His eyelids close. He draws in a quiet breath, as if savoring this delicious closeness for two more beats. He straightens, hisarm falling away, and his eyes flutter open. “Yeah. Sorry for ambushing you like that. If you change your mind about a nest, let me know, and I’ll see what I can pick up if you don’t want to ship stuff from Memphis. Or I can drive up to Cedar Point. They have more stores than here.”
Cedar Point is nearly two hours away. It’s an offer so generous that I can’t accept it.
“Thanks. I’ll let you know.” I turn to leave, feeling him watching me go.
But I stop when I’m nearly at the staircase and turn around. I’m not surprised to find him staring after me when I felt the heat of his gaze like electric waves lapping against my skin.
“I don’t mind them either,” I say, my cheeks hot at what I’m about to confess.
He tilts his head, his eyes crinkling in confusion. “Don’t mind what?”
“Cowboys. Maybe it’s the Southern in me, but you sure know how to rock the heck out of a hat.”
His bark of laughter has me grinning as I hurry toward the stairs, then up them without waiting for a response.
I don’t know what possessed me to say that to his face, but a tiny hint of the Rose Hayes before grief battered her down slipped out. I thought she’d died with Simon, but maybe more of her survived than I realized.
Chapter 10
Rose
Buying a pregnancy test with a curious five-year-old literally running circles around you in the pharmacy is no easy feat. But I need to be positive that I actuallyampregnant before I tell Ben he’s going to be a big brother.
That conversation needs to happen soon. Ben has noticed I’m sick, and it’s worrying him enough that he thinks he’ll lose me like he lost his dad.
“Mommy, I’mbored!” Ben wails as I root around in my purse for my wallet, keeping half my attention on him.
Of course he’s bored. From the moment he opens his eyes at 6 a.m., he wants to be doingsomething. And this morning, he crawled over my belly as I slept, and it was a miracle I didn’t throw up over him when he did.
I was still battling my nausea when I eventually got us both ready for the day, yawning as I led him down the stairs for breakfast with Win, Joel, and Murph. The level of sympathy they aimed my way when I stepped into the kitchen made it clear I was not fit for company.
Without a word, Win got up and brought me a banana, a glass of water, and dry toast.
Murph swept Ben into his seat and distracted him by asking what he wanted to eat.
And Joel, sweet Joel, scooted his chair closer to mine and whispered in my ear. “I don’t need to be at the firehouse until nine. If you want to go back to bed, he’ll be safe with me for a couple of hours.”
I said no when I wanted to say yes. Ben is my responsibility. I’m his mother, and it isn’t fair or right to offload him on anyone, even though I haddesperatelyneeded a couple more hours of sleep.
When the guys went to work, I spent the morning playing with Ben until the worst of my nausea had eased and I was no longer terrified of wandering too far from a bathroom. By the time lunch rolled around, we were both looking forward to getting out of the house for a bit.
“Got any exciting plans today, Ben?” Michelle, the owner of the pharmacy who introduced herself when we first walked in, asks Ben, distracting him just long enough for me to fish out my wallet.
Ben looks at me for the answer.
I told him we were going out, but I didn’t tell him what we were going to do because this particular errand would have had him bouncing off the walls.
“We’re going to the diner.” I smile gratefully at Michelle, and I tap my credit card to pay for the pregnancy test I shoved into my purse the second she scanned it. “Lina’s son has a birthday coming up, and Ben’s terrified that I’ll forget to ask about it and he’ll miss it.”
Ben’s eyes widen with excitement, the way I knew they would when he learned about our errand. I slide my credit card back into my wallet, and tuck it into a side pocket that I zip up so it won’t disappear into the bottom of my bag again.
“There will be cake and games, so I can understand his excitement.” Michelle grins at Ben.
“Does Lina live far?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “About twenty minutes away. You’ll meet a fair few of the parents from the school as well if you and Ben are sticking around.”
“Um, I’m not sure about that yet.” I haven’t been in Rios long enough to consider moving here; that feels way too early to make a decision that big.
