Tennessee Rescue. Carolyn McSparren

      It was probably a case of one thing being responsible for the other. Trip surrounded himself with successful people. Once she was fired and therefore no longer successful, he no doubt went looking for some eye candy to commiserate with him—straight into bed.

      Emma did not consider herself a total loser, dammit. It suddenly seemed terribly important that Seth Logan didn’t think she was, either.

      He set Peony back in the playpen. “How about if I help?”

      “They don’t get fed for another hour. I thought I’d put a tiny bit of dog food in the milk this time. I was going to check with you first, but since you left the cans, I figured it couldn’t do any harm.”

      “As long as you’re starting with a little bit. I didn’t mean I’d help with the feeding, although I will. I meant building the outside cage.”

      She stammered, “I—I can’t ask you to do that. According to Dr. Barbara, you already work all the hours of the day and night until you drop.”

      “You didn’t ask. I offered. I’ve built several of these cages. I’ve even built a couple of big flight cages for raptors that were recuperating from head-on collisions with cars.”

      “I keep telling you. I’ll be worse than useless if I try to help with the cage. I don’t even know where to buy the raw materials.” Or how much they were going to cost. In any case, she hadn’t planned to include them in her budget. “I don’t own any tools, power or otherwise.”

      “That’s all right. I do. I’ll meet you at the Farmers’ Co-op in Williamston tomorrow at eight,” he said. “By then I’ll have worked up some specs. My partner, Earl, will be happy to help, too. Provide pizza and you’ll have half the county out here.”

      “I don’t know half the county.”

      “That’s okay. Barbara and I do.”

      Seth had brought a small baby bottle, and Emma stirred a little of the dog food into the milk. While she held the kits, he attempted to get them to suck even a tiny bit from the larger nipple. As usual, Rose and Sycamore caught on fast. Peony, not so much.

      “She’ll starve if she doesn’t eat!” Emma wailed as another tablespoon full of milk dribbled into Seth’s lap. He dipped his finger in the remaining mush and rubbed it across her gums.

      “Yeah, baby, that’s it,” he whispered as Peony licked his finger. “She won’t starve. Not on my watch.”

      Emma’s landline rang. She ignored it. After half a dozen rings, he looked up. “You ever going to answer that?”

      “Hadn’t planned to.”

      “Whoever it is knows when to hang up before it switches to voice mail.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      “Might be important. Your family?” He dipped his finger once more and held it to Peony’s lips.

      “I can guess who it is. Oh, hell.” She grabbed the handset from the shelf behind her and answered. She didn’t realize it was set on speakerphone until she heard Trip’s voice.

      “Emma! Thank God! I’ve been trying to reach you for days. I’ve been going nuts. Are you all right? I finally convinced your father to give me your landline number, since you won’t answer your cell phone.”

      She glanced at Seth. He was watching her while he seemed to be watching the baby.

      “Ow!” He scowled down at Peony. “You imp. You bit me.”

      Emma laughed at his wounded expression.

      “What’s happening? Who’s there? Is it your father? He said he might drive up there if he didn’t hear from you. Let me speak to him.”

      Holding the phone in her right hand, she braced her left against Seth’s shoulder, stood and turned away. A second later she turned back and saw that he was grinning at her. She’d touched him so casually. Her hand on his shoulder felt natural; he was no longer a stranger.

      She flipped off the speaker and walked across to the fireplace before she answered again. “Trip, nothing is going on that concerns you in any way. No, my father is not here and he doesn’t plan to come. He would prefer, however, that you stopped calling him at the office.”

      “He’s damn near my father-in-law! Who else should I call when you disappear and won’t take my calls? I had to beg to get him to give me this phone number.”

      “He is not nor will he ever be your father-in-law. I asked him not to give anyone this number.”

      “I am not anyone. I’m your fiancé.”

      “No, you aren’t. We broke up, remember? I did not run off. I came up here to look for a new job...”

      “You don’t need a new job. You don’t need any job. You need to marry me so I can take care of you. I screwed up...”

      “You might say that.”

      “You must hate me now, but...”

      She sat on the arm of the sofa. Seth was hearing every word she said, but hiding in her bedroom was ridiculous. Better get it over and done with once and for all. “I don’t hate you, Trip. Although I’ll admit I did when I found out about you and Susan. I thought she was my friend.”

      “It was a one-night stand. You and I had that fight because you didn’t want to go to the ball after I bought the tickets. Damn things cost a fortune.”

      “I told you to find another date.”

      “I didn’t want another date. I wanted my fiancée on my arm. You know how tongues would’ve wagged if I’d shown up with someone else. I would’ve spent the night explaining why you weren’t with me. So I had to go stag.”

      “Unfortunately, you didn’t feel you had to remain stag.”

      “If you’d gone, I wouldn’t have run into Susan once I got there. Hell, she came on to me. I was mad and I was drunk. That’s no excuse, but I swear it’ll never happen again.”

      So it was Emma’s fault for not doing what he wanted? “Until the next time you want to schmooze with a room full of VIPs and I am just getting over a hundred and one degrees of fever. Not only did I feel rotten, I was trying to avoid giving everyone there what I had. I didn’t blow you off.”

      “I’m not blaming you.”

      “Really? Sure sounds like it.”

      “Anyway, what’s the big deal? You break off our engagement a week before we’re scheduled to announce it. How’s that going to look?”

      He’d gone from contrition to recrimination in three sentences. How on earth had she ever considered marrying him? Had she been blind? No, just stupid. You couldn’t fix stupid, but she was going to try.

      “When we decided to get married, you agreed that infidelity was a deal breaker. I guess that’s why you lied to me. It wasn’t a one-night stand, Trip. Susan told me she’d been seeing you for the past month.”

      “That didn’t have anything to do with us, you and me!”

      How many times had Emma heard that?

      “Call it a crazy last fling. Now I know for sure you’re the woman I intend to spend the rest of my life with. Together we can own the world. I miss you. On Saturday I’ll drive up there, take you to lunch.” He hesitated, then whispered, “Make up afterward.”

      When she heard his tone she felt her stomach flip, and not in a good way. She knew what he meant, but making up with Trip no longer sounded appealing.

      She slid over the arm of the sofa and swung her legs around to sit. “Trip, I don’t hate you. It’s worse than that. Hate implies passion. Passion is one step away from love.”

      “Take