She sucked in a breath. She couldn't let herself think about that other possibility right now. She couldn’t let that dirtiness creep in. Not if she was going to manage this meeting with any amount of courage.
Eric studied her. Maybe waiting for her to speak first.
"Eric." She was pleased that her voicesounded strong.
His expression turned unreadable. "Naomi." His voice sounded guarded.
She took a deep breath, pushing down her anger. She could be decent and civil. "You've finally come." Perhaps that was stretchingcivil.
Definitely sparks in his eyes. "To find my daughter wandering from the house by herself. She tried to run down this mountainside and nearly fell. If she had, her head could have hit a rock. She could have died."
Anger surged, but she grabbed her control just in time. She and Eric had created this beautiful child together, yetshehad borne the burden of raising her alone. And now, here he stood, acting like some great protector, as if he’d always been here. As if he’d never left her side.
She was still searching for a fair response when Jonah's voice ground out beside her. "You'd best keep it respectful. And I'd think twice about accusing someone of not doing what you haven't been around to do yourself." The warning in both his words and tone were impossible to ignore.
Eric regarded Jonah, and she could hardly breathe as she watched him. Would he rile even more at that barely-veiled attack?
These two had just traveled from Fort Benton together, which was probably what Dinah had been trying to tell her when Naomi had hurried to stand up earlier. That would be a journey of at least two weeks. Had they been civil to each other all that time? Or had resentment festered between them on the trail? She could feel anger seething from Jonah, though he kept it in check. She didn't dare take her eyes off Eric as he eyed Jonah with a calculating expression.
Whatever passed between the two of them seemed to be what Eric needed in order for his tension to ease a little. His gaze moved back to her, and he gave a tight nod. "He's right. I haven't been here, though that certainly wasn't my choice. Iwould have come if I'd known." His voice tensed again, but then he breathed out. "You did bear all the weight of raising her. Now that I'm here, I intend to do my part."
She'd done more than raise the child. Getting the babe to the point of being born alive had been almost harder than the months afterward. But a man wouldn't think of that.
And what did he mean, he intended to do his part? Did he plan to stay? Because there was no way under the sun, moon, and stars she would allow him to take her daughter away from her.
And she wasn’t leaving these mountains. The peace of this place had changed her.
Her hands trembled, the need to hold her daughter taking over in a rush so quick that she could think of nothing else. She smiled down at Mary Ellen, who stood looking at them uncertainly, her hand still in Eric's grip.
Mary Ellen’s little cheeks appled in a relieved smile. She started forward, slipping from Eric's grasp. He must not have been expecting her to pull away. Either that or he was allowing her to go to Naomi.
She bent low and scooped up Mary Ellen, holding her close, breathing in the scent of sleep that always lingered after she awoke from a nap. The feel of her, the solidness, centered Naomi. This wasn't such an awful thing. She'd wanted Eric to come. He needed to know his daughter, and this sweet bundle needed her father.
After inhaling another steadying breath, she turned back to Eric. "Running Woman was napping in the room with Mary Ellen. She must still be asleep. Mary Ellen has just learned how to open door latches."
Eric's brows lowered. "We need to find a different way to secure the doors then."
As if she wasn't doing enough to keep her daughter safe. Couldn’t he see how perfectly healthy andhappy Mary Ellen was? Couldn’t he see how much Naomi had already done—by herself, thank you very much?
She tried to keep her voice even. "She's just learned the trick this week. I've been placing a chair in front of the door to the bed chamber when she sleeps, but I didn't want to do that with Running Woman in the room. She’s elderly and might not be strong enough to push it aside." The woman had never fully recovered her strength after a hard fight against smallpox last year.
Eric shook his head with a tight smile. "I'll see to something more secure."
"I'llsee to something more secure." Jonah's voice held warning. "It's our house, after all."
The way he saidourmade it sound like he meant the two of them. As if she and Jonah lived there as man and wife, even though they weren't married yet.
Heat flared up her neck, and she fumbled for a way to make the point clear. "The Coulter home, that is. Jericho and Dinah have one of the rooms, and I sleep in the other with Mary Ellen." But while her sister and brother-in-law had been gone, Two Stones’s parents had been kind enough to stay here with her. Chaperones of sorts, since the only other people on the ranch were Jonah's three younger brothers.
Jonah straightened, his hand dropping from her back. She glanced at him in time to see a flash of hurt beneath his anger. Had she injured him with her explanation?
"The point is”—Jonah’s voice was hard—“this is notyourhome to come in and make changes. Naomi is notyourwoman. Mary Ellen might be your flesh and blood, but you've not done anything to help with her, not in the hard months when Naomi carried her, not during her birth, and not for any moment since then. You might have a small claim on her—atinyclaim—but if you intend to have any part in her life, you'd best come here with your hat in your hands respectfully."
Tension crackled between them. The rest of the group had gathered around and beside her, but no one spoke.
Eric glared at Jonah, and when Jonah glared back, there was no calming effect.
The fire in Eric’s eyes could have lit a campfire. "You think I wanted to be left in the dark? You think I wanted to miss the firstyearof my daughter’s life? I would have dropped everything—changedeverything—to be with her. I would have found the best doctors for her, taken all the hardest parts on myself.” His voice nearly shook with intensity. He stepped closer to Jonah, and though his voice was lower, the words hummed with intensity. "Now that I'm here, I can promise you this. No man—not you and all your brothers combined—is going to keep me from taking care of my daughter the way I see fit."
