And Baby Makes Five

by Debra Clopton

  And for now that was good enough.

  “That doesn’t sound right,” Cort said. They were getting ready to leave the church and head home. It had been an unusual day.

  Walking over to the window of Lilly’s truck, he listened to the engine grind as she tried to start it.

  He’d helped her load everything into the ancient truck, said a reluctant goodbye, then stepped back and waited for her to start the cold engine. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun. Between enjoying being around Lilly and being goaded into behaving like a teenager by Norma Sue, he’d relaxed and found himself thanking the good Lord for leading him to Mule Hollow.

  Of course, he wasn’t allowing himself to have any misguided feelings along the lines of pushing past a growing friendship with his incredible neighbor. He’d had to rein in his runaway feelings when he’d held her in his arms. Her tears had had him crazy with feelings of protection. But he reminded himself that enjoying a woman’s company didn’t mean he was thinking about getting married. No matter how strong the feelings of wanting to protect and care for her were.

  He couldn’t help smiling as Lilly, wrinkled nose and all, leaned her head to one side, her sparkling eyes on him. Eyes that were far too weary.

  “I’m too tired to think about this,” she said with a sigh.

  Cort knew it was true. For a while during the day she’d seemed to get a second wind with all the laughing and kidding that had gone on during the volleyball game. But he could tell she was worn out. The full-time care of having a new baby was showing. That was where the tears had come from when they’d taken their walk. He couldn’t let himself think anything other than that. He reached for the door handle and opened the truck. “Come on. Out of the truck. I’m taking you and Joshua home.”

  “But what about the truck?” she protested even as he was taking her arm and helping her down from the tall seat.

  “I’ll come back and take care of it in the morning.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, Lilly. It has been a long a day and nobody is going to hurt that truck tonight. The most important thing is you need some rest.”

  Looking up at him, she stood still for a second, then reached for Joshua. “You’re right and I really need to get home. I’ve got a lot to take care of before the night rolls in.”

  Cort took her by the arms, turned her toward his truck and gave her a gentle push. “You go there, and I’ll bring Joshua and the diaper bag. And I’ll do your chores.” He was taken by surprise when she turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  “Thank you,” she said, giving him a quick squeeze then hurrying to his truck.

  Cort couldn’t move. He stood watching as she opened the door and climbed into the front seat. His heart was banging against his chest, and his senses were reeling from the soft scent of her. When she looked back at him with a quizzical expression, he realized he hadn’t moved from where she’d left him stunned and silent. He’d almost crossed the line of friendship earlier when she’d started to cry. It had taken everything he had to focus on what was best for Lilly.

  And it had taken a simple hug of gratitude to undo all his hard work.

  It was six o’clock when they pulled into Lilly’s driveway. She’d rested her head against the seat and immediately fallen asleep. She’d even slept through the bumps in the dirt road. As he brought his truck to a halt next to the tidy house, he couldn’t help the feeling of longing that swept over him when he glanced at mother and child sleeping contentedly.

  He hated to wake her. “Lilly,” he said softly, gently touching her shoulder. Her soft curls had fallen in her face. He pushed them away from her eyes and tucked them behind her ear. “Hey, sleepyhead, it’s time to wake up.”

  She was opening her eyes when he heard the noise. Lilly heard it, too. Her eyes widened and they both jerked their doors open at the same time.

  Samantha was in trouble.

  The squealing sound wasn’t like the awful sound she’d made the first night of their acquaintance. It was more of a whimper. A raspy, honking whimper.

  Cort rounded the corner of the barn first, halting when he saw Samantha’s head rammed through a spot in the stall gate that had no room for a head the size of Samantha’s. How she had accomplished the impossible, Cort would never know. Lilly gasped as she stopped beside him. Her hand came to rest on his arm. Instinctively he covered it with his hand in a comforting and calming effort. They didn’t need to overexcite Samantha. Cort had seen horses break their necks in less dire situations.

  “Samantha, what have you done?” Lilly said. Her voice was soothingly calm and caused Samantha to focus on her.

