It had been a very long time since anyone on earth had believed in Cord Branson.

Before he could get lost in the wonder of that, a heavy thump against the back door startled them both. Sharon Lynn whirled in that direction, but Cord was faster. “You stay put. I’ll check it out. Where’s the door? Through there?”

Sharon Lynn nodded, and he began twisting locks. When he’d unlatched the last one, he slowly turned the knob and advanced cautiously. He was expecting perhaps a thief.

What he found surprised him even more.

“Holy Mother of God,” Cord murmured.

“What is it?” Sharon Lynn asked, nudging against him.

“A baby. Some damned fool left a baby out here.”

SHERRYL WOODS

Whether she’s living in Florida or Virginia, Sherryl Woods always makes her home by the sea. A walk on the beach, the sound of the waves, the smell of the salt air, all provide inspiration for this writer of more than sixty romance and mystery novels. Sherryl hopes you’re enjoying The Unclaimed Baby, which offers you an expanded story in the And Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation series for Silhouette. You can write to Sherryl at P.O. Box 490326, Key Biscayne, FL 33149, or—from April through December—stop by and meet her at her bookstore, Potomoc Sunrise, 308 Washington Avenue, Colonial Beach, VA 22443. Watch for Sherryl’s first mainstream book for MIRA Books, AFTER TEX, coming in October 1999.

The Unclaimed Baby
Sherryl Woods

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 1

Sleet slashed through the bitter cold February night. A few hours from now it was expected to turn to snow, layering over ice in a way that would leave the roads treacherous. Sharon Lynn stood in the doorway at Dolan’s Drugstore and shivered, even though it was plenty warm inside. It was Friday night at eight, an hour when the store should have been closed, but she’d taken to keeping it open later and later. It meant she didn’t have to go home to an empty house, didn’t have to go to sleep and face the nightmares.

Even though months had passed, the images came back whenever she closed her eyes. The bright head lights glaring into her eyes, weaving across the center line of the quiet country road. The screaming crunch of metal against metal, then just the screaming. Her own and Kyle’s.

And then just her own.

That summer night had been clear, with a vibrant sprinkling of stars and a glorious full moon. No danger on the road then, except for a man who’d had too much to drink.

She had been married for little more than a split second when the tragedy struck. It had been their wedding night, a night she had been anticipating and dreaming about for years, it seemed. She was finally Mrs. Kyle Mason and the rest of their lives was spread out ahead of them, a storybook future with a houseful of kids and her wonderful family nearby. In the Adams clan, family meant everything and she’d been waiting a long time to start her own.

Then, in the blink of an eye, her marriage was over and she was alone again. Worse, she had been driving the car, and even though the accident was another driver’s fault, Sharon Lynn had been consumed with guilt and grief ever since, wondering if there hadn’t been something—anything—she could have done to prevent it. For weeks it had taken every bit of strength she had just to propel herself out of bed.

Buying Dolan’s, where she had worked for years and where her mother had worked during her tumultuous relationship with Sharon Lynn’s daddy before their wedding, had given her a reason for getting up in the morning, but it had done nothing to heal her broken heart.

She had been in love with Kyle Mason forever. An honest, decent man, he had bought a ranch that neighbored the family spread at White Pines. Then he had quietly and persistently courted Sharon Lynn, consuming enough milk shakes at Dolan’s that it was a wonder he’d been able to stand the sight of them. Once he’d caught her attention, there had been no turning back.

But when it came to getting to the altar, one thing after another had delayed their vows until that fateful night.

After waiting patiently for marriage, only to have it snatched away from her in a heartbeat, Sharon Lynn had finally concluded that she was not destined for either romance or the family she had always dreamed of. She had resigned herself to a quiet, lonely existence—if it was possible to be lonely with an entire clan of Adamses on her doorstep daily with one feeble excuse or another. Cheering up grief-stricken Sharon Lynn had become the family’s mission. All the attention was wearing her out.

She wasn’t the one deserving of pity, though. It was Kyle, barely thirty when he’d been killed. She shuddered and forced the memory of that night aside. The guilt, however, wouldn’t budge, despite what everyone had said. The official sheriff’s report had exonerated her completely. Her cousin Justin, who’d been on the scene in the horrible aftermath of the collision, was a by-the-book kind of deputy. If there’d been any question of her guilt, though he would have hated laying the blame on her doorstep, he would have done it. Knowing that, she should have been able to rest easy, but she couldn’t.

Even all these long months later and despite her best intentions, the images crowded back, refusing to be ignored. She’d still been wearing her wedding dress, her beautiful silk-and-lace gown, but by then it had been torn and spattered with blood. Her husband’s blood. When her cousins had wanted to get rid of it, she’d refused to let them. It was packed away in the attic as a grim reminder of what might have been. Someday she would have to let it—and the memories—go.

“Oh, God,” she murmured as tears streaked down her cheeks. When were the memories going to blur? When would this unbearable, soul-sick pain stop?

Blinded to everything except her own internal misery, it took a blast of icy air from the unexpected opening of the door to snap her out of it. She hadn’t even seen the man approaching, hadn’t expected anyone to be out on such a cold and furious night. She glanced up to meet worried brown eyes flecked with gold.

“What’s a pretty lady like you doing all alone on a Friday night?” he asked in the easy way of a man to whom flirting was second nature. The words were barely out of his mouth when the crooked smile faded from his lips and worry creased his brow. He stepped closer and skimmed a knuckle down her cheek. “Tears? Darlin’, are you okay?”

There was a gentleness to his voice that soothed, even as alarm flared at the startling way that touch awakened her senses. She looked him over—from the curling black hair damp with rain to the soaked sheepskin jacket, rain-streaked jeans and well-worn boots. Despite the kindness in his voice, there was a hardness to him, not just to his lean body, but in his eyes. It was an intriguing combination, a dangerous one. That must be why her pulse was ricocheting all over the place.

Was he a would-be robber, checking to make sure she was all alone before seizing every penny in the cash register? Her imagination roared off down a frightening path.

Let him try, she thought fiercely, thinking of the gun that Justin had insisted she keep in the store if she was determined to hang around here alone until all hours of the night. She was a better shot than most of the family and not a one of them missed what they aimed for. Of course, there wasn’t much cash worth killing over. She’d taken most of it to the night-drop at the bank just before the new pharmacist had left for the evening.

She scowled up at the man, saw then the exhaustion in his eyes, the stubble on his cheeks, the sensuality of a mouth beginning another slow curve into a disarming smile that softened the harsh angles of his face. What she missed was any hint of a real threat. Whatever this man’s story, it seemed evident to her that he meant her no harm. His concern struck her as genuine, as impulsive and automatic as his smile.

Satisfied, she met his grin with one of her own and briskly wiped away the last traces of her tears with an impatient swipe.

“I was just debating whether to close up,” she said, turning back inside and heading for the lunch counter, which was her domain even though she owned the whole place now. A few months back she’d hired a pharmacist and a teenager to work the rest of the store once Doc Dolan had retired and headed off to the Gulf Coast of Texas. “I didn’t expect anyone to be out on a night like this. You startled me.”

“Sorry. I’ve been on the road all day. When I saw the sign and the lights on, I was thinking more about my empty stomach than I was about whether I might scare you to death. If you need to close up, I can go somewhere else.”

Sharon Lynn heard the underlying thread of disappointment in his voice and watched his gaze settling on the stale doughnuts left over from morning. She could toss those in a bag, give them to him with a takeout cup of coffee and he’d be on his way. The idea held no appeal, not when it would mean empty, lonely hours ahead. These days she was eager to snatch a few moments of companionship wherever she could find it.

“I’m in no rush,” she said quickly. “I still have some soup that’s hot and I can rustle up a hamburger or a grilled cheese and fries. I doubt you’d find anyplace else in town open on a night like this. Los Piños tends to shut down early when the weather’s bad. Nobody likes driving on the icy roads.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t drive,” she said and left it at that. She hadn’t been behind the wheel of a car since the night of the accident. In fact, she’d moved into her cousin Dani’s old house in town, just so she could walk to work. When she wanted to go out to visit the family at White Pines, there was always one relative or another around who could take her. There was no place else she needed to go.

She ladled up a bowl of homemade vegetable soup and set it on the counter in front of him. “Now, what else can I get for you?”

“A couple of cheeseburgers and fries, if you’re sure you don’t mind.”

