LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Just hold your horses. The wheelchair won’t be much longer. One of the orderlies is bringing it here. Uh-uh,” she scolded and shook her finger when Eve started to get out of the bed. “That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen if you was to fall or something. Like Lawson did.” Mildred helped herself to one of the melon chunks that was on Eve’s breakfast tray. “Of course, Lawson can’t sue you because he was on the Granger Ranch when his butt got cut bad enough to need stitches.”

      So, everyone obviously knew about that. That wouldn’t please Lawson. It didn’t please Eve, either, because she didn’t need any other reason for Lawson to be upset with her.

      “Lawson’s fall coulda been bad fortune on account of him breaking up with Darby. You know his girlfriend, Darby?” Mildred asked. “Or rather his ex-girlfriend?”

      Mildred was still chewing on the honeydew when she put that question to Eve, but Eve detected a little snarkiness in it. Since Mildred had already told her that Darby was a nurse at this hospital, it was reasonable that the staff would take Darby’s side in a breakup. But that had nothing to do with Eve.

      Though Mildred’s sour-milk expression indicated otherwise.

      Good gravy. The woman thought she was why Lawson had ended the relationship. Blaming Eve could be the reason that there was a delay in the wheelchair arrival. Maybe everyone in the hospital wanted to give her a dose of their own version of payback.

      Too bad Eve didn’t have her phone or she could have called someone to get that chair here ASAP. Of course, if she had her phone, she could also call Tessie and check on her.

      Well, if Tessie would answer, that is.

      Eve figured her chances of Tessie accepting her call were about the same as Mildred limiting herself to a single piece of honeydew.

      Mildred chomped down on another piece, leaving little globs of green melon on the thick coating of neon pink lipstick. “Darby said you used to be some big-time television actress in Hollywood. Why’d you come back after all this time?”

      Good question, and the answer probably wasn’t something Mildred would understand. But Eve had wanted “normal” again, and the last time she’d felt anything close to that had been here in Wrangler’s Creek. Ditto for this being the only place that had ever felt like home. Plus, she would be much closer to Tessie. That was a huge bonus.

      Normal and home came with consequences, though, because this was Lawson’s home, too, but Eve had thought it was time to confront that part of her past. Not so she could fix things with Lawson.

      There was little or no chance of that happening.

      Maybe though she could figure out a way to be in the same general vicinity with him while trying to piece together all those other things that she needed to piece together to stay sane.

      Mildred glanced at her, her raised eyebrow questioning Eve’s decision to return to Wrangler’s Creek. Then the nurse shrugged as if it didn’t matter anyway. “Never watched TV myself. Mama’s doing. She always said there was no place in her house for such hooey phooey or poppycock.”

      Well, Demon High hadn’t exactly been brainy viewing, but Eve wasn’t sure it fell into the hooey phooey or poppycock category. She decided to take that as a cue for her to do something to end this annoying chat.

      “Lawsuits aside,” Eve said, getting out of the bed, “I’m seeing my baby.”

      Eve wasn’t in any shape to fight off even a senior citizen–honeydew-stealing nurse, but she would somehow manage it. She’d already spent too much time away from her little boy.

      “I’m telling the doctor,” Mildred declared, and she scurried out—taking another melon chunk with her. The woman no longer sounded like a relic from the past but rather like a tattling schoolgirl.

      Eve figured this was going to earn her a good chewing out from assorted medical personnel, but it would be so worth it. Using the wall for support, she groped her way across the room while she tried to pinch the back of her open gown together so her butt would be covered. The adult diaper they’d given her to wear was completely sheer except for the strip down the middle, and she didn’t want to flash anyone on her way to the nursery.

      She’d worked up a sweat by the time she got to the door. Eve opened it, stepped into the hall.

      And came face-to-face with a circus.

      There were balloons, someone dancing in a bear suit and people. Lots of people. Some of them snapped pictures of her while calling out her name to look their way. They pushed forward toward her, causing her to stagger back. The shock and temporary blindness almost caused her to miss the man in the center of this unholy hoopla.

      Kellan.

      She didn’t quite manage to contain the glare before it made it to her face. A glare that would almost certainly be on a tabloid cover come tomorrow.

      “Baby-Cakes,” Kellan purred.

      Eve hated the nickname and hated the kiss that Kellan dropped on her mouth. It was possible the kiss bruised him a little since her lips were pinched and tight.

      “Sorry that we caught you without your makeup,” Kellan added, giving her a quick once-over. The once-over ended with him frowning at her hair. “Don’t they give out combs in this place?”

      Eve hadn’t thought her mouth could get any tighter, but she’d been wrong. She was about to muster up something polite about everyone needing to leave so Kellan and she could have some privacy, but she didn’t get the chance.

      “Y’all gotta leave,” someone called out. Nurse Mildred. “Right now.” The tattling schoolgirl was gone. This was a mean middle-school teacher’s voice, and Eve was thankful for it.

      Mildred wagged her index finger at the paparazzi and then used that same finger to point to the nearest exit. Even her pointing gestures were mean. There were some protests, more pictures flashed, but Mildred managed to start them moving.

      “You get out of here, too,” Mildred added to the dancing bear. “And take those stupid balloons with you. Latex allergy is a real thing, people.” She grumbled something else under her breath that Eve didn’t catch. “In my mama’s day, she would have busted a tushy or two for causing a commotion like this.”

      Mildred turned her chilly gaze on Kellan next. Normally, most women softened or even melted when they got an up-close look at Kellan’s pretty face and bedroom blue eyes, but his looks had no effect whatsoever on the woman. She kept up the chilliness and the scowl.

      “Are your ears plugged up from all those earrings you’re wearing?” Mildred snapped. “Because I’m pretty sure I said you had to leave.”

      Kellan didn’t seem fazed by that. He upped his usually charming smile a notch. “But I’m the father of Eve’s baby. I want to see her and my son.”

      Mildred gave him the squinty eye as if trying to figure out if that was true. She was still squinting when Eve sighed and nodded. “Yes, he’s the father.”

      Eve hadn’t intended for “father” to have the same tone as “yeast infection,” but Kellan was not on her happy list. The only thing on that list right now was the baby and Tessie, and Tessie’s name had an asterisk next to it since at the moment she was causing Eve more worry than happiness.

      Mildred finally gave a nod of her own, which was her okay for Kellan to stay. “But no more bears, photographers or balloons.”

      “The bear and balloons were for the baby,” Kellan said to Eve.

      Not exactly normal offerings for a newborn, but no one had ever accused Kellan of being normal. “And the paparazzi?” she questioned.

      He smiled. “Free publicity, Baby-Cakes. You know how it is.”

      Yes, she did, and it caused Eve to sigh again. She was too old for publicity. Too old to be having one-night stands with Kellan. And too old not

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