Page 31 of Sudden Summer

“Thank you for the help in here,” I whispered as she broke the kiss. Why the fuck were those the words that came out of my mouth after kissing her? Thank you? I shoved down the groan that was building in my chest as I watched her face fall.

“Of course. Although, I think I might have been more of a hindrance than a help there at the end.”

I chuckled as I looked over the sad state we were both in. The paint was everywhere. In my hair. In hers. On our faces. Our clothes. I’d never seen a bigger mess, or laughed harder in my life.

“Pink looks good on you, Cowboy,” she smiled up at me, booping the end of my nose and depositing more paint there, I was sure.

“Looks good on you, too, Chickadee.”

She signed, leaning back against my chest. “We should probably go get cleaned up. You can have a shower first.”

“Nope. You go on ahead. I’ll grab some fans from the garage and work on a second coat if it dries fast after I roll the first. Might take a couple coats by the look of it, and that means a couple of days before Juniper can sleep in here.”

“Are you sure? I started the paint war. I feel like maybe I should have to suffer the consequences of my own actions…”

“I’m sure. Go get cleaned up.”

Birdie left, taking all the sunshine out of the room with her…and I fucking tried my hardest not to imagine her naked in my shower as soon as I heard the water turn on.

Birdie

He kissed me.

Four days ago, in the middle of his daughter’s nursery, Beau had pulled me in and…ugh.

I’d kissed him.

My heart was still hammering in my chest all this time later. The last few days had been torture. Awkward glances. Keeping our conversations to Juniper and the work Beau was doing on the ranch. Don’t even get me started on how hard it was to sleep next to him while trying to not be weird and wishing I’d just be brave enough to apologize for jumping all over him like that…or brave enough to kiss him again.

“Alright, berry girl, what do you say? Should we go get your breakfast ready? Yes?” Juniper looked up at me with wide eyes, a bright, gummy smile on her face. This age was so precious, and she’d been in such a fun, playful mood the last few days. We were getting lots of squeaks and squeals, and my heart was overflowing watching this sweet girl show us all the sides of her personality.

I walked downstairs with her held tightly against my chest. Beau and I both learned very quickly that she was a wiggle worm in the morning. And after her breakfast, she absolutely would not want to be put down. No. She wanted to be held, so she could see the world around her. That’s why I knew we needed a solid plan in place for today. One where I could get her into her little carrier and have her held against me while we went and adventured out and about.

I obviously didn’t know Juniper’s mother, but there was a place in my heart that ached for her. That she wasn’t here to experience these moments with her daughter. And I hated myself because I was still so angry with her for taking away the first part of Juniper’s life from Beau. He would have stepped up. I saw the way he looked at his daughter from the minute he first held her. Family was everything to Beau.

My head shook as I walked into the kitchen. “Alright. I can’t think about that anymore. Talk about little rain cloud energy,” I cooed to the baby. “We’ll have none of that on our girl-day!”

I’d been plotting it all through my three-day stretch of shifts. Well, when I had a few minutes to scarf down my lunch or on the drive home, that is. This month was turning out to be a very busy season for babies to be born! I swear, we were about to rival our September numbers, which had always been the highest for births.

I opened the front door, and a blast of fresh air started drifting past me into the house. It really felt like it was about to be the most beautiful day. Juniper was more than happy to go down in the play pen, although I laid her on her back. That was apparently a new no-no, because she rolled onto her belly and began smiling at her reflection in the little baby mirror attached to one of her toys.

“I’m going to see if my sister can come out today. Wouldn’t it be fun to meet her?” Juniper paid me no attention as I scooped my phone out of my back pocket, walking toward the back of the house.

Hey! Juniper and I are having a girl’s day at the ranch. Do you want to come meet her?

I set my phone down on the counter and rushed around the kitchen, grabbing a slice of bread and throwing it in the toaster for me, then working on Juniper’s bottle.

By the time I was settled on the sofa, Juniper in my hands while she scarfed down her breakfast, I was a little annoyed at the lack of response from Lainey.

Heavy boots climbed up the front steps, and for a second I thought Beau might have decided to call it a day and come home. The rational part of my mind knew that was dumb, though. They had a big day of walking down fencing in the south pasture to see what repairs needed to be made before they moved the herd. But the irrational part of me hoped…

“Knock, knock.” Hayes smiled at me through the screen door.

“You can come in.” I laughed until he stepped inside and I could see the tiredness written on his face. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” He ran his hand over his jaw. “We had two call outs last night. Backyard fire that got a bit out of hand. And another warehouse caught fire out in Lark Lake. I just wanted to come get some snuggles with my niece. I tried Beckett, but he hit me with one of his dinosaur toys and yelled Oh shit! really loud before running away from Jessie.”

“And Connor?” I tried to hold in my laughter.