“I don’t want to put that theory to the test,” she countered.
“Why not?” Cole demanded. “You don’t seem to have any qualms about testing me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Because you’re not a sweet infant.”
He opened his mouth, ready to tell her off. But then he stopped.
They were here, at the sheriff’s door, and any further discussion, sharp-tongued or otherwise, was going to have to be put on hold unless they wanted to have the sheriff suddenly coming out of the office and acting as a referee.
As if on cue, they both stopped bickering.
Stacy opened the door of the sheriff’s office. “After you,” she said sweetly, stepping to one side so that Cole could enter first, carrying the babies in the basket.
Spying only the basket that Cole was carrying, Rick Santiago called out, “I hope you brought me something from Miss Joan’s Diner,” from across the room as he headed toward the duo.
“I don’t think this qualifies as lunch, Sheriff,” Joe Lone Wolf commented. His was the first desk that Cole and Stacy passed when they entered the office and he’d gotten a good look at the contents of the basket.
“Hey, welcome back, Stacy,” Cody McCullough, Cole’s younger brother declared, greeting her. “It’s nice seeing you again.”
One look at the babies and Cody appeared to reassess the situation. Stunned, Cody’s eyes darted toward Stacy, then back to his brother. “You two come here to make some kind of an announcement?”
“Yeah,” Cole said, guessing at what was going through Cody’s head. “That I’ve got an idiot for a younger brother.”
“Then these babies aren’t...?” Cody looked from Cole to Stacy again and then back to the babies.
“No!” Cole said firmly, placing the basket on Joe’s desk.
Cole knew he was vehemently denying parentage, but the simple truth was that he wasn’t all that sure that these babies weren’t his. If nothing else, the timing seemed to be right. Stacy had been gone for eight months. But she wasn’t acting like she was their mother.
“Sheriff,” Cole said to the tall, dark-haired man who had crossed the office to approach them. “These babies were left on my doorstep this morning and we were hoping you could help us find their mother.”
He spared one quick look in Stacy’s direction to see if what he was about to say was going to affect her in any manner. Her face appeared impassive.
“Otherwise, I’m going to have to bring them to social services over in Mission Ridge.”
“You’re going to do what?” Stacy cried, stunned. She pulled the basket protectively closer to her.
Chapter Six
Stacy noticed that her voice had gone up and she took a second to collect herself. She couldn’t believe that Cole would be so dismissive of these babies, even though they did eventually need a real home.
“But you’re going to wait to give the sheriff time to investigate, right?” she asked Cole, giving him a chance to redeem himself.
“Sure,” he answered. “That’s why we came here to see him.”
Stacy had a strange expression on her face he couldn’t quite fathom. He found himself going back to wondering if the babies were hers.
“One question.” Rick held up his hand to get their attention.
Still wondering about Stacy’s reaction, Cole glanced toward the sheriff. “Go ahead, Sheriff.”
Rick indicated the babies in the basket. “What are you going to do with these two little ones while you’re waiting to find out if the deputies and I can locate their mama somewhere?”
Cole wasn’t following what the sheriff was asking. “What do you mean?”
“Where are they going to be staying?”
Instead of answering Rick’s question, Cole turned to look at his brother. After Cody had helped a stranded Devon give birth to her baby, he’d wound up taking her in and she’d lived at the family ranch until Cody and she had gotten married.
“Um—Cody?”
Cody immediately seemed to pick up on the hopeful note in his brother’s voice. “Oh, no, sorry. I’m going to have to pass. Devon’s already got her hands full.”
Cole turned toward Stacy next. Given how passionate she’d sounded about not taking the twins to social services, maybe she was willing to take them in for the time being.
“Stacy?”
Stacy raised her hands up, as if to physically block any arguments Cole could come up with.
“I can help out—when I’m not working,” she told him. “I can’t take them in. I don’t even have a permanent place to stay myself. I’m staying at the hotel.”
“Well, it’s not like I’m not working,” Cole protested. She hadn’t even started her job. He had been at his for years. “Technically, I’ve actually got two jobs. I work part-time at the Healing Ranch and the rest of the time with Connor on our ranch, so I’m pretty much busy all the time.”
“Then I’d say that these two little people have a problem,” Rick concluded, cutting into the discussion. He slanted a glance at Cole and then at Stacy.
“You could take them with you to the ranch,” Stacy argued, looking right at Cole. “Connor’s still there, right?”
Cole frowned. He didn’t like the way this was being twisted. “Well, he’s kind of in charge, so yes, he’s still there.” He knew what was coming next. “But he’s busy working the ranch, just like I am,” Cole emphasized.
Joe sat up in his chair a little straighter. “You’ve still got that housekeeper, don’t you?” Joe asked, then added her name in for good measure. “Rita.”
Cody laughed. “Just when I think you’re not listening to a word I say,” he marveled, looking at the other deputy. “Son of a gun, you really are paying attention.”