Mind? Not if it would keep her here a few minutes longer, provide a welcome distraction from her grim memories. Her inability to shake them earlier indicated tonight they were going to be worse than usual.

“Coming right up,” she told him. Her innate curiosity and friendliness kicked in. “What brings you to Los Pin˜os?”

“A job,” he said. “My name’s Cord Branson. I’ve heard there’s an opening on a ranch around here. It’s a place called White Pines. Maybe you know the owners.”

Sharon Lynn grinned and relaxed, the last of her fears vanishing. “I ought to. White Pines belongs to my grandfather, Harlan Adams. My father—his name’s Cody Adams—and my brother, Harlan Patrick, run it.” She held out her hand. “I’m Sharon Lynn.”

“Well, I’ll be a son of a gun,” he said, grasping her hand in his and holding it just a shade longer than necessary, long enough to remind her of that earlier tingle of awareness.

“First I meet a beautiful lady and then I find out she’s related to the folks I hope to work for,” he said. “Looks like this is my lucky night, after all. Do you mind telling me about the place?”

“Of course not.” She described the ranch with the affection of someone who’d grown up roaming its vast acreage. “You’ll never see any place more beautiful, if you don’t mind land that’s a little rugged. Grandpa Harlan inherited it when the house was crumbling and the herd of cattle had dwindled down to almost nothing. His daddy wasn’t meant to be a rancher, I suppose. At any rate, now it’s one of the biggest operations in the state.”

“But you don’t live out there?”

“No, I stay right here in town now to be close to the store.”

“Don’t you miss it?”

Sharon Lynn grinned. “There’s hardly time for that. There’s always something going on out at White Pines. I’m back there practically every weekend for one celebration or another or just for an old-fashioned barbecue if granddaddy starts getting lonely for a little commotion.”

She caught the faintly wistful expression on his face. “What about you? Did you grow up on a ranch?”

“If you could call it that. It was probably every bit as bad as you say White Pines was way back when, but every time my daddy had a chance to make a real go of it, he squandered the money on booze. After he was gone, I sold the place to get a stake so I could move on to someplace where I could learn how a real ranch was run. I drifted a bit through Montana and Wyoming before heading south. Once I crossed into Texas, I kept hearing about your granddaddy and White Pines.”

“Well, you picked the right place. Nobody knows more about ranching than Grandpa Harlan and my daddy, or Harlan Patrick, to hear him tell it.”

She caught herself. “Just listen to me. I’m going on and on. Maybe you’d like to finish your meal in peace. I’ve got things I could do in the back.”

“No, indeed. Don’t even think of it. I’ve been on the road for days now. I’m glad of the company and the conversation, especially when the company’s as pretty as you and the conversation’s fascinating.”

The words were all glib charm, but as he met her gaze and smiled slowly, Sharon Lynn felt another of those quick little quivers in the pit of her stomach. Cord Branson was a very disconcerting man, more direct than most she’d met, outside of her brother and her cousins. He was certainly less subtle than Kyle, who had tended toward shyness.

She gazed into those devilish eyes with their golden sparks and something told her that she was in more danger now than she would have been if the only thing he’d wanted was to rob the place.

Cord wolfed down two of the best hamburgers he’d had in ages and tried to remember what it was that had brought him to Los Pin˜os. He knew better than most that a man didn’t get anywhere in life, if he let himself get distracted.

And yet, he couldn’t help thinking that Sharon Lynn Adams would be a damned fine distraction. He’d never seen a woman with more sorrow written all over a face that was meant for angels. He had watched with amusement as she’d run the gamut of emotions when he’d first walked through the door. He’d seen the tiny flicker of fear, the fierce resolve and then the quiet, ingrained compassion that made her take him in and feed him despite the probable inconvenience. He thought he’d also noted a hint of relief in her expression, but, unable to imagine the origin of that, he’d dismissed it.

He pegged her age at late twenties and, after glancing at her ringless fingers, wondered why no man had snapped her up. Even in the past few minutes he’d seen that she was easy to get along with and even easier on the eye. To say nothing of being an Adams. From everything he’d heard, that counted for something in these parts. Maybe for too many men that was all that counted and she’d simply gotten used to warily fending them off.

He enjoyed watching her work, the quick efficient movements, the sway of hips a little on the generous side. Even more, he liked the ready rise of color in her cheeks when he teased and the way her laughter sounded when he finally managed to coax it out of her with one of the worst jokes either of them had ever heard. He’d found himself lingering long after he’d finished his meal, drinking more caffeine than his body needed if he was to get any rest at all tonight. Still, the coffee had been an excuse. He wasn’t looking forward to going back out into the cold night or to leaving her.

“Do you have a place to stay?” she asked eventually, when a glance at the clock and the discovery that it was after ten clearly startled her. “There’s a motel outside of town, but on a night like this it’s probably full and I’m not sure you ought to risk driving that far on the icy roads.”

“No problem. Unless you think the local law enforcement will object, I’ll just find a place to pull my truck off on the side of the road and sleep in back,” he said. “I’ve got a nice warm sleeping bag and I’m used to roughing it.”

Even as he said it, she was shaking her head. “No way. I won’t have your freezing to death on my conscience. If you truly don’t mind roughing it, you can sleep in the back room here. The floor’s hard as a rock, but the sleeping bag ought to help and at least you’ll have heat.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Of course you could.”

He frowned at her. As generous as it was, the offer filled him with concern. He didn’t like thinking of her taking that kind of risk with other strangers. “You know,” he chided, “it’s possible that you’re entirely too trusting.”

She shrugged off the suggestion. “That’s the way folks around here are. First impressions count for a lot, and I can see you’re a decent man.”

Cord regarded her with blatant amusement. “I thought you said first impressions counted?”

“They do.”

“Your first impression of me was that I was here to rob you.”

A guilty flush confirmed his guess.

“Okay, yes,” she admitted, “just for a second, I did wonder. Most people would have been inside on a night like this, unless they were up to no good.”

“But you don’t wonder anymore?”

Her gaze met his, blue eyes the exact shade of wildflowers searching his face. “Not anymore,” she said at last, giving his hand a brief, reassuring pat.

He told himself later that it wasn’t the way his pulse leapt when her fingers grazed his that mattered. It wasn’t the unexpected yearning that came over him looking into her eyes. It was the fact that she said those two simple words with such quiet confidence that made him fall in love with her. It had been a very long time since anyone on earth had believed in Cord Branson.

Before he could get lost in the wonder of that, a heavy thump against the back door startled them both. Sharon Lynn whirled in that direction, but Cord was faster. “You stay put. I’ll check it out.” He gestured toward the back room. “Where’s the door? Through there?”

She nodded. “It was probably just a dog bumping into a trash can or the wind knocking something over,” she said, right on his heels.

Cord glanced over his shoulder. “I thought I told you to stay put.”

She shot him a defiant look. “It’s my store. Besides, I have a gun right here.” She snatched a very deadly looking rifle out of its hiding place. “I can look after myself.”

He grinned at the fierce response and the determined jut of her jaw. “Yes, I can see that. Okay, but would you stay behind me at least and keep that gun pointed at something other than my backside?”

She regarded him with a faint glimmer of amusement, then shrugged. “I suppose I could do that.”

“I do love an amenable woman,” he said as he began twisting locks. When he’d unlatched the last one, he slowly turned the knob, shot Sharon Lynn one last warning look, then eased outside. What he found stunned him almost as bad as confronting a thief would have.

“Holy Mother of God,” he murmured as he bent down over the basket.

“What is it?” Sharon Lynn asked, nudging against him.

The quick bump of her hip was surprisingly provocative. She was so close he could smell her perfume, something light and innocent, maybe little more than scented hand lotion. It set off a surge of pure lust just the same. There was no time for that now, though.

“A baby,” he replied, his voice hushed as he scooped the tiny child up into his arms. “Some damned fool left a baby out here in this weather. If we hadn’t been here, it would have been dead before morning.” Just the thought of that filled him with cold fury.

“Let me see,” she demanded, scooting around him. At the sight of the tiny infant, her eyes went wide with a mix of shock and indignation every bit as violent as his own.

“Oh, sweetie,” she whispered, reaching at once for the baby. “Let me. Maybe they knew we were inside and knew we’d find the baby before any harm came to it.”

“Maybe,” Cord said, because the notion seemed to console her. The basket had been left a little too close to the trash Dumpster for his liking, though. And the way the snow was coming down now, in no time at all, the basket and its contents would have been shrouded in a way that might have made it blend in with the bags of trash heaped nearby. He suspected that thump they’d heard had been an accident, not a deliberate attempt to catch their attention. No, this had been a cruel and heartless attempt to leave a child to die. He’d stake his life on that.

