35. Larkin

I knewKnox said he would help me figure out childcare, but they were my children, my responsibility. I didn’t have much downtime at work, but during my bathroom break that morning, I got on the phone and called the three childcare centers in town.

Two of them didn’t have any openings, and the one that did was way out of my price range. The cost would have eaten up eighty percent of my earnings, and that didn’t include the diapers and meals I’d have to pack for both children. Maybe I could swing it once Emily started school in the fall, but it would be really tight even then, and that didn’t cover the hours from three to five either.

I was feeling hopeless as I sat down at my desk to chart the morning medications for each of the clients. It took all I had to smile when Bernice approached my desk.

“Hi, Larkin.” She sat in the open chair across from me. “I wanted to check in on you. See how it’s going.”

With my job? “Great. I love it here.” A lump formed in my throat, and I swallowed it down.

“That’s great news,” Bernice said. “You’ve been here a little while now, and I like asking all our employees a few questions once they get a feel for the culture. Do you have a sec?”

“Sure,” I said. It would be a welcome break from all the stewing I’d been doing this morning.

She crossed her legs and laced her fingers around one knee. “What are some changes you think we could make to improve the residents’ quality of life here?”

I blinked. At my last job, the retirement home director was far more concerned with paperwork and selling rooms to new clients than she ever was with her employees’ opinions. “You’re asking me?”

She smiled. “Of course. Unless you’re hiding the real Larkin under your desk.”

I chuckled, pleasantly surprised by the joke. “Actually, there has been one thing.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

I leaned my elbows on the desk. “I started doing yoga after having Jackson, and I’ve seen how good it’s been for my physical strength and for my stress. I think it would be great to add some yoga, even chair yoga, to the activities schedule.”

Bernice raised her eyebrows like my suggestion surprised her.

“Bad idea?” I asked nervously.

“Not that. Most people just want better chairs for the break room, things like that.”

I chuckled. “I mean, that would be nice too.”

She smiled at me, like she was seeing through me. “I know you love being a nurse, but I won’t be able to work here forever. With your heart, I could see you doing a great job as a leader here.”

My eyes stung at the compliment. At someone seeing my good qualities instead of looking for the negative, like Seth and his parents. Was there some kind of magic about Cottonwood Falls that led me to Knox and now this? “That means a lot, Bernice.”

“Oh, honey,” she said, reaching out and patting my hand. “I call it like I see it, you know that.”

I smiled and nodded. “I do. Thank you.”

“Let me think on the yoga and I’ll get back to you, okay?”

“Sounds great.”

She left my office, and I had to wonder how I could feel so many different emotions in the span of a few hours. But now a sense of desperation was covering it all. It felt like I could have a real future here in Cottonwood Falls, not just a stopover while I was recovering from the divorce. But how could I have a real future here when the choice was stay with the man I was falling for or support myself and my children?

My phone vibrated on my desk, and I half hoped it was one of the more affordable childcare centers calling to let me know a spot had miraculously opened for both of my children.

Instead, it was a new text message.

Liv: Are we still on for lunch?

“Shit,” I muttered. I’d completely forgotten we’d set a lunch date for when I came back from Dallas. There was so much going on in my personal life, I wanted to cancel and sulk by myself in the break room, brainstorm new ideas, but Liv knew so much more about Cottonwood Falls than I did—maybe she could help me come up with a solution.

But first I needed to text Knox and see if they needed me over my break.

Larkin: Hey, everything good there? Do you need me to come home and help at lunch?

After a few minutes, I got a text. A picture of Emily on a horse.

“Oh my gosh,” I whispered to myself as I zoomed in on the picture. Emily was smiling so big up there. She was having the time of her life. How could I let Seth and Nancy take this away from her?

Larkin: That’s amazing!!! How did you make that happen?!

Knox: Took the kids out to my dad’s!

He sent me another picture of him holding Jackson, a red barn in the background. At this point, my heart was a puddle.

Larkin: Have I mentioned you’re the best?

That I’m falling in love with you? I didn’t add that last part, but it was more than true.

My feelings were coming so fast, so strong, but Knox was so different from any man I’d known. Liv had been right to hope there’d be something between us.

I changed my messages to the thread with Liv and texted her back.

Larkin: I’ll be there.

But then I flipped my phone over so I could focus on these charts until it was time for my lunch break.

I was walking to Woody’s Diner when my phone rang with a call from Knox. Hoping everything was okay, I answered and said, “How’s it going? No broken bones? No one bucked off a horse?”

“We’re great, more than great,” he said.

I stopped on the sidewalk, the late summer heat already making sweat bead on my forehead. I couldn’t dare to hope. “What is it?”

I heard the wind blow past his speakers and Jackson babbling away in the background. It was like since that first word came, he wanted to make all the noise he could. And then Knox said, “I found a solution.”

