Despite the happy scene, Cassidy’s heart dropped when she didn’t immediately see the baby, but then she spotted her in a wicker basket on the table next to the man. She was sound asleep, though Cassidy didn’t know how she managed it with all the noise.
“This is Gage,” Sawyer said, tipping his head to the goosing man. “Another cousin. He’s a Silver Creek deputy, and the father of that one.” He pointed to the boy. “His name is Luke. And the other two are Bree and Kade’s twins, Leah and Mia. Folks, this is Cassidy.”
Gage sat up, flashing a smile that was familiar. Apparently, it was a Ryland trait, because she’d seen the same smile on Sawyer. She’d called it a bedroom smile because that’s exactly where it had caused her and Sawyer to land.
Cassidy pushed aside the heat that came with those memories and wondered when she was ever going to forget them. Maybe once she managed to put some space between Sawyer and her, but heaven knows when that was going to happen. She just seemed to keep getting in deeper and deeper with him.
Now they were supposed to do a ransom drop together.
That definitely wouldn’t give her any space.
“I see you got babysitting duty,” Sawyer remarked to Gage.
“Yeah, everybody’s tied up with the investigation and other stuff. The baby’s already had her bottle and a diaper change. Much easier changing her than my boy.” He hitched his thumb toward his son. “Luke thinks diaper time is practice for hosing me down.”
The little boy paused, only to grin at his dad, and continued the game.
“Any breaks in the case?” Gage asked.
“None,” Sawyer answered. “Ransom drop’s supposed to be tomorrow. The kidnappers will give us the location and details then.”
Cassidy needed to focus on the conversation, but it was hard to do that when the three children started running around her. Apparently, they were resuming their game, and she was to be the new gooser. She truly sucked at it because on her first attempt, she nearly poked one of the little girls in the eye.
“And what about her?” Gage asked, glancing at the baby.
Sawyer lifted his shoulder. “The doctor took a sample of her DNA and blood. We could know soon if the dead woman was her mother.”
And they’d also know who the father was.
She didn’t miss the way Gage volleyed glances between Sawyer and the baby. “You think she’s yours?”
Sawyer didn’t jump to answer. “Maybe. I’ve ruled out one woman, but there was someone else. Just a one-nighter, and I haven’t been able to track her down.”
A one-nighter. Like Cassidy. It shouldn’t have stung, but it did, and it made her wonder just how many women that smile and those hot looks had seduced.
She really didn’t want to know.
“Just give me a call if you need any help,” Gage offered, and he motioned toward the diaper bag next to the baby. “I think you’ll find everything you need in there.” He paused though, glanced at both Sawyer and her. “You two sure you’re up to this? A newborn’s a lot of work.”
“We’re up to it,” she heard herself say, though Cassidy had no idea if they truly were. All she knew was she didn’t want the baby to have to spend the night in the hospital and she didn’t want to have to stay the night at the Ryland ranch with all of Sawyer’s kin around. It would be bad enough with just the two of them at his place.
Three of them, she corrected.
Having the baby around would make her stay with Sawyer seem less, well, intimate. Not that he had any notion of intimacy happening between them.
Sawyer looped the diaper bag over his shoulder and reached for the baby, but the sounds of footsteps and voices stopped him.
Even though she figured the ranch was safe, Cassidy still went on alert. However, it was a false alarm because Mason and a very pregnant brunette came into the room. They were kissing and seemingly ignoring the kids trailing along with them.
The woman broke the kiss with Mason. His wife, no doubt. And her face flushed a little when she saw Cassidy and Sawyer. Smiling, she made her way to Cassidy and offered her hand.
“I’m Abbie Ryland. I hope Gage welcomed you to our quiet home.”
Cassidy nodded and watched the children stream in.
Abbie laughed at her slack-jawed reaction. Mason mumbled something about them having their own baseball team. But there seemed to be a lot more than just nine of them.
“That’s Robbie,” Abbie said, pointing to a little boy who was about three. “He’s Dade and Kayla’s son.” She looked around the room, spotted a toddler with loose brown curls and enormous gray eyes. “And that’s their daughter, Meggie. Be careful, she bites.”
Cassidy felt more than a little foolish when she dropped back a step. The little girl looked like an angel. But she did have teeth.
Mason scooped up one of the boys and tossed him over his shoulder. “This is Grayson’s boy, Chet. The rest are Nate and Darcy’s brood. Kimmie, Noah and Bella.”
Kimmie was a red-haired girl about four. Noah appeared to be about the same age, and the other girl, Bella, looked to be around two.
“How do you keep them all straight?” Cassidy asked, and even though Abbie chuckled, it wasn’t exactly a joke.
The red-haired girl made a beeline for Abbie. “Hello, Max.” She got on her tiptoes to kiss Abbie’s very pregnant belly. “When can he come out and play with us?”
“Hopefully, very soon,” Abbie said at the same moment Mason said, “Not soon enough.”
The little girl made a hmming sound. “You sure Max knows how to get out of there?”
Gage sputtered out a cough, laughing. Sawyer covered a laugh, too. Mason just looked his normal ornery self. Well, until he patted his wife’s belly, and some of the orneriness vanished.
