Page 60 of The Cowgirl's Forever Love
Josiah shot to his feet. “You’ve had a shock, which means you need to do the next thing. I’ll clean the table, but someone should probably help me or your leftovers will end up in strange places.”
Lisa was beside him, punching him lightly on the shoulder as she led him toward the kitchen. “You’re right. This isn’t life-and-death. Julia seems like a nice enough person.”
“A nice enough person who’s about to get her mind blown,” Tamara said, moving to the couch as Tyler chose that moment to begin to fuss. “You need to warn her,” she told Lisa.
“Agreed.” Karen joined them, working easily as they let Tamara deal with the baby. They cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and dining room. “I know it’s fast and we should ask Dad how he feels about it, but if he can handle it, it might be good to get us all in a room together.”
Josiah stayed quiet while the girls continued to talk. He kept an eye on all of them, checking expressions, but especially watching Lisa.
Other than being completely perplexed at times, she seemed to have bounced back. As the girls had said, it wasn’t a terrible thing. Possibly not even as shocking for them as it would be for Julia. The other woman had admitted she didn’t have a lot of family. Being thrust into a new mix might be more than she wanted.
Lisa was quieter than usual.
Ollie had snuck into the room and was ricocheting between him and Lisa, side-eyeing them as if to complain about the shut door she’d had to put up with for the last couple of hours.
When Caleb came back into the room, Josiah prepared to make his escape.
It didn’t work. Lisa caught hold of him and held on tight as they all waited.
“Your dad’s pretty shook up, but he’s okay,” Caleb assured Tamara. “I put him in one of the empty rooms in the bunkhouse. We’ll tell the girls they can go visit for a bedtime story, but this way Geegee gets some peace and quiet instead of having to listen to a baby cry at night.”
It made sense. Lisa relaxed, leaning into Josiah as if using his strength to stay vertical. He slipped an arm around her shoulders.
Caleb noticed, but when his gaze met Josiah’s, he simply dipped his chin a fraction of an inch in approval before moving on to check Karen, then his wife.
His gaze lingered on Tamara. He went to say something a half dozen times, each time choking back words, his expression going blank even as he sat on the coffee table in front of her and watched her finish nursing Tyler.
It seemed Tamara knew exactly what was going on. She sighed heavily. “I’m going to send you ass over teakettle if you don’t stop waiting for me to fall apart.Please, Caleb.”
“It’s just, this has been a shock,” he began.
“It has been, but it’s not necessarily a bad one. I need a shower, and somebody needs a diaper change.” She glanced at Karen and Lisa. “I’m calling time out. No more talking or thinking about this tonight. You guys okay with that?”
Karen nodded as she came forward to take Tyler in the continuing game ofpass the baby. “I plan to stick around, so if you want to head out with Josiah, Lisa, I’ll take care of things. Just let us know if you touch base with Julia.”
“Will do.” Lisa tugged Josiah toward the door. “Give me a minute to grab some stuff, okay?”
“No problem.” He glanced out the window to find snow had begun to fall sometime in the last hour. “I’ll clear off the truck. You can ride with me, and I’ll bring you back later.”
Lisa headed away. Ollie glanced at Josiah then took off after Lisa. The dog nearly walked into a wall, though, shoulder-checking as if trying to keep an eye on Josiah even as she followed Lisa.
Josiah chuckled. Crazy dog.
He was headed for the door, hat firmly in place, when Karen tugged on his sleeve. She had a hand on Tyler’s belly, holding him securely on the changing area set up at the side of the room. “Thanks for being a voice of reason in the midst of the Coleman madness.”
“No problem,” he repeated. “None of you were out of control, you know that.”
Caleb and Tamara had both left the room, so it was just him and Karen. She wrinkled her nose then shrugged, reaching one handed under the counter and pulling out a brightly wrapped package. “I suppose this is probably strange timing considering how this evening turned out, but Tamara said she wanted Lisa to have this. I assume it’s some sort of thank-you for having taken care of things up until now.”
“I can give it to her.” He wasn’t quite sure why he was being involved.
Karen grabbed a second package. “And this one is for you. Same thing. Thanks for showing up and helping Tyler arrive safely.”
Josiah chuckled. “I have zero objections to receiving presents. You don’t need to look so worried.”
She went back to the diaper change, working quickly and efficiently. “Just don’t shoot the messenger. Tamara can have a twisted sense of humour. I have no idea if those are real or gag gifts.”
“Twisted sense of humour? Sounds like Lisa.”
