Chapter 4
Four
Lily
To add to my humiliation, I had fallen asleep on the short trip to the house right after I’d given Eliot directions. With Cali in the car, we couldn’t talk about much, and Eliot seemed to understand. He hadn’t pushed for an explanation.
I blinked my eyes open just as Eliot pulled to a stop in front of the house. Good thing he’d driven. For a few blissful minutes, I didn’t have the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Cali unbuckled and leaned forward. “Mom? Can I watch shows on the tablet?”
Grandma hadn’t believed in TV, but she’d had Wi-Fi to stream radio stations. Cali needed to be distracted while I talked to Eliot. “Can you watch them in your room? I have to talk to Eliot.”
Cali jumped up and down as much as she could in the SUV. “You’re staying?”
Eliot’s shuttered gaze slid from her to face out the window. “For a bit.”
He was probably ready to run. I’d dragged an innocent man into chaos. Carter would laugh and claim I’d done the same to him. Some days, you’re like living with a tornado.
Eliot hauled the car seat with Kellan in it, and I carried the diaper bag. Cali disappeared in a heartbeat. At least she’d had time to eat. I’d gotten a few bites in before Linda had shown up.
I sank onto the couch. Eliot looked around the house, curiosity more apparent than trepidation or impatience. Did he see a place that had a little bit of each decade from the last seventy years in it? Oak kitchen cabinets from the nineties. Furniture from the eighties and early aughts. Wallpaper from the sixties and a touch of the seventies. I had a lot of work to do.
I would’ve had a lot of work to do.
He finally took a seat, perched on the edge of the chair Aunt Linda had sat in when she’d delivered her bad news.
“It’s just what I said.” I started unbuckling Kellan. The long end table of Grandma’s was pushed against the wall to protect my shins and so I could lay out Kellan’s various playthings.
I set him on a play mat. He loved the faux grass next to the bright-blue fake river.
“You have to get married or lose your house?” Eliot asked. “How can that be?”
“Once you understand this isn’t my house, maybe it’ll make more sense.” I fought back a yawn. Exhaustion was deep in my bones, but I had to tell him everything. I owed him. “I mean, I thought it was. Grandma always said she’d leave it to me. She passed away shortly before I moved here. So when I got the job with Sutton, I thought it was fate.” Everything was finally working out for me, or so I had thought. “Dad gave me his keys and said I should just move right in.”
“And your aunt will really kick you out?”
My heavy eyelids made blinking hard. The ten-minute snooze barely dented the hours of sleep I was missing. “I believe so. If she wavers, her fence post of a husband will do it.”
“Fence post of a husband?”
I lifted a shoulder. “That’s what his personality reminds me of. He’s just kind of there.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “Why’d your grandma— Never mind. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.” I missed Grandma, but right now, I was upset with her. She screwed me over. “As for your other question, I’d like to think that Grandma thought I’d still be married and wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“And what predicament is that, Lily?” he asked quietly.
I blinked, but the tears had already sprung into my eyes. “My parents would take me in, but can you imagine moving back in with your parents?”
“They’re dead.”
I recoiled at the frankness of his tone. “God, I’m sorry.”
He rubbed his temples. “Shit, no, I’m sorry. My mama ran out on us when we were all still kids, and she did it because my father was a massive bastard. To give you an idea, he left my sister Aggie’s inheritance to her now husband, who was the guy she left at the altar. He did that when he thought they had separate lives.”
“That’s awful.” I had issues with my parents, but they’d never hurt me like that. If anything, they were too loving. Carter had claimed they were enablers, and while I’d learned how much of a dick my ex really was, he hadn’t been entirely wrong. What had it been like for Eliot to grow up under the opposite?
“It all worked out because Ansen fell hard for my sister again and donated everything to her animal rescue. But to get back on topic—what else? It’s not just moving back in with your parents.”
I didn’t want to tell him my baggage, but at the same time, he’d already witnessed my worst. “This job. My ex is a veterinarian. Guess how we met?” I tried to make the question light, but my shame broke through.
“You worked for him.”
“Stereotypical, right? I was in vet school and working a few hours here and there. You know what’s even more predictable?”
“He continued to fuck the staff?”
