Jackpot Baby

by Muriel Jensen

  “Oh, jeez!” he exclaimed, and turned to Shelly with an urgent expression. “Can you hide me?”

  She was taken aback by the question for an instant, then gestured him behind the counter. “Duck down back here. What’s wrong?”

  “You’ll see in a minute,” he whispered.

  He’d just spoken the words when the door flew open and Paula Pratt stood there, her tiny beige Chihuahua clutched against her bosom. It occurred to Shelly that he could smother there if Paula wasn’t careful.

  “Is Jack here?” she asked, remaining in the doorway. “I thought I saw him come this way.”

  All the midmorning regulars—Dean and his cronies, Amanda, who’d come to pick up her mocha, Luke, and Sylvia Rutledge from the beauty shop—pretended interest in their food or the menu, though she caught them glancing up to watch the action.

  Shelly tried to avoid a lie. “Something wrong with Killer?”

  Paula stroked the dog’s trembling head. He always looked to Shelly as though he was in the throes of a convulsion or some eye-bugging thyroid attack. Paula, she guessed, could do that to a person—or a dog.

  “His eyes are cloudy and he’s listless.” She stated those symptoms in a kind of whine. She seemed to Shelly to have different personalities depending on which man she was trying to impress. Bobby, who needed strength in a woman, brought out her efficient handmaiden personality. But Jack, who was all man and then some—except, of course, at the moment as he cowered behind the counter—turned her into a helpless female. “I ran home on my coffee break to bring him in to see Jack.”

  “Isn’t Melinda there?” Shelly asked. “I know she’s new to the vet clinic, but Sean Connery likes her.”

  Paula made a petulant face. “Robert doesn’t like her. None of the guys do.”

  “Well, maybe they’re not being fair. Why don’t you go see for yourself?”

  She sighed. The dog, resting on her bosom, went up and down like a surfer on a wave. “I’ll try again at lunch.” And she stepped back onto the sidewalk and closed the door behind her.

  Jack tried to stand, but Shelly held his head down.

  “Wait,” she said. “She’s standing out front, deciding what to do.”

  “Jack Hartman, you are such a coward,” Amanda teased with a laugh. “Can’t you just tell her you’re not interested?”

  “Have you ever tried to reason with Paula Pratt?” he asked from his crouched position.

  Shelly, watching Paula run across the street to her eggplant PT Cruiser, rapped lightly on his head as a signal that the coast was clear. “Okay. She’s gone.”

  Jack got to his feet with a groan. He looked tired.

  “You’re not dealing with a sleepless baby, too, are you?” Shelly poured him a cup of coffee and reached into the counter-top covered plate for the apple Danish he always had midmorning.

  He went around the counter to take his customary place. “No, just very determined females. Mary Kay Thompson was there to meet me this morning when I opened the clinic. She has this giant marmalade tabby she keeps trying to tell me is Persian. I swear she cut clumps out of his coat to make it look as if he had mange. He’s as healthy as I am, but she’s so…so single she scares me.”

  She patted his shoulder consolingly, grinning at Amanda.

  He rubbed a hand over his eyes, then looked into hers with curiosity. “I heard about you finding a baby in here. What happened? Luke said it was sick.”

  “Actually, he’s only teething,” Shelly replied, placing utensils and a small bowl of butter cubes in front of him.

  “And you’re keeping him?”

  “Just until Pine Run sends a caseworker.” She felt a certain satisfaction, though, knowing she’d opened an account for Max this morning at the savings and loan. Whatever happened to him, he’d eventually have money for an education.

  “So…where is he?”

  “At home with Connor.”

  She knew that was a mistake the moment the words were out of her mouth.

  He raised an eyebrow and glanced at Amanda. “Connor?”

  Amanda came to lean on the counter beside him. She was a column of elegance today in mossy green. “The new pediatrician at the medical clinic. Ask me what he’s doing at her house?”

  Jack was suddenly far more interested in Shelly’s life than his own. “What’s he doing at Shelly’s house?”

