by Lucy Lennox
After getting through the rest of my workday in a daze that involved brushing off nosy questions from half the town, I shuffled upstairs, intending to crawl into bed for a long nap. Lo and behold, my brother Hudson was sitting at my kitchen table again, working on his laptop.
“Hey,” I said, kicking off my shoes and going to the fridge for a beer. “Want one?”
Hudson looked up before indicating to the fast-food cup sitting on the table next to his computer. “Nah. I stopped for a sweet tea on the way over here. Needed some caffeine.”
A few of my siblings, including Hudson, lived a couple of hours away in Dallas. It didn’t stop them from driving out to Hobie all the time to be with the family, but it usually didn’t include a weekday visit like this one.
“What did you come back to town so soon for? Here to see Darci again?” I asked, twisting open the cap and sitting down next to him.
He looked up in surprise. “What? No. Well, kind of, I guess. Actually—”
I raised an eyebrow at his rambling, and he blew out a breath.
“I came Friday for the bonfire and stayed at Doc and Grandpa’s all weekend. I just haven’t gone back to the city yet. Darci asked if I’d stay and have lunch with her today before she had to go to work, so I did.”
“Why do you sound so freaked about it?” I asked.
“I’m not freaked. I’m just… I don’t know.”
“Put out?” I suggested.
Hudson scrubbed his hands over his face before closing his laptop. “I guess so. I don’t know what my problem is. She’s so fucking sweet and cute. Honestly? I just… don’t really know how I feel either way. Isn’t that terrible? What the hell’s my problem?”
“There’s no problem, Hud. Sometimes there’s just no chemistry even when you feel like there should be. There’s a huge difference between someone being right for you on paper and someone feeling right for you in your heart. Sometimes you get one without the other, and that’s okay.”
“You sound like you speak from experience. Are you talking about Xavier?”
I laughed and shook my head. Xavier had been the closest thing I’d had to a boyfriend in the past ten years. His family had moved to town when we were seniors in high school. Everyone kept telling me how perfect we were for each other, so I’d finally caved and agreed to give it a try when we’d found ourselves in medical school together. It was odd. I’d felt like a Ken doll walking around town with another Ken doll, feeling perfect in our perfection as we smiled at each other with matching tooth sparkles. There had been no passion, no fire. And somehow I’d convinced myself that fire was too much to ask for. Maybe real relationships didn’t really have that.
Things with Xavier had been fine, but just not… great.
When I’d finally told him it wasn’t working, he’d been shocked. I still remembered him saying, “But we’re perfect for each other—ask anyone.”
He’d been so upset he’d avoided Hobie like the plague after that. He’d taken a surgical placement in Atlanta and rarely even came home long enough to visit his parents for the holidays. I hadn’t seen him in ages.
“Yes, Hudson. I’m talking about Xavier,” I said, even though I’d been thinking of Nico. My brother was right. Xavier was the perfect example of what I was trying to explain.
“I just feel so bad for her. She’s been trying to get me to notice her forever. How do I tell her it doesn’t feel right without hurting her feelings? Maybe I’m being too hasty. Maybe I should take her out again and give it another chance first.”
I looked at my brother and tried to think of how to explain it.
“Don’t you want to be with someone who lights you up the minute you see them? Someone you either want to throttle or kiss or… argue with or laugh with or… just fucking attack with your entire body the moment you’re in their presence? Someone you can’t keep your goddamned hands off of and can’t stop thinking about when you’re apart from them?”
Flashes of Nico fired in my brain and my body as if a Nico fireworks show had been shot off in my nervous system.
Hudson stared at me, unblinking. “Weston? Something you want to talk about?”
“No.”
He snorted and laughed until the corners of his eyes were wet. “Sure, buddy. I buy that… not.”
I rested my elbows on the table before dropping my face into my hands and groaning.
“I’m falling for the wrong guy, Hudson. What the fuck am I going to do?”
Chapter 27
Nico
When Griff and his mom had pulled up to the house, I’d raced out to greet them. Seeing my sweet best friend was enough to make me burst into tears like a fool. I’d just gotten the news from Honovi about West being the baby’s father, and I was already on the verge of a full-blown breakdown.
Different thoughts had swirled through my head after hearing the news. West lying to me. Pippa not being mine to care for anymore. Me sleeping with my sister’s… what? Boyfriend? Hookup? Baby daddy? Ugh. Just the thought of it made me sick to my stomach.
So when I’d heard the crunch of tires on gravel outside, I’d gone running. I got to Rebecca first and flew into her arms.
“Oh, baby,” she cooed into my ears. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry about your sister, Nico.” I cried in her arms and hugged her back for all I was worth. That woman had been there for me as much as she could have for at least ten years. When I’d thought I’d broken my leg one time after being clipped by a taxi on the sidewalk, it was Rebecca who’d taken me to the hospital for X-rays and stayed with me while the doctor explained it was just a deep bruise. When I’d opened my tattoo shop, it was Rebecca who’d asked to have the honor of getting the first tattoo. We’d all been floored and adamantly refused to let her get one. But the gesture had made me feel loved and supported all the same.
