13. Harlan
Chapter 13
Harlan
W et squishy gums gnaw on my hand as my family tosses sarcasm, laughter, and the occasional good-natured insult across the table. Audra’s using my thumb as a teething ring and there’s a perfectly good Reuben sandwich sitting in front of me that I have yet to take a bite of.
Is this how it’s been for Maisie?
Has she had a hot meal since Audra’s been born outside of the time that she’s been here?
I look over to the raven-haired beauty who’s watching the conversation bounce back and forth across the group, all of my siblings crowded around the two tables pushed together in Ma’s diner.
She has her own burger and fries on her plate, though she’s made a dent in hers.
Audra’s little body does a wiggle in my lap, and I steady her with the hand that’s not being chewed on.
“Harlan Calhoun, you hand over that baby,” Jedd says.
“What? No. It’s my turn,” Rhett says .
“Bullshit. I haven’t gotten to hold her yet. You both already have,” Finch says.
“You can’t say bullshit around a baby, moron,” Duke interjects.
“You just did, idiot,” Finch fires back.
“All of you are crazy.” Boone laughs next to Jem.
“I got to hold her yesterday, so sucks to be all of you,” Jem says to the table.
I glance to my right where Jedd is making grabby hands to take Audra, his own plate empty. After a quick glance to Maisie and her subtle nod giving me the okay, I gently remove my hand from her mouth and pass her to him, though I’m loathe to give up the comforting weight and feel of her.
“She’s teething so your fingers might be in danger,” I say to him, though there’s really no danger. Her first tooth hasn’t started to poke through her gums yet, though it’s there, just under the surface.
Jedd scoops her from my arms, and instead of sitting her on his lap facing out, he hugs her to his shoulder.
“She’s so light.” He echoes my sentiments from the night before.
“No shit, she’s a baby. Of course she’s light,” Rhett says.
“Language,” Duke admonishes him.
Maisie leans over, the lemony scent of her hair drifting to me with the motion. “Are they always like this around babies? They were struggling to change her diaper in the hospital…”
I shake my head. “No. They’re all just crazy. Some sort of baby fever has hit ’em.”
What I don’t say is that same baby fever seems to have hit me too because I sure as hell didn’t want to give Audra up from where she was cozy on my lap .
“It’s kind of cute,” she whispers to me as my brothers continue to harass Jedd into giving Audra up so they can each hold her.
“What festival are they talking about? Is it the one you mentioned when I was getting out of the hospital?”
I tune back in to the table conversation. My family is talking about catching one of the shows this week.
I nod. “Yeah. Every summer there’s a country music festival in town, it brings in a lot of tourists and it’s due to start this week.”
A quick glance shows that Maisie’s plate is empty and the fact that she got to eat a whole meal — while it was hot — leaves behind a warm sense of satisfaction.
I’ve rolled around what happened to her in my head since she told me, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t put myself in her shoes. To leave everything behind, pregnant, alone, and scared to fight and claw for the hope of safety — a basic human right — is unimaginable to me.
“Are you going to eat?” Maisie whispers to me under the cacophony of my siblings.
I glance down to my sandwich, my appetite gone. Maisie’s keen gaze is looking me over, and to reassure her that I’m okay, I pick it up and eat the majority of it with efficiency. I don’t have much longer on my lunch break until I need to get back, but I didn’t want Maisie to retreat to the apartment for the rest of the day without me seeing her for a minute.
“Maisie,” Jedd calls her attention over to him.
“What’s up? Do you need me to take her back?” Her arms lift slightly like she’s reaching for Audra.
Jedd hugs the baby to his chest a little tighter and shoots her a mock scowl. “No. I just wanted to let you know, I finished the estimate of the work on your camper.”
Maisie tenses next to me, and the rest of my family falls quiet.
“Okay,” she says cautiously.
Jedd pulls his phone out of his pocket and taps the screen a few times. “What’s your email? I’ll send it over.”
Maisie rattles off her email address and then her own phone pings with the incoming email.
Her eyes scan the screen before widening at the bottom.
“Holy shit.” She breathes out.
Jedd scratches a hand through his beard. “Yeah. It’s a lot of work and expensive. Which is why I’m pretty sure your insurance is going to total it out.”
“Fuck.” The quiet curse from her has me leaning over to take a look at the email. I note the five-figure total at the bottom, and I blow out my own breath.
I knew the repairs were going to be pricy, but I didn’t think they’d be that pricy.
Emotions flit across Maisie’s face. Worry. Stress. Anxiety, and then finally, fear.
It’s the fear that has me reaching for her. My hand runs up the back of her arm until I come to the top of her shoulder. When she doesn’t flinch, I want to roar with triumph. “We’ll figure it out. It’ll be okay.”
Maisie’s silver-blue eyes fly to mine, the expression in them like a lightning bolt to the solar plexus.
“Harlan,” she chokes out, her voice watery.
