Chapter 4

I don't own any of the Higher Ground characters except Dani and Scott's mystery woman.

Dani started crying. Shelby turned to the girls. "Sorry," she said. "I better go change her."

"OK," Juliette said. She knew Shelby didn't want to see Scott. Who could blame her after what he did?

Scott walked slowly up to the porch, the woman trailing behind him.

"Where'd Shelby go?" he asked when he reached the porch.

"She had to change Danielle," Kat said, almost coldly. "Who is this?"

"This is Jessie," Scott said. "She's my secretary," he added that part after the girls exchanged a look.

"And I'm Dolly Parton," Daisy muttered under her breath. Juliette giggled at the image.

"If you guys have a problem, then say so," Scott said impatiently. "If you don't, I'm going to talk to Shelby."

"Yeah, we do have a problem," Daisy said. "We heard you weren't too friendly to Shelby when she called."

"I wasn't too friendly?" Scott said in disbelief. "She hung up on me!"

"You deserved it," Kat said smugly.

Scott threw his hands up in the air and went into the lodge. Jessie followed him.

Inside the lodge, Shelby was feeding Dani while talking to Ezra.

"Just avoid him," Ezra was saying. "You don't have to talk to him. You don't owe him any explanations."

"But that's not going to stop him from asking me for one," Shelby said. She wiggled the bottle a little more in Dani's mouth.

"So what?" Ezra asked. "Let him ask. He doesn't need to know what went on with you. If he did, he would have called you years ago."

Shelby sighed. "You're right," she said. "I know you're right, but..."

"But you still love him," Ezra finished for her quietly.

"Love isn't the word to use," Shelby said. "But I still feel something. I just don't know what."

Scott cleared his throat. Ezra stood up and Shelby looked over her shoulder. Jessie came up behind him. Scott asked her to leave.

"Ezra, can I talk to Shelby for a minute?" Scott asked. Ezra fixed him with a cold stare.

"Ez, please," Shelby said.

He muttered a few choice words under his breath and went over by Peter.

"We need to talk," Scott said simply.

Shelby nodded. "But not now," she said. "I have to give Danielle a bath."

Scott came closer and peered over Shelby's shoulder. "She gorgeous," he said. "Looks just like you."

"Yeah, well, she should," Shelby said, not letting him get under her skin.

Scott shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Meet you at the docks after lights out?"

"Meet you at the corner table during dinner," Shelby said firmly. She was not going to bring up their past by doing familiar activities. The dock was their place to make out, not talk.

"Well, I should go see where Peter wants me," Scott said. "So I'll, uh, see you later?"

"Later," Shelby said, quite proud of herself for holding her ground. Scott turned to leave.

"Shel," he said turning back around. "I'm sorry about Jess."

This single comment brought tears to her eyes. Jess. She missed her so much.

Daisy came up and put her arm around Shelby. "Come on," she said. "Let's go give Dani that bath."

Ezra and Kat sat with Shelby at dinner that night. She tried to feed Dani her baby food, but Dani kept spitting it back out.

"I guess she doesn't like mashed bananas," Sophie said sitting down with Peter.

Shelby giggled. "She should," Shelby said. "I ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches all the time when I was pregnant," Shelby said.

"Yeah, and I had to go out at midnight at least once a week because she was out," Ezra said.

Kat laughed. "So you get weird cravings huh?"

"Yeah," Shelby said. "I loved pineapples and cottage cheese, too. I also ate a lot of grilled cheese and chocolate pudding."

"That sounds good," Juliette said, coming over with Auggie. "Not the pudding and grilled cheese, but the pineapples and cottage cheese."

Auggie moaned and covered his face with his hands. "All right," he said. "I'll get you some."

"You're so sweet, Auggie," Juliette said. He grabbed his keys and headed out the door.

'Scott's watching you," Ezra muttered to Shelby. She looked to where Ezra was staring. He was right.

"I guess I should go talk to him," she said reluctantly.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Ezra said.

"Yes, I do," Shelby said. "I promised him." Ezra took over feeding Dani and Shelby walked to Scott's table in the corner.