Page 60 of Waiting in Wyoming

“I drive between Finley Creek and here a lot. I just got back up here from Texas. I drove all night. Truck started acting up in Colorado. But I got here on time at least. My bosses were happy.”

He’d picked up the load just outside of Finley Creek as an emergency, and he hadn’t stopped until he’d gotten up here. Just like his boss had said.

“That is a long drive. I put you on the second floor. We have special rooms reserved there at a travelers’ rate. It’s a ten percent discount.” Dylan gave him his license and his registration slip. “Our dining room is still open for another hour, if you are hungry. We also have a coin-operated laundry. I know babies make a lot of laundry. So do twenty-one-year-old sisters, for that matter. Twice as much laundry as I do, for some reason.”

“We have two of those twenty-one-year-old sisters, Dylan. Twice as much laundry is kind of a given,” the nurse said.

“Oh yeah. I keep forgetting we have twins.”

Well, Katie sure did make a lot of laundry. “I’ll have to head back to my truck to grab it, but that will definitely come in handy.” He looked at the baby, then back at the two women. “I…well…I guess I’ll have to take her with me. I am still not used to this whole practical stuff with a baby thing.”

The two women looked at each other for a moment. Then Dixie nodded.

“Katie is more than welcome to stay here at the front desk and help us check in guests for a few minutes,” Dylan said. “We’re always looking for a good front desk crew. We’d be happy to put in your order in the dining room, if you need. It could be ready by the time you get back.”

Sonny looked at his baby. He was torn. He didn’t know these women. Did dads just do that? Leave their babies everywhere? With strangers?

The door to the inn opened. A beautiful woman in a police polo was there. She shot him a curious look, as she came to the front desk.

Sonny fought tensing. He had always felt weird around cops. His mom’s fault. She’d been a bit police avoidant most of his life. And, well, he had just dropped off a load of OPJ here. That could be bad. And he’d been arrested seven or eight times, now. Hard to forget.

“Deputy Tyler, what a surprise,” the nurse said. “What do we owe the occasion?”

“Waiting for my brother’s children. He’s bringing them to me over here after I grab food. My shift lasted a little longer than I thought. I am taking them home with me for the weekend. Shane has a conference in Montana, Gil is going to watch them while I work tomorrow.”

“That’s tomorrow? I forgot,” the nurse said as Katie started fussing.

The cop looked at her, and her face did that thing women did when they saw a baby. It got all soft and kind of glowy. “She’s adorable.”

“Thanks. I…my truck broke down in the IGA parking lot and we didn’t have any heat. But I need to get some stuff out of the cab. I just don’t know what to do with her. I don’t want to take her out in the cold if I don’t have to.” He forced himself to sound casual, even though she was a cop and everything.

“We were just telling him that she is welcome to sit with us for a few minutes,” Dylan said, running a finger over Katie’s little hand like she was fascinated by Sonny’s baby girl or something. “If he needs us to watch her. Childcare isn’t really a service we offer, but we can definitely make an exception.”

This lady was a cop, and that one was a nurse. They weren’t the kind who would hurt Katie. He knew that.

“I’ve just…never left her with anyone yet.”

The cop gave him a sweet smile. “I promise she’ll be okay with us. The IGA is just a few blocks, after all. It is too cold out there for her.”

Well, they were right. And Katie had no clean clothes, and her blankets smelled like pee. Some clean clothes for him wouldn’t hurt either. And it was far too cold to take a baby back outside. Sonny wasn’t that stupid.

“Okay. Thanks. My cell number is that one right there. It shouldn’t take me very long, I don’t think.”

When he turned, his eyes met Dylan’s cousin’s pretty green ones. She just looked at him and smiled, but she looked really tired. But really pretty. Were all the women in Masterson County like that?

They didn’t look rough and worn down like all the girls he knew. They just didn’t. That was one of the things he’d liked about Neveah at first. How clean and pretty she had been. Yes,this was the kind of place he wanted Katie to grow up, if all the women grew up to be like that.

50

“He’s from Finley Creek, Mey,”Dylan said after that man left. “How weird a coincidence is that?”

She was already getting the baby out of the car seat. She couldn’t wait to hold her again. Babysitting really wasn’t something they did at the inn—but Dixie said they had made exceptions before. They all had. Sometimes, guests needed a little extra help. And it was way too cold for a baby this young outside right now. It had started snowing again an hour ago.

“I have seen him before. In the diner. With Mr. King. Mr. King said he was his nephew or something. I saw Mr. King in Texas, too. I think that man was with him. Someone was, and they had the same baby seat. Brandt took me to a diner. They were there,” Meyra said quietly. She had circles under her eyes now. Dylan somehow suspected her cousin hadn’t got much quality sleep in Texas. “I saw them both there.”

Dylan had seen how Brandt had been holding Meyra’s hand. And the extremely disgruntled look on her uncle’s face when Meyra had pressed her forehead to Brandt’s rather delicious chest and hugged him like she had.

Meyra, who didn’thugpeople.