Absentminded Angel(Divine Creek Ranch 20)(8)

She lifted Whit, and Jared leaned forward and took the tiny baby in his big arms as if he’d handled a baby many times before. The half-smile that bowed his lips as he stroked the baby’s cheek was a direct contrast to his earlier protectiveness and the possessiveness in his tone just moments before. He looked perfectly capable of handling Whit. He glanced up at her and said, “I see his mama in him. He’s a handsome boy.”

She felt herself being drawn, like a sunflower turning toward the sun, and it scared her a little.

“Okay, you had him long enough. My turn,” Kendry said as he held his hands out. Jared glanced up, and at her nod passed Whit to Kendry. “Lookie there, he smiled at me.”

Jared chuckled and said, “That was a gas bubble.”

“Nah, he likes me.”

“His eyes are closed.”

Kendry bantered with his brother as he held Whit, setting her at ease with the confident way he, too, handled the baby. They explained where their ease with babies came from. It turned out their cousin Marty and his wife, Felicia, had twelve kids, one of which Kendry and Jared had personally delivered, thanks to their EMT training, when they hadn’t been able to leave their house during a flash flood and she’d gone into labor. They’d helped with baby duty on numerous occasions.

Their deep voices lulled her as they talked to her, and when it was time for them to leave it seemed like the most normal thing in the world to reach out to hug them. They smiled as they obliged her and planted a kiss on her cheek as well.

“You need to rest,” Kendry said, standing beside the bed after straightening from placing Whit back in her arms. The warmth in his eyes kindled a flame inside her.

The heat grew when she switched her gaze to Jared and saw the same heat reflected there as he said, “Congratulations on your little boy. We’ll see you soon.”

She bit her lip, remembering that they’d told her they were returning to Abilene to finish their packing and tie up loose ends. “Please be careful on your drive back home.”

Jared stroked her shoulder and then squeezed it. “Divine is our home now.”

Unsure what to say, she nodded as she watched them leave.

The warmth grew in her heart and that unsettled, fish-out-of-water feeling she’d had since being left alone with Whit began to right itself. Taking a deep breath, she realized that Whit needed another diaper change. Leah was correct in her reminder. It was always nice to know someone cared. They’d understood and hadn’t pushed the issue and she was grateful. All her energy was needed for taking care of Whit now.

A while later, her phone buzzed on the tray table, signaling an incoming text message. Her heart lurched a little when she saw who the sender was.

“This is your auntie. I know you were saying all that for the benefit of those two men, because you want to seem noble. But Jules and Marvelle are still willing to pay your medical expenses as well as a generous sum for your ‘pain and suffering.’ That nurse implied that I’m being paid but I’m just helping out friends. Give it a few endless days of diapers, spit up, crying, and no sleep, and you might come to your senses. They said the offer still stands.”

Her reply was quick and to the point. “Stay away from me and my baby. You and I are finished.”

She deleted Dorothy’s contact from her phone and let out a breath, and then groaned. She still had to work with Willie. No matter what she did, no matter how good she was, there would always be people happy to remind her of what she’d been like.

Exhaustion crept up on her and her eyelids were heavy as she looked down at Whit and sighed. She needed sleep but he needed attention. More of those darned hormonal tears filled her eyes.

“I hope I’m not making a huge mistake, honey.” Whit gave her that endearing little scrunchy face she was already in love with and started rooting. He was her highest priority. Resolve hardened inside of her as she put Whit to her breast.

She could do this. Lucky her that Kendry and Jared seemed to understand that…or at least she thought they did.





Chapter Two




Kendry pulled into the parking lot of the quaint two-story home that had been converted into a business, housing Marvin’s Computer Repair. They’d been in town for three weeks and he hadn’t seen Presley Ann once even though her tiny upstairs apartment was just across the street from the firehouse they worked at. He and Jared had agreed to not press her because she had her hands full with Whit but the blonde beauty was never far from his thoughts.

Presley Ann Woodworth had sparked his interest from the moment he’d met her, something in her eyes and her earnest manner. She’d been so thin, despite the fact that she was expecting. When he’d asked her, she’d told him that she was single and had left it at that. Each time their paths had crossed she’d grown more beautiful, more self-confident, and more appealing to him, to the point where she’d become his main reason for visiting Divine. And still, there was no man, no father to her baby, at least not that they’d heard of, and he and Jared had begun to wonder what it would be like to fill that role.