A Baby on the Ranch

She smiled to herself as she placed his plate in front of him. If the smile was a little brighter, a little wider than normal, she really wasn’t aware of it.

But Eli was.

Chapter Seven

“So how’s it going?”

Busy taking a quick inventory of the groceries he’d placed in his cart, Eli glanced up. He was surprised to discover his sister standing at his side. She hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Or had she?

He’d been completely focused on picking up the supplies Kasey said they needed and getting back to the ranch as quickly as possible. That described the way he’d been doing everything these past three weeks: quickly. He’d do what had to be done and then get back to being with Kasey and the baby. He was eager to get back to his own private tiny piece of paradise before it suddenly vanished on him.

Eli had no illusions. He knew that it wasn’t going to be like this forever. Life wasn’t meant to be cozy, soul-satisfying and made up of tiny triumphs and small echoes of laughter. But while it was, he intended to make the very most of it, to enjoy every single second that he could and count himself extremely lucky. These moments would have to last him once she was gone.

Alma had been taking her turn at patrolling the streets of Forever when she’d passed Eli’s familiar Jeep. She’d immediately parked and gone into the Emporium looking for him. They hadn’t talked since the day he’d brought Kasey back from the hospital when she and the sheriff had gotten some of Kasey’s things, as well as the baby crib, out of the house that her no-account husband had lost in a poker game.

Her brother looked tired, Alma thought. Tired, but definitely happy.

Happiness didn’t come cheap. She knew all about that. She also knew that when happiness showed up on your doorstep, you grabbed it with both hands and held on as tightly as possible.

“Alma Rodriguez, remember?” she prompted, pretending to introduce herself to him. “Your sister,” she added when he just stared at her. “I know it’s been a while, but I haven’t changed that much. I recognize you,” she told him brightly.

Not wanting to come back to the store for at least a week, Eli began to move up and down the aisles again, filling his cart. Alma matched him step for step.

“Very funny, Alma.”

“No,” she said honestly. “Very sweet, actually. All this domesticity seems to be agreeing with you, big brother.” She examined him more closely for a moment, her head cocked as if that helped her process the information better. Eli continued moving. “Are you gaining weight, Eli?”

That stopped him for a second. “No,” he retorted defensively although he really had no way of knowing that for certain. He didn’t own a scale, at least not one for weighing people. Usually his clothes let him know if he was gaining or losing weight. For as long as he could remember, he’d worn jeans that proclaimed his waist to be a trim thirty-two inches, and they fit just fine these days, so he took that to be an indication that his weight was stable.

Although he wouldn’t have really been surprised if he had gained weight. Kasey insisted on cooking every night, and that woman could make hot water taste like some sort of exotic fare fit for a king.

Seeing that her brother wasn’t in the mood to be teased, Alma decided to back off. She knew firsthand what it felt like to be in a situation that defied proper description even though her heart had been completely invested.

She’d always had her suspicions about the way Eli had felt about Kasey and now, judging by what was going on, she was more than a little convinced that she was right. But saying so would have probably put her on the receiving end of some rather choice words.

Or, at the very least, on the receiving end of some very caustic looks.

Still, her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Watching his expression, she felt her way slowly through a potential minefield. “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to get out to visit you and Kasey—”

“Nobody was holding their breath for that,” he told her quickly, dismissing her apology along with the need for her to make an appearance at his house. For the time being, he rather liked the fact that it was just the three of them: Kasey, the baby and him.

“Duly noted,” she replied, then reminded him, “You didn’t answer me.” When he appeared confused, she repeated, “How’s it going?”

He shrugged, as if he had no idea what she was waiting for him to say. He gave her a thumbnail summary. “I’m helping Kasey pull herself together. Hollis walking out on her like that really did a number on her self-esteem and her confidence. I’m trying to make her understand that she doesn’t have to face any of this alone.”

“How about the part that she’s so much better off without him?” Alma asked.

“That’ll come later. Right now, we’re still gluing the pieces together.”

And he felt as if he was making some serious headway. Kasey seemed more cheerful these days than when she’d first arrived.

“You’re doing more than that,” Alma pointed out. “You took her in.”

He waited to answer his sister until Alice Meriwether passed them. Anything that went into the woman’s ear instantly came out of her mouth. He nodded at Alice and then moved on.

“Yeah, well,” he finally said, lowering his voice, “she didn’t have any place to go and even though it’s summer right now, she can’t exactly sleep on the street.”

“She wouldn’t have,” Alma assured him. “I’m sure Miss Joan would have happily put her and the baby up in her old house. She still hasn’t gotten rid of it even though she moved in with Cash’s grandfather.”

Just saying Cash’s name brought a wide smile to her lips. He’d come back for his grandfather’s wedding and wound up staying in Forever for her. They were getting married in a little more than a month. And even though there was now a growing squadron of butterflies in the pit of her stomach, the fact that she and Cash were finally getting married was enough to make a person believe that happy endings did exist.

Which was, ultimately, what she was hoping that Eli would come to discover. His own personal happy ending with a young woman he obviously loved.

Alma crossed her fingers.

Her brother shrugged, doubting that moving into Miss Joan’s house would have been a viable solution for Kasey. “Kasey would have felt like she was on the receiving end of charity. She really wouldn’t have been comfortable accepting Miss Joan’s offer,” he told her.

Miss Joan was like everyone’s slightly sharp-tongued fairy godmother—just as quick to help as she was to offer “constructive criticism.”

“But she’s comfortable accepting yours?” Alma asked so that her brother didn’t suspect that she knew how he felt about Kasey.

“We’ve been friends since elementary school,” Eli said. “That makes my letting her stay with me an act of friendship, not charity.”

Alma congratulated herself on keeping a straight face as she asked, “So this is just like one great big sleepover, huh?”

Eli stopped short of coming up to the checkout counter. He pinned his sister with a deliberate look. “Something on your mind, Alma?”

“A lot of things,” she answered blithely. “I’m the sheriff’s deputy, remember? I’m supposed to have a lot on my mind.”

His patience begun to fray a little around the edges. “Alma—”

“I saw you through the store window,” she told him. “And I wanted to make sure that you were still going to be at the wedding.” He’d gotten so wrapped up around Kasey, she was afraid that he’d forget that she and Cash were getting married. But before Eli could say anything in response, she deliberately sweetened the pot for him by adding, “You know that Kasey and the baby are invited, too, right?”

His instincts had prevented him from bringing up the subject of Alma’s upcoming wedding and Kasey hadn’t asked him about it. “She didn’t say anything to me.”

“That’s because when the invitations went out, she was still Hollis’s wife and he kept her on a very tight leash. Most likely, he got rid of the invitation before she ever saw it,” Alma ventured.

“She still is Hollis’s wife,” he pointed out, even though just saying it seemed to burn a hole in his gut.

“Which reminds me, Kasey can go see either Rick’s wife, Olivia, or Cash to have them start to file divorce papers for her.”

Both Olivia and Cash had had careers as high-powered lawyers in the cities that they’d lived in before coming here to Forever. In effect, they’d traded their six-figure incomes for the feeling of satisfaction in knowing that they were doing something worthwhile for the community.

“She’s got the perfect grounds for it,” Alma said when her brother made no comment. Didn’t he want Kasey free of that deadbeat? He’d inherited the ranch they’d lived on from his late parents and had all but ruined it. He certainly had let it get run-down. “Abandonment,” Alma said in case her brother wasn’t aware of it.