Free 0373659458 (R) by Karen Templeton Page B

reach over and pry the plastic squirt bottle from Liam’s chubby hands. “Most men are, honey,” she said over the baby’s affronted bellow. She reached into her pocket for a small packet of crayons, plopped them in front of the boy. “Y’all want chocolate shakes with that?”
    “Please.” Zach smiled tiredly as Jeremy leaned close to his baby brother, helping him to choose a crayon to color the horse in the center of the place mat. Blue, apparently.
    As Liam began to madly scribble more or less over the horse, Val called out their order to AJ, Annie’s husband and the diner’s short-order cook, before turning back to Zach. They were on the late side for lunch, so the place was virtually empty except for a couple of tourists a few booths down and Charley Maestas, the old army vet who spent a good portion of every day at the counter, mostly shooting the bull with whoever would talk to him. Which was pretty much everybody. Yeah, the town definitely looked out for their own.
    “So how’d Ed’s mare do?” Val asked. “She okay?”
    As tired as he was, Zach had to smile. “Now how’d you know about that?”
    “Your mom was in for a second, filling up her thermos on her way out to the pueblo to deliver a baby. Said you’d dropped the boys off before dawn.”
    “I did. And mare and filly are both fine.”
    “Excellent. And you?”
    “Nothing a four-hour nap wouldn’t fix.”
    Even as she laughed, sympathy swam in Val’s eyes. A single parent herself, she knew what it was like, trying to juggle child care with working. Especially in a small town with limited day care options. “Hey. I’m off at three. If you want I’d be happy to take the boys. They can play with the girls for a couple of hours. In fact, y’all could even stay for dinner. Levi’s probably gonna give the grill one final whirl before it gets too cold. Whaddya say, guys? You wanna come over and play with Josie and Risa later?”
    Jeremy looked up, all bright eyes and snaggle-toothed grin. “Cool—”
    “Thanks,” Zach said, “but I’m good.”
    Clearly, exhaustion was making him cranky. Not to mention stupid. But honestly, as much as he loved his brother—and his soon-to-be sister-in-law—he didn’t think he could handle four children under the age of eight right now.
    No, let’s be honest—what he couldn’t handle was watching how happy his brother and Val were. And if that didn’t make him a rotten brother, not to mention a terrible person, he didn’t know what did. For crying out loud, they were both great people who’d been through hell. God knew if anyone deserved a happy ending, it was those two. As well as Val’s two little girls.
    Except even he knew his funk had nothing to do with them, even if his brother’s engagement had made Zach that much more aware of his own loneliness, of how desperately he still missed his wife. Especially at times like this, when he simply felt like there wasn’t enough of him to go around, when his kids needed more than he had to give—
    He felt Val’s hand on his shoulder. “Hey. No playing the martyr allowed.”
    “I’m not—”
    “Trust me, been there, got the T-shirt. So you’re coming over and that’s that. You wanna go pass out upstairs, that’s okay. We’ll handle the kids. All you have to do is hang on for a few more hours.”
    He released a weary laugh. “Fine,” he said, and Jeremy gave a fist pump. He and Val’s oldest were about the same age and loved nothing more, apparently, than verbally sparring with each other. About nothing —
    “Hey, there,” Val said brightly as the bell over the door tinkled. “Sit anywhere you like—”
    “Oh, my goodness! Dr. Talbot?”
    In a blur of fluttering fabric and jewelry, Dorelle made a beeline for him while Mallory hung back a few feet, her lip caught between her teeth. Embarrassed? Amused? Hard to tell. But the twinkle in the redhead’s eyes, those damn dimples, made Zach’s chest thump. In a not entirely unpleasant