“He’s never been around children.”
“But you trust him to be kind.”
“Of course. He’d never
purposely
hurt Wyatt. It’s just that he’s a fish out of water right now.”
“Do you want to call and check in?”
She was about to say no, but then broke down. Why not put her mind at ease?
“We don’t have a very good signal,” she said.
“We’re heading back. Wait until we get closer to town.”
They didn’t talk much on the drive. Had Riley figured out, once and for all, that their relationship would never evolve into anything other than what it already was? Perhaps he was looking at it practically: he’d been attracted to her, investigated the potential and eliminated the possibility. Now he could move on to someone else.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet today,” she said.
He adjusted the volume on the radio. “With everything that’s happened recently, it’s understandable.”
“Aaron is asking me to see him.”
“When?”
“I mean, go out with him.”
His eyebrows went up. “And you’re considering it?”
“He’ll only be around for six more weeks.”
“And then?”
“And then he’ll be leaving, and I won’t have to see him as often. Maybe then I can get over him.”
He rubbed his chin. “You’ll still have contact. Now that he knows about Wyatt, you’ll have contact with him for at least the next eighteen years.”
“But he won’t be right...
here,
right around the corner.”
“That makes a difference?”
Presley shrugged. “It’s driving him crazy that I’m hanging out with you.”
“Then you should be leery of his interest. If it’s all about the competition, it won’t last. Don’t let him fool you.”
“Thanks for that.”
He’d heard her sarcasm. “What?”
“Is it so impossible to think he might be able to care about me?”
“You have to face the truth or you’ll never get over him.”
She didn’t want to hear it, but Riley had a point. Her sister would say the same thing, which was why she hadn’t brought up the subject. And with Cheyenne she couldn’t attribute that reaction to male rivalry. Cheyenne loved Aaron and
still
warned her to keep her distance.
“You’re right,” she said.
Burn me once, shame on you; burn me twice, shame on me
.
23
O
nce she and Riley returned to town, Presley had tried to check in with Aaron. She hadn’t reached him, which worried her—and now that she was home alone she could obsess without distraction. So it was fortunate that he called her back after only thirty minutes.
“Why didn’t you answer my call?” she asked.
“I didn’t hear my phone,” he said. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to see how it’s going.”
“It’s fine.”
Fine?
That was it? “Are you bringing Wyatt home soon?”
“Not
real
soon. Can I have him for another couple of hours?”
“This is turning into a pretty long stay for the first visit. What are you doing?”
“Shopping.”
“That’s not easy with a baby. Wouldn’t you rather I watched him?”
“He’s asleep in the stroller I just bought.”
“Why did you buy a stroller when you could’ve used mine?”
“This one is much nicer,” he said. “It’s the Cadillac version. You’re going to love it.”
“But strollers are expensive.”
She’d gotten hers secondhand, just like all her baby equipment and most of Wyatt’s clothes.
“It wasn’t too bad. So what do you say? Can I keep him longer? It’ll take us an hour to get back, anyway. We might as well go to a few other places while we’re here.”
“Where’s here?”
“Sacramento.”
“You took my son all the way to Sacramento?”
“He’s my son, too, remember?”
“That means you’ve done the DNA test?”
“We swabbed, and I’ve put the samples in the mail for the lab, but we won’t have the results for a few weeks.”
“Is that what took you out of town?”
“No. There’s no Toys “R” Us in Whiskey Creek.”
She’d expected him to be overwhelmed and eager for her to take Wyatt off his hands, but it didn’t sound that way. “Fine. Go ahead and finish whatever you’re doing.”
“Maybe you can grab some shut-eye while Wyatt’s gone. You sound tired.”
She
was
tired. She hadn’t been getting enough sleep. Juggling a business, a baby and an obsession with the wrong man—it wasn’t easy. If one wasn’t keeping her up at night, the other was. “That’s tempting. But I have a few things I need to do at the studio. I should go over there while I’ve got the chance.”
“Sleep,” he insisted. “You’ll feel a lot better if you do. I’ve got Wyatt, and I’m taking good care of him.”
“We’re having fun,” someone in the background called out.
Presley had assumed Aaron was alone. “Who’s that?”
“Grady came with us.”
“What exactly are you shopping for? Besides the stroller you already bought, of course.”
“More kid stuff. What else?”
“But there’s no need to double up. You don’t even know what I’ve got.”
“I’ve seen what you’ve got.”
The sexual innuendo was unmistakable. He was teasing—that took her by surprise, too. It told her he was enjoying himself and wasn’t feeling harried or pressured or angry with her. “I can’t believe you said that with Grady right there.”
“You and I have a son, Pres. I’m sure my brother can figure out that we slept together.”
“He’ll think we’re still sleeping together!”
