I’m just surprised to see you,” Grace replied.
“So, you’re teaching here now?” Billy asked.
“I’m covering a maternity leave. The regular teacher will be back in two weeks,” Grace said. “Mrs. Mackel mentioned a lot of change for Poppy, so I’m afraid there will be a little more...” Grace looked down at the girl, who was looking around the classroom, her thoughts spinning to catch up. A daughter...? Where had she come from? “Billy, I had no idea—”
Billy cleared his throat and glanced down at Poppy. “Neither did I, but I think Poppy and I are going to be okay. Don’t you think, kiddo?”
The little girl looked up mutely at her father, and he shot her a reassuring grin.
Now was not the time to ask more questions, so Grace turned her attention to Poppy. “Would you like to see some of the fun things we have in our classroom? Come on. I’ll show you.” Grace held out a hand, and Poppy tentatively took it. “This is our sand table. It’s fun to play in, and when you feel anxious, you can use this rake to make nice lines. It feels good. Do you want to try?”
Poppy took the rake and made some slow strokes across the sand. “Will I learn things?”
“All sorts of things!” Grace said. “We’re learning our colors, and our animals—”
“Daddy said I can learn calculus,” she said softly.
“Your daddy is a funny guy.” Grace chuckled, but when she looked up, Billy hadn’t cracked a smile.
“That’s the thing...” Billy nodded toward the other side of the room. “Can we talk over there?”
Grace glanced between Billy and Poppy. Billy as a dad—it was hard to imagine. Besides, Billy had gotten together with Tracy three years ago, and this child would be at least four... Grace followed Billy to the other side of the room. “What’s going on, exactly?” she asked quietly.
“She’s...” Billy shrugged. “She’s smart.”
“They all are, Billy,” Grace replied with a small smile. “Way smarter than adults give them credit for.”
“No, I mean, like...crazy smart,” Billy said, locking her down with his dark gaze. “Here’s the thing. Her mother announced I had a daughter and dumped her on my doorstep on the same day. Carol-Ann and I only dated for a summer, five years ago—remember when I went to work that ranch in South Colorado? Anyway, I had no idea she’d gotten pregnant. She tracked me down in Denver, said she had this modeling gig she couldn’t pass up and told me it was my turn with Poppy. Carol-Ann is in Germany right now.”
“Modeling, apparently,” Grace said dryly.
“Apparently.”
They exchanged a look, and for a split second, it felt like the old days, when she and Billy were best friends and could finish each other’s sentences. Before he fell in love with Tracy. She tore her gaze away from him.
“Wow...” Grace cleared her throat. “So, where is Tracy, then?”
“Tracy left me when she found out about all of this,” Billy replied. “That’s why I’m back in Eagle’s Rest. I need help. I can’t raise a daughter alone, so I came home. And it turns out that Poppy is strangely brilliant. She’s only four, and she reads anything she can get her hands on. You know me—I never was the intellectual sort. I have no idea what else I can teach her, and I’ve only had her for two weeks! She’s desperate to learn and she misses her mom something fierce.” Billy heaved a sigh. “I was joking about the calculus, but she wasn’t. I don’t know what to say.”
“Tracy left you?” Grace’s emotions were still stuck on that part of his story. Her best friend had known about her feelings for Billy, but when Billy showed interest in Tracy, all bets were off. She’d sopped him up like gravy with a dinner roll, and the couple had moved to Denver. It all happened so fast, Grace’s head had spun.
“I’m not saying Tracy and I were on great terms before Carol-Ann showed up, and I guess it was the last straw. She said she hadn’t signed on to be a stepmom.” He shrugged weakly, and when he looked across the room toward his daughter, Grace saw the tenderness in his eyes. His chiseled features softened into a look of protective pride.
“You’re smitten,” Grace said.
“Yeah...” Billy smiled, then glanced back toward Grace. “I’m a dad. Can you believe that? It’s pretty huge.”
“It really is,” she agreed. “And she’s adorable.”
He nodded. “Honestly, I’m here to give Poppy a stable life. Social services is going to check in on me to make sure everything is running smoothly, and I guess they’ll be judging my parenting abilities, too.”
“You’ll be fine,” she said.
“I have no idea what I’m doing,” he retorted. “None. First of all, she’s a little girl! I hardly know how to deal with women, let alone the pint-size version. And she’s just so smart...”
“You’ll do what everyone else does,” she replied with a shrug. “You’ll figure it out.”
They exchanged another look, one that made Grace’s heart squeeze in her chest. He’d always been able to make her feel that way. There was something about those dark eyes, his playful smile, his cheeky banter... But no matter how he made her heart flutter, she’d just been “good old faithful Grace” to him. She’d been there for him through thick and thin, and he’d never once seen her as more than a friend. She’d never told him how she felt.
“I’m just really glad to see you, Gracie,” Billy said with a smile. “I missed you.”
It wasn’t fair, because when he said he missed her, he meant it in a casual sense. He missed having that loyal friend always ready to hang out with him, help him out when he was in a bind and watch movies with him on a weekend. He missed the friendship, but she missed something much deeper than a pal—she missed him, his heart. His way of seeing things, the way he’d lean close and nudge her with his elbow when he was making a joke...
She pulled her mind out of the past and forced a smile. “I’ve got two weeks here, and then I’m heading back to the city.”
It was a reminder for herself as much as for him, because she was going to keep him firmly at arm’s length. Billy Austin was her weakness, and she wasn’t willing to lose her heart to him all over again. She’s spent too many years in love with the man, only to watch him fall for the more beautiful, funnier, more spirited Tracy Ellison. Grace had learned a lot through that process—the most important lesson being that she was tired of being the best friend. She was tired of being seen as a buddy instead of as a woman. And she wasn’t going to apologize for her figure, her looks, her personality or anything else about her that shuffled her off to the friend zone over and over again with Billy Austin.
It was a painful lesson, but a necessary one. Grace was a different woman now, and if Billy thought they could just pick up where they’d left off, he’d better think again.
* * *
“DADDY, COME SEE!” Poppy called from the sand table.
Daddy. It still felt weird to be called that, but Billy liked it more than he ever imagined he would. He was this little girl’s dad—the muscle-bound bodyguard who stood between her and an unfair world.
Billy glanced over at Grace. It was really good to see her again. With that glossy brown hair tumbling around her shoulders, her sparkling blue eyes and a soft, round figure that made him think things he really shouldn’t associate with his oldest buddy.
Had she changed somehow since he’d seen her last? He didn’t remember her being quite so...womanly. They’d been friends through elementary school and junior high. After he dropped out of high school, they’d reconnected when Grace was working at the cheap restaurant where he went for dinner