Page 56 of An Unfinished Memory

She grinned. “We’d come looking for you before Berry started nibbling your toes.”

“Doubt she’d wait that long.” The cat had a food obsession.

And a Wilder obsession. She rarely came out when the girls were over. Cody’s kids knew not to go looking for her, or she’d hide better. But Wilder? She was twining around his legs like she was going to trip him so he’d break something and have to stay.

“Grub’s ready,” Cody announced, bringing a plate of hamburgers and hot dogs to the table.

Catherine and the kids stopped the line dance they were doing and ran to the table. Cody and Tova’s new black Lab mix, Buster, stuck with them, his tail going wild.

I waited for everyone to line up for the food. Vienne was by her daughter. Cody and Tova were helping oversee their kids. Ansen had Ro so Aggie could dish up. I ended up right by Wilder. No one was paying attention to us, but the tension was going to cut off the air supply to my brain.

“Sorry about being here,” I said quietly to him. “Tova invited me.”

“It’s alright, Sutton. I don’t dictate what you do.”

His granite jaw suggested it wasn’t all right. He was facing the back of the line, the planes of his face hard and his expression carefully neutral. The scruff on his jaw was more than a couple days old. We shuffled forward.

The skin between my legs tingled, but my gut wrenched. My lower abdomen muscles were a dishclothgetting wrung out. I grimaced and pressed my hand to my abdomen.

Wilder’s gaze dipped down, then lifted to meet mine. “Cramps?”

I nodded. He knew the drill. “It’s been better since I moved here. I go to a doctor in Coal Haven. She listens a lot better than Dr. Beemer ever did.”

He grunted. “Dr. Beemer needs to retire.”

I had gone to a physician in Sidney, but I should’ve made the drive to an obstetrician in Billings. I would’ve been better earlier.

“Got your Midol?” he asked like he couldn’t help himself.

“And I took ibuprofen.” But it’d be an uncomfortable night on the bleachers. I wouldn’t let a rough period ruin my good time. I also hadn’t wanted Wilder to think I was purposely avoiding him.

We reached the table. Wilder grabbed a paper plate and handed me one. He took two buns out of the bag and dropped one on my plate. I preferred hamburgers over hot dogs. We were slipping into old habits.

I met his gaze, letting my dismay show. I couldn’t handle how much he cared about me right now and not ask him to just hold me.

A furrow formed between his brows. “Right,” he said and moved down the line.

The awful truth was I liked how he took care of me. I missed it. And I wished I kept my mouth shut last weekend so he hadn’t left.

In case I hadn’t cried enough over the weekend, I could cry again tonight, but it’d have to wait until I was in bed with a heating pad on my belly.

Wilder

The game was over. I got to see Grayson make a few passes, twirl his way out of a hard sack, and I high-fived him when his team won. I even went back to Cody’s house with him. The kids had gone to bed an hour earlier, and Tova had claimed she wanted a long soak, but she probably was giving me space to talk to Cody in private.

He updated me on all things Knight’s Oil Wells, and he confirmed Chambers was doing an adequate job as a bookkeeper. Bonus was that he was a bookkeeper who could put up with Eliot.

I slapped my knees. “I should let you go.”

“You work early tomorrow?”

“Noon,” I answered, staying right where I was. My plans of camping out with him or Aggie the last two nights had been shot when I drove home Saturday night. I took call Sunday, went to the football scrimmage, and worked for Eliot on my normal days off. I cost myself time with my family by being a jealous dumbass.

“You’ll get to sleep in.”

“If Eliot found out, he’d give me shit. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go help with chores.”

A wistful smile crossed his face. I wasn’t used to how easily he smiled these days. “When the kids get older, I might get a few head of cattle. Start growing a little ranch operation. Once the shop is built, I’m getting some haying equipment.”

---