It was almost noon when she went downstairs to her office to get going with the mundane task of reviewing invoicesand screening résumés. She was ten minutes into checking the invoices when Josh called on her cell.
She glanced down at the image of him in his banana costume and felt a little lurch in her chest—maybe guilt that she’d yet to share the baby news. Or maybe that thrill she always got at the thought of him now. Because the secret-fling thing with him? It was every bit as hot and fantastic as it had been that first night in October.
She took the call. “Hey.”
“There you are.” He said those three words low. And intimate. For her ears alone. “I thought for a second that you wouldn’t pick up.”
“You call, I answer.”
“I love the way you say that.”
A shiver ran up the backs of her knees. She chuckled. “But seriously. What?”
“Hmm,” he said, slow and deep, still teasing her. “Let me think…” And then he was all business. “Oh, right. I called to confirm—tomorrow at my place, you and Dillon, me and Shane.”
He had two beautiful acres of land outside of town, complete with a pretty little creek that drained into a pond. His dad had acquired the property in some deal or other and then deeded it to Josh for his twenty-eighth birthday. Bravo Construction had then gone right to work building a log house and a barn.
He asked, “Can you get there at seven or so? I’ll make us breakfast before we go fishing.”
“Seven. We’ll be there.”
“Excellent,” said Josh. “I have two short poles for the boys and plenty of worms—you get your fishing license?”
“Yes, I did.” Her dad used to take her spin fishing starting way back when she was five. And then, the year afterher mom died, when Riley was eleven, he’d taught her to fly fish. She treasured the memories of the two of them, out at the crack of dawn of a summer morning, casting for trout, determined to catch their limit.
Alvin Barkowski had worked for the Wyoming Department of Transportation. He’d died when she was twenty, got caught in a landslide on Teton Pass. To this day, she teared up at the thought of him, of his gentle voice and his kind eyes. He had a slight limp from an earlier accident on the job, but he never let it get him down.
“You’re quiet,” sad Josh. “Thinking about your dad?”
“How’d you guess?”
“I remember you used to go fishing with him—and I know you miss him.”
“I do, yeah. A lot.” She shook off the sadness and asked brightly, “So. What can I bring?”
“It’s a sleepover,” Josh said. “Bring your PJ’s. Or don’t.”
“Very funny.” She faked a stern tone. “And seriously, are you planning hanky-panky with the children there?”
“We’ll be stealthy. They will never know what we get up to once they’re all tucked in bed.”
She stared blankly at an invoice from the linen supplier and had no idea what it said as she thought of the baby again. Could she tell him tomorrow after the kids were in bed?
No. Not a good idea, to go sharing the big news with the kids asleep in another room. He might need to leave once she got the words out, might want to give himself space to get over the shock.
Coward, muttered a disapproving voice in her head. She should have told him weeks ago.
And she would tell very soon. Just not this weekend. And that was okay. Kind of. It was Shane’s birthday celebration,after all. Not a good time to break the big news about the baby…
“Riley? You still with me?”
“Right here. And, Josh, there is no way I am sneaking into your room with the boys in bed across the hallway.”
“Whatever you say.”
“I mean it, Josh.”
“Understood.”
