Page 42 of A Baby for the Billionaire Cowboy

He winced. “Mama and Carly will explain.” He headed out the door. She wanted to call him back, but what would she say?

“I don’t understand.” She held Avery tight, possibly too tight, because the baby wouldn’t stop crying. Daisy’s thoughts ricocheted: William, here. Avery, upset. Something about Carly? The dogs, such good dogs, she ought to give them a treat. She wanted to get in her car and drive away. She needed to check the locks. Avery was crying, crying, and the sound was pounding in her brain, but she loved him more than anything and wouldn’t let him go.

Ava slid her arm around Daisy’s shoulders and pulled her close, whispering promises that everything would be okay. Daisy wished she could believe.

Someone rapped on the door. Daisy flinched, her whole body reacting to the sound.

Ava gave her hand a squeeze and got up to answer.

It wasn’t William coming back. They would’ve made sure of that. Daisy jiggled Avery on her lap, too fast to calm the baby who was still complaining about the interruption to his nap.

The rumble of Xander’s voice came from the doorway. Daisy couldn’t hear the soft-spoken words, but something in her immediately relaxed. Not everything, but something.

He and Ava exchanged a few words. Ava looked back at Daisy and said, “If you need anything, just call.” Then she was gone, and Xander was coming in.

Daisy ducked her head, her face hot. William had shown up here uninvited, and caused a scene in front of everyone, and now they all knew what a fool she’d been to ever get involved with him, and Avery wouldn’t stop crying, and she was a terrible mother because she was still too worried about William, worried about what Xander thought, to concentrate fully on her own baby.

Xander sat beside her. “Do you want me to take him for a minute?”

No. She didn’t want to let go of Avery, ever. But that was ridiculous and also impractical. She was still on edge, her hands trembling, and if she couldn’t calm herself, how could she calm her baby? Avery might be picking up on her mood, and her feelings were, to say the least, chaotic.

“All right.” She passed him over.

Xander stood and strolled around the room. Avery didn’t settle right away. Daisy was almost glad of that. It was bad enough that Xander was as perfect as he was, and Daisy wanted him and couldn’t have him. It would be totally outrageous if her baby preferred him too.

In a couple of minutes, Avery’s cries became quieter and less frequent, and Daisy heard Xander’s low humming sounds. She’d have to try that. Avery didn’t seem to mind her singing voice, but she was too self-conscious about her inability to carry a tune to sing in front of anyone else. That meant sometimes Avery started fussing when Auntie Rhonda and her friends were here, making it look like Daisy didn’t know how to soothe her own baby. Granted, she often didn’t, and the older women didn’t always do much better despite clamoring for the chance to try. But walking and humming might ease Daisy’s nerves when she felt like everyone was watching to see her succeed or fail, and that might make Avery calmer too.

Avery finally settled. Daisy felt steadier as well, and she honestly couldn’t say if it was the mere passage of time, or if she was responding to Xander’s calm presence the same way her baby was.

“I’ll put him in the bassinet,” Xander said. “Unless you need to feed him. He’s not wet.”

“No, he had a good feed less than an hour ago.” Her face went hot again. She was talking about breast-feeding,herbreasts, with... with her boss. Yes, she’d think of him that way, nothing more.

He went into the baby’s room. Daisy’s hands twitched with the urge to grab Avery back and keep him close, but that might get him worked up again, and she couldn’t hold onto him forever. Not literally. Probably not even figuratively, no matter how much she might want to.

Oh, Lord. She almost sobbed out loud. What would she do if William fought her for custody? What if he won? He was older and had his own business, while she was the silly flake who ran away from her wedding. A court might decide he’d make the better parent, even with Carly arguing in Daisy’s favor. Daisy didn’t think William even really wanted full custody of Avery, certainly not without a compliant woman to take care of the baby, but he’d been humiliated, first by her rejection, and now by the Tomlinsons running him off. He might fight simply to punish her.

Xander murmured to Avery as he settled the baby in the bassinet. Daisy thought she caught the wordssweet,handsome, andperfect, but those might be her own opinions shining through.

He came back and sat on the couch. Calico hopped up and settled in his lap. Great, everyone preferred Xander. She managed a smile at the thought, but just barely.

“I guess Mama told you what happened,” Xander said.

“Um. Not really.” What was there to tell? William had come to get her and Avery back, whether they wanted to go or not. Once he was gone, Ava had spent the time comforting Daisy. If she’d said anything important, Daisy had been too upset to notice.

Xander’s earlier words came back to her.

“Wait, you said something about making sure William would leavethis time. Has he been here before?”

“No. Well, not on a different occasion. But I talked to him before you did. Carly, Josh, and I did.”

“I don’t understand.” Her head ached, and she wanted to crawl into bed, but this was too important to ignore.

“I’m really sorry. Herman called that he was here. I let him in to see what he wanted. I don’t want you to think you’re not safe here. We told Herman to let all the guards know that William isn’t welcome back, unless they hear from you first. But if you do want to meet with him for any reason, I hope you’ll bring someone along—Carly, maybe. She’ll keep him in line.”

Daisy hadn’t even gotten around to thinking about how William had gotten past the guards at the ranch road. If she’d bothered to wonder, she might have assumed he’d talked his way past them.

“Okay,” she said. “But I still don’t get it. If he came to see me, why didn’t anyone tell me? Opening the door and seeing him there—” She shuddered. “I would’ve preferred a warning.”

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