The Texas Rancher's Vow: The Texas Rancher's VowFound: One Baby

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  He stood, too. “Why? Does that bother you?”

  He followed her down the hall to the kitchen. A home-office space had been built into one wall, with floor-to-ceiling kitchen cabinets on either side. The printer was on the shelf above the desk. She plucked several pages out of the tray and gave him a look of lawyerly calm. “These are highly unusual circumstances.”

  No argument there. Thad shrugged, aware he hadn’t been this affected by a woman in a long time. If ever. “What better way to get to know each other?”

  Her lips curved cynically. “I hope you’re not hitting on me.”

  Was he? “Wouldn’t think of it.” Thad matched her semiamused tone.

  Silence fell between them. Knowing this would all go a lot easier if Michelle were there to help him and their tiny charge, Thad walked back to the living room with her. “Just help me get through the rest of the weekend,” he proposed.

  In his bed, William pushed out his lower lip in indignation and began to whimper once again.

  “Then if I need to hire someone, I’ll do it on Monday morning.” He picked up William and cradled him in his arms. The little guy couldn’t have weighed more than eight pounds and still had the faint redness of skin all newborns had. Yet he already had so much personality. “I don’t want to screw this up. This little guy has already been through enough.” Thad fought the unexpected tightness in his throat, continued in a voice that sounded rusty, even to him. “And since my brother is not acting responsibly…”

  Michelle turned away, but not before Thad thought he saw a glint of empathetic tears in her green eyes. She cleared her throat. “Speaking of Russell, maybe you should try to find whatever it is he signed and make sure those papers state what he thinks they do.”

  “Good point.” Legal jargon could be as confusing as medical terminology. “You want to come over with us, help me search?”

  Surprise mingled briefly with disappointment in her eyes. “You’re taking the baby tonight, then?”

  “I figured I’d keep William at my place tonight since you had him all day.” Thad gazed at Michelle. She looked like she’d just lost her best friend. “You can stay over, too.” The invitation was out before he could think.

  She took it completely the wrong way. The droll expression was back on her face. “Uh, thanks, but…no.”

  He held up one palm. “I’ll be the perfect gentleman.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you would be.”

  She fit the crocheted cap on William’s head and helped Thad bundle him up in a blanket. When that was done, she picked up the diaper bag and Moses basket, while he held the door for both of them.

  Together, they strolled down the front walk and across the street. Thad led the way up his front porch, wishing he’d thought to turn on the lights before he’d gone over to Michelle’s home.

  “So, my rep is that bad?” Thad shifted William to one arm while he unlocked the door and hit the lights.

  “Or good.” Michelle preceded Thad inside in another drift of orange blossom. For the first time he realized how disorderly his home was.

  “Excuse me?” he asked in confusion.

  “It all depends on how you look at it,” she explained.

  Thad switched on more lamps, wishing he’d thought to vacuum or dust in the past month, instead of sitting around reading medical journals and working out at the hospital fitness center in his spare time.

  “Please continue,” he prodded her.

  She looked him straight in the eye. “You’ve got a reputation for dating around, not sleeping around.”

  “Good to know,” he said.

  The sparkle was back in her eyes. “Isn’t it?”

  Thad figured it wouldn’t hurt to flirt. Especially since she’d started it. “As long as we’re on the subject, want to know what your rep in the community is?”

  * * *

  DID SHE WANT TO KNOW?

  His goading look was all the provocation she needed. “Well, I guess now I have to know.”

  Thad put William over his shoulder and gently patted his back, then turned his attention back to her. “Ice princess.”

  Okay, that hurt. A little. Especially since she’d done nothing to deserve it.

  She made her eyes go wide. “Really?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Thad stepped closer, still patting William on the back. “Word is, you’ve been asked out by at least twenty guys—”

  “I think that’s a small exaggeration,” she said.

  “—and said no to every single one,” Thad finished smugly, leaving no doubt that he’d been investigating the details of her romantic life, or lack thereof, too.

