Chapter Five
Wilder could tell his statement had surprised her.
It had surprised him, too. If Beth had shown up immediately after Leighton had left the baby on his doorstep, he would have happily turned the infant over to his aunt.
But somehow, over the past forty-eight hours, he’d started to get attached to the little guy.
He wasn’t quite ready to accept that the kid was his, and truthfully—for Cody’s sake—he still hoped Leighton had been wrong in identifying him as the dad. But he was invested in discovering the truth now, and determined to have it before making any decisions about his future.
“But my job is in Dallas,” Beth protested. “My life is in Dallas.”
“What is your job?” Wilder asked.
“I teach kindergarten.”
“Then it’s your winter break right now, isn’t it?” he pointed out logically.
“It is,” she acknowledged. “And I didn’t plan on spending my holidays in Montana.”
He shrugged. “As I said, you can go anytime you want.”
“But you won’t let me take Cody with me.”
“Nope,” he confirmed.
She sighed. “Is there a hotel in town?”
“Only Maverick Manor, just off the highway. But it’s booked through to the New Year.”
“Motel, then? Or bed-and-breakfast?”
“There’s Strickland’s Boarding House in town,” he told her. “But if you plan on staying in Rust Creek Falls, there’s no reason you can’t stay here. The room you slept in last night has been empty since Finn moved out.”
“Are you sure the rest of your family wouldn’t mind?”
“It’s just me and my dad here now,” he said. “And truthfully, I wouldn’t object to some help with the baby.”
“Cody,” she said.
He scowled. “What?”
“His name is Cody.”
“I know his name.”
“Do you? Because I haven’t heard you say it—not even once.”
His scowl deepened at that.
“It’s only four letters. Just two short syllables. Co-dy,” she said again, deliberately emphasizing each syllable.
“I know his name,” Wilder repeated.
“But you won’t get attached if you don’t use it,” she guessed. “If you continue to refer to him as ‘the baby,’ and it turns out that he’s not your baby, it’ll be easier for you to walk away.”
Annoyed by her insightful assessment—though not necessarily willing to believe it was true—he hit back. “I think I’m beginning to see why Leighton brought her baby here rather than leaving him with you.”
Surprise and hurt were clearly reflected in her eyes before she sucked in a breath and quickly looked away.
Wilder winced. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” she challenged, her eyes shiny with what he suspected were tears.
“I sometimes lash out when I’m feeling defensive, and you got caught in the crossfire,” he explained.
“And I can be overprotective of those I love,” she said. “I want what’s best for Cody, and apparently Leighton thought that was you, so you need to step up and act like his father.”
“If I am his father,” Wilder said, still not quite ready to believe it was possible.
Because in the brief time that he’d been with Leighton, there’d been no forgotten or broken condoms, no reason at all for him to suspect she might have been pregnant with his child when they parted ways.
Yet somehow, in the short time that the baby—Cody, he mentally amended—had been at the ranch, Wilder had started to accept that fatherhood might not be the worst thing that could happen to him. That maybe it was time for him to not just step up but grow up.
Beth nodded in acknowledgement of his point as a knock sounded.
Before he could get up to answer the summons, the door opened and Avery stepped inside, kicking snow off her boots.
“No babies on your doorstep today?” his sister-in-law teased in lieu of a greeting.
“No,” he said. “And not funny.”
“I don’t know,” Beth said, maybe trying to prove that she wasn’t a complete stick-in-the-mud. “I thought it was pretty funny.”
Avery grinned. “That’s because you have a better sense of humor than my grumpy brother-in-law.”
“I have reason to be grumpy,” he told her. “I was up I-don’t-know-how-many times in the night with the baby.”
His brother’s wife was immediately sympathetic. “I’m not surprised the little guy had a restless night, in an unfamiliar place with people he doesn’t know.”
“And, as a result of his restless night, I had a restless night,” Wilder felt compelled to point out.
“Actually, that’s why I stopped by,” she said. “To see if you were managing okay with the baby. I wished we could have stayed later the other night, but we had to get back to Pumpkin.”
“Pumpkin is a goat,” Wilder explained to Beth.
“Goat?” she echoed, as if uncertain she’d heard him correctly.
“Don’t ask,” he warned. “Because if you do, she’ll never stop talking about it.”
Avery’s narrowed gaze promised retribution for what she perceived as the slight of her beloved pet, but she refocused on the purpose of her visit to ask again, “So how are you managing with Cody?”
“Lucky for the kid, I’ve got some help now,” he said.
His sister-in-law’s attention shifted back to Beth. “You must be the owner of the car in the driveway with the Texas plates.”
