Page 78 of Baby, Be Mine

This needed to work out. Not just for Mason and his family, but for me. Proving I could do this and continue to take care of my baby was more important to me than even the job itself.

My hip buzzed and I pulled out my phone.

MOM:

Please come home. You’ve proven your point.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket. I got two of those a day.

She was starting with the mom tone for the first one. The next one would be cajoling—that she wanted to see bean.

Each would come with varying levels of guilt.

I couldn’t think about that right now. After this big party, I’d take a drive out to Clintondale and let them meet the baby.

If I didn’t, they’d descend on Crescent Cove and probably bring all my siblings along too.

Mason threw a glance over his shoulder, his brow furrowed.

I don’t know how he always knew something was up with me. I gave him a wide smile and the lines eased as he smiled back.

The real smile kicked me in the chest—hard.

I didn’t get to see that one all that often. He was usually worried about some order, a staffing issue, or juggling too many things at once.

Butthatsmile was trouble.

I threw myself into enjoying lunch with my crew. Lucky was hilarious and seemed to have an endless trove of stories. He and Jensen had a quick back and forth together.

And a ton of ideas for monkeying around the tree.

I still needed to see what we were working with, but my daughter needed a bit of tending. I took bean into the bathroom for a quick clean up.

On my way out, I ran into Mason.

“Hey—I’ll get out of your hair. Thanks for feeding Maddie and Jensen. They’ve been a lot of help.”

“Worth it.” Mason stepped a little closer to get a look at Adriana. “Is she okay with all this heat?”

“She loves it. Mama is a little wilted, but she’s snug as a bug.” I patted her back as she slept on.

“You sure you don’t want to take the rest of the day off? I can supervise—”

“Oh, really? Between the sliver of time you have before the dinner rush and your twenty employees needing your time?”

He sighed. “More like thirty on a Thursday night.”

“See?”

“I just don’t want you overdoing it.”

I laid a hand on his upper arm. “And I appreciate it, but I’m fine. Truly.” He didn’t need to know that I could literally lie under the tent and sleep the rest of the day. Instead, I batted my eyelashes at him. “Can I see the lights?”

“Fine. They’re back here. But if you even think about trying to pick one up, I’ll have you booted off the property.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.” He crouched until our noses almost touched. “Beyond you being stubborn, I don’t want you hurt.”

---