  “Helping with the baby,” Amanda replied with a grin at Shelly. “At least, that’s supposed to be the plan. And the plan was supposed to include only one night, but so far it’s stretched to two, and he kissed her yesterday in front of God and everybody, and seems to be sleeping in with the baby this morning, so…”

  Shelly reached behind her for the tall paper cup of mocha she’d been about to add whipped cream to when Jack rushed in. She did that now, put a lid on it and a paper heat collar, then handed it to Amanda.

  “You can go now,” Shelly said with a frown for her friend.

  Amanda smiled. “But it’s so interesting here.”

  Shelly smiled back. “It’ll be even more interesting when we have to call an ambulance for you. ’Bye!”

  Amanda heaved a theatrical sigh. “To think that you used to want my opinion on things. Then Connor came along and I’m cast off like an old worn-out high-top.”

  “Amanda,” Shelly threatened, “if you don’t stop…”

  Amanda headed for the door with a smile for Shelly over her shoulder. “See you. Let me know if you need Dr. Spock’s book, or maybe one on how to get along with a man.” She pulled the door open, then turned to add for Jack, “Get some backbone, Hartman. Tell Paula and Mary Kay they’re not your type.”

  He smiled flatly at her. “Don’t let us keep you, Amanda.”

  She waved and closed the door behind her.

  Jack turned to Shelly. “So the new doc’s caught your fancy?”

  “I don’t have a fancy,” she replied, “and if I did, it would be fleet of foot. What would you do if I wasn’t here every morning to see that you have your morning pastry?”

  He cut a neat square of pasty off with his fork. “Would falling in love mean you couldn’t still run the restaurant? I mean, it’s not like being a priest who doesn’t have a family so he can devote himself completely to God and his job. It’s just a restaurant.”

  She knew he’d meant no offense, but she saw him think twice about that last remark. “Not that it’s just a restaurant. I mean, the whole town knows if you don’t hear the gossip here, it isn’t true. And if you’re missing any piece of information about the town or anyone in it, you’ll find it here. But you do get to have a life, Shelly.”

  She nodded and topped up his coffee. “I know. I guess it’s just that…if I had a life, I’m not sure what I’d do with it.”

  He grinned, his Danish half disposed of while she’d been talking. “We’re millionaires. The world’s full of opportunities we didn’t have before.”

  “Yes. I guess I don’t know where to start. I want to do things for the town, I want to do things for the coffee shop, for my house, for me.” She leaned back against an empty length of work counter and narrowed her focus on him. “What are you going to do with your fortune?”

  He shrugged. “Beats me. I’m waiting for inspiration to strike.”

  “Then why are you harassing me?” she asked, swatting his arm with the towel she held.

  “Habit,” he replied.

  She made a face at him. “I saw the now-famous ‘wolf,”’ Shelly said. “And I think it’s a dog.”

  “Well, why didn’t you catch him for me? He keeps running away from me.”

  “Who wouldn’t?”

  Dan called from the kitchen. “Telephone, Shelly!”

  “You’d better leave me a big tip,” Shelly told Jack as she went into the kitchen to take the call.

  “After that crack?” he shouted after her. “I don’t think so!”

  It was Luke.

  “Caseworker’s on her way,” he said.

&nb
sp; Shelly felt a sudden, urgent rush of emotion. She saw Max’s little face in her mind’s eye, felt his warm body on her shoulder, even heard his screams that could go on forever, and thought desperately that she didn’t want to lose him.

  “Have you found the mother?” she asked.

  “No,” he answered. “Not even a clue so far.”

  “Do you think…” She hesitated, almost afraid to form the thought, to say it aloud. She cleared her throat and rushed the words out. “Do you think they’d let me keep him until you do?”

  “Well…I don’t think so, Shelly. I mean, if you were a relative, they might. But to be a foster home, you have to have interviews, inspections of your home, background checks. They have to be careful about…”

  “Of course.” She didn’t know what she was thinking. They didn’t know her from Adam, and wouldn’t just arbitrarily place an abandoned baby in her care.

  “Where is Max?” Luke asked.

