Dance Away with Me(21)

“I told Ian North I’d look after the baby for another week or so. I think you’d better hire her.”

“No way in hell. You’ve never met her.” He set down the pastry bag and came over to look at the baby. “Dude, she’s little.”

He sounded critical, and Tess took umbrage. “She’s a lot stronger than she looks.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“She is.”

He threw up his hands. “Chill, all right?”

“I need coffee.” She eased her legs over the edge of the couch so she didn’t wake Wren. “Are those doughnuts?”

“Your favorite.”

“You’re a saint. Have you seen Ian North in town?”

“Nope.” He headed for the kitchen to make coffee.

“Bastard.” She eased the kinks from her legs. “Would you check the furnace? There’s no heat.”

He shrugged and went to look. Moments later, he reappeared. “It’s not working.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

He was immune to her sarcasm. “Maybe you ran out of propane.”

“I just had a delivery.”

Tires crunched on the gravel outside. Cradling the cocooned infant, she went to the window and saw the battered Land Cruiser pull up. She backed away to keep from exposing the baby to a draft as North ducked through the doorway. Yelling would scare Wren, so she had to be satisfied with a fierce whisper. “Where have you been?”

“I had some things to do.” He filled up the space with his body—making the ceiling too low, the walls too close.

“Yeah, well, so do I. You were supposed to be here hours ago.” She reached under the shawl to unfasten the sling. “Hold her while I look at the furnace.”

He stepped back. “I already looked at it. That’s why I’m late. You need a new one.”

“Want some coffee?” Phish said from the kitchen.

North eyed the pastry bag. “No, thanks.”

Tess withdrew her hands from the sling’s straps and lowered her voice to a hiss. “What do you mean I need a new furnace?”

“The one you have is older than you are. Apparently you didn’t get my message.”

“What message?”

“The message I left on your cell telling you I was tracking down somebody to replace your furnace.”

She’d forgotten that she’d muted her phone to keep from waking Wren, but considering his general attitude, how was she supposed to know he hadn’t run out on them?

“I ordered a new one for you,” he said. “Bad news is, the model you need is hard to get, and it’ll take time.”

“How long?”

“A few weeks.”

“Weeks? I can’t keep a newborn here with no heat!”

“Right. You’ll have to stay at the schoolhouse.”

She grappled with two thoughts at once. The expense of a new furnace and the idea of staying at the schoolhouse. Somehow she’d deal with the first, but as for the schoolhouse— Not with the memories it held. “That’s the last place I’ll ever go.”

“There’s no decent alternative. I’ll move whatever you need to take up there, and then I’m leaving for the city. You’ll have the place to yourself.”

“The city? Are you out of your mind? Do you really think I’m going to let you run off to Manhattan and leave me alone with your child?”

Phish, still standing by the coffeepot, watched their exchange with interest. Phish was unpredictable. He might keep their argument to himself, or he might blab it to every customer who came into the Broken Chimney.

“That is not going to work,” she said.

“It has to.” North seemed to decide the coffee shop owner had heard enough because he dropped the subject and picked up the doughnut bag. “Mind if I have one of these?”

“Don’t ask me,” Phish said.

“They’re mine,” she retorted.

“I got more in the car.” Phish turned to North. “They’re a dollar each. She’s an employee is the only reason she gets ’em free.”

North gazed at her. “He doesn’t like me much, does he?”

She gritted her teeth. “Nobody does. They think you’re arrogant.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

Phish suddenly looked embarrassed. “I forgot about your loss. I never met her, but I’m sure she was a good person.” He hurried toward the front door. “I’ve got more in the car. They’re on the house.”

Not long after retrieving a bag of day-old doughnuts, Phish took off. The small reprieve had given Tess a chance to get her mental house in order, and as soon as Phish was out the door, she rounded on North. “You’re not running out on your daughter. She’s your responsibility. You even think about abandoning her, and—”

“I’m not abandoning her. You’ll have whatever you need.”

“It’s not what I need that counts. It’s what she needs.”

His stony expression told her everything.

She retrieved the baby from the sling. “Never mind. I quit.”

She’d finally rattled him. “You can’t do that.”