“Knox...” I covered my mouth. “You didn’t.”

“Liv was a nanny before she married my brother. She said she would love to keep Jackson and Emily until Emily starts school in the fall. Then she’ll watch Jackson during the day and pick up Emily from school.” I could hear the confidence in his voice, the joy he had in helping me, in being strong for me.

Through the incredulity, I was about to thank him, tell him he was incredible when he added, “And on the days Liv can’t watch them or pick them up, my friends Henrietta and Tyler Griffen will watch the kids. They’re thinking of starting a family of their own soon, so it will be great for them to be around kids more often. And then for backup sitters, Rhett and Maggie Griffen offered to step up, but fair warning, Rhett has a potty mouth, so Em might come home with a colorful vocabulary.”

I let out a tearful chuckle.

“And in a pinch, our friends Camryn and Cooper will babysit. Since they already have a one-year-old, I think they’d be extra good with Jackson. My dad is great with kids too as a backup, even though he’s getting older—there may be some more TV time there. Between the lot of us, we have you and these precious babes covered.”

Tears fell down my cheeks now, and I pressed at the corners of my eyes, unable to believe what he’d accomplished in less than half a day when I thought my world was falling apart. Just when I felt like my back was against a wall, he showed me I could lean on him. But it couldn’t be that simple.

“I can’t pay Liv the going rate for a nanny,” I admitted. “I can’t even afford half of that.”

“We worked out a deal. You pay what you feel comfortable with, and I have the rest covered.”

My mouth gaped open. He wanted to pay for my children’s childcare? That couldn’t be right. “Knox, I couldn’t ask you to...”

“No money is changing hands,” he assured me. “You’ll see.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Wait. What? It’s nothing illegal, right?”

He laughed. “No, but it should be.”

I shook my head in pure disbelief and continued walking along the sidewalk. “How did you do this all in a morning?” I asked. “I tried and failed with three different daycares. This feels too good to be true.”

“It’s Cottonwood Falls,” he said. “We take care of our own. And, Larkin, you better believe you’re one of us.”

We ended our call, and I reached the restaurant, seeing a table full of my new friends through the window and was almost overcome with emotion again. These beautiful women had stepped up to be there for me, not much more than a stranger. And they loved Knox enough to care for me by default.

Part of me worried that they would cast me off if things didn’t end well with Knox, but deep down, I knew there was a magic about this place. Seth may have been a bad seed, but it seemed like he was an apple that fell far away from the Cottonwood tree.

I made my way inside the restaurant, relishing the cool blast of air and the sound of friendly conversation that hit my ears. And when I got back to the table, I gave them each a big hug.

As we sat down, Liv said, “Tell me all about your babies. I’m so excited to start babysitting them!”

Henrietta nodded with a friendly smile, and even Della, Maggie, and Camryn leaned in like they were truly interested in hearing about my kids.

I smiled, getting to talk about my favorite people with my new friends.

Liv and I made plans for me to drop the kids off at her place the next morning, and then I had to ask...

“What’s the deal Knox made with you?”

A wicked grin formed on her lips. “Come over for supper tonight and find out.”

* * *

After work,I met Knox at my house. He came to the bedroom with me while Emily watched an episode of PAW Patrol and Jackson played in his playpen. And when I told him that the kids and I were going to Liv and Fletcher’s place to see what kind of deal he worked out, his jaw dropped.

There was even some color in his cheeks as he said, “You don’t have to do that, do you?”

My hands stalled at the hem of my scrub shirt. “Knox Madigan, are you blushing?” An incredulous smile touched my lips.

“No.” He fought a smile that came back right away. “Not at all.”

I had to chuckle at him and went to hug him. I kissed his lips, savoring the feeling of kissing someone I knew had my back one hundred percent. “You’re not going to tell me what this arrangement is?”

He smirked down at me, blue eyes impossible to look away from. “Sounds like you’re finding out anyway. You’ll have to handle the suspense.”

“Is that so?” I arched an eyebrow. “I can think of a way or two to work the truth out of you.” I winked.

He closed his eyes like I was already testing his willpower.

I stepped back from his arms, slipping my shirt overhead. “Good thing for you I like surprises.”

“You do?” he asked, unabashedly checking me out. I would need to get used to that, not turning away from him when I was changing just because my ex didn’t like my body.

I nodded and pulled on a tank top. Then I changed out of my scrub pants, saying, “Don’t you love the anticipation of knowing something good is coming?”

He leaned back on my bed, tilting his head to the side. “You think it’s going to be good?”

With my shorts on, I walked to him, straddling him on the bed. “Anything that makes you blush like that is good to me.”

A teasing look played on his face before he flipped me over on the bed and kissed me breathless, almost making me forget I had something to look forward to outside of this magical, heart-pounding moment.