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He put the Demon on the floor and drew her against his chest. “It’s all right, sweetheart . . . It’s all right . . .” He stroked her bare, soft back, whispered goofy stuff into her ear, did everything he could to take away the hurt.
The Demon didn’t like being set aside, and it wasn’t long before she started to yelp. Nealy got embarrassed and pulled back from him. “This is silly. I shouldn’t have—”
“Just shut up,” he said gently. “You’re entitled to a couple of well-earned neuroses.”
She gave a watery smile. “That’s what this is, isn’t it?”
He nodded. The Demon’s screams grew louder. Nealy frowned and he could feel her growing agitated. “She’s really upset.”
He gently caught her chin and turned her head toward the furious infant. “Look at her, Nealy. Just look at her. She’s screaming her lungs out, but there’s not a single tear in those eyes. She’s just testing her limits.”
“Yes, but—”
“All babies aren’t suffering. I know you understand that in your head. Just try to feel it in your heart.”
He picked up the Demon, and as he set her in Nealy’s arms, he knew there was no bromide he could offer that would undo all those years of trauma. Button would have to do the job on her own.
Lucy still hadn’t returned by the time he and Nealy had finished eating a breakfast neither of them wanted. Although she’d taken the dog with her, she’d left all her things in the motor home, so he knew she planned on coming back. He tried to figure out how he was going to deal with her when that happened.
He and Nealy hadn’t talked much since they’d left the bedroom. She kept making busywork for herself so she could pretend she was tough as nails and hadn’t lost her dignity getting teary over the Demon. He wanted to take her back upstairs and start all over again, but the baby was in the way.
Both of their heads came up as they heard a dog bark. Nealy grabbed the Demon and followed him outside.
Lucy was approaching the front porch with Squid on a new leash. She froze as she saw him standing there.
He glowered down at her. “You’re so busted.”
That small head came up, those little shoulders shot back, her top lip trembled. “Big deal. I don’t care.”
He shoved his hand toward the garage. “Go in there and find some garden tools. I want every weed pulled from that flower bed in the back. And make it snappy.”
She stared at him. “You want me to weed that dinky little flower bed?”
“You got a hearing problem?”
“No. No!” Delighted that she had escaped so easily, she ran to the garage.
Nealy regarded him with amusement. “You’re one tough hombre. That’s going to take her . . . oh, maybe an hour.”
He smiled back at her. “She was responsible for one of the best nights of my life. It’s hard to get too mad at her.”
She nodded. And then she said the strangest thing. “Thanks.”
He was standing there basking in her approval and grinning like a fool when a truck towing a silver Airstream drew up in front of the house.
He stared at it. He’d seen lots of Airstreams recently, but there was something familiar about this one.
The door of the truck opened and two badly dressed senior citizens climbed out.
No. It wasn’t possible!
“Yoo-hoo! Mat! Nell!”
Nealy gave a delighted squeal as Bertis and Charlie Wayne charged up the sidewalk.
He sagged against the porch post. Just when he thought it couldn’t get worse . . . First it had been the kids . . . then he’d added a wife and a dog. Next had come a house in Iowa . . . then a Ford Explorer.
Now Grandma and Grandpa had shown up.
