Yuletide Baby Bargain

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  And those too lowly to consort with the vaunted Swift family.

  She pressed her lips against the child’s temple, banishing the thought.

  The baby’s forehead felt sweaty, but that could have just been from all her crying. “Is there a diaper bag or something?”

  “Or something.” He set a small plastic garbage bag on the table next to the car seat.

  Maddie quickly reached for it and their hands accidentally brushed. She ignored the heat that immediately ran under her skin and tipped the bag over. A half-dozen diapers and a thin container of baby wipes scattered across the table. A small can of powdered baby formula and an empty, capped baby bottle rolled out.

  She grabbed a diaper and the wipes and marched around the table, heading into the house. “Go make a bottle with the formula,” she told him. “I’ll get her diaper changed, and then I’ll call my uncle.”

  * * *

  Linc stared after Maddie’s departing form. Her hair was as dark as it had always been, but it was longer now than she’d used to wear it, tumbling well past the bright red scarf wrapped around the collar of her short black coat. Below the coat, her hips—trim as ever—were outlined in black denim jeans tucked into her flat-heeled brown boots.

  She always had liked wearing boots. Not the cowboy kind, either.

  He grabbed the container of formula and the bottle. Not that he knew what to do with them. “Why do you want to call your uncle?”

  “He’s a pediatrician,” she answered as if it should be obvious. She’d laid the baby on the antique bench situated against one wall of the living room. Even though the baby’s legs and arms were waving around, Maddie competently peeled back the neck-to-toe outfit, revealing a tiny white T-shirt that didn’t reach past the baby’s rosy belly and a fat-looking disposable diaper. “Poor thing is soaked.” She sent him a chastising look as she slipped a fresh diaper under the existing one.

  “Save that look for the person who dumped off the kid on my front porch.”

  She pulled out a wet wipe from the plastic container. “How long do you think she’d been there before you got home?”

  “God only knows.” His first reaction when he’d realized what was on his porch had been to call the police. He’d had his phone in his hands when he’d spotted the note tucked next to the kid’s head.

  After reading it, he’d learned that the little girl’s name was Layla and that she belonged to Jax. Supposedly. Which meant there was no way he could call the police.

  And there was no way to reach Jax, either, since he’d found his brother’s cell phone sitting dead in the kitchen where Jax had forgotten it.

  He’d found the phone a week ago.

  But his brother had been gone longer than that.

  He focused on the top of Maddie’s head while she undid the wet diaper.

  He knew she still hated him. And why. But even if he’d had to do things over again, he would still choose the same path.

  “I was busy all day at the office. Worked there until about seven, then went straight on to a dinner engagement.” It was as good a way as any to describe the irritating evening spent with his parents. They’d thrown a party, celebrating their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.

  Linc might have celebrated it, too, if he didn’t know what a joke their marriage really was. If Blake Swift wasn’t cheating on Jolene, then Jolene was cheating on Blake. Except for the delight they took in making each other miserable, Linc still couldn’t understand why they remained together. He also would have accused Jax of making a getaway before the party, except Linc knew perfectly well that his brother couldn’t care less what their parents did.

  “There was nobody here at the house to notice anything?”

  “No.”

  She’d finished diapering the baby. She kept her palm on the baby’s chest as she glanced up at him. “No?”

  He frowned. Her pretty eyes were as dark as chocolate and yet the doubt in them was as clear as a spotlight. Another thing that hadn’t changed over the years. Everything going on inside Maddie’s head was broadcast through those expressive eyes. Her two sisters had the exact same eyes—the exact same looks, in fact, since they were identical triplets—but he’d never thought their emotions were as transparent as Maddie’s.

  And he’d never looked at Greer or Ali and felt a slow burn inside.

  “Who do you think should have been here?”

  She looked back at the baby. “I figured you’d have a housekeeper or something.” She slipped the baby’s kicking legs back into her stretchy clothes. “At least she seems to have been warm enough. I don’t see any signs of frostbite. She still needs an exam, though.” She folded the used diaper and wipe into a ball, secured it with the sticky diaper tapes and held it out.

  He was glad his hands were full. He lifted them—formula can in one, empty bottle in the other.

  She rolled her eyes and picked up the baby, nestling her in one arm as she stood. “Kitchen still in the same place?” Not waiting for an answer, she walked past him and around the staircase.

  He followed. “Where would it have gone?”

  She ignored the question. When she reached the kitchen, she tossed the diaper into the trash bin located in the walk-in pantry, then returned to stop in front of him. She took the can from his fingers and set it on the wide soapstone-topped island. Then she took the bottle and before he knew it, she was holding out the baby.

