And Baby Makes Five
Page 14
He was bent over the crib holding Joshua inches from the blanket when he turned his head and looked up at her.
“On his stomach or his back?”
Lilly’s heart rolled over and gave up the ghost. “His back, please. He’ll look kind of like I did on our first meeting in your barn.”
Cort chuckled, then placed Joshua onto his back, pulling the blanket over his little body. Before he straightened he gently ran his fingers over Joshua’s hair.
It was all Lilly could do not to make a fool of herself by jumping up and hugging Cort.
“So do they eat all the time?”
Lilly looked about the room as folks piled their plates full. Roy Don had a plate that looked like the leaning tower of potbellies as he strode by, beelining for a chair so he could dig in to the massive feast.
“Not really. They try to have a church fellowship every month. As you can tell, if they did it every week there wouldn’t be a lot of room in this building, because everyone would have gained a hundred pounds!” She leaned in and whispered, wrinkling her nose, “I really don’t think people eat this much at home.”
Cort hoped not. Pulling himself away from the urge to lean in closer to Lilly, he tilted his chair back on two legs and surveyed the group. “It’s nice. I never attended many fellowships where I used to go to church.”
“This is actually only my second time.”
“Really? I figured you’d be right in the middle of all this.”
“Nope.” She glanced around, then looked at him. “I told you I’m a loner by nature. I come to church, sing in the choir, then go home. The gals are all trying to force me to mingle.”
“Are you serious?” Cort didn’t see her as a complete loner. Maybe that explained her reason for continuing to live all alone out where she lived. It made him all the more curious about her past. “I remember Lacy saying something about trying to get you to participate more.”
“Mmm-hmm. It’s a good thing, too, because I talk to myself sometimes. And that’s bad.” She yawned. “I’m really afraid I might conk out before this ends.”
Cort stood. “Come on, let’s go get us a pile of food. That might wake you up.” He held out his hand and helped her up.
She glanced over at Joshua, who was snoring away. “Look at him. Just as content as can be now that I’m somewhere I can’t catch a nap.”
“It’s because I held him.”
Lilly looked up at him and frowned. “Yeah, right.”
He laughed. “You hurt my feelings. You don’t think I have a way with babies?”
“You didn’t even know how to hold one until I forced Joshua on you.”
“I’m a fast learner.”
He placed his hand between her shoulder blades and gently propelled her ahead of him. They took their place in line behind Sam from the diner, and Cort tried not to think of how much he was enjoying spending time with Lilly. He tried not to analyze anything. Just to enjoy the day.
“How’s that ornery old Samantha doing?” Sam asked. “That was some sight—the two of you flying down the street on fire.”
“Sam, you know I’ve been riding since before I could walk. And you know I’ve ridden all kinds of different-tempered animals.”
“I know that. But bein’ how you were pregnant and all, I figured them talents of yours should be set aside for later.” He looked at Cort. “Ain’t it right that you can’t ever know what an animal will do?”
“That’s about right.”
Lilly looked from one to the other, her eyes wide with rebuttal. Cort had come to know that look. On their first meeting he’d thought she was an outspoken person, but he’d learned she sometimes held back. Now there was no hiding the fact she was itching to say something. It was clearly marked across her pretty face and by the way that pert nose of hers crinkled between her eyes.
Cort had come to the realization that some of his earlier assumptions about Lilly were wrong.
She wasn’t one-dimensional. She wasn’t boring. And she wasn’t the negligent person he’d originally believed her to be.
Lilly Tipps had layers.
“Why did you want to be alone?” Lilly lifted an eyebrow and the corners of her mouth in a half grin at Cort’s expression of surprise at her bluntness. He’d asked if she’d like to walk for a minute while the ladies were playing with Joshua. The cold air had helped clear the fog from her brain as they slowly circled the church grounds. She’d managed earlier to corral her feelings and had convinced herself that, being as tired as she was, she was simply overwrought emotionally and that was why her heart kept acting so weird when she looked at Cort. Now she wasn’t too sure what was what, as Cort studied her for a moment. Finally he shook his head and his blue eyes softened, causing her heart to dip.
