Surprise Package

CHAPTER FOUR

A FATHER. Kyle had always expected to be one—one day. He’d imagined himself tossing a baseball, taking a son to football games, putting together a train set on Christmas Eve. He’d never been opposed to having a daughter, either, though he’d never given that possibility much thought.

The whole concept of fatherhood had loomed somewhere in the distant future. A contingency for much later—when his career was firmly established. When he’d sown his wild oats, driven his share of fast cars and grown bored with skiing in the mountains of Colorado and scuba diving off some exotic island in the Bahamas. When he was ready for a life of bottle-feeding and diaper changing.

That was indubitably not now.

Ashley stepped closer. “Did Tessa’s sister say that she’d given birth? Is Tessa in some kind of trouble now?”

“No, nothing that specific. Actually, nothing that offers any real solutions. She hasn’t seen or heard from her sister since a year ago. She’s pretty sure she’s moved out of town. Evidently they had a major argument and parted company.” He dropped to the couch and that’s when he noticed the other person in the room. She was taller than Ashley, her hair long where Ashley’s was short, but she had the same expressive green eyes and dark, shiny hair. And the evidence was jury-proof. She was most definitely pregnant.

“I’m Lily,” the woman said, walking over to shake his hand. “If this is personal, I’ll be glad to step into the bedroom while you and Ashley talk.”

He stood and extended his hand. “No, you already know about as much as I do anyway.”

Ashley sat down on the couch beside him, but not too close. Lily took the chair across from them, lowering herself slowly and holding her back as she did. He tried to picture Tessa in the same condition. Awaiting the birth of a daughter that for some reason she had decided to keep from him. He had trouble with the image. Tessa wasn’t the type who liked to suffer alone. That much he did know about her.

Ashley turned to face him. “A year ago... Tessa would have had to be pregnant even then, but maybe not far enough along to realize it. When did the two of you break up?”

“Right after Christmas. We’d been living together. She moved out.”

“Did you talk to her after that?” Lily asked.

“She came by to pick up her mail a few times. I asked how she was doing. She asked how I was doing. That was about it.”

“So why are you suddenly so upset?” Ashley asked. “An hour ago you were vehement that you weren’t the father. Now you seem worried that you are.”

He crossed an ankle over his knee, an effort to hide just how flustered he really was. “I expected this to be a done deal by now. I’d get Tessa’s number from information, which I tried to do. No listing. Or I’d talk to her sister Margaret and find out for certain that Tessa had not given birth. Now I find out Tessa likely moved out of town months ago and her sister doesn’t know how to contact her.”

Lily pulled her hair off her neck, then let it settle about her shoulders, all the while keeping her gaze pinned on him. “Then it’s possible that you’re the father?”

“I’m not denying that it’s possible, it’s just that it’s not likely. We used protection. But even more than that, I can’t see Tessa deciding she’d go through a pregnancy and birth without telling me about it. And even if she had, she’d have no reason to stick the baby in a basket and leave her at my door. She’s the type who’d just come by and say she needed help.”

“Maybe she’s afraid of how you’d react.”

He threw up his hands. “Do I look like some deranged brute to you? I’m a sensible man, an attorney for God’s sake. People come to me to get them out of a jam. It’s what I do.”

“As an attorney, you must know what options are available to you.”

One thing about Lily, she didn’t back down. “The way I see it, I can try to find Tessa, though I doubt she’s the mother of this baby, or I can sit around and hope the woman who left the baby at my door will come back for her.”

“You can make certain the baby’s not yours, and if that’s the case, you can notify the authorities,” Lily offered.

“That would be the easiest thing for me to do, but that seems like the worst thing I can do for the baby.”

Ashley laid a hand on his arm. The touch surprised him, made him even more aware that the woman he’d tried to get close to for weeks was seeing him at his most vulnerable. Not confident and self-assured, but reeling from a situation he seemed to have little control over.

Last night he’d felt certain this would all be settled by morning. Now all he felt was the crushing weight of responsibility bearing down on his shoulders. “I’m not ready to give up,” he said, “not yet. But I could sure use a crash course in baby care.”

Lily nodded. “I can do that, but you can’t put off learning the truth indefinitely.”

“I know. I’m thinking a few days, a week at most. I have some vacation time coming, and I can do a lot of the prep work for the cases I’m working on now via the computer. If I don’t turn up anything in that time, I’ll go with the DNA testing.”

“You’ll have to buy baby clothes and supplies. And you’ll need to borrow or rent a crib.”

“Just give me a list and tell me where to go to find the items. I’ll do the best I can. Right now I’m all the baby has. Well, me and Ashley.”

