Page 39 of White Collar Rancher

Her family was all out of town. Her friends were minimal. The fun part was easier to work on but still so difficult.

Wandering to the front door, she jumped as the doorbell rang through the place.

Who could be here?

She didn’t have to wonder long. The tall man with a baby carrier standing outside the door was more than familiar. Tingles traveled down her spine.

Justin was here. She opened the door. “Is everything all—”

“Gram wanted to thank you for the cupcakes.” He stood on the welcome mat. His black parka was one she didn’t see him wear often. It definitely wasn’t the brownish work coat he usually wore. A blue fleece with green tractors on it covered the baby carrier.

“Oh. It was no problem.” She stepped back to let him in. He knew she’d been to the home to deliver treats. Did he know why? “I thought A. Walker might be your grandma.” The full names weren’t on the placards outside the door.

“She is. Hey, Isaiah needs a bottle. Mind if I feed him?”

“Not at all.” She brushed away the tendril of disappointment. He’d come here to feed Isaiah, not see her, but she was happy to see them both. It’d been a long, lonely day.

She took his coat while he stepped out of his boots.

“Help yourself in the kitchen,” she said. Pointing to the sitting room where she’d left the light on, she picked up the carrier. “I’ll be in there after I get Isaiah out.”

Noting how nice it felt to have these two guys in her quiet house, she firmly reminded herself not to get used to it. I’m done with relationships still rang in her ears. She distracted herself by unbuckling the wiggling baby and cooing at him.

When Justin entered the sitting room, he eyed the medical journal on the coffee table. “Exciting reading material?”

“Actually, right before you arrived, I’d come to the conclusion that I needed to find a lighter read.” She held her hand out for the bottle.

“You sure? I don’t think I’ve fed him one bottle today. Not after the morning one anyway.”

She wasn’t only doing it to help him. It wasn’t like she could cuddle, rock, feed, and bathe Isaiah all these weeks without growing attached. She didn’t miss just Justin all week, but she couldn’t admit that. He might think she was trying to manipulate him.

“Have a seat.” She relaxed as Isaiah drank. Justin dropped into the padded wicker chair across from her. As the seat creaked he lifted his hands and looked down like he was afraid he’d wrecked it. “You didn’t hurt anything. Mom likes her wicker. You should see our porch set.”

He shot her a quick grin and looked around, spending extra time on the photos from her childhood trips to India to visit relatives. Then he moved on to Dad’s plaques hanging on one wall. Her mother’s were on another. Priya and Devya shared an “I love me” wall, but there was nothing current on it. All of Priya’s stuff hung in her office and on her clinic walls. For how much longer, she didn’t know.

The week had been brutal. What should’ve revived her had drained her in a depressing way. More cancellations. The ones who’d followed through, Dr. Bezos’s patients, were not kind, and with each one, she’d felt like she was undergoing some test she didn’t know the rules for.

“Was that your Thanksgiving?” Justin’s gaze was on her. She had to look away.

“Grandma and Grandpa Saunders are in Fergus Falls with my aunt.” She had called her grandparents and asked what they had planned for today, but she hadn’t mentioned that she had no invites. Aunt Dana probably would’ve invited her, but a girl had her pride. Begging an invitation to a family gathering sucked.

“So you baked cupcakes and made Lucille’s day by hanging out with her.”

“Her family’s in Florida.” At her appointment last week, Lucille had mentioned that she’d be spending her Thanksgiving working. There’d been nothing to clean this morning, so Priya had baked three batches of cupcakes and driven to the nursing home. “It’s funny, though. I wouldn’t have thought twice about others who were alone for the holiday if I weren’t in the same boat.”

“How come you didn’t say anything last weekend?”

“Didn’t seem like a big deal.” Said the girl who’d had a good sob after she’d put the first batch of cupcakes in the oven. Besides, what did he think he could’ve done about it? Brought her along to his brother’s? What would people think?

Her thought was a bit too sarcastic. She had to stop the budding bitterness. She had entered this arrangement with eyes wide-open. He had a reason for his mistrust and she had a reason to hide their connection.

His gaze stayed on her, like he was waiting for more.

“How was your Thanksgiving?” she asked.

His scrutiny dissolved in a grin. “Good. We brought Gram over. It was fun. I felt like my old self again. But with a baby.”

“I hear the same things from moms. Those first few months, they’re in a baby fog, but then they get a moment of feeling like their old selves and it’s like they move into a new phase of life.” Was he moving into a new phase? “How’s your family?”

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