“Whoever did this can’t have gotten far,” Sharon Lynn said. “See if there’s any sign of him or her.”

“Him,” Cord said grimly.

“How do you know that?”

“The boot prints. There’s just enough snow on the ground to see the size of the shoe. It’s too big for a woman’s.”

Cord knew there was no point in following the trail. Whoever had done this despicable thing was long gone by now, but he went to the end of the alley just to satisfy Sharon Lynn. The footprints ended at the curb around the corner. A melted patch in the midst of all the snow indicated someone had left an engine running for a few minutes at least. Skid marks in the fresh snow suggested that whoever had driven away had probably heard the store’s back door open and left in a hurry.

By the time Cord got back inside, Sharon Lynn was holding a squalling, wide-awake baby in her arms as naturally as if this were something she did every day. The look of awe and concern on her face was enough to take his breath away. For one wild and improbable second, he imagined that she was his, the baby theirs. In that instant, with a certainty that stunned him, he knew that whatever it took, somehow he would make it happen.

Over the years he had seen too many of life’s most valuable treasures slip through his daddy’s fingers. Hawk Branson had lost his wife—Cord’s mama—to another man. He’d lost a fortune and most of the payments on the family ranch to the bottle. There’d been pitifully little left for Cord, once all the debts had been settled. Watching Hawk’s downfall had made Cord an impatient man.

When he spotted something he wanted, he went after it with a no-holds-barred vengeance. He had come here intending to claim a place for himself at the famed White Pines ranch, vowing to work harder and longer than any other hand.

He could have stayed in Montana and tried to save his daddy’s spread. The local bankers trusted him. They knew he wasn’t anything like his daddy. But there were too many defeats and bad memories associated with the place. He’d wanted a fresh start, not just as a hand at a truly successful ranch where he could learn everything there was to know about running a decent herd of cattle, but someplace where he could earn enough to buy his own land, acre by acre if he had to. Ownership and self-respect were all tied up together in his head.

Instinctively he’d aimed for Texas and its sprawling cattle ranches. He’d hung out in a bar in Fort Worth and asked questions. He’d gone to a couple of cattle auctions and asked more questions. White Pines and its owners had come up time and again, always accompanied by respectful anecdotes.

The last time he’d stopped, about a hundred miles from Los Pin˜os, he’d asked pointedly about the ranch and learned that not only was White Pines taking on new help, but there was a neighboring ranch that might be for sale. The owner had died in a tragic accident and the widow wanted no part of it. The story had piqued his interest. He’d wasted no time in getting to Los Pin˜os.

He’d been prepared to do whatever he had to to get the job he was after and to lay claim to that ranch, if the widow was willing to wait to make a sale. What he hadn’t been prepared for at all was spotting a woman like Sharon Lynn on his first night in town. She was the missing piece of his dream. Gut instinct told him that destiny had brought him into Dolan’s on this icy, miserable night.

He glanced down at her head, which was bent low as she soothed the fussing baby in her arms. The baby’s fat little fist held a thick strand of silken hair and was tugging mightily. Sharon Lynn smiled, even as she tried to disengage that tiny hand. Watching her, Cord felt a swirl of powerful emotions that rocked him on his heels. Just like that, he knew that what he was feeling was love. Impossible, unexpected, but love, just the same. The lightning bolt kind that changed a man’s life when he least expected it.

Slow down, he warned himself. He might be bold and impetuous and ready to believe in fate, but he doubted this woman or any other would be quite so ready to throw caution to the wind and jump into a relationship with a stranger.

He felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, just the same. For once in a life filled with nasty twists and turns, it appeared that fate had finally dealt him a winning hand.

Chapter 2

Cord spent a restless night in the back room at Dolan’s. For every pleasant dream he had about a beautiful, mysterious woman sharing his bed, there was a counterpoint—the nightmare of a baby’s whispered cries fading into silence. He awoke bathed in a cold sweat more times than he could count.

Finally just before dawn, unable to face the torment of another nightmare, he’d crawled out of his sleeping bag, rolled it into a neat bundle, then tried to repair the night’s ravages to his face. Eyedrops and a shave took care of the worst of it. A micro-waved cup of last night’s leftover coffee gave him a much-needed jolt of caffeine and a couple of stale doughnuts gave him a sugar rush that would last him through the morning. By six he was feeling almost human and ready to face the day.

But he still couldn’t shake his worry about the baby he and Sharon Lynn had rescued from the frigid night. Had she been out there long enough to catch her death of cold? What if she were spiking a fever? Would Sharon Lynn know what to do? Probably every bit as well as he would, he conceded.

The temptation to go by her place to see how the pair of them were doing was tremendous. It was also a distraction, one he’d vowed not to allow, especially since he couldn’t be sure that concern for the baby was the only reason he wanted to drop in. He was determined that the previous night’s incidents weren’t going to take his mind off of what he had to do today.

Right after his discovery the day before that White Pines was hiring, he’d made a call to the ranch. He was scheduled for a 7:00 a.m. meeting with Cody Adams and nothing on God’s earth was going to keep him from being on time for it. Allowing for the condition of the roads, it was going to take every second he had allowed to drive to White Pines. He figured showing up on schedule despite the adverse conditions would be a point in his favor.

His tight timetable and grim determination not to allow any distractions might not permit a visit, but he could detour past Sharon Lynn’s house. That might not be nearly as satisfying as getting a peek at the two of them, but it would be enough to reassure himself that they were nice and cozy inside on this miserable morning. Then he could go on to his job interview with a clear conscience.

“That’s a plan,” he concluded, slamming the door on his pickup and easing out onto a road covered with snow and a treacherous undersheet of ice. The drive was going to be a picnic, all right, he thought as the tires skidded, then finally held.

The sun was just beginning to sneak over the horizon as he eased cautiously down Main Street. He caught a glimpse of the huge orange ball in his rear-view mirror as he crept down the block, then turned the corner to drive past Sharon Lynn’s.

The small, neat house, which also doubled as a veterinary clinic, had surprised him when they’d arrived there the night before. He’d been expecting something bigger, fancier, but once he’d walked through the front door he’d had the feeling that the house suited Sharon Lynn. It was homey and warm, a welcoming kind of place with its cheery yellows and mellowing blues. And she’d explained that the veterinary practice belonged to her cousin, who actually owned the property and, she added with a grin, most of the cats and kittens who were 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 find the sheriff for you. With the roads a mess, people skidding into ditches and every deputy out on calls, there’s no telling where Justin might be. He hasn’t checked in with me yet, but that doesn’t mean he’s not on duty. He has a way of forgetting that it helps if I know where to find him.”

Sharon Lynn grinned at the touch of indignation in Maribel’s voice. She’d taken over while the regular dispatcher was out on maternity leave and her oft-stated goal was to change Justin’s lackadaisical ways. Obviously she was relishing this latest chance to chide him for not following the rules about reporting in at the start of the day. Maribel wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the fact that as the town’s newly elected sheriff, Justin was the one who made the rules.

“Don’t forget he could be at Dolan’s having breakfast,” Sharon Lynn said.

“Believe me, honey, I know all the man’s hiding places. He’ll be over there in a heartbeat.”

True to Maribel’s promise, Justin arrived within minutes, looking disheveled and cranky. Apparently the dispatcher had dragged him out of bed on what had turned out to be his first day off in two weeks. A newlywed, he was none too pleased about that or about the reason for it.

“Maybe I was still half asleep, maybe I didn’t hear dispatch right,” he said as he came in the front door without bothering to knock. “Maribel said somebody left a baby on your doorstep last night.”

There was enough censure and disbelief in his tone to have Sharon Lynn scowling at him defiantly. “That’s correct.”

His voice climbed. “And the reason you didn’t notify me before now would be?”

“Because it was late and I figured there wouldn’t be a thing you could do before morning anyway. Cord and I had things under control here.”

His scowl deepened. “Cord?”

“Another story,” she said dismissively. If Justin was this worked up over the baby, she could just imagine what he’d have to say about the stranger who’d been a big part of the night’s events. Thankfully he let the mention of Cord pass.

He glanced around the living room. “Where’s the baby?” he asked.

“Sleeping, or at least she was until you came in here bellowing.” Hands on hips, she faced him belligerently. “Tone it down, or you can leave right now.”

