Ordinarily, it took about an hour to drive out to Number Five, which was not the name of a particular well, but the name of an entire oil field. Halfway there, the line of brake lights on the highway warned him it wasn’t going to be so quick that day.
He sighed, joining the string of stopped vehicles. He’d wait for a while, but if it took too long, he’d have to turn around and head back to Braden.
He wasn’t going to miss the appointment in Weaver no matter what. Not the least because Maddie had agreed to accompany him, though that had been pretty damn surprising.
Almost as surprising as his invitation had been in the first place.
He still didn’t know what had gotten into him.
After about ten minutes, the traffic hadn’t progressed so much as an inch.
He picked up the flyer from his windshield. There was an advertisement for Christmas Eve church services on one side and a schedule of local holiday events on the other.
The only thing he knew about any of them was that Swift was sponsoring Glitter and Glow that weekend, the same way it had always done. The annual parade had been going on since he’d been a kid. No matter how bad things were between Linc’s parents, Ernestine had always made certain that Linc and Jax went to the parade.
He’d have to make sure Layla got to see it, too.
The traffic finally started moving. Linc crumpled the flyer into a ball and tossed it aside.
* * *
Maddie paced the length of the living room. It was nearly two o’clock. Linc could be there at any moment.
“Why did I say I’d go?”
She looked over at Layla, who was squirming around on the activity floor mat that Linc had bought. Layla, however, provided no answer. She was more interested in the crinkling, squeaking and vibrating zoo animals that hung from the padded frame arching above the mat from each corner.
Maddie exhaled. She tugged down the sleeves of her sweater. She needed to relax. Get a grip on herself before Linc got there.
She reached the fireplace where the banked fire was doing a good job of keeping the living room toasty, turned and paced back to the staircase. “It’s just a trip to the hospital. No big deal.” She shoved her sleeves up and made her way toward the fireplace once more.
The oversize flower-patterned purse that she was using as a diaper bag was on the coffee table. She stopped in front of it, checking the provisions she’d packed inside for about the tenth time. It was so full that there was no hope whatsoever of getting the zipper on it closed.
Twelve diapers was probably a little excessive. They wouldn’t be gone all day. Just a few hours at the most.
She pulled out half of them and left them on the coffee table, and paced back toward the fireplace. “If we hadn’t gone to his office this morning, we wouldn’t be in this fix,” she told Layla. “I’d have called him about the hearing, and he probably would have mentioned the DNA test.” Layla’s eyes followed Maddie as she passed her again. “But even if he’d asked us to go, I’d have been able to say no. On the phone. Easy-peasy.” She stopped in front of the improvised diaper bag. Shoved three of the ones she’d just taken out back inside. “Maybe another bottle of formula,” she said. “Just in case there’s a delay.”
Layla managed to bat the vibrating monkey with her waving hands and then let out a toothless smile and a laugh.
“Right.” Maddie exhaled again and went into the kitchen. She’d unpacked the case of ready-to-use formula and stacked the bottles in one of the doorless wall cabinets. She pulled one down, then muttered an oath when it caused an avalanche of the others. She tried catching them before they all rolled right out of the cabinet, but managed to save only a few. “Swift, Maddie.” She crouched down to corral the escapees. One had rolled all the way to the refrigerator and she crawled after it.
“Still not locking your door, I see.”
She jerked back, knocking her head against the frame of a base cabinet. “Must you keep sneaking up on me?” She rubbed the back of her stinging head and glared at Linc. And immediately wished that he didn’t look so darned good when she was always feeling so darned...not.
“Lock your doors like you should.” He extended his hand.
He meant to help her up. She knew that. Instead of taking his hand, she plunked the bottle of formula into his palm and pushed to her feet all by herself. She still had a rashy patch on her right forearm and she yanked her sleeves back down where they belonged. “Stop going through doors whether they’re locked or not.”
His lips twitched. It was the closest thing to an actual smile that she’d seen on his face in more than a decade.
And darned if her heart didn’t go all aflutter.
Far more annoyed with herself than him, she plucked the formula out of his hand and went back into the living room where she tucked the bottle into the already-stuffed purse, alongside the one she’d already prepped with the nipple and cap. “We’re ready to go. I just need to buckle her into her carrier.”
“No need.”
Something inside her nosedived. “Oh.” She didn’t look at him as she went to the fireplace and picked up the poker. “You didn’t need to come by. You could have just called.” She moved the screen a few inches so she could jab the burning wood. A flurry of sparks exploded, dancing up the flue.
“To notify you that I had a car seat installed in the truck?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. She’d thought he was canceling. “What?”
He crossed to her and took the poker out of her hand. “I feel better around you when you’re not armed.” He hung it back on the hook and replaced the fireplace screen. “You need a permanent screen.”
“Um.” She curled her fingers against her palm and tried not to sound as bemused as she was. “Why?”
He lifted the three-panel screen. “Hardly baby-proof. I’ll make sure you get one.” He set the screen back in place.
