Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)

“Not enough.” He leaned toward her. “Shelby, we’re not going there. It would be a mistake. I want you, that’s pretty obvious. Being together would be amazing. But that’s not why we’re here.”


He wanted her? Little butterflies danced through her tummy. He wanted her! Anticipation filled her as she thought about how good she’d felt in his arms. How safe and sexy and hungry.

“It’s not the worst idea,” she began.

He cut her off with a shake of his head. “It would be a disaster.”

“Why? You have a lot of experience. You know what you’re doing.”

She’d been hoping he would at least crack a smile, but he continued to look serious.

“We’re doing something good here,” he told her. “I don’t want to lose that.”

“So if I threw myself at you right now, you’d refuse me?”

“Regretfully, yes.”

Ouch. “But you won’t sleep with anyone else until the six months are over?”

“No, I won’t. We had a deal.”

Talk about an honorable man, she thought glumly. One with integrity. She should be thrilled. Impressed. Instead all she felt was rejection and mild annoyance.

While she’d never considered herself a prude, she wasn’t exactly anyone’s ideal of a temptress. So seducing Aidan was out of the question. Besides, as much as she didn’t like to admit it, she kind of respected his stand. If only it weren’t so confusing.

Because he was right. They were doing something good. But after that kiss, well, everything was different now.

“I can’t decide if I should applaud you or beat you with a stick,” she admitted.

“How about we go back to being friends?”

Her cell phone rang before she could answer. She glanced at the screen and saw it was her sister-in-law.

“It’s Destiny,” she said as she pushed the green button. “Hi. Everyone okay?”

Destiny’s voice cracked. “N-no. It’s a mess. I’m a mess. I really need your help.”

*

“YOU SURE YOU know what you’re doing?” Destiny asked, her voice doubtful.

“He’s fine,” Shelby assured her, before Aidan could admit that he was clueless.

He still wasn’t sure how everything had changed so quickly. One minute he’d been trying to convince Shelby they couldn’t be lovers—what kind of twisted world had it become that he was saying that to a beautiful woman he desperately wanted?—the next they were driving to Destiny’s house.

The new mother looked exhausted. She was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes. Shelby had taken the baby from her and handed it over to him, then had started making tea.

Aidan held the six-week-old in his arms, careful not to wake her. He had to admit, she was a beautiful little thing, with a tiny nose and a sweet mouth. As long as she stayed asleep, he could handle this.

Destiny sat at the kitchen table. “Kipling’s been gone for two days. He offered to cancel his trip, but he’d been looking forward to the conference. I said everything would be okay. And Starr’s busy with her life, so it’s just been me and Tonya. She’s a really good baby, but half the time I don’t know what I’m doing. What if I break her?”

Shelby spooned tea leaves into the mesh basket, then set it inside the pot. The kettle on the stove was already starting to make a low whistling sound. She turned off the heat and poured the water into the teapot.

“You’re not going to break her,” Shelby said. “Destiny, you’re one of the most organized people I know, but you need to learn to ask for help. You’ve just had a baby. Everything is new and scary and you don’t have to do this alone.”

“I know.” Destiny wiped away tears. “It’s just I feel like such a failure. I’m tired all the time.”

“Do you get any sleep?” Aidan asked.

“A couple hours every now and then.”

“Not nearly enough.”

Destiny sniffed. “Starr’s a teenager. I don’t want to ask her for too much. She needs to be having fun with her friends. But her birthday’s coming up and I can’t find the time to plan it like I should and I’m trying to write a couple of songs and there’s all kinds of prepublicity for the tour and I’m fat!”

She started crying again, this time covering her face with her hands. Shelby pulled up a chair next to her. After wrapping her arms around her, she drew in a breath.

“Let me see if I understand the situation. You’re dealing with a baby. You’re breastfeeding, so you have to get up every couple of hours to do that. You’re cooking for your husband and your sister, taking care of Tonya, taking care of the house, all the while you’re trying to write new music, planning a national tour, doing publicity for the tour and maybe rehearsing the songs with Starr? There’s also her birthday and you’re trying to get back into shape after, hey, giving birth.”