“I don’t think so.”

They scowled at each other for a full minute, before she finally relented and led the way to her bedroom. The baby was squarely in the middle of her bed, surrounded by pillows. She was so tiny, so precious, with her halo of soft blond curls and rosy cheeks. Her solemn, watchful eyes seemed to fix on Sharon Lynn. Just looking at her was enough to fill Sharon Lynn’s heart with joy. With her gaze immediately drawn to the sleeping child, she moved to the edge of the bed and skimmed a finger across a pudgy cheek.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” she whispered.

“Oh, no,” Justin said, his gaze locked on her and not the baby.

Sharon Lynn blinked at his fierce tone, then glanced up at him. “What?”

“You can’t keep her, Sharon Lynn.”

She had known that, of course, but something in Justin’s voice riled her. Her stubborn streak kicked in. She lifted her chin. “Why not?”

“You know perfectly well why not. She’s not yours.”

“Well, obviously the mother doesn’t want her.”

“Unless she was kidnapped,” he suggested.

Sharon Lynn swallowed hard. It was one explanation she had never even considered. Kidnapped babies were held for ransom. They weren’t abandoned. Were they?

“You don’t seriously think…”

He raked a hand through his hair and snapped impatiently, “I don’t know what to think. I would have known a hell of a lot more by now if you’d told me about her last night, if I’d been able to check out the alley behind the store for any evidence, and if I’d had time to check all the faxes about missing kids.”

“Do that now,” she said reasonably. “Whatever evidence was in that alley hasn’t gone anywhere. As for the faxes, I’ve seen your desk. They haven’t gone anywhere, either.”

“I’ll do all that right after I take her to the hospital to be thoroughly checked out and call social services,” he said. “They’re going to love being hauled out on a Saturday after a blizzard.”

Sharon Lynn instinctively moved between her cousin and the baby. “My point exactly. If it’s going to be such a bother, then don’t call them.”

His expression turned sympathetic. “Sweetie, there are procedures in cases like this. You know this is what has to be done.”

“She’ll just end up in foster care, unless you locate the mom, right?”

“I suppose.”

“Then let her stay with me. I’ll call Grandpa Harlan. He can pull a few strings and get me temporary approval as a foster parent. It’s not as if I’m an unfit candidate for it. We can call Lizzy to come check her out medically, if that will make you happy. She’s practically a full-fledged doctor. She’s doing her residency in Garden City, while granddaddy builds that clinic he promised her here in town. It’ll be by the book.” She beamed at him, then shrugged at his intractable scowl. “More or less.”

“Sharon Lynn—”

“Justin, this is the way it’s going to be,” she said fiercely, ready to fight him on this if she had to.

“That baby would have died last night if Cord and I hadn’t found her. I’m not letting her out of my sight until I know she’s going to be safe. Whoever left her there doesn’t deserve to live, much less have the baby given back to them.”

“Well, of course not, but—”

“No buts. You know I’m right. You know she’s better off with me, at least for the time being. I feel like I owe her that much.”

She watched his face intently, saw the worry, the indecision and prayed he’d go along with her on this. Justin had a powerful sense of right and wrong, a fierce dedication to playing by the rules. She knew she was probably asking him to break a million of them.

“Please,” she begged. “Just think of what’s best for the baby. Think of all the trauma she’s already been through. She’s here now, she’s warm and safe. Don’t start dragging her around again now, just so you can cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s on your paperwork.”

He sighed heavily. “Okay,” he relented finally. “But this is temporary. You understand that, right?”

“Of course.”

He regarded her skeptically. “You’re sure?”

“Justin, I understand.”

“All right, then. Hopefully Lizzy’s not on duty over at Garden City. Call her and get her over here. If she gives the baby a clean bill of health, that’ll do for now. Meantime, I’ll go check out all the reports on missing kids to see if there’s a match.”

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“Don’t thank me,” he said curtly. “Something tells me I’m setting you up for heartbreak.”

Chapter 3

“Tell me again how you wound up with a baby,” Lizzy said when she arrived an hour later.

She looked every bit the doctor with her little black bag and white lab coat over a silk blouse. She’d even coiled her long, black hair into a tidy topknot. Sharon Lynn still hadn’t gotten used to her professional demeanor. To her way of thinking, Lizzy was still first and foremost a rambunctious, anything-for-a-lark cowgirl. Her medical degree from the University of Texas said otherwise.

As Sharon Lynn repeated the same story she’d told Justin, Lizzy’s eyes widened. Her mouth narrowed into a thin, disapproving line before she muttered a stream of expletives that would have blistered the ears of the person who’d abandoned the baby. Sharon Lynn said only, “My sentiments exactly.”

“How long was she outside, then?”

“Probably not more than a minute or two. We heard a thump, went to investigate and there she was.”

“So her body temperature was warm enough when you brought her inside?”

Sharon Lynn nodded. “She was pretty well bundled up. She felt fine to me. Cord thought so, too. I took her temperature and it was normal.”

Just as Justin had, Lizzy seized on the mention of the unfamiliar name. “Cord?”

“The customer who was there when it happened. He was actually the one who found her.”

“Interesting,” Lizzy said, studying her face. “Is this Cord person handsome, sexy and single?”

“I have no idea,” she claimed. At Lizzy’s skeptical look, she conceded, “Not about the single part anyway.”

Lizzy grinned. “Then he is handsome and sexy?”

“I suppose. I hardly noticed.”

“If he’d turned up after you found the baby, I might believe that, but he’d been there how long? A couple of hours? That’s a long time to hang around a drugstore during a blizzard, unless the man had something besides food on his mind.”

“Are you here to check out the baby or to cross-examine me?” Sharon Lynn grumbled.

Lizzy patted her cheek. “Not to worry. I have time to do both. Come on, let’s see the baby. We’ll get back to this Cord person later.”

Without waiting for Sharon Lynn, she headed to the bedroom and bent over the baby, who was wide-awake and waving her tiny fists in the air. Lizzy sighed. “She’s a cute one, all right. And obviously someone has been taking good care of her. Looks to me as if her weight’s normal and her color is good. Just look at those rosy little cheeks.”

She began examining her with practiced fingers, pausing to tickle a laughing response from her every now and again. When she was finished, she plucked her up off the bed and cradled her in her arms. “You are a little doll.”

Sharon Lynn watched her aunt, who was actually younger than she was, and had an almost overwhelming desire to yank the baby out of her arms. Even she recognized that as a bad sign. If she was this possessive after less than twenty-four hours, what was going to happen when the time came to give the baby up? Maybe Justin had been right to worry. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d thought.

“Don’t go getting any ideas,” she told Lizzy.

“You’ve got one of your own and I don’t see Hank letting you bring another one home for him to take care of while you finish your residency.”

“Are you kidding? Hank’s in seventh heaven playing full-time daddy. If he could figure out some way to convince me to stay pregnant and have another kid every nine or ten months, he’d be a happy man. He loves ranching, but parenthood is his true calling. I’m not sure which one of us was more surprised by that. For a long time making a go of his ranch was all that mattered to him. Now he just leaves most of that to Pete and the hands. I come home and he has a zillion and one stories about Jamey for me.”

“And how do you feel about expanding your family?”

“I wouldn’t give up Jamey for anything, but it is way too soon to be thinking of having another one. It’s easier now that med school is over and I’m here all the time, but doing my residency over in Garden City is no picnic. The hours are a killer and, despite what Hank says, I can’t put all the burden of taking care of Jamey on him. Besides, I don’t want to miss these early years. Things change too fast. He’s walking and talking a blue streak. To hear Hank and Daddy tell it, he’ll be ready to run the ranch by the time he’s five.”

“Well, obviously Grandpa Harlan would think any child of his precious baby daughter’s would be a genius,” Sharon Lynn teased. “As for Hank, he’s totally and thoroughly besotted with you. It was a given that any child you two conceived would be brighter and cuter than any other baby on earth, at least in his eyes.”

She reached for this baby and took her from Lizzy’s arms. “Of course, this one could give little Jamey a run for his money in the looks department.”

“You sound an awful lot like a proud mama,” Lizzy said, regarding her worriedly. “Sweetie, you aren’t getting any ideas about trying to keep her, are you?”

“Of course not,” Sharon Lynn denied a little too emphatically. “This is just temporary until Justin can find out who abandoned her and whether there’s any family to take her.”

“Then why did you bring home enough diapers and formula for months, rather than days?”

