5. Delilah #3
“Your aunt is an interesting woman.” Delilah smiled again and something inside me simmered.
I let out a laugh. “That’s an understatement. I’m sorry if she got out of hand. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“Ms. Stone.” Lacey met us on the sidewalk, baby P squirming in her arms. “I’m so sorry about your trailer. I think we’ve got it sorted now. There shouldn’t be any additional problems with your power.”
“Thank you. Now who’s this?” Delilah asked.
“This is baby P.” Lacey juggled her son from one arm to the other. “It’s time for dinner and he’s not especially happy right now.”
“Baby P?” Delilah cocked her head.
“We haven’t agreed on a name quite yet,” Lacey said. “But we’re working on it.”
I bit back a grin. The kid would probably be walking before Lacey and her husband, Deputy Sheriff Bodie Phillips, came clean on a name.
Rumor had it Bodie had flubbed the birth certificate and Lacey refused to tell anyone the kid’s given name.
Ten months old and the poor kid was still going by baby P.
“Jasper, can you take him for a minute? I want to walk Delilah around the square and ask a few questions.”
I glanced to baby P and back to Lacey. She held her son out to me, and I didn’t have a choice but to take the wriggling baby in my arms. “What kind of questions? Should I come along?”
“Girl talk.” Lacey scrunched her nose as she took Delilah’s arm. “Just give us a few minutes, okay?”
I held baby P close to my chest as the women walked down the sidewalk. The baby’s brow furrowed as he watched his mom and food source move farther away.
“Hey, little guy, she’ll be back in a minute.
” I bounced the kid in my arms, the same way I’d held my younger brothers and sister.
It had been a while since one of my siblings was this little, but holding a baby was one of those life skills that automatically came back.
I still remembered helping my mom with the younger kids.
Baby P reached up and grabbed ahold of my ear.
I grinned and blew a raspberry on the baby’s neck, earning me a high-pitched series of giggles.
Someday I’d have this for myself. A wife, a gaggle of kids.
But not until I secured my future. I’d been through enough rough times with my folks to know that I wanted to be sure of my place in the world before I brought a kid into it or took on the responsibility of a wife.
I turned, swinging baby P around in my arms, and caught Bodie coming up the sidewalk.
“I thought I heard something familiar.” Bodie held his arms out and baby P struggled to launch himself toward his dad. “Lacey around?”
I relinquished the baby to Bodie. “She and Delilah are taking a stroll around the square for some girl talk.”
“Girl talk, huh?” Bodie held his son against his deputy uniform. “Everything ready for tonight?”
“Seems to be. I’m surprised we were able to pull it together so fast.”
“When my wife is on a mission, if you’re standing in her way, it’s best to move out of it.”
“No kidding.” I had nothing but huge respect for the mayor.
She’d single-handedly revamped the town, and I’d admired her efforts from afar.
Now, being central to her continued plans to elevate our wedding operation, I had a different vantage point.
Lacey would do whatever it took and expected nothing less of those who’d pledged to help her.
“Good luck tonight. Let me know if you see anything strange going on, will you?” Bodie asked.
I nodded. “Strange like how?”
Bodie shook his head. “I heard Swynton was supposed to be up for this award but got disqualified. They don’t usually take kindly to a perceived slight.”
My gut clenched. “You think the whole town of Swynton’s going to turn up and try to steal the show?” That’s all I needed.
“No, nothing like that. Buck might have operated that way, but Mayor Monroe is a lot more subtle.”
I remembered the controversy between the ex-mayor of Swynton and Bodie’s family. Since Troy Monroe had been elected mayor of their neighboring town, the rivalry had simmered down a bit. “Is Adeline still battling Mayor Cherish for brides?”
“Yeah. She slowed down for a while but now that her daddy’s taken over as mayor, she’s back at it.
I told Lacey she needed to sit down and have it out with Adeline, but with the baby and now this”—Bodie rolled his eyes—“there hasn’t been much time.
You ought to know better than anyone what Adeline is capable of. ”
I hated to admit it, but unfortunately, I did know Adeline better than most.
“Just let me know if you see anything odd. We need this win. All of us.” Bodie tickled baby P under the chin and earned a series of giggles.
We did need this win. Whether I liked it or not, I’d hooked my family’s future to the fate of the town.
But I knew something the rest of them didn’t . . . not Bodie, not Mayor Cherish, not meddling Adeline Monroe-Hawk . . . this wasn’t the first time I’d had to put it all on the line to save my family. And if I had any say in it, the Taylor family wouldn’t go down without a fight.