“Apparently.” He braced one arm on the roof of the car and leaned in close. “And a three-hour picnic just wasn’t the right time or place to share something so important?”
“My daughter is the most important thing in my life.”
“Then why keep her a secret? Is she the reason you wouldn’t go out with me again? Did you not want me to meet her?”
“Look, when I turned you down and said I was busy, that was the truth. Being a single mother means I am the only one Caitlin has to rely on, besides her grandmother,” Shelby shot back, her defensive instincts in full gear now.
He was going to hurt her. She knew it. If not now, then later, once he heard the full story of her past.
“You and I have talked a few times at the bar, shared a slow dance and went out once. That’s casual, and my daughter doesn’t get introduced to casual.”
A muscle jumped along Dean’s jaw as he stared down at her.
They stood there for a long moment before he finally gave a quick nod of his head, then pushed away from the car and walked away.
Chapter Seven
Shelby was a mom.
Correction, Shelby, at the age of twenty-two, was a young mom.
Dean still didn’t know what shocked him more: discovering the cute kid at the day-care center belonged to the girl he’d taken on a picnic, or that the same girl had never bothered to tell him she had a daughter.
The shock still hadn’t worn off twenty-four hours later.
Unable to do much other than replay the events of yesterday over and over again in his head, Dean had finally gotten sick of listening to his brother’s complaints over his inattentiveness and left the job site early. He had a meeting anyway with the owner of the local lumber mill to discuss the next project—a meeting that forced him to concentrate as they discussed costs and materials.
Now that his workday was done, he needed to eat and there wasn’t one iota of edible food in the trailer’s fridge. Dean pulled open one side of the double doors that led into Crawford’s General Store, a place that carried everything from hardware to toys to food, and stepped inside.
He hadn’t made a trip down to Kalispell over the weekend for food shopping, and his cupboards were getting pretty bare. Boxes of mac and cheese, cold cereal and a few cans of soup would hold him until the weekend.
Or he could just go to the Ace tonight and grab a burger.
But that meant probably running into Shelby.
Casual.
Yeah, hearing her label the time they’d spent together that way had smarted a bit. Who was he kidding? It burned like a fire in his gut the three beers in his fridge hadn’t been able to put out.
By the time the sun rose after a sleepless night, Dean figured he understood why someone like her—a single mother—would say what she said. Do what she did. Or what she didn’t when it came to telling him about her daughter.
When he thought back to the things they’d talked about—both at the bar and on their date—he had been sharing bits and pieces of his life. Not her.
Obviously, on purpose.
Did she think he would hold the fact that she had a child against her?
He hadn’t avoided dating single mothers in the past—hell, maybe he did, now that he stopped to add up the women he’d been with since those few months he’d been engaged seven years ago.
A list he could check off with one hand.
Ever since his brush with marriage and fatherhood years earlier, he hadn’t been eager to get seriously involved with anyone. He’d purposely kept the time he spent with the opposite sex...
Casual.
He shook his head and started for the frozen foods section in the rear of the store. He was almost out of Popsicles. As warm as the nights had been the past few weeks and the lackluster performance of the trailer’s window AC unit, he could easily eat a half dozen of the frozen treats in one sitting.
Especially last night after he’d run out of beers.
He stood there, debating between getting two or three boxes of the variety pack when a familiar voice called out.
“Dean! Hey, Dean!”
He turned, managing to lift the basket out of the way before the pocket-size blonde barreled into him. “Whoa! Slow down there, Miss Caitlin.”
She looked up at him and beamed. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m shopping.” He bent slightly at the waist, easily returning her infectious grin—something he’d learned yesterday was impossible to resist. “What are you doing here all by yourself?”
“I’m not by myself, silly.”
He knew that, of course. He took a moment before he followed the direction of her tiny pointed finger.
“My mama and nana are right there. See?”
Yes, he did see.
Rising to his full height again, he released Caitlin’s shoulder, his gaze now firmly locked with Shelby’s. He was surprised to find a mixture of uncertainty and concern in her large expressive eyes as she and the woman beside her walked up. He found himself longing for the humor and intelligence he’d seen before in those blue depths.
Or even the fire that crackled and snapped at him as she defended her actions yesterday.
“Ah, hi.” Real smooth, Romeo. “Hello.”
Shelby reached for her daughter, tugging her back to her side. “I’m sorry about that. She saw you from across the store and—”
“It’s okay.” He cut her off, hating to think she would have walked on by if not for her daughter.
“It’s okay, Mama.” Caitlin’s words overlapped his. “We’re friends. Right, Dean?”
“Of course we’re friends,” he answered the little girl, but kept his gaze locked on her mother.
Shelby looked away, but a slight smile came to her lips.
“What did I tell ya, Nana?” Caitlin folded her arms over her chest, seemingly very proud of herself for being right.
“Oh, boy, where are my manners? This is my mother—” Shelby gestured to the woman with her “—Vivian Jenkins.”
Noticing how both her daughter and granddaughter shared her pretty features, Dean offered his hand. “Dean Pritchett, ma’am. It’s nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too.” She returned his handshake. “Caitlin has been chatting nonstop about you and the new playground since she came home yesterday.”