My cheeks heated, and I dropped my gaze to Kellan. “I found out I was pregnant right after I asked for a divorce. He got a lawyer, and I got nothing.” I chewed my bottom lip. “Not nothing. I got the kids. I didn’t care about anything else, and I knew I couldn’t fight him and his parents, who wanted a more impressive daughter-in-law.”
“He wants nothing to do with the kids?” Eliot held up his hands. “If it’s none of my business, just say so.”
“I think I made it your business. Cali’s mom signed away custody and left her with Carter shortly after we met. Cali was six months old, and I adopted her after we got married.” I’d always been honest with her, and with the name change, she’d been asking questions before school started in the fall. Hence her two-moms announcement in front of Eliot when we first met. “Carter isn’t interested in being a dad. He’s interested in doing what he wants when he wants.”
The rumors I’d heard after the divorce were like soaking my wounds in salt water.
“So, to answer your question,” I continued, “I won’t get a good recommendation from him. If I up and quit on Sutton to move to Billings, then how hard will it be for me to get a job? I’m just going to look like a vet school dropout who can’t hold a job.” Which was exactly what I was.
“Did leaving vet school have to do with your ex?”
I nodded. I dropped my gaze again. Kellan wiggled against the mat, kicking his legs out. Drool dripped out of his mouth. I grabbed one of the many cloths I stored around the place and swiped his face clean. “I quit school to work and took care of Cali because Carter was the main breadwinner. He made a good argument about how raising Cali would be better if we were married and I was around more. That I’d have a more flexible schedule as a tech.”
“What a bastard.” His tone was heated, and pleasure rolled through me. Yes. My ex was a bastard. I knew it, but I’d never turn away extra validation.
“That’s the general consensus with my family too, but I was second-guessing vet school. I just wanted more time to be with Cali and be involved in her life. Carter wasn’t home a lot, and I hated having her in daycare. Once I got done with school, that wouldn’t change. I’d just have more stress.” I lifted a shoulder. “My family thinks I made an excuse, but it’s true. I was doubting my career.”
He propped his arms on his knees and pressed his fingertips together. He was all cowboy CEO right now. My mortification didn’t detract from his hotness. The muscles in his forearms bunched and flexed, and I had no right to notice as acutely as I did. “If you don’t marry someone next week, you’ll have to move everything out?—”
“It’s not mine. I could only bring what fit in my car and my parents’ pickup from Kansas to Billings, so I didn’t have much to move in here.”
“Jesus, Lily.”
“I know. I’m a mess.”
Pebbles prowled into the room, making a mewing noise like she was agreeing with me.
Eliot’s gaze softened when it landed on the tabby. The cat swiped her body against his shins, and he scratched her head.
Pebbles moved on, and Eliot’s expression turned introspective. The corners of his jaw flexed. “I wasn’t thinking you’re a mess. I think you’ve got dealt a shit hand. And now you have to marry to keep a roof over your head and your job.” He shook his head, anger brewing in his brown irises.
“I have to be married a year before the house will be put in my name. I’m really sorry to drag you into this. You don’t have to marry me, of course, I just had to buy some time with Aunt Linda. I couldn’t find an adequate place to move into, and I thought, I don’t know, that maybe she would go easy on me. But she’s not. In order to stay, I’ve got to live with my husband for a year on the property—or at least make my aunt and uncle think he lives here. Know any single guys who want to settle down now?” My thready laugh fell flat.
His gaze was on me, burning right through me until I was uncomfortably warm.
“Trust me,” I said, struggling to make my voice stronger. “I got this. I’ve landed on my feet for the last year; I can keep doing it. You can go, but I’m sincerely sorry for what you walked in on.”
He didn’t answer, but his gaze intensified.
“I’ve disrupted your day enough, but if you could keep this between us until I figure everything out? I really love working at the clinic. Sutton keeps surprising me with her generosity, and I don’t want her to doubt hiring me. This story is…crazy.”
He didn’t respond right away. My anxiety tried to increase, but my adrenaline had run out. I was depleted.
My yawn couldn’t be stopped. I smothered my mouth with my hand. I just had to hold it all together a little longer. When he was gone and when Cali and Kellan were asleep, I could have a little panic session and start gathering numbers to call in the morning.
