“Can I help you, sheriff?” A smiling saleswoman approached us, her gaze shifting between Caitlin and me. She was drawing conclusions, and I didn’t mind a bit.
“Just getting some ideas today, but thank you. We’ll be back,” I said and guided Caitlin from the store. “I think we should shop for clothes next.”
Caitlin didn’t dig her heels in, but she dragged her feet as we entered Hastings General Store and made our way to the baby section. “Everyone’s looking at us,” she murmured.
We’d drawn several glances, but who cared? “So?”
“Two plus two is four, Brian,” she said in a whisper. “Everyone is putting it together and realizing I’m pregnant. That’s why shopping in a small town is a bad idea. We can’t be anonymous here. In a larger town, no one would notice us.”
“You don’t want people to know you’re having my baby?” I kept my tone light, but she put her hands on her hips.
“It’s not that.” She was cute in her exasperation. “It just doesn’t make sense to put ourselves on display like this. And for what? We can’t buy anything anyway. Not when we don’t even knowwhere we’ll live. What if we need two of everything? One set for your house and one for my apartment? Shouldn’t we figure that out before we do any shopping?”
I shook my head at that and drew her to me. “One set because we’ll be living together.” I kept my eyes on her, noting the uncertainty but hoping I could smooth it away. To me, there was only one option. I wasn’t going to be separated from her or our child.
“How can you be sure?” she asked.
“Because I am, darling.” I kissed her lightly on the lips before she could raise more questions or objections. I reminded myself that I still had time to show her that living in Poplar Springs with me was the life for us. The sublet on her apartment hadn’t run out yet, so she wouldn’t be rushing back anytime soon.
“We better look at some outfits. We don’t want the baby to be naked. People’ll talk.” I directed our attention to a rack of baby outfits and selected two. “Boy or girl?” I held the tiny articles of clothing in front of me like I’d seen women do in stores. “What do you think? I’m concerned about color because girls can wear blue, but boys can’t wear pink. That’s a rule.”
“It is? I think you’d look great in pink.” She tapped me in the middle of my black T-shirt. “It would suit your coloring and make your green eyes pop.”
“Not happening,” I said with a fake scowl, glad she was joking with me. “Maybe we should buy a couple of each color.”
She took the outfits from me and put them back on the rack. “I think we should wait until we know what gender the baby is.”
“Really?” I tipped my head to the side and gave her my best smile. “Those are pretty cute. We don’t want to miss out.”
“You’re being ridiculous.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “If you insist on getting something, I like this.” She pulled out a white one-piece outfit with a yellow duck on the front. “It’s gender neutral.”
“Works for me,” I said, taking the item and going to the counter to pay. When we were headed out of the store, we bumped into a man on the sidewalk who was tapping buttons on his phone.
“I’m sorry…” Caitlin began apologizing before freezing in her tracks. “Dad?”
“Caitlin, your mother said you were in town. Good to see you.” Dave Baker glanced up before returning his attention to his phone, making me wonder about the truth of his statement. What kind of father didn’t even give his daughter a hug? I wanted to spin Caitlin’s dad around and tell him to actuallyseehis own daughter.
“I meant to come over to the house,” Caitlin’s voice was tentative, “but I’ve been working a lot.”
“Working’s good. And you might as well do it here as in Austin. I don’t know whatever made you think you could be successful there.” Her father was looking at her now, but it wasn’t a welcoming expression. “Coming home was the right choice. Now you can stop wasting time and money chasing that foolish tattoo shop dream.”
I watched as Caitlin controlled her face and took a deep breath. “Dad, Brian and I have some news to share. We’re going to have a baby, and?—”
Dave’s phone rang. “Not now, sweetie. Work call. I need to take this.” He walked off as he answered his phone.
What the hell kind of father was that man? Had he not heard her say she was having a baby? I was ready to chase him down and pitch his phone into the street. Before I could move a step toward Caitlin’s dad, I saw her shoulders slump in defeat. Instantly, I was drawn back to her and put my arm around her. I’d known her relationship with her parents was rocky, but I was still shocked by how unfeeling her father had been. And from what she’d let slip, her mother was even worse.
“It’s okay,” I said, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Lots of people will be happy for us.”
“But he’s my dad.” She gave herself a shake and broke from me. “I’m done shopping. Let’s go home now.” She began walking quickly down the sidewalk, forcing me to catch up to her.
“Okay. How about we spend the day together doing something else?” I said. “Maybe we can binge that series you were telling me about.” I wasn’t a fan of period shows where everyone was dressed up like a peacock, but for her, I’d watch every episode.
“Sure. Sounds good,” she said, but there was no enthusiasm left in her voice. I mentally cursed Dave Baker for taking that from her.
We’d just entered my house when my phone rang. I checked the screen and saw it was Sofia. It would be work-related, probably something that would take me away from Caitlin when she seemed to need me. It couldn’t be helped though, I thought, as I answered the call.
“Hey, Brian, we’ve got a situation here,” my chief deputy explained. “You need to come.”
