Chapter Thirteen #2
“I don’t,” his dad assured him. “We’ve got plenty of space, and I’ve eaten more home-cooked meals in the past week than in the six weeks prior to her showing up.”
“Which only proves that we need to hire a cook,” Wilder said. “Because she’s not going to be here forever.”
“But she’s here now,” his father pointed out.
Beth obviously hadn’t thought this through.
She’d just wanted to get away from the ranch and the awkward tension with Wilder for a little while, and a quick shopping trip into town seemed the perfect excuse.
But she didn’t have Cody’s stroller—and even if she did, she wasn’t sure it would navigate the snow-covered sidewalks—and it was awkward to wear his baby carrier over her coat and it didn’t fit under.
Which left her with no recourse but to carry him in his car seat.
At least when she got inside the store, she was able to sit his car seat in the cart while she did her shopping.
She only needed a few things, but after paying for her groceries, she was faced with the logistical problem of having to cart the baby, his diaper bag and three bags of groceries out to her vehicle.
She might have asked Natalie for help, if the woman she’d met on her first trip into town had been working, but she hadn’t seen her anywhere in the store.
Thankfully today’s clerk—identified as Nina by another customer—anticipated her dilemma and called a stock boy to carry Beth’s purchases out to her car.
After all of that, she decided she deserved a treat and headed over to Daisy’s Donuts, the reputed mecca of everything sweet and delicious in Rust Creek Falls.
An examination of the offerings in the display case required several minutes of careful study, leading Beth to conclude that the reputation had not been exaggerated.
An opinion that was further bolstered by her first bite of chocolate silk pie.
“Hey, stranger.”
Beth glanced up as Natalie Crawford slid into the seat across from her. She lifted a hand to wave, unable to offer a verbal reply because her mouth was full.
Natalie eyed the plate in front of her. “Mmm...is that Eva’s chocolate silk pie?”
Beth nodded and swallowed. “Do you want me to ask for another fork?”
The other woman shook her head regretfully. “Don’t think I’m not tempted, but I’m actually here to pick up a Neapolitan cake for my mom’s birthday and if I let myself indulge in two desserts today, I’ll never squeeze into my favorite jeans tomorrow.”
“Your call,” Beth said, as she dipped her fork into her pie again.
“So what brings you into town today?” Natalie asked.
“Cabin fever,” she said.
“We all suffer from a bit of that during the winter,” the other woman said sympathetically.
“And since I needed an excuse to go out, I decided to pick up a few groceries to make chicken and dumplings for dinner.”
“You’re going to spoil Max and Wilder with all your fancy cooking,” Natalie warned.
“It’s the least I can do,” Beth said. “And I don’t really do anything else.”
“I would imagine this little guy keeps you plenty busy,” Natalie said, glancing at the baby in his carrier on the bench seat beside his aunt. Then she smiled. “He’s watching you move that fork from your plate to your mouth and wondering why you’re not sharing with him.”
“Because it’s a little too sweet and rich for a baby who only recently started eating cereal,” Beth said, directing her explanation to Cody. But she dipped the fork into the whipped cream on top of the pie, then touched the tines to his lips so that he could have a tiny taste.
He rubbed his lips together to sample the cream, then his eyes grew wide and his feet kicked.
“I think he likes it,” Natalie said.
“Apparently he’s got a sweet tooth like his aunt,” Beth noted.
“Or maybe two of them,” the other woman said. “When did he get those?”
“Just yesterday.”
“New teeth for the New Year. Speaking of which... I didn’t see you at the party at Maverick Manor.”
“Because I wasn’t there,” Beth admitted.
“Surely Max invited you?”
“He did,” she confirmed. “But I opted to stay home with Cody.”
“Just with Cody?” Natalie teased.
“What do you mean?”
“Wilder skipped out early, causing much speculation about where he was going and who he was going to be with,” Natalie confided. “Because everyone’s waiting to see if Max’s matchmaker goes six-for-six, and a lot of the local girls are hoping to be the sixth lucky bride.”
“Is that what passes for entertainment in Rust Creek Falls?” Beth wondered, feigning only mild interest.
“Well, we’ve got to do something,” the other woman said. “We don’t even have a movie theater in town.”
She smiled at that, remembering a similar discussion she’d had with Wilder on the same topic.
“In that case, I’d put my money on Max,” Beth said. “He doesn’t strike me as a man who ever gives up before he gets what he wants.”
“And Wilder seems equally stubborn.”
“Could be,” she acknowledged.
“But if you were going to throw your hat in the ring...” Natalie let her words trail off suggestively.
“Me?” Beth immediately shook her head. “I’m only here because of Cody.”
“That’s too bad,” Natalie said, sounding disappointed.
Maybe she thought so, but Beth knew it was for the best.
By three o’clock that afternoon, Wilder was rethinking his choices. Because a trip into town to do some shopping with Beth and Cody had to be better than freezing his ass off in single-digit temperatures trying to rebuild a fence.
“We should sue Ferrell for damages,” he grumbled.
Though it wasn’t the cost of the materials that annoyed him so much as the inconvenience of having to make the repair—and the shirking of responsibility by the idiot driver who’d crashed through the fence.
“Good luck proving it was him,” Xander said.
“I heard he took his truck to a body shop in Kalispell for repairs,” Knox chimed in. “Claimed someone hit his vehicle while it was parked.”
“With a two-by-four?” Wilder asked facetiously, rubbing his hands on his thighs in an effort to restore some circulation to his numb digits. “Because you can bet whoever does the repair finds splinters of wood while banging out the dents.”
Yeah, he definitely should have chosen to go into town with Beth—except that he hadn’t been invited.
And what was that about?
They’d had the “morning after” talk she insisted on, and he’d agreed with everything she’d said—even if he didn’t really agree that the night they’d spent together had been a mistake.
So why would she be mad at him?
He was tempted to ask his brothers for their take on the situation, but that would require telling them what had happened with Beth on New Year’s Eve.
And though he’d never shied away from talking about his past successes with the ladies, he didn’t want Beth to become the object of their crude jokes.
Unless he’s met a woman who could actually mean something.
As Xander’s words from the night of the party echoed in his head, Wilder found himself wondering if his brother wasn’t right.