Little Cowgirl on His Doorstep. DONNA ALWARD

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      “Surely you can change your flight.”

      Of course she could. But it wasn’t as easy as all that. “I do have a job, you know. I took a week off, but I have to be back…”

      “A few days,” he suggested. “Enough time to set up the test and have it done. You don’t even have to stay and wait for the results. Once they’re in, we can discuss things over the phone.”

      She looked down at Nell, whose attention was focused on a bright blue button. Her chubby fingers pulled and played with it, and Avery bounced her knee a little bit, making the baby look up and giggle with a toothless grin. She could afford a few days but that was all. When she wasn’t working she wasn’t earning money, and there were two of them to support now.

      Besides, she didn’t want to play difficult. It was a simple and logical request considering the circumstances. If she refused, he could get nasty about it and have a court-ordered test if he wanted to, because whether or not he wanted to be a dad, for some reason he really wanted to know definitively one way or the other.

      “A few days, but that’s all. We can stay here at the B&B. I’ll leave the arrangements for the test up to you, though. I’ve never done this before. I’m guessing you’ll have to contact your local doctor and set something up.”

      “It’s not something I have experience in, either,” he pointed out. “But I’ll look after it. Give me your cell number so I can call you about the arrangements.”

      She reached into her purse and took out a business card, flipped it over and wrote her number on the back. Nell grabbed at the pen, but Avery diverted her hand and reached into the diaper bag at her feet instead, and pulled out a teething ring. “Here, sweet pea. This is better for you to chew on than a pen.”

      She gave him the card and he flipped it over. “The Icing on Top?” he asked.

      “I’m a baker,” she replied. “I decorate cakes. Mostly cupcakes.”

      “Cupcakes,” he repeated, making it sound as if it were the silliest job in the world.

      Despite the improved tone to today’s meeting, it was clear to Avery that Callum had very little respect for her. It began with his skeptical attitude and continued with the assumption she could simply change her schedule to suit him and the dismissive tone when he asked about her job. She needed to be careful not to antagonize him, but she wasn’t going to go along with absolutely everything just because he suggested it.

      She checked her watch. It was getting close to noon, and well-behaved as she was, Nell was going to start getting hungry soon. Avery knew from experience that leaving it too long would send the baby into full-on meltdown. “Is there a restaurant nearby? Somewhere that we can sit down, where they’d heat a bottle for me?”

      He shrugged. “The Wagon Wheel diner is around the corner. It’s a run-of-the-mill family place, but the food’s good.”

      “She’s going to be hungry soon. I’d rather stay a step ahead than deal with a cranky baby.” Politeness seemed to demand that she ask. “Would you care to join us, Callum?”

      He stepped back. “Thanks, but I don’t think so. I like to keep to myself. And showing up with you and the baby…This is a small town. The gossip mill would be running before we’d even ordered.”

      The rebuff felt like a slap. He couldn’t even call Nell by her name, instead referring to her as “the baby.” And he didn’t want to be seen in public with Avery—not for this conversation and certainly not sharing a meal. She shoved the pen and teething ring into her purse and made short work of strapping Nell back into the stroller. She stood and put her hands on the handles. “We won’t keep you, then.”

      “Yes, I need to get back. Work to be done.”

      His precious work. Of course.

      “Call me when you have an appointment time.” She lifted her chin. “If you could do that right away, I’d appreciate it. I do have to adjust my travel plans.”

      “Yes, ma’am.”

      He turned and walked away from her. She watched him go, the way his long stride ate up the ground and the pockets of his faded jeans shifted with the movement.

      The man she remembered from the wedding had been tall and smiling, purposeful but with an easiness about him—like he might actually know how to let loose and have fun. What had happened to cause such a difference in him in such a short time? Because this version of Callum Shepard was abrasive, grouchy and had a very large stick up his posterior.

      Except there’d been the gentle way he’d said he didn’t want to take Nell away from her. Like he understood.

      And the way he insisted on proof as if he’d been lied to before.

      Nell started to cry and Avery turned away from the sight of Callum walking away. Callum’s reasons didn’t matter. She’d go through the formality of a test for his peace of mind and then she’d go back to Ontario and get on with raising Nell.

      The movement of the stroller on the sidewalk temporarily soothed the baby as they headed in the direction of the diner. She had to remember one important fact when it came to Callum. He’d had a fling with her sister when they’d barely known each other. And never, in either of their meetings, had he asked what had happened to Crystal, how she’d died.

      What kind of guy did that?

      She didn’t like the answer.

      CHAPTER THREE

      CALLUM HUNG UP the phone and sat at the kitchen table for a moment, trying to make sense of his thoughts. Avery hadn’t answered her cell, so he’d left a voice mail giving her the time of the doctor’s appointment. It would take a day or two to get the test in, so he hadn’t been able to get an appointment until midmorning on Friday. Avery probably wasn’t going to be happy about that, but it was out of his hands.

      If she could just understand his reasons for asking for it in the first place…

      But she didn’t nor would she. There was no sense bringing up the past when it couldn’t be changed. He’d learned his lesson and was smart enough not to get caught in the same trap ever again.

      Now he’d lost the better part of the day. He’d planned to put the cows in the west pasture until milking time and it hadn’t happened. Then there was the load of hay he’d bought from the Diamond brothers over at Diamondback Ranch. It needed picking up.

      Not to mention the fact that he ignored the house most of the time. He’d put on his last pair of jeans this morning and had thrown a load of laundry in the machine out of pure necessity. He knew the place looked bad. It hadn’t taken Avery’s turned-up nose yesterday to tell him that.

      He’d probably been foolish to buy this place. He should have taken a job instead of trying to run everything solo. It was just…the idea of taking orders from someone again was so repulsive that he couldn’t see himself doing it. And he’d chosen the farm because the most uncomplicated time in his life for as far back as he could remember had been working summers on his uncle’s farm on the lower mainland. Nothing had been complicated when he’d been cutting hay or feeding calves or laughing—a lot.

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