So Shelby still lived with her mother. Made sense. He wondered if she had talked about him, as well. “Well, Caitlin was a lot of help to me.”
“That was a very nice thing you did for the kids,” she continued. “Not to mention volunteering your time to help us rebuild the town.”
“I’m glad to do it. Rust Creek Falls is a beautiful place. I’m enjoying being here.”
Shelby’s mother looked him over for a long moment and then reached for her granddaughter’s hand. “How about we go see if Miss Nina has gotten any new books for the children’s section? That was on our things-to-do list today, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was,” Shelby added. “We should let Dean get back to his shopping—”
“No, you stay and visit for moment.” Vivian’s gaze darted from her daughter to him and back again. “This is a grandma thing.”
“Let’s go, Nana!” Caitlin led her grandmother away without a backward glance at her mother or Dean. “I love new books!”
Dean could read the indecision on Shelby’s face as she watched her mother and daughter walk away. He wasn’t going to let this chance get away from him, but where to start?
“Who’s Nina?”
Shelby pulled in a deep breath, then faced him again. “Nina Crawford. Her family owns the store, but she’s the one who runs this place. She’s created a great area for kids with lots of old-fashioned toys, games and books, of course. Caitlin loves coming here.”
Dean took a step closer, angling his food basket out of the way. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you what a terrific kid you have there. She really did help a lot with putting together the playhou
se. When I ran out of things for her to do, she sat and read me stories while I worked.”
“I’m not surprised.” A warm glow came over Shelby’s features. “Caitlin has been reading since she was three. I guess she saw me with my nose buried in books all the time thanks to...”
“Thanks to...what?” Dean prodded gently.
“Studying for my college classes,” she finally said. “It took a lot of day and night classes scattered here and there, but I earned my degree this spring.”
Wow, the surprises kept coming. Not that a lot of twenty-two-year-olds weren’t college graduates, but to be a single mother, as well? “How old is Caitlin, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Shelby opened her mouth, but before she could speak, a sweet Southern voice floated from around the corner.
“She’s five, the same as my sweet Maggie. Isn’t that right, Shelby?”
Shelby stilled.
Her complexion blanched, her fingers tightening on her basket’s handles as a woman appeared, the height of her teased hair matching the high heels she tottered on. She had obviously been eavesdropping on their conversation.
“I graduated a few years ahead of Shelby,” the brunette continued as if she was speaking to no one in particular while inspecting the frozen selection behind the glass doors. She then picked out a carton of ice cream, turned to them and Dean would’ve sworn her smile was as icy as the dessert she held in her hand. “Of course, I waited until I was married before I had my daughter. Shelby was only seventeen when she had her baby, bless her heart.”
Angered by the woman’s insolence, Dean had to bite back the powerful need to call her back and demand she apologize after she gave a little wave and sauntered off.
Surprised at how protective he felt toward Shelby, he turned to her, the red slash of embarrassment on her face as she studied the contents of her basket tore at his heart.
“Wow, talk about a witch with a capital B—”
“Ah, I should go find my mother and Caitlin.” She cut him off as she abruptly backed up a few steps. “I’ll—I’ll see you later.”
“When?”
She stilled. “When what?”
Single mother or not, Shelby was all the same things he’d said to Rosey that day in the town hall. Smart, pretty, easy to talk to...especially when he was doing all the speaking. This time he wanted to keep her talking. Hell, he just wanted to spend time with her.
“When will I see you again? I’d really like to get to know you better.”
Another step back. “There isn’t much more to me.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve really got to go.”
She whirled and disappeared around the end of the aisle.
He wanted to go after her, wanted to see if she was okay, but he wasn’t sure if he should. Wasn’t sure if that was what she wanted.
Suddenly, he wasn’t sure of anything.
He turned his focus back to the freezer, trying to remember what he’d come here for in the first place. Popsicles. Yep, definitely a three-box night. He filled the basket and continued shopping, trying hard not to look for Shelby and her family among the crowd.
“Psst.”
Dean stopped and looked down, not surprised to see Caitlin peeking out from a circular display of summer T-shirts.
“Boy, you sure like Popsicles, huh?”
He glanced at his basket. “Yes. Why aren’t you with your mom or grandmother?”
“It’s okay as long as I don’t leave the store. Besides, my nana is close by.” Caitlin curled her finger, beckoning him closer. “Do you like ice cream as much as you like Pops?”
Having no idea where this was headed, Dean leaned in closer. “Who doesn’t?”
“Mama doesn’t have to work tonight, so I’m gonna ask her to take me to Cherry Hill after dinner.” Her words came out in a hushed whisper. “They have the best ice-cream sundaes. Do you know where that is?”
Dean didn’t have any idea where or what Cherry Hill was, but in a town this small, it shouldn’t be too hard to find out. “I’m sure I can find it, but only if you head straight back to your nana right now.”
Caitlin giggled, then disappeared back into the rack of clothing. He stood guard, waiting until she popped out the side and headed for Vivian Jenkins, who stood at the end of the next aisle.
