Maverick Christmas Surprise. Brenda Harlen
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expecting her to follow. Which, of course, she did. “But it’s also been a lot of work to renovate and update.”
“Have you done the work yourself?” she asked, glancing at the framed photos on the sideboard as they passed through the dining room. She was tempted to pause and examine the pictures more closely, but her empty stomach growled to remind her that she had other priorities at the moment.
“Me, my brothers and our dad,” he said, handing her a ready-made bottle for the baby.
“Thanks,” she said. “But I would have mixed up his formula.”
“I just followed the instructions on the label.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip, not wanting to appear ungrateful but needing to ask, “Did you use previously boiled water?”
“That’s what the instructions said to do,” he pointed out. “Plus Hunter, one of my brothers, gave me a crash course on basic childcare.”
“He has kids?” Beth guessed, testing the temperature of the formula by shaking a few drops onto the inside of her wrist.
“One. A six-and-a-half-year-old daughter.”
“There’s no better teacher than experience,” Beth said. “But in the absence of experience, there are some good childcare books that help. Leighton had about half a dozen beside her bed when she was pregnant.”
She didn’t tell him that she’d bought the books for her sister, or admit that Leighton hadn’t cracked the covers on most of them. Because her sister had never been a fan of book learning—preferring to figure things out as she went along.
“I have to admit, that surprises me a little,” he told her. “The Leighton I knew wasn’t really the maternal type.”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, either,” she admitted, as she settled into a chair at the table to give Cody his bottle. “But everything changed when she found out she was pregnant.”
Wilder grabbed a mug from the cupboard and filled it from the carafe on a warming burner. “Are you a coffee drinker?” he asked.
“Only on days ending in a ‘y,’” she told him.
He chuckled at that as he reached for another mug, then filled it with the steaming brew.
“Cream? Sugar?”
“Cream, please.”
He opened the fridge to retrieve the carton, then added a splash to her cup and set it in front of her.
“Thanks.” She lifted the mug to her lips and sipped. “That’s good and strong.”
“It’s the only way my dad knows how to make it.”
“So this is his house?” she guessed.
Wilder nodded. “When we first moved to Rust Creek Falls, in the summer, Xander and Finn lived here, too. But Xander and Lily have their own place closer to town now, and Finn and Avery renovated a cabin on the far side of the property, so it’s just me and my dad left.”
“So you’ve got three brothers?” She wasn’t just making conversation; she was genuinely curious to learn more about his family, who might prove to be her nephew’s family, too.
“No, I’ve got five brothers.”
“Five?”
He nodded.
“Wow. Six boys. Your mom obviously had her hands full,” she remarked.
“Maybe that’s why she took off before my first birthday,” he noted.
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