Free Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak Page A

chuckled, although it wasn’t funny.
    “Maybe it’s time to tell him about Wyatt, since that could figure into his decision.”
    “No. Absolutely not.” Cheyenne wanted to end the anxiety that keeping her secret created. But Presley wasn’t ready, wasn’t willing to trade a release of anxiety for what could happen if Aaron found out. “Not yet.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Positive. Wyatt’s too little. Maybe when he gets older, when he’s capable of making his own choices.”
    “Okay, but...if I go to Aaron about this...donation, do you think he’ll demand we tell Dylan?”
    “My bet? He’d rather Dylan not know. That way, it can’t get awkward between them.” The Aaron she knew wouldn’t want or need the credit. He was like that. Bighearted, magnanimous and sensitive to the delicate balance that made it possible to continue having a relationship with Dylan. Some people took home stray dogs or cats. Aaron took home stray people. She had a feeling he’d only befriended her initially because she’d been so isolated from the rest of Whiskey Creek. The night he’d sought her out at Sexy Sadie’s she’d been sitting in a corner alone. He’d walked over and said something about being her neighbor before inviting her to his table.
    “I should talk to him, then?” Cheyenne asked.
    “If you’re really convinced it’ll make things better for Dylan.”
    “You wouldn’t mind if...if I also had a child by Aaron?”
    “You felt you had to ask me?”
    “Because of Wyatt I thought I should.”
    “I have no claim on Aaron.” Wyatt and her baby would be half brothers instead of cousins, but why would that matter? “Our children can grow up together here in Whiskey Creek.”
    “It’ll be a far nicer childhood than ours was.”
    “No kidding,” Presley agreed with a weak laugh. She especially felt sorry for Cheyenne. She would’ve had a very different life if Anita hadn’t stolen her from her birth family. At least Anita was Presley’s real mother. “So when are you going to approach him?”
    “I have to do it soon, before Dylan works up the nerve to go to the doctor, or there’ll be no point.”
    Presley tried to picture her sister asking Aaron to donate his sperm. “That should be a very interesting conversation.”

6
    R iley wasn’t there when Presley returned. Presley considered that a lucky break. Although she’d baked two apple pies, one for each of her helpers as a thank-you, it would be a lot easier to talk to Aaron if they had a few minutes alone.
    Now she had that. Because she’d walked Wyatt over to Cheyenne’s before loading the pies in his stroller, she didn’t have the challenge of trying to restrain her son.
    This is the perfect opportunity. Aaron’s just a regular man .
    Except that wasn’t true. He meant the world to her....
    Reminding herself that that was before and not now, she summoned her courage, swung open the door and leaned against it so she could wheel the pies inside. Aaron was wearing headphones, listening to music on his iPod while he painted, but her movements must’ve caught his eye. He turned and pulled the buds from his ears.
    “You’re back,” he said as he climbed off the ladder.
    Would he be glad to get the pie? It was the one thing she used to make for him. But Millie at Just Like Mom’s served good apple pie, too, so he probably hadn’t missed it any more than he’d missed her. “Where’s Riley?”
    “He went to take care of something with his kid.”
    The smile he flashed her reminded her that they were alone together on a Saturday night for the first time in twenty-six months. It also made her feel like she was clinging to a rock as the ocean tried to drag her out to sea.
    Just hang on...
    “Sorry I’ve been gone all day.” It was almost eight o’clock. She’d fallen asleep when Wyatt napped and slept for three hours. Then it’d taken longer to make the pies than she’d expected, since she’d had to scrap her first attempt. She rarely