“Hey.” She put an arm around her daughter and pulled her close. “You want some breakfast?”
“Yes,” Shanna groaned. “I’m so hungry.” She screwed up her mouth. “But I wish Tucker could’ve stayed.”
Me, too. “He had to get back to his brothers. I’m sure they missed him on the ranch. Come on, I’ll make pancakes.”
Shanna flitted around the kitchen, helping Avery get out the ingredients for pancakes while Avery set up the skillet and got down a mixing bowl. It was so quiet without Tucker’s voice in the house. It wasn’t that he’d spoken all the time, or too much, but now that he had gone home, she felt the absence like a piece of furniture that had disappeared the moment she turned her back. Get a grip, she thought to herself. You haven’t seen him in years, and now you’re pining for him like the two of you broke up again.
“Mom?”
“Yes?” She turned to Shanna with a big grin, grateful for the interruption. “What’s on your mind?”
Shanna pursed her lips. “How many cousins do I have?”
“I’m…I’m not sure.” Avery sucked in a breath. Okay, so it was starting now—the questions about Tucker’s family. It started right this minute, and it wouldn’t end. He would be in her life forever now. And the rest of his family. They were next-door neighbors, after all, and she wasn’t going to start her career over in a new city any time soon. “Three, I think. Cade’s got two kids, and I heard Liam had a baby with his wife not too long ago. So that would make it three cousins.”
Shanna let out a longing sigh and gazed at the mixing bowl. She kept the corners of her mouth turned down as she poured the flour into the bowl, sneaking glances at Avery out of the corner of her eye. Then she brightened up. “Two of the cousins are babies?”
“Yes. I think so.”
“Well, that’s the next best thing to having a little brother or sister.”
Avery inhaled, choking on nothing but air, and went into a coughing fit over the sink. When she straightened up, she found Shanna watching her with a little grin, her face half-concern and half-anticipation. “Shanna—”
Her daughter turned to the mixing bowl and stuck in the whisk, not saying anything else.
Avery fielded questions for the rest of the day, and a new relief settled over her at bedtime. It was intense, having another parent in the picture. She hadn’t thought it would be such a rollercoaster of emotions. Then again, that was on her—if she’d told Tucker the truth, they’d have settled this long ago. Wouldn’t they have? On the way to her bedroom, she shook off the instinct to dwell on the past. It was done. They’d move forward now, and it would be a rollercoaster for a while, and then things would settle down.
They would.
Avery pushed open the door to her bedroom and sighed.
No Tucker.
She hadn’t planned to let him stay in her bed, but it had felt so good to fall asleep next to him. Now, the queen-size mattress looked enormous. It couldn’t be possible that her bed was empty without Tucker—she’d been by herself for so long. It couldn’t be possible, yet as she climbed under the covers, Avery knew that it was.
9
It was tough for Avery to drag herself out of bed the next morning. She spent several minutes lying there, stretching and yawning and willing herself to get up, get up. But a quick glance at her phone told her it was almost ten in the morning. It had come up quick, after a late-night delivery at the Hanson farm. The Hansons bred sheep herding dogs, and Bryony, their two-year-old, had been in labor for too long. It wasn’t the first late-night call Avery had ever taken—not by far—but she was still dragging because of the flu. She yawned again and forced herself upright. She’d delivered the puppies, but she hadn’t gotten home until almost four a.m. A message popped up from the Hansons—a picture of Bryony nursing the puppies. Good. All was well.
It was great at the Hanson farm, anyway. Things were too quiet in her own home. Where was Shanna? Avery’s heart leaped up in her throat, anxiety clutching her. Shanna was a responsible kid and not a baby anymore, but she shouldn’t have let herself sleep in quite so long.
Avery threw on some fresh clothes—she’d showered at four and her hair was still damp—and went in search of her daughter. Shanna’s bedroom door stood open, revealing her bed. It was neatly made. She strained to hear sounds from the kitchen, but there was nothing. Avery came slowly down the stairs, worry racing through her veins, and heard a sound through the wall.
Voices.
They came through the door in the front hall—the door that attached the clinic to the main house. Avery went through and down the narrow hallway to the front office.
And there they were—Shanna and Tucker, both of them holding tools and looking down at something near the window. Avery was struck by the sight of them—Shanna, lanky and getting taller by the day, already wearing jeans and a hoodie. Tucker, also in jeans. His hugged his ass in a way that made Avery feel almost primal. And the flannel shirt he wore? Just as good. He had a tool belt slung low on his hips, and she traced the muscled lines of him. Avery shook her head to rid herself of the distraction.
The motion must’ve caught Shanna’s eye, because she turned around and her face lit up.
“Hey, Mom. You’re finally awake.” She beamed proudly at Avery. “We’re kinda busy in here.”
“Morning, Avery.” Tucker’s voice sent a shiver of want down her spine.
“What are you two up to?” Avery had been cold all night, but now heat rose to her cheeks.
“We’re fixing the office so you can use it. That way, you won’t have to do all your paperwork at the dining room table. And you can see patients