Ashley shook her head. “Don’t let that thought land as it flies through your mind. I have a career and an assignment that can’t be put on hold, and I will—”

“I’ll tell you what,” Lily said, warding off Ashley’s tirade. “Since Ashley’s already taken the day off, I’ll make a list and the two of you can shop for the needed supplies. I’ll baby-sit while you’re doing that and try to make notes of things Kyle needs to know, like making sure the bottles and nipples are sterile and how to bathe the baby.”

“Beef,” Ashley asserted. “I’m supposed to be concentrating on a way to sell more beef to the citizens of Texas. Not on buying diapers.”

But the resignation in her voice was obvious. Kyle was certain he’d won this bout, thanks to Lily. He would never have deliberately used the baby to get to Ashley, but he might as well play the cards he’d been dealt. A man with a baby. No woman could resist them.

Unless the baby was his for life.

* * *

LILY WATCHED Ashley and Kyle walk out the door. Kyle Blackstone was not what she’d expected from Ashley’s previous descriptions of him. He did have the great body she’d mentioned, the dark, wavy hair and the easy smile, but he had an aura of genuineness that had caught her off guard.

Still, the morning’s phone call warning Ashley to beware of him made her nervous. Add to that the fact that Ashley knew nothing concrete about him except that he was an attorney with a prominent firm and attracted women the way her black slacks grabbed lint. And he was awfully hesitant to go to the authorities or have DNA testing conducted.

But a few phone calls, a few record checks, and she’d likely find out all she needed to know about Kyle Blackstone. She wouldn’t even mention this to Cole and Dylan unless she found out something they needed to know. Cole would be upset that she was conducting any kind of investigation when she was supposed to be taking it easy until the baby was born. And Dylan had a tendency to blow everything out of proportion if it even remotely involved the safety of their little sister.

Walking to the bedroom door, she peeked in on the baby. The darling was still sleeping soundly, likely as exhausted as Ashley and Kyle had been from the change in her schedule. Lily spread her hands across the bulge of her stomach as her own baby kicked hard against the lining of the womb.

It wouldn’t be long now, and she’d be able to stare at her own baby as she slept. The anticipation filled her with an eagerness like none she’d ever known before. A sweet yearning that made her arms ache to hold her own child in her arms. Yet the mother of this baby had put her child in a basket and walked away.

The situation wasn’t unheard of. In fact, she’d run into problems caused by child desertion more than once since she’d gone into the business of finding missing persons—some firsthand, others in her research. Young mothers who didn’t know where to turn. Emotionally unstable mothers who went over the edge and knew no other way to cry out for help. Uncaring mothers or those addicted to drugs or alcohol. Desperate mothers.

She hated to even imagine which category Tessa Ortiz fell into. Hated worse to think that Kyle might know things he wasn’t admitting. He seemed honest, deeply concerned, yet he was hesitant to do the thing most men would have considered first.

Find out if the baby was his.

Turning away, Lily walked to the phone, picked it up and punched in the number of a friend at police headquarters. Arrest records were always a good way to begin a search into a person’s past. She’d follow the paper trail and see if Kyle was merely a nice guy with a body like Adonis and the looks to rival Brad Pitt, or if Ashley’s caller had been right and he was a man to be avoided.

For the baby’s sake and for Ashley’s, she hoped he was the man he seemed. Unless her instincts were way off base, Ashley was already falling hard for the guy. Of course, Ashley would be the last to admit it.

* * *

“WE HAVE TO GIVE the baby a name,” Ashley said as they walked toward the baby section of the department store. “I can’t keep calling her sweetie.”

“We can call her Cupie.”

“Not me! How about Annie or Lucy? Or Janie?”

“I’m not good at this. You pick one.”

She thought for a minute, picturing the cherub face, the dark eyes. Deserted by her mother. “What about Casey?” she asked, turning down an aisle bordered by baby clothes. “It’s short for Casilda. The name means ‘unknown,’ and almost everything about her is unknown.”

“Casey?” He rolled the name off his tongue, then smiled. “I like it. Not that she’ll keep the name long. I’m still counting on her mother coming back for her—soon.”

“But until she does, she’s Casey. It fits.” She stopped and pulled an adorable pink frock from the rack and held it at arm’s length. “Look at this one. Lace and ruffles and tiny rows of smocking. We absolutely have to buy this for her.”

He fumbled for a price tag. When he found it, his mouth flew open. “Do you know how much this costs?”

“You get what you pay for.”

“Yeah, but I’m the one doing the paying.”

“But it’s so cute.”

“Cute? For that price, it should be a national treasure.”

“Wait until your daughter finds out you’re a cheapskate.”

