“Just leaving the B and B,” he told her. “When I first checked in, I didn’t know how long I would be staying and the clerk didn’t think to mention that they were booked for the holiday weekend.”
“So where are you going?”
“I’ll try one of the hotels in town.”
So he wasn’t leaving town after all, she realized, strangely relieved by that fact. Maybe he would turn out to be a man that she—that Emma, she hastily amended—could count on. Still, Paige hesitated a moment before she said, “There’s a spare room here.”
Zach paused with his hand on the door. “Are you just sharing information or offering to let me stay with you?”
She hadn’t intended to invite him to stay, but she felt guilty for attempting to thwart his every effort. Or maybe she felt that she owed him because he’d been so great with Megan the day before, not to mention that he’d cleaned up her house.
Yes, he’d been at least partially responsible for the mess in the first place, but his efforts were commendable. And he really did seem to want to get to know Emma and to be willing to take things slowly for the little girl’s sake, and Paige found that she couldn’t—in good conscience—continue to stand in his way.
Whatever her reasons, she simply shrugged, as if her offer wasn’t a big deal. “You seem intent on hanging around here most of the time anyway.”
“I’d be more than happy to get out of your hair, but you panic any time Emma is even out of your sight.”
She couldn’t deny it was true. “I don’t know you well enough to trust you yet,” she reminded him. “Maybe staying under the same roof will change that.”
“Then I’ll accept the offer,” he said. “Because I know you have no reason to want to help me and all kinds of reasons not to.”
“I’m doing it for Emma,” she said. “Because if it turns out that you are her father, I want her to have a relationship with you.”
“Do you really still doubt that I am?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. It only matters what the DNA test reveals.”
“How long did you say it would take to get the results?”
“Because we’re using a private lab, probably not more than a week or ten days.”
“When did you say we can get it done?”
“Cameron said he can squeeze us in right after lunch on Monday.”
“That would be good,” Zach said.
For him, maybe. Paige would prefer to do the test … never. But that was an emotional and selfish response. This wasn’t about her and the potential repercussions for her life—it was about Emma, and she truly did want what was best for Olivia’s daughter.
“I’ll head over to the B and B now to settle up and be back here in about an hour. Then—” he glanced at Emma, who was sitting in an Elmo chair and turning the thick pages of a favorite book “—maybe I can take Emma to the p-a-r-k.”
Although Paige knew logically that a fourteen-month-old with a very limited vocabulary couldn’t possibly spell, she also knew that Emma had an unerring instinct about some things, which she proved when her head shot up in response to Zach’s comment. “Pawk?”
Zach’s brows lifted. Paige shrugged.
“Later,” he promised.
Later, when Zach and Emma had gone to the park, Ashley brought a plate of frosted brownies over to Paige.
“I had a craving,” she offered the explanation along with the squares.
“Thank you.” Paige’s mouth was already watering and her gratitude was sincere. “But how does your craving lead to me getting brownies?”
Ashley followed her into the kitchen. “Because I satisfied my craving, and because it will be something completely different that I have to have tomorrow, I thought I would share.”
Paige peeled back the plastic wrap and snuck a square out from under the cover.
“You could offer me a cup of tea in exchange for the goodies,” Ashley suggested, settling at the table.
“Oh. My.” Paige’s eyes closed as she bit into the chocolate and pure bliss exploded on her tongue. “All you want is a cup of tea? I’d be willing to give up one of my kidneys for chocolate this good.”
Ashley smiled. “Been a while since you had some?”
They both knew she wasn’t referring to chocolate. Paige popped the rest of the brownie into her mouth as she turned on the tap to fill the kettle. “I’m not even sure I could tell you how long.”
Her cousin removed the cover from the plate. “Dig in.”
Paige tossed teabags into the pot and retrieved a couple of mugs from the cupboard before she helped herself to another brownie.
“Speaking of sex,” Ashley said. “Did I see Zach come in here with a duffel bag?”
“I’m not sure I follow your segue,” Paige said cautiously.
Her cousin smirked. “You look at Zach Crawford the way a sexually deprived woman looks at a plate of double-chocolate fudge brownies.”
Paige turned away from her cousin’s knowing gaze to pour boiling water into the teapot. “Hadfield House was booked for the weekend and because Zach is spending most of his time here anyway, it made sense for him to take the spare room.”
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Ashley said. “I’m just … surprised.”
“Surprised that I could be reasonable?”
Her cousin’s lips twitched, as if she was fighting against a smile. “Well, you haven’t exactly been reasonable since Zach showed up.”
“Can you blame me?”
“No,” Ashley admitted, her hand moving instinctively, protectively, to cover her rounded belly. “Because I know you wouldn’t love that little girl any more if you’d given birth to her, and because I know I would fight to my last breath against anyone who threatened to take my baby.”
“Speaking of babies,” Paige said, eager to change the subject. “Have you seen Marcus today?”
“I just came from the hospital,” Ashley said. “And though I wouldn’t have thought it possible, he’s even more beautiful than he was yesterday.”
“And the new mommy?”
“Radiant but exhausted. Apparently the baby woke up every two hours in the night to nurse.”
Paige winced. “I can’t imagine.”
“Gage offered to give him a bottle so she could sleep, but Meg is determined to ensure that Marcus has the best start and she believes breastfeeding is crucial to that and giving him a bottle at this stage could create nipple confusion and—as you can imagine—after a few more minutes of listening to her exceptionally detailed reasoning, Gage’s eyes started to glaze over.”
But Ashley only looked wistful, and Paige knew her cousin was now even more anxious to hold her own baby in her arms.
“Only a couple more months and you can debate the benefits of cloth diapers versus disposables until Cam’s eyes glaze over.”
“We’ve already