Chapter 36
Elaine could sit on a couch or in a recliner or on a bed and hold a newborn baby twenty-four hours a day. There was something so serene and special about them, and she’d always thought babies brought a little bit of heaven with them when they came to earth.
The precious baby boy in her arms, Zuke Todd Reynolds, Tate and Clara Jean’s son, made a gurgling noise, and Elaine started humming as she patted him, her hand covering his entire back.
She couldn’t believe she was once this tiny—and even smaller, because she’d come with two of her brothers at the same time.
She’d only weighed four pounds and two ounces at birth, and her momma and daddy hadn’t been able to bring home any of the triplets for three weeks.
Zuke was only eight days old, and Elaine had come that day so Clara Jean could take a nap and have a clean house when Tate got home from the grocery store.
His mother had come from Lubbock when Clara Jean had had the baby, but she’d left on Sunday.
Clara Jean and Tate had taken over full-time parenthood duties in the last two days. Of course, they weren’t really alone, as Clara Jean’s mother lived here, and all of her aunts and uncles too.
And the vast majority of us cousins, Elaine thought, once again giving baby Zuke a quick pat-pat-pat to soothe him back to sleep. He settled into slumber in her arms, and she looked up to the TV, which she’d turned on and then muted.
She’d never wanted to live in a bubble until very recently. Now, she moved between them, never branching out beyond the safety of her house or the office building where she ran her women’s center.
She hadn’t been out to eat since the encounter with Brandt, and she ordered all of her groceries from Wilde & Organic, where she parked in the marked stall and let the grocery boys fill the back of her car with her milk, eggs, and bread.
She still filled her own car with gas, but she used to stand next to the car and watch the numbers tick up or check emails, but now she quickly got back in the car and locked it, watching everyone around her as if she might become their next victim.
She hated living like this, but she didn’t know what else to do.
She still hadn’t told anyone about that night.
Colt, as sweet as he was, texted her almost daily now, and he’d stopped by a couple of times a week, every week, always bringing something from the farm store or a bushel of apples, her favorite soda, one of Three Rivers’s famous cinnamon rolls, or a new tube of toothpaste when she casually mentioned she’d forgotten to get some that day at the store.
He never stayed long, and he always asked her how she was doing—really doing. Elaine felt like he was one of the only people she could talk to right now, which confused her. She’d always been close to Conrad and her mother, but now she felt distant from them.
Everyone else, in fact, existed at a surface level, because they didn’t know about Brandt. Her cousins, siblings, parents, and everyone knew she’d broken up with him, but she’d provided no other details as to why or how.
A knock sounded on Clara Jean’s door, and Elaine pulled herself out of her thoughts, irritated that she’d once again given more time and energy to Brandt when the man deserved none.
She really wished she could move past this quicker, so she could feel like herself again, and she could stop giving him more of herself.
He hadn’t deserved her when they’d been dating, and he certainly didn’t now.
“Just a minute,” she called. She scooted to the edge of the couch and pushed herself up with baby Zuke in her arms. He grunted and grumbled again, and Elaine carefully placed him in a bouncy seat, supporting his head every inch of the way.
Then she hurried to the front door so whoever it was wouldn’t knock again.
Tate and Clara Jean were well known around town, and they had good neighbors, family members, and friends from the grocery store who’d been bringing them food, treats, and baby gifts if they hadn’t been able to make it to the shower a couple of weeks ago.
Elaine opened the door and found Colt Franklin standing there. A rush of heat hit her, and she told herself it was from the October afternoon and not the ruggedly-hot-handsomeness of Colt himself.
She smiled at him and noted the two large brown paper bags of food in his hands. “I totally forgot that you were bringing dinner.”
“I expected you to be holding that baby.” He smiled back at her.
“I just put him down.” She stepped back to make room for Colt to enter. “Come in. You can just put everything on the counter. Clara Jean’s asleep.” She pressed herself against the wall so he could go by her and into the kitchen.
He lifted everything onto the counter and came back toward her. “It’s everything you put in the order,” he said. “Though one of the salads doesn’t have the pumpkin seeds.”
“I’m sure it’s fine, Colt.” Elaine smiled at him. “Do you want something to drink? They’ve got sweet tea and lemonade. I can make us Arnold Palmer’s, and we can sit on the front porch.”
