The Rancher and the Baby

by Marie Ferrarella

  She knew what he was saying was right, but facts were facts, and Jake Laredo had indeed come into the office and dictated his will. Not a word had been changed.

  “Some people have a change of heart when they know they’re dying,” she told him.

  Will laughed shortly. For as far back as he could remember, there had never been any love lost between his father and him. For some reason, his father always blamed him for his mother leaving. It was easier that way than to blame himself.

  “To have a change of heart, the old man would have had to have one,” Will told her. He kept his eyes on the road, not trusting himself to look at her. He didn’t want her glimpsing what he was trying to bury. “That man was as cold-blooded as they came.” He paused, then added, “I never blamed my mother for running off.”

  “Not for running off,” Cassidy agreed. “But she should have taken you with her, not left you behind.”

  All that had happened years ago. He’d been only seven at the time. He remembered crying himself to sleep for weeks. That was something he’d never shared with anyone. “Wanted to be rid of me even then, is that it?”

  “Hey, you were always giving me a hard time,” she reminded him, playing along for the moment. “But for the record, I meant that if she knew your father was such a mean-spirited son of gun, she shouldn’t have left you. Your mother should have tried everything she possibly could to take you with her. Mothers have a responsibility to look after their children’s welfare.”

  Damn, she hadn’t meant to sound as if she was preaching. If he was okay with what had happened, then who was she to rail against it? She had no stake in this. But even so, she couldn’t help feeling for the boy Laredo had once been, abandoned by his mother and mistreated by his father. It had been a hard fate.

  Will deliberately shifted the conversation away from himself. “Think that’s what Adam’s mother was trying to do?” he asked. “Putting him into that pink tub to save his life?”

  Cassidy didn’t doubt it for a second. “It did the trick, so I guess the answer to that is yes.” The alternative to that was that Adam had been abandoned, but as far as she could see, that was highly doubtful. “It’s not like she—if it was his mother—had exactly planned all this. That flash flood today came out of nowhere. The forecast I heard was for rain, not sudden storms and flash floods.”

  She paused for a moment, then, because her conscience goaded her, she forced herself to stumble through an apology. She was totally unaccustomed to rendering one unless absolutely necessary, and while she had no problem when it came to slicing Will Laredo down to size, bringing up painful memories of his less than happy childhood was in her estimation a low blow. She hadn’t meant to remind him of it.

  The childhood she and her brothers had shared was by no means a happy-go-lucky one. She’d never known her mother, and she and her brothers had had to work long and hard for everything they had, but there was always love in the family. That was something she knew that Will never had in his.

  It was also why, she knew, that he’d always been so drawn to her own family. While her father had been alive, he’d treated Will with respect and decency—and her brothers regarded him as one of them. They never clashed with Laredo the way she always did. But even that had come out of a sense of competition that existed between her brothers and her. In a way, she’d regarded Will as another brother herself.

  “Look, I didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories,” she told him, trying to find the right words to convey that she’d made a mistake and for that, for dredging up any painful memories, she was sorry.

  Will shrugged. “Don’t worry about it,” he told her in a completely dismissive tone. It irritated her, but she knew why he sounded like that. In his place, she had to admit that she would have spoken the same way. Vulnerability was not something either one of them really owned up to.

  “There’s your truck.” He pointed to the vehicle just up ahead.

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “At least it didn’t wash away,” she murmured.

  The truck had been secondhand when she’d gotten it, but it got her to and from town, which was all that really mattered. Someday she would get a new truck. Maybe even a new sedan instead. Trucks were far more practical given the terrain, but she had to admit she found a sleek sedan very appealing.

  But all that was a long way away. First she had to get her final degree and join Olivia’s firm in earnest, as an associate, not just an intern.

  Will pulled up right behind her truck. Cassidy lost no time in getting out.

  “Thanks,” she tossed over her shoulder as she went to the driver’s side of her less than pristine vehicle. If anything, the rain seemed to have made it dirtier, not cleaner.

  Opening the door, she was about to get in when she realized that Will hadn’t pulled out the way she’d expected him to. She’d taken up almost half his day. What was he waiting for?

  “Something wrong?” she asked.

  He inclined his head. “That’s what I’m waiting to find out.”

  That made no sense to her, and her expression indicated as much. “Just what is that supposed to mean?”

  He put it into plain English for her. “I thought I’d wait to see if your truck started up again.”

  “Why shouldn’t it?” she asked suspiciously. What did he know that she didn’t? Had he done something to her truck before diving in to help her save Adam?

  “’Cause your truck is over twelve years old, and you can never tell with these old trucks. I just don’t want to have you on my conscience if you wind up being stranded out here after I leave.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she regarded him. “Since when did you develop a conscience?” she asked.

  “I’ve always had one,” he informed her. “You were just too busy trying to find new ways to torment me to ever notice.”

  “As I recall, you were the one trying to torment me.”

  “Cassidy...” There was a warning note in his voice.

  “Yes?”

  He couldn’t tell if she was getting ready to go another round with him or just waiting for him to go on talking. He waved at the vehicle up ahead. “Just start the damn truck.”

