The True Cowboy of Sunset Ridge (Gold Valley #14)(40)

“Don’t I know it,” the woman said. “But the time goes by so quickly. Cherish it.”

Mallory felt like she was standing in the middle of the Twilight Zone. Hearing platitudes that were meant for someone else, that were definitely not meant for her. Her throat felt scratchy.

It took way too long to ring everything up. And the awkwardness just sort of stretched. The baby started to fuss, and Mallory reached out for her. But Colt held her close, shifting his weight back and forth. He was a natural with the baby. In that way that he looked like he might take off the head of any passerby that posed a threat. He cradled her with so much strength and gentleness all at the same time...

And she looked away, focusing instead on the progress the woman was making with their purchases.

“All done. Enjoy your baby.”

“We will,” Mallory said, her smile dropping sharply as soon as they walked outside.

“Enjoy your baby,” Colt said.

“I don’t know. People say strange things to people with babies.” She assumed. She hadn’t experienced it before.

Actually the whole thing was starting to make her stomach feel shaky.

They got everything loaded and got the little girl buckled up and put in the car.

“She needs to be called something. We can’t just keep calling her the baby.”

“Lily,” he said, not hesitating.

And somehow she knew that if she asked him why, it would only make things... Well, it would push a further wedge between them, and she wasn’t sure why she cared about that. They didn’t need to be close. They were dealing with this situation, and it was something that she wanted to help with.

“I like it,” she said.

They didn’t talk for a while, and when she checked her rearview mirror, she saw that his head was leaned back against the seat, and that his eyes were closed. His hand was set on the handle of the car seat, as if he was physically bracing it, keeping the baby safe even while he slept.

Lily.

Their little charge was Lily. And she still felt... Utterly shell-shocked by the whole thing.

She also felt... Maybe this wasn’t her fight. Maybe she should just leave Colt and Lily at the house and not worry about it. He wanted to take care of the situation, so shouldn’t she let him?

Right. This was a battle that she’d already lost inside of herself.

But her conversation with Tirzah played back in her mind. Being a midwife was a calling. Her connection to mothers and babies and all this kind of stuff... It wasn’t just something that she thought was interesting. This baby needed her. And even though it wasn’t strictly part of her job, it was part of who she was. And there was no way she was going to abandon her or Colt if they needed her.

She was grateful in some ways for the reprieve, not having to talk to him, because every time she did, it felt like the conversation was laden with secondary meaning and tension. It felt difficult.

But she didn’t know the man, and part of her felt like she did, and that was something that she was having a near impossible time with.

They’d been naked together. Had engaged in intimacies that she only ever shared with one other man, a man she had known for more than half of her life—and it made her feel like perhaps she and Colt knew each other better than they did. Made her feel like she had a right to tell him what to do in this situation and also like she was connected to it perhaps on a deeper level than she was.

Well, who was she to argue with fate? Wasn’t it fate that had brought him into her life?

Right. Fate. Or just hormones combined with the realities of small-town life.

Well, that made her feral. It was annoying.

And probably true.

Except... She couldn’t escape that first thought she’d had about him when she’d seen him for the first time. That he was fate. That he was the lightning bolt. The thing she had never expected, the thing she had never asked for, but had found all the same.

Right. This angry, taciturn rodeo cowboy, who only turned on the charm when he wanted to get in your pants and was in general grumpy with you every other time?

It was true. All that charm he’d had on their first night had vanished completely when they’d learned each other’s names.

Why did that make him more compelling?

Because you like a project? Because then you don’t have to figure out what you want? You just have to continue on proving you’re valuable by throwing all of your energy into your relationship?

That made her wince.

It wasn’t fair, really, either. Because Colt was grumpy, sure, but he had never asked anything of her. He had never taken advantage of her in any way.

He wasn’t an emotional or financial vampire sucking the resources and joy out of her simply because he could.

She couldn’t make the comparisons between him and Jared when they existed in entirely different contexts. He was her landlord. And that was it.

He was also a man she’d had a one-night stand with. Sure.

But he didn’t owe her anything other than the repairs outlined in their lease agreement. Otherwise, nothing.

And she certainly didn’t need to have facilitated this entire baby thing. And she didn’t need to involve herself.

When she turned up the driveway that led them back to Sunset Ridge, she told herself that sternly and repeatedly.

But then they pulled up to the house, and the car slowing to a stop jolted Colt out of his sleep.