“Don’t say daughter. It makes me nervous.” He held up the list Lily had made for him. “Nowhere on here does it say lace, ruffles and smocking at ridiculous prices.”

“It says clothes.”

“It says soft, sensible, unfettered clothes. Lace, ruffles and smocks are legally considered fetters.”

“We’re not in court, counselor. Just think how adorable Casey’s going to look when you show her off to all your friends.”

“She looks adorable in diapers. I have no intention of introducing her to my friends and you are having entirely too much fun spending my money.”

“I’m hanging out with you, Kyle. By no stretch of the imagination can that be called fun.” Except that it was. And not only because shopping was her second favorite pastime—right after work—but because, as much as she hated to admit it, Kyle was fun to be with, as long as they were only friends.

He pulled a pair of pajamas emblazoned with the Dallas Cowboys logo off the rack. “Now this is more like it.”

She stuck up her nose. “No self-respecting little angel would be caught sleeping in those.”

“Hey, watch your mouth. This is the Cowboys you’re talking about. Sacrilegious comments like that can get you thrown out of Texas.”

“I’ll take my chances. Let’s go for something a little more feminine.”

“Then how about these?” He exhibited his next choice.

She rested her hands on her hips. “What’s feminine about cowboys and horses?”

“Shucks, ma’am. I thought all women liked cowboys.”

“Hmm.” Cowboys and romance. Her mind jumped from babies to the Ranchers Association. “You might have hit on something, counselor.”

“Does that mean I should invest in a Stetson and a pair of boots?”

“Why would you?”

“To impress you, of course.”

“It really bothers you, doesn’t it, that I don’t chomp on your bait and fall at your feet like the other women in your life.”

“I’m a man. We have fragile egos and we hate rejection. Fortunately, I know you go to bed every night wishing I was there with you. You’re just too stubborn to admit it.”

“Yeah, hold on to that thought, take it to the bank with a hundred dollar bill and see if you can get five twenties for it.”

He smiled seductively. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.” He picked up a stuffed bear and tossed it to her. “If you like, I’ll buy this for you, give you something cuddly to sleep with on cold winter nights. Or leave the bear, and I’ll come over.”

“No, thanks. I have a blanket, and it doesn’t snore.”

“I don’t snore.”

“Then you must have had a wild animal sleeping with you on the couch last night.”

“I could have. You and Casey ran her off.”

“You poor dear.” She played a fake violin with her hands. “Could I give you music with that whine?” Turning away from him, she picked up a pair of pajamas in a buttery soft fabric patterned with sleeping kittens. “Entirely unfettered,” she said. “What do you think?”

He fingered the row of snaps that ran up and down the inside of both legs and across the crotch. “Am I supposed to do something with these when I dress her for bed?”

“That would be my guess.”

“You don’t suppose she can dress herself, do you?”

“In a few years.”

Kyle grimaced but took the pajamas from her and dropped them into the basket. Ashley kept shopping until they easily had enough outfits for him to change the baby’s clothes a half dozen times a day. “I say we move on to the next department.”

“What else is on the list?”

“Toys,” Kyle answered. “She likes to pull hair. Maybe we could get her a wig.”

Ashley led the way to a display of cuddly baby toys. “How about a doll?”

“Good idea, especially since you said the one her mother left with her wasn’t meant to be played with.”

“A doll? Hmm.” She put a finger to her chin as if she were giving the matter serious deliberation. “Like the blow-up ones you usually sleep with?”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “You could change all that, neighbor. One night and I could melt you down to nothing more than liquid gold.”

“And then what would you do for a challenge?”

“Bathe a baby.” They spoke in unison as they passed a counter of plastic baby bathtubs.

They both dissolved in laughter before their gazes met in one heated instant. The mood changed from easy to awkward as quickly as if a cold wind had blown through the department store.

“Did I say something wrong?” Kyle asked, knowing full well what had just passed between them.

But she could play the game as well as he could. “No. Everything’s cool. Let’s just work our way down the list and get out of here.”

“So cool, your face is still red. You really need to loosen up, Ashley. All we did was laugh together. That’s not like having sex.”

“You just never give up, do you?”

He smiled a devastating smile. “Only when I have to.”

But the easy teasing mood was lost. Playing games with Kyle was playing with fire. Step over the line and she’d be involved with him. Get involved with him and she’d be sleeping with him. Sleep with him, and her life would become a complicated, convoluted, giant headache that aspirin wouldn’t touch.

They finished their shopping and Kyle paid for the purchases, handing her two of the lighter shopping bags as they hurried back to his sleek black sports car. They still needed to make a stop at the grocery store and one at the rent-all business to arrange for a crib to be delivered.

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