Trying not to look as eager as his younger cousin, Clay stood. “I guess I’ll play, too,” he said as though he was granting them a favor.
“The more the merrier,” Jamie assured him.
“She’s wonderful with children, isn’t she?” Emily said, watching Jamie frolicking with the boys a few minutes later.
Dragging his gaze away from Jamie, Trevor focused on Abbie, who was playing with a plastic spoon and babbling contentedly to herself on his knee. “Yes, Jamie’s very good with children.”
“Sam is obviously crazy about her. He completely forgets to be shy when Jamie’s around.”
“Shy is hardly a word in Jamie Flaherty’s vocabulary,” Wade commented dryly.
“How is he doing with the new nanny?” Emily asked.
Trevor steadied Abbie when she climbed to her feet on his lap, holding on to his head for balance. “Sarah’s changed her approach with him, and it’s working. He’s communicating much better with her.”
He didn’t add that Jamie had helped there, too.
“I’m glad you and Jamie have been seeing each other,” Emily confided, ignoring her husband’s meaningful throat clearing. “You make such a nice couple.”
“I suppose you’ve been talking to Mother,” Trevor said in resignation.
His cousin giggled. “Are you kidding? Everyone’s talking about you and Jamie.”
“Emily,” Wade murmured.
She looked at him with a shrug. “Well, they are.”
Trevor recovered enough voice to ask, “Just what is ‘everyone’ saying?”
Emily frowned a little, as if she had suddenly become aware that Trevor wasn’t pleased. “Uh—not much. Just—well, everyone knows you’ve been going out on Friday nights—”
So much for those long drives to out-of-town night-spots, Trevor thought grimly.
“…and that you’ve had lunch at her house several times,” Emily added ingenuously.
Trevor winced when Abbie grabbed his hair with both hands and pulled, but his reaction was due more to his cousin’s words than to his daughter’s actions. He reached up to disentangle her fingers. “Where did you hear that?”
“About your lunches? You know Gloria Capps lives across the street from Jamie, don’t you?”
Trevor hadn’t known his visits had been monitored. He scowled, uncomfortable with the thought that someone had been watching her house while he was there feeling safely alone with her.
The crowded park suddenly looked different to him, making him feel as though everyone was watching him, speculating about him and Jamie. He wondered how many people were watching Jamie romping with Sam and picturing her as a stepmom. That was something he hadn’t even considered, he assured himself. He was no more interested in remarrying now than he had been before he’d started seeing Jamie. He doubted that she was interested, herself.
“Now, Trevor, don’t start getting all freaked out,” Emily chided him. “You know you can’t sneeze in this town without everyone knowing about it. They’re going to talk about you, whatever you do, so you might as well accept it.”
“I don’t have to like it,” he grumbled.
“No. I hated it that so many people loved spreading unfounded rumors about my brother. But just when I had convinced myself I wanted to move away, I was reminded of all the good things about living here. The low crime rate, the good schools, the way the same people who love to gossip about you will line up to help if you’re in trouble.”
“And I thought you decided to stay in Honoria only because I moved here,” Wade said.
She smiled at him. “That was a definite incentive.”
Their attention was distracted when little Claire woke in her stroller with a sudden squawk, and then made it clear that as long as she was awake, she might as well eat. While Emily gave the baby a bottle and Wade began to gather picnic supplies, Trevor busied himself with his increasingly restless daughter.
“Down,” Abbie demanded, pointing toward the ground.
“Want to walk?” he asked her.