by Mary Leo
Jet had forgotten all about their date. He’d promised to be at Coco’s apartment in plenty of time, and he was already running late for both her date and dropping off Lily.
“I won’t tell anybody if you admit the truth.”
“Nothing happened, and even if it did, which it did not, it’s nobody’s business.”
“Tell that to Russ Knightly. I hear he’s the jealous type.”
Jet thought about Russ’s likely lip-lock with that blonde bombshell over in Jackson Hole. “Maybe so, but he’s got nothing to be jealous about between me and his girl, Coco.”
“On a first-name basis, huh?”
“I’m going.” He secured his hat on his head, grabbed his down parka off the hook and quickly slipped it on.
“Wait!” Nash said from behind Jet. “You forgot the letter.”
“What letter?” Jet asked, turning as he opened the front door. An icy wind slammed against his body, causing him to instantly shiver with its force.
“The one I told you about earlier. The one I found shoved under the door this morning when I came in.” Nash hustled over to Jet’s desk, retrieved the letter, walked it over and held it out for Jet. As soon as Jet looked at it, he recognized the scratchy writing on the front: Dani Century. What could she want?
* * *
ASIDE FROM ALL the fuss that afternoon over baby Lily, it had been a relatively calm day for Doctor Grant. No emergency out on a ranch was too dire that she couldn’t handle it over the phone, and nothing required her to have to consider driving anywhere to take care of an injured animal. She was grateful for that much.
Besides, she’d liked spending the day with Lily, surrounded with people who wanted to do well by her. Despite the speculation, and the gossip, the residents of Briggs had big hearts, as made apparent by all the clothes, toys and baby supplies scattered around her apartment.
All her orphaned animals had been fed, and their cages cleaned out, thanks to Drew’s help. Coco had treated two dogs with bladder infections, prescribed medication for ear mites for three house cats and given yearly booster shots to two golden retrievers whose owners were determined to keep their pets on schedule, despite the weather. Coco didn’t know what she would do without Drew to lean on. Drew had somehow managed to keep Coco’s patients happy regardless of all the baby chaos.
Once again Coco had slipped into a provocative cocktail dress. This time she wore red lace with three-inch red velvet heels. Not quite as sexy as the previous night’s ensemble, but it still clung to all the right places. She and Russ would be attending a dinner and dancing gala for all the business owners in Briggs, at Pauline’s Inn on the edge of town. The roads were now somewhat cleared, so there shouldn’t be a problem for the partygoers. A car would pick Coco up at eight, and whisk her and Russ to the event, and they would finish what they’d started the previous night. She’d worn her finest black lingerie for the occasion, and intended to end the evening with the sexy love affair they had begun the previous night, only this time, it would be at Russ’s estate.
The problem was, she couldn’t get Jet Wilson out of her head. Everything about him sent her heart racing and her skin tingling. He’d made her feel safe and relaxed, as if no matter what happened around her, he would handle it. He’d amazed her with his tenderness for Lily, and how adept he was with fulfilling all her needs. And even when Lily awoke in the middle of the night, he didn’t shy away. Instead he was right there helping to make sure that whatever was bothering her could be resolved.
The man was simply too surprising to ignore.
Plus, the fact that she was giving up Lily really put a damper on her emotions. Getting out with Russ to a fancy event could only help put her in a better mood...but so far, she wasn’t feeling it.
“You’re kidding, right?” Drew said as she held Lily on her shoulder and walked her around the room with Punky following close behind, making sure the area was clear of any possible danger. Lily had been fussy while Coco was getting dressed, so she’d asked Drew for some help, which she seemed more than happy to give. “You’re going out with Russ tonight? All of this—” she nodded her head and gave Coco the once-over “—is for Russ Knightly?”
Coco stood next to the dining room table, folding baby clothes into a pile, then placing them into a large paper bag with handles.
“He’s the man that I’m dating, so yes, it’s for Russ.”
“And here I thought it was for the sheriff. Don’t you like Sheriff Wilson?”
“He’s bullheaded and a stickler for the law.”
Drew rolled her big doe eyes, thick dark lashes only adding to the exaggerated reaction. “Um, duh. He’s the sheriff.”
“I’m aware of his job title, but you also know how many citations he’s given me this past year, and how many fines I’ve had to pay. The man has no heart.”
Not exactly true, especially in light of the previous night, but the more she thought about the sheriff, the more she realized last night may have simply been an anomaly brought on by extreme circumstances. Focusing on Sheriff Wilson’s past aggressions seemed to help clear him from her heart.
That had always been her problem when it came to men. She couldn’t see them for who they really were in the midst of being wooed by them...not that the sheriff was in any way wooing her...or was he?
Had last night been an elaborate scheme to win her affections so she’d let her guard down? But to what end? By all indications, he didn’t like anything about her, especially her determination not to turn away stray barn animals when she knew they were outlawed within city limits.
“Maybe not for goats and pigs, but he sure does have a big heart when it comes to babies.”
“That’s beside the point. I deal in livestock and house pets, not babies, and if he’s going to be my friend, he has to give me a break every now and then.”