Damn if Shelby’s mother didn’t just wink in his direction.
* * *
Bless her heart, indeed.
Shelby wanted to tell Wanda Jefferson just where she could stick her Southern idiom.
She was mortified by how easily that gossip-loving busybody had just jumped right into the middle of her conversation with Dean. Mortified that she’d just stood there, frozen, with no idea what to say.
Not that he hadn’t figured out she’d been a teenager when she’d gotten pregnant with Caitlin, but to have someone else blatantly toss out her personal information... So typical of this town. Everyone loved being the town crier of everyone else’s business.
Running away from Dean had been the cowardly thing to do, but she just couldn’t talk about her private life in such a public place. Not that Dean had tried to ask her anything or that she owed him any explanations, but he’d been so sweet to Caitlin, both yesterday at the day-care center and again in the store.
She wondered if he would be so sweet once he knew the whole story.
Which he probably did by now.
“We’re here! We’re here!”
Caitlin called out from the backseat as Shelby turned onto the dirt road that led up a small hill to a barn-shaped building with a giant wooden ice-cream cone perched on the roof.
Cherry Hill Farm was a working farm, the ice cream made fresh daily all summer long thanks to the cows that called the rolling hills home. Built back in the seventies to give the owners something to do with an overflow of dairy products, the ice-cream stand had been a popular hangout for years.
Which meant it was the last place she wanted to be right now, but Caitlin had caught her while she’d been distracted working on the computer after they got home this afternoon. And well, here they were.
She squeezed her car into one of the few empty spaces and cut the engine. Closing her eyes, Shelby blocked the sight of the crowds gathered around the nearby picnic tables.
“Wow, look at all the people.” Her daughter was already busy unbuckling her car seat. “This is going to be so fun!”
Fun was the last word Shelby would use, but she refused to let any of the town’s gossiping meddlers spoil her daughter’s evening. Sliding out from behind the wheel, she made it to the rear passenger door before Caitlin opened it herself. “You stick close by, okay?”
She nodded and hopped to the ground. “Oh, look. There’s Miss Sara and the kids! Can we go say hi?”
“How about we decide what kind of ice cream we want first?”
“But I want to see who’s here.”
Of course she did. Her daughter, the social butterfly. “After we get your treat, okay?”
Caitlin didn’t seem happy with that, but she nodded and they joined the long line waiting to order. Shelby listened as her daughter debated the merits of strawberry or chocolate ice cream and whether rainbow sprinkles tasted better than the plain chocolate ones, but she’d swear she could feel everyone staring at her. It probably wasn’t true, but after that run-in today at the store...
“Mama, the twins are waving at me,” Caitlin said, tugging on Shelby’s hand. “Can I please go over and see them?”
Sara Johnston, the day-care provider, and her daughters were indeed waving at them, so Shelby relented and let Caitlin skip over to join them. Sara and her sister were good people and they’d always been nice to Shelby and Caitlin.
She watched as Sara greeted Caitlin with a smile and then signaled she’d keep an eye on her as the children played on the grass nearby. There were still a couple of hours until sunset and the place had gotten busier just in the short time they’d
been there.
“Hey, there, Shelby.”
Turning, Shelby found Paige Dalton and Willa Christensen, or she guessed it was Willa Traub now, standing next to her. Both were teachers at Rust Creek Falls Elementary and Shelby had enjoyed working with them last month during the summer school program.
Back when she’d foolishly thought she had a chance at joining their ranks at the school in the fall.
“Hi, Paige.” Curbing the seething resentment she felt when she thought about the rejection letter she’d received from the school took some doing, but Shelby succeeded and forced a smile. “Hey, Willa. How’s married life treating you?”
Willa glanced over her shoulder and Shelby followed her gaze to where Collin Traub stood talking with a group of men. “It’s good. I like being Mrs. Traub,” she said, turning back with a big smile. “And it should be easier for my students to pronounce when classes start in the fall.”
Just what she needed, a reminder of her own failure, but she pushed that animosity aside. “Well, perhaps they’ll be calling you Mrs. Mayor instead if Collin wins the election in November.”
Willa blushed. “I think Collin would be a terrific mayor, but I think I’ll stick with being Mrs. Traub.”
Shelby noticed Paige had continued to stare at the group and she followed her gaze, seeing that Sutter Traub now stood next to his brother. She’d heard Paige and the horse trainer from Seattle shared quite the history before Sutter left Rust Creek Falls to move west. He’d returned for his brother’s wedding and it looked like he might be spending more time in town since he was his brother’s campaign manager.
Paige pulled in a deep breath and made a point of turning her back to the men before she spoke. “I’m glad we ran into you tonight, Shelby. I tried to speak with you the other night at the bar. I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about the job at the school.”
Shelby wanted to believe the sincerity in the woman’s tone, despite the fact that she must have heard the news through the local gossip chain. Then again, wasn’t she just thinking about the gossip surrounding Paige and Sutter? “Yes, well...I guess they didn’t think I’d be a good fit.”
The Maverick's Summer Love (Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys) Page 9