, or if you fall and break your skull.” She picks up her laptop and goes down the hall.
As if right on cue, Josie starts squirming around and making noise. She’s tired of the swing already. I pick her up and sit on the couch, getting the Sports Illustrated I was reading earlier. “Look, Tom Brady made his six-hundredth touchdown pass. Incredible.” Josie’s hand brushes against the edge of the magazine and she cries. “Shit,” I say at the small sliver of blood that appears along her finger. “Amber!”
The door down the hall opens. “You seriously can’t go two minutes without me?”
“She’s bleeding.”
Amber runs into the room. “What happened? Did you drop her?”
I hold up Josie’s finger. “Paper cut.”
Amber shakes her head, rolls her eyes, and stomps back into the spare bedroom.
“Well, that didn’t go as planned.” I stand and take Josie out of the house and across the yard to Maddox and Andie’s. I knock once and enter. “Anyone home?”
Vivian toddles across the room. “Kin! Kin!”
“Where’s your mom?”
“I’m here!” Andie calls from the kitchen. She appears in the doorway, covered in flour. “Sorry, I’m trying to get these cookies made before Devyn gets here. I need to get over to The Double Duce and check on a pregnant mare.”
“Josie’s bleeding.”
“Oh, gosh.” She wipes her hands on a dish towel. “Bring her here.” I take her over and hold out Josie’s finger. Andie looks at me how Amber did a minute ago. “It’s a paper cut, Quinn.”
“What if it gets infected or something?”
“Wash it with soap and water.”
“Then what? Do you have special baby bandages?”
“You don’t want to put on a dressing unless the bleeding is bad. You’d have to glove her hand or she could ingest it. Just wash the cut and hold a little pressure on it. It’s probably already stopped bleeding.”
“How do I wash her hand? She won’t stop wiggling.”
Andie cleans her hands. “Give her to me. It’ll be quicker for me to do it than tell you how.”
“You’re good at that. Hey, you don’t mind if I leave her here for a while so I can do some work around the ranch, do you?”
“I told you, I’m getting ready to leave myself.”
“I’ll just wait for Devyn, then.”
She laughs. “And you expect her to watch three kids? You know they have services if you need a babysitter.”
“Josie won’t be here that long.”
“Besides, didn’t Maddox and Aaron give you the week off? Aaron said the helicopter won’t be fixed until next week, and there are plenty of ranch hands to do your chores.”
“I know, but I can’t just sit around and watch a drooling baby all day.”
“Thus, the babysitting service.”
Devyn comes through the front door. “Sorry I’m late. This one spit strained peas all over me, and I had to change. I think we’re going to wait on the whole starting solids thing.”
She walks past and I see green goo in her hair. I point. “You missed some.”
“It’s in my hair?” She hands me a tissue. “Can you get it out?”
“You want me to wipe green crap out of your hair?”
Andie comes over and wipes it for her. “The joys of parenthood.”
They both look at me and laugh. I don’t get what’s so funny.
“You mind if Josie and I hang out with you for a while?” I ask. “Amber is working, and I have no idea what to do with a baby.”
“Sure,” Devyn says. She leans in and touches Josie’s cheek. “God, she’s gorgeous. I think she has your nose.”
“She does not have my nose.”
More laughter.
“The cookies are in the oven,” Andie says. “Take them out when the timer goes off.” She turns to Vivian. “You can have one. Show Mommy one.” Vivian raises a finger. “Good girl.” Andie kisses it and races out the door.
I sit. “How’s it working out with you and Andie watching each other’s kids?”
“Pretty well. As you know, Mickey doesn’t need another full-time horse trainer right now, which is great for me because I’d prefer to only work part-time while Casey is so little. And Andie has cut back on her hours now that she’s expecting again. The Double Duce is the only other ranch she’s providing vet services for.”
“I didn’t know that.”
She sits next to me with Casey on her lap. Josie seems to like having another baby here. “Look at that,” Devyn says. “I think these two are becoming friends.”