She could feel the color flooding her cheeks. “I just grabbed stuff last night. I wasn’t counting. Neither was Cord. We just accidentally doubled up on some stuff.”

As soon as the last was out of her mouth, she realized her mistake. The repeat mention of Cord’s name was like waving a red flag in front of Lizzy.

“Okay, into the kitchen,” Lizzy ordered in the imperious manner of a woman used to having her demands taken seriously. “You can feed the baby and I’ll pour the coffee. I want to hear all about this Cord person.”

“Don’t you have to get back to your own family?” Sharon Lynn asked hopefully.

“You are my family,” Lizzy reminded her. “I’m the aunt. I get to be nosy.”

“You’re younger than I am.”

“Doesn’t matter. In the family pecking order, I have rank. Ask Daddy.”

“It would be a waste of time asking Grandpa Harlan,” Sharon Lynn conceded. “Precious Lizzy has ruled the roost since the day she was born. After all those impossible sons of his, to say nothing of Jenny who was a fourteen-year-old troublemaker when he married your mom, you were his darling angel. Little did he know that you’d turn out to be the most stubborn and impossible of all of them.”

“None of which has a thing to do with the topic,” Lizzy reminded her, oblivious to the familiar teasing.

“Which is?”

“Cord. Tell me about him.”

Sharon Lynn forced a casual, disinterested shrug.

“He’s a nice guy. He came into Dolan’s last night, right off the road in the middle of that storm. He’d been traveling from Montana. He’s here looking for a job.”

“What kind of job?”

“Actually he has an interview at White Pines today.”

“Oh, boy,” Lizzy said, chuckling. “And you think I’m subjecting you to an inquisition. Just wait till Daddy gets wind of the fact that you and Cord rescued a baby from a blizzard.”

That was precisely what Sharon Lynn was most afraid of. Her grandfather was notorious for his matchmaking schemes. She gave Lizzy a pointed look. “Then hopefully he won’t find out about it.”

“You have to be dreaming. Daddy has a sixth sense for this sort of thing. Not to mention the fact that Justin and I already know about it. I had to tell Hank I was coming here on my way to work at the hospital. Who knows how many people Justin has spoken to? And Cord is at this very moment out at White Pines meeting with whom?”

“Daddy, more than likely.”

Lizzy grinned. “Oh, yes, indeed, Uncle Cody is definitely known for his discretion. Add it up, sweetie, and you’re in big trouble.”

“Cord is being interviewed by my father,” Sharon Lynn reiterated. “Not Grandpa Harlan.”

Lizzy chuckled. “And you think that’s an improvement?”

Sharon Lynn sighed. “Okay, maybe not much of one. Maybe Cord won’t mention having met me.”

“Did you swear him to secrecy?”

“No.”

“If you were hoping to get hired on by the biggest rancher in the state, wouldn’t you use the fact that you happen to know his daughter?”

“Okay, maybe, but it’s not like we’re old friends or anything. We just met.”

“And rescued a baby together. It’s a bond, sweetie, the kind that will set off all sorts of wild speculation around White Pines. There’s no getting around it.”

It was a bond, Sharon Lynn thought with a sigh. Cord’s tenderness with the baby had touched her heart. His outrage and indignation had been every bit a match for her own. Beyond that? She refused to look beyond that. She wasn’t remotely interested in allowing a new man into her life, especially not a charming stranger who might be all too capable of slipping past her defenses. She’d lived amidst charming rogues and scoundrels all her life. She wasn’t interested in dating one. That’s why Kyle, the polar opposite of the men in her family, had held such strong appeal for her. Judging from Lizzy’s expression, she hadn’t yet made herself clear enough. She tried again.

“Lizzy, for a woman with a practical, scientific mind, you’re talking like the ultimate romantic. Get a grip. Cord Branson is a total stranger.”

“He might have been when he walked into Dolan’s last night, but something tells me he isn’t now.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“We’ll see,” Lizzy predicted. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned the last couple of years, it’s that fate has a sneaky way of turning life upside down when you least expect it. Jamey is proof enough of that.”

Sharon Lynn could certainly testify to that, too, but her experience with fate wasn’t something she had any intention of repeating. She was in total control of her life these days and she intended to stay that way. She said as much to Lizzy.

“And this time yesterday were you cuddling a baby in your arms and trying to figure out how you were going to juggle your schedule at Dolan’s and care for her?”

“No, but—”

Lizzy grinned. “I rest my case.” She slipped on her coat, then leaned down to brush a kiss across Sharon Lynn’s cheek. “See you, sweetie. Call if you need any help. If I’m not around, talk to Hank. He’s the baby expert, anyway. He’ll probably insist you bring this little princess out to the ranch to play with Jamey.”

Sharon Lynn grinned. “I think this one might be a little young for play-dates, don’t you?”

“I do, but Hank won’t. Promise you’ll call if you need anything.”

“Thanks. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Lizzy’s expression sobered then. She picked up Sharon Lynn’s hand and pressed it against her cheek.

“Don’t get too attached, okay? It would be easy to do. Nobody could blame you, but—”

“I know,” Sharon Lynn responded bleakly. “It can only end in heartbreak. I’ve been there, done that. One more time won’t matter.”

“It would matter,” Lizzy said fiercely. “You’re strong, Sharon Lynn. We all know that. But even you have a breaking point.”

Sharon Lynn forced a smile. “Then I can’t let myself get too attached, can I?”

When Lizzy was gone, she glanced down at the now-sleeping baby in her arms and sighed. She had a terrible feeling it was already too late.

The interview had gone well enough. Cody Adams had asked tough questions, questions that might have put Cord on the defensive, but he’d asked them in a way that had encouraged Cord to give straight answers about his past, as well as his ambitions.

“In other words, we can’t count on you sticking around here as a hand until your dying breath,” Cody summarized after the questions were done and they’d spent some time touring the ranch. “You scrape up enough money, find some land you want and you’ll leave?”

“To be perfectly honest, yes,” Cord admitted.

“But until I do, I’ll work longer and harder than any other man you’ve got.”

“Why White Pines?”

“Because everybody says you’re the best.”

“Who is everybody?”

Cord mentioned all the places he’d stopped and asked questions. “The Adams name kept coming up.”

Cody nodded, his expression thoughtful. “I like a man who does his homework. I also like a man who doesn’t make promises he doesn’t intend to keep. Depending on how good you are at tucking away your pay and not squandering it on poker games and such, I suppose I can count on you being with us for a while, long enough for it to be worth my while to break you in.”

Cord thought of another reason for staying right here, not just in the short term, but forever. She had the most incredible blue eyes he’d ever seen. He doubted Cody would want to know about his intentions in that regard just yet. Instead he said only, “Yes, sir, I think you can count on me being here that long.”

“Then the job’s yours. When can you start?”

Cord barely managed to contain a whoop of triumph. “When do you need me?”

“Today would be good. I’ll settle for tomorrow. I’m short one man and I’ve got two more down with the flu. I’m running in circles trying to keep up. My brother-in-law’s been pitching in, but he’s got his own spread to worry about, plus a kid who’s just learning to walk and is running both him and his housekeeper ragged.”

“Just tell me what needs doing and I’ll get started,” Cord told him, pushing aside his regret that there wouldn’t be time to head back into town to see Sharon Lynn and the baby until later that night or early the next week.

Before Cody could reply, the phone in his office rang. he grabbed it up, listened intently, then glanced at Cord with renewed curiosity.

“Sure thing, Daddy. I’ll send him over to the house. Don’t be taking up too much of his time, though. I’ve got chores for him to do.” He grinned.

“Yes, I recall that it is still your ranch and you do have some say about what goes on around here. Even if I should forget, you take great pleasure in reminding me every chance you get.”

He hung up and turned back to regard Cord speculatively. “You didn’t mention that you’d met my daughter.”

“Sharon Lynn?” he asked, impressed by the speed of the family grapevine.

Cody nodded. “How’d that come about?”

Cord debated just how much he should say, finally settling on the bare minimum. “I stopped in town last night for a bite to eat. Dolan’s was the only place open.”

“I see. Anything else interesting happen while you were there?”

Cord chuckled at the careful probing. Apparently he was wasting his time being discreet. “Obviously you’ve heard about the baby that was dropped off on the doorstep.”

“Daddy told me just now. He wants to hear the whole story. So do I, but in my case it’ll have to wait for another time. You go on up to the main house and fill him in, then come back here when you’re done.”