Joe wore the same emotionless expression he always did. “I don’t have to look like I’m hanging on your every word in order to be listening, McCullough,” Joe said quietly.
It was time to wrap this up before it dragged on for hours. “All right,” Rick declared, directing his words toward Cole. “Then it’s settled. These two,” he nodded at the twins, “are going to be staying at your ranch and Rita’s going to be looking after them for a bit, with help from you, your brother and Stacy.”
“But—” Cole started to protest.
Rick cut him short. “If I’m going to be doing my job, trying to find these kids’ mama, I don’t have time to be arguing with you, Cole,” the sheriff told him. “Now you take those kids on home to your place and tell Connor I’ll be talking to him when I get a chance.”
With that, Rick retreated into his office to make a few calls.
Cody saw the expression on his brother’s face. “It’s not so bad,” he assured Cole. “Remember what it was like when I brought Devon and her baby to the ranch to stay with us?”
“What I remember is a lot of crying,” Cole reminded his brother.
Cody grinned at him. “Yeah, but you got over it and stopped.” Joe and Stacy laughed at his comment.
“Very funny,” Cole retorted. He looked down at the twins, resigned. “Well, I guess I’d better bring these two to the ranch and hope that Rita’s in one of her good moods.”
Cody waved his hand at his brother’s concern. “Rita loves babies. Remember how good she was with the one Cassidy saved from the creek when we had that big flash flood?”
Joe snorted and shook his head. “That makes a total of four babies, counting these. You McCulloughs are regular baby magnets, you know that?”
Rather than address the ribbing remark Joe had just made, Cole glanced at the senior deputy. A full-blooded Navajo, Joe Lone Wolf had been raised on the reservation that was located about fifteen miles south of the outskirts of Forever. Although he was married to the town vet, the sheriff’s sister, Ramona, and live
d in the town proper, Joe went back to the reservation regularly in order to visit.
“Hey, Joe,” Cole began hesitantly, “do you think that you could ask around on the reservation, see if maybe these babies belong to one of the girls there?”
Rather than answering immediately, Joe scrutinized the infants that had been placed on his desk.
“I can ask around, see if anyone knows anything,” he remarked.
His tone indicated that he doubted the infants belonged to anyone from the reservation.
“Thanks. I’m just covering all the bases for now,” Cole told the deputy as he picked up the basket again. One of the twins made a squealing noise. “Okay, you two, time for you to meet Connor.”
As he started for the door, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Stacy had gone around him in order to open the door.
“Thanks,” he murmured. When she continued walking beside him, he stopped for a second. “Are you coming with me?”
Did he think she was shadowing him for some ulterior motive? “Yes, I’m coming with you,” she answered. “I said I’d help out, and since my first day of work was postponed until tomorrow, thanks to Miss Joan, I’ve got the time to help—unless you’ve got this covered and don’t want me to come over,” she added.
“No. I mean yes. I mean—” Frustrated, Cole blew out an annoyed breath. Why did he always get things so muddled up when she was around? “Oh, hell, just get in the truck. I’ll drive you home when you’re ready to go,” he added before they could get tangled up in a discussion about how she was going to get back to town.
Stacy frowned, looking at the twins in the basket. “You’re not supposed to be cursing in front of those babies,” she reminded him.
“I’m not supposed to be doing a lot of things I’m doing,” he told her.
Rather than just let his remark go, she challenged him.
“Just what’s that supposed to mean?” Stacy wanted to know.
I’m not supposed to be letting you get to me the way you are, but it’s happening anyway, even though I know you’ll just wind up stomping on my heart again the way you did the first time.
The remark burned on his tongue, but he bit it back. No sense in rehashing things.
“Nothing,” he answered curtly, then practically growled, “I appreciate the help.” After taking a breath, he continued more calmly. “As do Mike and Kate.” Opening the rear passenger door, he tucked the babies’ basket in on the floor again, the way he had before.
On the opposite side, Stacy took a seat and looked down at the small, round faces. Cole made his way to the driver’s side and got in.
“What do you think their real names are?” she asked Cole.
Was that just for his benefit, or didn’t she really know? He kept vacillating as to whether or not she was actually their mother.
“I don’t know,” he replied, starting up his truck. “Maybe their mother didn’t bother naming them. Maybe she figured naming them would just humanize them for her and she didn’t want to get close to them.”
“That’s awfully cold,” she commented. Especially coming from him, Stacy added silently. Cole usually saw the best in everyone. It was one of the things she’d liked best about him.
“So’s leaving two infants on someone’s doorstep,” Cole countered.
Stacy was silent for a moment, thinking. And then she said, “I don’t know, maybe their mother was desperate and she knew that you were a good person who would take care of them. That you’d make sure they were all right.”
Damn it, this was going to drive him crazy. Was it you, Stacy? Did you leave these babies on that doorstep because you knew I’d be there this morning? Are these our babies, yours and mine?
He really wanted to ask her that.
