Page 25 of Hollywood

Ruby held out a hand. “Me!”

“Yeah?” I grabbed another and handed it over, letting her gnaw on it.

The smoke detector was still going off. Hollywood climbed on a chair to unscrew the lid and take out the batteries until the smoke cleared. I watched him stretch up to the ceiling, T-shirt rising to show a strip of abs. I had theoddest urge to lean forward and kiss him right below his belly button.

The beeping cut off.

“There,” he said. “Sorry. I got distracted by the potty business.”

“Didn’t want to miss out, huh?” I joked.

He hopped down from the chair, a tiny smile tugging at his lips. “More like I wanted to see the master at work. I wouldn’t have known what to do.”

“It’s not rocket science, Holly. Just let her show you what she needs.”

A hint of pink crept into his cheeks. “You make it sound so easy. But what if I…I don’t know…mess her up somehow?”

Ruby chose that moment to shove half the sausage in her mouth at once.

“Hey, no.” I held my hand in front of her mouth. “You’ll choke. Spit it out.”

She shook her head, eyes wide as she tried to chew. It was too much for her. I squeezed her cheeks gently to encourage her to spit it out. Finally, she did, and I dumped my soggy handful of half-chewed meat into the trash can.

“See, like that!” Hollywood said. “I wouldn’t know to do that!”

“You probably wouldn’t have handed her a whole sausage to begin with.” I wanted to kick myself for making such a stupid mistake. “Just cut her small bites, and you’ll be fine. I wasn’t expecting her to do that, but it happens.”

Hollywood shook his head, clearly giving me too much credit. “Still. I think I need a manual for this stuff.”

I chuckled. “Get on Amazon. They’ll have dozens of books for you.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“More,” Ruby demanded. “Want eat.”

“I’m with Roo on this one,” I said.

Hollywood sighed, looking tired. “Good idea. I promised I’d take her up to the hospital early, and I still need to buy a car seat so I can return Kelly’s.”

“Let’s get this show on the road then,” I said, even as regret tugged at my heart. The sooner we finished here, the sooner I’d be on the way back to Hayworth.

Away from Hollywood and his little girl.

I really didn’t want to leave.

An hour later, I was still in Riverton. I bent over the back of Hollywood’s back seat, wrestling with the new car seat’s locking mechanism while he was inside with Ruby.

I shouldn’t be here. Hollywood was fine now, wasn’t he? He’d smiled this morning. Drunk two cups of coffee. Called his boss to discuss taking a few days off.

He didn’tneedme.

The motorcycle growled behind me. Three guesses who that was.

The car seat latched into place. Finally. I straightened, my back giving an uncomfortable twinge, and turned.

Knight came to a stop and pulled off his helmet.

“Hey.” He cut the engine. “Didn’t think you’d still be in town.”