Right Before His Eyes by Wendy Etherington

babies, so sue me.” Will’s eyes sparkled with a joy that had been missing for a long time before he and Zoe reconnected and he learned he had a ten-year-old son. After their father, Hilton Branch, had embezzled millions and left his family in tatters, there had been little to smile about.
    But Bart was not going to think about his no-good father. Hilton was in prison now, and Bart wanted nothing to do with him.
    As they approached the door of Maudie’s Down Home Diner, Bart hesitated. “Listen, Will, I’m—”
    Will clapped him on the back and practically shoved him through. “Don’t say it, man. Look, it sucks not to be in the final field, but I’ll live.” His expression turned fierce. “Next year, my man. Count on it. But for now, it’s all about you. Just the way you like it, showboat.”
    Bart had to laugh. Will was the attention hound, not him. “Yeah, well, your ugly mug would stink up the newspaper pages. Better me than you.”
    They exchanged grins, back on the safe ground of giving each other grief. Then Will’s face lit. “Well, if it isn’t Miss Lily.” He pushed past Bart to take Mellie’s little curly haired daughter from her and toss her in the air.
    Lily squealed and giggled, but the instant she was safely back in Will’s clasp, she turned toward Bart and stretched out her arms. “Bart!” The demand was clear.
    Bart plucked her from his twin’s hold. “Hey, pretty girl. How are you today?”
    She began to babble about what the bear he’d given her had done today and what she’d had for dinner. Bart answered her seriously, but he couldn’t help glancing past her where Mellie stood a few feet away. Slender and delicate, a pixie with short, spiky black hair and too-old brown eyes, she bore only a faint resemblance to her round-cheeked cherub of a daughter.
    For once, Mellie was smiling, all the way smiling, at Bart. “Congratulations,” she said quietly, then cast her eyes down as she so often did. She glanced up again. “I’m very happy for you.”
    Bart kept his voice low, too. “Thank you.” His gaze locked on hers. “Want to go out and celebrate?” he found himself asking.
    Mellie looked as shocked as he felt. In the months since she’d arrived in Mooresville, they’d done an awkward dance. Bart would tease her, Mellie would blush and shy away. He sensed she was interested, just as he was, yet her innate caution never allowed him to close the gap.
    â€œI’m serious, Mellie.” To his surprise, he realized he was. “Go out with me.”
    â€œI can’t. We can’t, you know that.”
    â€œI don’t know that—and I don’t understand why.” An unaccustomed anger rose within him, born of frustration. She’d had shadows in her eyes from the first day, and she was maddeningly unwilling to trust anyone. Her boss, Sheila, maybe, and he thought she and Daisy Brookshire were becoming friends. Recently he’d seen her relax around some members of a group of local women who met at Maudie’s once a week, but mostly she kept to herself.
    â€œI—I have to get back to work. Come on, Lily. Louise will be here any second to babysit you.” She took Lily from his arms, and Lily protested.
    â€œI want Bart,” she whined.
    Bart nearly argued, but Mellie’s beleaguered expression kept him quiet. “It’s okay, Lily. I’ll see you next time, okay?”
    Lily frowned but quieted. The older woman who kept her arrived just then, and Bart heard his brother hailing him from a booth.
    Bart shook his head at Mellie’s retreating back and wondered yet again why he bothered. A more skittish woman he’d never met.
    If only he could dismiss her so easily himself. Or figure out the attraction. He wasn’t one for troubled souls. He liked his women cheerful and easygoing, not prickly and