  Layla watched him with wide blue eyes. She was going at the pacifier as if it might actually produce milk.

  “Oh for heaven’s sake, Linc!” Maddie sounded exasperated. “Just take her. She won’t break.”

  He wasn’t so sure. He gingerly placed his hands near Maddie’s, underneath the baby’s arms. As soon as he did, Maddie moved hers away. She went to the sink and turned on the water to wash her hands.

  The baby was a lot lighter than he expected, considering how heavy she’d been when strapped inside the car seat.

  She opened her mouth, the pacifier dropped out and she let out an ear-piercing wail. For such a tiny thing, she made a helluva racket.

  He wasn’t a man who panicked easily, yet that was all he’d done since he’d realized there was a baby on his doorstep.

  “Nope.” He pushed the kid back at Maddie. “No way.”

  “Oh, for the love of Pete.” She took the baby back. “Get me the pacifier.”

  It had rolled under the scrolled wooden edge of the island. He grabbed it, handing it to her.

  “Wash it, would you please?” She handed him the bottle. “And this, too.”

  He joined her at the sink. “Aren’t they supposed to be sterilized or something?”

  “In a perfect world, probably. But who knows what other conditions this baby has endured. For now, hot water and a good wash with soap will have to do.” Without waiting for him to finish washing the pacifier and bottle, she tucked one wet finger into the baby’s mouth.

  The crying stopped.

  But that was the only bit of relief he got.

  “Now that my hands are busy, you can make her a bottle,” Maddie ordered. “Directions are on the side of the can.”

  He peered at the small print on the can. He’d left his reading glasses in his jacket and it was impossible to read.

  Maddie was pacing around the island, bouncing the baby a little with each step. “How do you know for sure she’s Jax’s baby, anyway? Do you know her name?”

  “Layla. And of course she’s Jax’s.”

  “He told you?”

  “He didn’t have to.” Glad for the excuse, he left the can on the counter and went back out to the foyer. When he returned, he had his reading glasses as well as the note. He unfolded it and spread it on the counter so she could see. “This was stuck in the car seat with her.”

  Maddi
e pursed her lips as she studied the single line of looping handwriting. “Jaxie, please take care of Layla for me,” she read. Her eyes lifted to his for a moment. “Jaxie?”

  “You know how women are with Jax.” Even Maddie had been susceptible to his brother, once. Until Linc set her straight.

  “The note isn’t signed.”

  He gave her a look. “Presumably, Jaxie knows who the mother of his own child is.”

  “But he obviously didn’t tell you about her.”

  “Yeah, well, we don’t really talk to each other a lot anymore.”

  “How long has he been out of town?”

  He shrugged. “Little over a week.”

  “He still lives here, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes. So?”

  “So how can you live in the same house and not talk to each other?”

  He wished he hadn’t said anything. “It’s not germane.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “Oh. Well, if it’s not germane.” She gave him a wide-eyed stare and grabbed the washed pacifier, trading it for the tip of her index finger in the baby’s mouth. Then she took the baby bottle and filled it part way with tap water, added a few scoops from the can of formula without so much as a glance at the tiny print, and screwed on the nipple. She shook the bottle vigorously and held it under running hot water. “While you’re feeding her, I’ll call my uncle and check in with my boss to let him know what’s going on. I have enough autonomy to set up the emergency placement, but Ray’s still going to want to know about it. He’s a stickler that way. But no matter where the placement ends up being, Layla still needs an exam first, particularly considering the way she was left. Just because I didn’t see any signs of injury, it’s not a medical assessment. And Uncle David’s qualified to make one, which means maybe we can avoid having to involve the hospital, too. Are you sure you don’t know who her mother might be?”

  “If I did, I wouldn’t have needed to call you.” He tossed his reading glasses onto the island alongside the note. “And what the hell is ‘emergency placement’ supposed to mean?”

  Chapter Two

  Ignoring Linc’s annoyed tone, Maddie turned off the water and dried the bottle with a towel she pulled from the drawer next to the sink, all with one hand. The white cloth was clean and crisp, just like the towels that Ernestine had kept there when Maddie was a child. She wondered if Linc had changed anything at all around the house since his grandmother died.

  The black-framed glasses were definitely a new addition for him, though—and an unwelcome, unexpectedly sexy one.

  “Emergency placement,” she repeated smoothly. “It’s what it sounds like.” Layla’s eyes were fastened on the bottle and she wrapped her little starfish hands around it as soon as Maddie put the nipple near her lips.