I want my family, the diner, hell, the whole town to disappear so I can pull her into my arms to comfort her. But now’s not the time for that.
Jedd reads my mind, because he says, “So, you’ve got a couple of options. I could do the work for you, but the camper would have a salvage title. We’d need to make sure that’s allowed in Texas — I’m pretty sure it is — but I’d want to double-check. Or you could sell the camper to a junk yard for parts, I’d have to call around to see what kind of payout that would get you and you could use that toward the purchase of a new camper.” His tone is no nonsense and brisk, which seems to pull Maisie out of her head.
“But either way is going to be pricy?” she asks.
Sheepishly, he nods. “Yeah. Personally, I’d prefer if you went the junk it and buy a new camper route because while I can fix the rig, there’s no guarantee that I won’t find more damage when I get going on repairs — which will cost more. Plus I can only fix it so much. The value of the repairs isn’t going to translate to resale value with a salvaged title. I’m friends with a few of the dealerships around here, I could probably help you get a good deal on a decent used camper that’s newer.”
“Can you call around and get some estimates on what I’d get if I sold it?” she asks, straightening her shoulders and looking my brother in the eyes.
Atta girl.
Nothing seems to keep her down for long, and with every word exchanged as she and my brother discuss the options available to her, the resolve and strength that I saw in her from the beginning start to shine through again.
Duke steals Audra from Jedd, though he belly aches about it for a full ten minutes while we all wrap up eating.
“Hey, Mais,” Jem says from across the table. “There’s a small business women’s get together next week — we meet once a month in my café — and I was going to see if you wanted to come? Might be a good way for you to get some additional business.”
I don’t know her exact financial situation, but I get the feeling that funds are tight if she can’t pay for the repairs and only carries liability coverage on the vehicle. She could probably use the additional work.
“You should go.” The words pop out of me.
“Um. I — I don’t know,” she says, her gaze locked on her daughter. “I don’t — I can’t bring Audra to something like that.”
“Oh, you can absolutely bring her,” Jem says.
“I wouldn’t want her to be a distraction,” Maisie says.
“A few of the women who come already have kids at various ages, so I’m sure they’d understand,” Jem argues. “Plus, if they’re anything like these weirdos, she’ll be a welcome distraction.” Jem waves to my brothers who are all still quietly fighting over Audra.
Bunch of heathens, I swear.
“Or I could watch her for you.” The table goes silent. The elbow Finch was shooting toward Duke’s ribs falls harmlessly to his side. The chattering din of voices from other diners background noise as my families attention turns to me.
More than one of my brothers smirks in my direction, all of their gazes knowing.
Yep. It’s like that.
I’m never going to live this down.
“You want to watch her?” Maisie asks. “As in babysit? A six-month-old infant?”
“Sure. It’s only for a few hours, how hard could it be?”
Finch, who successfully stole Audra from Duke nods. “I’d be down to help babysit.” His nose is practically glued to her head, and I give him a look.
“What?” He shrugs. “She smells nice.”
“If those two yahoos get to babysit then I get to too,” Jedd says.
“I’m the only one out of all of you that’s spent time around other babies. If anyone gets to help babysit, it’s me,” Boone chimes in.
Boone’s friends back in Felt all have small children, out of all of us he’s probably had the most exposure to children, so he’s not wrong — and I could probably use his help.
Maisie’s watching me instead of listening to my brothers fight over who gets to care for her daughter. Her narrowed eyes are searching my face for something, but I’m not sure what.
“Are you sure?” she asks.
I nod. “Yeah. It’s only for a few hours. I can text or call if I need anything. And you’ll be right here in town.”
She chews on the corner of her lip while she thinks. “How long is the meeting, Jem?” she asks my sister.
“Uh. Usually about an hour and a half, but sometimes we run over.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s at six on Thursday. So you’d be back home by eight at the latest.”
Indecision flashes across her face.
Come on, Sunshine. Take a chance. You won’t regret it.
I want her to know that she can trust me, not only with her, but with her daughter. That I won’t let her down. But maybe she’s not there yet. I’m a patient man. However long it takes her to feel comfortable with me is how long it’s going to take, but I’m going to keep trying until she lets me in.
As if she heard my internal plea, she says, “Okay. If you’re sure you want to watch her?”
Elation at her trusting me with Audra, even if it’s only for an hour and a half soars through my blood. I nod, my throat too tight to answer her verbally.
“Yay,” Jem crows from her side of the table. “This is going to be so much fun. ”
“Asshole alert,” Rhett says under his breath to the table.
The bell on the door just finishes chiming as I turn in my seat and see Cormac standing by the breakfast bar.
Fuck.
His eyes land on our table and he starts back toward us, weaving through diners and tables.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the Calhoun family brunch.” He sneers.
My family’s expressions go stony, but Maisie just looks confused.
Instead of being dressed for a casual lunch at the local diner, Cormac’s wearing a suit, his pants pressed and ironed within an inch of their life. Gelled hair is slicked back from a receding hairline, and I level my own smirk at him.
