Bronco smirks at my question. I mean, yeah, he’s not dumb. He knows what I’m getting at.
“The only ladies I need to worry about are my daughters and sisters.”
“When would you want me to visit with the baby?”
“The sooner, the better.”
“Is this weekend too soon?” I ask and then frown at my need to rush things. “Probably is.”
“No, this weekend is perfect.”
Bronco has this expression—a half-smile with a hint of a cocked eyebrow—that warms my stomach and twists it into knots. The heat goes both north and south. My chest aches for his approval. My lady parts are more interested in attention from his cock. Right now, he flashes that look at me, and I go soft and fuzzy inside.
“If I wash my hands, can I hold Carina?” he asks, and his enthusiasm surprises me.
“Of course.”
I direct Bronco to the kitchen. On the back porch, River and Max talk quietly. I suspect my sister drew her man away to allow me a few minutes alone with Bronco. Shelby is lurking around too, dying to know how things turn out. In the last year, I’ve made friends and reconnected with my family. Life is great, but the baby with a stranger definitely put a kink in my plans.
Bronco soaps up his hands while I stand a few feet away. With the sun filtering through the shades, I admire Carina in my arms.
“Where do you live in Shasta?” Bronco asks, drying off his hands.
“Here in Max’s house. A lot of people live in the Victorian, but most are moving out soon,” I babble, feeling as overheated as I did the night we made our daughter. “River and Max are building their house a few blocks over. Shane and Ramona are looking for a place. Wait, do you know Shane?”
“Yeah,” he says, giving me a weird look. “Ramona too. She’s Fuse’s daughter.”
“I guess. I don’t know much about the Skullz.”
Bronco’s dark expression softens when he looks at Carina. He gestures toward the baby, and I carefully hand her to him. He immediately smiles at his daughter’s little face.
“You’re good with babies,” I say just to break up the silence.
“Lots of practice. My girls, of course. Plus, I got over twenty guys in my crew with kids of their own. Shit, some have grandbabies now. I can change a diaper as well as I can a car’s engine.”
“Do you think your daughters will be okay with a new baby?”
Lifting his gaze, he smiles softly. “Eventually, yes. They’re good girls.”
“Can I bring Desi with me to Elko?” When Bronco gives me a weird frown, I explain, “Desi’s my daughter. She’s nine now.”
The edginess in his gaze disappears. “Of course. I assume you’ll be up in Elko often. Can’t leave your firstborn at home, or she’ll get jealous of her baby sister.”
I pull my phone out and find a picture. “This is Desi.”
There’s something about the way Bronco looks at my daughter and then at me that sends my heart racing. Like I’ve impressed him. I don’t know why it matters. He and I hooked up one time. He moved on with his life, while I got hung up on him. If I want to co-parent successfully, I can’t keep thinking of this man as a, well, a man. He’s my daughter’s father. Romance isn’t on our horizon.
Yet I want him to keep looking at me. I ache for his approval. I need him to want me. I realize I feel exactly the same as I did that night in the parking lot. I’m investing a ton of emotions into what’s simply a hookup. I’m too old to be this goofy over a guy. I’m a mom of two children. I have responsibilities. I need to turn off the romantic hopes blaring in my head.
Once I think I’m under control, he says he dropped by the club months ago to see me. “But I understand why you weren’t working there anymore,” he adds and smiles at our baby.
Call it hormones or the sorrow of a lovesick pup, but I find myself tearing up when he says he hadn’t forgotten me. It’s probably a lie. Even if it’s not, he just wanted to fuck.
“I get emotional easy,” I say, wiping my eyes. “Not normally, but with the baby and all.”
Bronco studies me before saying, “It would have been easy to keep Carina to yourself. Knowing who I am and what I am to River, leaving me in the dark would have