Authors: Tina Leonard
Boy, his manners left a lot to be desired. His legs had been knocked out from under him with the woman’s appearance, and it seemed his brain had taken a vacation.
“Hello,” she replied calmly. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Reed. I’m Jill McCall, from Dallas.”
“How nice of you to visit us all the way from Dallas,” Eunice said, stepping into the parlor and slowly making her way to a chair in front of the fireplace. Dustin hurried to help his mother ease gingerly into the chair. He noticed she chose the seat to give her the best vantage of the feeding session.
“You have a beautiful baby, Jill,” Eunice commented.
“Oh, it’s not mine. We found it,” she corrected, nodding toward Dustin.
“You found it! Dustin?” His mother turned astonished eyes on him.
How to make this situation sound less incredible than it was? “I saw Ms. McCall, and thinking she was trespassing, I…”
No, no, that wasn’t what he meant to say. “She’s come to ask about the housekeeping position, except then the baby…” No, no, that wasn’t right, either. “Tell you the truth, I don’t know what the hell’s happened, Mother. All I can tell you right now is that the baby is sucking on what Ms. McCall called a panic bottle, which means I’ve got to hurry out to the store. I think.” He sat down heavily in a chair, wondering how a peaceful afternoon examining the pecan trees on his property had turned out so complicated.
His mother glanced at Jill, whose attention was solely on burping the baby. “You found the baby on
our
property?”
“Yes.” Dustin’s nod was brief. And unhappy.
“Hm. I don’t know anyone in town who’s been pregnant,” she said thoughtfully. “I wonder whose baby it could be?”
“I have no idea,” he said tautly.
Jill looked up briefly.
“Well,” Eunice said. “So, you’ve come to apply for the housekeeping position. Isn’t that fortunate for us? We’ve had such difficulty keeping someone.” She smiled at Jill to make her feel comfortable.
Dustin was having trouble covering both subjects, but it seemed his mother was switching back and forth between strange matters with ease.
“Did you bring your credentials, or references, dear?”
Jill shook her head. “I hadn’t really intended to apply or interview today. I thought I was being smart by coming to check out what the ranch was like before taking up your time with my application.”
She noticed Eunice and Dustin looked rather worried. Realizing they might have taken her explanation to mean she wasn’t interested in the job now that she’d seen the ranch, she said hastily, “From what I can tell, this would be a very nice place to work.”
Eunice pursed her lips. “Thank you, my dear.” She leaned back, obviously deciding not to interfere further. The baby burped loudly, breaking the tension in the room.
“Now, you should have room for more dinner,” Jill said to the baby.
The infant seemed content to finish the rest of the bottle, blissfully unaware of her unusual circumstances. Dustin caught his mother looking at him calmly, waiting for him to take the lead. He wished he could somehow telepathize with her to go ahead and take over because he was totally lost. What the heck was he supposed to say to a sexy-as-hell woman who’d said that she was wearing underwear that might fall off at any time?
Except, please, please, stay and keep my house for me?
“We haven’t had much time to explore the job possibility,” he said tensely. “I do know Ms. McCall shops at Macy’s.”
Dustin closed his eyes. Boy, it had been too long. This woman with the unlikely story, and perhaps the stray baby, too, was forcing him to think about things he didn’t want to resurrect from the past. Like sex. And the wife he still missed occasionally, who had tried to be a good mother. Had tried to be a good wife, though it had been a strain for both of them.
And then he thought about sex again. Particularly with Ms. McCall, from Dallas, Texas. Before he got himself into trouble, Dustin decided he’d better get a move on.
“Well, if you ladies will excuse me, I suppose I’ll go call the police. And then head to the store.”
“The police!” His mother’s shocked exclamation startled the baby, which shifted unhappily in Jill’s arms. Whispering, Jill soothed the little one back into stillness. But Jill’s eyes immediately pulled back to Dustin’s. He could tell the first thought in her mind was that he might be calling the police about her for abandoning the baby on his property.
