Page 64 of The Guest Cottage

To which Gloria said, “Look at her, poor thing. She’s all faded out.”

“We could stay and take care of the baby while she naps.”

Pixie piped in with, “Oh, no, that’s okay. I need to nurse him first anyway.”

Gloria said, “Go on ahead. Nothing we haven’t seen before. We won’t bother you.”

Silence. He could imagine the wheels turning in Marlow’s head as she tried to find the right enticement to get the sisters moving.

To help, he called in, “Hello, Gloria, Bobbi.”

Immediately, they came to the door to greet him. “Cort! What are you doing here?”

Bobbi swatted at her sister. “Clearly, he’s here for Marlow. You’ve seen the two of them together.”

“I wanted to hear him say it, thank you very much.”

No problem. Lazily, he stated, “I’m here for Marlow.” There, that’d give them something to focus on other than Pixie and Andy.

The sisters elbowed each other.

“Come on, you two. Marlow is watching over Pixie, and she needs us out of the way.”

Bobbi stepped out first. “What happened to you? Take a dip in the lake?”

Not to be left out, Gloria followed. “His shirt is dry.” She leaned around Cort. “So is his backside.”

He shifted to deny Gloria her view. “Behave.” Then he thought to ask, “Why are you two here?”

“We heard all about it,” Bobbi rushed to explain. “How this girl claimed to be Marlow’s sister, and then Herman said she didn’t have a sister, and she—”

“—had ababywith her. We found that out from Jenny, who was at the clinic when you all came in. You know Bobbi used to be a nurse, and I was a preschool teacher, so—”

“—we wanted to see for ourselves what was what.”

A man could get whiplash trying to keep up with the sisters. No wonder Wade, their brother, bickered with them so often. “And now you saw. Satisfied?”

Gloria leaned in close. “She doesn’t have a crib for that little angel, but I’m sure someone around here must have one they’re ready to part with.”

Nodding, Bobbi said, “I’m glad she’ll be under a doctor’s care soon. Marlow made sure she got an appointment a week from Monday. Until then, I’m going to keep an eye on Pixie.”

Cort managed to maintain his enigmatic expression instead of showing his alarm. “How so?”

“We brought her a casserole and a dish of brownies. Good Lord, you’d have thought we gave her the moon. Poor girl got weepy about it.”

“I remember your mother was like that,” Gloria said.

Bobbi hushed her. “We loved your ma. Everyone did.”

In a whisper, Gloria confided, “Pixie’s emotional from being so ill, that’s what Marlow said. Personally, I think it’s new motherhood. I saw it often. It gets the hormones in a dither and sends women on a wild ride.”

“I’m glad she’s here now.”

Yeah, Cort was glad about that, too.

“She enjoyed the brownies so much, we told her we’d bring her another dessert in a few days.”

“Marlow wants us to text first, in case the baby is sleeping.”

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