  “He’s home with Connor right now,” she replied, “but why don’t you bring the caseworker to the medical center. I don’t want her to think we were careless with him.”

  “Why would she think that?”

  “Oh, you know. Single woman, single man—even though he is a doctor—sharing a household purportedly for the sake of the baby. It sounds iffy even to me, and I know it isn’t.”

  “Whatever you say. She’s expected to be here by noon.”

  “Okay. I’ll call Connor.”

  CONNOR WASN’T ENTIRELY surprised by how upset Shelly seemed that the caseworker was finally coming to relieve her of the baby. She’d grown a little more comfortable with Max and less fearful of her own inability to cope. No one knew better than he did how affection for a child could change your life.

  He’d met her with Max at the medical center as she’d asked and now watched her pace with the baby as they waited for Luke to appear with the caseworker. Max, who’d been awake much of the morning, now lolled against her shoulder, his little fingers entwined in her hair.

  Nathan Perkins appeared in the doorway. Though only thirty-six, he was prematurely gray with a paternal air that contributed to the confidence he inspired in his patients. While waiting for Shelly, Connor had explained her attachment to the boy over the brief time they’d cared for him. Nathan studied her in concern.

  “They look right together,” he said quietly to Connor. “Seems a shame to take him away from her to put him in a foster home.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  A tinkling bell over the door to the clinic sent Nathan to the waiting room. There was the sound of cordial greetings, then footsteps returning to the examining room.

  Shelly stopped pacing and turned to Connor, her eyes dark with sadness.

  He felt as though he’d been stabbed.

  Luke, with a forced smile, introduced Shelly and Connor to Louise Pearson. She was a no-nonsense-looking woman probably in her fifties with gray hair in a bun and an air of experience. She smiled fractionally as Shelly offered her hand.

  “I’m so sorry it took this long to get here,” the woman said briskly. “Our office is a disaster at the moment, and the weather and the erratic phone service haven’t helped any. It was kind of you to do our job for us, Miss Dupree.”

  “I was happy to, Mrs. Pearson. He’s a very sweet little boy.” Shelly bounced a frantic glance off Connor, then said quickly, “In fact, I asked the sheriff about the possibility of caring for Max until his mother is found.”

  The woman gave her that almost-smile. “I’m sorry, but unless you’re a family member, we can’t do that. Max has to go to a foster home where we’ve screened the parents.”

  “It’s just that Max has a little bit of a fever,” Connor put in quickly, touching a hand to the baby’s face. Thanks to the on-again, off-again effects of teething, Max looked flushed at the moment and was rubbing his eyes and beginning to cry peevishly. “Dr. Perkins and I thought it might be a good idea if Max stayed here for a few days where he’d have some continuity of care. I mean, if he’s just going to go into foster care anyway.”

  “Oh.” The woman put her own hand to the baby’s pink cheek. Max whined dutifully and began to cry. “I didn’t realize he was ill.”

  Shelly began to bounce the baby on her shoulder and walk around the office with him. Connor handed her a small plastic bag with the frozen pacifier inside.

  Max took it into his mouth and quieted, leaning into Shelly’s neck and fisting his hand in her hair.

  “Is it just teething?” Mrs. Pearson asked Connor.

  “It’s the complications of teething,” Connor replied, hoping she’d go for it. “Fever, irritable stomach, sleeplessness.”

  She looked uncertain about whether or not that was sufficient reason to leave him when Nathan weighed in with “Nothing serious at this point, Louise, but Shelly and Connor have learned how to keep him comfortable and that’s important to a baby. And where Max might be disruptive to one of your foster homes, Shelly has nothing else to worry about.”

  Louise Pearson was nobody’s fool. She studied Shelly as she paced back toward her, Max dutifully closing heavy eyelids. “You’re one of the Main Street Millionaires, aren’t you?” she asked. “You have a restaurant.”

  Shelly nodded. “Max loves it there. All the patrons fuss over him.”

  “And when he’s not there,” Connor added, “he’s here at the clinic with me.”