  Cort let Lilly take a step toward Samantha. He could tell that Lilly understood calm was needed. Reaching out to the burro, Lilly placed her hand on Samantha’s head and gently ran a hand down her face. Samantha blinked up at her and tried to nibble at her sleeve.

  “We’re going to get you out of there, sweet potato. You just need to listen to me and not get excited.” Cort watched Lilly and Samantha; it was obvious they had a connection that had come from years of friendship. Cort knew horses, and he knew there was a level of trust that a rider and a horse had to have in order for them to work well together. Cort saw that trust flood into Samantha’s eyes when Lilly spoke. He’d known that voice of hers was like magic the first time he’d heard it—now he knew for certain it was. Samantha closed her eyes and stood calmly as he and Lilly wiggled and twisted and pushed her big hairy head all different ways trying to free her from the metal bars.

  Working close beside Lilly had Cort wishing he could stand in the barn all night with her. Of course, this wouldn’t do, because they had a baby waiting patiently in the truck.

  Each of them took turns checking on Joshua during the hour that they worked with Samantha. “I know if she got her head in, then there’s a way to get it out.” He pushed his hat back on his head and rubbed his chin while he studied the situation. Samantha watched him with steady eyes and pawed her foot. “She’s never done this before?”

  Lilly rubbed the burro’s ear. “She’s done a lot of things, but never this. She got stuck in the storeroom once when the door closed behind her after she broke in. She had her tail hung in the tailgate of my truck. Oh, and had her topknot of mane caught in the slats of the hay bin.” Lilly tousled the wiry patch of long hair that hung down between Samantha’s eyes. Samantha rolled her eyes up and looked longingly at Lilly, then spread her lips and showed her big pearly whites.

  Cort chuckled. “I really do think this donkey is human. And for some reason, I think she knows exactly what she’s doing.”

  Lilly glanced up at him. “She might. She’s a con artist. Aren’t you, Samantha?”

  Looking down at Lilly and the smile she flashed at him, he had to corral the overriding need to draw her near.

  “Alfalfa!” she exclaimed, sounding as if she’d just sneezed. Slapping him on the shoulder, she said, “We need alfalfa.”

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “Give me a second.”

  She trotted down to the closet door at the back of the barn, then reached up and released the latch that was almost at the top of the door. It wasn’t hard to understand why it was up so high. He was going to have to raise his latches higher to keep pesky Samantha out.

  A few seconds later Lilly emerged with a bucket of cubes.

  Samantha’s ears immediately stood at attention. She slapped her tail from side to side and eyed the bucket as Lilly came to a halt in front of her.

  “I bet she can get out of there if she wants to.”

  Cort nodded his head. “Yup, I think you’re right. At first I didn’t want to startle her, because I thought she would hurt herself. But she’s smarter than any horse I’ve ever known.”

  Lilly took a cube and held it out to Samantha. She tried to take it in her mouth, but Lilly moved away. Samantha’s eyeballs rolled toward Lilly, then back to the alfalfa cube, shot over to Cort then
back to Lilly. She wiggled like a puppy getting a T-bone steak. Cort chuckled. The burro did love her alfalfa.

  “Set that bucket down right there,” Cort said. Turning away, he walked over to Lilly and took her hand. “Let’s go out and see what happens.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking.” Lilly left the bucket on the ground and let him lead the way out of the barn. Once they were out of Samantha’s sight, they raced like a couple of kids to the opposite end of the barn and peeked around the corner. Samantha still had her eyes on the bucket, and as they watched she stretched her neck out so that the top of her head sank into her neck—and she slid her head right out from between the bars.

  Lilly had already unlatched the gate, so Samantha just gave it a nudge with her nose, then trotted right over to bury her head in the bucket.

