His ex-girlfriend.
But he was apparently going to have to face her because she was headed their way. It wasn’t a shocker to see her, not the way it’d been for him at the guesthouse with Eve. After all, Darby was a nurse and worked here at the hospital. In fact, Lawson was surprised he hadn’t seen her sooner, but he’d just figured she was avoiding him.
The way he’d been avoiding her.
No chance of avoiding her right now though, because she stopped directly in front of him. She was wearing purple scrubs today, her favorite color, and she had some magazines clutched to her chest.
“I came on shift about an hour ago, just as the ambulance arrived with Eve and you,” Darby said. “I heard you needed stitches.”
She said it with concern, too. Of course, Garrett had been concerned as well, but his cousin had found the butt injury funny.
Lawson settled for saying, “I’m fine.”
Darby scrounged up a smile, and her gaze lingered on him a moment. As if she was waiting for him to return the smile.
He didn’t. Lawson had learned that Darby could interpret something as small as a smile as a sign of their reunion. She was a smart woman, but she hadn’t figured out yet that it was never going to work between them.
And that she was too good for him.
Darby gave a soft, frustrated sigh and turned to the baby. “Eve’s son,” she muttered. “I think he looks exactly like her.”
But again, she seemed to be waiting for something. Maybe she wanted confirmation of the gossip she’d no doubt already heard? Lawson kept watch of her from the corner of his eye, and he saw the slight tightening of her mouth and her bunched-up forehead.
“He’s not my kid,” Lawson growled. “Before today, I hadn’t seen Eve since she left town our senior year of high school.”
The next sigh Darby made seemed to be one of relief, and it caused Lawson to silently curse.
Crap.
Had people really thought he’d knocked up Eve? Apparently so. And the fact that he hadn’t seemed to put a sparkle of hope in Darby’s eyes since he’d just confirmed to her that he hadn’t been with Eve. The sparkle dimmed considerably when she looked at him again.
“I was just in Eve’s room,” Darby said. “I wasn’t snooping or anything. This is my floor, and it’s my job to check on patients, but a couple of the staff also wanted me to get her to sign these.” She shifted the magazines so he could see them. Well, he could see the one on top, anyway.
Damn. It was those tabloids and not a recent one, either. According to the date, it had come out about six months after Eve had left. It was also about the time Demon High had become a hit.
And there were the hit-makers on the cover.
Eve, aka Ulyana. She was wearing her body-hugging, red leather fighting costume complete with a sickle knife. Kellan Carver, aka Stavros, was in his body-hugging, black leather demon garb, and yeah, he had the horns. He also had Eve. His black leather garb wasn’t the only thing doing some hugging because Stavros was standing behind Eve, his arms coiled possessively around her.
The headline said it all: Stavros Is Demon Hot.
Lawson had the same reaction now as he had seventeen-and-a-half years ago. He threw up a little in his mouth. The only reason he didn’t throw up a lot was because Eve had indeed signed the cover—and her signature was right over Kellan–Stavros’s smug face.
“I know,” Darby went on. “I really didn’t want to bother Eve with these, but she said she didn’t mind.” Darby made eye contact with Lawson again. “Anyway, she wants to see you.”
“Why?” Lawson practically snapped.
Heck, that snap seemed to bring back the sparkle to Darby, too. “She mentioned something about wanting to thank you. You wouldn’t even have to go to her room because she’s insisting she’ll come down here to the nursery and stay until her baby is out of the incubator. She’ll probably be here any minute.”
“No thanks needed. I’m surprised she’s not here already,” he added without even pausing.
“Oh, she was until about thirty minutes ago, but the doctor made her get back in bed so he could examine her.”
Lawson had just missed her since that was about the time he’d arrived at the nursery window. Of course, if he’d seen Eve, he would have slipped out and not interrupted her time with her baby.
“Are you ready to go?” Lawson asked Garrett.
“Uh, sure, but if you want to pop in for a second and see Eve—”
“I don’t.” He wanted to get out of there—now. It was like being a contestant on a bad game show. Behind door number one was Eve—old memories and fresh butt-stitch humiliation. Behind door number two was Darby and her needy eyes.
“Tell Eve I’ll be by to see her later,” Garrett added to Darby, and he hurried to catch up with Lawson. “I guess it really is over between you two.”
Lawson glanced at him, trying to decide if his cousin was talking about Eve or Darby now. It didn’t matter. The answer to both was yes.
“I think I’ll leave early for that cattle auction in Amarillo,” Lawson said, throwing it out there. “I could be on the road in just a couple of hours.”
“The auction’s next week.” There was a reason for the skepticism in Garrett’s voice. Lawson didn’t like buying trips or hotels, and leaving today would mean a week and a half in a hotel.
“It’ll give my stitches time to heal,” Lawson reasoned.
It was stupid reasoning. His stitches would heal at the ranch, too. Plus, he probably shouldn’t be gone that long since his house was close to being finished. The contractor might have things to show him, questions to ask. But that could wait. He had to get out of there.
“We should go out the back,” Garrett said when they reached the main waiting room. “Remember, there are reporters out front.”
Lawson hadn’t forgotten about them, but the numbing meds were wearing off, and he didn’t want to take the long way around to get to the parking lot.
“They know you delivered the baby,” Garrett added.
Lawson groaned. That said it all. They’d want pictures. They’d have questions about what Eve was doing in town. They might even know that Eve and he used to date way back when and try to connect unconnectable dots as Darby had done when she’d considered the baby might be his.
Garrett and he headed for the back exit. However, it wasn’t obstacle-free, either, because just as they reached the door, Belle came rushing in. She was wearing a black raincoat, dark sunglasses and a neon yellow straw hat that was the size of a truck tire.
“I didn’t want anyone to see me,” Belle said as if that explained her getup. “There are reporters out there, and someone left a bunch of these on the porch at the ranch.” She reached in both her pockets and pulled out the turd-shaped horns.
Garrett cursed. “We might need to hire some security.”
No. Lawson just needed to kick some asses. That had a twofold purpose. It’d get rid of the trespassers along with burning off some of this restless energy inside him. But he rethought that. Best not to pop any stitches, or he’d end up back here.
“I’ll have Sophie send down some of the security guards who work at the company,” Garrett added.
That was a good idea. Sophie ran the family business, Granger Western—or Cowboy Mart, as most folks called it since it sold discount Western supplies. It was a huge operation with no doubt plenty of security at the warehouses. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few of them on the ranch...unless Eve wouldn’t be returning