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“Her father is a real charmer.” His mother smiled. “His sons might want to beat the daylights out of you, but that Teddy Boone knows what it means to be a gentleman.”
“And those eyes,” Betty joined in. “Blue for miles.”
“And married. Just in case you were wondering.” He chuckled.
“I was just enjoying the view.” His mother winked.
“Well, shucks.” Betty sighed. “And rich to boot. I looked up the family on Google. Cattle. Oil. Land. Big-time. Renata is the only daughter.”
Rich or not, the Boones were good people. “You’d never know it.”
“I can’t tell you what to do,” his mother started. “And if I did, you’d just dig in and do the opposite anyway. But it seems to me you have a problem.”
He sat back against the side of the bed. “I’m all ears, Mom.”
“When you were little, and you had a rough day, what would I tell you?” she asked. “When you’d get disqualified in junior rodeo or get knocked down on the football field or have a girl break your heart?”
Betty sat in the rocking chair, glancing back and forth between them.
“I don’t think that applies.” He sighed, taking a block from his son and stacking them high again. “Now that I’m not a teenager.”
“You just told Curtis you wished things were easier.” She shrugged.
“I’m dying here.” Betty slapped her hands on her knees. “You can’t stop now.”
His mother picked up her toiletry bag and carried it to the bathroom, pausing in the doorway. “Anything worth doing or having won’t come easy.”
He waited for her to disappear into the bathroom before making a face at Curtis. “Your gramma thinks she’s imparting words of wisdom, Curt.”
“I think they were very wise words indeed.” Betty sat back in the rocking chair. “Better than any fortune cookie I ever got.”
Ash laughed. He couldn’t help it. And it felt good. He’d been wound too tight. The only thing that could have made it better? Having Renata here with them. If anyone needed a laugh, she did. But remembering the husky timbre of her laugh—and the effect it had on him—was dangerous.
“Daddy here.” Curtis held out his block and sat in Ash’s lap. “Go.”
“You got it.” He stacked the blocks up.
Curtis nodded, leaning back against his chest with a sigh.
Ash stacked them all, then wrapped his arms around his small son, drawing in his clean scent. Being away from Curtis for a few days had been hard. How was he supposed to co-parent with Renata? If he ever figured out what the hell co-parenting meant?
He sighed, tickling Curtis until his son was shrieking with laughter. He tugged up his shirt and blew raspberries on his little stomach, loving the free and easy glee his son expressed.
“Stop, Daddy.” Curtis arched up, his arms stretching over his little head. “Stop.” He kept giggling, pulling up his shirt and exposing more of his tummy.
“Stop?” Ash asked, still tickling.
Curtis shook his head. “No, Daddy. No stop.”
Ash laughed, renewing his tickle attack and sending Curtis off on another giggle fit. There wasn’t much he could do to fix the mess he and Renata had gotten themselves into. Might as well lose himself for a while in the simple joy of his son’s laughter.
Chapter 8
Somehow the crying had turned to throwing up. Lots and lots of throwing up. But now that her stomach was empty, she was feeling almost human. Until she heard the knocking on her door. Rather insistent knocking.
“Coming,” she said, not moving from her place on the bathroom floor. Never mind. She was too weak to move. “Come in,” she called out with as much energy as she could muster.
“Renata? It’s Kylee.”