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re pushy?” he asked.
She laughed, and a zing of energy rippled through her tired body. “Sorry, you have to remember that I was raised by a herd of grandmothers. To say that they were blunt would be an understatement. I have to hold myself back sometimes, because it rubbed off a bit too much on me. Believe me, though, I’m mild in comparison.”
“I’d have hated to be a man around all that. How many grandmothers raised you?” Cort picked up a stick and pushed at a fallen leaf. Lilly watched, thinking about the granddads she’d never known. It always brought on a sense of loss. Pushing it from her mind, she smoothed the skirt of her dress and looked out across the church lawn.
“Up until I was twelve I lived with three grandmothers,” she said, smiling at the memory of her crazy life. “Then Great-Granny Shu-Shu died at the ripe old age of one hundred. Granny Gab died six years later—she was eighty-one. Then Granny Bunches—who was really my great-aunt, but I always called her Granny—died three years ago. She was ninety.” She sighed. “They would have been shocked and in love with Joshua.”
She felt Cort’s eyes on her and glanced over at him. She saw compassion in his expression.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said, his tone subdued. “But that must have been a great thing knowing that many people who loved you.”
“It was so wonderful. And never boring. My grandmothers were characters.”
“What about your grandfathers? You said your grandmothers had no need for men.” He quirked an eyebrow.
She quirked one right back at him. “Hey, you said I was pushy.”
He gave a waggish grin and held up his hands. “I can ask questions, too.”
Lilly laughed. “Okay, for the guy who delivered my baby I guess I can tell you my family history. No, there are no grandfathers. They came, they left.”
“All that bluntness run them off?”
Lilly knew he was joking, but she had always wondered if that was indeed what had happened. “Maybe.”
“All of them? Every last one?” Cort’s eyebrows drew together in disbelief. It was a common expression when the luck of the Tipps women was discussed.
“Granny Shu-Shu’s husband left for war three years after they were married, and chose not to come home. He chose to abandon Granny Shu-Shu and his baby daughters, Gabriella and Beatrice. Granny Gab, my mother’s mother—her husband left when he found out she was pregnant. Seems I’m not the only one who forgot to ask about children. They were married five months, and that totally ruined Granny Gab on men. My mother was raised to distrust all men and have no use of them. When my mom died, well, that was it for Granny Gab. She hated men all my life. Granny Bunches—that was Beatrice—never married. She said she trusted that there was a good man out there for her. She just couldn’t distress Gabby anymore by chancing to look.”
“How about your marriage?”
Lilly plunked her fist on her hip. “You don’t give up, do you?”
He shrugged. “I’m a curious guy. I want to know about my friend.”
Lilly started walking again and Cort fell into step beside her. “Like I said, mine lasted just over a month. But it wasn’t totally due to my mouth. I think I told yo
u that like Granny Gab I didn’t discuss children with my husband. I didn’t find out until I told him I was pregnant that he didn’t want any.” She blinked and looked away from Cort. She didn’t want him to see any weakness in her eyes. She’d shed her last tear over Jeff Turner. He was a no-good loser. Exactly the kind of man she’d been warned about all her life. “I think he was just looking for a way to get out of something he’d realized he didn’t want. It had only been a month, but he wasn’t around much.”
A few minutes passed and Cort hadn’t said any platitudes. When she looked back at him, he was watching her. He stopped in the middle of the road and turned toward her.
“He was a fool,” he said, meeting her eyes dead-on.
Lilly’s heart picked up its pace. “I think so. I’d take Joshua over his daddy any day. Truth be told, it took me a few months to move on, but I’m fine now.” And she was. “Jeff’s the loser in all of this. I’m really trying to trust God and move forward.” She’d been thinking the past few days about how she wasn’t going to be like her grannies. True, she’d spouted off some granny euphemisms about how men were not good for much, but she didn’t believe that. God had created her especially for someone. And unlike Granny Bunches, she hoped to find him someday.