“How tired are you?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“When’s the last time you’ve gotten some decent sleep?”
“Um…” I bit the inside of my cheek as I thought back. “I got that nap in the car.”
He exhaled a “fuck” and rose. “Go to bed, Lily. Tell me what to do, and I’ll take care of it. You need to sleep.”
I could laugh, that maniacal cackling of someone too overwhelmed to think straight. “I can’t go to bed. There’s too much to do. Lying to Linda bought me a few days. That’s all.”
“Go to bed,” he said firmly and propped his hands on his hips. “Because over the weekend, we’re going to have to figure out how this marriage of ours is going to work.”
Eliot
Everything Lily told me rebounded inside my head as I rocked Kellan and read a book to Cali in one of the guest rooms. The little girl was tucked under a comforter that had more flowers than any flower beds I’d ever seen.
I’d been on uncle duty before, but there hadn’t been many times I’d flown solo like tonight. And to do it with two kids I barely knew served only to make me wonder how much I’d missed out on with my nieces and nephews.
Cody and his first wife had lived in Buffalo Gully when his oldest two were born. Before she died, his wife had preferred Wilder and Sutton for babysitting. Which had been fine. I’d been younger and not used to kids.
Then Aggie and Ansen had Ro. Cody met Tova and they had Charlie. Aggie and Ansen had Tripp next. Now Sutton and Wilder were having twins, Aggie was expecting again, so was Vienne, and Tova had just announced she was pregnant.
Ten nieces and nephews. How much would I miss in their lives?
I shook it off and turned the page. Cali’s blinks were getting long. Lily had made her change and clean up before she laid herself down. She’d pumped when I promised her I wouldn’t gag when handling a bottle of breast milk. My insistence that I’d handled milk from several animals in my career didn’t comfort her like I had hoped it would. An embarrassed blush had flamed across her cheeks.
I finished the last page of the book. The author was listed as just Magnolia. Cali said it was her grandma. “Time for bed.”
“I sleep with Mommy.”
New house. New town. Was she scared in this strange room? Lily needed sleep. Kellan would be in her room. How much quality rest would Lily get with two kids? Not much, judging by how she’d been out within seconds of driving. “If I check all over your room and make sure it’s safe, can you try falling asleep in your bed first?” It was an old negotiating trick I’d heard Cody use a few times.
Her lips puffed out. “Monsters like to hide under the bed.”
“Whoever told you that don’t know monsters. I heard they’re afraid of kids.” She gave me a dubious look, but I nodded. “Haven’t you watched Monsters, Inc ?”
“Watch a movie ’bout monsters?” Her doubtful expression didn’t waver.
“Tell you what, I’ll look anyway. Monsters don’t like me, that’s for darn sure.”
She wearily pulled her blankets up. “Night, Eliot.”
“Night, Cali.”
I glanced down at Kellan. His little lips were smushed against each other. He was snoozing solidly, having fallen asleep during the first book we read, somewhere between when the mouse got a cookie and made a damn mess.
I got up, nestled Kellan in the crook of my elbow, and checked the closet and under the bed. Kellan snoozed through the whole process.
“All clear and I’ll be right outside.” I was about to walk out of the bedroom.
“Eliot?”
I bit back a smile. She mostly said the L sound, but there was a hint of a W in there. She’d probably outgrow it as soon as tomorrow, but that, along with her enthusiasm at seeing me, melted my heart a little more each time I saw her. If kids liked me, then I wasn’t too far gone from civilization, surrounded by isolated men on my big ranch in the middle of nowhere. “Yeah?”
“Can you keep the door open?”
“You got it.” I turned the light off and kept the door halfway open.
The hallway light stayed on, giving Cali some light to go to sleep with and so I could lay Kellan down.
I glanced down at him tucked against my chest, his fingers lax under his chin. I didn’t hold sleeping babies often. I played with them or held them so my siblings and their spouses could eat or visit without a human barnacle.
His little mouth moved like he was suckling an invisible bottle.
Cute little bugger.
Lily’s door was open too. Was she afraid to shut herself completely away from her kids? Duh, of course. We were practically strangers.
Yet, I was marrying her. Within days.