Cord stood up and started for the door, but Cody stopped him.

“You know, if you’d mentioned what happened, I’d have given you the job without asking a million and one questions. The fact that you helped out my daughter and that poor little abandoned baby would have been enough.”

Cord nodded. “I suspected as much, sir. I wanted to get the job on my own.”

Cody regarded him with approval. “An admirable decision. I think you’re going to work out just fine. Now get on up to the house before Daddy comes looking for you. Once he’s here, he won’t be able to resist telling me how to do things.”

“I imagine that would be time-consuming, sir.”

Cody grinned. “You have no idea.”

Cord had seen the main house in the distance when he’d driven up to White Pines a few hours earlier. It reminded him of a Southern plantation. Cody had explained that was exactly what it was, almost a replica of the burned-to-the-ground home that his ancestors had left behind when they’d fled the South after the Civil War.

He parked in front of the house and climbed the steps, which had already been cleared of snow. Before he could ring the bell, the door swung wide and an older version of Cody with white hair and stooped shoulders held out a hand.

“You must be Cord. Come on in. I’ve heard all about the goings-on in town last night.”

“I gather Los Pin˜os has an active grapevine.”

“I can’t swear for the town, but this family does,” Harlan Adams said with pride. “There’s not much that goes on that I don’t know about.” He started down the hall and beckoned for Cord to follow.

“Let’s go in the kitchen if you don’t mind. If I’m right there, I have half a chance of getting a decent cup of coffee, instead of that pitiful decaf everybody’s been insisting I drink the last few months.”

In the huge kitchen, Harlan Adams glanced around, poked his head into what was apparently a large walk-in pantry and gave a nod of satisfaction. “Good, the housekeeper’s gone. If you’ll grab a couple of cups from that cupboard over there, I’ll pour.”

Cody found two large mugs and put them on the table, hiding his amusement that one of the most powerful men in Texas was having to sneak a cup of real coffee in his own home.

“Are you sure you ought to be drinking this?” he asked.

“Of course not. My daughter, the one who’s got a fancy medical degree now, got a notion that the real stuff is bad for my heart. I’m way past eighty now. It’s my opinion that if I want a cup of coffee, then by God, I ought to have one. Age should have some privileges.”

“Just don’t keel over on my watch,” Cord said.

The old man’s blue eyes twinkled merrily. “I’ll guarantee that, if you’ll keep my little secret.”

“Done.”

“So tell me about this baby you and Sharon Lynn found.”

“What have you heard?”

“Pitifully little. I tried to wheedle more information out of my grandson, but he’s the sheriff and as tight-lipped as an old maid when it comes to an investigation. All I know for sure is that Sharon Lynn talked him into leaving the baby with her for the time being. I’ve called a judge to make it official that she can provide temporary guardianship for the child, while Justin does his poking around.”

Cord gave a little nod of satisfaction. “She’ll take good care of her.”

“Well, of course she will. The girl has a heart as big as Texas. Trouble is, she’s mighty vulnerable these days. I just pray she doesn’t get hurt. I know Justin thinks she’s making a big mistake. Giving up foster care babies isn’t always easy, not even on folks who do it all the time.”

“I’ll admit I don’t know your granddaughter all that well, but she struck me as being a pretty sensible woman. She didn’t waste a lot of time getting emotional last night. The instant we found that baby, she just took charge.”

“That’s her way, but it’s been a terrible year for her. Take my word for that.”

Cord had the feeling that was all Harlan Adams intended to say on the subject, but his measured words only confirmed what Cord had read in her eyes. Something tragic had filled her with sorrow. It reminded him that he needed to move slowly, even though his every instinct was to pursue her without pause until he swept her off her feet.

“You a single man, Cord?”

The question took him by surprise, especially in the context of the conversation they’d just been having and his own thoughts.

“Yes, sir.”

“I see,” Harlan Adams said, surveying him speculatively.

Cord tried not to flinch under the intense scrutiny. Finally he met the old man’s gaze evenly and asked, “How do I measure up, sir?”

Harlan threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, you’ll do well enough, I imagine.”

“Are we talking about ranching now or something else?”

Before he could reply, a woman with black hair threaded with silver and the angled cheekbones of Native American ancestry swept into the kitchen, snatched the mug from in front of Harlan Adams and poured the contents into the sink, even as she gave Cord a smile.

Despite the look of longing he cast at the emptied mug, Harlan Adams’s gaze softened as he looked at the woman. “Cord, this is my wife, Janet. She has a sixth sense about when I’m straying from the straight and narrow. It’s a damned nuisance.”

Janet Adams smiled at Cord and touched her husband’s cheek. “I don’t intend to lose you, old man, not if I have to spy on you twenty-four hours a day.”

The affection between the two of them stirred a yearning inside Cord. He wanted what they had. He wanted to have someone in his life who cared enough about his well-being to defy him when it mattered, someone who would treasure every minute they managed to snatch as they grew old together.

Once more an image of Sharon Lynn came to mind. Judging from her grandfather and father, the years would be kind to her. He could envision sharing them with her. The prospect had taken him by surprise the night before, but it was growing on him now. It seemed as natural as breathing, as inevitable as the sunrise.

“I’d best be getting back to Cody now,” he said.

“He has chores for me.”

Harlan barely pulled his gaze from his wife, but he said, “Welcome to White Pines. We’ll be seeing a lot more of you around here, son.”

As he headed back to Cody’s office, Cord kept hearing the echo of that one word—son. He supposed Harlan Adams referred to a lot of men in that same easy, casual way. He couldn’t possibly have guessed how much it would mean to Cord to be accepted so readily.

Or how soon Cord intended to make the ties between them real and deep by marrying his granddaughter. Then, again, he recalled the expression on Harlan Adams’s face earlier when they’d been talking about Sharon Lynn. He was a wise man. Maybe he’d already been able to read what was in Cord’s heart.

Chapter 4

Sharon Lynn was falling in love. With every hour that passed, she grew more and more enchanted with the baby she and Cord had discovered in the alley behind Dolan’s. The little angel rarely fussed and had a smile that could light up the world.

Because of the weather, she’d had the baby to herself the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday. It had been surprisingly easy to fall into the baby’s rhythm, frightening to realize how easily her heart could be stolen.

In a few short hours, it began to seem totally natural to have a child tucked into the crook of her arm as she went about her other chores. Old lullabies she hadn’t thought of in years came back to her as she held the baby and rocked her to sleep.

As the time flew by, she began to dread the ringing of the phone. Each time she answered, she expected it to be Justin with word on the baby’s family, with an announcement that someone was coming to claim the child. She couldn’t help wondering how she would cope with that inevitable end.

On Friday night, the baby had needed Sharon Lynn to survive. By Sunday, she worried that maybe it was turning the other way around. Finding the baby on her doorstep was giving her, at long last, a reason to live.

But such a tenuous reason, she warned herself, one that could be snatched from her at any moment. Yet how could any woman defend herself against loving a beautiful, helpless child?

There were limits, though. Even she could see that. It was one reason she resisted the temptation to name the baby. Surely the child already had a name. She had to. It wasn’t Sharon Lynn’s place to choose another, even if it meant calling her nothing more than sweetie or little one. It was awkward and frustrating at times, but it was the way it had to be.

When the phone rang at nine o’clock on Sunday night, she jumped. At the sound of Justin’s voice, her heart slowed to a dull thud.

“Everything okay over there?” he asked.

“Of course. Have you found out anything?”

“Nothing. Still no reports of a missing baby. It’s as if she appeared out of nowhere.”

“Maybe she’s just a gift from heaven,” Sharon Lynn said quietly, unable to hide the wistfulness.

“Maybe this was meant to be.”

“Don’t go there,” Justin warned. “Please don’t go there. Not yet. We’re just in the early stages of the investigation. Anything could happen.”

She sighed. “I know.”

“What do you intend to do about work tomorrow?”

“I’m taking her with me, of course.”

It was Justin’s turn to sigh heavily. “I figured as much. Lizzy called. She says she has a portable crib and a carrier out at her place that you can use. I’ll pick them up first thing in the morning and drop them off at Dolan’s.”

“Thanks, Justin. You’re an angel.”

“I hope you still feel that way when this is all over.”

“No matter what happens, I won’t blame you. I promise.”

“I’ll see you in the morning.”

