The Texan's Tennessee Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

seem to impede his progress as he carried the giggling child and yipping dog out of the room.
    Molly followed her family toward the door. “Make yourself comfortable, Natalie. I’ll be ready to serve dinner in about five minutes.”
    “Let me help you,” Natalie offered quickly.
    But Molly shook her head. “Everything’s almost ready. You stay and keep Casey company while he babysits for me.”
    Great. Casey and a baby. Both of whom made her unaccountably nervous.
    She perched on the edge of an armchair, mentally groping for something to say. “How’s your hand?”
    He held his hand up, palm out, to show her a fresh bandage. “Much better. I’m keeping it covered just as a precaution, but I can tell it’s going to heal quickly.”
    “That’s good.” That subject exhausted, she nodded toward the baby in the crook of Casey’s arm. “You look pretty comfortable. Do you have a lot of experience with kids?”
    Casey glanced down at the sleeping infant and chuckled. “In our family, it’s hard to avoid them. I have fourteen first cousins on my dad’s side—Molly’s side—and several of them have kids. The Walker clan’s pretty tight, always getting together for some occasion or another. It’s not at all unusual for thirty or more of us to be gathered at the ranch that belongs to Molly’s dad, my uncle, Jared.”
    Daunted by the mental image of all those relatives in one place, many of them children, she swallowed. “Wow.”
    Casey laughed, making the baby start a little, though he didn’t wake up. “Yeah, a lot of people react that way.”
    “How many siblings do you have?”
    He shook his head. “I’m an only. But I never lacked for playmates with so many cousins. Especially the twins, Andrew and Aaron. There’s just a few months’ difference between our ages and our fathers are identical twins, so we spent a lot of time together, along with our cousin Jason D’Alessandro, who’s a couple years older than I am.”
    “Your father’s a twin?”
    “Right. And his brother has twin sons of his own. We’re all used to seeing double.”
    “I see.” Sounded a bit confusing to her, but then, she didn’t have that much experience with family.
    Her mother had a brother, but they hadn’t lived in the same state for decades and didn’t see each other very often, so Natalie hardly knew her cousins on that side. Her father had been one of four brothers. Jewel was the youngest sibling and the only girl. Because her father and Jewel had been the closest of the Lofton siblings, Natalie had seen her aunt Jewel more than the rest of the family. She’d always looked forward to summer vacations in Gatlinburg, back when her family had been intact and at least outwardly happy together.
    Though he’d been a few years older than Natalie, Tommy had always been a gracious and patient host, taking his younger cousin hiking in the mountains, teaching her to fish in the numerous area streams and accompanying her to a nearby amusement park. He had even taken her white-water rafting when he was a mature eighteen and she a hero-worshipping fourteen-year-old.
    She still missed Tommy with a pang like a knife through her heart whenever she remembered those happy childhood times, before her parents’ divorce and before Tommy had joined the military. That had been one of the hardest things about coming here to lick her wounds and plan her future, knowing that she would be surrounded by memories of the cousin who’d been such a happy part of her past.
    The baby in Casey’s lap made a rather surprised sound and opened his eyes. He looked up to see who was holding him, then broke into a toothless grin.
    “Well,” Casey said, grinning back, “you wake up happy, don’t you, tiger?”
    Little Micah hooted as if in agreement.
    Casey was still smiling when he glanced up at Natalie. “I’ve always had that effect on kids. They start laughing as soon as they see my face.”
    “You’re very good with him,” she repeated,