“Yeah, well, tell Casey not to get too attached.”
“You really don’t think she’s yours?”
“I think that Michelle chick is a liar and an opportunist. I guarantee she’ll show up sooner or later wanting me to write a big fat child support check so she can quit her waitressing job or whatever and live off my money.”
“But you’ll support Josie if she’s yours, won’t you?”
“Sure, whatever.”
Maddox comes bursting through the front door. “She didn’t leave yet, did she?”
“Your wife? About five minutes ago.”
“Damn it. She was supposed to wait for me. I don’t want her going off the property with that maniac out there.”
“You can’t chaperone her everywhere,” Devyn says. “She’s a grown woman.”
“A grown woman whose attacker was just released from prison.” He grabs his keys off the hook by the door. “I’ll be back. I’m heading to The Double Duce.”
“I could go,” I say, walking out with him.
He pats Josie on the head. “Trying to get out of baby duty?”
“Hell yes.”
“You stay. I’ve got this.”
“It’s fucking boring,” I say quietly as if Josie can understand me. “All she does is eat, shit, and cry.”
“She’s a newborn. That’s all they’re supposed to do. Don’t worry. It gets better. Not necessarily easier, but better.”
“I’m not worried. She won’t be h—”
“Here that long. I know, I know. You sound like a damn broken record.” He hops into his truck. “See ya.”
“Well, she won’t be,” I call after him, as if to prove a point. Then I look down at her. “Will you?”
Chapter Twenty-two
Amber
Quinn and I walk into the pediatrician’s office with Josie. We must be a sight. I’m not sure either of us has showered in two days. Josie is a handful, and she’s been waking more at night. We get called back, have a short wait, and then the doctor comes in.
She extends a hand. “I’m Dr. Johansen. You must be Quinn.”
They shake. “Nice to meet you. This is Amber.”
She
nods. “Andie told me about your situation. I know you’re here for a paternity test, but do you mind if I take a look at Josie?”
“Be my guest,” he says.
“She’s six weeks old?”
“As of yesterday,” I tell her.
Dr. Johansen undresses her, weighs her, measures her, listens to her chest, runs her hand down her spine, and does some other things. “She looks very healthy. She’s in the fortieth percentile for weight and sixtieth for height.”
“So she’ll be tall and thin?”
“Too soon to tell. But she’s just perfect right now. What are you feeding her?”
“Simi-something?” Quinn says. He looks to me, but I shrug, not remembering the brand.
“Is she spitting up?”
“All over.”
“How much?”
“He’s exaggerating,” I say. “It’s barely anything at all.”
“And how’s she sleeping?”
“She wakes up every few hours. It’s gotten worse the past few nights.”
“She’s perfectly capable of sleeping through the night at this age. If you’re getting up with her every few hours, you’re probably creating more of the problem. Let her fuss and see if she can settle herself back to sleep. If she doesn’t, go in and gently massage her tummy. Sometimes infants do well in sleep sacks. Those are wearable blankets that swaddle the baby. Do you know if she’s up-to-date on her shots?”
“Ah, dang,” Quinn says. “Michelle left us some medical papers, but I didn’t think to bring them. I thought we were just coming for the test.”
“Let’s get to it, then,” the doctor says, redressing Josie. “We can worry about the shots later.” She opens a kit on the counter and shows me the swabs. “This won’t hurt, although Josie may fuss when I swab her. Let’s do you first.”
Quinn opens his mouth, and she swabs inside his cheek.
“See?” I say to Josie. “It’s not that bad.”
“Can one of you hold her while I do it?”
I look at Quinn. It’s like neither one of us knows who should pick her up. I reach for her. “I can do it.”
Dr. Johansen is quick and gentle. She puts the swab into a second sealed container, then she asks Quinn some questions, verifies his identity with his driver’s license, views Josie’s birth certificate, and seals everything inside a kit.
Texas Roses (The Devil's Horn Ranch Series) Page 13