“Don’t worry,” Mason told Kimmie, ruffling her curly red hair. “The doctor will give Max directions.”
That answer seemed to satisfy Kimmie, and her attention landed on the baby. “Aw, she’s still sleeping. When’s she gonna wake up?”
“Pretty soon if you don’t lower your voice,” Gage teased.
But Kimmie gave her uncle a play punch on the arm and peered into the basket again. “Can we name her Emma?”
“Isn’t that your doll’s name?” Abbie asked.
“Yeah, but she could share it. It’s a good name, and I can spell it already.” Kimmie did exactly that and looked at Sawyer, obviously waiting for his approval.
He finally nodded. “All right. We’ll call her Emma until we find out what her real name is. But you know that she can’t stay with us, right?”
That sent some yelps and rumbles of disapproval from the three girls and Noah. It was amazing that with all these playmates, they would want more.
They were family.
And that hit Cassidy hard, too.
It had only been Bennie and her for the past fourteen years. Their parents had been killed when she was only a teenager. Bennie had been just ten. Hard to make a family under those circumstances, but Cassidy had tried.
For all the good it had done her.
Now Bennie’s life was on the line, and she might not even be able to save him.
The touch on her arm nearly caused her to gasp, until Cassidy realized it was Sawyer. “Ready to go?” he asked over the chatter of the children. She wasn’t sure when he’d done it, but he had the baby, basket and all, tucked beneath his arm.
She nodded and managed to say, “It was nice to meet you,” to the Ryland clan.
“Social Services will probably be by your place first thing in the morning,” Mason told them. “You’re sure you don’t want her to stay with one of the nannies tonight?”
Sawyer shook his head. “The nannies and the rest of you have your hands full. But I’ll need a vehicle with an infant seat. Is th
ere one out back?”
“Several,” Gage verified. “The keys are in the mudroom. Pick one with a pink key chain.” He shrugged when Sawyer and Cassidy stared at him. “Hey, with this many kids, you gotta keep things simple.”
Sawyer smiled, shook his head and brushed a kiss on Abbie’s cheek before he ushered Cassidy out of the chaos and back into the hall.
“You okay?” he asked her.
She nodded, but it was a lie. “I’m worried about tomorrow.” First, though, she had to get through the night.
“Yeah.” And that’s all he said. It seemed to be enough, especially considering she’d just witnessed how important family was to him. Still, Bennie wasn’t just her family. He was more like her own son.
When they reached the mudroom off the kitchen, she spotted the key rack near the door, and there were indeed two sets with a pink plastic key ring. Sawyer plucked one, opened the door and clicked the keypad. The lights on a dark green SUV came on, and they hurried to it. It had finally stopped raining, but there was a cool mist in the air, so it was best to get the baby inside.
She watched as Sawyer moved the baby from the basket to the car seat. “I’ve gotten good at this,” he mumbled when he caught her staring at him.
Yes, he had, and somehow it didn’t hurt his bad-boy image.
Sawyer took a narrow dirt-and-gravel road that led away from the main house. They passed several other houses, some barns and plenty of pasture before she spotted his place. He hadn’t exaggerated when he’d said it was on the back part of the ranch. Sawyer had to go through a cattle gate to reach the one-story white limestone house.
“The place didn’t used to be part of the Silver Creek Ranch,” he told her. “But after I moved back two years ago, my uncle Boone repositioned the fence to include my house.”
“Does that mean there’s a security system?” she asked.
He nodded. “Both inside and out. There are sensors on the fence that’ll trigger an alarm if anyone tries to get to the house by cutting through the woods.”
Good. She wanted all the precautions they could take, especially since the baby was with them.
Sawyer didn’t waste any time getting them into the house, but the movement woke the baby. The moment he set the basket on the kitchen table, she started to cry. Not a loud wail but rather soft, kittenlike sounds. Still, it was more than enough to get their attention. Cassidy was ready to scoop her up, but the baby closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
Cassidy’s shoulders dropped. She was far from a pro at baby holding, but it would have given her suddenly restless hands and mind something to do.
Other than worry about her brother.
Sawyer used the keypad by the door to set the security system, and he tipped his head to the fridge. “Help yourself. I know you must be hungry.”
She wasn’t. Her stomach was still in knots.
“This way to the guest room.” He picked up the basket, and they moved toward the side of the house. “I’m here,” he said, pointing to one bedroom. “You’re there.”
There in this case was directly across the hall from his room. That sent some heat running through her, but the heat cooled when she looked at the baby.
“What about Emma?” she asked.
He lifted an eyebrow, probably at the easy use of the name that Kimmie had given her, but it was better than just calling her “the baby.”
“I’ll put the basket on the cedar chest at the foot of my bed. I’m guessing she...Emma,” he corrected, “will wake up at least a couple of times. So, if you want to get some rest, you’ll have to close the door.”
“I’ll be fine,” Cassidy settled for saying. And she’d keep the door open. Not just so she could hear and maybe help with the baby but because she wanted to know if someone tried to break in.
Sawyer studied her a moment, frowned. “You don’t look fine. Your nerves are showing.”
