Heather Rainier (28 page)

“Sleep well?”

“Surprisingly, yes.” She felt anxious and ready to tackle whatever happened today. “I can take off today, to help you, if you’d like.”

“Only if it doesn’t get you in trouble.”

“I have personal days coming to me. I’ll call Rowena in a bit to let her know.”

“Angel and Joaquin Martinez are here, with Teresa and Eleazar. They’ve brought us a crib and other baby things. Grace wasn’t joking when she said she’d marshaled the troops.”

“Is Lucy up yet?”

Seth chuckled. “No, she must’ve come in late while I was still asleep. But when she does, she’s got a surprise waiting for her. I called Mom and Dad too. They’re coming over later today.”

“Oh, well, maybe I should leave you alone so you can visit with them, and they can spend time getting to know him.”

Seth shook his head. “I want you to stay.”

“Are you sure?”

Reassurance glowed in his eyes. “Yes. I want them to meet you too.”

Seth took over, finding him clothing and a new diaper, and she scooted into the bathroom for a shower and to make herself presentable. When she emerged, it was to find Toby seated in a baby high chair, being fed applesauce and oatmeal by Teresa Martinez while Seth busied himself putting together a playpen. Toby clapped his hands, bobbed up and down, and kicked his feet excitedly when he set eyes on her, inspiring a happy little lurch in the region of Jayne’s heart.

Teresa greeted Jayne and said, “There are breakfast tacos in the oven. I hope you don’t mind that we came over unannounced. We had a crib and other baby paraphernalia that we don’t need anymore, and a ton of boy’s baby clothing that Eleazar has outgrown.” She indicated the four large trash bags full of folded clothing lined up on the bar. Jayne didn’t know what to say and glanced at Seth, who was watching her with a smile on his face. He was dazzling her with those more and more often.

Swallowing, she said, “Thank you, Teresa, for everything.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized that it might’ve sounded as though she were accepting the gifts like a mom would. Discomfited that she’d been presumptuous, she glanced at Seth but couldn’t draw much information from the enigmatic half smile on his lips. Just then, Eleazar, Teresa’s three-year-old son, wrapped his arms around Jayne’s legs and looked up at her with a flirtatious little grin on his face.

“Jayney-baby!”

Jayne felt her face heat up as Teresa giggled. “It’s official now.” It hadn’t taken long for both of the Martinez boys to dub her with her version of the nickname they gave all the girls, their name plus “baby.” They’d been coming to Kookie Kid’s Klub at the library and seemed to have grown fond of Jayne. The feeling was entirely mutual.

“Hi, Eleazar-baby, how are you?” she asked as she lifted him up for a hug.

Softly, Teresa said, “Eleazar?” With her Spanish accent, the name came out like a caress. Eleazar turned at her voice, and Teresa whispered, “Respectfully.”

Eleazar smiled and nodded then turned back to Jayne. “I’m fine, Jayney-baby.” Then he gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek, hugged her neck, and wiggled to be put down.

Jayne raised an inquiring eyebrow to Teresa, and her friend whispered, “He sees Joaquin and Angel kissing me all the time and we noticed he’s…got very low boundaries where women are concerned. We want to make sure he’s showing proper respect to ladies of all ages.”

Joaquin chuckled as he walked up and laid his hands affectionately on Teresa’s shoulders. “What she’s not telling you is that Eleazar laid a wet one on one of his preschool classmates and we got a phone call about it. He’s a lover, not a fighter,” he said with a chuckle. “He gets it from me.”

Teresa swatted him playfully then spooned up another bite of applesauce for Toby, who was sitting with his little mouth wide open, waiting expectantly.

“Where’s Michael?” Jayne asked, inquiring after their five-year-old.

“He’s running errands with Ash this morning at the feed store. Ash said he could use the help if Michael had the time,” Angel said with a smile. “He likes listening to Ash tell about his bareback bronc riding days.” Jayne could just picture their son sitting raptly listening to the big sandy-haired cowboy tell about his days on the circuit. Both of Michael’s dads had also been rodeo cowboys and were now retired from that life and were running the Andalusian horse breeding operation at the Divine Creek Ranch.

