Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(79)

“And when’s that?” Shelby asked.

“Third week in August.”

“You must be so excited!” Shelby pulled a couple of little boy six-month-size onesies out of the gift bag along with a tiny pair of shoes. “Oh, Erin, how sweet! Thank you!” There was a little fussing in the next room and Shelby cocked her head. “Well, there’s my call. I’ll change him and bring him right back.”

“My granddaughter and I are going to walk down to the river now that the cookies are all out,” Maureen said. “We’ll see you in a little while,” she added.

Shelby was back in just a few moments with a tiny, tightly swaddled bundle with a bright pink face. He whimpered and squeaked in her arms, but she said, “Here. Try this out for a couple of minutes before I feed him.”

“Oh…I don’t…He’s so tiny…. Are you sure?”

“Just like that,” Shelby said, placing the baby in Erin’s arms. “Hold him close and just move a little, back and forth. Or jiggle. They all love to be up against a warm body and in motion all the time.” Shelby smiled. “You have to practice—you’re going to be an auntie.”

Erin felt clumsy at first, but very soon she loved the way he felt in her arms, against her chest. She loved his baby smell and his gassy little smile, the tiny fist he’d wrestled free from his swaddling and tried to cram in his mouth. She asked Shelby all about her delivery, about his sleeping and eating schedule, about how Luke and even Art were dealing with the baby. After a few minutes the baby’s squirming and crying had Shelby reaching for him. “Here,” she said. “I’ll feed him.”

Erin began to rise. “I’ll just step out—”

“Don’t be silly. Stay. Besides, I wanted us to talk.” She rested the baby on her lap while she got ready and when she had the little one all hooked up, she looked back at Erin. “I don’t know if this is appropriate, Erin, but I wanted to say something about that whole business with Aiden’s ex-wife. How awful for you.”

“Do you know her?”

“Never saw her before the day she showed up here,” she said, shaking her head. “Luke had mentioned her a long while back—but she wasn’t at all what I expected. Luke described her as a real hot number with about fifteen personalities. The woman I saw was pretty, but seemed very…unworldly? I did think she was a little on the sweet side to be the kind of successful businesswoman who could afford a fancy car. But I might’ve been a little distracted. I was in labor and didn’t mention it to anyone. I wanted to see what was going to happen.”

“And what did happen?”

“Not much. The labor got to be pretty obvious, Aiden told her he’d be in touch to finalize that divorce and ordered her off the property. I’ve known Aiden quite a while—I have to say, I’ve never seen him angry before. Even Maureen said she’d never seen him act like that—he was a stone. She was weeping and begging and he looked her right in the eye and said he wasn’t buying it.” She shook her head. “She must be a very bad person for Aiden to act like that. Of all the Riordan men, Aiden’s the sweetest. Luke’s the one with the shortest fuse, I think. But even Luke’s very careful around women. Just look at the way they all treat their mother…”

After a moment Erin said, “Well, eight years is a long time. Maybe she’s changed.”

“If she has, then I guess there won’t be any problem with Aiden wrapping up the divorce he thought he had eight years ago. If she’s changed, she should be very cooperative and pleasant about it. Especially since he was clear—that’s all he wants.”

Uncooperative rang in Erin’s brain. Unresponsive, the lawyer had told Aiden. A phone number that didn’t work. That wasn’t a woman willing to settle things up without causing trouble.

“She visited me,” Erin heard herself say. “She was, as you say, harmless. Very pretty and innocent. She asked me to give her back her husband.”

Shelby gasped. “What in the world did you say?”

“I told her I didn’t have her husband. But the story she told me made Aiden look like a liar and an abuser. She said they’d been together a long time and in touch ever since.”

Shelby shook her head confidently. “Well, since his mother or brothers didn’t live with him in San Diego, only Aiden would know the truth to that, but an abuser? Not Aiden. I give Aiden credit for getting Luke and I through a rough patch. We’d broken up—Luke was so convinced I was much too young for him and that if we did have a commitment, in a couple of years I’d just regret it. I went to Maui to lick my wounds, and Aiden, who I’d never met before, flew to the islands to talk to me, to explain why Luke was so cautious. Because Luke was afraid of getting hurt. I love Aiden. Everyone in the family leans on him.” She made a little face. “For the first time I wonder, does Aiden have anyone to lean on?”

Erin smiled in spite of herself. “He depends on his brothers a lot, and from what I understand, they’re always there for him.”

“I guess that’s right. They’re pretty tight.” Then she laughed. “What’s so funny is that they’ll keep each other’s back, but they scrap a lot over stupid, little things. Just like a bunch of little boys.”