She wasn’t telling anyone that she was looking, though. The way this town had gone matchmaking crazy, she didn’t want anybody getting ideas about fixing her up. When the right man came along God would be leading the way, and He wouldn’t need any help in the matchmaking business. That’s what had happened with Lacy and Clint. Their marriage was coming up in February and God had done a great job bringing Lacy cross-country to plow their cars into each other—and to fall in love.
God was the ultimate matchmaker. And she was going to trust Him.
Looking at Cort and feeling the way her heart was thundering, she wondered if she dared imagine he was already here. That he was the one.
Cort reached out and lifted her chin. “I know he was a fool for leaving Joshua,” he said. “But I wasn’t talking about the baby. He was a fool for leaving you.”
The cold air wrapped around them, and Lilly didn’t think she ever wanted to move away from the inviting warmth that radiated from Cort. His eyes searched her face like a caress and his touch against her skin was like a dream. No one had ever looked at her the way Cort did. She blinked back a tear and Cort stepped closer, wiping the tear from her cheek.
“Why are you crying, Lilly?”
She couldn’t help it. Why was she crying? Was it because she was tired? Or was it because Cort was giving her a glimpse of what she’d been missing all this time? When he took her in his arms, she thought she would break.
“All men aren’t fools.” His breath was warm against her ear as he pulled Lilly deeper into his arms. “I know you’ve had a hard go of things, being on your own all this time. But the grannies were wrong. You were meant to be loved.”
Lilly lifted her face to his, her heart pounding in her chest. Could it be?
“Lilly.” He set her away from him. “The right man is out there for you, and I believe God’s going to send him to you, and you’re going to have more little Joshuas to love.”
Lilly blinked. She’d thought for a moment he… Lilly sucked in a deep chilling breath of air and wiped the last tear from her eyes. She’d almost made a fool of herself. He’d said they were friends. Friends? Of course, comforted friends.
She gave him a smile. It certainly wouldn’t do for him to think she’d almost told him she loved him.
Where had that come from anyway? Sure, she’d had thoughts. Infatuations. Who wouldn’t toward the man who’d come to her rescue? Who held her baby with tears in his eyes?
“I’m cold,” she said, turning back toward the fellowship hall. “It’s time to go in.” Past time.
“You have a beautiful son, Lilly.”
Lilly looked at Cort. They had come back inside and had made the rounds chatting with several tables of folks who had settled in for domino challenges. It hadn’t taken long for them to end up back at the playpen watching a tuckered-out Joshua sleep. Norma Sue said that everyone had held him and played with him until he’d closed his little eyes and conked out on them.
Studying Cort, Lilly couldn’t help but feel a surge of sadness. She’d started out the day totally worn out, wanting to hole up at her house and not go to church and dinner. But she’d had about the nicest day she could remember in ages. She now had a second wind and it was due in large part to Cort. He was a nice guy, but just a friend. Cort was not that much older than her. The most important thing was that he really liked Joshua.
She’d let her thoughts go crazy outside, but now everything was fine. She tucked all the displaced bits of infatuation away and chalked them up to weary emotions. The sadness was probably due to hormones, she thought. That was it. She’d heard they could act crazy after the birth of a baby. He liked her son. And that was all that counted.
Joshua chose that moment to open his eyes and let out a wail. Lilly stood and reached for him. “Whoa, baby!” she exclaimed. “Somebody needs a new diaper. Looks like duty calls.”
“I’ll go get us a plate of dessert while you take care of that.” Cort made a face when he got a whiff of Joshua. “Whew! Son, you have been a busy boy.” Reaching over, he ran two fingers over Joshua’s cheek, laughing when Joshua smiled and tried to grab the moving fingers sliding past his mouth. “Looks like he’s hungry, too.”