“Somebody left this baby here. It’s not ours. We can’t keep it,” he said. “The police need to be alerted that someone has tried to get rid of their baby. And in a very unfortunate way, too. What if Ms. McCall hadn’t been—” he paused, about to say “trespassing”, when he corrected himself. “What if she hadn’t come to apply for the position? The baby might have been down there for hours.”
“Oh, dear,” Eunice murmured. “I suppose you’re right.”
“She hadn’t been there long,” Jill said hurriedly.
Dustin stared at her, mentally checking her story. She glared back. “I just meant that, when I picked her up, the baby felt warm. Like she hadn’t been outside too long.”
“Oh.” It sounded plausible. And surely, if the baby was Jill’s, she wouldn’t let him call the police to take it away.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Dustin. Anyone with two eyes can see what you’re thinking,” his mother complained. “This is not Jill’s baby. It’s a newborn, honey.”
For the first time Jill smiled, a warm and friendly expression that tugged at Dustin’s heart.
“I know I had a time of it when I had Dustin,” Eunice continued. “Took me months to lose my pregnancy weight.”
“My mother says the same thing. Although you can’t tell by looking at her that she had four of us.” Jill held the baby closer. Dustin saw the child was just about to fall asleep, enjoying the woman’s warmth and soft voice, no doubt.
Lucky baby.
“I hope you don’t mind that I dropped in on you like this,” Jill said to Eunice. “I
am
interested in the position, if it’s still available.”
“I see,” Eunice replied. “Dustin?”
His mother looked so pleased that Dustin scowled. “Well, I don’t see. Can we get on with finding this child’s parents and save the social amenities for later?”
It was lack of sex, pure and simple, that was making him irritable, Dustin decided.
“But what will happen if you call the police?”
Dustin met his mother’s eyes. “I’m sure they’ll take the baby with them until someone from Child Protective Services can be reached.”
His mother was quiet for a moment. “I really hate for this little orphan to be taken somewhere right before Christmas, Dustin. Don’t you think we should keep her, just over the holidays?” At Dustin’s astonished expression, Eunice hurriedly clarified, “By all means, notify the police. But maybe you could just offer that, until the mother is located, we can take care of her.”
Dustin shook his head slowly, looking first at his mother, then at Jill, who appeared interested in his reaction to these plans. “How in the world are we going to care for that baby?”
“I can,” Eunice replied calmly.
“How?” He stopped himself from reminding her that sometimes, when the arthritis flared up, it was all she could do to walk, never mind care for a tiny and fragile infant—and Joey was a handful besides.
“My hands work just fine, Dustin. Hand me that little angel, please, Jill.”
Gently, Jill laid her in Eunice’s arms. The infant made the transition without opening her sweet, shell-shaped eyelids. Dustin’s heart clenched. Eunice had held Joey that same way many times. Would it hurt anything to give her one last chance to love a baby while she still could?
Shaking his head at the thought that maybe this wasn’t the best idea in the world, Dustin said, “I could mention it to them, I suppose. But they may not let us have her.”
He’d meant to warn her, but Eunice shook her head. “By heaven,” she said with spirit, “we should be able to get our way on this one thing, Dustin. If we have to fight for our own Joey, and believe me, we are going to fight Maxine tooth and nail, then we should be allowed to keep this little bundle of joy for the holidays. It seems like we deserve this one bit of good fortune.”
Jill’s eyes had widened. Her gaze traveled from his mother to him. Questions were there, but Jill lowered her gaze without asking any of them.
He had to give Ms. McCall some credit: she was handling the whole strange situation with a lot of cool. The uncanny thought hit him that she approved of Eunice’s wish.
Slowly, Dustin nodded. “Maybe you’re right, Mother. I’ll mention that we’ll be willing to keep the infant until her parents can be located. The police will have to take it from there.”