She thought he’d remind her that it hadn’t been all that long. But he didn’t. When he spoke again, he asked, “How was the picnic?”
Not particularly exciting. She’d spent most of it dwelling on how badly she wanted to be with him and Wyatt. “Really fun,” she lied.
The way he dropped his voice led her to believe he’d turned away so that Grady wouldn’t hear him. “How much fun?”
“None of your business,” she replied, but she couldn’t help feeling a measure of satisfaction that he didn’t like thinking of her with another man.
“Is he gone?”
He seemed reluctant to use Riley’s name. “Yes.”
“Good. Get some sleep. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
She was already climbing into bed. It felt like forever since she’d had an afternoon to herself without
something
putting pressure on her—fear that Wyatt would wake her too soon, the knowledge that she had to pick him up from Cheyenne’s or an evening of massage appointments or yoga classes ahead. It was a mellow spring afternoon and she was all alone and confident that Wyatt was safe.
For the moment, all was well. She refused to think of the future....
“That’s what I’m going to do,” she told Aaron. Then she must’ve dropped off, because she didn’t remember saying goodbye. The next thing she knew, it was three hours and twenty minutes later, and he was knocking on her door.
“Hey, so you did get a nap,” he said when she finally opened up.
Struggling to collect her faculties, she covered a yawn. With the sun setting behind him, it was difficult to see much more than his outline, but she could tell he was carrying Wyatt, still strapped in his car seat, in one hand. He clutched her diaper bag in the other. She wished it was that effortless for
her
to tote Wyatt and all his stuff around.
“I didn’t mean to sleep so long.” She bent to release her son from the car seat’s restraints as soon as Aaron put him down. “But I have to admit it felt good.”
“Maybe having me involved in Wyatt’s life won’t be so bad, after all, huh?”
She would’ve kissed Wyatt, but his face was sticky. “Mama!” he said, clapping until he could get his arms around her neck.
“Not if you’re always as nice as you are now,” she said to Aaron.
He gave her an exaggerated scowl. “When have I ever been anything
but
nice?”
“You’ve had your moments.”
“I apologized for being a jerk the night your mother died. You know I feel bad.”
“I’m not talking about that. Anyway, the past is the past. It’s the future that concerns me. What will you be like later, when you get married and have a wife to please?”
“
That’s
what has you so concerned?”
She patted Wyatt’s back as he hugged her. “Of course it is. It’s the possibility that frightens me the most.”
He put the diaper bag in the empty car seat. “So it’s not necessarily
me
you don’t trust.”
“Not as long as you’re on your own.”
“Presley, I’ve never even told a woman I love her. How do you know I ever will?”
She sensed that he wasn’t being flip; he was looking for reassurance from someone who knew him well. But he didn’t have anything to fear. He attracted women, and one day there’d be someone. “With my luck you’ll fall in love with a woman who can’t have kids, and she’ll want Wyatt.”
He caught her arm. “I would never take Wyatt away from you.”
“Is that a promise?” she asked, studying his face.
His gaze moved to her lips. “Yes.”
Her heart was suddenly beating in her throat. He was too close, and so were the memories of their night together. She stepped back. “I hope not,” she managed to say. “He means everything to me.”
Although he was no longer touching her, he was still close enough to rub Wyatt’s knee. “I can see why.”
“Da!” Wyatt said, pointing.
Presley blinked in surprise. “Did he say what I think he did?”
The pride that showed on Aaron’s face delighted her. The fact that he seemed so happy made
her
happy, too. Whether he was with her or not, at least he seemed to be doing well these days. She liked seeing that, believing it. They’d
both
come a long way.
“Grady and I taught him that.”
“How?”
His lips twisted into an endearing smirk. “We gave him an M&M every time he got it right.”
She gasped. “You fed him
sugar?
”
He held up a hand to calm her. “Just a little. I knew we shouldn’t, but...” That boyish grin appeared again. “God, it was hard to stop. He liked them so much.”
Occasionally she, too, fell prey to Wyatt’s excitement over certain things, so she could hardly get angry with Aaron. It was too easy to picture his pleasure at hearing Wyatt call him Da for the first time.
“It’s okay,” she said. “He’s had a sucker every now and then, when I’ve needed him to behave in his car seat and he was fussy. But if we’re both going to overindulge him, he won’t turn out too well.”
“I think he will,” he said. “You’ve done a great job with him, Pres. He’s happy, well-adjusted. Grady and Rod and Mack couldn’t believe how unafraid he is.”
She hadn’t expected the compliment. “Thank you.”
His hand moved from Wyatt’s knee to her chin, which he cupped as he lowered his head. He was going to kiss her. She knew what was coming and yet she didn’t have the willpower to stop him.
