Page 89 of Kicking Up Dust

Colt and I had sex practically nonstop the last two days and yet, I haven’t gone into labor. If this doesn’t do the trick, I’ll be banging down the doctor’s door early tomorrow morning and demanding a membrane sweep immediately.

“Tate, I don’t think Blair wants to hear that right now,” Kenny says gently, likely taking in the way my hands are pressing against my lower back and how I keep leaning against every bus stop sign we pass to rest for a moment.

Tate whistles low and then, “Sorry, Blair.”

“It’s fine. You guys don’t have to also do it, you know.”

“It’s not bothering me,” Austin says back. “Honestly, I might just come down here and do this a few times a week. Maybe it’ll give me a better ass.”

I snort. “You’ve got a perfect ass as it is.”

Austin smiles at me and blows me a kiss. “An even better ass then.”

“Rest in peace to Maddie if you get an even better ass,” Kenny adds in, and somehow the conversation breaks my frustration up enough for me to laugh along with them, despite curb-walking.

I’m still a bit iffy around Colt’s mom, but I’m coming back around to thinking I might really be considered a part of this family again. I can’t get the look Maddox and June shared at the table that night out of my mind. Like they’d been talking about me and my potentially not-a-Whittaker baby for weeks behind my back. For someone who’d spent sixteen years never fitting in at any of the homes I’d lived at, it had hurt to think the home I loved the best didn’t consider me family.

Maddox was easier to forgive because he hadn’t liked me anyway. He’d never made me feel welcome prior to that night. He’d always been gruff and short and blunt, so when he brought up the DNA test, it hadn’t really been a surprise. It wasn’t until the panic attack in the barn that he’d started softening up to me and that I’d started considering him more of a brother-in-law than a vague acquaintance in the first place.

But June… I’d already been considering her “Mama” in my mind. Someone who’d helped me through some of the hardest parts of my pregnancy since I got to Cedar Creek and someone who’d be holding my hand while I gave birth. I haven’t outright shunned her or anything since that night, I’ve just been cautious. I’d always been cautious with people I couldn’t get a read on, or couldn’t trust just yet. If it bothered Colt, he didn’t say anything.

She hasn’t apologized, but there isn’t anything for her to apologize for, really. She needed to protect the ranch. It was me who’d gotten a little too comfortable a little too quickly with her, I think out of desperation for someone who’d shared the same experience I was currently living.

We reach the end of Main Street and I huff, sitting down on the bus stop bench. Should I feel contractions by now? How quickly did curb-walking work? Kenny comes up and pulls my hair from behind my back, twisting it into a quick braid while everyone sort of just stands there and waits for me to recuperate.

“Don’t get pregnant,” I warn the group as a whole.

Austin snorts. “I’m way ahead of you. I’ve already gotten fixed.”

“Really?” Tate asks and dives into a million and one questions that I close my eyes and tune out, reveling in the feeling of Kenny’s fingers in my hair. She’s definitely not going to abide by my advice. She’s got Mom written all over her. Honestly, I probably won’t abide by my own advice either. Colt’s too good at sex and the idea of him having a son after this baby is pretty freaking cute.

I eventually give up the curb-walking and decide to get dinner with the girls instead, on Colt’s dime since it’s his fault I’m so uncomfortable.

I suppose I played a part in it all, but no one who’s ever looked at Colt would blame me for that.

FORTY-NINE

BLAIR

40 Weeks + 5 Days

Baby is entirely too big and needs to get out!

In a surprising turn of events, Bailey starts to hover. I’m all for having her around, because I’m a huge fan of how she doesn’t mind me being a little moody right now, and because she reminds me a lot of Colt without Colt’s incessant worrying—which has only gotten worse as the days pass—but it still surprises me given what she’s hinted at about her past.

Yesterday, we mostly just stayed in the cabin and watched movies and gorged on snacks, but that just led to me having gas pains off and on today.

Today, she offered to walk around the ranch with me to see if that would move things along. There’s snow on the ground, but I try to ignore my anxiety, telling myself it’s okay because at least there isn’t any falling from the sky.

Unfortunately, the universe decides that my newfound phobia is funny, and snow does indeed start falling from the sky. At first, I try my best to play it cool, but Bailey’s probably just as observant as I am, so she leads me into the barn I had my last panic attack in to take cover. Tradition and all that.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, stopping short before I can even follow her inside. I gently push at her back to try and get her to at least move forward enough that I can get in and sit down as she yells at whoever’s ticked her off now. My stomach is killing me for eating that entire quart of ice cream last night.

“One of the mares has some sort of lameness. Your brother called me out.”

“Which one?” she asks through gritted teeth that make me think one of the Whittaker sons is really in for the lecture of his life tonight.

Cartwright, as Colt called him at the bar, looks at Bailey like she’s insane, but he finds it cute. “Chesney.”