Page 42 of His First Baby Rodeo

“That’s really good!” Mac said. “Here, put it in the basket. Gently, okay? We don’t want any of them to break.”

Brody set the egg down carefully. “Should I get more?”

“Do you see more?”

“There are lots,” Brody said.

“Go for it, then,” Mac encouraged. “You’ve got this. I’ll just watch.”

He sat back as Brody fished one egg after another out of the chicken coop and laid them gently in the basket. He was impressed by the little boy’s careful handling of the eggs. He seemed determined not to let anything happen to them. Mac had to admit, he hadn’t had a lot of faith in this kid’s ability to handle this task effectively, but he had misjudged him.

El returned with Phoebe. The little girl wandered over to see what her brother was doing, and a moment later he had begun talking her through the process. Phoebe seemed reluctant to grab any eggs herself, as Brody had predicted, but she looked content to watch her brother at work on the project.

“This is impressive,” El commented.

“Yeah, I know,” Mac agreed. “The kid’s a natural.”

“That’s not what I mean,” El said. “You taught him how to do it.”

“Oh.” Mac was surprised. “Well, it really wasn’t that hard. He just needed to be told that it was important to be slow and steady about it.”

“I think you played more of a role than you’re giving yourself credit for,” El countered.“Slow and steady really isn’t Brody’s strong suit. He’s a bit of a chaos agent. I was worried this wouldn’t be a good job for him. But you’ve got him taking it seriously and doing a good job with it. You’re pretty good with kids, you know.”

The compliment made Mac feel deeply uneasy. “Thanks,” he murmured.

She nodded and sat down, leaning back against a tree.

Mac remained standing. What did she mean by pointing out that he was good with kids?Surelyshe wasn’t thinking about a potential future for the two of them.

Of course she isn’t. That’s crazy. I’m just being paranoid because Jeff was just here looking at me like I was doing something wrong.

That was probably true. But at the same time… he thought El probably did want to have a family someday. And that wasn’t something he saw in his own future.

She had been so hurt by the fact that her ex had been dishonest about his intentions. That was the thing she said every time he came up in conversation. She wasn’t brokenhearted because she had been in love with him and couldn’t get over the loss. It was just that she had wasted her time. Thathehad wasted her time.

Now Mac was doing the same thing.

He had told himself it was fine, that what was happening between them was permissible because she’d promised him she could guard her heart. And she was strong. He believed she probably could. But even if she wasn’t at risk of falling for him in the way he feared he’d fallen for her, he was stealing time from her every time he kissed her. He was never going to marry her, never going to give her the future she wanted, so he shouldn’t be hinting at the possibility of giving her anything at all. He was being thoughtless. He was distracting her from pursuing the life she wanted because he wanted to have fun with her in the moment.

It had to end.

Everything about today, everything that had happened, was an indication that he needed to keep his distance from El. Starting now, he would put a wall between the two of them. There would be no more stolen moments, no more kisses, no more intimacy. They couldn’t even talk the way they once had, opening themselves up to one another. It all had to stop. From now on, he would be her boss — nothing more.

It crushed him to think of it. But at the same time, it was the right thing to do, and he knew it.

She would be leaving soon anyway. That cemented the decision for him. This was already about to end — they had been on the verge of losing each other as it was. It only made sense for them to begin the break now. Especially after what had happened last night. The two of them had opened up to one another in a way they never had previously, and at exactly the wrong time. They shouldn’t be getting in deeper right now. They should be pulling apart.

It was going to hurt him badly to do it. That was something he hadn’t reckoned on.

He watched her watching the kids, the wind blowing her hair back from her long neck, and thought about what this place was going to be like once she was gone. Lonely. Depressing. Every day the same as the one before.

But he had always known that their arrangement couldn’t last.

He was going to end it, and he was going to do it now — while he still had the power to do it himself.

CHAPTER19

EL

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