“That’s not—” She broke off at the look he gave her. She’d been about to say necessary. But what was the point? He was going to do what he wanted to do no matter what she said. And she didn’t have the heart to remind him again how small the chances were of Layla staying for any length of time with either one of them. “We should get moving,” she said instead. She pulled on her coat. “I’ve heard the highway’s been a mess today with the ice.” She picked up the baby and the bulging purse.
“It has. Almost didn’t make it out to Number Five at all.” He took the purse from her, his gaze lingering on the contents. “You packing for the night?”
“No. So don’t go getting any ideas that I’ve changed my mind about staying with you.” She felt more flushed than ever. “I mean staying at your house.”
He looked amused as he pulled open the door for her, gesturing for her to precede him. “Take notes. I’m turning the lock, such as it is.” He flipped the knob lock with exaggerated care. “I assume you do have a key?”
“I have a key.”
He pulled the door closed, then took her elbow. “Watch the steps.”
She had been going up and down the front steps of the house ever since she and her sisters purchased it. Two years of step navigating. Summers and winters and everything in between. But she didn’t pull her elbow away.
When they reached his truck, he opened the back door, displaying the expensive-looking car seat. She couldn’t even imagine where he got such a fancy one around Braden at all, much less on such short notice. She fit Layla into the seat and fastened the harness. Then she handed her the giraffe and stepped back down to the ground.
“You’re not sitting back there with her this time?”
Great. “I, uh, I tend to get carsick in the back seat on long rides.” She’d never been carsick in her entire life.
He shut the door for her without responding and crossed around the fr
ont to get behind the wheel.
She’d already buckled herself in and tucked her oddly nervous hands between her knees. “I’ve never known why the Number Five field has that name,” she said once he pulled away from the house. “I mean, there aren’t fields named Numbers One through Four.”
He gave her a sideways look. “You’ve never been out to the oil field?”
She shook her head. “Should I have?”
“Schools send students out there on field trips at least once a year these days.”
Despite herself, she chuckled. “I haven’t been a schoolkid for quite some time now.”
“I noticed.”
A quiver slid down her spine. She blamed it on the truck tires rumbling over a rough spot in the road. “So why is it named Number Five?”
“That’s how many times my grandfather proposed to my grandmother before she accepted.”
“You’re joking.”
He shrugged. “Look it up.”
“I will. So you better not be pulling my leg.”
His lips twitched. “What’re you going to do if I am? Report me to the police?”
“Now I know you’re joking.”
“Suit yourself. But if you’d ever been out there, you’d see there’s a plaque about it and everything.”
“No man in his right mind would propose five times. He’d give up!”
Linc’s hazel gaze slid over her. “Maybe Gus considered Ernestine worth the effort.”
For some stupid reason, she felt that quiver again and now she had no rough road to blame it on.
She gave him a cross look. “Keep your eyes on the road. The last thing we need is to get in an accident.”
He smiled outright.
Maddie swallowed hard and looked out the window. It’s just a trip to the hospital. No big deal.
Yeah. Right.
Chapter Eight
“All right.” Justin Clay slid the last cheek swab into a vial, capped it and affixed a label preprinted with Linc’s information over it. “My lab’s pretty backed up right now, but we should have the results in a week.” He glanced at Tom Hook. “You’ll want a copy, I assume?”
The older man nodded. “I’d appreciate it.” Since his part was done, he shook Linc’s hand and left.
Justin looked at Linc. “You realize we’re going to need something to compare your results against, right? Otherwise, it’s simply an interesting genetic study.”
Maddie held her breath. She hadn’t specifically addressed the issue with Linc, but when he glanced at her, she knew it didn’t matter.
“I know,” he said. “I want it ready, though, when we can compare it against Layla’s. I don’t want any time wasted. At least on the things I can control.”
“Good enough. DNA typing is all a puzzle of percentages. So it would help if we had more profiles than just you and Layla to compare—Jax, her mother, other possible fathers—but I guess if they were available, you wouldn’t be here like this.” Justin spun around on his metal stool and placed the vials on a tray on the metal table behind him. Then he turned to face Linc again as he pulled off his sterile gloves. “I’ve been meaning to call your office,” he said. “Set up a meeting to talk about some equipment we’re hoping to upgrade.”
Justin not only ran the hospital lab, he was also Maddie’s cousin, a fact that had only been discovered after her grandmother had moved to Wyoming. “I thought you just finished expanding the lab,” she said. Thanks in no small part to Vivian’s significant financial contribution.
“We did.” He gestured with one arm and grinned. “Now we want to fill it with some more cool stuff. I know Swift Oil has been a big supporter of the hospital in the past.”
“I’m sure we can work something out,” Linc assured him. “Thanks for helping me with the test. I didn’t expect personal attention from the lab director himself.”
“Glad to help.” Justin wiggled Layla’s foot. “Seems like yesterday when Gracie was this little. Now, she’s already a year old and running circles around Tabby and me.”
