And Baby Makes Five (13 page)

Oh, and toys.

Oh…diapers! She’d almost forgotten the diapers!

She carried her load out to the truck, then headed back inside. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten to pack diapers.

Samantha had been trotting back and forth between each trip like a mother hen. Her frayed tail was wagging and her ears were perked and white smoke blew from her nostrils in the cold morning air. She waited at the back door and patiently peeked through the screen. Lilly knew if she’d really wanted to, the little burro would have opened the door with her talented lips and followed her inside.

Thankfully Leroy had realized Samantha needed to stay outside. Using cookie power, he’d trained her to wait beside the door for her treat. Stopping in the kitchen, Lilly grabbed her special donkey treat as she made the final trip, carrying Joshua and his baby carrier outside.

The expectant burro snapped up the banana Laffy Taffy and Lilly paused to watch the fuzzy girl smack away on the sweet treasure.

Their mutual love of the yellow candy stemmed from the many times in her childhood when Lilly would share her candy with Samantha as she listened to Lilly chatter about anything and everything.

They both had saddlebags to prove their love for the chewy treat.

Lilly really had to limit her own intake of the appealing taffy because of the baby weight she was struggling to lose.

Oh yeah, the dumpy, lumpy, leftover baby fat that clung to her short, stubby thighs. But that was another story.

Being tired certainly didn’t bring out her sunny disposition, she thought a few moments later, driving down the dirt road. What had happened to her? Good question. She was just too tired to figure it out. It was taking all the energy she had to keep her eyes open and her focus on the road. Finding herself would just have to wait until after church, dinner, Joshua’s feeding and the chores she still had to do around the farm after she arrived back home in the late afternoon.

Lilly hoped she didn’t fall asleep during the service. Her first Sunday back in church, it wouldn’t do to fall asleep on the pew. She chuckled when a picture of her limp, snoring form sprawled on the back pew popped into her furry brain. Fuzzy brain…well, maybe she’d meant furry because her brain was a bit past foxy-fuzzy. Oh, man…her brain was just plain fried. Pure and simple.

C
ort stepped up onto the porch of the country church, took his hat off and sucked in a deep cold breath. Clint Matlock had stopped by the house and invited him to church and lunch. At first Cort had told him he had things to do—which he did, but nothing was pressing. Since Ringo was still healing, he had no competitions pending. He had time on his hands and he should use that time to get back to attending church each week.

Besides, Cort liked Clint. They were around the same age, give or take a few years, and they had hit it off standing in the yard, each of them with a boot propped up on the rear bumper, their arms resting on the tailgate. Clint had apologized for not coming out sooner to invite him, but explained that he’d been in court for a couple of weeks, helping prosecute some rustlers who had stolen from him a few months back. The case had taken a long time to come to trial because the same rustlers were charged in other cases, as well, and Clint had been tangled up pretty heavily in all of the messy proceedings.

Impressed by Clint’s sincere invitation, Cort had promised to visit the church. It had been a while since he’d set foot inside a church building, and he had to admit he was nervous. But he was also determined to get his walk with the Lord back on a strong path.

Hesitating outside the door, he scanned the long narrow parking lot. Lilly’s truck, parked at the back near a small outer building, caught his attention. It took him a second to realize that Lilly was still in the truck, or at least he thought it was her. The door was open and she was on her knees in the seat with her back to the door. From where he was standing it looked as if she was pulling on something with every ounce of strength she had. Setting his Stetson back on his head, he headed in her direction. He’d wondered if she went to this church, but he hadn’t expected that she’d be the first person he encountered. His conscience pricked him about their last meeting. He’d been avoiding her again. He wasn’t proud of it, but he was flat-out running scared.

She was in the seat. Since she was scrunched up, her dress flowed from beneath her coat over her hips and hung over her shoes. The hem jiggled every time she tugged at the seat belt that restrained the baby carrier.

“Click-in, click-out…yeah, right,” she was grumbling as he placed a hand on the door frame. He held back a chuckle when she expelled an exasperated breath, then tugged again. “Come on!”

