“I’m really not trying to put you off,” Lauren assured him.
“I know you’re not. You have valid concerns. My daughter isn’t going to be an easy one to watch.” Seth’s lips quirked upward. “She’s going to find those activity limitations hard to bear.”
“Keeping her occupied and stimulated will be a challenge.” Still, Lauren appreciated the child’s headstrong nature. In many ways Ivy reminded Lauren of herself at that age. Perhaps that’s why she felt a special affinity for the little girl. She remembered the shock she’d felt when Anna had called and told her about the accident.
“Ivy was incredibly lucky,” Lauren continued. ‘To end up with just a couple broken bones is nothing short of a miracle.”
“I don’t know what I’d have done if I’d lost her.” Seth’s voice thickened and his fingers tightened on the brim of the cowboy hat he clutched in one hand. “I should have made sure John Redmond knew I didn’t want her on an ATV.”
Seth didn’t need to elaborate. Everyone in town had heard the story. How Ivy was playing at her friend Emily’s house. How Emily’s brother, Kyle, had decided to give the girls rides on his ATV. How none of the three had been wearing helmets.
Though hitting a rock in a pasture could happen to anyone, it was rumored Kyle had been going too fast. While the boy had been uninjured when the ATV had flipped, Ivy had been thrown a full fifty feet. When the volunteer rescue squad had arrived, she’d been unconscious. The paramedics feared she’d injured her spine. Thankfully she’d only sustained a broken arm and leg and a mild concussion.
“Kids play. They get hurt.” Lauren’s childhood hadn’t been that way, but from the stories her friends told, it was amazing some of them had lived to adulthood. “The accident wasn’t your fault.”
“It was my fault.” Seth’s eyes flashed. “I’m her father. I promised Jan I’d keep our daughter safe.”
Lauren tried to hide her surprise. Seth rarely talked about the hometown girl he’d married in college who’d died from cancer three years ago.
“I understand you feel guilty.” Lauren spoke in a soothing tone. “But some things are out of your control.”
He lifted his chin in a stubborn tilt. “If I’d made it clear Ivy wasn’t to ride the three-wheeler, she’d never have gotten hurt.”
It was becoming increasingly apparent to Lauren that nothing would be gained from pursuing this topic further. Seth was responding from emotion instead of logic. She heard the guilt in his voice and saw the pain in his eyes. Though she doubted he’d ever admit it, the rugged Montana cowboy looked like a man in desperate need of a hug.
Impulsively Lauren stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, just as she always did with her friends Anna and Stacie when they needed comforting. Surprisingly, he let her pull him close.
“You’re a good dad, Seth,” she whispered against the smooth fabric of the coat he hadn’t bothered to take off. “Don’t let anyone tell you differently.”
For a brief moment in time, they stood wrapped in each other’s arms. Having this handsome cowboy in her arms was very different than hugging a girlfriend. They fit together perfectly, just like in her dreams. As she breathed in the clean, fresh scent of him, she experienced an overwhelming urge to nuzzle his neck. But Lauren kept her lips to herself. Something told her this wasn’t a man who’d be satisfied with a brief fling.
Stepping back, Lauren let her hands drop to her sides. “Can I get you a cup of coffee? I just brewed a pot. I’ve also got sour-cream cake doughnuts Stacie brought by last night. She’s trying some new recipes and wanted me to check them out. I also have a couple of blueberry ones and some—”
She stopped midsentence and clamped her mouth shut. She was babbling—an unattractive quality under any circumstances.
“I’m not hungry but coffee sounds good.” Seth’s smile was easy, but there was awareness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before the embrace.
“Cream and sugar?”
“Black works for me.”
Lauren grabbed a mug from the cupboard. She was pleased, but perplexed. When Seth first arrived, he’d mentioned that Connie Swenson, his foreman’s wife, was watching Ivy this afternoon so he could run errands. Lauren had thought he’d be eager to get home. After all, he’d barely left Ivy’s side since the accident. Yet now he shrugged out of his heavy coat and draped it over one of the kitchen chairs as if he had all day.
Lauren couldn’t pull her gaze from him. The colors in his flannel shirt made his eyes look like sapphires. For a second she thought about telling him so. She smiled, imagining his reaction.
“What?” Seth settled into the closest chair and placed his work-hardened hands on the table.
“I like that shirt.” Lauren pointed. “It’s a good color for you.”
“Thanks.” He glanced down as if he’d forgotten what he wore. “Anna gave it to me for my birthday.”
“Figures. Your sister has excellent taste.” Lauren poured coffee into a mug, placed it before him then took a seat across the table. “I can’t believe she and Stacie are both married.”
Stacie had wed rancher Josh Collins in October, and Anna had married Mitch Donavan, a boyfriend from her high school days, just last week, only two days before Ivy’s accident.
“Leaving you to fend for yourself.” Seth glanced around the spacious kitchen, which still retained much of its turn-of-the-century charm. “Do you ever get lonely?”
The old Victorian where Lauren resided had originally belonged to Seth and Anna’s grandmother. His sister had inherited it when Grandma Borghild had passed on several years earlier. Now Anna lived with Mitch in the log home he’d built at the foothills of the Crazy Mountains, and Lauren had this big house all to herself. Once she moved out, Anna planned to put the home on the market.
“Not really. I’ve never minded being by myself.” Lauren added a lump of sugar to her coffee and slowly stirred. “I’m an only