“Has Lucy seen Toby yet?” Jayne asked as she opened the oven. Her mouth watered at the scent of the breakfast tacos warming inside.

Seth shook his head. “I haven’t heard a peep from her and we haven’t exactly been quiet.” He pointed at Angel and Joaquin, who had been assembling the crib and were bringing in another load of boxes from their truck parked outside.

“Hey, Jayne, is this yours?” Joaquin held out a pale straw cowboy hat with a silver-studded hat band embellished with a colorful feather decoration. “It was in the flowerbed beside the door.”

Seth took it from him. “This is Lucy’s.”

A door rumbled in its frame down the hallway, as though the person behind it was having trouble opening it, then shuffling was heard and the quiet closure of the bathroom door across the hall.

Lucy was awake.

Everyone proceeded like normal when Lucy stumbled blearily into the living room, dressed in rumpled clothes, with her eyes still mostly closed and her brows drawn together like she was in terrible pain. Her hair was a wild tangle, and her eye makeup was smeared, making her look a bit like a raccoon. She paused when the parts of the crib stacked neatly against the couch came into view, and she squinted.

Poor Lucy. I’m not sure she’s up to this surprise.

She frowned and stared at the crib like a calf looking at a new gate, rubbed her head, which evidently ached ferociously. Jayne held back a giggle when she noticed there was a note pinned to Lucy’s blouse. In a masculine hand was scrawled,
“Call me when you’re sober, darlin’. I’d love to pick up where we left off before you passed out. Vance.”
A phone number was listed next to Vance’s name.

Lucy rubbed her head, peered around, and gradually focused on all the faces turned her way. A pained smile came over her face until her eyes came to rest on Toby, and then her face went blank. Glancing at the baby, Jayne noticed that Toby’s expression matched hers, though his mouth was open like a little bird’s, absently searching for the next bite of oatmeal from Teresa.

Lucy put her hand down and noticed the sheet of paper pinned to her blouse. She pulled it off and read it, swaying a little on her feet. She groaned, and Jayne’s heart went out to her.

Seth cleared his throat. “Lucy—”

Lucy cringed as though he spoke too loudly and cut Seth off. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I got some ’splaining to do.” Turning back to her bedroom, she muttered, “I’ll ’splain when this weird-ass dream is over.”

As her door quietly slipped closed, Seth chuckled. “All I was going to do was ask if she was okay.”

“I’ll take her a cup of coffee and the painkillers,” Jayne said.

She heard a groan when she tapped on Lucy’s door a minute later. Lucy sat on the edge of the bed, shielding her eyes from the morning sunlight shining in through the window.

After gratefully taking a sip of the coffee, Lucy took the meds and drank the bottle of water Jayne offered her. “Oh, my aching head.” She put her hands back over her eyes and pressed then suddenly pulled her hands down and looked at Jayne. “Did I just see a baby who’s the spitting image of Seth in the kitchen, or did I hallucinate that?” She grimaced and cradled her head in her hands.

Shaking her head, Jayne softly replied, “Nope. We had a little surprise show up last night.”

“Tamar!” Lucy said and then cringed, as the word evidently echoed around in her brain like Big Ben’s bell ringing at full blast. “Tamar. A baby?” she whispered.

“Yep. And kept it a secret. It was a big shock to Seth.”

“Where is she, so I can kill her ass, after I can move, that is.”

“She’s gone. She left him.”

“Left him? For how long?”

Jayne shrugged. “For good.”

“She abandoned him? That fucking whore!”

“Tamar said she couldn’t handle him anymore. She made it clear that if Seth didn’t want him she’d find someone else to give him to.”

The thought made Jayne shudder. If neither of them had been home, would she have abandoned him on their doorstep, or worse, left him somewhere else defenseless just so she could be on her way? Fruitless anger filled her, but she pushed it aside, realizing Seth needed her and those feelings would be counterproductive. They couldn’t afford to labor on the whys because it looked like they might never know.