  She shrugged, aware her pulse was racing, and defended herself. “Well, that’s because I won’t go out with someone if I don’t see hope of anything…happening.”

  A smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he leaned down so they were practically nose to nose. “How can you know if you don’t go out with them?”

  “I just do.”

  He let his gaze drift over her slowly, before returning to her eyes. “See, I don’t buy that,” he told her with lazy male confidence. “I don’t think you can begin to know someone unless you spend one-on-one time together. You’ve got to take a risk—”

  Michelle smirked. “Well, I hear you’ve done plenty of that.”

  “—to reap rewards.” He sneaked a peek at the baby on his shoulder. He grinned when he realized that William was sound asleep again. He walked over to the Moses basket and gently laid the baby down, covering him with a blanket.

  Trying not to notice how naturally Thad had taken to being a daddy figure to the abandoned little boy, Michelle rocked forward on her toes.

  The thought of Thad reaping rewards with any other woman bothered her more than it should. Marshaling all her defenses, she asked sweetly, “How’s that method working out for you so far?”

  “I haven’t hit pay dirt yet.” His gaze slid past the delicate hollow of her throat, to her lips and then her eyes. “I will.”

  She took a deep breath, dropped her gaze. Then found herself remembering the way he’d looked, shirtless and just out of bed, that morning. Flushing, she tore her eyes from the masculine contours of his chest. “Sure you will.”

  “Make fun all you like,” he said. He stepped closer. “You need to take more risks.”

  His words hit a chord. She’d heard the same from others, too. “Just see if you can find the papers,” she instructed irritably, deciding Dr. Thad Garner was the last man she would ever get involved with.

  Thad sighed. “Wish me luck. That attic is a mess.”

  * * *

  “IT’S NOT THERE,” Thad reported in frustration a short time later.

  He’d only been up in the attic twenty minutes, Michelle thought. She removed the bottle she’d been heating from the bowl of warm water. “Are you sure?”

  Thad looked at William, who was lying patiently in his Moses basket, eyes wide open, trying awkwardly to get his thumb to his mouth. “I checked through the most recent boxes.”

  Which meant Thad hadn’t checked through everything belonging to his brother, Michelle deduced. “Maybe it’s in an older box,” she suggested, wiping the outside of the bottle dry. “Do you want me to go up and look?”

  Thad glanced at her clothes. “It’s kind of grimy up there,” he warned.

  Michelle tested the bottle on the inside of her wrist. “Not a problem. You’ll have to feed William, though.”

  “He’s ready to eat again?”

  “Yes, he is.” Michelle handed Thad the bottle of formula.

  Thad smiled, as if he relished his first chance to give William a bottle.

  “You know, we could probably just wait and ask Candace Wright.”

  “That’s assuming we can find her and she’ll talk to us. She may not. In any case, it’s best to be as prepared as you can be before you walk into a situation like this.” She sighed. “So if Russell thinks the papers he signed are in the attic,
I think we need to do everything possible to find them. Because if we can find them, then we will know what attorney he used to prepare them.”

  “What if they didn’t use an attorney? What if they just went online and printed out some do-it-yourself forms and signed those?”

  Michelle exhaled. “Then none of what they’ve done may be legal. But again, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.” She held up a staying hand. “How do I get to the attic?”

  Thad picked up William and the bottle. “We’ll walk you up there.”

  Thad motioned her up the stairs. Past the master bedroom, with its heavy mahogany furniture and big, comfortable-looking bed. There was a stack of books and what looked like medical journals on both nightstands. Baskets of what looked like clean, unfolded laundry, and an overflowing hamper. On down the hall, past another bath and bedroom, decorated in teenage-boy motif, with a big sign on the door that read Russell’s Room—No One Else Allowed. Next to that was a study, with a desk and cozy leather armchair and ottoman. Along one wall was a stack of gift boxes, reminding Michelle of all the women in town who were chasing him. Before she could stop herself, she blurted, “What’s this? The trophy room?”