“They do grow fast,” Maddie agreed. “Are you two going to Vivian’s Christmas party?”
Justin smiled ruefully. “Don’t think there is any way of getting out of it since my wife already has her dress. Although, if Gloria has her way and actually manages to get Squire to go, there are sure to be some entertaining fireworks.”
Maddie laughed. Squire was Justin’s grandfather. To say there was no love lost between him and Vivian was an understatement. The two seniors had even run against each other earlier that year for a seat on the Weaver Town Council.
Vivian had lost, but not by much. And considering she was a relative newcomer to the area—whereas Squire Clay had been ranching there since the dawn of time—that was a feat in itself.
“I really can’t see your grandfather crossing my grandmother’s doorstep no matter how persuasive Squire’s wife can be,” she said. “But that would probably be entertaining.”
Justin glanced at the clock on the wall then back at Linc. “I don’t mean to swab and run, but I’ve got another appointment. I’ll have one of my techs show you the way out.” The lab didn’t have a complicated layout, but it was secured behind locked doors.
“Thanks.” Linc shook his hand, and then Justin hurried off, his white coat flapping around his long legs. A moment later, one of Justin’s staff escorted them out of the area.
Maddie chewed the inside of her cheek as the security door swung closed with a soft click, leaving them in an antiseptically austere tiled hallway. Their footsteps echoed as they headed down it toward the elevator. “I know what you’re thinking.” She had to hurry a little to keep up with Linc’s long-legged stride.
“That your grandmother’s Christmas party sounds like the hot ticket in town?”
“No. Well,” she allowed quickly, “I suppose it sounds like it.”
“At least your family does something together, even if it is full of fireworks.” Along with his jacket and Maddie’s coat, he was also still carrying the overstuffed flowered purse. It ought to have looked silly hanging off his broad shoulder.
Instead, Maddie was well aware of the number of appreciative female glances he’d garnered when they’d entered the hospital. She could only imagine how much more appreciative they’d have been had he also been carrying the baby.
There was just something about a man tending a baby.
About him tending a baby.
She swallowed down the disturbing notion. “I meant about Layla also needing a DNA test.”
They’d reached the elevator and Linc’s shoulder brushed against hers when he reached out to press the call button. The doors immediately slid open. “I can manage to figure out a few things on my own.” His voice was dry.
“Then you understand why I couldn’t just have Layla’s test done today, too?”
He put one hand on the doors to make sure they stayed open. “Yes. You going to get on the elevator? Or do you want to just stand here in the hall for a while?”
She carried Layla onto the empty elevator, moving to the rear corner. When he took the opposite corner, she wondered if it was simply habit, or if he too felt the need to keep some space between them. “I wasn’t trying to keep you in the dark about it.”
“I know.”
“It’s a matter of privacy,” she added doggedly, because she wanted him to be really clear on the matter. “Even though she’s an infant, Layla has rights we have to protect—”
“I get it, Maddie.”
She pressed her lips together.
They both focused on the elevator display. The car seemed to take forever moving from one floor to the next, and there were only three. She didn’t even realize that she’d been holding her breath, until the doors slid open again and she hurr
ied through them.
The main floor of the hospital was considerably busier than the third floor had been. They’d barely gotten out of the elevator before people were quickly stepping into it.
She didn’t pay them any attention until one of them said her name. “Maddie?”
She glanced back at the man. She’d only met him once, when he’d been with her boss. But she still recognized him. “Mar—Morton.” She was painfully aware that Linc had stopped to look, too. “What a surprise.”
Morton smiled genially, as if he hadn’t just stood her up a few days earlier. “I’m the one who works here. I think that makes your presence more a surprise than mine.” His eyes were frankly curious as he took in Layla and Linc. “I was sorry that things didn’t work out last Friday. We can try again this week, if you’re available.”
She just stared at him, not sure at all how to respond. He was about Linc’s age, had half the hair, and none of the washboard abs. Not that she’d ever seen Morton without his shirt. She hadn’t needed to. But when she’d met him the one time with her boss, he’d seemed nice enough.
Until he’d left her sitting for an hour at the restaurant where they’d agreed to meet before she’d finally given up on him and left.
“I...don’t think so,” she told him.
Linc’s hand suddenly closed over Maddie’s shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
She hesitated.
That was all Linc needed, evidently, and she watched with some horrified bemusement when he extended his other hand toward Martin. Morton!
“Lincoln Swift,” he said.
Morton’s expression grew even more curious as he shook Linc’s hand. “Morton Meadows.”
“So, Morton. How do you know our Maddie?”
Maddie shuffled her feet, but Linc’s hand didn’t drop away from her shoulder. “He’s a friend of my boss,” she said abruptly. It was bad enough to have been stood up. She didn’t particularly want Linc knowing about it, too.
“Well, a friend of yours, too,” Morton said with a chuckle.
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