Page 52 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
“Uncle Spence’s idea. He said that you spend too much time on your ranch.”
Hayley shot the girl a quick look, then focused back on the cupcake. “I like my ranch.”
“I think he wanted you here,” Lex said. “Which is cool, because my dad says he’s a lone wolf.” She shot Hayley a look. “Spence, that it. He’s the lone wolf.”
Hayley managed to keep her gaze on the cupcake as she curved her lips into an obligatory smile of response. “I can see it.”
She did see it.
“Middle child,” Lex murmured, creating a jaunty swirl on top of the cupcake she held and smiling at the results. “Lissa, my friend who’s coming for the party, is a middle. Being an only, I have lots of advantages she doesn’t.”
“Mmm,” Hayley said noncommittally. Her thoughts had drifted in the same direction, but she hadn’t expected a fifteen-year-old kid to clue in on such a thing. “You talk about it a lot?”
“All the time. Lissa says she feels like she’s invisible.”
Hayley gave a short laugh. “I know that feeling, but I worked at it.”
“Really?” Lex gave her an uncertain look.
“Oh, yeah. And I’m an only, so sometimes it’s more than birth order.”
“Huh.” Lex was obviously filing the information away to discuss later with her middle-child friend. “I still think it fits with Uncle Spence.” Lex cocked her head in a thoughtful way. “Grandma was probably really busy with the twins. Grandpa was busy yelling at Dad to not be so much like him. Uncle Spence was on his own.”
“You may be right,” Hayley said, impressed by the girl’s logic, which mirrored her own thoughts on the matter.
Mirrored logic aside, it was time to change the subject, because there was a good chance that anything she said might get back to Spence. She dipped her knife in the icing, then swirled it over the top of a cupcake. “It is good to get off the ranch. Thanks again for inviting me.”
“The more the merrier.” Lex gave Hayley a sideways look. “How do you feel about team sports?”
*
“Come on, Hayley!”Lex bellowed from the sidelines as Hayley took her place at home plate. Apparently, a pickup softball game was a tradition with the Keller family, even though they were way short of the numbers for complete teams. There were a total of eleven people at the party: the five Kellers, Trenna Hunt, Hayley, Henry, Jay McClain—a guy who, like Andie, had once worked for Trenna’s dad—and Lissa and Avery, Lex’s best friends from Bozeman, who’d arrived shortly after the cupcakes were iced, much to their disappointment.
Hayley shouldered the bat. She’d never played much softball outside of PE, but she gamely took her stance.
“Wait,” Spence shouted, holding up a hand to stop Audrey’s pitch.
“Is this a time-out?” Daniel called.
“No. I just want a word with my player.”
“Secret play?” she asked when he approached the plate.
“Just some stance adjustments,” he said, his mouth close to her ear. “Spread your feet a little wider.” Once she complied, he said, “Weight on the inside of your feet, balance on the balls of your feet. Relax.”
“How am I supposed to relax with you so close?” she mouthed back.
“I make you nervous?”
She turned her head slightly to give him a dark glance.
“Yes. Fine. I’ll back off.” He did. “Eye on the ball.”
“Don’t give me an easy one,” Hayley shouted to Audrey. She didn’t want extra leeway because she’d been coached on her stance. The pitch that followed indicated that Spence’s mother had taken her at her word.
“Wow,” she breathed.
“Yes. Mom doesn’t understand the ‘slow’ part of ‘slow pitch.’ You should see her overhand.”
