Page 3 of Temporarily in Love

Okay, he definitely didn’t have a baby with his ex-wife Kath. I didn’t recognize the woman beside him, but she might not be a townie. She noticed me for the first time and gave me a sheepish look as she put the baby on her hip. “I’m sorry. Where are my manners? I’m Avery MacGregor. I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”

She held out her hand to me and we shook hands. “Lila Sullivan.”

Her blue eyes lit up. “Oh! You’re Kelsey’s sister. We teach at the high school together.” Avery saw me staring at her baby. “Do you want to hold her?”

“Oh. Can I?”

She nodded. “But fair warning, she likes to pull hair.”

“And beards,” Nolan muttered.

I smiled at that. It was good to know the more things changed in this town, the more they stayed the same, like Nolan MacGregor being a grump. Avery put the baby in my arms, who immediately tried to pull on my hair. I laughed and shook my long chestnut locks out of the way.

Avery chuckled. “Do you have kids? Seems like you have practice with this.”

I shook my head as I held her baby, and my heart did a somersault at how she laid her little head on my chest and curled up into me.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“Norah,” Nolan grunted.

“Oh,” I sighed, and my heart panged at the memory of Norah MacGregor. “Oh, Nol, you’re such a softie.”

Avery beamed. “Yeah, he is.”

Nolan scowled, but when Avery reached up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss, a smile spread across his face. Kath never made him smile like that. I don’t remember the last time I saw Nolan MacGregor smile. I could tell he loved his wife something fierce. And he had a baby. He looked so happy, and I never thought the grouch of a man would look like that.

“I can’t believe you have a baby,” I said.

Avery took Norah out of my arms as she started to fuss.

“I can’t believe you showed your face in town again,” Nolan shot back.

Avery arched an eyebrow at her husband. I wasn’t about to tell her that her husband hated me because of what I did to his brother.

“Lila!” my sister called out to me, distracting me from the conversation. She walked over to me with a plastic cup of beer in her hand. “Here, have a beer,” she said and handed it to me.

I wrinkled my nose. “No, thanks.”

“It’s a pumpkin beer. You love pumpkin,” said a voice from behind me. A deep manly voice that I was hoping I’d never hear ever again.

Crap. This was why I never came home.

Chapter Two

DECLAN

I should have been out on the floor checking that my servers didn’t need help. Or in the loft, making sure the art show was going off without a hitch. Or over in the town square, ensuring our booth for the Arts Fest had everything it needed.

What was I doing instead? Burying myself in spreadsheets. Because that’s what I did. I ran the numbers, did logistics, and managed the front end while my older brother Nolan brewed the beers. Thank god Gemma finally took the marketing director job over the summer, or I would have been doing that too. My big brother, god love him, was good at brewing beer, but he wasn’t a business guy.

A knock on my office door brought me out of my thoughts. I realized I had been staring at the numbers on my spreadsheet and not getting any work done. One of our bartenders, Felix, stood in the doorway, rubbing his tattooed hand across his beard nervously.

“Yo, boss man,” he said.

“What’s up?” I asked and took my glasses off. I rubbed the bridge of my nose in frustration. I usually wore my contacts, but spreadsheets hurt my eyes, so those were always glasses days.

Felix raked his hand through his shaggy black hair. “Wyatt had to call out sick, so we’re understaffed at the booth. I can’t go because it’s only me and Asher behind the bar here.”