  “Since you put it so sweetly,” she said, swinging into the driver’s seat.

  The next moment, Cassidy put the key into the ignition and turned it. The truck seemed to sputter once, then again. On the third try, the engine finally turned over and the truck came to life.

  She turned to tell him he could go home now and saw that he was already doing just that. Will was backing up his truck and then turned it around, heading, she assumed, to his own ranch.

  Cassidy gunned her engine and tore out.

  * * *

  SHE LEFT FOR town early the next morning. Cassidy felt she had a stop to make before she went into work. She was heading for Miss Joan’s.

  Miss Joan’s Diner was the only restaurant in Forever. It had been that way as far back as any of the local residents could remember. The woman who ran the place was not a local herself, but it seemed as if she had been running the diner for as long as there had been a diner to run. As far as the town was concerned, both were beloved fixtures.

  “Want you to meet someone,” Cassidy told the baby as she took him, along with the car seat she’d borrowed, out of the backseat of her vehicle.

  The tall, thin, redheaded woman, who always seemed to be somewhere within the diner, was looking in her direction when Cassidy walked in.

  There were times, like now, Cassidy thought, that Miss Joan’s hazel eyes seemed to look into a person’s very soul.

  The moment she walked into the diner, Miss Joan beckoned her over to the counter. She was looking directly at the baby.

  “Is that the baby you and the Laredo boy rescued?” Miss Joan asked.

  There were times
when the woman took her breath away. It was obvious that Miss Joan already had the answer to the question she asked, but Cassidy said, “Yes,” just to be polite.

  She’d gotten the car seat that Adam was in from Cody. Her brother had an extra one, thanks to the baby shower that Miss Joan had thrown for his wife. Miss Joan could always be counted on to come through in any emergency. Right now, Cassidy was hoping the woman could come through with some information, as well.

  Cassidy put the baby and the car seat on the counter so that Miss Joan could get a better look at the boy.

  “Looks pretty healthy for someone who’d gone through the kind of ordeal he just did.” And then she raised her eyes to Cassidy’s and told her, “No, I don’t recognize him.”

  Cassidy could only stare at the older woman. This was unnerving, even for Miss Joan. “How did you know I was going to ask you that?”

  “Why else would you bring him here this early? Unless you were hoping one of the girls could watch him for you,” she suggested. “We’re not busy right now, so if you’d like to drop him off for a few hours...”

  But Cassidy shook her head. She wasn’t about to impose on Miss Joan like that unless she had no other option. “No, that’s very generous of you, but I just—”

  “Hell, I’m not being generous, girl. Don’t you know everybody likes seeing a cute baby? Customers’ll stick around a little longer, eat a little more while they’re here, just to look at him. Only makes good business sense to have the kid around,” Miss Joan told her matter-of-factly.

  Cassidy merely nodded. She knew better than to argue with the woman. She also knew that Miss Joan enjoyed playing the part of a “tough old broad,” as she liked to refer to herself on occasion. But everyone in town knew that the woman had a heart of gold, and anyone in trouble could always rely on her to come through.

  They also knew better than to thank Miss Joan profusely for her help. She and her brothers would forever be indebted to the woman for being their surly guardian angel in more than half a dozen different ways when their father died suddenly. Even with Connor taking over as their guardian, they were faced with some really hard times. Miss Joan always found jobs for them to do, playing the hard taskmaster. She always made sure that they were never hungry.

  Cassidy had no idea how they would have been able to make it without the woman’s help.

  “I’ll keep your offer in mind,” she told Miss Joan. “But I’m going to take him with me this morning.” Despite Miss Joan’s statement that she didn’t recognize the boy, Cassidy looked at her hopefully. “I was just hoping that maybe you recognized him so that the sheriff and Cody could try to find his mother.”

  Miss Joan shook her head. “Don’t know who she is, but I’ll have my girls ask around,” she promised Cassidy. She paused to look down at the baby again. “Can’t see somebody not recognizing that face once they’ve seen it.” She leaned closer to the baby. “We’ll find your mama for you, little man.”

  One of the waitresses approached Miss Joan, leaving a small bag, neatly folded on the top, in front of her on the counter. Miss Joan, in turn, pushed the bag toward Cassidy.

  Cassidy didn’t take the bag immediately. Instead, she asked, “What’s that?”

  “That’s for you,” Miss Joan replied brusquely. Her manner silently indicated, Who else would it be for?

  “But I didn’t order anything,” Cassidy politely pointed out.

  Miss Joan’s thin eyebrows narrowed over her nose. “I didn’t say you did, did I? You haven’t changed a bit since you were a little girl. Always arguing. You better hope that he’s not like that,” Miss Joan told her, nodding at the little boy.

  “Won’t matter one way or another,” Cassidy replied. “He’s either going with his mother when we find her, or if she doesn’t turn up, I guess that social services’ll take him.”

  “Is that the same social services your big brother worked himself to the bone to keep you, Cody and Cole away from?” Miss Joan asked pointedly, already aware of the answer to that question, as well.

