“It’s coming.” Cordy felt like she was apologizing. “Chance, let him go.”
“I’m not stopping him. See?” When Chance released Brad, he seemed to push him backward, although Brad didn’t move.
Brad stared Chance down, long enough that Cordy was about to grab Reg to help her defuse the situation.
Finally, Brad went to sit next to his wife. Hailey looked as upset as Cordy felt. Great.
“I don’t need your help,” she said darkly to Chance as she finished typing in the order. “Ireallydon’t.” She couldn’t even look at him, she was so worked up. Honestly, he could have made it a lot worse. She had everything under control, and he didn’t need to butt in. Again.
“Of course.” He sounded completely unperturbed. It made her teeth grind together with helpless frustration. “Have you found someone to go with you to that class?”
Cordy felt her back teeth strain in their sockets. “Sure did.” She sent off the order and stretched her lips in the fakest smile ever. “Thanks for asking. Sorry, but I need to get back to this.”
With that, she turned her back on him. Whatever kind of help Chance was offering, she didn’t need it.
five
Chance felt like a damn stalker.
He wasn’t, even if he was waiting in his truck in the hospital parking lot. He was only making sure Cordy had a partner for her birthing class. If she did, he’d leave without her ever knowing. And if she didn’t, he’d offer to help again.
If she said no to Chance’s offer, he’d accept that and go. A stalker wouldn’t, which meant he wasn’t one.
He onlyfeltlike one.
The automatic doors snapped open and shut, people hurrying in and out. Chance stared at everyone, trying to see if they were Cordy. More than one person gave him a funny look back, like this poor lady who had no idea why he was eyeballing her.
Chance shifted uncomfortably. Yeah, there was no good way to spin this. But if Cordy didn’t have a partner and she couldn’t take the class… Christ, that would upset her. The way she talked about being alone, with no one to help or show her how it was done, messed him up.
So that was why he was acting like a damn psycho.
When Cordy came around a corner from the far parking lot, her belly leading and a bag strapped across her back, Chance’s body unlocked.
Finally, she was here.
She wore clothes he’d never seen her in before—a flowy patterned dress that hit below her knees and covered her shoulders. She looked like she was on her way to church, one of the ones that yelled about sinners and Hell and people like Chance.
The weight of her massive bag was making her list like a drunken sailor. Without a second thought, Chance dashed across the parking lot to her.
Cordy stopped dead when she saw him, her eyes wide. She didn’t even say anything. Her expression simply hardened.
“You can tell me to go,” Chance said, “but I think you need me.”
Her pretty mouth flattened. He waited for her to tell him to go to hell—but she didn’t.
Chance suppressed his smile, knowing better than to rub salt in her wounds. He took her bag and immediately almost dropped it. Goddamn, but it was heavy. “What are you carrying in here, rocks? Are you supposed to be hauling this much weight?”
She slanted him a look. “I’m not weak or sick. I’m just pregnant. It’s my notes and books. All the baby books I’ve bought, the handouts they gave me in the classes, and my notes on everything.”
Chance hefted the bag onto his shoulder. The thing must be at least thirty pounds. “You were the kid who carried all her textbooks with her even if she didn’t need them, weren’t you?”
“No,” she said, “I wasn’t. I actually wasn’t a great student.”
“Me neither.” Chance opened the door for her. “School wasn’t my thing.”
The Star Crossed Springs school district was barely one step above a one-room schoolhouse, with everyone from kindergarteners to high school seniors on the same campus. There was one class for each grade, and the high school teachers doubled up for most classes, with one teacher covering scienceandmath or Englishandhistory. Chance had graduated with pretty much the same thirty kids he’d been in kindergarten with.
“I’m sure you were a better student than I was.” Chance needed her to smile at him. The strain on her face was killing him. “I barely graduated. Had to flutter my eyelashes at the teachers to pass most of my classes.”
