The baby monitor on the coffee table sputters to life before a baby’s wail screeches out of it.
“Are you ready to meet Patience?” Rowan asks.
Ashlyn starts to stand. “I’ll get her.”
Rowan glares at her and she holds up her palms in surrender as she sits back down. “I’m not an invalid,” she mutters under her breath.
“No, you’re my wonderful wife who gave me a daughter three days ago.”
He leans over to kiss her, and I glance away. I never thought Rowan would find happiness with another partner after what his first wife did to him. She was a Class A bitch. But somehowAshlyn caught his attention and now they’re happily married with a baby.
I want what they have. I startle at the stray thought. I’ve never been one to imagine life with a wife and kids. What woman would want to hitch herself to me when I relocate every month or two? And constantly traveling is no way to raise a family.
Although, Cassandra seems like the kind of woman who wouldn’t mind living a life on the road. What am I thinking? She’s made it perfectly clear she’s not in the market for a relationship.
Rowan returns with a tiny bundle in his hands. “You want to hold her?”
To my surprise, I find myself nodding. He places Patience in my arms.
“Hi, little girl.” I kiss her forehead. “I’m your uncle.”
As I rock her back and forth, I realize returning to Winter Falls was a good call. I don’t know how long I’ll stay but coming here to visit Rowan, Ashlyn, and their baby was the right thing to do.
“Enough,” Rowan grunts before snatching Patience away.
“It’s nothing personal,” Ashlyn explains. “He doesn’t let anyone hold her for too long.”
“Have a seat,” Rowan orders as he hands the baby to Ashlyn. “Do you want a coffee?”
Ashlyn raises her hand. “I want a coffee.”
“I’ll make you a decaf,” he says, and she pouts.
Once Rowan returns with our coffees, he settles on the sofa next to his wife and daughter while I sit across from them. Silence falls. I’m fine with the quiet but Ashlyn appears ready to burst.
“Are you back to stay?” Rowan asks.
“Finally!” Ashlyn shouts. “I thought we were going to sit here and say nothing all afternoon.”
“It was two minutes,” Rowan says.
“It felt like two hours. Never mind. Time to discuss the elephant in the room. I hate ignoring Elsie. She gets agitated and throws water at me when I do.”
“Elsie? Who’s Elsie?” I scan the room but no one else is here.
Ashlyn rolls her eyes. “The elephant. Duh.”
Rowan sighs. “Dream girl.”
“What? Is there or is there not an elephant in the room?”
“There is no actual elephant. It’s a metaphorical idiom.”
“Now you hurt Elsie’s feelings.”
I chuckle. Ashlyn’s as crazy as I remember her from high school. She was five or six grades behind me, but in a town the size of Winter Falls, everyone knows everyone.
Rowan grunts but guessing by the warmth in his eyes as he gazes down at Ashlyn, he doesn’t mind his wife’s shenanigans.