Texas-Sized Trouble. Delores Fossen

shook his head and hitched his thumb toward the stairs. “According to the address Dylan gave me, Tessie’s on the second floor. I was about to head up there, but I had some...interruptions. Not the puke,” he added when Eve glanced at it again. “The people who did that were the distractions.”

      Along with Cassidy, the baby and Eve.

      Like her son, Eve looked a whole lot different from the last time he’d seen her. Her face wasn’t screwed up in pain, and of course, she didn’t have a pregnant belly. She was back to looking like her old self. Plus, eighteen years. Those eighteen years had settled nicely on her though.

      And he had to curse another hit from that old lust.

      “How are you?” Eve asked. But she wasn’t looking at his face. No, her attention was flickering in the general area of his crotch, which meant she was probably talking about his butt injury.

      “I’m fine. A doc in Abilene took the stitches out while I was up there. I’m as right as rain.” He couldn’t believe that had just come out of his mouth and didn’t know what the hell it meant. What the heck was right about rain, anyway? “Since you’re here, there’s no need for me to check on Tessie,” he added in a grumble.

      Cassidy and Eve both blew out large enough breaths to fan a small forest fire. Lawson figured he should wonder what that relief exhaling was all about. Maybe even question it, but to do that, he’d have to hang around. Right now though, there was something he wanted more than answers.

      A whole lot more.

      And that was distancing himself from Eve, the puke and this tangled mess of memories leaking from their old baggage.

      “Tessie?” He heard Eve call out at exactly the same moment that Lawson headed for the door. The sound of his own footsteps blended with those coming down the stairs. Tessie’s, no doubt.

      Good. Eve was going to get to see her daughter and maybe accomplish the very thing that he should have never come here to try to do.

      Maybe.

      Tessie certainly didn’t respond with a welcome greeting to her mom, but Lawson didn’t wait around to see how this would play out. Nope. He headed home, knowing he’d filled his “stupid things to do” quota for the day.