And Baby Makes Five (14 page)

L
illy found a spot near the back of the room and waited for Cort to bring in the playpen. Lacy was holding Joshua, swinging him in her arms from side to side as if she was doing the twist.

“So, how’s the romance going?”

Leave it to Lacy to cut to the chase. Lilly met Lacy’s electric blue eyes—eyes zinging with mirth.

Honestly, Lilly didn’t know how to answer the question. How was the romance going? Did they have one brewing? Did she want one to brew? She tore her gaze from Lacy’s and watched Cort moving toward them, plowing through the group like a freight train barreling down the track. Oh, he was something. He could send her pulse racing like…well, like that freight train he resembled at the moment. He could also infuriate her. But he could melt her with a smile. As for romance…he didn’t know she existed. She was simply the neighbor down the road he thought needed a helping hand. “There’s no—”

Lacy cut her off, handing over Joshua. “Nope. Don’t even deny it. Take the baby and enjoy some time with the man. You can try to deny it all day long, Lilly, but God has a plan. And I’m here to tell you that it’s walking straight toward you carrying your baby’s playpen. I think the luck of the Tipps ladies has turned for the better.”

Lilly cradled Joshua next to her heart, watching Lacy stride away toward the food tables. Passing Cort, she slapped him on the back.

“Mighty nice of you to help out, Cort,” she sang out, and kept on going.

“Did I miss something?” he asked, setting the playpen down beside Lilly.

“When it comes to Lacy Brown, we’re all missing something. That girl has more zip and zing than anybody I know. She makes a tired gal like me feel like a worn-out dish towel.” She also made a tired girl think. Or dream. Lilly pushed away the silly thoughts and swiped at her curly hair with the back of her hand.

Cort’s hand touched hers as he reached to touch the stray curl dangling in her eye. Lilly swallowed and met his eyes as he gently pushed the piece to the side. His fingertips brushed her temple, then traced down the side of her face to cup her jaw. “Believe me, Lilly. You don’t remotely resemble an old dish towel.”

The touch of his fingertips froze Lilly’s breath in her lungs, and his eyes reached into that dark corner of her heart that she’d been guarding so ferociously. What did she do now? Her sluggish mind was just playing tricks on her. Mean tricks.

As quickly as his touch appeared, it vanished. He withdrew his hand, tucking his fingertips into his jeans pocket. An unreadable expression flickered across his face. And then it was as if nothing had just passed between them.

“Thank you for the compliment. I think.” She forced her voice to sound nonchalant. He couldn’t know that he’d just rocked her world. Flipped it like a pancake—a pancake that wasn’t ready to be flipped.

He was grinning that half smile of his that she had come to know, kind of a Dennis Quaid half grin that carved a vertical groove from his cheek to his jawline along the right side of his face. It was a look that would melt hearts.

“It was definitely a compliment. Here, sit down before you fall down.” He pulled out a chair, gently grasped her arm and helped her sit while she continued to hold Joshua. Her entire being was tuned to him as he went about setting up the playpen.

Get a grip, Lilly! You’re made of tougher stuff than this.

And she was. She reeled in her emotions and focused on instructing Cort on how to open and set up the playpen.

“Are you getting any sleep?” he asked when he finally finished and held out his arms for Joshua.

“What happened to the real Cort Wells, the one who was afraid to hold a baby?”

His eyes darkened and he frowned. “Good try at changing the subject. You need help. And I’m here. Now, hand him over and you rest. Me and Joshua are becoming fast buddies.”

Lilly relinquished Joshua to him. “I’m very glad you’re here. I didn’t mean to sound like I wasn’t.” His expression was one of complete concentration as he carefully accepted Joshua. Once he held him, he simply stood looking at him. Lilly’s eyes teared up, watching his face change from deep concern to a gentle softening. She wondered what he was thinking. What was going on behind those beautiful dark blue eyes of his? So many times she’d thought about how he’d looked holding her son that night in her living room. It seemed so long ago.

When he shifted his gaze from Joshua, his eyes were bright. Lilly’s heart skipped and held. Cort Wells, the man everyone had labeled a grinch, was truly touched while he held her Joshua. Tears…his eyes were bright with tears.

“I knew what you meant,” he said quietly. “I’ll just lay him down in here.” He started to bend, then stopped. “Do you think I need to put a blanket down?”

It was all Lilly could do to hold back the emotions engulfing her. She was in a tidal wave being swept into deep water. She struggled to form coherent words. “Yes. Here, I have it in the bag.” Grabbing the bag, she pulled out the thin frog-covered yellow blanket. Jumping to her feet, she hastily spread it on the bottom of the small pen and watched Cort gently start to deposit her child onto the soft nest.

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 you 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.”