She nodded and offered her hand. “Beth Ames. I’m Cody’s aunt.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Avery, one of Wilder’s sisters-in-law,” she introduced herself. “And since I’m obviously not needed here, I’m going to head back to my place. The furniture for the nursery was delivered this morning, and I can’t wait to get it set up.”
“You mean you can’t wait to nag Finn to set it up,” Wilder said firmly, concerned that his sister-in-law might attempt to tackle the chore on her own.
“Finn’s busy trying to rebuild the engine of some piece of equipment.”
“The baler?” Wilder suggested.
“Maybe. I sometimes tune out when he’s grumbling about stuff like that,” she admitted. “And anyway, the point is that I know my way around a toolbox well enough to put the furniture together.”
“You should wait for Finn to do it,” Wilder insisted.
“I don’t want to wait,” Avery told him.
He sighed. “Fine. If Beth doesn’t mind me leaving Cody in her capable hands, I’ll go put your furniture together.”
“Of course I don’t mind taking care of my nephew,” she said pointedly.
“And I’d be happy to keep Beth company while you’re gone,” Avery said.
“Why does that not reassure me?” he wondered aloud.
His sister-in-law grinned. “I won’t spill all of your deepest, darkest secrets,” she promised. “But only because I don’t know them all.”
“Lucky me,” he said dryly.
“But Finn has shared enough stories that I can probably keep Beth entertained until you’re back.”
“I’m glad you stopped by,” Beth said to Avery when Wilder had gone. “Because I wanted to thank you personally for helping take care of Cody. Wilder said you’ve been a big help.”
“It was my pleasure,” Avery said. “Your nephew is a real sweetie.”
“I think so,” she agreed, with a smile.
“Plus—” Avery rubbed a hand over her rounded belly “—it was good practice for my own little bundle of joy.”
“Wilder said you’re due in the spring?”
“Early March,” the other woman confirmed. “I feel as if I’ve been pregnant forever, but now I can finally almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Then she sighed. “What I can’t see are my feet. But maybe that’s a good thing, because I haven’t had a pedicure in...forever.”
“You should treat yourself,” Beth said. “Because you’ll have even less time for those kinds of indulgences once your baby comes.”
“I’d love to treat myself,” Avery agreed. “Unfortunately, there isn’t a spa in Rust Creek Falls. It’s one of the things I miss about living in Dallas.”
“You’re from Texas, too?”
“Born and raised,” the expectant mom confirmed.
“So what brought you to Montana?”
“Finn,” she said. “We’d known each other in Dallas, and when I heard he’d moved to Rust Creek Falls, I came here to see him and decided to stay.”
“You know it’s love when,” Beth said.
Avery chuckled. “Yeah, it was a pretty big change,” she acknowledged. “But Rust Creek Falls isn’t so bad, once you get used to it.”
“I don’t plan on being here long enough to get used to it,” Beth said.
“That’s too bad. Because Wilder’s going to need some help learning how to be a dad to Cody.”
“Do you really think he’s interested in being a dad?” she asked dubiously.
“I know he is,” Avery said. “Even if he doesn’t know it yet.”
Beth frowned at that.
“He just needs some time to get used to the idea, especially considering how the happy news was delivered.”
“I encouraged Leighton to get in touch with the father, as soon as she told me she was pregnant, but she insisted he wouldn’t want to know,” Beth confided.
“I’m not judging your sister,” the other woman hastened to assure her. “I walked more than a few miles in her shoes.”
Beth’s confusion must have shown on her face, because Avery said, “You didn’t know that I was pregnant with Finn’s baby before we got married?”
She shook her head.
“Well, I was,” Avery said. “And although I came to Rust Creek Falls specifically to tell him that we were going to have a baby, it still took me a long time to find the right words—or any words, really.”
“But you did it,” Beth noted.
“I did it,” the other woman confirmed. “And then, as if I wasn’t freaked out enough about being pregnant, I freaked out even more when Finn suggested we get married.”
“You didn’t want to get married?”
“I didn’t know what I wanted. I was scared and confused and everything just seemed to be happening so fast. We had a one-night stand, I got pregnant, I told him about the baby, he proposed, we got married—” she paused then, a smile curving her lips “—and then we fell in love.”
Beth sighed, a little wistfully. “It sounds like a romance novel.”
Avery chuckled. “There was enough drama between our families to fill a lot of pages, that’s for sure.”
“And now you’re one big happy family.”
“Or faking it,” Avery said. “But I don’t care if our respective fathers are just going through the motions, because I know that Finn loves me as much as I love him.”
“I’m glad things worked out for you.”
Avery rubbed her belly again. “Me, too.”