“So you’re mad at him because last night he gave you a fine for your current menagerie?”
Coco wanted to tell her that she’d gotten a huge fine that would set her back a few months, but she hadn’t gotten one. “Not exactly.”
“I don’t know what that means. Either he gave you a citation or he didn’t.”
Drew had a way of seeing things with extreme clarity, a trait Coco admired...most of the time.
“He did not give me a citation, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about it. We were snowbound. What could I do about any of the animals then?”
Her face lit up, as if she’d stumbled onto the meaning of life. “So he bent the rules?”
“Kind of.”
“More than just kind of. He could’ve still slapped you with a large fine, but he didn’t. This says a lot.”
Drew was jumping to conclusions that weren’t grounded in anything other than wishful thinking. Truth be told, Coco knew that Drew wasn’t a fan of Russ Knightly, either as a person or as a prospective mayor. Coco continually tried to change her mind, but so far all attempts had fallen on deaf ears.
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Yes, it does. It says that he’s warming up to you. That he likes you. That he’s willing to ignore his ethics for you. This is huge! I think you should cancel your date with Russ, and instead, when Sheriff Wilson shows up, you should invite him in for dinner before he takes baby Lily to wherever he has to take her. Besides, I know you’re in no hurry to let this little sweetheart go.”
With much care, Drew sat down on the sofa and moved Lily to her lap, laying her in the center of her legs so her tiny head was cradled between Drew’s knees and her tiny feet rested against Drew’s stomach. A position Lily seemed to love, and a position Coco had adopted for most of the day, both while everyone was there and once they’d left.
Punky jumped up and sat on the arm of the sofa...a perfect vantage point from which to guard the apartment.
The apartment, although rather large, could barely contain all the baby supplies that had been given to Coco for Lily. She only hoped everything would fit into Jet’s SUV and they could donate it to Child Welfare when the time came.
That was if Sheriff Wilson was still planning on going through with his plan. She hadn’t heard from him all day, and hadn’t wanted to call him for fear he might come and take Lily sooner rather than later. But now it was getting late, and if the sheriff didn’t show up in the next fifteen minutes, Coco was contemplating leaving Drew here to deal with him and with Lily.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Certainly, I’m ready to let Lily go,” Coco said, but in the same breath, she realized how sad she would be once Lily was out of her life.
She suddenly felt as if Lily understood her, especially when she let out a little series of complaints. Coco went over and sat down next to Drew, and she stroked Lily’s perfect silky head. “Okay, yes, it’s hard to let her go...extremely hard, but there’s nothing I can do about it. She’s not mine to keep, but I’m sure she’ll be in good hands. Someone will take her into their heart very soon. I’m sure there are hundreds of wonderful people waiting to adopt a lovely baby like Lily. And no way do I want to make dinner for the sheriff. That would bring on way too many complications.”
Although now that she thought of it, she would love to spend another night with Jet and Lily. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so at ease with a situation as she had last night, but she would never admit that to Drew or the entire town would have them engaged by morning.
“What kind of complications? That you actually like him? Which I can tell that you do. Every time you mention his name your face lights up.”
Coco abruptly stood. “That’s just my new dewy makeup. It’s supposed to make my face glow.”
“Whatever you say.” Drew checked her phone for the umpteenth time. “Isn’t the sheriff cutting it close? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”
Drew was right. The sheriff was way overdue. Coco banked on her contingency plan.
“I was hoping you could stay with Lily until he gets here.”
“I would love to, but I’m supposed to meet up with some friends in a half hour. We’re going ice-skating at Skaits. The pond is open despite all the snow, and afterward, I’m meeting Nash for hot cocoa at Holy Rollers. Matter of fact—” she picked up Lily and handed her to Coco “—I have to leave now if I’m going to have enough time to walk over there.”
“You’re meeting the deputy sheriff? This is the third time in the last couple of weeks.”
“I know a good guy when I see him, unlike someone else I’m best friends with.”
But before Coco could put up any resistance, Drew had grabbed her coat and dashed down the stairs in less time than it took for Coco to adjust Lily in her arms. Punky barked in defiance, and suddenly, Coco was once again alone with baby Lily, the child who was stealing her heart.
* * *
SHERIFF JET WILSON’S phone buzzed once again as he sat in his SUV parked across the street from Coco’s place. He’d been sitting there for the past hour, in the cold, trying to wrap his head around what had to be the single most confusing news he’d ever gotten in his entire life. He’d wanted to go in and discuss it with Coco, who had called him at least four times in the past half hour, but he’d seen Drew up in her apartment through the windows and he didn’t want to discuss anything either on the phone or in person while she was around. Not that he couldn’t have simply asked her to leave, but that act alone would have spun some gossip, and frankly, he didn’t need any more tongues wagging.
He watched as Drew exited out onto the front porch and then walked up the sidewalk to her house.
The coast was now clear.
Still, he hesitated.
He kept reading the letter over and over, not wanting to believe it, not wanting to accept it, not knowing how to accept it.
...Lily is your daughter. I thought I could keep her and move on, but I’ve met someone and I can’t look after a baby anymore...