  “Why, the little sneaky piglet,” Lilly gasped.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it,” Cort said in a loud whisper against Lilly’s ear. He’d almost missed Samantha’s great escape because he’d been too busy studying Lilly’s profile. He did a hasty step away from her when she turned her head toward him. It was that step back that saved him. Another second and he’d have placed a kiss on the tip of her perfectly upturned, cute-as-a-button nose. It was getting hard to stop actions that seemed natural. He decided right then and there that when he got home he was going to have a powwow with the good Lord. There were some things that a man couldn’t handle on his own and it was time to hit his knees and pray for discernment.

  Cort moved around Lilly’s kitchen like a man with a mission. After being tricked by Samantha, Lilly had insisted on fixing Cort dinner. But he wouldn’t hear of it and instead had talked her into allowing him to prepare her dinner. She had never before had a man cook for her. She stifled a yawn and hoped she would get to enjoy the masterpiece he was concocting and didn’t wind up falling asleep with her face in the plate. It had been a long day, but one of the best in her life. She’d been daydreaming about sleep ever since Joshua’s birth, but right now she wanted to do nothing except sit there and enjoy watching Cort. She prayed that the yawns would go away and God would give her a second, no, make that a third wind. Maybe He would allow her to have a moment with this wonderful man. Cort’s sweetness was emerging, and she was enamored with it.

  “Ketchup?” the wonderful man asked. The smile he gave her was half silly as he slapped a hand towel over his shoulder then headed toward the refrigerator, his eyebrow lifted in question.

  “You’re getting warm,” she teased. Shifting Joshua in her arms, she straightened the bottle so he could get the last of the formula into his growing little tummy.

  Cort yanked the fridge door a mite too hard and one of Joshua’s formula bottles flew out of the holder on the door straight at him like a fastball.

  “Whoa, where’d that come from?” he said, catching it just before it hit the floor.

  “I’m prepared. When Joshua wakes at night I’m bumping into walls, so I was afraid to try to mix formula with my mind—let me rephrase that—I was afraid to mix formula without my mind. I know I forget words when I’m tired—I don’t want to think about what else I might be forgetting.”

  Cort found the ketchup. He chuckled, turning toward her. Lilly liked his laugh. It was low and gruff, and sent a shiver of delight coursing through her, making her want to do something really funny just to hear it again.

  “I’m sure Josh thanks you.” Cort dumped a good half cup of ketchup into the dish that Lilly had yet to put a name to, then cracked four eggs on the edge of the skillet, dropping them in one at a time. When he’d finished he took a wire whisk and went to town beating the mixture. She began to think it was some kind of omelet, scrambled. It looked awful, but smelled great.

  She’d been thinking about her truck. It couldn’t have picked a worse time to conk out on her. “Do you think my truck will be running tomorrow? Joshua has a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon.”

  Cort brought two plates to the table with the scrambled egg mixture and toast. “What time?”

  “It’s not until three o’clock.”

  “I’ll check it out first thing in the morning after I’ve exercised my horses. If it’s just the battery and I can jump it with battery cables, then you’ll be ready to go. If not, then I’ll take you to the appointment and pick up the parts I’ll need to fix it while you and Joshua are seeing the doctor.”

  “Oh, no, I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Lilly exclaimed. His hand on hers halted her protest.

  “Lilly, you didn’t ask. I offered. When are you going to just let me help because I want to? Besides, as tired as you are, you don’t need to be driving all that way alone. It’s okay to have a little support.”

  Lilly’s heart melted a little more. He could help her all he wanted.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cort unhooked the battery cables from Lilly’s truck. Once he’d opened the hood of the old truck, it had been obvious that aside from the fact that she probably needed a new vehicle, the battery had seen better days. He couldn’t even jump-start it. He didn’t know anything about Lilly’s financial situation. He didn’t know if she drove the old truck because she had to or because she wanted to. He didn’t like the idea of her and Joshua being on the road alone in unreliable transportation.

  “Loser, load up,” he called out. Loser lay beneath the oak tree next to the church. Tail dragging, the lazy beast plodded over to the truck and hopped in. Cort watched with amusement.

