Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)(50)

“Regretfully, yes.”

Ouch. “But you won’t sleep with anyone else until the six months are over?”

“No, I won’t. We had a deal.”

Talk about an honorable man, she thought glumly. One with integrity. She should be thrilled. Impressed. Instead all she felt was rejection and mild annoyance.

While she’d never considered herself a prude, she wasn’t exactly anyone’s ideal of a temptress. So seducing Aidan was out of the question. Besides, as much as she didn’t like to admit it, she kind of respected his stand. If only it weren’t so confusing.

Because he was right. They were doing something good. But after that kiss, well, everything was different now.

“I can’t decide if I should applaud you or beat you with a stick,” she admitted.

“How about we go back to being friends?”

Her cell phone rang before she could answer. She glanced at the screen and saw it was her sister-in-law.

“It’s Destiny,” she said as she pushed the green button. “Hi. Everyone okay?”

Destiny’s voice cracked. “N-no. It’s a mess. I’m a mess. I really need your help.”

*

“YOU SURE YOU know what you’re doing?” Destiny asked, her voice doubtful.

“He’s fine,” Shelby assured her, before Aidan could admit that he was clueless.

He still wasn’t sure how everything had changed so quickly. One minute he’d been trying to convince Shelby they couldn’t be lovers—what kind of twisted world had it become that he was saying that to a beautiful woman he desperately wanted?—the next they were driving to Destiny’s house.

The new mother looked exhausted. She was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes. Shelby had taken the baby from her and handed it over to him, then had started making tea.

Aidan held the six-week-old in his arms, careful not to wake her. He had to admit, she was a beautiful little thing, with a tiny nose and a sweet mouth. As long as she stayed asleep, he could handle this.

Destiny sat at the kitchen table. “Kipling’s been gone for two days. He offered to cancel his trip, but he’d been looking forward to the conference. I said everything would be okay. And Starr’s busy with her life, so it’s just been me and Tonya. She’s a really good baby, but half the time I don’t know what I’m doing. What if I break her?”

Shelby spooned tea leaves into the mesh basket, then set it inside the pot. The kettle on the stove was already starting to make a low whistling sound. She turned off the heat and poured the water into the teapot.

“You’re not going to break her,” Shelby said. “Destiny, you’re one of the most organized people I know, but you need to learn to ask for help. You’ve just had a baby. Everything is new and scary and you don’t have to do this alone.”

“I know.” Destiny wiped away tears. “It’s just I feel like such a failure. I’m tired all the time.”

“Do you get any sleep?” Aidan asked.

“A couple hours every now and then.”

“Not nearly enough.”

Destiny sniffed. “Starr’s a teenager. I don’t want to ask her for too much. She needs to be having fun with her friends. But her birthday’s coming up and I can’t find the time to plan it like I should and I’m trying to write a couple of songs and there’s all kinds of prepublicity for the tour and I’m fat!”

She started crying again, this time covering her face with her hands. Shelby pulled up a chair next to her. After wrapping her arms around her, she drew in a breath.

“Let me see if I understand the situation. You’re dealing with a baby. You’re breastfeeding, so you have to get up every couple of hours to do that. You’re cooking for your husband and your sister, taking care of Tonya, taking care of the house, all the while you’re trying to write new music, planning a national tour, doing publicity for the tour and maybe rehearsing the songs with Starr? There’s also her birthday and you’re trying to get back into shape after, hey, giving birth.”

“Uh-huh. Oh, and they sent over DVDs with the choreography on it. I have to learn that.”

Aidan felt exhausted just hearing the list. “Get a housekeeper,” he said. “And a part-time nanny. You’re going to need one for the tour, so find one now so you’re comfortable leaving the baby with while you’re performing. Tell Kipling to get his ass back here. He’s the dad. He needs to take a little more responsibility. You’re right about Starr. She’s a teenager. Let her live her life. Shelby and I can handle the birthday party.”

Both women stared at him. Destiny’s mouth dropped open.

“What?” he asked defensively. “Was I supposed to be just listening?”

Shelby smiled. “No. You were supposed to be fixing and you did a very good job.”

*

SHELBY SKIMMED THE Pinterest board. People were so creative, she thought happily, making notes as she studied different music-themed cupcakes. The crisis with Destiny had been managed, and one of the results was that she and Aidan were planning Starr’s sixteenth birthday party.

Aidan had suggested a music-themed party and Shelby agreed. They were going to have a lot of fun with that. They’d decided on the 1950s as their musical era, which opened up so many possibilities.