MacKenzie Fire(75)

She pats my hand. “Not to worry. I didn’t take offense at all. I love my life, cows, chickens, babies and all.”

“Don’t forget the husband part,” I say kind of softly.

“You looking to get married?” she asks, taking a sip of her coffee as she waits for my answer. She’s staring at me over the rim of her mug.

“Yep. Definitely. Before I wasn’t sure, but now I am.”

“Before what?”

“Before what?” I ask her, playing stupid. My heart rate has picked up. Dammit! My mouth got ahead of me there.

“Well, you said before you weren’t sure of wanting to be married but now you are. I was just wondering what event or … person … might have changed your mind.”

Busted! Obviously my hamster is way more fatigued than I originally thought. I walked right into a trap of my own making. Quick! Think of an answer that doesn’t involve Ian!

“Andie having a baby, I guess. I never thought that could be me, but now I do. And seeing Candy be born and helping her survive with Ian, that was amazing.” Dammit! Ian made his way into my answer after all. My hamster needs a serious nap.

“Are you seeing anyone back home?”

“No. Not at the moment.” Just the idea of leaving all these gorgeous cowboys behind is kind of depressing. It’s not that West Palm doesn’t have its fair share of hot guys; it’s just that they aren’t … Ian.

Damn you, Hamster! Stop making me think about him! Go to bed!

“Maybe you’ll fall in love with someone here and then you’ll want to stay.” She winks at me and takes another sip of her coffee.

The sheer impossibility of it makes me sad. “Nah. I can’t move my business. I mean, I could sell it, but I wouldn’t want to. I’ve spent years building up my clientele. And I have a partner. His name is Jorge and he’d kill me if I left him.”

“Have you ever dated Jorge?”

I laugh at how ridiculous that would be. He in his red skinny jeans and me in my Diesels. We’d definitely turn heads if we started kissing. I think it would be more confusing than anything else. “No, never. He’s not really into girls. More like rugby players.”

“Oh.” Maeve’s face goes a little pink. “That must be hard on him.”

“Seriously, it is. There aren’t many rugby players who are gay. At least not that many that admit to it.” I sigh thinking of poor Jorge. He’s even worse at dating than I am. The bright side is that it’s given us plenty to commiserate about over the years, and it has given us lots of free time to throw into our business. Now neither of us has to even work a full day if we don’t want to, but we do because there’s nothing else to do. We’ve sacrificed a lot to be where we are now. I used to be proud of that. Now I’m not so sure it wasn’t a mistake.

“So back to your plan,” Maeve says, relaxing in her chair. “I’m all ears.”

My conflicted feelings over Ian fly out the window as my plan emerges for Maeve’s appreciative ear.

“We’re going to have a baby shower.”

“A baby shower?”

“Yes. A baby shower. And we’re going to invite anyone in town you think might be in Andie’s circle of friends, but not Hannah.”

Maeve looks as if she’s shrinking. “Not Hannah?”

“Nope. Not Hannah. I want everyone to see Andie as herself and let them decide who she is without listening to The Banana’s nonsense.”

“But won’t Hannah feel left out? She’s not the nicest of persons when she feels she’s being cut out of things. You can ask Mack about that.”

“I don’t care how she feels about it. What’s important is that Andie forges some bonds with some girls out here. Maybe even some that already have kids who can help her when she has questions.”

Maeve frowns.

I reach out and put my hand on her forearm. “It’s not that you aren’t enough for the advice and stuff, but sometimes it’s nice to hear from more than one source. And Andie’s not much for Googling.”

Maeve smiles. “Oh, no offense taken. I was just trying to think who we might invite. There are a couple girls, daughters of some of the ladies in the ranchwomen’s club I’m in...”

“That would be great!” I’m feeling pretty full of myself right now. “How many do you think you could invite here?”

“Five? Maybe six?”

I’m grinning from ear to ear. “Perfect. That’ll get the ball rolling. We can do a lunch, here at your place.”

Maeve smiles back but it’s missing some of its usual spark. “If you think that’s best.”

“Of course it is.” I pat her on the hand. “You just make the phone calls and I’ll plan all the rest.”

We finish our coffee talking over food possibilities, and because I’m practically a professional chef at this point, I’ll be the one doing all the cooking. Swedish meatballs can’t be all that hard to make, right? I mean, I made spaghetti sauce and that had meat in it.

Maeve stands and takes our empty cups to the sink. “Why don’t you see about feeding your calf and I’ll make a few phone calls?”

“Good idea.” I stand, ready to face the day, armed with the knowledge that when I leave here, even though I’ll be doing it with a broken heart for leaving Ian behind, Andie’s life will be back on track. Nothing but the best for my BFF and my godbaby.