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“Oh, I have a desk and more paperwork than I’d like sometimes, but I also get to stare out over the fields toward the mountains at sunrise and sunset.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It is. I can’t wait to share the land with my little girl.”
He stood with Harper in his arms and crossed to the stroller. After clicking the level to recline the seat back, he laid the infant in it. Then he glanced at Willow, who’d pulled her sleeping baby closer in her arms. She kissed the top of her child’s dark curls.
At once, his own words struck him, causing an ache to spread inside his chest. My little girl. Neither of them knew for certain that the children they’d been raising were even their own. He cleared his throat, but the lump that had formed there refused to dislodge.
She glanced up at him, her dark eyes appearing to read whatever he’d given away with his own. Then she seemed to mine them for something more. He needed to look away, to break the spell that caused his pulse to thud at his temple, but he found himself a willing captive. Hungry for a connection. With her.
A ringing phone pierced the moment, though, and caused Luna to startle awake. Immediately, she cried out.
Willow lunged for her cell and read the screen, rocking her child, who would have none of it. She wiggled and cried.
“It’s the center. I have to take this.”
Asher did the only thing he could think of to help. He reached out his arms. Willow stared at his hands as if they were more enemy than rescuer. Then, with a frown, she held the baby out to him. Something told him this action was a bigger sacrifice for her than only a moment of needing quick parental backup.
“Come here, sweetie.”
At first, he held Luna at arm’s length, as she stopped crying and stared back at him with wide, cautious eyes. Willow kept looking back over her shoulder, her features pinched with worry, as she stepped outside to return the call that should have clicked over to voice mail.
Luna’s gaze shifted to her mother and then back to him, as if trying to determine if she should be upset, so Asher slowly moved in a circle and kept turning. All babies were different, but this method worked with Harper, so he gave it a shot.
For a few seconds, Luna stared back at him, but when he smiled, her lips lifted, too.
“You know I’m a friend, don’t you, Luna?”
He bent his elbows, drew her closer, finally settling her on his hip. The scent on her hair was the same one that had distracted him while they’d been in that tight hospital office. The perfume her mother wore. Like a field of wildflowers.
Luna had just rewarded his efforts with a happy squeal when Willow threw the door open again. She glanced from Asher to her daughter and shook her head, her mo
vements robotic, agitated.
“We’ve got to go.”
“What is it?”
Willow shook her head as she lifted Luna from his arms and then hurried over to buckle the baby in the stroller she hated. Why wouldn’t Willow look at him? Was it about the call or that he’d made her daughter laugh? The infant was already crying out again as Willow pushed the stroller past him. Sobbing with her arms extended—to him.
“See you tomorrow?” he called after her as she reached the door.
She answered without looking back. “I’ll be there.”
“I would never try to take her, Willow,” he blurted.
This time she paused. He’d made a promise he couldn’t keep if he found out that Luna was his. He’d contradicted his earlier words, as well. But maybe he’d broken through to her.
“What is it?” he asked again. “Can I help?”
Her shoulders dropped forward. “The Arizona Department of Health Services inspector showed up at the center unannounced. Someone filed a complaint with the state.”
“Why would anyone do something like that?”
“Someone wants to shut us down.” She straightened again and reached out to push open the door. “And I have no idea who’s planning it.”
Chapter 6
