“You broke Brandt,” Shane whispered to her, battling the strangest urge to take a picture. And not simply because the scene was adorable, but also because Brandt was way too appealing asleep with his muscular arms poking out of his shirt and his scruffy jaw and his full lips, gently parted...
Yeah. Shane wanted a picture of that. Yet instead of giving into the impulse, he went into the kitchen. Brandt had done a nice job with the beans the night before, but Shane had learned early on to fend for himself with food. He found a canister of good coffee, and assuming Brandt drank it, he started a pot. Glancing back at the sitting area from time to time, he checked in on Jewel while he fixed some eggs and bacon. He made a mental note to pay Brandt back for the groceries. The guy hadn’t been expecting Shane to drop into his life like this, and honestly, Shane would give a lot to not have needed to.
The coffeepot hissed as it finished brewing, and the eggs finished at the same time as the bacon. Shane wanted to believe it was a good omen in a life with far too few of them lately.
“Coffee?” Brandt came awake with a start, one of those guys who had the talent of going from dead to the world to bolt upright in three blinks. “Smells great.”
“Good. I didn’t know how you take it, but it’s ready if you want a cup.”
“Hot, strong, sweet, and plentiful enough for seconds.” Brandt’s laugh was almost as deep and rich as the brew.
“Noted.” Shane could apply those same adjectives to describe Brandt himself, something that made the back of his neck heat. Same as all those months ago, he didn’t want to be attracted to Brandt, didn’t want the way his body reacted to the other man, but he seemed powerless to stop it. He plated the food as Brandt poured two mugs of coffee. Cozy. Like the laundry and making the bed the night before.
“Wanna take bets as to whether Little Miss lets us eat?” Handing Shane a mug, Brandt scooped up a plate and took it to the table.
“Dish duty.” Shane took the bet with a smile. “I say she’s gonna howl. If I’m wrong, I’ll do the dishes.”
“Sounds good. We’ve got an appointment with the lawyer at ten.”
“Okay. You’re sure you want me to come along?” Shane didn’t want to assume. Heck, in Brandt’s situation he might want to be alone at the lawyer simply to complain about the audacity of someone showing up with a kid on his doorstep.
“Yeah. The lawyer said there’s a medical lab nearby. It’s a cheek swab for the baby, so no big poke, but I don’t want to take her without you. And like it or not, you’re in this thing too.”
“True.” Shane didn’t want that either, didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to be responsible for something so tiny and important, not when he didn’t even have his own life together. “I’m still pissed at Shelby. I never babysat or anything like that. Hell, this might be the first baby this young I’ve held.”
“No younger siblings or cousins?”
“Nah. Only the two of us. And we’ve got cousins, but they’re somewhere on the east coast. Never really met. My folks were the branch of the family tree others tended to want to prune off.”
“I hear that.” Brandt saluted his with his coffee cup. “I suppose I’ve got extended family, but they didn’t care to get involved when I was in foster care, so I’ve never felt the need to go tracking them down. Not gonna be one of those teary commercials for that genealogy website.”
“Yup. Same. Like it or not, I guess we’re all Jewel has.” The truth of that statement hit him like a boat anchor, pulling him back under, away from the good mood he’d been in since waking up.
“Guess so.” Brandt closed his eyes as he exhaled hard, as if he too were overwhelmed. Which he likely was. This was a lot to hit a person with out of the blue.
Even if the testing showed Brandt was the father, was Shane really going to be able to walk away from them both? The heavy feeling in his gut said that like Brandt, he was stuck. No bolting town. Yet again, he’d be the one cleaning up after Shelby, proving he was the better person. And that meant working together with Brandt to do what needed to be done and figuring out a way to ignore the way the air crackled every time Brandt so much as smiled his direction. The baby had to come first.
Chapter Five
“Jewel’s not exactly a low-maintenance girl, is she?” Brandt had to laugh as they finally departed for the lawyer’s office. He was used to going from dead asleep to on the road to the air base in under five minutes, but the baby traveled with her car seat, which had a snap-in base that Shane had had to retrieve from the RV. Then there was the diaper bag and a lunch box Brandt had dug up to hold bottles ready to go. Right as they’d been about to close the backseat door, Shane had produced a little light blanket to drape over the car seat to block the strong morning sun. It was no wonder that they were cutting it close to the appointment time. Luckily, the rural road that the house was off of was only a ten-minute drive to the center of Painter’s Ridge and only a little farther to the air base.
And how weird did a car seat look in the back of his old Jeep? Strange enough having someone else in the passenger seat, especially someone who wasn’t a coworker. Not to mention someone as distracting as Shane. Brandt was used to buddies he could largely ignore, not whatever this strange pull was that Shane had over him.
“Trust me, I’ve toured with some real divas before. At least this tiny one sleeps a lot, stays in her seat, and doesn’t require praise every five minutes.” Shane laughed, a rare sound from him. His laugh always had a hitch, like he was surprising himself too.
“Okay. You’ve got a point. Could be worse.” Brandt joined him in chuckling.
“Yup. She could be a teenager. I wouldn’t want to relive Shelby’s teen years for anything.”
“Yeah,” Brandt agreed weakly, stomach churning because that tiny baby in his rearview would indeed someday be someone’s opinionated, fashion-conscious, nonstop-eating teenager. This wasn’t simply a baby, a weekend sitting adventure. This was a person. A person who was going to grow and change and have needs, wants, and preferences. A person who would need parents. And the universe in all its wisdom thought that role should fall to Brandt? Lord help us all.
“Did you ever see yourself as a dad?” Shane asked, almost as if he could read Brandt’s discomfort. “Down the road, I mean. Assuming you met the right person...”
“No. Never. Not after my childhood. That’s why I was so careful with condoms. Always.” Brandt turned into Painter’s Ridge, following the directions he’d been given for locating the law offices in the small downtown. Nearby Bend was bigger, but there was something quaint and familiar about this small community that Brandt had always appreciated.