Until he said that, Cassidy had thought she’d been keeping those nerves at bay. Well, almost. But his words brought them right back to the surface. “I’m worried about Bennie. About tomorrow.” Her voice cracked, causing her to silently curse.
Tears and a shaky voice weren’t going to help, but she couldn’t seem to stop, either.
“It’s part of the adrenaline crash,” Sawyer supplied, and he eased the basket onto the cedar chest. “A hot shower might help.”
She nodded but didn’t move. “I have the ransom money waiting at the bank, but maybe I should have brought it here. Just in case they give us a short window for delivering the money.”
He walked to her, huffed. “Us, again? I’m going to try hard to make sure there is no us for the money drop.”
“That didn’t work out so well last time.” She’d meant to sound tough, but her quivery voice told a different story.
“It’ll work this time,” he said with complete assurance. It was probably wishful thinking at best and a lie at worst, but Cassidy decided to accept it.
For now anyway.
He reached out as if he might touch her but then drew back his hand. “Probably not a good idea,” he mumbled.
It wasn’t.
Still, that didn’t stop him from running his hand down her arm. It was a friendly soothing gesture, and she was surprised how much it helped with those unsteady nerves.
“I’ll take that shower now,” she said. But Cassidy didn’t move.
She stood there, her gaze connected with Sawyer’s, and his hand on her arm. A dozen things went through her mind, including an attempt to convince him once more that she hadn’t slept with him to get info about his investigation into her brother. However, she doubted she’d ever convince him of that.
Then Cassidy saw it. The fire burning in his sizzling blue eyes. And she also saw that he was as disgusted with it as he was with her. But despite the fierce battle in those eyes, she also saw it was a battle he was losing.
Oh, no.
He couldn’t lose. Not with stakes this high. And Cassidy was certain she had no willpower to resist anything he doled out.
Cursing her, then cursing himself, Sawyer leaned in and brushed his mouth over hers. She expected it to stop there, that just the brief touch would bring him back to his senses, but it didn’t. After more profanity, he caught her around the waist, yanked her to him and kissed her.
Really kissed her.
There was no way this was just to comfort her. Good thing, too, because it was anything but comforting. Sawyer’s mouth moved over hers, fanning that fire even hotter when he deepened the kiss.
Yes! went through her head.
Along with all the sensations going through her body.
The heat. The pleasure. Especially that. The taste of him. Soon, very soon, Cassidy was doing some kiss-deepening of her own. Touching, too, with her body pressed against his. There was just one problem—a mere kiss wasn’t going to get her close enough to him to satisfy the ache he’d already built inside her.
Sawyer pulled back so fast that Cassidy had to catch onto him to stop herself from falling. “Sorry,” she mumbled at the same time he cursed himself again.
“You should take that shower,” he snapped.
And this time she not only agreed, she turned to go into the guest room. However, she only made it a step before Sawyer’s phone rang. The sound shot through the room, and despite Emma sleeping through all the kids’ noise at the main house, the phone woke her and she began to cry.
Cassidy moved past Sawyer to scoop up the baby. Not that she knew what she was doing, but Cassidy tried rocking her while she also tried to listen in on Sawyer’s conversation. Thankfully, he made it easier for her by putting it on speaker. The moment she heard the caller’s voice, she knew it was Grayson.
Which meant this could be news about Bennie.
“We got the
blood test results,” Grayson said, and it took her a moment to realize this call was about Emma not her brother. “The lab can’t tell paternity from blood type, but they can rule people out. Like Willy, for example. No way could he have fathered the baby.”
“But?” Sawyer asked when Grayson didn’t continue.
“But we can’t eliminate April as the baby’s mother. And we can’t rule you out, Sawyer. The baby could be yours.”
Chapter Seven
Sawyer sipped his coffee and tried to work. But what he ended up doing was studying the baby.
Again.
Something he’d been doing most of his waking hours. She was in her basket, sleeping after her 6:00 a.m. bottle, and even though he’d put her on her side as his cousins had instructed him to do, he still had a pretty good angle of her face.
Was she really his daughter?
He didn’t have an answer for that yet, but he hoped to have one soon. It had taken several emails and phone calls before he had been able to figure out the name of the woman he’d slept with nearly a year ago.
Monica Barnes.
He wasn’t proud of himself for not being able to recall that, not proud of having one-night stands, either, but now that he knew her name, he had gotten her number and tried to talk to her. There had been no answer, but Sawyer had left her a voice mail saying she needed to contact him ASAP. He’d also sent her an email.
So, soon, he should know if Emma was his.
Sawyer heard the hurried footsteps in the hall, and several moments later Cassidy came into the kitchen. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a top that one of his cousins had sent over for her. The clothes didn’t fit her that well, and with her bedroom hair, she definitely didn’t look her usual polished and pampered self.
“Anything from the kidnappers?” she immediately asked.
But Sawyer had to shake his head. “It’s early. They’ll call.”
Her nerves were showing again, but this time Sawyer didn’t go to her. That kiss the night before had been a huge mistake, and the way to make sure it didn’t happen again was for him to keep his distance.
Sawyer Page 6