“My, my, are we in a bad mood?”

She screamed, spinning around so fast she bumped her head on the rearview mirror. Her expression was comical infuriation. “Oh, it’s you! You scared me.”

“Are you okay?”

Slumping in the seat, she gently rubbed her temple. “When my heart stops banging against my ribs I’ll let you know. You sure know how to snare a girl.”

Cort filtered what she’d said. “Excuse me?”

“I mean scare a girl. Satan is trying mighty hard to make me turn this truck around and head home. But,” she said, smiling and holding up her hand in a stop motion, “I’m not buying it. I’ve worked too hard just to get to the parking lot. I’m not turning back now when I have the church in my sights. Do you know how much stuff you have to pack just for a trip to town when you have a baby? I’m telling you, after all the trouble it took to get here…before I’d hang ’em up and head home, I’d sit in this parking lot just to snow—show the old man that I’m not letting him get me down.”

Cort smiled. “I bet you would. Can I try and free Joshua’s carrier for you?”

Lilly’s smile broadened, lighting her eyes with warmth. “Joshua and I would greatly appreciate that. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m trapped, too. I caught my skirt in the…the thingamajig.” She waved her hand at the seat-belt clasp. “The clasp. I’m a little tired. As you can tell.”

Cort took his Bible from under his arm and set it on the truck’s hood. He knew he was treading on thin ice, liking the light in her eyes, but today he was going to try again to just be a neighbor and a friend.

He leaned across Lilly, pressed the buckle release hard and pulled. Nothing happened. The soft smell of something sweet wrapped around him and it was all he could do not to turn toward Lilly and breathe deeply. “You ever had trouble with this before?”

He’d thought about her every day. Every hour.

“No, I don’t know what I did. I was in a hurry trying to goad, I mean, load all the things I would need for Joshua during church and I don’t know…somehow I caught my skirt and jammed everything.”

He turned his head and looked into her eyes. They were mere inches apart. He could just lean in and kiss her. She took his breath away.

Stop it, Cort.

He fumbled with the clasp and pushed the thought from his mind. He concentrated, pressed hard and yanked. The clasp relaxed, freeing the carrier. And him. “There it goes. You’re good to go now. I think it just jammed when you pushed it in, and you needed a little more muscle than you have to release it.” He stepped back and held a hand out to her as she slipped off the seat.

“I’ll carry him,” he said when she turned to reach for Joshua. She nodded and moved out of his way while he lifted the carrier out of the truck, watching not to bump it on the sides of the door. He didn’t want to disturb Joshua’s contentment.

“Thank you. If you’ll hold him for a sec, I’ll grab the rest of his stuff.” She stretched into the cab and pulled out a huge yellow striped bag with a big green frog sitting at the bottom corner. As she slung it over her shoulder, it looked bigger than she was. “There, all set,” she said, holding out her hands for the carrier.

Cort shook his head. “I told you I’ll carry Joshua. This thing is bigger than you.”

She chuckled. “I have muscles from carrying Samantha’s feed.”

They’d started walking toward the church and Lilly held up her arm to show her pea-sized muscle hidden beneath her coat. Cort grinned, then stepped up onto the porch and paused outside the door. He could hear music inside. They were late, but he needed to say something first.

“Lilly, I’m sorry I didn’t take care of all those chores for you. I told you I’d carry her feed. From now on there’s no need for you to carry anything that heavy. I don’t mind helping you, and I’m sorry I haven’t come by more often. I keep telling you that and I haven’t done it yet. But starting now, things are going to change. I’m coming down this afternoon to help you.”

“Thank you very much for your offer, Cort. But I can manage.”

“Anybody ever tell you it’s okay to need help every once in a while?”

“Cort, you moved here and immediately started being harassed by my donkey, then you had to put up with me having my baby, and then my donkey harassed you some more. The last thing you need is for me to keep calling you to my rescue.”