“Thank you for coming,” I said, pulling back. “I’m so glad you’re here. Wait till you see Pippa.”
Rebecca was nuts about her grandbabies, and I knew she’d see Pippa as just another one of hers. She excitedly asked where the baby was, and I pointed her to the nursery and suggested she get Pippa up from her nap in her crib.
“Fair warning, she has a runny nose,” I called after her. “It’s gross.”
She scoffed at me, making a comment under her breath about this not being her first rodeo. After Rebecca hurried into the house, I turned to Griff. Years of unspoken communication said all that needed to be said, and I felt my tears come quickly at the love shining out of Griff’s face.
“I could kill you right now,” he said quietly with a sweet smile that contradicted his words.
“Griff,” I whispered, my voice cracking on the name.
And then he was there, holding me tightly and whispering words into my ear about how it was all going to turn out fine.
I cried into his shoulder for who knows how long before I heard another car pull up.
West.
The one man I never wanted to fucking see again. The fucking jackass who couldn’t be bothered to tell me what the hell was really going on with Pippa’s custody situation and parentage. The guy who had the audacity to sleep with me after sleeping with my…
I couldn’t even finish the thought. If I did, I would surely lose my lunch all over the porch. So instead, I’d lashed out at him. I’d gone flying at him with all the sadness, betrayal, and anger I felt.
It wasn’t until later when Griff and I were sitting at the kitchen table and Rebecca was playing on the floor in front of the sofa with the baby that I finally realized why I was being so unreasonable.
I really liked the motherfucker.
Griff was trying to ask me a question.
“Why didn’t you give him a chance to explain? Don’t you realize Adriana could have put him down as the father without telling him? And that it’s entirely possible that this man is not actually Pippa’s biological father?”
I knew he was right, but I didn’t want to admit it.
He continu
ed. “Why are you so quick to assume he is? It’s almost like you want to believe he’s the father.”
“Who else would it be?” I snapped. I heard Rebecca chuckle from her spot on the ground.
Griff’s eyes sparkled at me. “A one-night stand. An old boyfriend. A coworker. Any other man in the entire fucking world or even a sperm bank.”
His lip turned up in a knowing grin.
“What?” I said. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You like this guy, and you’re trying to sabotage it. What you’re seeing on my face is the sweet, sweet smugness I usually only feel when Sam is wrong and I am right. Which, let’s be honest, doesn’t happen very often.”
“True story,” Rebecca murmured.
Griff’s eyes cut to his mom. “Really, Mom? Loyalty—ever heard of it?”
“Just speaking the truth, kiddo.”
“I’m not trying to sabotage it,” I insisted.
“Ah, so you don’t deny you like the guy,” he said with a cheeky grin.
I huffed in annoyance. “Fine. I like the guy. But does it really matter? I’m flying home in a few days anyway.”
Griff’s face turned from teasing to serious. “You haven’t liked someone like this since that jackass when we were kids.”
We didn’t say the guy’s name. I knew exactly who he meant. The guy I’d thought I’d loved who’d crushed my spirit and taught me never to give a fuck like that about someone else again.
“Don’t compare West to that asshole,” I muttered.
Griff’s hand came down warm and assuring on my arm where it rested on the table. “Nico, don’t you think it’s time to consider trying again? You like this guy. It seems pretty clear he likes you too, although… a preppy cowboy? Really? Ugh.” He pretended to shudder in disgust, so I smacked him on the shoulder.
“Cut it out. He’s nice. And smart. And thoughtful.”
Griff’s eyes sparkled again in a knowing way. “Not to mention hot as sin.”
“Amen,” Rebecca singsonged to the baby on the floor.
“You’re not allowed to call him hot, Griffin Marian. You’re a married man,” I chastised. “Plus he’s not… for you.”
“Oh-ho-ho, listen to you. Claiming the fair-haired doctor, are you? Tell me more.”
I sighed. “He’s… hot. Right? Like… so very hot. Texas summer hot. Fire flashover hot. Hot Tamales at the movies with no drink, hot.” I rested my chin in my hands as I thought about his naked body spread out on the bed and my hands free to roam all over that fair skin.
I might have whimpered a little bit. Just a tiny bit.
Griff barked out a laugh. “Oh my god. Mom, we need to call this guy and get him back over here ASAP. I want to see how Nico acts around him if this is how he acts when the guy’s not even here. I bet he babbles.”
“I don’t babble.”
Rebecca chimed in helpfully. “I bet he blushes.”
“I don’t— Okay… I may blush a little. But it’s because he’s so…”
“Hot. We know.” Griff’s laughter was like a familiar drug, washing over me and making me feel better instantly.
“And good at what he does and dedicated to his family. And sweet as hell. Also generous… But you can’t call him. He’s working,” I warned.
“When are you going to give him a chance to explain?” Griff asked.
“When he’s not working. But for now, let me show you guys around Hobie. We can stop off at the bakery, and I can show you what I’ve been working on.”
I felt my mood instantly lift at the prospect of showing off the cake painting to Griff and his mom. We quickly packed up the baby and loaded up in my rental car for the drive into the town square. After parking on a side street by the bakery, we popped the car seat into the stroller-frame thing Goldie had showed me how to use and made our way to Sugar Britches.
