Facing West (Forever Wilde 1)

“Nico, is there anything you need to do at the bakery or in town today? I could watch Pippa for you,” I offered.

He walked to the sofa and sat down with the baby in his arms, seeming to think through his response.

“Uh, yeah. Actually, if you don’t mind, I’d like to paint a cake today. Rox has a client who wants one of Adriana’s painted cakes, so she asked me to try one. I practiced on one the other day, but I’d love to get some more practice in before having to do the real thing.”

“No problem,” I said, walking over and taking the baby. “Why don’t you go now? I have a shift at the emergency room starting at six tonight, so I’ll need to leave here a little before then.”

He smiled up at me with gratitude, and I realized we’d somehow found a new middle ground. Less antagonistic back and forth and more attempts at understanding each other. It wasn’t really friendship, and it wasn’t really intimacy, but it was a start.

Once he was gone, I tried to tackle the bookkeeping again. I found some massive expenses the bakery had incurred shortly before Adriana’s death. When I looked at the notes, I discovered the payments were for the mortgage on the building. She was attempting to purchase the building the bakery was in.

I was stunned. Why the hell hadn’t she told me? And why hadn’t she just continued renting it from the man who owned it? John Gravely was a prominent businessman in town who owned several commercial properties on the square. He was known for being fair. Had he tried to list the property for sale?

After digging through bank statements, I saw that the mortgage payments were made out to WWR, LLC. My heart lurched. The only WWR, LLC I knew was Weston Wilde Ranch. Grandpa’s ranch holdings. Had she been running her bakery in the red because she owed Grandpa money?

I looked around for Pippa’s car seat and found it on the floor by the front door. After snatching the backpack with her diaper supplies out of the nursery, I strapped the baby into the seat and loaded her up in my truck. I shot Nico a quick text, telling him I was running over to Grandpa and Doc’s so he wouldn’t freak out if he came home and found us missing.

When I pulled into the ranch, the same trio of goofballs came running out to greet me with their cacophony of barking. I unbuckled Pippa and told her she was in for a treat.

As soon as we walked through the door, they were on her. Both Grandpa and Doc were like kids in a candy store.

“There she is! Give her here,” Doc said.

“Where’s her bag? In the truck? I’ll go get it,” Grandpa interjected. I handed Pippa to Doc and pulled the backpack off my shoulders to hand to Grandpa. We made our way into the kitchen, and I was relieved to see coffee made. There was also a familiar face at the kitchen island—my brother Hudson.

And he wasn’t alone.

“Hi, Darci,” I said, waving my hand to the young nurse. She beamed and hooked her elbow through Hudson’s, leaning in to him and winking at me. Hudson lifted his hand in a wave and greeted me with a smile.

“We got volunteered to be guinea pigs for Grandpa’s chili,” Hudson explained.

Doc turned to face me, Pippa tucked into the curve of his arm. “Your grandfather is bound and determined to beat Clyde Ogilvie at the chili cook-off this year. I told him he’s fighting a losing battle.”

“Shut the hell up,” Grandpa grumbled, swatting at Doc’s ass with a dish towel. “You don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it. No one asked your opinion.”

Doc leaned over to kiss Grandpa with a quick peck on the lips. “I’m just teasing and you know it. Although, I’m not sure our sex life can take many more of your bean-based experiments.”

I groaned, and Hudson reached over to cover poor Darci’s ears.

“Oh my god, you two. Gross,” Hudson moaned. “There’s a lady present, if you don’t mind.”

At least Doc had the decency to look a little pink around the ears. “Sorry, hon.”

I walked over to Grandpa and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. “Grandpa, can I talk to you in private for a minute?” My brother looked at me funny but didn’t say anything, knowing I’d most likely tell him what he wanted to know later.

“Sure. Fix your coffee, and we can sit down in my office. You want Doc to join us?” he asked quietly.

“No, it’s fine. You can talk to him about it later if you want to,” I said, noticing Doc showing Pippa off to Darci. The nurse’s eyes were lit up with baby love, and I wondered if Hudson had finally found a new girlfriend.