Everyone dutifully trooped inside.
“Sit down,” Cord encouraged, guiding her toward the sofa.
Sharon Lynn sat and was promptly surrounded. Cord sat on her right, Dani on her left. Lizzy took up guard behind her. That left Justin as the outcast.
“I need coffee,” he grumbled and headed for the kitchen.
“I thought he’d be better at breaking bad news by now,” Sharon Lynn observed wryly. “That is what has you all in a tizzy, right? The blood test results came back?”
Lizzy nodded. “It’s a match, at least enough of a match to take into court. Hazel Murdock is Ashley’s grandma.”
Sharon Lynn had been telling herself she was prepared for this, but she’d been lying. She felt as if she’d just taken a blow to her midsection. She swallowed hard against the bile rising in her throat.
“What happens now?” she asked, folding her hands together tightly in her lap. Cord reached over and covered them with his own hand. To her surprise, his touch helped. She felt, if not reassured, at least a little stronger because of it.
“Justin says...” Lizzy began, only to have Justin finally emerge from the kitchen and interrupt her.
“I’ll tell her. It means that I have to go to Garden City and talk to Hazel Murdock again and pass along the good news,” he said with a wry grimace.
“And then?”
“And then, since there’s still no sign of her daughter, the ball’s in her court.”
“She could decide to let matters rest, then?” Cord asked.
“She could. If that’s her choice, then Sharon Lynn could ask the court to let Ashley remain with her.”
Hope stirred inside her. “Could I adopt her?”
“In time, once the court is satisfied that every effort’s been made to find the real mother.”
She took a deep breath and forced herself to ask the question that had been plaguing her day and night. “Could Hazel Murdock just walk into Dolan’s one day, say she wants the baby and walk out with her?”
Justin shook his head. “No, she’ll have to petition the court. The judge has jurisdiction in this matter, since he’s already put her in foster care with you.”
“Then if Mrs. Murdock isn’t capable...” Her voice cracked. “If she’s awful...” She met Cord’s gaze, found reassurance there, then turned back to Justin. “Then I could fight her?”
“You might not win, but you could. If there are real grounds, then you could.”
“There are grounds,” Cord muttered darkly.
Justin’s gaze zeroed in on him. “Now how would you know that?”
“I just know, that’s all,” Cord retorted defiantly.
“Dammit, I knew it,” Justin exploded. “You hired that private eye, didn’t you?”
“No.”
Justin’s gaze narrowed. “Then you and Harlan Patrick did the sleuthing yourselves, the way you’d threatened to.”
When Cord remained stubbornly silent, Justin shook his head. “Dammit, I should have seen that coming. I should have pushed when Harlan Patrick evaded all my questions.”
“The point is, there is evidence that she’s unfit to care for a baby. Any social worker on the planet would have to see that,” Cord said violently.
“Look, I can’t argue with you about that,” Justin soothed. “I’m on your side here. All I’m trying to say is that blood ties hold weight with the court. Plus Sharon Lynn would be a single mom.”
“And Mrs. Murdock wouldn’t be?” Sharon Lynn retorted. “Or have I missed something about the presence of a Mr. Murdock?”
Justin rubbed his forehead as if trying to fend off a throbbing headache. “No, there’s no Mr. Murdock. I’m just trying to point out that it won’t be cut-and-dried. It won’t be easy. Sweetie, this could get downright ugly.”
“I don’t care about easy or ugly,” Sharon Lynn insisted. “All I care about is keeping that baby away from a woman who can’t care for her properly. If she could...” She swallowed hard. “If she could, as difficult as it would be, I wouldn’t fight her.”
Cord gave her hands a squeeze. “It’s okay, darlin’. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here. There’s no guarantee she’s going to try to take the baby. We’ll know more after Justin sees her, right, Justin?”
Her cousin nodded.
“When will that be?” Cord asked.
“The sooner the better,” Sharon Lynn said. “I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.”
Justin came over to hunker down in front of her. When his gaze was level with hers, he regarded her sympathetically.
“No time like the present,” he told her. “Try not to worry. I’ll do everything I can to make sure Ashley winds up where she’ll get the best possible care.”
“I know you will.” Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks just the same as she watched him leave. Then she turned instinctively toward Cord, who opened his arms and enfolded her in them.
“Don’t cry, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Please don’t cry.”
She felt Lizzy reach down and give her shoulder a squeeze. Dani pressed a kiss against her cheek and then they were gone and she was alone with Cord. She drew on his strength. Despite the turmoil of the past few minutes, despite the fear that was ricocheting through her, she felt surprisingly calm in his embrace. She had spent her entire life surrounded by strong men, but none were any more steadfast than this man who had been a stranger only a few short weeks ago. Whatever happened in the future, she would always be grateful to him for that.
As he held her, she regretted more than ever that she couldn’t repay his kindness by giving him the ranch he’d always dreamed of owning, land she had no need for herself. And yet, she knew that even if she hadn’t already promised that ranch to another man, Cord wouldn’t have accepted it. He wasn’t here for her now because he expected payment. He was here because he cared, for her and for Ashley. He was here, because that was the kind of sweet, generous man he was, though she had a feeling he would have hated either label.
