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“How’s Bentley doing?” Lucy asked behind me. “I mean, she healed okay, right? No one told her she couldn’t have any more children or anything like that, did they?”
“Yeah, no, she’s good.” Beau sniffed as if he needed to wipe a wet nose. “As far as we know, she can still try for more with no issues.”
“Oh, good.” Lucy blew out a relieved breath. “That’s great.”
“I’m not sure I want anymore, though.” Beau sounded as if he were grimacing. “Not after that. It tore her up for a minute there. I don’t want to see her go through that ever again.”
“Is that how Bentley feels?” Lucy wondered softly.
Her brother’s silent response told me that was a touchy subject. Feeling a strained confrontation on the brink, I lifted the newly-diapered Ava from her changing table, and turned to display her to the siblings. “All clean.”
Lucy blinked at me, then jumped to action, her eyes widening. “Ack, sorry.” She reached for her child. “I just stood there and let you do all the diaper changing, didn’t I? I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I assured. “I like feeling useful.”
She snorted and teased, “In that case, I have an entire kitchen full of dirty dishes to clean.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously as she laughed at her own joke.
I became a little too entranced watching the curve of her mouth and twinkle in her eyes and how her hair shifted over her shoulder when she arched her head back.
God, she was beautiful.
Smiling at the exuberance that radiated off her, I ignored the ache that rattled through my chest, wishing I could share that very feeling with her. It’d been just a split second worth of happiness, but it had looked good on her.
Standing between us, her brother cleared his throat and waved a hand to get our attention. I froze, hoping he hadn’t noticed how utterly enchanted I’d briefly been, while Lucy turned, eyebrows raised in question.
“I’m going to take off,” he told her, pointing toward the door. “I really did have somewhere to be. But do you think you have everything you need now?”
Lucy nodded. “Yep. All good. Thanks again for staying. If I’d known what was going on, though, I wouldn’t have even asked—”
“Nah, it’s fine,” he assured her, waving a hand. “Honestly, I’m relieved you finally know.”
“Me too,” she said, then pointed sternly. “And tell your wife to expect a call from me. I’d like to mourn a little with her too.” Sending him a sympathetic pout, she added, “It would’ve been nice if Ava’d had a cousin so close to her in age.”
Beau nodded and dropped his gaze. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll let her know.” Then he glanced my way and lifted a hand. “Vaughn.”
I bobbed my head. “See you around, man.”
Lucy and I watched him as he walked from the room.
“Well…” She heaved out a breath and turned to me expectantly. “Hi. You’re here. Again.”
“Yeah, I…” I lamely motioned over my shoulder in the direction of the front door. “I just stopped by to visit the baby, if that was okay, since I didn’t have to work today.”
“Um. Yeah.” She nodded slowly before adding, “Of course. If you don’t mind waiting in the front room for a minute, I’ll just feed her real quick, and then you two can visit for as long as you’d like.”
My gaze went immediately to her breasts. But dammit, I had a bad feeling that was going to happen every time anyone mentioned feeding the baby.
I jerked my eyes up as soon as I realized what I was doing and nodded, tripping over my own feet as I already started backing toward the door. “Yeah, sure. That’s fine. Sorry. Just… Take your time.”
Then I whirled around and escaped the room.
I didn’t feel like sitting once I reached the front of the house, though. Instead, I wandered into the kitchen to discover that she wasn’t lying about the dirty-dish situation. I shook my head slowly and began to roll up my sleeves.
I had the dishwasher loaded and running and was about halfway through scrubbing the remaining pile of pots and pans when Lucy’s doorbell rang.
“Vaughn?” Lucy’s voice called from down the hall. “Do you think you could answer that for me? I just have a couple of minutes left here.”
Pulling my arms free from the suds, I hollered back, “Sure.” Then I dried my hands and made my way into the front room. It felt beyond weird, answering her door for her, but she had asked, so I pulled it open to find a man about my age, maybe a few years younger, holding a Wendy’s cup and a to-go bag.
