Page 125 of Boston
“It’s all right,” she said.
He wore a name tag that said Dustin, and she reached for a pen and a sticky pad.
“What’s your full name?” she asked. “I’ll make sure you get a nice tip.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that, Miss Silver,” he said.
She looked at him, feeling a hint of ice running through her veins now. He swallowed and said, “Dustin Kent.”
“Thank you, Dustin.” She smiled at him, scrawled his name on a sticky note, and reached to flip over the mug. He scampered out of the office, and Cora told herself to take her glaring down a little bit. It wasn’t his fault that Kat had had babies seven weeks early, or that they had overbooked everyone in July, or that she and Boston had broken up.
A week later,Cora climbed the steps at her sister’s cabin the way she had been every night for the past five weeks. She didn’t need to knock, and she heard the sound of an infant cryingbefore her hand landed on the doorknob. She’d spent so much time with Roy and Denim that she knew the cry of the younger twin.
She entered the cabin and paused to assess the situation, something Cora usually did in every part of her life. She didn’t see Jeremy or her mother, and Kat already had Roy in her arms.
“Where is everyone?” Cora asked, moving over to the seat where Denim acted like the world was coming to an end.
“He just wants to be held,” Kat said, frowning at her son. “He’s already eaten.”
Cora lifted the screaming baby into her arms and shushed him. She picked up a blanket from the arm of the couch and pressed it against his back, then tucked it around him tightly. Denim always tried to get loose, but he was never happy if he wasn’t bundled.
“Oh, you’re so mad,” Cora said as she bounced him and held him tightly against her heartbeat. “You’re okay. Auntie Cora is here. You’re okay.”
She patted his back and looked around for a pacifier. She found one sitting on the table, and she moved over to it. “Can he have this?”
“I don’t know who had it in their mouth last.” Kat had scraped her hair back into a ponytail, but plenty of tendrils had escaped, as if she’d taken a nap, rolled around in bed, and hadn’t refixed her hair.
“Where’s everyone else?” Cora asked as she settled the pacifier in Denim’s mouth.
“Jeremy had to get Kelsey out of the house,” Kat said. “She’s been having a rough day.”
“Seems like it’s going around,” Cora said. “Where’s Momma?”
“Getting her nails done.”
Cora hadn’t had time to pamper herself since that first massage back in June, and she told herself that life wouldn’t always be this crazy and hectic. She got Denim to quiet finally, and she sank onto the couch opposite Kat.
“He’s eating good,” she said, smiling at Roy.
“Finally.” Kat wore bags under her eyes, and her smile only stayed for a moment. “I seriously don’t know why I thought having another baby would be a good idea. And then we got two.” She looked like she might start crying, and Cora switched her gaze down to the beautiful baby boy in her arms.
Denim had just passed five pounds, and he was really starting to get some chunk in his cheeks. He still had all of the dark hair he’d been born with, and Cora couldn’t help wondering what a little boy with half of her genes and half of Boston’s would look like. He was so fair, while she wasn’t. And while Jeremy wasn’t as dark as her and Kat, he had hazel eyes and brown hair, so both babies didn’t have a stitch of blonde in them.
She wondered what Boston was doing that night, and then she remembered that he’d be going up to Ramsfire Ridge tomorrow. Ernie had said at their last meeting that Boston wanted to finish the plans to make it an overnight trip, and that he wanted to be on their schedule for September or October when they talked about the adventures they offered at the lodge. Cora had felt his passion for this project, and as she looked at Denim, a smile came to her face that wasn’t entirely happy.
“I haven’t seen Boston around for a while,” Kat said. “What’s going on with you two?”
Cora whipped her head up and looked over to her sister. She blinked, because she was sure she had told Kat that they had broken up.
“I told you this already,” she said. “We broke up weeks ago.”
“Weeks ago?” Kat asked. “That is not true. You never told me that.”
Cora narrowed her eyes at her sister. “I’m sure I did.”
“Was I awake?” Kat asked, her eyes frantically searching Cora’s. “Why did you break up with him? You guys were so cute.”
“What makes you think I broke up with him?”
