AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, but the Masterson girl started working here two days a week. She’s been talking about the impromptu baby delivery on your new toy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Damn expensive to be a toy.”
My dad’s eyes sparkled. “Best kind of toys.” He turned to the sink and washed off the dirt. “What did you bring me?”
“Maybe it’s for me now.”
“Don’t get mean now, Mase.”
Laughing, I pushed the tub of mac and cheese toward him and stabbed it with a fork. “Your favorite.”
“Ahh, you know how to woo me.”
Good thing I knew how to woo someone. It certainly wasn’t a woman lately.
He took a bite with an audible hum of delight. “Jackie’s mac and cheese, not that pompous ass you hired.”
“Dad.”
He shrugged. “It’s true.” He stabbed his fork back into the still steaming carton. “So, what do you need?”
“Well, you know about the baby. That’s kind of why I’m here. Thought I should send Miss Hauser a congratulations on the baby deal. Something easy for her to take care of, maybe?”
His eyebrow arched. “Miss Hauser, huh?”
I flushed. “Yeah, Emma and she had a little girl.”
“Sure. I can handle that.” He took another bite of the pasta then stabbed the fork back into it as he wandered around his workspace, muttering to himself.
I pulled out my phone to check my emails while he did his thing. A text from my sister-in-law to be popped up as I was deleting spam.
Gina: You free for a chat? I had an idea…
Oh, crap. That didn’t sound good.
Jared and Gina’s wedding had been scheduled, re-scheduled, then moved again thanks to a very welcome pregnancy. My nephew, Caden, hadn’t been planned—exactly. They were pretty private about their troubles getting pregnant, and the minute they’d stopped worrying about it, good old Crescent Cove magic stepped in and made it happen.
Now we were scrambling to get them officially hitched. I cracked open the wedding document and saw the startling items on the to-do list. Gina was trying to plan the brunt of the wedding herself.
She had the Ramos clan helping out. Between her sisters and Bonnie Ramos, former cop central dispatcher, she had all the help she could handle. Of course with that many women, it also meant they kept changing their minds about what they wanted.
This was not the first text I’d gotten with an idea she’d had.
I shot back a quick text that I’d call her in a few.
Finally, my dad came back with an armful of greenery and a wide bowl. I shoved my phone in my pocket and went around his bench to help him. “Jeez, Dad.” I took the heavy clay bowl. “I just wanted a simple arrangement.”
“Not every day that a baby gets born on your property, son.” He hauled up a bag of river rocks from under his bench. “We’ll make her an easy to care for dish garden.”
“You mean you will.”
“Well, yes.” He gave me a sheepish smile. “Might mean more if you did it.”
“She’s a complete stranger, Dad.”
Though one afternoon with Emmaline Hauser felt far too big for stranger status. Having my hand crushed as she dealt with contractions seemed too intimate to put into words.
Or flowers for that matter.