“I wish...” she began, the words a muffled whisper against his chest.
“What do you wish?” he asked, smoothing a hand over her hair.
“That there was some way I could thank you, some way to show you how grateful I am for what you’ve done the past few weeks.”
“No thanks are necessary.”
She was struck by a sudden idea. “I could talk to Daddy and Grandpa Harlan. Part of White Pines will be mine one day. I could sign that over to you.”
Cord released her as if she were suddenly too hot to hold. “Forget it,” he said.
“But it’s a wonderful idea,” she said, warming to it. “Kyle’s land is promised, but I certainly don’t need my share of White Pines.”
He regarded her with a wry expression. “I can just imagine how your father and grandfather would react to this. If your father blew a gasket over the possibility that I might be after your late husband’s land, just what do you think he’d have to say if you presented him with this crazy idea? White Pines belongs to your family, Sharon Lynn. Someday it will be your children’s heritage. You can’t just go giving that away.”
“But Daddy would have to listen to me,” she argued. “I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing,” he insisted. “When will you get that through your head?”
“But...”
He shook his head. “I can see there’s no reasoning with you, so I’ll just have to come up with another way to shut you up,” he said grimly, bending down and sealing her mouth shut with a kiss.
Sharon Lynn’s senses reeled. At first she blamed that as much on the afternoon’s emotional upheaval as Cord’s skill, but when her skin began to heat, when her heartbeat accelerated to a brisk pace and her breath caught in her throat, she had to admit it was more than that.
; In fact, she couldn’t seem to recall exactly how the kiss had begun or what they’d been discussing that was so all-fired important. All she knew was that his lips on hers were magic. The touch of his tongue inflamed. His hands, tentatively at first and then with more certainty, stroked and caressed until her body responded in ways that shocked her. No man’s touch had ever been so deft, so arousing. She was trembling with the kind of longing, the kind of desperate urgency that she’d been convinced she would never feel again.
It would be so easy to let this exquisite tension escalate until it was out of control. It would feel so good to welcome Cord inside her, to give in to desire and forget everything else. She would welcome that momentary oblivion, that ecstatic release.
Just when she was on the verge of making a conscious decision to let Cord make love to her, he uttered a harsh groan and pulled away. She blinked in surprise at the sudden absence of heat, the sudden withdrawal of his weight.
When she dared to open her eyes, she found him seated beside her, a careful few inches away, raking a hand through his hair and looking as distraught as she’d ever seen him.
“Cord?”
“I’m sorry.”
She swallowed hard against a tide of disappointment. Apparently there would be no quick and urgent release. “Sorry?” she repeated, her voice heavy with her own regrets.
“That should never have happened, not now, not when you’re so vulnerable.”
There it was again, that deeply ingrained sense of honor, that evidence of the type of man he was. At some other time in her life, she would have regretted that there was no room in her heart for a man like that. Now, determined that there would be no man in her life ever again, she regretted only the immediate loss of his nearness, of the comfort he’d been offering before passion had intruded.
She reached out a hand, but he shied away from it.
“I’d better go,” he said.
“Why?” she demanded, though the answer was obvious.
“Because if I stay, I can’t swear that I’ll stay away from you. Not tonight.”
“But you’ll be back?”
The expression on his face turned rueful. “Oh, yeah. I’ll be back. If there’s one thing that’s become crystal clear to me since I met you, it’s that I’ll never be able to stay away. You can count on it.”
She pulled herself together. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them as he headed for the door. “Then that’s what I’ll do,” she said. He turned at her softly spoken words and her gaze locked with his as she added, “I’ll count on it.”
She didn’t stop to analyze where it would lead, this counting on Cord. All she knew was that at this moment, with so much uncertainty in her life, relying on him was as natural as breathing.
* * *
What the hell was wrong with him? Cord wondered as he sought out a place to get a drink and a grip on his rampaging hormones. He had almost made a costly mistake. He had almost seduced Sharon Lynn into making love with him. For a few incredible moments, he had known what it was like to caress her skin, to feel her tremble in his arms. As lost as they’d both been on a sea of sensations, it wouldn’t have taken much to carry them the rest of the way. She’d wanted it, too, wanted it every bit as badly as he had. He’d seen that much in her crushed expression when he’d pulled away.
But it would have been wrong, he reminded himself, a temporary bliss at best. She would never have forgiven him or herself.
No, when he finally—and inevitably—made love to Sharon Lynn, it would be when she wasn’t feeling so lost and alone that she reached for him in despair. It would be when she wanted him and him alone, beyond reason, and because she could no longer be without him. He had to reassure himself over and over that that time would come. Otherwise, he truly would have cursed tonight’s lost opportunity.
He gravitated toward the Italian restaurant, where he could order a pizza and a beer and hope that the two combined would satiate at least one of his hungers. The other was a lost cause, at least for now.
He was halfway through his beer and about to take his first bite of pizza, when Harlan Patrick turned up, looking every bit as down in the mouth as Cord felt.
