But my footsteps halted on the sidewalk.
Kerrigan stood beside Pierce. Her pregnant belly stretched her sundress. Next to her was Elias’s empty stroller. The two-year-old bounced around his parents’ feet as Pierce and Kerrigan crowded over a phone.
Neither of them noticed me as they smiled at the screen. And neither did the other woman in their huddle.
Nellie.
Damn. She was the one person I’d hoped to avoid for a while. Either karma was a bitch or Calamity was just that small because not five minutes into my life here and there she was.
My nemesis since high school. The perpetual thorn in my side. The woman who could crawl beneath my skin with a single, contemptuous word.
The most infuriatingly beautiful woman in the world.
Kerrigan laughed at whatever it was they were watching on the phone.
Elias wrapped his arms around her leg. “Mommy, where’s Unka Cal?”
“Um . . .” She shook her head, glancing away from the screen and straight to Nellie.
“Uncle Cal?” Nellie’s smile disappeared. “Please tell me he’s in Tennessee where he belongs.”
And just like that, our familiar game kicked off again. I unglued my feet and strode their way. “Oh, look. It’s my favorite bottle blonde.”
Nellie’s face turned to ice as she faced me. “Well, if there’s anyone in the world who should understand fake, it’s you. Fake it till you make it. That’s like the model for your career, right? Oh, sorry. Former career. I heard you got fired. Ouch.”
This woman. “I was a free agent and retired.”
“Sure,” she deadpanned.
“Can you two save it for another day?” Pierce asked. “We need to celebrate my wife.”
Celebrating? What were we celebrating?
Before I could ask, Elias raced my way. “Unka Cal!”
I picked him up and tickled his side, letting the sound of his giggles soothe any worries that this move was a mistake. This kid, with his mop of dark, wavy hair, had a piece of my heart. “Hey, buddy.”
“How about we all go to the brew—” A stream of water trickled down Kerrigan’s leg as I settled Elias on my side.
“What the fuck is that?” I asked, eyes locked on the growing puddle. Gross.
“Language,” Kerrigan snapped. “And that would be my water breaking.”
For a second, no one moved. Then Pierce flew into action, taking her arm and steering her to his SUV. “Nellie—”
“I’ve got Elias,” she said. “We’ll walk to my place.”
“He hasn’t had lunch,” Kerrigan hollered as Pierce helped her into the passenger seat.
Oh, shit. This was happening. She was having a baby. And someone needed to watch Elias.
“We’ve got him,” I called.
The color drained from Kerrigan’s face. Contraction, maybe? Or maybe she didn’t trust me to babysit. I’d never babysat before but I could keep Elias alive for a few hours. How long did it take to have a baby?
“Maybe you should just let Nel—” Pierce closed the door on Kerrigan before she could finish her sentence.
“I’ve got him,” Nellie called loud enough for them to hear.
Pierce gave her a nod, then climbed behind the wheel. He waited for a break in traffic, then reversed out of his spot and tore through town.
Elias clung to my shoulders, tightening his arms around my neck. “Where dit Mommy go?”
“It’s okay.” I patted his leg. “Your sister is coming. Cool, right?”
The scared look on his face broke my heart.
“How about we have some fun?” Nellie asked, stealing him from my arms. “We’ll go to my house and play games and get snacks. Okay?”
He nodded as she kissed his cheek. Then she settled him into the stroller, unlocked the brake and took off for the end of the block, leaving me behind.
“Wait up.” I jogged to catch them.
“What are you doing?” she asked as I fell into step beside her.
“Babysitting.”
“No.” She stopped walking and held up a hand. “You’re not coming to my house.”
“Oh, I’m coming.” I’d be damned if I let Nellie come to the rescue now that I lived here. Pierce was my best friend. If he needed someone to watch his son while his wife birthed their baby girl, it would be me.
“Absolutely not.” The color rose in her cheeks. Her soft lips pursed. Those sparkling green eyes narrowed as she stood taller.
God, she was gorgeous when she was angry. Maybe that was why I’d always loved making her mad.
“Lead the way, Blondie.”
Snap. Snap. Snap.
I’d snapped my fingers more times in the past three hours than I had in a year. “What the fuck is taking so long?”
“For the last time. Stop. Cursing.” Nellie’s nostrils flared from her stool beside Elias at the island. She lifted her hands, tickling his cheeks before cupping her palms over his ears. “If you keep saying f-u-c-k, he will too.”
“No, he won’t.” Okay, maybe he would.
Elias was two and repeated a lot of shit. Like the word shit, which I’d slipped and muttered twenty minutes ago.
Nellie let go of his ears, smiling down at the boy. “Should we put blue on the picture next?”
“Yeah.” Elias wrapped a fist around the pen she handed him. The moment he began scribbling, his eyes narrowed in concentration, his tongue poked out from the corner of his mouth.
“Good job.” Nellie gave him her undivided attention and had since the moment we’d walked through her front door.
She’d made him a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. She’d played hide and seek for what had felt like an eternity. She’d turned three plastic storage containers and two wooden spoons into his own personal drum set. She’d even scrounged up enough different colored pens and pencils to make him an art set.
Meanwhile, I was an afterthought. An annoyance.
With Nellie, well . . . our history was complicated at best.
Over the years we’d learned to avoid each other. Somehow we’d have to figure out how to do that in this small town. I had my sights set on living here and giving up on goals wasn’t exactly my style.
The sound of children playing echoed down the quaint, neighborhood streets. A minivan rolled by with a Baby On Board sign in the rear window. There’d be a parade along First Street on Monday for Memorial Day.
It was so . . . rural. Different than Nashville or Denver. And this small Montana town was now my home.
Or it would be.
Before Kerrigan had gone into labor, Pierce and I had talked about my plans to move here. They were loose, at best. Buy some land. Build a house. Find something to fill the time I’d once dedicated to football.
Today, it was babysitting. Tomorrow was a mystery.
When was the last time I’d looked into the future and not seen a football in my hand? Ten years? Twenty? Longer? I’d been playing since first grade. Who was Cal Stark without the game?
This wasn’t the time for those questions, so I shoved them aside. There were other things to fixate on at the moment, like why hadn’t we heard from Pierce. Was Kerrigan okay? Was the baby?
I paced the length of Nellie’s kitchen, my footsteps a steady beat on the rich hardwood floors. We’d been in here so long that I’d memorized the space, from the glass-door cabinets to the wooden island to the teal backsplash.