Small Town Charmers by Mindy Neff

Author:Mindy Neff [Neff, Mindy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mindy Neff

8

The day had been a long one, with the church folks insisting on turning the usual Sunday potluck into a reception in celebration of the wedding. Then Letty Springer had opened the store so Madison could get a supply of baby formula and toiletries.

By the time they got home, Madison was looking worn and frazzled and Brice was more high-strung than a wild bronc at a rodeo.

The details of a wedding night hadn’t been part of their sealed bargain, but he was sure thinking about them.

And if he’d stayed in the house one more second, smelled the delicate scent of her perfume, felt the brush of her soft breasts as she reached past him to prepare Abbe’s bottle, he very likely would have done something he’d sorely regret.

So he ended up in the bunkhouse on his wedding night, playing a game of poker with the men—who were giving both him and his black mood a wide berth.

From the open window came the relentless sound of Abbe’s cries.

“Young’un’s been at it for a while now,” Moe commented.

Brice didn’t answer. He had a pair of deuces in his hand and nothing to go with it. He tossed down three cards and Moe dealt him the appropriate number in return.

“Heard tell some babies get a bellyache when you take ’em out in the wind,” Dan commented, upping the ante in the pot.

“Humph,” Moe muttered. “It was all them ladies passin’ the little bit around like she was a baby doll.”

Brice still didn’t comment.

Abbe’s pitiful cries continued, carried along by the wind. He picked up his cards. Two ladies and another deuce.

Full house.

Yeah, he certainly had that. A wife and baby and full house.

And that baby was sounding like she was dying of a broken heart. And what about Madison? When he’d left her, she’d looked completely done in.

“Call,” Randy said, the only one of the foursome who wasn’t looking toward the house and pretending that he wasn’t.

Brice tossed his cards on the table. “I’m out.” Never mind that there was fifty bucks in the pot and he could have won hands down.

Randy whooped over winning with a measly pair of sixes.

Moe shot the younger man a scowl.

“What?” Randy asked, clearly bewildered. “My sixes beat anything the rest of you’ve got.”

“Cain’t you hear that little baby cryin’? You know, for a feller who could track a gnat in a blizzard, you sure can be dense,” Moe said.

Brice scraped back his chair and stood. “I’d better go check on them.”

“Probably should,” Moe said with a relieved look. “’Spect I’ll just walk on over and keep ya company. I got a hankerin’ for a cup of chocolate.”

Dan rose, fell into step. “Come to think of it, chocolate sounds good to me, too.”

Randy, stuffing money into his pockets, grabbed his hat and followed, clearly surprised that everyone was deserting him.

Brice told himself it was the cold air that made his ground-eating steps brisk. It wasn’t because he was worried about Madison and the baby.

His family.

Something fluttered in his stomach, and it felt like hope.

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