Jayne patted Lucy’s shoulder then leaned forward to remove the safety pin from her blouse. “Why don’t you get cleaned up and dressed and you can meet him.”

Lucy absently stared down at the note and then, as though realizing Jayne was talking to her, said, “Oh, yeah. I’ll be right there.”

“There’s breakfast tacos.”

Lucy made a faint gagging noise.

Returning to the living room, Jayne smiled as Seth approached her with Toby in his arms. Toby gave her a little smile as he laid his head on his dad’s shoulder. The two of them together was almost more than Jayne could handle, a lump coming into her throat. She was totally in love with both of them.

“She okay?”

“A little embarrassed, maybe, and definitely in pain, but she’s okay. She said she’d be out in a few minutes, just needs time to wake up properly, I think. Give the caffeine and ibuprofen a chance to kick in.” Turning her attention to the boxes and bags, she said, “You have a lot to sort out. Would you like some help?”

Seth seemed so relieved that it was almost comical, coming from someone who was normally so serious. “Yes, I’d love help.”

“And that’s our cue to skedaddle,” Teresa said as Angel hefted Eleazar into his arms. “We don’t want to start World War III when a certain little angel sees things getting passed down.”

Joaquin shook his head decisively. “No. We’re a little possessive.”

Seth and Jayne thanked them for their generosity, and Eleazar kissed Jayne good-bye, gave Seth a high five, and waved at Toby.

Sitting on the rug in the living room, with Toby playing with his toys nearby, they began sorting through the boxes and bags of clothing.

“Wow, it’s a good thing I found an apartment yesterday,” Lucy said in a rusty-sounding voice as she took a seat beside them on the couch. “You’re going to need the second bedroom, aren’t you?” She looked like she felt a little more human after her shower. Smiling tenderly at Toby, she murmured, “Well, hello, you little handsome man.”

“Lucy, this is Toby,” Seth murmured, pitching her a baby toy.

“Welcome to the family, Toby.” She shook the rattling toy for him.

Toby couldn’t resist the toy or Lucy’s winsome greeting and crawled to her with a half smile on his face. He studied her with big, serious blue eyes, so very much like his father’s, as she studied him in return, and then used her pant leg to pull himself up to a standing position.

Seth gave her a big-eyed look and said, “I’ll visit the hardware store today.”

Baby-proofing this house just skyrocketed up the priority list.

Glancing at Lucy, Seth said, “Joaquin found your cowboy hat in the flowerbed.”

Lucy held Toby to her and hugged him gently as she said, “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t embarrass you in front of Teresa and her men.”

Seth and Jayne both made dismissive noises, and Jayne felt her cheeks heat as she said, “I can’t speak for the others, but I’ve tied one on, recently, and it’s good to know people will be there for you.”

Seth took a stack of board books out of a box as he said, “Vance is a pretty nice guy. I appreciate that he got you home safe without taking advantage of you. What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Jayne detected the barest hint of a big brotherly tone in his words and could tell he was holding back for her sake. She also recalled that he’d told her Lucy had been hurt by somebody in her past as well.

Toby squirmed to get down and went to investigate what Seth had, and Lucy picked up a stack of clothes and started absentmindedly sorting them. “I found a little house I liked, and dropped by Madeleine’s to introduce myself and make out an application. She set up a time for me to come for an interview. To celebrate, I went out to The Dancing Pony. I wanted to give the two of you some time alone, you know?” They nodded and she continued, “It was a quiet night, at least until Vance showed up. My gosh, that cowboy can dance. And just my luck, the two
jerks
were there too.”

She knew Lucy was referring to Beck O’Malley and Patrick Owen because Lucy had already told Jayne about her first meeting with them. Even though they were going through some hard times at the moment, neither man was needlessly cruel. Jayne wondered if there hadn’t been a misunderstanding.

Lucy sounded even more miffed as she said, “So, they were there, watching me, I have
no idea why
, since I’m not good enough. I decided to have a good time with Vance, and just show them that some men appreciate a curvy woman. Unfortunately, I guess I had one too many of those kick-ass margaritas that Ben and Quinten make.”