  “I’m planning to donate it all. I just can’t do it anywhere in town. ’Cause someone will know and then I’ll hurt somebody’s feelings…and I don’t want to do that.”

  She could see he was serious. “It must be hard to be you,” she said drily.

  He returned her droll look and opened a door leading to the third floor. “Up there.”

  Michelle hit the switch next to the door. Light flooded the third floor and spilled down the rough wooden stairs. “Thanks.”

  Thad wandered back in the direction they’d come. “William, let’s go into the master bedroom and have ourselves a bottle, shall we?”

  Shaking her head, Michelle headed up the stairs. Thad was right. It was a mess. And a pretty big one. Most of it seemed to be Russell’s, judging by the name scrawled in black Magic Marker on the sides of boxes.

  She began looking. And looking. And looking. Finally, thirty minutes later, she hit the jackpot. Or at least she hoped she had. She found a metal lockbox, the kind where people tended to store their important papers. Only problem was, she noted, it was locked.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Thad came up to stand beside her. “Any luck?”

  She waved her find. “This could be it.”

  Thad towered over her, six feet two inches of attractive single male. “I didn’t know he had that up here,” he murmured in a low, sexy voice.

  Once again, Michelle forced herself to set her attraction to the handsome doctor aside. She moved past him and headed briskly down the stairs. “Where’s William?”

  Thad followed laconically. “In his Moses basket, asleep.”

  Which meant she now had Thad’s undivided attention, at least for the next ten minutes or so, until William awakened again. She ignored the tingling in her midriff and forced herself to stay focused on the task. “You don’t happen to have a key for this?”

  He shook his head.

  “How about a paper clip?”

  “In my study.”

  They peeked in the master bedroom, where William was sleeping, then ducked into the study, opened a desk drawer and rummaged around. Finally he produced a paper clip and handed it over.

  She could feel him watching her as she sat on the edge of the desk and began to work on the lock.

  She looked up. The intent, appreciative, all-male look in his eyes made her catch her breath. “What are you thinking?” she demanded.

  Thad tucked a finger beneath her chin, moved in closer. “This.”

  Chapter Three

  Michelle had plenty of time to duck her head and step away—if she wanted to avoid the kiss.

  She didn’t.

  Maybe because kissing him was all she’d been thinking about since he’d answered the door that morning, fresh out of bed.

  Actually, she reminded herself sagely, the zing of awareness had happened a lot sooner than that. He’d caught her attention as soon as she realized who was living across the street from her.

  The parade of women making their way to his front door—plus his reputation as a love-’em-and-leave-’em type—had kept her from acting on that purely physical attraction.

  But coming face-to-face with him this morning, being close enough to touch that powerful, masculine body, had forced her to see him in a new light.

  Not just as a neighbor or a guy she was too wary of to befriend.

  But as a man who conjured up the kind of romantic daydreams and pure, physical lust she didn’t know she possessed. And seeing him with William, knowing how deeply he cared about family, even when it seemed that the only family he had left didn’t care all that much about him, had added another dimension to the mystery that was Thad.

  So when Thad angled his head and his face drifted slowly, inevitably closer to hers, Michelle gave in to the curiosity that had plagued her for months now and let it happen.

  She opened her mouth slightly and let his warm, sensual lips make contact with hers. And then suddenly his arms were around her, dragging her closer, so that every inch of her was pressed against every inch of him. Hardness to softness, heat pressed to heat, she was wrapped in a cage of hard male muscle and passionate determination. Her heart beat wildly and she tilted her head back in open surrender. His tongue swept into her mouth, blazing a path that was as tender as it was fiery. She stroked her tongue against the potent pressure of his, knowing she hadn’t made out like this…since… Had she ever made out like this? Had her insides ever sizzled from just a kiss?