I’d checked the courthouse hours. We could go there Monday, say our vows and this nightmare would be over for her.
Or I could leave. Tell her I couldn’t marry a stranger. She’d understand. She’d been terribly sympathetic and had given me several outs. Yet I had stayed and told her to go to bed. I was a single guy. I never wanted to try and fail at a relationship and prove my mother right, but I could use my bachelorhood for good. I could give it up and help a mom and two kids. And a cat. Add in more barn cats she’d probably care for.
I was getting married.
I stepped into Lily’s room and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. The smell of old perfume faded, and the scent of baby powder and sunshine filled the air. Lily’s soft breaths were barely audible. A bassinet was by her side of the bed.
I laid Kellan down. He made a little squeak and I froze. Did I wake him?
I played statue until his breathing returned to being even. Lily didn’t move. She was exhausted. I’d seen it when I first met her.
No wonder she was so worn out. She was worried about her job, her home, and her kids. Life was stressful enough with just one of those issues. She’d have all three if I didn’t help her.
Before I left, I looked at her small form in the bed. The comforter was almost exactly the same as the one in Cali’s room. A shitload of flowers. I took one last inhale before I left her room. The rest of the house had a scent that reminded me of my house when Barns was alive. A little stale.
I shook my head, grabbed the baby monitor, and left the bedroom before she woke and caught me watching her. The last thing that woman needed was some dude leering at her while she slept.
My stomach rumbled as I went to the kitchen. I hadn’t had time to eat at the party.
In the fridge, I found milk, eggs, and Lunchables. I closed the door and checked the counter. Bread and apples. The sink held the clean bottles Cali had told me were for daycare. I looked in the freezer. Bags of frozen milk lined one side and TV dinners for kids and adults filled the rest.
Was that all the woman ate?
My stomach was fussing up a storm, but I didn’t want to dig into her ready-to-eat staples, none of which were appetizing anyway, so I went in search of a deep freeze. I doubted there was one on the upper level, so I found the door to the basement. A musty scent got stronger the lower I went. The basement was furnished, and it was like stepping down into a time capsule. Upstairs had a mixture of styles. Downstairs? Welcome to the ’70s.
The orange shag carpet crunched under my feet. I found a laundry room. I checked the washer. There was a load inside that was damp. I switched that to the dryer.
Next, I checked the freezer. All I needed was a steak or a pound of hamburger. Anything but the boxes of disappointment she had in her fridge freezer upstairs. I opened the lid and groaned.
White packages were piled on each other enough to cover the bottom, but the amount of frost lining the outside wasn’t promising. Even the freezer burn would have freezer burn.
I picked up one that looked newer. When I made out what was inside, I jolted and dropped the baggie. “Jesus.”
Why would Lily have dead mice in her freezer?
I closed the lid. Dead, frozen mice. What the hell had I gotten myself into?
A shadow moved next to me and I jolted. The cat blinked at me as she marched by.
I took my hat off and stuffed it back on. Goddammit, I wasn’t usually this jumpy. Scared by a cat that looked as old as this house.
I shook my head and gave up on my foraging efforts. I wasn’t eating mice. Pausing, I glanced at the cat. She didn’t look like she had the energy to eat mice. I doubted Lily and the kids were munching on them. What was in the house that ate mice?
Whatever it was had food.
Was Lily always this short on decent eats? The freezers weren’t full. She had no crib set up. She said she had left with what could fit into her car and her parents’ pickup. All of the furnishings were her grandma’s.
Rage boiled inside of me. Good thing her shitty ex was in Kansas.
The anger made me hungrier. I couldn’t run to the gas station or the grocery store if it was open this late.
I went upstairs and paced around. I could go one night without food. Or I could call in a favor from a brother. One who’d keep his mouth shut when I explained why I was at the house of one of Sutton’s employees. Would he believe I wasn’t here to take advantage of the tired but sexy mom?
I called Austen.
He answered with a muffled, “Yeah?”
“Can you get off your wife and run a couple errands for me?”
“One, jackass, we’re done. For now. Two, what the hell do you need me to do for you that you can’t do yourself?”
“It’s a long story that I can’t tell you right now. I’m helping out Lily from Sutton’s clinic, and her kids are asleep and she’s asleep and there’s no food in the house.”
