Chapter Four

      The front door of the house opened, and Emma glanced up as Gage let himself in, stomping a light dusting of snow from his boots and brushing it from his hair.

      “Look who’s here!” Emma spoke to Hudson, who was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table with her, a smattering of blocks, baby toys and a ball between them.

      Hudson tilted forward, banging his hands against the cowhide rug. “La-la-la-ba-ba.” He blew bubbles as Gage took off his boots, finished hanging up his coat and joined them.

      “Ba to you, too.” Gage created a human triangle and rolled the red plastic ball to Hudson. The boy tried shoving it in his mouth. Thankfully, the medium size allowed him to grip it easily but not insert it.

      It had been six days since Hudson’s arrival, and Emma had spent copious amounts of time playing with him and holding him during the week. Anything to make the transition smoother.

      “How come when you roll the ball to him, he doesn’t eat it?”

      “He does a lot of the time.” Emma lifted the white burp cloth from the floor next to her. “I’ve been wiping off slobber when he wants to play again.”

      Gage’s nose wrinkled. “Am I allowed to say yuck?”

      “You’re only allotted two complaints of disgust in a day, so I’d suggest saving it for diaper-changing time.”

      His cheeks curved. “True.”

      The ball shot out of Hudson’s grip, and Emma returned it to him before he could complain. Back into his mouth it went. The boy had to be teething the way he chewed on everything around him. “How was your day? How are ranch-y things?”

      Gage’s chuckle messed with her midsection. Like she’d overloaded on something delicious and her body couldn’t decide how to respond.

      “You do realize you grew up on a ranch, right?”

      “A guest ranch is different. We don’t even have cattle year-round, as you well know.” They only had them for the guests to move in the summer, and nothing like the size of Gage’s operation.

      “Another one of the ranchers from church dropped by today to tell me—in the spirit of helpfulness, of course—that I’m crazy for changing things around here the way I have. They think I’m messing up everything my uncle did because I switched to summer calving. But it’s helped me cut down on everything—cowboys, supplemental feed. Plus, the profit will be better because they’re fattening up faster.”

      “It’s really amazing to me that you’ve done so well with ranching.”

      He waved off her compliment. “Ford is a great teacher. And he didn’t even balk after I researched summer calving and decided I wanted to try it. We could have always gone back to the way things were if it didn’t pan out. But so far it’s been great. And...there I go again, boring you with ranching details.”

      “Actually, I like listening to you talk about it.” Emma wanted to hear just about anything Gage had to say, and it had nothing to do with the smooth timbre of his voice or the way his brow wrinkled in concentration when he spoke about something he was passionate about. Those were just lovely little side benefits.

      “That’s because you’re way too nice.”

      Hudson dropped the ball, then crawled over to Emma’s lap. She picked him up, nibbling on his cheeks. “There’s some leftover macaroni and cheese. I made homemade for lunch. You’re welcome to it.”

      Those lake-blue eyes of his narrowed to slits. “Please tell me you didn’t bring over the ingredients to cook again.”

      “I didn’t. I may have grocery shopped for here, but I put everything for your house on your tab at Len’s, just like you made me promise to do.” The contract he’d written up was on the fridge. And, yes, he’d made her sign it.

      Gage had turned all serious, so Emma raised her right hand like she was taking an oath. “Promise.”

      “Good girl.”

      She stifled a groan. That was exactly how he thought of her, wasn’t it?

      Emma put Hudson down, and he crawled into Gage’s lap. Gage picked him up, holding him against his chest. Their slightly awkward interactions were endearing. Each day Gage’s actions were smoother, less rehearsed. And Hudson was following his lead. Their relationship had been warming at Crock-Pot speeds.

      Emma still wouldn’t mind that camera to see what happened around here in the evening, though. Gage didn’t complain, but it sounded like Hudson often woke at least once a night. What she wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall.

      “So what are you two up to tonight?”

      Gage placed Hudson back on the floor, then built a stack of blocks for him to knock down. “Pretty much this. It hasn’t even been a full week since Hudson arrived. I haven’t gotten used to adding anything else in yet.”

      “So you don’t go anywhere at night after I leave?”

      “Nope.” Gage rebuilt the tower when Hudson squawked. “How can I? I’m barely handling this.” He motioned between himself and Hudson.

      “But you guys are doing so well together.”

      “We’re doing okay, but I don’t want to rock the boat.”

      Emma understood his reasoning; at the same time, if Gage never left the house with Hudson, never found any sense of normalcy in going out and doing regular, everyday things, then how would he ever come to the conclusion that he should keep the baby?

      And Emma was already witnessing a difference in Gage. It might be slight, but the softening and refining had begun, thanks to Hudson.

      If he got out more, maybe he’d see that he could have a life and keep Hudson, too.

      “The two of you should come with me to the talent show at church tonight.”

      Ruby was participating in the Wednesday night church club talent show, and she’d been practicing her selection for weeks. Emma had already heard her poem more times than she could count because every time Ruby said, “Aunt Emma, do you want to listen to my poem?” Emma answered in the affirmative. At this point she had the whole thing memorized, but she wouldn’t miss the final product for anything.

      Gage’s mouth tugged to one side. “Of course I’d like to see Ruby do her thing, but I don’t want to mess up our rhythm.” He nodded toward Hudson, who had crawled under the coffee table and was trying to back himself out of the predicament. So far he wasn’t complaining, so Emma left him to figure it out on his own if he could.

      “Hudson would enjoy it, too. The kids have been working hard. He’ll be totally entertained.” Maybe totally was a stretch.

      “You think?”

      “He loves Ruby.”

      “That’s true. But who doesn’t?”

      Emma laughed. “She is precious. You should come tonight. Try it. You can always head home if it doesn’t work.”

      “I’ll think about it.”

      “Are you just saying that so that I’ll stop bugging you about it?”

      “Maybe.”

      She chuckled. “Fine. I’m done.”

      Emma said goodbye to Hudson—who had extracted himself from the table, smart boy—with a smattering of kisses and