A Baby on the Ranch

But he was.

“I know that,” Eli responded curtly.

Well, that certainly wasn’t the reaction she’d expected from him. Alma tried to figure out why her brother seemed so short-tempered. Could it be that Kasey was still in love with that worthless excuse for a human being and had said as much to Eli?

Alma rather doubted that, not after Kasey had lived with Eli these past few weeks. Living with Eli gave the new mother something positive to measure against the poor excuse for a human being she’d been shackled to. For her part, she might tease her brother mercilessly, but she knew that the difference between Eli and Hollis was the proverbial difference between night and day.

“I never said you didn’t,” Alma assured him gently, then explained, “I was just trying to make myself clear, that’s all. It’s a habit I picked up from Cash.” Her tone changed to an assertive one. “By the way, you’re coming to the wedding.” It was no longer a question but a command. “I’ve decided that I’m not accepting any excuses,” she added. “Now, is there anything I can do for you or Kasey?” she asked. “I mean, other than shooting Hollis if he tries to creep back into town?”

Having reached the checkout counter, Eli had unloaded most of the items he’d picked up. He’d gotten everything on Kasey’s list, plus a candy bar he recalled she’d been particularly fond of when they went to high school. Finished, he fished out his wallet to pay the clerk. That was when Alma had said what she had about Hollis.

The thought hit him right between the eyes. He’d all but convinced himself that Hollis was gone for good. “Do you think that he actually might…?”

There was really no telling what someone with Hollis’s mentality and temperament would do. “I’ve found that it’s really hard to second-guess a lowlife,” she told her brother. “No matter how low your expectations, they can still surprise you and go lower. But in general, I’d say no, probably not.” She knew that was what he wanted to hear and for once, she decided to accommodate him. Besides, there was a fifty-fifty chance she was right. If she was wrong, worrying about it ahead of time wouldn’t help, and if she was right, then hours would have been wasted in anticipation of a nonevent.

Alma moved closer to him so that none of the customers nearby could overhear. She knew how much Eli’s privacy meant to him.

“So then it’s going well?” she asked for a third time.

He wasn’t sure what she meant by well and he wasn’t about to answer her in case Alma was too curious about whether something had blossomed between Kasey and him in these past few weeks. He knew how Alma’s mind worked, especially now that Cash had come back and they were getting married soon.

Instead he gave her something safe. “She’s learning how to survive motherhood and I’m getting the hang of changing diapers,” he told her, then pointedly asked, “Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“I just wanted to know how you and she were getting along,” she told him innocently. “And you getting the hang of diapering is bound to come in handy.”

“Why?” He wasn’t following her drift. Glancing at the total the supplies had come to, he peeled out a number of bills and handed them to the clerk. “Horses don’t need to have diapers changed.”

“No, but babies do.” Her eyes met his, which were hooded and all but unreadable. She hated when he did that, shut her out like that. “And you never know when that might come in handy.”

His expression cleared somewhat as a light dawned on him. “You wouldn’t be angling for a babysitter, now, would you?”

Actually she was referring to the possibility that he could become a father in the future—especially if he and Kasey finally got together the right way—but for now, she let his take on her words stand. It was a great deal simpler that way—for both of them.

“Not a bad idea,” she told him. “I’ll keep you in mind should the need ever arise down the line. Well, I’ve got to get back to patrolling the town—not that anything ever happens here,” she said, rolling her eyes. Boredom happened here. Excitement? Hardly ever. “Give Kasey my love,” she said as they parted company right beyond the front door. “Unless, of course, you’ve already given her yours.” She winked at him and then turned on her heel to walk to her vehicle.

“You almost made it, Alma,” he noted, calling after her. Alma turned around to hear him out. “Almost left without making that kind of a comment. I must say I’m impressed.”

Alma laughed. “Didn’t want you thinking that I’d changed that radically,” she quipped just before she headed to the official vehicle she was driving. She had a town to patrol—and boredom to fight.

Eli watched his sister walk away. Shaking his head, he was grinning as he deposited the various bags of supplies he’d just paid for into the Jeep.

* * *

HE WAS STILL GRINNING when he arrived home half an hour later.

He caught himself doing that a lot lately, he thought, just grinning like some sort of happy idiot.

Eli had never been one of those brooding men that supposedly held such attraction for all women, but there hadn’t been all that much to be happy about, either: hard life, hard times, and then his mother had died. That took its toll on a man.

He wasn’t like Alma. She was upbeat and optimistic to a fault. But he was, he’d always thought, a realist. Although, for the time being, ever since he’d brought Kasey here, the realist in him had taken a vacation and he was enjoying this new state of affairs just as it was.

Dividing the grocery bags, he slung five plastic bags over each wrist. He tested their strength to make sure they’d hold and moved slowly from the vehicle to the house. He brought in all the groceries in one trip.

Setting the bags down on the first flat surface he came to, Eli shed the plastic loops from his wrists as quickly as he could. But not quickly enough. The plastic loops bit into his skin and still left their mark on his wrists.

Rubbing them without thinking, Eli looked around for Kasey and found her sitting in an easy chair, the baby pressed against her breast.

It took him a second to realize that he’d done exactly what he’d always worried about doing: he’d walked in on Kasey feeding Wayne.

Breast-feeding Wayne.

His breath caught in his throat. He had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

At the same moment it occurred to him that he had absolutely no business seeing her like this.

Even so, it took him another few seconds to tear his eyes away.

Then, hoping to ease out of the room without having Kasey see him, Eli started to slowly back out—only to have her suddenly look up from what she was doing. Her eyes instantly met his.

He’d never actually felt embarrassed before. He did now.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you’d be doing that out here. I mean—I’m sorry,” he said again, his tongue growing thicker and less pliable with each word that he stumbled over.

“There’s no reason for you to be sorry,” she told him softly. “If anything, it’s my fault for not going into my room with Wayne.” She raised one shoulder in a careless shrug and then let it drop again. “But you were gone and he was fussing—this just seemed easier.”

Belatedly, he realized that he was still facing her and that he still didn’t know just where to put his eyes. He immediately turned on his heel, so that he was facing the front door and had his back to her.

He couldn’t let her blame herself. He’d walked in on her, not the other way around.

“It’s my fault,” he insisted. “I should have called out when I walked in,” he told her.

“Why?” she asked, just as she had that first evening when he had called out before walking in. “After all, it’s your house, you have every right to walk into it whenever you want to. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you for embarrassing you like this. I’m the intruder, not you.”

“You’re not an intruder,” he told her firmly. How could she even think that he thought that about her? “You’re a welcomed guest. I didn’t mean to— I shouldn’t have—”

Eli sighed, frustrated. If anything, this was getting harder, not easier for him. He couldn’t seem to negotiate a simple statement.

He heard her laughing softly and the sound went right through him. Right into him.

“It’s all right, Eli. You can turn around now,” she told him. “I’m not feeding Wayne anymore.”