scrambling around their ankles the instant they’d walked through the door.
“Dani’s always taking in strays, me included,” Sharon Lynn had told him. She indicated the baby in her arms. “This would be a little over the top even for her.”
“But not for you,” he’d guessed. “You’re a natural mother.”
The comment had brought on a too-quick denial…and tears she hadn’t been quick enough to hide. There were emotions there he couldn’t begin to fathom and she hadn’t given him time to try.
With a briskness that had amused him, she’d thanked him for walking her home, for helping with all the baby supplies she’d taken from the store, and hustled him out the door before he could blink. Before he knew it, he was outside looking in, just as he had been all his life. The woman was a self-sufficient whirlwind, all right. It was an irritating trait, especially to a man who had hoped to be needed.
She wouldn’t go on brushing him off, he’d promised himself as he left. Soon he would be part of her life, but only after he was settled, only when he had something to offer. He wasn’t long on patience, so he’d just have to make sure he had steady work by the end of the day. That would give him confidence and resources, so he could begin phase one of his campaign to win Sharon Lynn’s heart.
As his pickup idled, he gave the house a quick survey in the pale morning light. There was a light on—in the kitchen, he thought, recalling the layout of the house from his brief stay the night before. He pictured Sharon Lynn, her hair tousled from sleep, her cheeks flushed, maybe wearing nothing more than a robe, heating a baby bottle or maybe making coffee. It was like gazing into his heart and seeing what he’d longed for all his life—someone to come home to, someone who cared. And a baby they’d created together, one who would never know the kind of abandonment he’d felt when his mama had run off.
He imagined he heard a baby’s whimper, though it would have been impossible at this distance with windows closed and the wind howling. Just thinking of that tiny baby brought on a smile, one that lasted until he thought of the son of a bitch who’d left her in the alley. Heaven help the man if Cord ever came across him. Or if Sharon Lynn did, he thought, grinning at the memory of her outrage and the flash of temper that had accompanied it.
Satisfied that short of going inside to check in person, he’d made sure that all was well, he sighed deeply and drove on. He was more determined than ever to get to White Pines in time to get that job. Though he didn’t like thinking that his goals had shifted and had gotten all twisted up with staying close to a woman and a baby, he couldn’t help conceding he had more reasons than ever for wanting to settle down in this little corner of west Texas.
By Saturday morning Sharon Lynn was exhausted. The baby hadn’t settled down for more than a minute all night. Fortunately the drugstore had had all the supplies she’d needed to keep the baby comfortable and fed. Cord Branson had walked her home carrying all the packages. Even though she’d said she could manage, he’d given her one of those impatient, superior male looks, picked up the supplies and waited for her to lead the way. It hadn’t seemed worth arguing about. And it had been reassuring to have someone to cling to each time her feet had slipped on the icy sidewalks. She was forced to admit it wouldn’t have been easy to avoid a tumble without him. For her own sake and the baby’s, she’d been grateful that he’d insisted.
At the house, though, she’d been eager to have him leave. Other than family, she hadn’t had any male company since she’d moved in and Cord was the kind of man who made his presence felt the instant he walked through the door. All that potent masculinity was an unnecessary distraction when she wanted to concentrate on the baby.
Cord had offered to stick around and help, to bunk on the sofa, but she’d figured she was going to have enough explaining to do about the baby without having to come up with explanations for letting a total stranger—a very masculine stranger—spend the night in her house. It was a very logical excuse for ridding herself of a man who made her nervous for reasons she wasn’t quite ready to explore.
The minute she’d hustled him out the door, the baby had begun to cry as if she’d felt abandoned all over again. Sharon Lynn had begun her night of pacing. Even after the baby had fallen into a restless sleep, she’d been unable to fall asleep herself. There were too many decisions to be made, too many unanswerable questions to consider.
By morning she’d reached only one conclusion. She knew she was going to have to call someone, Justin maybe, and report the baby turning up. She probably should have done it at once, but the instant Cord had placed the child in her arms, she had known she couldn’t let go until she could come up with a plan to keep the baby safe from whomever had abandoned it on her doorstep. Protecting the child was all that mattered.
She wanted to believe it was someone who’d chosen her store because he or she had known that Sharon Lynn would care for the baby. She tried to envision a mother desperate enough to let her child go but concerned enough to assure that the baby was in good hands.
But even as she tried to put the best possible spin on things, she couldn’t help thinking that the baby could have died, could have been left in that alley all alone, undiscovered, until it was too late. She knew that was what Cord thought had happened. He hadn’t believed for an instant that the baby was meant to be found. Skepticism had been written all over his face when she’d suggested it. The possibility that he could be right infuriated her.
How could anyone be so heartless? How could any mother do that? she wondered fiercely.
Then she recalled what Cord had deduced. The person doing the leaving had been a man. The baby’s father, perhaps? A man who couldn’t cope with his own responsibility for a newborn? Somehow that was even worse. She prayed for the chance to see that man rot in jail for his crime against the precious baby now sleeping in her room.
It hadn’t required a lot of detective work last night to determine that the baby was a girl. One diaper change had answered that question. The baby wasn’t a newborn. That question had been answered as well. The umbilical cord had healed. She had to be a few weeks old at least. That meant that the mother had held her and fed her and comforted her—and then let her go.
Which brought Sharon Lynn right back to the question that had been tormenting her all night long. How could any mother give up her baby, especially in such a cruel and heartless manner? Had an unwilling father or a new boyfriend been the one to take the baby and leave it in the alley? Why would any woman choose a sick man capable of doing that over her own precious baby?
Those were all questions for the authorities, but as the night had worn on, Sharon Lynn hadn’t been able to imagine letting them take the baby away while they searched for answers. There had to be some way she could become the child’s temporary guardian, if only to assure that the baby wouldn’t become just another statistic in the overburdened foster care system. She’d read too many horror stories about slip-ups, about babies sent home only to wind up beaten or dead within days or weeks. It wouldn’t happen to this child, not if she had anything at all to say about it.
At dawn she called her part-time employee, Patsy Driscoll, and asked her to open up at Dolan’s. Two hours later with the baby fed and her own breakfast churning acid in her stomach, she drew in a deep breath and forced herself to dial the sheriff’s office. To her dismay her cousin wasn’t in yet, but the new dispatcher clucked sympathetically at Sharon Lynn’s explanation for needing Justin and promised to track him down and get him to her house on the double.
“I can try him at home,” Sharon Lynn protested.
“No, indeed. You just take care of that child,” Maribel Hawkins insisted. “I’ll