She glanced over to where Zuke slept. “I can bring him outside with us.” She didn’t want him to wake and then disturb Clara Jean’s rest.
“Sure,” Colt said. “I’ve got a few minutes.”
Elaine nodded and hurried into the kitchen to make their drinks.
She handed them to him in mason jars, with the instruction to take them out to the porch and she’d be right there.
He did that, and Elaine strapped baby Zuke into the bouncy seat, then picked the whole thing up and took it outside with her.
Colt had already settled at the table just to the left of the front door and in front of the big picture window that looked into the living room. Elaine slid little Zuke into the shade under the table and reached for the mason jar Colt extended toward her.
“Here you go, honey,” he said, and a zing of attraction moved through Elaine that she didn’t understand. She’d known Colt for years, and he was one of Conrad’s very best friends.
You’re just letting what Glory Rose said infect your mind, she told herself as she took the Arnold Palmer and then the second seat at the table.
He took a drink and sighed. “That is good,” he said. “That lemonade is extra sour.”
“That’s how Tate likes it.” Elaine smiled over to him and took a sip of her drink. Her taste buds puckered up, and she said, “Whoo-hoo. That is a little more sour than I’m used to.”
“It’s delicious,” Colt said. “But I love sour things.”
Elaine smiled at him and looked out at the front yard. JJ had been by to mow it yesterday, and everything sat clipped and neat in the Texas heat. Not even a breeze blew, and Elaine hadn’t heard a silence like this in a long time.
She set down her jar on the glass tabletop with a couple of clinks. “I heard you broke up with your girlfriend,” she said.
“Yeah.” Colt nodded a couple of times. “Yep, I did.”
Elaine wanted to ask him why, but she wasn’t sure they were good enough friends to get the real story, or if she even deserved the story at all. “Conrad said you really liked her,” she said anyway.
Colt looked over to her, his cream-colored cowboy hat acting as a reflector and pushing sunlight into his eyes. They glinted with brown and green, all mixed together into a pretty hazel, and he sure didn’t look happy. “I did like her,” he said.
“Then why’d you break up with her?” Elaine asked.
“It felt like we were on two different paths,” Colt said, his voice a touch cooler than before. “And I didn’t exactly tell her about Jonas before her sister did, so I already had one strike against me.”
“How could she not know about Jonas?” Elaine asked.
“She was new to town,” Colt said. “And, you know, people don’t know things unless other people tell them.” He raised one eyebrow and then looked out into the yard. “Have you told anyone yet?”
“No,” Elaine said, practically biting out the word.
He sighed in a way that told her he was highly disappointed in her. “Why not?”
“Why do you care?”
“Because, Elaine,” he said. “Your secret is my secret too, and I’m best friends with your brother.” The weight of his gaze on the side of her face only caused another slip of irritation to fly through her.
“And I really think it would do you a lot of good if you could talk about what happened.”
“I don’t need to talk about what happened,” Elaine said. “Because nothing happened.” She hugged herself and ran one hand up to her shoulder and back down.
“And yet you won’t go out at night,” Colt said.
“You haven’t been out to eat once, and don’t think you’re fooling me by saying you went grocery shopping and forgot to get toothpaste.
” He took a quick breath. “You didn’t. You haven’t set foot inside a store, or a restaurant, or anywhere since it happened.
” He looked at her fully again, and, oh, Elaine did like the way he challenged her.
Not many men did that, and she really wanted someone who she could talk to and who would talk back.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” he said. “Tell me you’ve walked down the street from your office and picked up a salad from that bistro you like. Or maybe you went the other way through the alley? You know how you used to go over to the coffee shop and get that caramel hot chocolate? You’ve done that, right?”
“Okay,” she said. “You don’t need to be so sarcastic.”
“Sorry,” he said, his bluster falling immediately. “I just—I really think it would be healthier if you talked to someone.”
“I talk to you,” she said.
He shook his head. “No, we don’t talk about what happened.”
“We don’t need to,” Elaine said. “We were both there.”
“I was only there for the end,” Colt said, and he blew out his breath. “Your momma could help you with this.”
Elaine nodded, her teeth pressed together tightly. Everything had turned tense the moment Colt had brought up that night with Brandt.
“It’s not your fault, you know.” He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “Is that why you won’t tell anyone?”