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Freya gave them each an awkward pat on the back. “We should get out of here before the two of you knock into a waitress carrying a tray of dishes.”
Esme grinned and blew out a satisfied breath as she led the way out of the diner. This morning was the reminder she’d needed that even if there were questions about her arrangement with Ryder, the people who loved her would support her in the end.
Chapter Seven
Ryder wasn’t sure how long someone had been knocking at the door before he finally heard it over the persistent wailing of two babies mid-meltdown. He couldn’t believe how badly he was struggling to handle Chase and Noah by himself while Esme had breakfast with her brother and great-aunt and then ran errands.
Initially, he’d encouraged her to take the entire day for herself, insisting that he would love the time with their boys. He’d even bristled a bit when she’d seemed unwilling to leave them solely in his care for that long.
The first fifteen minutes of her time away had been without incident. Both babies were down for their morning nap, so Ryder had spent his time researching the history of the Fortune family in Chatelaine on the internet. He didn’t believe the tragedy of the silver miners could have anything to do with his baby being switched for Esme’s at the hospital, but her concern was enough to prompt him to learn more about it.
Through the course of his research, he’d discovered her grandfather’s older brother, Wendell, had returned to town and reconnected with his grandchildren during the past year.
Although he and the fourth Fortune brother of their generation, Walter, had no involvement with the accident at Elias and Edgar’s silver mine, the death of those innocent miners had weighed heavily on Wendell. So much so that he’d assumed a new identity for many years as a way to distance himself from the painful past.
Ryder had just started perusing a story on the life of the mine’s foreman, who’d been blamed for the accident by Edgar and Elias, when he heard the sound of a baby crying through the monitor. By the time he got to the nursery, both boys were fully awake and not happy about it, even though Esme had been confident they’d nap for most of the time she was gone.
Ryder had learned quickly that if he could count on one thing with babies, it was that as soon as he understood their schedule, the routine would be upended.
He tried not to take it personally that Chase and Noah cried more with him than they did when Esme was taking care of them. She repeatedly told him that crying was a regular part of this stage of their lives, but he suspected it had something to do with him. They would typically settle after mere moments in Esme’s soft, soothing hold, but neither seemed to have any more faith in Ryder than he had in himself.
He opened the door with a screaming baby in each arm and found himself staring at Esme’s sister, the one who didn’t seem to like him very much.
“Hello!” He shouted to be heard over the crying babies. “Nice to see you again, Bea. Your sister’s not at home right now, so you might want to come back when—”
“I know she’s not here,” Bea interrupted, reaching out to take Noah from him as she stepped into the house. “I’m here to talk to you, Ryder. Apparently, I got here in the nick of time to offer respite childcare. You look like you’re about to start sobbing along with these two cuties.”
“That’s my usual emotional state,” he muttered under his breath as he closed the front door, unable to muster embarrassment that a woman he would like to impress, given his relationship with her sister, was seeing him so at a loss.
He might feel confident in his ability to run Hayes Enterprises, although whether he would get a chance to do that remained to be seen, but he had no such certainty in his parenting skills. Esme was the expert, and he’d quickly come to rely on her to take the lead in every aspect of caring for the boys.
Bea couldn’t compare with her sister in the baby whisperer department, but between the two of them, the boys eventually quieted. Ryder placed Chase in the motorized swing that sat in the middle of the kitchen, and the baby yawned and then stuck his fist in his mouth.
“I can take Noah if you’d like,” Ryder offered, but Bea shook her head.
“Have you seen pictures of Esme or our brother, Asa, when they were this age?”
“I haven’t yet.”
“He looks just like the two of them. The resemblance is striking.” She stared at Noah in amazement.
“He’s lucky to look like his mother. She told me everything left from your parents’ house has been put into a storage unit. Once we’re more settled, I’ll take her to Cave Creek to move what she wants to Chatelaine. I think it’s important to Esme to have some of those family things here.”
“You’re right,” Bea said slowly, then glanced over at Chase, who was losing the fight to keep his eyes open. “Now I know where he got the cleft in his chin. I had assumed it was from his father’s side of the family.”
“It was,” Ryder confirmed, wanting to clarify that no other man would play that role in either of the children’s lives.
“My sister has a big heart.” Bea gazed at Noah as she spoke, although the words were clearly meant for Ryder. “Her husband took advantage of that. He took advantage of her under the mistaken assumption that she had access to...well, a fortune, given our last name.”
“I’m not interested in Esme’s money,” Ryder answered, affronted at the suggestion. “I have plenty of my own.”
“So, in what way are you interested in her exactly?” Bea demanded, dropping a kiss on Noah’s forehead.
He resisted the urge to fidget. There was no way anyone could have guessed that he was often nearly done in by his attraction to Esme. “Has she explained our arrangement to you?”
“Right down to the rules. I was surprised the two of you have already agreed you’re free to date other people.”
“Did we agree to date other people?” he murmured. “I don’t remember that.”
