Cowboy Baby Daddy

“Oh no,” Mom said, shaking her head. “I made it pretty clear that I wasn't going to be doing anything like that.” She grinned. “He's just angling for another dinner invitation, I'm sure. But I'm not cooking for him again, not right now. I don't have the energy.”

I frowned. “Mom—”

“And don't you go saying that the lack of energy is caused by this cancer!” Mom interrupted.

I stared at her for a long moment, wondering what else I could say. I felt totally at a loss. And the thing was, I didn't want to keep fighting with her on this, especially not right now, with everything else on my mind. I swallowed hard.

“Don't look so glum,” Mom said, patting me on the head. “Everything always works out exactly the way that it's meant to; you know that.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“Now, why don't you give me a hand with these cherries? I'll give you a few jars to take home with you. Bet it's been a while since you've had real cherry preserves, not those canned monstrosities that you can find at the store. They taste great over a bowl of vanilla ice cream.”

I grinned at her. “All right, sold,” I told her, rolling up my sleeves. “Where do you want me to start?” Maybe the manual labor would get my mind off the fact that I was pregnant.

Maybe.

Chapter Seventeen

Eric

On Sunday, I needed to drive to Aurora to pick up some new equipment for my practice. I'd wanted to just have the stuff delivered to me in Tamlin, but apparently, they didn't do rural deliveries, and I'd had to have the stuff delivered to a larger practice in the city if I wanted to get my hands on it. I rolled my eyes. Bureaucratic nonsense.

The drive into the city was frustrating: traffic was at its peak, but I was glad I didn’t have to deal with how people from Chicago liked to drive. I had to go to Chicago on occasion and that was a living nightmare. I was glad that I was able to have the equipment delivered to a smaller city like Aurora. There was still plenty of traffic, but it wasn’t a total nightmare.

I found the building that I needed wasn’t totally convenient to get to, but I was just going to have to make it work. I found a parking spot near the front. Not quite where I would have liked to be, but as long as they had dollies I would be alright with where I parked. I had to admit this was still less stressful than the times I had been to Chicago. Aurora was still pretty big and busy, but it was easier to get around. I made sure my parking was good, I didn’t want to get a ticket and have to come back for the court date. Once I'd checked my parking job, I lingered in the car for a long moment, taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly. I shouldn't let myself get so riled up about this. It wasn't as though there was a specific time that I had to pick up the packages.

Of course, I knew that it wasn't just the traffic and the parking situation that had me riled up. I had had a dream about Olivia the previous night, a sexy one, and I'd woken up feeling guilty in the bed that I used to share with Emily. Not for the first time, I wondered whether it wouldn't have been easier for me to move somewhere new after her death. Staying around Tamlin made it impossible for me to move on sometimes.

But then again, Tamlin was where Helen lived, and Emma needed her Nana. Plus, even though I knew people uprooted their kids all the time, I still didn't want to do that to Emma, not when she was so young and impressionable.

And in some ways, I didn't want to move on from what I'd had with Emily. I'd loved the woman very dearly, and I wanted to hold that little piece of her, whatever was left, for the rest of my life.

Of course, I never thought I'd love someone more than Emily, my mind said, and I dropped my head down on the steering wheel. I couldn't possibly love Olivia already. But there was something about my feelings for her. They went impossibly deep.

I had the sudden wish that I'd invited Olivia along with me on this day trip. She always helped to pass the time in the car, chatting about anything and everything. I wouldn't have been so upset about the traffic if I'd just had a companion there with me. Besides, it was

a Sunday; she didn't have daycare duties that day. And I had a feeling that she could probably come up with plenty to do in the city for a day: see some old friends, go shopping, eat at her favorite restaurants.

But it was too late to ask her now, even if I'd wanted to.

I frowned, remembering what Georgia had said in the diner. She's probably doing something with Buck anyway.

I hated the surge of jealousy that went through me as I thought of that, but I couldn't help it. As much as I didn't want to believe Georgia, as much as I wanted to believe that she was just trying to rile me up or turn my interests back toward her (not that I'd ever actually been interested in her). I had to admit that it made logical sense that Olivia and Buck might be going together. I knew that Buck did yard work for Jeannie. And he was a strapping young man. Maybe not too bright, but I didn't know what Olivia was interested in.

And maybe all they were doing was having sex. His intelligence level wouldn't matter if that were the case.

I hated thinking of Olivia having sex with someone else, but I had to admit that that, as well, was a distinct possibility. She'd been so quick to say that what she and I were doing was just casual. For all I knew, that was because she wasn't planning on just being casual with me; she could have someone else on the side.

I shook my head and headed inside to collect the packages.

Fortunately, my ride back to Tamlin went a lot more smoothly once I got out of the city, and by the time I got back to the office, I was a lot more relaxed. I set up all the new equipment in my office and then went to my one afternoon appointment, with Maggie Quinn. Normally, I didn't take weekend appointments, but from the sound of it, Maggie thought she was dying, and the elderly woman was one of Helen's closest friends.

I had a difficult time focusing at the level that I knew that I should be, so, fortunately, her appointment was easy. I prescribed some antibiotics to her, and that was that.

That evening, I went to pick Emma up from Nana's house. When I walked in the front door, I frowned, hearing Emma wailing in the other room. I took off my shoes and went to find her, confused as to why I didn't hear Nana's soothing noises like I normally would in this situation.

When I came around the corner to find Emma, I was surprised to see that she was alone. Her toys were scattered across the floor, and I guessed that she was either wailing because her block tower had collapsed or possibly because she was minorly injured. Or maybe it was just that she wasn't getting the attention that she wanted because Nana was nowhere to be seen.