He was already picking up the sling. “I think it is.” His brow furrowed as he studied how it should work and where it would adjust to his frame rather than hers.
“Here,” she began, reaching across the table for the fabric. “But you shouldn’t feel like you have to do anything more. You’ve done so much for us already.”
“You’re supposed to be eating,” he scolded with an easy grin on his face. “I can do this. With an online assist.”
She watched him as he scowled into his phone and smothered a laugh when she heard a tutorial video start to play. She’d had to watch that video herself a few times.
Not Jarvis. He got it in one. He had the sling on and the baby snuggled close, a pacifier in hand. “We’ll take a walk,” he announced. “You eat up and then take a nap.”
He was doing what? “You’re too hot.” She felt the heat of embarrassment climbing from her neck into her face, searing her cheeks. “I mean, the weather
. It’s too hot. Outside. You don’t have to do this,” she repeated.
Jarvis’s gentle, knowing smile brought her rambling to a stop. “We won’t go far.”
“He might get hungry.”
“Then you’ll be right here. Take a nap, Mia.”
“Do you know about—”
“Mia. Whatever I don’t know, I’ll look up.” He raised his phone. “We’ll manage. I promise.”
Silas didn’t fight Jarvis the way he’d shoved and kicked her. His eyes were wide as he quietly stared up at the cowboy, his mouth working on the pacifier. Oh, she would not be jealous that her son preferred a stranger over her on his worst day. She had to respect Silas’s taste in strangers. Like her son, she felt better when she stared at Jarvis, too.
“It’s weird,” she admitted. “Taking a nap while you’re out with him. I mean, I trust you.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“But what if—”
“Try. Just try to sleep.” He walked over to her, looking for all the world like he did this kind of thing all the time.
Maybe he did. She didn’t know him. “Do you have kids?” she asked, horrified that she might be keeping him from his family.
“No. Quit stalling and finish eating so you can sleep.” He patted Silas. “Tell your momma goodbye. We have man things to discuss.”
She leaned in close to kiss her son’s downy head and was met with the heady combination of Jarvis’s warm and masculine scent mingling with the sweetness of her baby. That was dangerous territory. Edging away before she jumped him, she hoped her burst of hormones and attraction weren’t too obvious. “Have a good time,” she said.
“We will.” Tipping his tan cowboy hat and giving her a sexy wink, Jarvis walked out. With her baby.
Instinctively, she jerked forward to follow. Scolding herself, she took another bite of salad and tried to appreciate the flavors. Jarvis had proven himself trustworthy time and again. If he’d shared her location, she would’ve heard about it by now. He wasn’t running off with her child, her heart. He seemed genuinely respectful of her desire for secrecy. Another yawn seized her and she knew she’d be a fool to waste this opportunity. She needed rest more than food. After stowing the takeout containers in the small refrigerator, she flopped down on the bunk and pulled the edge of the sleeping bag over her legs.
* * *
Jarvis walked well away from the bunkhouse before he started talking to the baby. He didn’t want Mia to have any reason to follow them or worry that he was in over his head. He was, but he would figure it out. Kids were not his thing and he’d never taken much interest, knowing they wouldn’t be part of his future. He’d always resisted the burdens that came with choices like commitment and family. His siblings had recently opened themselves to that kind of thing, but Jarvis planned to keep holding out. Why give fate a chance to steal one more person he loved the way his parents and grandfather had been snatched away? It would be hard enough to cope when his siblings inevitably died.
Every family needed a fun-loving uncle. Maybe if they’d had one, they wouldn’t have been saddled with a kid-hating aunt. Families sounded stable and reliable, and he sincerely hoped that for his siblings, that would be how it turned out. Most of the time, family sucked. Being right here on this ranch was all the reminder he needed. Generations ago, two Coltons had screwed each other over, and Payne’s side of the family prospered while Jarvis’s had floundered.
He looked down at the baby and knew that if his brother or sister needed him to step up as a guardian, he would do it. And he’d do it with far more affection and attention than they’d received from Aunt Amelia. By all accounts, she’d been a pleasant, approachable woman until losing her husband. “That’s my role,” he said to the baby. “Fun uncle. I’m good with it. No sense doing something that would make me that kind of sad and bitter.
“You’ve been running your momma ragged, little man,” he said to the infant. The dark circles under her eyes had been more pronounced than this morning and he was worried about her.
Tiny fingers curled into the fabric of his T-shirt and the baby’s head rested heavy against his chest. He’d been as surprised as Mia by Silas’s reaction to his voice. “Kids won’t be in my future,” he said. “Frankly, your efforts this past twenty-four hours aren’t changing my mind.”
Feeling rude, even though he knew the baby would never remember this conversation, he backtracked a bit. “Not that you aren’t adorable in your way. Loud and opinionated can be good traits. Like, if you grow into a coach,” he mused. “Or a stockbroker. Definitely need to be loud and decisive for that job.”
The baby shifted and sighed, and Jarvis looked down to see he was fast asleep. His lashes were dark crescents on his chubby cheeks. “Way to go, little man.”