  “Perk up, boy, we’re going over to Lilly’s, and I know you want to see her.” Yesterday had been a good day. No, it had been a great day. No amount of denial could change the fact that he enjoyed Lilly’s company. He knew it was bad, but he’d been happy when he realized her battery was in such bad shape, and he’d get to escort her to Ranger. Lilly and Joshua. Thinking about the little boy put a smile on his face. He’d come a long way since the night Lilly had practically forced him to hold the baby. As if she’d sensed how scared he was, but understood how much he wanted to cuddle the little fella. Now he couldn’t wait to have any excuse to be near Joshua and Lilly. His heart was getting involved, and it terrified him.

  Basically, he was in a mess. He’d spent time in prayer and in searching his Bible that morning looking for some kind of peace about what God wanted from him. But God answered prayers in His time and Cort had come away empty-handed.

  So he’d come up with a plan of his own while waiting on the Lord’s plan to reveal itself. Obviously he’d been put there to watch over Lilly and Joshua, so he would. He’d help out when they needed him. He’d look out for their well-being. God had actually given him a gift. He could be like an uncle to Joshua. All he had to do was remember that anything more than friendship with Lilly would not be in the best interests of Lilly and Joshua.

  Lilly had said she’d made a mistake in choosing her first husband. Sweet Lilly, sheltered by her grannies. Her ex-husband had, in Cort’s mind, taken advantage of her limited experience. If Cort’s purpose was to be there to help protect them, so be it. The next bozo that came to fix Lilly’s roof or anything else was going to have to pass through him to get to her.

  Unless Cort thought his intentions were honorable.

  Then it would be in Lilly’s best interests for Cort to step out of the way.

  He started his truck and backed out of the drive as he glanced heavenward. God would give him the strength to do what he needed to do. He’d struggled since Ramona left. He’d become less and less inclined to seek after God, to really rely on Him. His anger at all that had happened had put a gulf between them. Last night he’d taken a step toward reconnecting with God. He’d felt God’s presence beside him and Lilly as they stood together in the churchyard. It had been God who’d enabled him to focus on being Lilly’s friend.

  He’d understood while looking into her sad eyes that God was with him. Because if he’d been relying on his strength alone he’d have said things to her yesterday that would only have messed up h
er life later on.

  No matter how confused his life seemed, Cort knew and believed that God had a plan. He just had to keep treading water until he found solid ground.

  Samantha was sitting on the side of the road between his and Lilly’s house as Cort drove down the long, lonesome dirt road. She looked like a big dog relaxing on its haunches beneath the branches of an oak tree. A long blade of hay stuck from her mouth and she chewed it slowly, watching as Cort eased his truck up beside her.

  Loser leaped through the open window and thudded to the ground at Samantha’s feet like a bag of rocks.

  Samantha looked down her broad nose at him sprawled out before her and continued chewing on the stalk of hay as if nothing unusual had just happened.

  Cort propped his arm on the door and watched the pair. They had a connection. He wasn’t sure where it would lead, but just seeing Samantha perk up Loser was a kick in the pants. As he watched, Loser rolled over, picked himself up off the ground and, lifting his head, sniffed at the hairy chin of the burro before circling her in wary discovery. When he got too close Samantha bumped him with her nose and kept on chomping. Cort laughed. They were quite a pair.

  Putting the truck in gear, he left Loser to walk the rest of the way to Lilly’s. Exercise would do the lazy pooch some good. And maybe he’d learn to be civil to Samantha.

  It was a nice day for a drive. The weather was cold but the sun was out. Cort liked this temperature. In the summers he had to rise before dawn so he could have his stables completely ridden before noon, just so the heat wouldn’t overcome him. This was a time of year the horses loved, and he could get more out of them when they were happy. Today was a breezy, perfect day. A perfect day for a ride into town with Lilly.

  Lilly was waiting when he pulled up to the house. She had on tan pants and a green shirt that brought out the gold flecks in her eyes. Her hair was loose, touching the collar of her coat, and it swayed with the breeze as she walked toward him carrying Joshua in the heavy car seat. Cort hopped from the truck to help.