When their lips met, the charge that ran through her stole her breath. She felt the same tension in him, but he just gave her a soft kiss. Then he pressed his forehead to hers. “Go out with me,” he murmured. “I won’t push you into bed. I promise. Whether or not we ever make love again...I’ll leave that entirely up to you. We’ll go out and have fun.”
“Aaron—” She tried to step back, but he clasped her arms.
“Don’t say no,” he said. “Let me be part of your life until I move. That’s only six weeks.”
But if she lost all the ground she’d gained, would she be able to recover it when he was gone?
When she continued to hesitate, he said, “Think how much fun we could have with Wyatt.”
“And Riley?” Truthfully, Riley wasn’t much of a reason to refuse. She cared for him as a friend, nothing more, and he understood that. But Aaron didn’t, and she was desperate for something or someone she could put between them.
He grimaced. “You can go out with him, too, if you want. I’ve told you that before. I’m just asking you to quit getting defensive every time
I
come around.”
Wyatt was wiggling to get down. Presley crouched to set him on the floor so he could reach his toys—which gave her a few more seconds to think. But the extra time didn’t make any difference. She knew when she was beaten. “Fine. I guess we could go out to dinner once or twice before you move.”
Now that he’d achieved his goal, Aaron’s expression lightened. “Are you hungry? I’ll take you out right now. Wyatt can go with us.”
She ran a hand through her hair. “No, I just woke up, and I’m a mess.”
“You look great to me.”
Sure she did. She rolled her eyes while she considered whether she could repair her appearance.
“You never believe me when I tell you how beautiful you are,” he complained.
Because she
couldn’t
believe him. He’d befriended her out of pity. He’d barely been able to tolerate her affection. And he hadn’t acted as if he’d missed her much. If he really thought she was beautiful, she’d know it by now. Besides, most of her actions in the first thirty years of her life had left her feeling anything
but
beautiful.
Cheyenne
was the beautiful one. Presley had always paled by comparison. “Give me a minute to brush my hair.”
“You’re not going to say anything about what I told you?”
She had him wait in the living room as she hurried down the hall. “Just watch Wyatt, okay?”
When she came out of her bedroom, she found Aaron carrying in what looked like a heavy box. Several other boxes already littered her living room. “What is all this stuff?” she asked.
“Baby furniture.”
“You bought a
crib?
”
“I figured we could move his old crib to my place, and you could have this nice one.” He turned the biggest box so she could see the picture on the side. “I also got him a bed for when he outgrows the crib.”
“I see.” She looked from one box to the next. Besides the furniture, which included a set of drawers and a changing table, there was a swing-set, a trike, a batting tee and— “Is this a
trampoline?
” she asked.
He hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “Yeah. Fun, right?”
“But...he’s not old enough for a trampoline. He’s only been walking for four months.”
“There’s a net that goes around it.”
“He could still fall off!”
“Not if I’m there to make sure he doesn’t. And he’ll grow into it.”
She glanced through the window at the weed-strewn patch of earth between her rental and the back fence. “I don’t think I have room in my backyard for something like that.”
“Then we’ll keep it at my house. There’s definitely room on five acres. It can go by the barn.”
She opened a shopping bag that contained more sports equipment. All of it was brand-new, the best money could buy. “How much did you spend?” she asked in amazement. Talk about a shopping spree. All this stuff must have cost more than her monthly rent!
“Don’t know.” He shrugged. “Didn’t add it up.”
Which meant he didn’t have to worry about the amount.
When she didn’t seem excited, he gave her a questioning look. “What’s wrong?”
Aaron could provide Wyatt with so much more than she could. How would she ever be able to compete with him, especially once Wyatt got older?
“Nothing,” she said, and forced a smile. “Let’s go.”
* * *
“Are you upset?” Aaron asked.
Presley poked at the lettuce in her salad as they sat in a booth at Just Like Mom’s. “No, why?”
He slid some condiments around, trying to make more room on the table. “You’re quiet. I thought you’d be excited about all the things I bought.”
“You got some nice stuff.”
He leaned over and brought her face up with a finger under her chin. “You can keep any of it you want. Did you think I lugged it in just to show off? I figured it would make you happy.”
She knew he was trying to cheer her up, but giving her all the things she couldn’t afford didn’t help. She was too jealous of what he could give their son. Aaron and Wyatt were already smitten with each other. She’d expected that to happen eventually. Who could resist Aaron
or
Wyatt? But...she’d also expected to be the center of Wyatt’s universe for a little longer. He and his father had only been together one afternoon!
“I have enough baby furniture and toys,” she said. “I don’t need anything.”
He held his fork midway to his mouth. “You’re kidding, right? What I bought is a lot better than what you’ve got.”