“Cormac.” The word is a verbal gauntlet between us.
His gaze lands on Maisie, the only one from the table that he doesn’t recognize and my gut clenches with the need to get his attention off her.
“Don’t be rude, Calhoun, introduce me.”
Maisie cuts a questioning glance in my direction before turning back to Cormac.
If I was worried that the presence of a strange man at our table would upset her, the direct deadpan stare she levels him with proves me wrong.
“Maisie. And you are?”
“Cormac Lewis. Nice to meet you. You visiting?” He smiles at her, his eyes drifting down her body.
Did he just fucking check her out? With me right here?
“No,” Maisie says, her tone tight.
“No? I’m sure that I’ve never seen you around town, and trust me, I would have remembered you.” His slimy tongue swipes across his lower lip and my own lips curl in a snarl .
Anger blasts through me, and I clench my jaw to hold in the emotion. My brothers pick up on my irritation because Audra changes hands until Duke hands her back to me.
Maisie levels him with a sweet smile. “Oh. How flattering.” The saccharine sarcasm of her words makes my brother snicker behind us.
“And who’s this?” Cormac singsongs to the baby in my arms making the little bit of my lunch threaten to reappear at his attempt of a baby talk voice.
Maisie turns in her chair, blocking Cormac’s access to me and Audra. “My daughter.” She bites out, just short of a snarl causing my dick to twitch behind my uniform pants zipper.
Note to self. Mama bear Maisie is hotter than sin.
Cormac holds up his hands at the hostility in Maisie’s posture.
Yeah, fucker. This is one baby you won’t be kissing.
“Well. I’ll let you guys get back to it. Nice seeing you, Harlan.” He turns to leave before stopping. “Oh, and no hard feelings about the election, right?” His smug grin makes me want to wipe the expression off his face, but I don’t move. I’m not making a scene in the middle of this diner, with my family and Maisie present.
He’ll get his. Karma always wins.
Cormac threads his way back through the tables to the breakfast bar where he chats with the hostess before taking a to-go container and leaving the diner.
“What a fucking dick,” Jem says.
“Yeah,” Boone says, dropping a kiss to her forehead.
A few brushes of my hand down Audra’s back help me get my own anger under control. Cormac didn’t technically do anything wrong, but the smarmy way he sauntered over here for that little interaction leaves a lead weight in my gut. This reelection is going to get dirty. The truth of it sits heavy in my bones.
“Who was that?” Maisie asks the question at the table, but her gaze is on me.
“Cormac Lewis. He’s running for sheriff of Everette this term — we uh, don’t get along.” I keep my tone even.
“No, shit,” Duke says with a small chuckle.
“But you’re the sheriff,” Maisie says.
I scratch a hand through my beard. “Yeah. I am. For now.”
Maisie’s gaze goes keen. Like she’s trying to understand, and I know that she has more questions, but I don’t have answers for her right now. Not here. Not in front of my family. The doubt that I won’t win the election is something that I’m still trying to deal with, and I don’t have it in me to discuss it in a crowded diner where anyone can overhear us.
I continue to rub my hand down Audra’s back and drop a kiss to her head before handing her to Maisie. “I hate to cut this short, but I have to get back to the station. Are you good to find your way back out to the house or do you want to follow me?”
“Yeah —” she starts to say.
“We’ll follow her out and help her get unloaded, this way you can get back to the station,” Duke offers.
I pick up the bill and throw some cash down on top of it before standing.
“Wait. Hang on.” Maisie rifles in her purse for something.
When she pulls out her wallet, I say, “No. It’s okay. I got it.”
“I can pay for my own lunch, Harlan.” A bit of temper comes into her eyes and while I’m thrilled to see it, it’s misplaced .
“It’s a burger and fries. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried about it because I can pay for it myself.” She waves a hand at the check, “Someone hand me that.”
“Sunshine. Whoever loses the first at poker night pays for lunch the next time we all get together.”
That is absolutely not a rule of our poker nights, but a quick pointed glance around the table ensures that my family shuts their traps. My brothers are all looking at me with thinly veiled amusement, and I know they’re going to give me shit for this little scene the first chance they get.
What Maisie doesn’t understand is that we don’t keep track of who pays for what. There’s no invisible tally sheet keeping score. Paying for lunch is no big thing.
“Oh, but I wasn’t at poker night.” Her nose scrunches adorably.
“Well it’s the rule, so don’t worry about it, okay?”
The need to take care of her, of Audra, is clawing its way up my spine — has been since last night — and after the little scene with Cormac, I need some time to catch my breath and process the slew of emotions that this woman and her daughter bring out in me.
I stand, and brushing a hand over Audra’s soft hair, I say, “I’ve got to get back to the station. You can pick up the next tab, okay?” I have no intention of letting her pay for anything while she’s here — not while she’s in a tight spot — but I don’t say that.
She’s had the world perched on her shoulders long enough.