  That was a sharp jab to her conscience, Cassidy thought. But then, Miss Joan had never been one to pull her punches.

  Picking up the car seat, Cassidy reached for the paper bag that Miss Joan had had prepared for her. She made no effort to answer the rhetorical question that had been put to her.

  Instead, she nodded at Miss Joan. “Thanks for the coffee and whatever else is in here,” she said as she began to leave.

  “Could just be your conscience,” Miss Joan said, addressing the back of her head as Cassidy made her way across the diner to the front door.

  The woman still knew how to deliver a well-aimed remark to skewer her, Cassidy thought as she made her way back out to the street.

  “And that,” she told Adam as she brought him to her truck and secured his car seat to the restraints that were built into the truck, “for future reference, is Miss Joan. Don’t let her scowl scare you. Woman’s got a heart of gold. You just have to mine through a lot of hard rock to get to it. But it’s well worth the effort.” She checked the ties to make sure they held. “Okay, next stop, reality,” she quipped.

  Cassidy started her truck and headed off to the law office.

  Chapter Nine

  “Well, I must say, the clients seem to be getting younger and younger these days,” Olivia commented when she saw Cassidy walking in with Adam. Crossing to her, Olivia took a closer look at the baby. “This isn’t Cody’s little girl, is it? As a matter of fact, it’s not a little girl at all.” Olivia looked at her intern, her curiosity aroused. “Cassidy, whose little boy is this?”

  For the moment, because it felt as if the baby was getting heavier by the second, Cassidy placed the car seat on the floor next to the chair in front of Olivia’s desk. “That’s just the problem—we don’t know.”

  “We?” Olivia questioned.

  “She means her and Will Laredo,” Cash Taylor told his partner as he walked in on the exchange. Surprised, he looked at Olivia. “You mean that you haven’t heard?” he asked.

  “I had my hands full last night with a couple of kids who were convinced we were all going to float away at any minute—and Rick didn’t get home until late, which just made things worse in their minds. When he did get home, he fell into bed, face-first. He was up and gone again before I was awake.” Olivia shook her head. Being a sheriff’s wife took a great deal of understanding and patience. “The storm did a lot of damage at the south end of town.” Olivia looked from her partner to their intern. “Heard what?”

  Cash answered before Cassidy could say anything. “We’re in the presence of a hero—or at least one of them,” he amended. Cash willingly filled in the details as he had heard them related by his stepgrandmother, Miss Joan.

  “Seems that our intern here saw this little guy smack in the middle of what used to be the creek that runs by the Laredo place, being swept away. Miss Joan said she’d heard he was in some kind of a plastic container. Cassidy dove in to save him.”

  “How does Will Laredo fit into all this?” Olivia asked.

  “Story is that he dove in to save Cassidy saving the baby,” Cash replied.

  “I would have been fine,” Cassidy protested for what felt like the hundredth time. And then she shrugged. “But Laredo likes taking charge of things.”

  “Those kinds of things can get ugly really fast,” Cash said. “Maybe it was a lucky thing that Will was there.”

  Cassidy couldn’t bring herself to agree outright. The closest she could come was to vaguely echo the word Cash had just used.

  “Maybe,” she allowed. “All I know was that I had the baby and I was heading for the bank when Laredo grabbed us both from behind, so I’ll never really know if I needed his help or not.” She conveniently left out the part where her arms felt like lead right about that time.

&nb
sp; In her opinion, that was enough talk about Laredo. She had something more pressing on her mind right now. Since the firm had been initially started by Olivia, she felt it only right to put the question to the woman regarding the baby. “Is it all right if I have him stay here today? I know I should have called and asked you first, but—”

  Olivia nodded knowingly. “But it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission, right?” Not waiting for an answer, Olivia crouched beside the car seat and smiled. The baby returned her smile by looking at her with wide, wide eyes. “I think we can set something up to keep this little guy happy and out of the way.” For a moment, Olivia watched as the baby seemed content to play with his toes. Rising to her feet, she commented wistfully, “This really takes me back.”

  “Thinking of having another one?” Cash asked her, amused.

  “Thinking of borrowing one on occasion, maybe,” Olivia corrected her partner. “I’ve had my share of diapers and staying up all night just to come into the office the next morning so groggy and beat that I could hardly sit up in my chair.”

  Cassidy thought of last night. She’d kept the baby in her room, not wanting to disturb Connor or Cole, but as it turned out, she needn’t have worried.

  “I guess that Adam must be ahead of the game because for the most part, he slept all through the night.”

  “Adam?” Olivia questioned.

  “The baby,” Cassidy explained, realizing that she hadn’t used the name before.

  “How do you know his name?” Olivia asked.

  “I don’t,” Cassidy confessed. “But we felt we had to call him something until we could find his family, and ‘Adam’ seemed like the logical choice.” She paused and then felt somewhat obligated to add, “It was Laredo’s choice.”

  “Adam,” Cash repeated in his resonant voice. The baby stopped playing with his toes and looked in the lawyer’s direction. “How about that? He seems to respond to the name.” Cash grinned at her. “You and Will might be on to something.”