  Nathan put an arm around Connor’s shoulder. “I can vouch for their characters, Louise,” he said. “Connor and I went to medical school together and I invited him here to join me in the clinic. That has to tell you how much I value him as a human being and a doctor. And I’ve known Shelly forever. She’s kind and honest and responsible.”

  Mrs. Pearson looked from one to the other, clearly a woman who wasn’t easily swayed. She turned to Luke. “And what’s your opinion of all this?”

  Luke turned his hat in his hands. “I’m the one who suggested Shelly take care of the baby the night she found him and we couldn’t get through to your office. The doc volunteered to help her.”

  That was a little shy of the truth, but no one was going to correct him.

  The woman finally gave them a brief, serious nod. “All right. I’ll leave him with you, but I’m going to check with you daily on how he’s doing, and the moment he’s free of fever, I have to take him.”

  Shelly nodded with the same gravity, but the moment Mrs. Pearson started for the door, Shelly turned to Connor with a blinding smile. “Thank you,” she mouthed.

  Luke and Nathan followed the caseworker out of the room.

  Shelly breathed a deep sigh of relief. “I know I can’t keep him forever,” she said quietly, “but I felt as though I couldn’t let him go yet.” Her expression grew serious again. “Why should he go to strangers when he seems to be adjusting to me?” She looked into Connor’s eyes and corrected on an even lower note, “To us.”

  He considered that a significant moment. She felt allied to him, connected through the baby. The situation couldn’t last forever so he was going to have to make the best of it.

  “Since you haven’t found a place to stay yet,” she suggested, “why don’t you just stay with me for the week? That is if you want to continue to help with Max.”

  “Sure,” he replied easily, as though that suggestion hadn’t played right into his hands. “I appreciate that.”

  “Okay.” Max was now asleep on her shoulder and she tossed her hair with a new confidence. “I’ll take Max back to the coffee shop with me so you can enjoy the rest of your day off.”

  She turned to leave and found Nathan standing in the doorway. “Thank you,” she said, wrapping an arm around him and kissing his cheek.

  “Happy to help,” he said, touching the baby’s head. “This baby deserves you.”

  He walked her to the front door and opened it for her, Connor following behind.

  “Come to the Cup for dinner!” she called back to Connor.

  �
�I will,” he promised.

  Connor and Nathan stood in the doorway together, watching her walk away.

  “Good woman,” Nathan said.

  “Yeah,” Connor replied.

  “She could restore a man’s faith in womankind.”

  “Yeah.”

  Nathan fixed him with a speaking glance. “You’re going to take advantage of this opportunity, aren’t you?”

  Connor didn’t take his eyes off her until she rounded the corner and was out of sight. He confirmed quietly but emphatically, “Oh, yeah.”

  Chapter Six

  Over the weekend, Shelly began to feel as though she really had a life. She, Connor and Max were a cohesive unit navigating the tricky waters of busy schedules and the needs of a baby. Shelly wondered if Louise Pearson would change her mind about letting them care for the baby if she could see the hoops they had to leap through to meet the demands of their work and still see that the baby was sheltered and cared for at all times. They were like a 20/20 segment on the modern family.

  Shelly could not remember being happier. On Friday afternoon Max played and slept in a playpen Nathan’s wife, Vickie, had brought over that afternoon and helped Shelly set up in the far corner behind the counter. Everyone stopped to coo at him, make faces, talk baby talk. He smiled and laughed all the time.

  The news media was still around, looking for leads on Max’s mother. Shelly was torn between wanting them to find her and hoping the woman was long gone. In any case, they were good for business and she was as courteous and accommodating to them as she was to everyone who visited The Brimming Cup. Though she did serve Harvey Brinkman cold coffee and managed to forget the condiments on his ham and cheese sandwich.

  Connor walked in shortly after six. Shelly was stunned by how handsome he was in a distressed leather jacket over a black turtleneck and slacks. She was busy taking an order but waved at him. While Shelly jotted down the details on how Dean and Finn wanted their steaks prepared, she heard Max’s squeal of delight as Connor went to the playpen and lifted him out.

  As she went back to the kitchen with the order, she pointed Connor to an empty booth in the back.