When he’d first read those two sentences, he thought maybe he’d gotten the wrong letter, that perhaps it was meant for someone else...surely not for him.
Then when he read the name on the envelope again, and again, he knew Dani had written it for him. But it simply couldn’t be true.
The thing was, he knew for a fact they’d never had unprotected sex, so unless Dani had purposely sabotaged one of the condoms, which he wouldn’t put completely past her, or one of them was defective, which occasionally happened, Lily could not be his.
Or so he wanted desperately to believe.
He couldn’t be a father. Not with his job, the state of his finances, his wacky sleep schedule. Heck, he didn’t even have a place to live. And what of the townsfolk? They’d eat this stuff up and probably portray him as the bad guy. The dad was always the bad guy in these kinds of things.
At first he was angry over the letter. Why hadn’t Dani confronted him in person? What kind of a mother left their baby on a cold, windy porch when the father, or who she thought was the father, lived right there in town?
But sometime during the past fifteen minutes, his attitude changed. He decided that Dani was lying, that the odds of him being the father were next to impossible. Besides, there was some doubt that she was loyal to him during the time they’d dated. He would proceed with his plans of dropping Lily off with Marsha Oberlin. He’d already called to tell her he would be late, and she was fine with it.
He felt certain that a loving family would adopt Lily. That there were probably three or four families right now waiting for her—all he had to do was drop her off with Ms. Oberlin.
Still, his mind raced with various scenarios, where Lily didn’t get adopted and, just like him, she had to grow up in foster care.
And what if Dani was telling the truth? What if he was Lily’s dad? How could he allow his own daughter to go into foster care? He exited his SUV just as a shiny black luxury vehicle pulled up in front of Coco’s clinic. Jet knew it belonged to Russ from the custom license plate: NITE-HWK. When another man got out and walked over and rang Coco’s bell, Jet knew Russ must have sent his driver to pick her up.
Undaunted, Jet made his way to the clinic just as Coco’s apartment door opened. He quickly ascended the three steps to the front porch.
“Cutting it close,” Coco told him as he stood behind Russ’s driver, a short man with glasses, dressed in a black suit, trying to look official. “I called you several times, but you never picked up.”
“You can wait in the car,” Jet told the driver, who now turned, revealing a small gold name tag pinned to his jacket pocket. Jet caught the name. “Peter...Doctor Grant will be down in a few minutes.”
But Peter didn’t move until Coco assured him that it would be okay. “Give me about ten minutes to pass baby Lily over to the sheriff.”
Peter nodded and went back to his SUV, turning over the engine, undoubtedly wanting to keep warm.
“Is Lily ready?” Jet asked as he forged his way through the open doorway. Coco, he noted right away, was wearing a lethal dress under her open coat.
He wanted this thing over with as soon as possible so everyone could get back to their separate lives.
“Yes, she just fell asleep. I put her in the car seat Amanda donated. It’s for an infant, so she fits perfectly.”
“Great,” Jet told her, realizing he’d forgotten all about picking up a car seat. The letter had so thrown him that it was all he could do to concentrate on driving over to Coco’s clinic, much less think about getting more baby supplies along the way.
As they got farther into the apartment, aside from Punky greeting him with a frantic tail wag and jumping in front of him until he gave the tiny dog a nod of recognition and a couple hardy scratches under his ears, he couldn’t help but acknowledge t
he place looked like a warehouse for baby stuff.
“What happened here?” he asked looking around at the clothes, toys and other gear for infants.
“Drew told a few people, and they told more folks, and before I knew it, half the town stopped by to donate to Lily.”
“Don’t they know that she’s not staying?”
“I tried to tell them, but they insisted on Lily having it. If not, they’re hoping the stuff can be donated to a children’s charity.”
“Fair enough, but there’s no time now to search for a good outfit to donate to. I can do it tomorrow probably. For now, I just want Lily, a couple bottles of formula, a change of clothes and some diapers. I won’t be able to take any more than that, and I don’t even know if they’ll let me give them that much.”
He walked over and looked down at Lily, who was fast asleep strapped into the car seat. She seemed so helpless it about ripped out his heart just staring at her, but he told himself it was for the best. He was only doing what he had to do. There was no way he could keep her even if she was his.
“But you know she won’t take any other bottle. You have to tell them about the bottle. I’d hate to have her fuss all night and not eat.”
Coco put a bag together with only the things he asked for. While he waited, he tried not to look at Lily. If he didn’t look at her, he might be able to steel his emotions so that he could go through with this.
Besides, what if Lily was his? What would it change?
Nothing.
This was for the best.
He kept telling himself that over and over, but he didn’t believe it for a moment.
“I will. I promise.”
“And she doesn’t like to sit when you burp her, she likes it best when she’s on your shoulder. Can you tell them that, as well?”
“I think they know how to handle a baby,” he said, but he had no idea who would take care of Lily. He only knew what it had been like when he’d lived with foster parents. Most of them pretended to care for a little while, at least while the representative came to check on things, but for the most part he and any other child was on his or her own.