He cut in on Lilly’s runaway explanation. “Lilly, I didn’t mind my part in the baby delivery. I keep telling you, and you don’t seem to understand I was privileged to be able to help you in that situation. I’d hate to think what would have happened if I hadn’t been there. Again, blowing up at you the other day wasn’t right, especially since you were coming to my rescue with Ringo. Even after I was rude—”

“No,” she interrupted.

How was he going to get through to her?

“I thought after the other night we were past all of this.”

“Past what?”

“I thought we were friends.” Friends? Was that what they were? Had they finally made it to friends? “But I guess not.”

The door to the sanctuary opened, halting all conversation as a prune-faced older man stared at them with condemning eyes. Only then did Cort realize that the music had stopped and the entire congregation had turned to see what the ruckus was all about.

“Oops,” Lilly quipped.

Yep, that about said it all. Cort wanted to crawl into the shrubbery and disappear. His first visit to the church and he’d disturbed the entire proceedings.

“Well, don’t stand there gawkin’. Come on in.”

Cort couldn’t help a double take at the
happy
greeter as he motioned them inside. Sure, Cort couldn’t blame the man for his sour appearance, but
really…
the man looked as if he bit lemons in two for a living. And he was the greeter. Somebody needed to do a rethink on that one.

“Sorry, Mr. Thornton,” Lilly whispered, stepping inside and patting the man on the coat sleeve.

Carrying Joshua, Cort followed her inside. Lilly started down the aisle looking for a vacant pew and he followed, more than likely looking a little sour himself.

“Glad you two could join us.” The booming voice drew Cort’s attention to the jovial man standing in the pulpit. “Lilly, while you three get settled why don’t you go ahead and introduce your guest to those who may not yet have had the opportunity to meet him?”

Lilly screeched to a halt. “Oh, hi, everyone.” She gave a little wave and ducked her head slightly. “This is Cort Wells. He recently bought Leroy’s place.”

Cort looked around the room, relieved to see smiling faces. Many he remembered from the dinner theater. He nodded his head. If he hadn’t been holding Joshua he might have turned and walked out. If there was one thing he wasn’t used to it was being the center of attention. And this would qualify hands down. Lilly didn’t act as if she liked it too much, either. She’d said she was a loner. Maybe he should stay by her side. Give her a little support.

“We didn’t mean to disturb the services,” he said.

“Nonsense,” the pastor said. “We’re happy you wanted to join us this morning. We are especially privileged to have the man who watches over Lilly and Joshua in our midst. Everyone stand and greet Cort and Lilly as we sing ‘When We All Get to Heaven.’ Oh, and don’t forget to say hello to Joshua.”

Lilly’s eyes were twinkling when she looked up at him. “Smile, Cort, and say hello,” she said with a wink just as they were engulfed.

Cowboys came from everywhere, and a few women. Cort was swarmed by hugs and handshakes, a few rowdy slaps on the back and congratulations.

In the midst of it all Clint Matlock stuck his hand out. “Glad you made it, Cort. Lilly, too. And the baby. I hope y’all are planning on staying for lunch.”

“Thanks, I thought I would. I—I’m glad to be here,” Cort stammered as the full force of Clint’s welcome hit him. Everyone moved back to their seats, and Cort slid in next to Lilly. Joshua was on her other side and didn’t give him a buffer.

Did everyone here think he and Lilly were a couple? Clint thought so. He’d said
y’all,
as in the three of you. Reaching up, Cort inserted two fingers between his throat and his shirt and tie to loosen it. He didn’t need Mule Hollow to put them together. A couple of friends, yes. He was having a hard enough time keeping his mind from wishing Lilly and Joshua could be his. The last thing he needed was an entire town, already caught up in matchmaking fever, to put their sights on them.

His resolve to do the right thing might not hold up under too strong an assault. Lilly was hard enough to resist on her own. Throw in mother nature and crazy Samantha’s antics and he was sinking fast.

The last thing he needed was Mule Hollow getting in on the act.