The questions hovered on the tip of his tongue. But something told him that now wasn’t the time to ask. Besides, even if he did ask her and she said no, would he believe her? He didn’t know. It was better if he put off asking Stacy so he could watch her interact with Kate and Mike first.
Maybe she’d give herself away if he was patient enough.
“Why me?” he asked her out of the blue. Raising his eyes to the rearview mirror, he saw her looking at him quizzically. “Connor’s the more responsible one, raising the three of us the way he did. Why not leave the babies with him?”
He saw her shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe it was proximity.”
He didn’t follow. “What?”
“Proximity,” Stacy repeated. “Maybe the babies’ mother lived closer to the Healing Ranch than your family’s ranch,” she speculated. And then she rethought her response. “But I think the real answer’s simpler than that,” she told him.
“Oh? So what is the simpler answer?” Cole asked. Maybe the more he got her to talk about the twins, the more likely she’d be to admit that she was the one who’d left them on his doorstep—if she actually had.
“Their mother picked you, not Connor,” Stacy stressed for a second time, “because she knew you were a good person.”
He felt he had to come to his brother’s defense. “Connor’s a good person.” All things considered, Connor was probably the best person he knew.
“I don’t know, maybe she didn’t know Connor. What difference does it make why?” she asked, losing patience. “The point is that she picked you to leave her babies with.”
If she hadn’t been the one to leave them, then there was a different way to look at the whole thing. “Maybe she just abandoned them and left them some place she figured they’d be found.”
Stacy sighed. “Maybe. And maybe not. The point is that you have them, Cole.”
“For now,” he reminded her, thinking back to what he’d said about taking the twins to social services as a last resort.
Stacy drew back her shoulders and became rigid. “You weren’t serious about what you said before.” Her voice lowered to almost an ominous level. “Were you?”
He was preoccupied with what he was going to say to Connor when he took the babies in. He heard her, but her words didn’t really register.
“You’re going to have to be more specific than that,” he told Stacy.
He knew damn well what she was referring to, she thought. Why was he playing games like this?
“That if the sheriff doesn’t find their mother, you’re going to bring those babies to the social services office in Mission Ridge,” she said, her jaw all but clenched.
“That would be the best place for them,” he pointed out matter-of-factly.
“No, it wouldn’t,” she argued, her voice growing louder. “How can you say something like that after the way Connor gave up his dream of going to college just to become your guardian so that you and your brother and sister didn’t wind up being taken in by the system?” she demanded.
“Connor was family,” he explained, then pointed out, “These kids might not have a family. Social services could find a home for them.”
“They could also split them up,” she retorted with passion. “There aren’t that many people who are willing to take on two kids at the same time.”
“How would you know?” Cole asked, dismissing her protest.
The words rushed out of her mouth before Stacy realized she was saying them. Words that gave away the secret she’d guarded so zealously for as long as she could remember. Guarded because she didn’t want people looking at her differently. Above all, she didn’t want people pitying her.
“Because I had a twin sister and my mother left us with social services.”
“What are you talking about?” Cole demanded. “I knew your mother. She was one of the kindest women I ever met.” He remembered thinking that if his mother had lived, she would have been just like Sally Rowe.
“That was my adoptive mother, not my real mothe
r,” Stacy told him.
Stunned, he raised his eyes to the rearview mirror again. “You were adopted?”
“See, you’re already thinking differently of me.” Even in the mirror, she could see what he was thinking.
“Only because you never told me,” he said, trying to wrap his head around the revelation. “How could you not tell me?” They’d been so close, sharing dreams, sharing secrets—and all this time, she’d kept this from him. He felt as if everything he’d once thought they’d had had been built on sand. “And what’s this about a twin sister?” he asked. “Where is she now?”
Stacy steeled herself off before she was able to answer his question. She’d brought this on herself. But she couldn’t just ignore his question after what she’d just said.
“She died,” Stacy answered stoically. “They separated us and placed us with different foster parents. Turns out that the people my sister was staying with believed in severe punishment for any minor disobedience.” Her voice began to tremble and she had to take a moment to regain control. “My sister’s punishment turned out to be fatally severe.”
Cole pulled his truck over to the side of the road so he could turn around and really look at her. Thrown for a loop, he didn’t want to risk driving into a ditch. “How old were you?”
Stacy laced her fingers together and stared at them, unable to look at Cole, afraid of what she might see in his eyes.
“I was five. Old enough to remember her. And to understand that I was never going to see her again. The memory was too painful, so I blocked it all out. My mother—the woman I called my mother,” she stressed, “knew all this when she and my...my father adopted me.” A sad smile curved her mouth as she went on looking down at her hands. “She did everything she could to help me adjust.” Stacy’s voice became a little steadier as she added, “She also saw to it that that other family was brought up on manslaughter charges. They were found guilty. I didn’t know that at the time, but I found out about it later. My mother told me when she thought I was old enough to be able to understand.”
Twins on the Doorstep Page 6