The silence stretched on. “You’re at Lily’s . She just had a baby.”
“It’s not like that.” I pinched my eyes shut. All my brothers were too damn nosy—and too suspicious of my intentions. I’d have to give him some info. “Not exactly. We’re getting married.”
“What the fuck?” he sputtered.
“You can’t tell anyone. Not yet.” I’d have to make time for an explanation. “She can’t keep the house if she’s not married and then she’d have to uproot the kids and quit her job. It’s her grandma’s stipulations.”
“Grandma’s stipulations? What kind of crazy bull?—”
“Of all people, we should be familiar with relatives fucking us over after death.” He went quiet, which was exactly what I expected. Barns had been selfish in the trust he’d formed before he died. I was as stuck as Lily. “I’ll explain more later. Right now, I’m really damn hungry, and I need my overnight bag. Can you grab it from my pickup?”
“Sure. Whaddaya want to eat?”
“Anything that won’t give me gut rot.”
“You realize only the gas stations are open right now.” His heavy exhale gusted over the line. “Just so you know, I’m telling V so we can be shocked and appalled together.”
“I’m with you, man. I’ll tell the others at the picnic.” A worry for another day. A day real soon.
He grunted and got off the phone.
I sat on the couch and stared at the wall, working over everything Lily had told me until headlights swung down the drive. I hooked the baby monitor to my belt and crept out the door. I didn’t care to wake Lily, but I certainly didn’t want her to run into Austen. I already felt like I was invading her place.
Vienne hopped out first with two plastic bags in her hand. “You’re getting married?” she whisper-shouted.
Her sandals slapped the ground. She was in shorts and a T-shirt like my brother. I’d make a joke about them being married so long they were dressing alike, but humor wasn’t my priority.
I nodded, my throat working. Saying the words to her made it more real. Married .
Her gaze dropped down. “Oh my god, is that a baby monitor?”
“You’ll have to get familiar with one in, like, six months.”
She gave me a saccharine-sweet smile. “Don’t wiggle out of telling us what’s going on, Daddy Eliot.”
“She needs sleep.” I told Lily if Kellan woke up tonight, she only had to feed him, and I’d rock him until he went to sleep. She’d warned me he was fussy. She’d made a lot of excuses as I had herded her to bed. She’d been ready to drop, or she might’ve kicked me out.
Vienne’s eyes went liquid. “Aw, you’re so sweet.” Concern infused her gaze. “Marriage?”
“For a year. Then the house will be hers.”
Austen approached and handed over my duffel bag. “Are you moving here?”
Did he sound hopeful? I shook my head. “You know I can’t do that. This house isn’t hers as much as the house on the ranch isn’t mine.” I had to be married to my job to stay in that place. Thanks, Barns. “I can’t risk it. We just have to make her aunt think I’m residing here.”
I took the bags from Vienne. She stared at me. Same with Austen.
“You’re supposed to marry her and live here?”
I shrugged. “We have to provide a marriage certificate. Otherwise, we could fake that too.”
“Shit,” Austen said softly. He held his hand out. “Gimme your keys. We’ll drop your pickup off.”
Relieved I wouldn’t have to herd everyone out of the house to get my pickup in the morning, I did as he asked. “Thanks.”
He inspected me. Most of the time, I didn’t see much effect of the military on him. He was the same laid-back Austen. Then moments like now, when I itched under the collar from his open scrutiny? Yeah. I could see it.
“You’re welcome,” he finally said. “See you Sunday?”
“Yeah. I’ll see if…” I waved toward the house. “I’ll see if she wants to be there when I tell everyone.”
“Tell her we’d love her and the kids to come no matter what,” Vienne said. “You know Cody and Tova won’t have an issue with it.”
Cody would have thoughts about the marriage. Most of them critical.
“Will do.” Humbled that my family might be aghast that I was marrying a single mom whom I’d just met but that they understood and would support her, I went inside.
As I dug out fruit and nut packs, containers of meat and cheese, and a few candy bars because Austen knew I had a sweet tooth, I appreciated their efforts more. I wouldn’t be a present husband, but my family was here to watch over Lily. Something I couldn’t do.