Chapter Eleven
Riley called Josh’s mom that day. It was a good conversation—friendly and casual with no talk of wedding bells. Abby Bravo mentioned the baby right away and asked how Riley was feeling. Riley said she was doing well and promised to send Abby the most recent ultrasound images.
“Josh called an hour ago,” Abby said. “We’re looking forward to seeing you Monday at the Rising Sun.” Riley promised that she and Dillon would be there. “Wonderful,” Abby replied. “Josh also mentioned that you would invite Annette, who just might bring a date…”
“Yes. I’ll get in touch with her right away.”
“Good. We’ll see you Monday, then.”
They said goodbye and Riley called her mother-in-law.
“I’m in,” said Annette when Riley explained about the cookout at the Rising Sun. “I’ll call Miles right now and then let you know.”
Five minutes later, Annette called back. “Miles will be coming,” she said. Bright Beginnings was closed for the holiday. Annette would be looking after Dillon at her house.
“Great,” Riley replied. “I’ll swing by your place when I leave the hotel. You can ride with me and Dillon or follow us, whatever works.”
“We’ll follow—what should I bring?”
“Good question. Let’s confer…”
They talked for more than an hour, deliberating on everything from Annette’s developing relationship with Miles to how Riley sure spent a lot of time with Josh even though she vowed that they were not in love and would never be getting married.
Annette said she was betting on a wedding one of these days soon. “You are very fond of that young man. We both know it. Darling, I think you might be in denial about your true feelings for him.”
But Riley remained adamant. “You know where I stand on this subject, Annette. My position is not going to change.”
“I know, I know.”
“Then why do you keep bringing it up?”
“Because I love you, and I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy. Very happy. Can we please change the subject now?”
“Of course, sweetheart. Let’s move along.”
They discussed how to deal with a few issues at work. And before they said goodbye, it was decided that Annette would bring her famous herbed red potato salad, and Riley would whip up her mom’s classic recipe for blueberry cream cheese pie.
Around five, Riley texted Josh to let him know that Annette and Miles would be there for the cookout on Monday.
He called her. When she answered, he said, “That’s great.”
They started talking about the weekend, about the boys, about Josh’s birthday party and how much fun it had been.
They were still on the phone when Dillon came bouncing down the stairs waving a plastic airplane and making vrooming sounds. “Hey, Mom. What’s for dinner?”
“Spaghetti,” she replied.
“I love spaghetti! Whoosh! Zoom! When?”
“Dinner? Half an hour.”
“Good. ’Cause I’m getting so hungry.” He turned and headed back up the stairs, whooshing and zooming all the way.
On the phone, Josh said in a wistful tone, “I love spaghetti, too.”
She realized that Shane was probably with Lenore by now. “Are you on your own?”
“Just me and Roger.” Now he sounded downright mournful.
“You poor man,” she teased.
“Hey. Don’t worry about me. I’m dealing with it.”
It didn’t seem right not to invite him after she’d spent Friday night and much of Saturday taking advantage of his hospitality—and his hot body, as well. “All right, then. You can knock off the long-suffering act and come on over.”
“Yeah?” She could hear the smile in his voice.
And she couldn’t help smiling, too. “Yeah. And bring Roger.”
“You sure?”
“Of course. You can’t leave Roger there all alone.”
“Well, I can. He’s good on his own. But I’d rather not.”
“So don’t.”
“All right, then. We’re on our way.”
* * *
Josh and Roger arrived twenty minutes later. Roger flopped right down on the kitchen floor, and Josh helped Dillon set the table.
After dinner, they watched The Lego Movie, the three of them sharing the couch with Roger snoozing nearby.
When bedtime came, Dillon asked Josh to read him a story. They climbed the stairs together. When Josh came back down, Riley went up to say good-night.
After she’d tucked Dillon in and turned off the light, she found Josh on the sofa, checking out the streaming options.
“Anything you want to see?” he asked.
She sat beside him. “I think I’ve had enough screen time for one night.”
He put down the remote and wrapped an arm around her. “Are you getting ready to kick me out?”
“I probably should…” She met his eyes. That did it. Who cared what she should do?
Tipping up her chin with a finger, he kissed her, the lightest breath of a kiss. And then he pulled back enough to meet her eyes again. “Well?”
Rising, she held down a hand. He took it. They went up the stairs together, Roger trotting behind them.
A couple of hours later, she woke to find Josh looking down at her. He kissed her shoulder. “Go back to sleep,” he whispered, as he slid from the bed.
