me,” Russ said from just behind Jet, then nudged him out of the way. “But this stuff is heavy.”
That knocked Jet back into reality...the reality of an abandoned baby cuddled up against Doctor Grant, with bare shoulders exposed to the cold of the stairway.
Jet cleared his tight throat. “Not a problem,” he told Doctor Grant. “I picked up a few things on my way over.”
“More like the whole store,” Russ muttered.
All of a sudden, the baby started wailing. Jet figured it was the grating sound of Russ’s voice that set her off.
Smart baby, Jet thought.
“Why don’t you let me get some clothes on that little darlin’ while you make her a bottle. We can talk about how you found her after we get her settled,” Jet said.
From the look on Doctor Grant’s face, he could tell she hadn’t expected him to know much about babies.
“Are you sure?” she tentatively asked. “Because, I mean...”
But Jet had already taken the tiny bundle wrapped in a fuzzy white towel into his arms. She felt as light as a feather as he spoke to her in a soothing voice and gently rocked her. At once the wailing turned into tiny whimpers.
“How’d you do that?” Coco asked, but Jet wasn’t in the mood to answer her question. Instead he asked one of his own.
“Any bruises on the child?”
He walked past her and into the spacious apartment and immediately noticed all the lit candles on just about every flat surface in the large rooms, plus the open bottles of wine and scotch on the dining table that still held the remnants of what had to be a romantic dinner for two. A large bouquet of roses, undoubtedly a gift from her shining knight, sat in a clear glass vase in the center of the table.
Sheriff Jet Wilson could only imagine the disruption this little girl must have caused. He did a mental snicker.
“None that I could see,” the doctor answered using her official voice. “She looks well cared for, and she’s the appropriate size and weight for a two-week-old infant. I looked it up online.”
“That’s good. Now, where can I change her?”
“In my bedroom, down the hall on your right.”
Jet picked one of the bags of essentials that Russ had dropped on the floor and went off to make little baby Lily a bit more comfortable in this uncomfortable situation.
“Can one of you please bring in the other bag?” Jet asked, not turning back around. He assumed Russ would carry in the bulky bag, and the less he saw and spoke to that man, the better.
Just last week he thought he’d seen Russ locking lips with a petite blonde woman over in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a town less than thirty minutes from Briggs. Jet had been there for a meeting with law enforcement officials when he spotted Russ through a restaurant window cozying up with a woman Jet had never seen before. And from the way they’d been eyeing each other, Jet had assumed they were an item.
Apparently he’d been wrong.
Apparently Russ Knightly liked to spread his affections around.
“You wouldn’t be taken in by that kind of behavior, would you, Lily?”
She blinked and pushed her spindly legs out from under the towel. He could tell she didn’t particularly like that heavy towel over her. Jet put her down on the bed, opened the box of diapers, pulled one out and quickly slipped it under Lily’s bottom and fastened it. Then he grabbed a white side-snap undershirt and slipped that on her. She at once looked much more comfortable and happy.
“There, now you can relieve yourself at will, and no one will be the wiser.”
Her little arms reached up as she let out a soft wail. “Aw, sweet cakes, don’t be cryin’. We’re gonna fix you up with a bottle, and I promise you, you’ll be well taken care of. No need to make a fuss.”
As he soothed Lily, his mind wandered back to Russ and Jackson Hole, pondering whether or not the good doctor knew about the other woman or, for that matter, if the other woman knew about Doctor Grant.
And if both women knew, were they okay with it?
Call him old-fashioned, but in Jet’s world, a relationship consisted of two people who only had eyes for each other.
Unfortunately, so far, those kinds of old-fashioned ideas hadn’t panned out so well. He kept falling for the wrong women, but dang it, after his last broken heart, he’d promised himself he would never do that again.
Until the next time.
“Seems like you’ve got it covered,” Doctor Grant said from behind him, her statement confusing him for a moment.
“Yes... I mean... You are referring to baby Lily, right?”
She came around and sat on the edge of the bed, facing him. Her forehead mirrored her confusion. “What else would I be referring to?”
He needed to change the subject, and fast, as he slipped Lily into a warm, long-sleeved, bunny-covered sleeper gown and zipped it closed. “Is that bottle coming soon?”
She nodded. “Right here,” she said. “I can feed her.” She held out her arms, but Jet was reluctant to give Lily up. Instead, he gently picked her up and cradled her in his arms. She felt warm and delicate against his chest, and he had to get over the thought that she might break if he held her too tight. It had been a while, a long while, since he’d held a two-week-old baby, but he had no problem remembering exactly what to do.
“Just point me to a comfortable chair, and we’ll be fine.”
“You want to feed Lily?”
“Sure,” he told her, swiping the bottle, testing the heat of the formula on the inside of his wrist, then gently enticing Lily to take it. She fussed, and wouldn’t suckle no matter how he tried to encourage her. “Maybe she’s used to her mama’s breast, and this won’t work. If that’s true, we really have a problem.”
He glanced over at Doctor Grant, whose breasts just happened to be at eye level and looking quite tempting spilling over that low-cut neckline.
“Well, don’t look at me,” she said, immediately standing.
“I wasn’t looking... I mean... I couldn’t help but see...” He stopped and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out. “I only meant this could be a real problem if she doesn’t take the bottle.”
Jet kept trying, but Lily kept making a face and crying. He could feel the tension building down the back of his neck and in his shoulders. He never even considered that she wouldn’t take a bottle, and now he felt foolish for being so naive.
“You brought two kinds of bottles. Maybe she’ll take the other one. It’s worth a try,” Doctor Grant said.
She left the bedroom and he followed right behind, grateful that Cindy Whipple had sold him both types of bottles. If this worked,