After she’d hung up, Sharon Lynn went in to check on the baby and stood for a long time just watching her sleep. She was so innocent and trusting and yet already in her young life, she had been betrayed in the cruelest way of all. Was she aware of that on some level? Would it affect her for the rest of her life? Or did she only know that there was someone now keeping her warm and fed and safe? She certainly seemed to be sleeping peacefully enough.

As the night wore on, Sharon Lynn envied her that. She tossed and turned, knowing that the day ahead would be chaotic, that it would be filled with unanswerable questions and maybe with heart-wrenching loss. The weather had saved her from the visitors and the questions all weekend, but she wouldn’t be so lucky come morning. It wasn’t in the Adams genes to let something like this pass unnoticed.

Sure enough, not only was Justin on the doorstep when she arrived at Dolan’s, but her mother and grandmother were there right on his heels. Her aunts and her cousins followed at a head-spinning clip.

Thanks to Lizzy’s contributions, the baby was settled into a portable crib behind the lunch counter where every single Adams could ooh and aah over her, along with half the town. By noon Sharon Lynn was so sick of advice, so tired of warnings about getting attached that she was ready to scream. She would have thrown everyone out and locked the doors, but Dolan’s was a business and the novelty of an abandoned baby on the premises had the lunch counter busier than it had been in weeks.

By two, things had finally settled down again. Patsy Driscoll had gone home after pocketing more tips than she usually did in a week. Sharon Lynn finally had a chance to hold the baby herself.

“You charmed the socks off of them,” she informed the gurgling child. “Little wonder. You’re every bit as cute as any Adams baby I’ve ever seen and, believe me, there are a lot of them.”

“Hey, are you maligning my descendants?” Grandpa Harlan inquired as he slid onto a stool next to her, his gaze locked on the baby.

Sharon Lynn sighed. “I should have known you wouldn’t be able to resist coming into town to see her for yourself.”

“Why should I be the only one left out?” he inquired.

“Because she’s a baby, not a circus sideshow.”

“You upset because everyone’s interested or because they’re all offering up advice you don’t want to hear?”

Of course, he would see that, she thought. Her grandfather was the wisest man she knew. She gazed into his bright blue eyes and saw the concern there.

“I know what I’m letting myself in for,” she assured him.

“I’m sure you do,” he agreed. “Doesn’t mean we can’t worry about you.”

“Do you intend to add in your two cents?”

He grinned. “Not if you’ll let me hold her, while you go pour me a cup of real coffee.”

Amused by his eagerness, Sharon Lynn relinquished the baby gladly enough, but she poured decaf into the cup she handed him. Her grandfather scowled.

“You, too?”

“I take my marching orders from a higher authority.”

“Who’s that?” he demanded indignantly.

“Janet.”

“Whatever happened to the days when an old man was respected?”

“We do respect you and we love you. That’s why we want you to stick around. Now, drink the decaf. It tastes just as good as the high-octane stuff.”

“If taste were all that mattered, there wouldn’t be two kinds. I want a little kick.”

“Well, you won’t get it here and that’s that.”

“Stubborn brat.”

“Stubborn old man.”

He grinned. “If you’re calling me names, I guess your spunk is back. Might’s well go along home and find something else to worry about.”

“Might’s well,” she agreed. “I really am okay, Grandpa Harlan.”

He lifted the baby above his head until she giggled, then brought her down for a kiss before handing her back to Sharon Lynn. He headed for the door, then turned back.

“By the way, Cord’s working out real good at White Pines. Your daddy’s kept him hopping and from what I hear, Cord is up to it.”

“He got the job, then? I’d wondered.”

Surprise registered on his face. “You haven’t talked to him?”

“Not since Friday night.”

“Interesting,” he said thoughtfully. “Well, something tells me he’ll be coming around first chance he gets.”

Her gaze narrowed at the vague innuendo in his tone. “What is that supposed to mean? You haven’t been meddling again, have you?”

“I asked a few questions, that’s all. We were hiring the man. What would you have me do?”

“I thought Daddy interviewed him.”

“He did. I just came along behind him and picked up a few more details, tidied up some loose ends, you might say.”

“Such as?”

“Oh, this and that.”

“Grandpa!”

“You take care, darlin’ girl. Bring that baby out to the ranch this weekend, if she’s still staying with you. Nothing I love more than fussing over a new baby.”

He was gone before she could reply, but not before the casual invitation stirred up all of her worst fears. Would the baby be with her by the weekend? Would she even be with her tomorrow? The uncertainty was difficult now. How much worse would it get as time passed? What would her impulsive decision to become the child’s foster mother lead to? What would it cost her?

“It doesn’t matter,” she murmured, settling the baby into the carrier so she could clean up the lunch counter and grill from the day’s onslaught of customers. She didn’t matter. The baby’s well-being was all that counted, and for now she was in a position to see that nobody ever hurt that precious child again.

Another round of curious neighbors and family members dropped in around four. By nightfall, she was sick of being subjected to concerned glances and of listening to all the warnings. She was ready to close up on the dot of six, if only to prevent any more lectures from well-meaning relatives. Just as she was about to lock the door and breathe a sigh of relief, Cord appeared. Given the hints her grandfather had dropped earlier, she wasn’t sure just how welcome she ought to make him.

“Too late to get dinner?” he asked, his expression hopeful.

She regarded him warily. “That depends.”

“On?”

“Whether you intend to offer advice.”

He grinned. “I gather your family’s been calling on you today. I assumed as much from the ruckus going on out at the ranch all day. Every time one of the women came back with a report, all the men gathered around to hear it. I got the feeling your brother and your father were just itching to sneak into town and take a look for themselves. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they showed up tonight.”

“They’ll probably hold out till tomorrow. Grandpa Harlan came in their place.”

“I’m not surprised. He probably would have been here Saturday right after he talked to me, if the roads hadn’t been so bad. He had more questions than a reporter sniffing out a hot scoop.”

“I’ll bet. Watch your step around him or you won’t have a secret left.”

Cord met her gaze evenly. “I’m not all that big on secrets, not with the people who matter to me. I’m a cards-on-the-table kind of guy. What about you?”

“I don’t know. In my family, it’s virtually impossible to keep any,” she said a little wistfully. “It might be nice to try sometime. I’ve always wanted to be mysterious. That’s hard to pull off when you’ve lived in the same town all your life and your life’s an open book. Do you know how difficult it is to get any privacy at all with relatives looking over your shoulder every time you turn around?”

“Think about the flip side. You could be like me and not have anyone to share things with at all. Believe me, darlin’, you’re better off.”

“I suppose,” she said, but after a day like today she had a really hard time relating to his perspective.

“Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t have done what you did, just taken off and gotten a fresh start someplace totally new.” She thought of her uncle Luke and her cousin Angela. “Of course, others in my family have tried it and wound up right back here again. Only one moved far enough away to get some peace and quiet, but she’s back with her family at the drop of a hat. All she has to do is hint and Grandpa sends Uncle Jordan flying up to bring them all down.”

Cord listened thoughtfully, but his expression was skeptical. “Why would you leave all you have here, a family, a business, your home?”

“It might have been easier,” she said quietly, thinking of the days after Kyle’s death, when she’d faced reminders everywhere she turned. That would have been the time to go. Instead she’d bought Dolan’s and pretty much ensured that she’d be here forever.

“Easier?” Cord repeated. “I don’t understand.”

She forced a smile. “No, I don’t suppose you do.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I’m not sure I believe that.” His gaze searched hers. “Something tells me it matters very much. Are you going to tell me the whole story?”

“Maybe,” she said. “One of these days.”

He tilted his head “Now, you see, you do know how to keep secrets, after all.”

She could feel a slow grin spreading across her face. “You’re right. I guess I do. Does that make me a woman of mystery?”

“It does to me.”

She gave a little nod of satisfaction. “Well, then, that’s something.” She flashed him a brilliant smile.

“So, tell me, what are you doing here? I’m surprised you’re not eating in the bunkhouse out at White Pines. The food’s better there than anything I could throw together for you.”

He winked at her. “But the company’s a whole lot more fascinating around here.”

Sharon Lynn flushed under his warm gaze, but before she could warn him off, before she could make it clear that she wasn’t interested in pursuing anything more than conversation—or maybe just a hint of flirting to see if she was still any good at it—he turned away and scanned the drugstore.

“Where’s my girl?” he demanded. “I’ve spent the whole weekend wondering how she was getting along. Everybody at the ranch was offering up opinions, but I couldn’t wait to see for myself.”

