Page 44 of Barbed Wire Hearts

“Absolutely! Feel free to look around. Let me know if you need any help. I’ll get some boxes ready to put things in.” She throws another appreciative look at Dakota before meandering away. I swear she has an extra sway in her step.

“Old muse?” I ask with a grin up at him.

He grimaces. “High School. Three months.”

“Seems like she’s hoping to fan the flames again,” I tease before going over to a rack of clothing. “If they only have boy clothes, we should get some girl ones. They’ll need things in different sizes, so they have clothes to transition to. At least, that’s what I saw at the few baby showers I’ve been to.”

“Clothes. Right,” he says, nodding and coming over. “What kind of clothes?”

My eyes flick to his. “I. . . don’t know. But maybe not something with a million buttons? Babies wake up in the middle of the night, right? Buttons seem like a horrible idea.”

“No buttons,” he repeats, flipping through. “What about this one?” He holds up a onesie that says “I’ll rope your heart” that has a lasso in the shape of a heart.

“Perfect. Yes,” I encourage. “Just like that.”

We end up gathering armfuls of clothing and taking it to the front. Helen’s eyes bug out at the number of outfits we dump up there and even more so when we go back for more.

“Diapers,” I say, looking at all the brands. “Did they say what brand they used before?”

“No?” he says, but it’s more of a question than an answer. “I have no idea.”

“The Holden’s got the Huggies before,” Helen offers helpfully.

I sigh in relief and grab a box of those.

“We should get a few sizes of these, too,” Dakota says. “Right? Plus, there’s two babies. Twice the need.”

“It’s up to you,” I say, grabbing another box. I watch as he grabs a few of his own and we set those by the counter. “Okay, other baby things.”

We go to the wall and look over at the toys and chewies and everything there. They’ll probably have bottles and stuff. I specifically look for girly things they may not have and end up handing Dakota a few of the chewies and then turning for crib sheets and blankets. I grab a few pink things and then some yellow to give variety. There’s lots of cowboy and girl themed stuff here at least.

“The boots,” I say, pointing to the tiny little baby shoes that look like cowboy boots. “We need those.”

Dakota laughs and grabs two pink ones. “Absolutely.”

In the end, Helen ends up saying a wild number that Dakota pays without hesitation. When I glance up at him, he shrugs. “They’ve been working at the ranch with me for ten years. I think they’ve deserved an extra bonus.”

Wow. Maybe I picked the greatest place to work, after all.

“I’ll have everything delivered to their house,” Helen beams. “Oh, and Dakota, if you’d ever like to go out for coffee sometime, let me know. I’m always free after work.”

Dakota tenses, the corner of his eye twitching. “Will do, Helen. Thanks.”

He tips his hat as we leave but the moment we’re outside, I burst out laughing. “Why so tense?”

He grimaces. “I didn’t want to be disrespectful to you.”

I shrug. “It’s a small town. It’s bound to happen that I run into old flames from the three of you. Besides, we’re not exactly dating,” I point out.

“We’re not?” Dakota growls. “Why aren’t we?”

Raising my brow at him, I poke him in the chest. “Not a single one of you have asked me to be your girlfriend. There’re no titles, so that means we’re not technically dating.”

I’m turning toward the truck when his hand lashes out to hook on my belt loop. He spins me and jerks me close. “Just because we haven’t put a title on it doesn’t mean we aren’t dating,” he grunts.

“That’s exactly what it means,” I say, looking up at him. “Back home, if you didn’t have a title, that means you’re just one in a stable.”

“Is that what you think you are?” he murmurs, leaning down. “A broodmare?”

---