Cord gestured toward the opposite side of the booth. “Have a seat.”
Harlan Patrick managed a halfhearted grin and slid in. “I’m surprised to find you in here.”
“Why is that?”
“The family hotline is burning up with the news about Hazel Murdock being Ashley’s grandma. I figured you’d be with Sharon Lynn.”
“I was.”
Harlan Patrick regarded him speculatively. “She throw you out?”
Cord grinned. “No. Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Then that brings us right back to where we started. What are you doing here?”
“Taking a time-out.”
The response drew a knowing chuckle. “Being honorable is the pits, isn’t it? I used to follow that path with Laurie and look where it got me.”
“It sure as hell doesn’t keep you warm at night, that’s for sure,” Cord acknowledged.
“Of course,” Harlan Patrick added thoughtfully, “in this case, it can also prevent you being run down by a whole slew of gun-toting Adams men.”
“Something I never considered,” Cord confessed.
“Really?”
“Not even once.”
“Then this was all about doing what’s best for Sharon Lynn?”
Cord shrugged. “Could be.”
“Fascinating.” He shook his head and gave Cord a sympathetic look. “You’re a goner, man.”
“Could be.”
Before Harlan Patrick could explore that, which he certainly seemed eager to do, Justin strolled in looking every bit as glum as the two of them. He nudged his cousin over and slid in beside him.
“Well, that was fun,” he said, ordering his own beer.
“How’d Hazel Murdock take the news?” Cord asked.
“About like you’d expect. She grumbled about her tramp of a daughter, moaned a little about fate, then vowed to do her duty by the poor little tyke.”
“Do you think she’ll turn up?”
“Oh, yeah,” Justin said. “Especially now that she’s aware that her precious grandbaby is living with an Adams. Big mistake on my part.”
Cord’s pulse began to thud dully. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that I made the tactical error of mentioning who was caring for the baby,” Justin admitted. “I was hoping to show her that she could rest easy if she decided to leave the baby right where she is.”
Even Harlan Patrick groaned at that.
“How did she respond?” Cord asked.
“Well, obviously that little tidbit fascinated her. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she came over here, raised a ruckus, turned Sharon Lynn’s life upside down, then allowed herself to be persuaded to disappear from the baby’s life for a hefty settlement.”
“She’d sell the kid?” Harlan Patrick asked, looking as disgusted as Cord felt.
“Like I said, it wouldn’t surprise me if she tried,” Justin replied.
“But that would play right into our hands,” Cord said. “That would prove to the court that she shouldn’t have custody, that she’s nothing more than an opportunist.”
Justin nodded. “I agree, but you’re forgetting one thing. In the meantime, she’ll terrify Sharon Lynn into thinking that she’s going to lose the baby. She’ll be willing to pay her off, just to make sure she goes away.”
“We’ll just have to see that doesn’t happen,” Harlan Patrick said. “Cord, you can get through to Sharon Lynn, can’t you? You can make her see that it’ll be for the best to go through all the legal hoops, right?”
“I can try.” He paused as something Justin had said earlier in the day came back to him
. It had been nagging him for hours. “Do you think Sharon Lynn could have difficulty getting permanent custody because she’s single?”
“I don’t really know,” Justin admitted. “I brought it up because it’s a possibility, especially with long lists of couples waiting to adopt.”
“But she’s the one who’s been taking care of the baby all along,” Cord protested. “She’s the one who saved her. If anyone has a right to that child, it’s your cousin.”
“The two of you did that,” Justin stated. “And I agree with you. I’m just telling you that Sharon Lynn got temporary custody because of the circumstances and because Grandpa Harlan interceded on her behalf. When it comes to outright adoption, the rules may not be the same at all.”
“She’ll have Janet on her side,” Harlan Patrick reminded them. “There’s not a better attorney in the state than granddaddy’s wife. And she’ll have the Adams name going for her.”
“She’d better be careful how she uses that,” Justin warned. “It’s a double-edged sword. Yes, the name is highly respected, but the last thing she needs is for people to get the idea that it’s being used to bypass the system. She could wind up caught in some sort of public backlash if the media latches on to the story. I’m just grateful that there’s been nothing at all in the local paper about this from the very beginning.”
“That was probably Grandpa Harlan’s doing,” Harlan Patrick said. “Janet probably put a bug in his ear about the long-range implications of getting the media involved and he probably asked Mort over at the Journal to lay off the story.”
Cord nodded. “I’d wondered why there hadn’t been a mention of it. It’s got all the ingredients of a big story. Abandoned baby rescued from a blizzard, the Adams name, etcetera. It wasn’t like anybody tried to keep it a secret. The local paper had to know every detail.”
“Which proves my point,” Harlan Patrick said. “I detect Grandpa Harlan’s hand in it with Janet nudging him.”
Cord glanced at Justin. “What do we do now?”
“We wait.”
That wasn’t the advice he’d wanted to hear. If there was one thing Cord was downright lousy at doing, it was waiting. Especially when an alternative plan had been nagging him for the past half hour.
Wildflower Ridge Page 34