He stared at her in silence for a moment. “Hey, Amy,” he murmured. “How’s it going, girl?”
The baby gazed at him intently. Then she gurgled and waved her fists.
“That good, huh?” His expression slowly relaxed. “Well, sweetie, it only gets better from here. You’re gonna love growing up in this town.”
“That’s the truth,” Sarah said. “I know I did, and it hasn’t changed much since I was a kid.”
“Hear that, Amy?” CJ smiled. “You’ve got it made.” Then he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Nice meeting you. We’ll have to do this again sometime.” Moving toward Sarah, he handed the baby over in one smooth motion. “Thanks for letting me hold her. It was fun.”
Sarah chuckled. “I could tell. You don’t have to worry about practicing, CJ. You’re a natural.” She glanced at Isabel. “Don’t you think so?”
She cleared the tightness from her throat. “Absolutely.” After a moment of uncertainty, he’d settled right in. If he could connect so easily with someone else’s baby, he would go bananas over his own.
She hadn’t figured on that, either.
Chapter Five
“That was way easier than I expected it to be.” CJ backed out of the parking space in front of Gertie’s, drove around the square and pointed the truck toward home. “Amy’s a cool little kid.”
“You’re the cool one.” Isabel glanced over at him. “Are you sure you’ve never held a baby?”
“Never. When I first got my hands on her, I was worried that I’d do it wrong. But then I looked at that cute face and those big blue eyes and talking to her just felt natural. I think she liked that.”
“I think she did.” Isabel continued to focus on him, like he was a riddle she had to solve. “After seeing you with Amy, I have a hunch you’ll want to spend a lot of time with our baby after he or she is born.”
“As much as I can manage. Do you know if we’ll have a boy or a girl?”
“It’s too early to tell.”
“Makes sense. When will the doc be able to tell?”
“Another six or eight weeks.”
“You’ll let me know?”
“Are you saying you want to find out in advance?”
“Absolutely. Don’t you?”
“I’d like to have it be a surprise. But you get a vote.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to know?”
“I’d rather wait and find out on the big day. But since we won’t be together for my next appointment, my doctor could call and tell you after I leave.”
He shook his head. “That’s starting off on the wrong foot. Going forward, we should agree as much as possible. Besides, I don’t want to know something you don’t. I could mess that up by accidentally saying it.”
“That brings up something else. How do you want to communicate during the next seven months?”
“Phone, I guess.”
“You don’t do email?”
“No need for it. But if that’s what you like, I could get an account.”
“That’s not necessary. The phone works.”
“I like it better when you can hear the person’s voice.” Especially hers, which warmed him like sunshine. “If we find out the sex of the baby beforehand, we’d only have to come up with one set of names.”
“True, but—”
“Whoa.” He sucked in a breath. “I get to help name this baby. There’s a big responsibility. Have you started a list?”
“I thought we could work on that together while I’m here.”
“But then we’re back to creating two lists, since we don’t know yet.”
“That’s right.”
“We can get a start on it if you want. But seriously, why wait seven months to find out if we’ll have a son or a daughter?”
“I guess I’m old-fashioned. I’d like to build the anticipation, let it be an unsolved mystery until the baby arrives. These days we can find out almost anything by hitting a key or tapping a screen. I think we need more mystery in our lives.”
“Oh, we have that. It’s a mystery how you got pregnant. Those condoms were brand-new, fresh out of the package.”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We took every precaution, yet here we are. What do you make of it?”
“Poor quality control?”
“Maybe. Or maybe you and I were supposed to create a child that night.”
A shiver traveled up his spine. He’d learned not to discount such things. “Like I was supposed to meet Charley.”
“Do you think that’s true?”
“Oh, yeah. Charley hadn’t intended to go into town that day, but then Henri asked him to run a couple of errands. He spotted me parked on the square, my head under the hood of my truck.”
“Engine trouble?”
“Fuel pump. I had just enough money for a new one, but I wouldn’t have enough to buy food. I needed a job and Charley offered to take me on at the Buckskin. I never left.”
“Maybe this baby is like that.”
He gripped the wheel. “That’s a nice thought, but with Charley, everything fell into place. He was looking for someone to replace an older guy who was moving to New Mexico.”
“Dusty?”
“How did you know?”
“Lucy talked about him, too. She was sad to see him go since he’d been there ever since she’d started coming to the ranch with her parents.”
“She told me she’d miss him. He’d been a fixture for so long. She must have been about fifteen that summer.”
“Yep. It was between our freshman and sophomore year.” Isabel looked over at him. “You and I almost met that summer. Lucy’s parents asked me to come with them, but it didn’t work out with my family’s vacation plans.”
He glanced at her. “I wish it had.”
“I’m glad it didn’t. It wouldn’t have been the right time. We weren’t the same people, then.” She smiled. “You still had those rough edges and I didn’t know who I was, yet.”
“But you do, now?”
“I think so.”
“I wish I could say the same. This new development has me going in circles. Maybe it was meant to be, like you said, but I don’t see it falling neatly into place.