“I should think that there would be few places as nice as this one for her to stay,” Jill said. “Maybe she will get to remain here for Christmas.”
She stood, glancing down at the sleeping infant in Eunice’s arms. “What if I go get some formula, and diapers and wipes while you’re talking to the police?”
Pride had started flowing through Dustin at Jill’s compliment. She liked the ranch and his home, maybe even his mother, and him, but her offer to get supplies pricked the pride instantly. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Since you helped find this child, I think you should be here when the police arrive.”
How stupid did she think he was, anyway? Whether it was her baby or not—and he tended to think his mother was right, because Jill’s body was too melted into those jeans to have recently birthed a baby—the police were going to want to question her. She and the baby appearing at nearly the same time was too coincidental for even Lassiter’s easygoing sheriff to ignore.
“Fine.” Jill sat back down. By the disgust written on her face, Dustin knew she’d guessed his ulterior motive in keeping her there.
“Must we have the police, Dustin? Can’t you just talk to Marsh and see what he thinks we should do?” Eunice asked.
“That’s probably the best idea. I’ll go call him now.”
The baby grunted in Eunice’s arms. He saw his mother cast an amused glance at Jill.
“I suggest you hurry and get those diapers, Dustin, since you won’t let Jill do the errand for you. I think this little darling’s giving you an early Christmas present,” Eunice said with a too-innocent grin.
“So, what makes you interested in the position, Jill?” Eunice’s question pulled Jill’s gaze away from surreptitiously watching Dustin talk to the sheriff who had arrived a few minutes earlier.
“Stability,” she answered. “The idea of living in one place for a year is very appealing.”
Jill thought about her answer, knowing that there had been more that had pulled her out to the ranch on Setting Sun Road. Meeting Mrs. Reed’s eyes, Jill said honestly, “The bonus at the end of a year was an incentive also.”
Eunice nodded. Jill watched as the baby opened her mouth in an angelic yawn. “Although I suppose you weren’t counting on both of us joining you for the holidays. Will you have enough room?”
“Space isn’t a problem at all. I rather like the idea of a house full of people during Christmas. It’s been somewhat lonely around here. If we can agree on the position, then your coming here is very fortuitous. We’ll need help with this baby, of course.”
“Hello, Ms. McCall,” the sheriff said, coming over to introduce himself with a big smile. “I’m Sheriff Tommy Marsh. Go by Marsh, ’cause Dustin’s too lazy to yell more than one syllable at me.” He paused, giving her a moment to digest that. “So, you’re the one who found this early Christmas delivery.”
She glanced uncertainly at Dustin. “Well, we both did.”
“I see.” Marsh nodded, writing something down in a notepad. “And you were coming out to answer Dustin’s ad for a housekeeper?”
“That’s right,” she said. Dustin was listening carefully to her answers. She sat up and ran a smoothing hand over her hair.
“And your current employment situation?”
Eunice and Dustin both waited, as did the sheriff. “I don’t have one,” she said quietly, uncomfortable with the admission.
“Are you married?”
“No. Although I was engaged until recently.”
Why she had added that, she wasn’t certain. It seemed important that these people not think she had no place else to go, that she was some kind of society reject just because she was interested in a job out in the sticks.
Dustin looked surprised—and there was another expression in his eyes, one Jill couldn’t define. She didn’t take her gaze from his. The pull between them was mesmerizing and intense, and caused her to further qualify her answer.
“My ex-fiancé and I parted on fairly amicable terms.” It was a blatant untruth, but did she have to pour out the disastrous events that had led her to leave her fiancé? “Since I have no job at present, this position would give me a fresh start in a new place.”
“Ah.” The enlightened sound was from the sheriff. “I’m afraid that this changes the equation,” he said kindly. “If the two of you decided not to get married for whatever reason, it stands to reason you might have felt desperate enough financially to try to give away your newborn baby. Without a father figure in the picture to help with the expenses and you without employment…”