So that was why he’d come, she thought, feeling oddly disgruntled by the discovery that this visit was all about the baby. Apparently he’d just been making idle, small talk with her, biding his time.

Before she could reply, Cord spotted the portable crib and headed straight for it. Sharon Lynn watched as he scooped the baby up and held her in the air. The baby gurgled with delight as she had earlier for Grandpa Harlan. Sharon Lynn wanted to haul the baby into her arms and explain that girls shouldn’t go trusting a man whose attentions were so fickle. Then again, maybe she was the one who needed that advice. She’d realized when Cord walked through the door that she’d been half watching for him all weekend long.

“You’ve made a conquest, I see.” She couldn’t seem to help the testy note in her voice. Fortunately Cord seemed oblivious to it.

“I’ve always been a big hit with ladies under two.”

Sharon Lynn was willing to wager he’d been a huge success with women of any age. Aside from his looks, there was that quick wit and easygoing charm about him that could weave a spell in the blink of an eye. If she’d been a lot less wary of men and relationships, she might have been taken with him herself. As it was, she could view the ingrained flirting with tolerant amusement. Or so she reassured herself.

“Have you ever been married?” she asked.

He took the out-of-the-blue question in stride.

“No, why?”

It was as if the words had just popped out of her head. She couldn’t have explained if her life depended on it. She swallowed hard and managed to improvise. “You’re so good with the baby. It’s as if you’re used to this. I thought maybe you’d had a wife and kids.”

He shrugged. “Nope. Just second nature, I suppose. I like kids, but I’ve never had any of my own. Guess I always thought kids deserved two parents who loved each other and intended to stick together through thick and thin. There’s never been a woman I felt that way about.”

“Lots of brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews?”

He shook his head. “No, an only child. Maybe that’s why I gravitate toward big families with lots of kids underfoot.”

“Then you’re at the right place at White Pines. As you’ve seen already, the ranch is crawling with family.”

He settled the baby against his shoulder, then turned his penetrating gaze on Sharon Lynn. “Ever heard the expression about being all alone in a crowd? Sometimes when what you want most in the world seems almost within reach, it’s harder than ever to accept that you don’t really have it.”

As his words sank in, Sharon Lynn’s gaze sought out the baby. It was true. For the past two days, she had been caught up in a game of make-believe. She had held a child in her arms and despite all the disclaimers she had voiced to her family, she had pretended that the baby was hers to keep. She had longed for it to be so.

Knowing that it wasn’t, accepting that it might never be, brought the salty sting of tears to her eyes. Before she was aware he’d even moved, Cord had placed the baby back in the carrier and was drawing her into his arms. To her surprise, not only did she not resist, but she went willingly.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

He tucked her head beneath his chin, where she could feel the beat of his heart and smell the clean, masculine scent of him. The comfort was her undoing. Tears, never far from the surface these days, spilled down her cheeks and soaked the soft chambray of his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I never meant to make you cry. What was it I said?”

“It’s not you,” she managed to choke out. “I’ve been a regular waterworks for months now. It doesn’t take much to set me off.”

He tipped her chin up with a finger, then swiped gently at her tears with his thumb. The tender gesture left her trembling.

“Want to tell me why?” he asked.

“Not really.” She regarded him with a watery glance. “Do you mind?”

“I mind that you’re sad, but I don’t mind that you’re not ready to share the reason for it with me. After all, we’re little more than strangers.”

Right now, though, Cord Branson didn’t feel like a stranger. He felt like a trusted, undemanding friend, someone she—and the baby—could rely on. Everyone in her family was certainly reliable, but at the first sign of tears, they worried. They plagued her with solicitous invitations or plunked themselves down in her living room and tried to cheer her up. Adamses wanted to fix things for her. Cord seemed willing to just be there.

“Thank you,” she whispered against his chest.

“No need to thank me,” he insisted. “One of these days I’ll pry the secret out of you and then I’ll go after whoever hurt you.”

“I appreciate the thought, but heroics aren’t needed.” She rested her head against the solid wall of his chest again, unwilling to leave the warmth and comfort of his embrace, even though she knew it would be the wise thing to do. Her life had gotten complicated enough in the past few days without dragging him into the middle of the storm of emotions that the baby had unleashed inside her.

Finally she sighed and pulled away. When she glanced up, it was into twinkling eyes.

“No need to move on my account,” he said lightly. “I was just beginning to enjoy myself.”

She shot him a wry grin. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

His expression sobered at once. “You don’t have to be afraid with me, darlin’. Not ever.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He touched a finger to her lips. “That’s not what I said. I said you don’t have to be afraid with me.

Nothing will ever hurt you when I’m around. That’s a guarantee.”

For reasons every bit as mysterious and every bit as certain as those that had led her to keep the abandoned baby with her, rather than turning her over to foster care, Sharon Lynn believed him.

Because she trusted him so implicitly, she glanced around Dolan’s to be sure everything that needed to be done before closing had been done, then met his gaze.

“Why don’t you come to my place for dinner? You can put the baby to bed, while I make spaghetti and a salad.”

“Throw in a beer and you’re on.”

Sharon Lynn froze at the mention of beer. Ever since the accident, she hadn’t wanted to be near anyone who was drinking, not even a single beer. Sensitive to the circumstances, everyone in the family had been careful to avoid alcohol around her. But, of course, Cord couldn’t possibly know that.

“I’m sorry. There’s none in the house.”

The words came out more stiffly than she’d intended. In the awkward silence that followed, she waited for him to suggest stopping off to pick up a six-pack, but after an intent study of her face, he merely shrugged.

“Soda will do, with coffee for a chaser,” he said easily.

“Now that I can accommodate,” she said, relieved that he hadn’t pushed, either for the beer or an explanation.

“Then let’s get out of here. Something tells me our little buddy here is going to be starving herself pretty soon and we’d better be ready to swing into action. She’s not nearly as patient as I am.”

Nothing about Cord Branson suggested he was the least bit patient, but Sharon Lynn let that pass. He’d allowed an awkward moment slide by without comment and that was all she cared about. A man who could ignore hints and innuendoes, who could detect a puzzle and let it rest until the solution was offered voluntarily was a rarity. After months of people poking and prying into her feelings, she was more grateful than he would ever know.

“Let me grab another package of formula and we’re set.”

“I’ll get that. You bundle up the little darlin’.”

When everyone was wrapped snugly in enough layers to withstand the bitter cold, they walked briskly to her place. She couldn’t help thinking that on a night just like this one a week ago, the cold had cut through her and left a chill not only throughout her body, but in her heart. What a difference a few days—and the presence of this man and this baby—had made. What would happen to her when—not if, but when—they were gone?

Chapter 5

Cord had never spent a more frustrating few minutes in his life. First the unexpected flood of tears from a woman who seemed so strong, then the ad mission of secrets and the shuttered expression at the mention of beer. There was a story there, but he had a feeling it was a whole lot more complicated than anything he could imagine.

It would be simple enough to get at the truth out at White Pines. Sharon Lynn had said it herself—she had no secrets from her family. Fortunately he was wise enough to know that the answers had to come from her. He wanted her to trust him enough to share them with him, to let him into her life totally and completely. That kind of trust didn’t happen over night and it surely wouldn’t happen if he started prying. Obviously this was going to be just one more test of his patience.

In the meantime, though, his imagination was working overtime. To silence all the wild speculation going on in his head, he focused on the baby. Every time he held her, he was more awestruck. She was so tiny, so perfect. Powerful, amazing emotions swept through him, made him vow to protect her with his life if it ever came to that. The emotions were all the more astonishing because he had no idea where they’d come from. His own pitiful parents had never set such an example.

“Have you ever in your life seen a kid this size eat this much?” he asked as she sucked lustily on her bottle, her little hands gripping it tightly as if she feared he might take it from her. “You don’t suppose she was half starved when we found her?”

“Lizzy says her weight appeared to be normal and that she wasn’t showing any signs of being mal-nourished.” Her expression darkened. “Have you thought about the mother at all?”

“I’ve tried not to. It’s too infuriating. What about you?”

“I can’t help thinking that she must have been truly desperate.”

“Maybe the mother wasn’t in any position to care for a child.”

“You mean financially?”

“I mean maybe she was sick herself, maybe she even died after the baby was born and the baby’s father couldn’t cope.”

Her expression shifted from anger to sympathy. “Oh, God, I hadn’t even considered that.” She came to stand close and brushed gentle fingers over the baby’s head. “Poor little thing.”

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