  Michelle didn’t think so. Which was why, she realized abruptly, she couldn’t let it continue. She’d be in way over her head.

  She flattened her hands on the hard wall of his chest and tore her lips from his. “Stop!”

  Just that swiftly, Thad did.

  He drew back, loosening his hold on her, not letting go completely. “What’s wrong?”

  She lifted her brow. “You even have to ask?”

  This time, he did release her.

  He stepped back and settled on the edge of his desk. Long legs stretched out in front of him, hands braced casually on either side of him, he met her gaze. “I have to admit…I’m confused,” he murmured, making no effort to hide his continuing desire, “since I thought we were getting along like a house on fire.”

  They had been. She hitched in a breath and qualified, “For all the wrong reasons.”

  His brow furrowed.

  She held up her hands in a gesture that warded off further intimacy. “It’s not you and me, Thad. It’s the situation. Our emotions are heightened. Finding William this morning…well, it upset our whole world. So naturally we have a lot of extra adrenaline and emotional energy to burn off, and we did that by ending up in each other’s arms.”

  The look he gave her was skeptical. One corner of his just-kissed mouth quirked up, reminding her of how great he tasted. “That all sounds very reasonable—except for one thing. I work in a hospital trauma center, Michelle. I’m used to a hell of a lot more upset and stress.”

  She flushed with an embarrassment she could not contain. Held his eyes with effort. “So maybe I’m the only one with an excess of adrenaline and emotion.”

  He sobered immediately. “Well, maybe—but we still haven’t figured out how we’re going to handle this situation with William.”

  Trying hard not to focus on the we in his approach, Michelle decided more physical distance between them was needed. She sat down on the leather reading chair in the corner and went back to working on the lock. “First of all, William was left in your care, so it’s really your call how you want to proceed.”

  He settled more comfortably on the edge of his desk. “I want your professional advice.”

  Michelle slipped into the much more comfortable lawyer mode. “I suggest you speak to Candace Wright first—since she is the person who apparently left Wi
lliam in your care, and Beatrix and Brice Johnson next. Find out what went wrong with the surrogate arrangement and if the Johnsons really have changed their mind, or if this is all some sort of big misunderstanding.”

  Thad paused, looking none too happy about the possibility someone might want William back. “You think it’s possible the surrogate and the Johnsons somehow got their signals crossed?”

  Michelle had stepped into far worse adoption quagmires. She shrugged, admitting, “It happens.”

  Another pause. “Does Candace Wright have any legal rights to William?”

  Good question, Michelle thought. “Only if she is the egg donor, as well, and that’s not the case in ninety-eight percent of the surrogate arrangements these days.” Thad gave her a quizzical look, prompting her to continue explaining. “When the surrogate is also the biological mother, it’s literally her child, too, in a purely physical sense, and that mutual DNA complicates how she feels about giving the baby up at birth. So these days, a donor egg, as well as donor sperm, is generally used—the surrogate is simply a host. That makes it a lot easier for the surrogate to surrender the baby at birth.”

  Thad took that in. “So if that was the arrangement…” he said eventually.

  “Then Candace Wright has no legal right or responsibility to the child. The egg donor would also have terminated her legal rights to the baby before implantation, just as your brother did. However, she could be in a position now to reverse that and make a claim on William if no one else wants him.” Michelle sighed. “And right now we have no idea who the egg-donor-slash-William’s-biological-mother is. But either the Johnsons or Candace Wright will probably know that.”

  “How do you know so much about surrogate arrangements?”

  “Two reasons.” Michelle felt a give in the lock she was still trying to undo. “It’s now an essential part of family law. And I handled a contract for a client.”

  Thad’s eyes lit with renewed interest. “Did it turn out all right?”

  Michelle nodded. “That one went without a hitch. But it was a different situation. The surrogate was the wife’s sister. A medical condition prevented the wife from carrying a pregnancy to term, but they were able to use the egg and sperm of the husband and wife, so it was all pretty clear.”