Chapter 49

49

Sonny hadn't known what else to do. The truck was going to need a new part. He could fix it, but he'd have to wait until the auto store opened in the morning. It was cold out, and he didn't have any heat now. He couldn't exactly drive to the cheap hotel by the interstate. It was too far away. But there was the big inn right in the middle of the town. Easy to walk to and everything.

It wasn't exactly the kind of place Sonny was used to being, though. It was for the fancy people. The kind his mom had always smirked at and everything and been mad at all the time. When she was emptying trashcans in the Barratt hotel and stuff. She'd worked there for ten years when Sonny was little, but his two older brothers had already moved out. They'd been a lot older than Sonny.

He wanted Katie to grow up to be with the fancy people. That would be cool. She'd get a good education, go to college, and have a real career. Like a doctor or nurse, or something. He'd seen that pretty blond nurse again, too. Around town.

Now, she was right there next to the waitress. Behind the desk at the inn.

"Hello, how are you again? How is Katie feeling?" the waitress, Dylan, asked.

It was pretty cool that she'd remembered his baby's name and everything, too. Sonny liked her, he decided. A lot. She reminded him of Neveah, how she used to be. Sweet and innocent and everything. Before the drugs.

"She's a lot better. She hasn't had a fever at all since the new formula." Sonny felt his cheeks getting red when Dylan smiled at him. He looked at the nurse instead. Before he said something stupid. There was another woman there, too. She had a bag over her shoulder.

And he thought she was with that really tall guy who was by the door talking to a cowboy. That tall guy looked super-familiar. "Thank you for your help the other night. The different formula really worked."

"I'm glad to hear that. Welcome to the Talley Inn." The nurse smiled, but while she was seriously hot—he still liked Dylan's smile better. Dylan's eyes were big and beautiful and almost innocent. Like Neveah's used to be. Neveah had been a lot younger than he was and kind of na?ve. He'd given her stuff to use—he'd thought it was fun when they got wasted together. Until she'd died from it, anyway. That still made Sonny want to puke when he thought about it. He had given her the drugs in the first place. He would never really be able to make that right.

These were the kind of women he wanted Katie to grow up to be. "Do you work here, too?"

"It's a family thing. This inn has been in our family for a hundred years," the nurse said. "My sisters and cousins and I all work here. Run it, and the diner. Our grandmother started the diner. We have a family history on our brochure. How long will you be staying?"

"Probably just tonight. My truck broke down. And I don't have any heat. With the baby…we walked over here. Do you think my rig will be okay in the IGA parking lot? I couldn't get it any further." There weren't a lot of places in this town he could leave it, he didn't think. His truck took up a lot of room.

"I'd be happy to call the manager of the IGA and let him know. His son is a driver, too," the nurse, her tag said Dixie, told him. "I'm sure he'd understand."

"Thanks. I just wanted to get her somewhere warm as fast as I could." He looked at Dylan. He wanted to keep looking at her. "So you work here, too."

"Yep. Dixie and I are sisters. Talleys. There are eight of us sisters floating around, and we have four cousins, too." She shot a grin at the woman at the end of the counter. She had cinnamon red hair, and was very pretty, too. "Meyra here is our adventuring cousin. She's back with us after a quick trip to Finley Creek, Texas. She was…visiting."

She had his driver's license and was getting him a room. No wonder she'd said Finley Creek. He'd lived there his entire life, after all.

"I drive between Finley Creek and here a lot. I just got back up here from Texas. I drove all night. Truck started acting up in Colorado. But I got here on time at least. My bosses were happy."

He'd picked up the load just outside of Finley Creek as an emergency, and he hadn't stopped until he'd gotten up here. Just like his boss had said.

"That is a long drive. I put you on the second floor. We have special rooms reserved there at a travelers' rate. It's a ten percent discount." Dylan gave him his license and his registration slip. "Our dining room is still open for another hour, if you are hungry. We also have a coin-operated laundry. I know babies make a lot of laundry. So do twenty-one-year-old sisters, for that matter. Twice as much laundry as I do, for some reason."

"We have two of those twenty-one-year-old sisters, Dylan. Twice as much laundry is kind of a given," the nurse said.

"Oh yeah. I keep forgetting we have twins."

Well, Katie sure did make a lot of laundry. "I'll have to head back to my truck to grab it, but that will definitely come in handy." He looked at the baby, then back at the two women. "I…well…I guess I'll have to take her with me. I am still not used to this whole practical stuff with a baby thing."

The two women looked at each other for a moment. Then Dixie nodded.

"Katie is more than welcome to stay here at the front desk and help us check in guests for a few minutes," Dylan said. "We're always looking for a good front desk crew. We'd be happy to put in your order in the dining room, if you need. It could be ready by the time you get back."

Sonny looked at his baby. He was torn. He didn't know these women. Did dads just do that? Leave their babies everywhere? With strangers?

The door to the inn opened. A beautiful woman in a police polo was there. She shot him a curious look, as she came to the front desk.

Sonny fought tensing. He had always felt weird around cops. His mom's fault. She'd been a bit police avoidant most of his life. And, well, he had just dropped off a load of OPJ here. That could be bad. And he'd been arrested seven or eight times, now. Hard to forget.

"Deputy Tyler, what a surprise," the nurse said. "What do we owe the occasion?"

"Waiting for my brother's children. He's bringing them to me over here after I grab food. My shift lasted a little longer than I thought. I am taking them home with me for the weekend. Shane has a conference in Montana, Gil is going to watch them while I work tomorrow."

"That's tomorrow? I forgot," the nurse said as Katie started fussing.

The cop looked at her, and her face did that thing women did when they saw a baby. It got all soft and kind of glowy. "She's adorable."

"Thanks. I…my truck broke down in the IGA parking lot and we didn't have any heat. But I need to get some stuff out of the cab. I just don't know what to do with her. I don't want to take her out in the cold if I don't have to." He forced himself to sound casual, even though she was a cop and everything.

"We were just telling him that she is welcome to sit with us for a few minutes," Dylan said, running a finger over Katie's little hand like she was fascinated by Sonny's baby girl or something. "If he needs us to watch her. Childcare isn't really a service we offer, but we can definitely make an exception."

This lady was a cop, and that one was a nurse. They weren't the kind who would hurt Katie. He knew that.

"I've just…never left her with anyone yet."

The cop gave him a sweet smile. "I promise she'll be okay with us. The IGA is just a few blocks, after all. It is too cold out there for her."

Well, they were right. And Katie had no clean clothes, and her blankets smelled like pee. Some clean clothes for him wouldn't hurt either. And it was far too cold to take a baby back outside. Sonny wasn't that stupid.

"Okay. Thanks. My cell number is that one right there. It shouldn't take me very long, I don't think."

When he turned, his eyes met Dylan's cousin's pretty green ones. She just looked at him and smiled, but she looked really tired. But really pretty. Were all the women in Masterson County like that?

They didn't look rough and worn down like all the girls he knew. They just didn't. That was one of the things he'd liked about Neveah at first. How clean and pretty she had been. Yes, this was the kind of place he wanted Katie to grow up, if all the women grew up to be like that.