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She hated the way her stomach boiled and twisted. It wasn’t quite the same as seeing him with Shanna. Shanna was a different feeling entirely. Mostly because Shanna had used him in high school and didn’t care about anyone but herself.
That’s what she told herself, anyway. Mostly she just wished that she could take the offer back. But she could hardly do that since she was stuck with him for the week, because he saved her from Chalmer and bought her himself.
She wanted to shake her head and complain about small towns and their idiosyncrasies, the crazy things they did in order to earn money to put in parks and fix up sidewalks.
At least her labor was going to a good cause. Sweet Water was very frugal, and the money would be put to good use. Now she just had to serve her time with a good attitude.
She never thought she’d have to try to force herself to want to be in Travis’s company, but the idea of finding a wife for him, one who wasn’t her, anyway, while she had to spend the entire week with him was almost enough to make her beg off.
But she wasn’t in the habit of not keeping her word. And she didn’t want that to become something that was easy for her. Doing it even one time just felt like a slippery slope.
She typed back a reply to Claudia, letting her know that she would meet her tomorrow and talk to her about it then.
Claudia was fine with it and sent back an Okay, looking forward to it.
“I guess I should head to the church and see what I can find for you.”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
“Are you going to come along?”
“I’m a little afraid to be alone right now. I feel very needy,” he said with a short laugh.
“All right. Come on. We’ll get you a car seat. We can handle this. People have been raising humans since God created Adam and Eve. If they can do it, we can do it, too.”
She realized that she said “we,” instead of “you,” but she didn’t correct herself. For now, it was her helping him. He didn’t want her to be anything more than a friend, and she wasn’t going to throw a big fit about it. She had decided when she was a teenager that she was going to be the very best friend to him that she could be, and nothing was going to change in that area. Friends didn’t drop each other just because one of them did something the other didn’t like or that hurt their feelings. She didn’t want to be that kind of friend anyway. That wasn’t her best.
And it wasn’t the kind of friend Travis deserved. He deserved a friend who stuck by him no matter what. Of course, once he had a wife, she’d need to back away. After all, a wife wasn’t going to want Travis to have another woman as his best friend. No way. But until then, Ellen could help him in every way she could. That is what a good friend did.
Chapter 13
Travis stared down at the bundle in his arms, standing in the darkened living room of the house that he’d grown up in. Roger was in Brazil, and Edgar was off on an assignment for Ford Hansen. Ford had taken all three brothers under his wing, and Travis owed him more than he could say or ever repay. But right now, that wasn’t the thought on his mind.
Instead, first and foremost, was keeping this baby alive through the night. The second thing was trying to figure out how to convince Ellen that she should be his wife.
When he suggested that she help him find a wife, he had been joking and had intended to say that she would be perfect. Hint, hint.
After all, he wasn’t going to find someone who would marry him this week, as much as he needed help with the baby. And he wouldn’t want to marry someone just to get them to do the job of a nanny. That wasn’t right or fair.
But he hadn’t been able to get the words out before she’d taken what he said seriously and jumped into it the way Ellen always did, with both feet and her whole heart. She would do everything in her power to find him a perfect wife.
He suspected she’d be asking Claudia tomorrow whenever she met with her, and she’d be talking to all the ladies at her aquatics class about it first thing in the morning as well.
What a mess. Not that he thought that there were going to be a million women knocking down his door tomorrow, but he didn’t want to have even one. He wanted Ellen. Only his stupid tongue and his overburdened brain couldn’t seem to get together.
He could call her right now and fix it, but the baby was starting to stir, and that set fire to the tiny bit of panic that had been nestling in his chest all evening.
He could do this.
Lord, I know everything happens for a reason. And You don’t give us anything that You’re not going to help us handle, but I’m a little scared right now. Please help me not to kill this baby.
He knew that he was scraping the bottom of the barrel. He should have his sights set a lot higher. He should be praying for grace and strength to raise the child up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Right now, he had one goal, and that was a live baby come morning.
“All right. I’m going to have to set you down, because I can’t make a bottle with just one hand. Maybe when I get better at this.” He spoke softly, knowing that before when he and Ellen had been talking, the baby seemed to be calmed by their voices, but this made her little eyes blink as she seemed to pull herself from sleep, and the next thing he knew, her face scrunched up and turned beet red, and the loudest noise he’d ever heard from another human came out of that little tiny, rosebud mouth.
This was his problem to deal with.
He looked around to see if there was anyone standing nearby that he could hand her off to.