“He’s always hungry.” Lilly watched Cort walk off. Her crazy thoughts were churning again. He was a sweet guy. He made her want to talk, which was nice. She really hadn’t had anyone to talk to in a long time, other than Samantha and Joshua. She looked around the room. Lacy, Clint and Hank were laughing at something Esther Mae had said over at the table where the two couples were hard at a game of chicken-foot dominoes. Adela and Sam were chatting with Sherri and J.P. while they all played the game at a table together. Looking farther across the room, she saw many women she’d become friends with, many people with whom she could drive into town and hold a conversation, but the thing was, she was more apt to immerse herself in her books and hide away at home.
She had been forcing herself to get out more in the past three months. And for Joshua’s sake she would continue to try to let herself be more outgoing. It was true—she’d been hidden out there at the end of Morning Glory Road all her life. But having a conversation with just anyone wasn’t easy for her, never had been. Until she’d met Cort Wells in the middle of his cold barn.
There hadn’t been one moment that she’d had a hard time talking with him.
It hit her then that actually she looked forward to having conversations with her neighbor.
That was why her emotions were so crazy. He was her friend.
Her friend who liked her son and thought her ex-husband was a fool.
Her friend who thought she’d find love.
Just not with him.
Chapter Seventeen
After lunch Norma Sue produced a volleyball and instructed a group of guys on setting up the netting. It was a pretty exciting moment for the church to realize they were actually having a church social and volleyball. Even if it was forty-five degrees outside.
“Why,” Esther Mae huffed, “it’s almost like the old days when we had children running wild around here and Norma Sue yelling for everyone to line up so she could divide up the teams. Y’all better watch out, ’cause when she comes out of the bathroom wearing those pedal pushers that touch the rim of her boots it’s gonna be an all-out war. You might not know it, but that little ball of butter used to be a volleyball-playing machine.”
Lilly and Cort were almost rolling on the floor laughing with the others when Norma Sue walked out in a pair of blue capris and flat-soled roping boots! She was grinning from ear to ear when she came to a halt in front of all of them, slammed her hands onto her rounded hips and shot a dour look at Esther.
“I know you all’ve been laughin’ about me ’cause of somet
hing Esther Mae spouted off. That’s okay, ’cause I’ll meet you outside—” she jerked her head to the side toward the net “—and teach you that this old lady can still serve a volleyball up with a mean overhand.”
“That’s more than I can do,” one of the young cowboys mumbled. “I’ve never played this game in my life.”
“You’re on my team, then.” Reaching down, Norma grabbed his arm and tugged him up. “You, too, Cort Wells.”
Cort frowned, and Lilly thought if he could have dug a hole and crawled into it he would have. He started shaking his head, but Norma was having none of it. She had one stunned cowboy standing beside her and it was obvious she planned on having another.
The funniest thing of all was that most of the guys were wearing jeans and boots. Many of them had changed into old blue jeans and T-shirts, but there were a few like Cort who still wore their good boots, starched jeans, long-sleeved Western dress shirts—and their belts and big buckles. They were definitely not dressed for volleyball.
Did Norma care? Not one bit.
Before it was all said and done, Lilly watched her, looking like an army sergeant, directing a failing squad trying to go AOL…no, that wasn’t it.
AMUCK? Nope, that wasn’t it either.
AWOL? Maybe that was it.
What were those initials they used in the military? Her declining brain couldn’t come up with the correct letters, but she knew whatever they were they meant AWAY.
The guys were trying to get away very quickly from playing out in the cold.
But in the end Norma had them all having a great time. Even dressed in their Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes, as Applegate Thornton put it.
You could bet he wasn’t out there getting red faced and stirred up.
Then again, Lilly didn’t care. She was watching Cort and trying to reestablish boundaries that she’d almost let her heart cross. She was glad to have him as her friend.