Stevie was working at the counter, and I had a brief pinch of guilt at ditching him the previous Friday night at the bonfire. I gave him an apologetic smile, which he answered with a wink.
“Well hello everyone,” he said with a friendly smile. “Who do you have with you today, Nico?”
Shooting him a smile of thanks for at least temporarily letting me off the hook, I introduced him to my friend and his mom. He helped them choose a sweet treat and got them each a specialty coffee while I wandered to the freezer in the back to pull out some of the cupcakes I’d painted the previous weekend.
Rox was in the back, putting a crumb coat on a few tiers of what looked like a wedding cake. I wondered what order it was for that early in the week.
“Hey,” I said to her when she looked up.
“Oh shit, Nico. I just heard the news. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
“What news?” I asked.
“About West being Pippa’s father. Did you know?” Her face was a mix of surprise and sympathy. It grated on me.
Just as I opened my mouth to dispute her assertion, I remembered I didn’t know the actual story yet. I hadn’t talked to West about it. And legally, he was Pippa’s father, regardless of whether or not he shared her DNA.
“I… I don’t really want to talk about it right now if you don’t mind. I brought some friends in to see the bakery, and I don’t want to leave them very long.”
“Sure, Nico. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“No, it’s not that. I just… can’t talk about it right now.”
Rox gave me an understanding look. “No problem.”
I walked back out front and showed Griff and Rebecca the cupcakes with little foxes on them.
“I painted these for you,” I told Griff. His last name had been Fox before he’d been adopted by the Marians, and his husband still called him Fox from time to time.
Griff’s eyes lit up, and he made eye contact for a brief moment with his mom before turning to me. “Nico, these are amazing. How did you do this? They have paint that goes on frosting?”
I told him about what I’d learned from Rox and about some of the Internet research I’d done.
“It’s really fun. Like tattooing but with brush strokes. You’d love it. You can come try it with me one day while you’re here if you want. I have to come in tomorrow to do a big cake for a party, actually.”
“I can watch the baby,” Rebecca offered with a wink. As if it was a hardship.
I nodded at her. “Sounds like a plan. Thanks.”
After we left the shop and wandered through the picturesque town center, I noticed curious looks from several people and wondered just how mouthy that damned postal worker had been.
It wasn’t until we were coming out of the bookstore that I got my first clue.
Officer Curt Billingham stood by a vehicle with Oklahoma plates, writing what I assumed was a parking ticket for a tourist. As soon as he saw me, his mouth widened in a feral grin.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my favorite stepbrother,” Curt drawled.
I squeezed my eyes closed for a second to remind myself not to lose my cool in front of the entire town again. It was a gorgeous October day, and plenty of people were out milling around the square within earshot of us.
I tried ignoring him. After turning Griff, Rebecca, and the stroller in the opposite direction, I heard him call out again. Griff gave me a questioning look, but I ignored it.
“Nicolas Salerno,” Curt called out. “Someone told me you’ve been holding that baby illegally. Apparently, Dr. Wilde is the custodial parent, not you. Is that correct?”
I felt all the blood drain from my face, and my knees felt like they were going to buckle at the realization Curt Billingham could turn a misunderstanding into an actual legal situation.
“You can talk to Honovi Baptiste about it, Curt. Or Dr. Wilde himself,” I called back to him, trying desperately not to let my fear show. What if he challenged me right there for the baby? Did he have a right to do that?
“Just hang on a minute, Nico,” he said. His voice dripped with condescension and smugness.
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I closed my eyes again before turning around. “What?”
“I think we need to call West down here for a little chat, don’t you?” Curt asked. “I wouldn’t want you to be accused of kidnapping.”
Was he for real? How could there be someone so ugly and mean who used a newborn baby for his cruel games?
Luckily, I heard the shuffle of footsteps behind me and the warm familiar voice of Doc Wilde.
“Well, hey there, Curtis,” Doc said in a friendly greeting. “Nico, sorry it took me so long to check out. Mary was holding some books in the back for me. Think West will be upset if we’re a few minutes late?”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but I hoped like hell Curt couldn’t tell.
“If he is, I’m blaming it on you,” I joked back lamely.
“Sorry to race off, Curtis, but West only has a quick break before he has to get back to his patients. We’re watching the baby for him today while he’s at work. Gotta run.”
Before Curt could argue, Doc grabbed my elbow and walked with me down the street and around a corner. I noticed West’s Victorian home and office up ahead and pulled to a stop.
“We’re not actually going to the practice, are we?” I asked.
“God, no. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near West right now after the shit storm he’s probably having to deal with at work. Every patient has likely heard the news by now, and they’re probably all trying to get the scoop out of him. I just overheard that bullshit Billingham was spewing and wanted to save you. What’s that man’s problem anyway?”
Griff and Rebecca walked around from where they’d been trailing behind us. “Good question. Nico, who was that, and why did he call himself your stepbrother?”
I explained everything on our way back to the house. It wasn’t until several hours later that I realized Pippa’s runny nose had turned into something serious.
Serious enough to need a doctor.
