Page 15 of River Wild

The sheriff laughed since this had become a running joke between them. “You know me.”

“Yeah, I do,” his friend said, suddenly serious. “You’ve had a crush on Bailey from as far back as I can remember.”

“Sad, isn’t it,” Stuart joked as he picked up a fry and popped it into his mouth. He could see where he’d tried to substitute other women for her, and look how that had turned out.

“What’s sad about it is my sister. Bailey’s messed up.” Stuart nodded, unable to argue that. He feared it was much worse than anyone knew. “I don’t want you to leave, but it’s slim pickin’s in the Powder River Basin. Any woman with a brain gets out of here as quickly as she can. If you’re serious about quitting...”

“I’ve already written up my resignation. I just haven’t turned it in.”

Cooper looked surprised. “I suppose you told Bailey how you feel?”

“She knows I’m resigning.”

His friend shook his head. “Not about you resigning, about how you feel about her. You haven’t, have you.” He let out a curse. “I’m sorry, but there is no way you should leave town without telling her. You owe it to yourself and to her. She might surprise you. Or not.” His laugh was sad. “You do realize that no one would wish Bailey on you, including me as your friend.”

Stuart smiled and nodded.

“I left for two years, but I had to come back,” Cooper said.

“Your father owns one of the larger ranches in Montana.”

“That wasn’t why I came back, and you know it. Maybe you just need a change of scenery, and you’ll come back like I did.”

Stuart chuckled at that. “Seriously, you had a ranch and family to come back to. If I leave, I won’t have anything to come back to.”

“Except your best friend.”

He nodded. “I will miss you.” As he said it, he realized Cooper was about all he would miss—other than Bailey. Powder Crossing had some bad memories he’d gladly leave behind.

TILLYSTAFFORDMCKENNAstood in front of the hall mirror, her hand over her baby bump. She wanted to pinch herself, but it would probably make her throw up.She was having a baby!She should have been jumping up and down with excitement.She and Cooper, the love of her life, were having a baby!

If not for the almost constant nausea—morningsickness my foot!—she would have been working on the baby’s nursery or going to Billings with friends to ooh and ahh over cute baby clothes. Instead, she kept waiting for this part to end.

And feeling sorry for herself, as her younger sister had pointed out when she’d shown up on her doorstep.

“I can’t believe Mother hasn’t come back,” Oakley said, her gaze going to the baby bump. “She wouldn’t want to miss this.”

Tilly’s throat tightened, and all she could do was nod and invite her sister inside. When she was being truthful, she knew it wasn’t only the nausea that had her feeling bad. This wasn’t the way she’d pictured being married, pregnant and about to have her first child. Had she not fallen in love with Cooper McKenna, the son of her mother’s worst enemy, maybe things would have been different.

“So, you’re telling me you haven’t heard from Mother?” Oakley asked as Tilly followed her into the kitchen and watched her check the cookie jar. Oakley was always hungry.

“I haven’t seen her since my wedding.” Their mother, Charlotte Stafford, matriarch of the Stafford Ranch, had at least attended the wedding. Coming in at the last minute and leaving the moment the pastor had declared her and Cooper man and wife. The Stafford and McKenna families had been at war for years because of her mother’s and Holden’s long-ago love affair that had ended badly.

“But you talked to Mother before she left,” Oakley prodded, opening the refrigerator to look inside.

“Just to thank her for trying to help when Holly Jo was missing.” Holly Jo Robinson was Holden McKenna’s thirteen-year-old ward. “I thought Mother would want to be here for this,” Tilly said.

“Well, you have me,” Oakley said, closing the refrigerator with a sigh.

Right, she had her sister, who didn’t want to hear anything about babies. Oakley had recently gotten married and was more interested in long horseback rides with her husband, Pickett Hanson. The whole pregnancy thing with its bodily issues grossed her out, she said.

Just then, Tilly had to run to the closest bathroom to throw up.

“Don’t you bake anymore?” Oakley called from the other room. “All you think and talk about is babies. Have I told you how not fun you are anymore?”

Had she ever really been fun? Tilly wondered as she rinsed her mouth with mouthwash. She had thought that she’d be sharing all of this with her sister and mother.

“Where do you think Mother went?” Oakley asked as she came out of the bathroom. “Do you think she’s ever coming back?”

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