She really wanted to ask him to stay. But then in the morning, they would be putting on the usual show for Dillon, pretending that Josh had just happened to fall asleep on the sofa or that they’d stayed up so late, he’d crashed on the rollaway in her home office.
Somehow, the deception didn’t seem so bad when they only did it now and then.
But lately, it was getting to be nothing short of a habit.
She found herself thinking, why bother with the pretense?
She was pregnant with his baby, for crying out loud.
Everyone knew they were close, she and Josh.
Neither of them was married or otherwise committed.
Who cared what they did when they were alone?
She cared.
And that was the real issue. Somehow, as long as she kept telling herself that they were having a secret short-term affair, she didn’t have to think too hard about why she was still sneaking off to be alone with him every chance she got.
Plus, there was Dillon to consider. If she and Josh took their affair public, she would need to somehow explain the situation to her five-year-old son. She just wasn’t ready to cross that particular bridge.
“Hey.” Josh smoothed her tangled hair back from her face.
“Hmm?”
He stroked two fingertips between her eyebrows. “Stop scrunching your forehead. Frowning will give you wrinkles.”
“Yeah, well. Wrinkles are the least of my worries right now.”
“Tell me all your problems.” He kissed the tip of her nose.
“Impossible. There so, so many…”
“You want me to stay?”
She did. And she didn’t.
“You are taking way too long to answer,” he said. “I’m out of here.” He slid from the bed, and she pressed her lips together to stop herself from begging him to stay.
Instead, she got up, too, put on her robe and followed him downstairs with Roger herding them both from behind. At the door, she kissed him goodbye and then stood barefoot on the front porch to watch him drive away.
Sunday, she and Dillon went grocery shopping and then spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. She cleaned the house and made the pie for tomorrow and tried not to think too much about Josh and their secret affair that had gone on too long to be called a fling anymore.
Monday morning started out in the high forties. There wasn’t a cloud in the wide Wyoming sky. By afternoon, the temperature might reach the midsixties.
Riley dropped off Dillon and her blueberry cream cheese pie with Annette and worked until four when she ducked into her office and changed into comfy jeans, a pretty, loose-fitting shirt and her favorite tooled boots.
At Annette’s, a shiny green F-150 sat waiting at the curb.
They caravanned out to the Rising Sun, Riley and Dillon leading the way, Annette and Miles following in the pickup.
When they arrived, the party was already in full swing. It seemed to Riley that every Bravo for miles around had shown up to spend the day on the large, open grassy space dotted with cottonwood trees in the center of a circle of houses that belonged to various members of Zach Bravo’s family.
Zach had three barbecue smokers going and the same number of grills. Riley spotted four long farm tables laden with casseroles, salads, finger foods and a bunch of way too enticing desserts. She set her pie down with all the other goodies and turned around to find Macy standing behind her.
They hugged, and Macy laughed. She backed off enough to gently pat Riley’s belly. “Looking good, girlfriend.”
Riley leaned close. “This is only twenty weeks you’re looking at here. I swear I wasn’t half this size with Dillon.”
“Hey. Second baby. It was the same for me with Justin. You saw how big I got with him.”
“Did you have to remind me?”
“I couldn’t resist—come sit with us.”
Riley glanced around for Annette and spotted her with Miles. The two of them had wandered over to chat with Nate Bravo, Joe’s dad, who was busy tending one of the smokers. Riley managed to catch Annette’s eye. Then she gestured at Macy.
Annette waved and nodded. Laughing, she called out, “We’re fine! Go!”
Riley and Dillon followed Macy to a circle of chairs in the shade of a thick cottonwood tree.
“Sit,” her friend commanded. “You want something to drink?”
“Ginger ale or maybe sparkling water?”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Macy set off across the grass.
Riley took a chair next to Joe, who had two little ones on his lap.
On one arm, he held his and Macy’s nine-month-old son, Justin, who was babbling away in his own private language and drooling on a teething ring.
On the other arm, Joe had two-year-old Camryn, his surprise daughter.
Camryn’s mom, Tia Fortier, ran the office at Bravo Construction for Josh.
Joe and Tia had spent one night together back before Joe and Macy decided to take their longtime friendship to the next level.
Macy had been a single mom then, raising her daughter, Ana, alone.
Interestingly enough, Tia adored Macy. Nowadays, Camryn went back and forth between Tia and Joe’s family.
It all seemed to be working out pretty well.