“It’s not a goat, Sheriff. It’s a baby.”
As he took another bite of a rib, sauce dripped down his fingers and landed on his shirt and lap—bright red sauce that stained everything it touched. He cursed under his breath as he tried to wipe it up.
“You don’t have to get nasty about it,” she said in his ear.
“No. I wasn’t talking to you. It’s just that... Look, let’s call a truce for tonight. I don’t care what kind of illegal baby critter someone left you. We can deal with it another time, just not right now.”
“If you don’t want to do your job, fine, but you should know it’s not a critter of any kind this time. It’s a baby, as in a human baby. A little girl named Lily. She’s about two weeks old from what I can tell and in desperate need of a diaper change, which I think I can do with an old T-shirt. But some real diapers would be nice. And some formula, and a new outfit, cause she soiled this one and wrapping her in something of mine isn’t a real option.”
He didn’t know what to say or how to respond. He’d never dealt with an abandoned baby before. He’d have to read up on it, or at the very least call someone over in Boise to give him a quick rundown of protocol.
“Hello. Hello. Hello. Are you there?” she said, sounding agitated.
He finally took a breath. “Did you say a baby girl?”
“Yes. An infant, and from what I can tell, the only note we have is written on the back of a restaurant receipt from Sammy’s Smokehouse with Lily’s name on it and nothing else.”
He stood, raking a hand through his hair while trying to gather his thoughts. Then he said, “I’ll be right over.”
* * *
“WHY IS SHE crying so much?” Russ asked for the umpteenth time as he awkwardly held baby Lily by her head and butt, flying her back and forth like he was getting ready to propel her through the air. “Is she sick? Maybe she’s got something really wrong with her?”
“Or maybe it’s the way you’re holding her. Haven’t you held a baby before?”
Coco walked over and took Lily, carefully folding the baby into her arms. At once, Lily calmed down as Coco gently spoke to her and naturally bounced with each step, trying to soothe the fretful child.
“There has to be something wrong with her. She smells horrible. I don’t want to get too close, what with all the events I have coming up in the next week. I can’t afford to be sick.”
He was right about the events, at least five that she knew of, and three of them she would be attending alongside him.
So no, he couldn’t get sick, but she really didn’t think that baby Lily had anything physically wrong with her other than needing a diaper change and maybe a bottle.
Coco knew how to treat and care for animals, but what she knew about babies couldn’t fill one page. She was going on instinct here, and what she’d seen her sisters do. Sure, she’d held their babies, but she’d never changed a diaper nor had she ever had to soothe the little darlings or feed them. She’d successfully avoided all of that...up until now.
“She’s a baby. Babies poop and pee. It’s not her fault she smells. She just needs her diaper changed.”
“Can you do that?” His forehead furrowed as if the mere thought of changing a diaper made him nauseous.
“I could if I had a diaper or even an old T-shirt or a dishcloth, but I don’t think I own any safety pins. We’ll just have to bear it until the sheriff gets here with supplies.”
“Well, you can at least strip her down and clean her up, then maybe wrap her in a clean blanket.”
From the tortured look on Russ’s face, Coco thought she should do just that, or what was left of her date night might end right now.
“Okay. Let me see what I can put together,” she reassured him. “Not that I wanted to call him in the first place—we could have simply called Child Welfare or the hospital or anyone other than Sheriff Wilson...even his deputy would have been better. There’s no telling what that man might do with a baby.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. He’ll do what he’s been trained to do with an abandoned baby...whatever that is.”
“You know how that man is with the animals that get left on my doorstep. I’m still paying the fines for keeping some of them longer than the city will allow. If it were up to him, he’d turn them all over to the animal shelter in Idaho Falls, where they’d be put down if no one claimed them in seventy-two hours, sooner if they’re overcrowded. The man has no heart.”
“He’s just doing his job, as I’m sure he will with Billy.”
“Her name is Lily. Why can’t you remember that?”
“I don’t know. Does it really matter? She can’t understand me.”
Lily let out a blood-curdling wail.
“I actually think she can. Or at least she doesn’t like the tone of your voice.”
Coco pulled the baby in tighter.
“Okay. Okay,” he whispered. “Is this better?”
Coco bounced Lily and she quieted down. The little darling seemed to like motion, so Coco kept it going.
“Yes, thank you.”
Coco walked to her bedroom with Lily fussing on Coco’s shoulder, but she seemed to want to calm herself. She squeaked and cooed instead of wailing, a definite improvement. Once inside her bedroom, Coco contemplated putting Lily down on her bed, the bed she’d bought new silky sheets for, and sprayed with perfume, and surrounded with candlelight. The bed she and Russ would make love on until her body ached and she cried out for more.
The bedroom that had been set up for sin.
That bedroom where she now flipped the switch for the overhead light and blew out the candles...at least for now.
She carefully laid squirming baby Lily down on the scented bed while trying to soothe her with soft-spoken words, which weren’t working. She walked to her bathroom and prepared a couple warm washcloths and then brought along a couple fluffy clean towels—new towels that she’d also picked up for the shower she and Russ would take together after hours of making love.
So much for all her sexy plans.
Of course, the night was still relatively young. Anything could happen.
Placing one towel under Lily and keeping one handy to wrap her in, Coco began to undress the little sweetheart, who had stopped fussing when Coco started singing the first song that came into her head, “Happy Birthday.”
“I’d offer to help,” Russ said, coming up behind her, “but I’m horrible with kids, especially babies. Plus, I don’t know the first thing about changing a diaper.”
“And you think I do?” Coco said as she gently wiped off Lily’s soiled bottom. Russ made a