  The baby’s eyes nearly rolled back in her head as she guzzled the lukewarm formula. “Poor baby. You’re so hungry.” Anger threatened to boil inside her over the baby’s neglect, but she knew better than to let it get the best of her. She couldn’t be effective in her job if she let herself be consumed by anger or horror over the situations she saw.

  When she looked at Linc again, his brows were pulled even closer together above his long, narrow nose.

  She definitely shouldn’t take any pleasure in antagonizing him. Not under these circumstances.

  “Emergency placement is a temporary measure while the authorities have a chance to investigate the whole situation,” she explained calmly. “Once that’s done, our office will make the report to the prosecutor’s office. If there are criminal charges involved, he’ll probably handle the case. If there aren’t, he’ll likely leave it in our department’s hands to make a recommendation to the judge—”

  “Judge! Who said anything about a judge?”

  She watched him for a moment. Linc had always been much harder to read than Jax. But the fact that he was more alarmed than ever was obvious. She just wasn’t entirely certain why. Despite the past, he’d called her to take care of the situation, and that was what she was doing. “No matter what led to Layla being left on your doorstep, this situation is going to involve the family court,” she said a little more gently. “Judge Stokes is a good guy—”

  “I don’t care how good a guy he is. There’s no need for a judge. No need for your boss, for that matter.”

  “If you didn’t ask me here to do my job, then what is it that you expect me to do?”

  He gestured, encompassing her and the baby in his short, impatient wave. “What you’re doing. Taking care of the kid.”

  “I’m not a babysitter, Linc! And this kid is an infant. Two, three months old, tops, if I had to guess.” She flicked the fingers of her free hand against the note still lying on the island. “And assuming that can be trusted, she also has a name. Layla. Aside from that, we know nothing for certain.”

  “Jax—”

  “Jax isn’t here. So I’ll tell you the same thing Judge Stokes is going to tell you. This child appears to have been abandoned and—”

  “No.” He crossed the room in two strides and took the baby out of her arms.

  The bottle fell out of Maddie’s grasp and rolled across the table. Layla’s eyes rounded and she opened her mouth to protest loudly, but he caught it before it rolled onto the floor and shoved the nipple quickly back into her mouth. The baby subsided, blissfully guzzling once again, even though Linc was essentially holding her like a football under his arm. “You’re not sticking her with a bunch of strangers.”

  “I don’t even know how to respond to that.” Layla was kicking her legs so enthusiastically, Maddie was afraid the infant would squirt out from Linc’s grasp like a wet bar of soap. “She’s going to spit up everything she drinks. Give her to me.”

  “No.”

  She lifted her eyebrows. She wasn’t a seventeen-year-old girl who could be easily brushed off by him anymore. She’d cut her teeth in adult probation before transferring into family services. “No?”

  “If you’re not going to help, then just go home.” He turned away from her, walking out of the room. Layla’s legs bounced.

  Maddie followed after him, skipping twice to dart around him and block his momentum. “You don’t get it!”

  He frowned down at her. “I get that you’re in my way.”

  “You can’t unring the bell here. I can’t pretend you didn’t call me.” She tried to slide Layla out of his grip.

  He caught one of her hands in his, holding it away.

  “Linc! I have a legal obligation to rep—” She broke off when he squeezed her fingers. Not enough to hurt, but enough to express himself. His hazel eyes were hard and his jaw was so tight, it looked white.

  “To do nothing,” he ground out. “She’s my niece.”

  Maddie exhaled, feeling a sudden wave of sympathy that she hoped was more from exhaustion and goodwill toward his brother than because of tender feelings for Linc himself. “You think she’s your niece,” she corrected in an even tone. Based on a note that said nothing of substance.

  “She was left in my care.”

  “Jax’s care, actually. And you’re saying he’s out of town. Have you tried calling him? To see what he has to say about the baby?”

  “He’ll be home soon.” Linc’s tone was flat.

  She didn’t believe him.

  “Do you even know where he is?”

  His expression turned darker, his jawline whiter. “No.”

  She sighed.

  There was no earthly reason why she should want to help him. Yet that was exactly what she realized she was going to do. Or try to do. It would involve an end-run around her boss, but he was already going to be annoyed with her anyway, so she supposed she might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

  “I’ll call Archer.” Her brother, though personally exasperating, was a w
ell-respected attorney practicing in Braden. “He used to clerk for Judge Stokes back in the day and they have a good relationship. Hopefully good enough to cut out some of the steps and get you appointed temporary custodian right from the start.”

  “Perfect.”

  “He can try. It’s still a longshot,” she warned. “You’re a single man with no proof right now that this baby is your niece, so you don’t have that relationship on your side. I’m on a first-name basis with all of the individuals around this region who are qualified foster care providers, and there’s not a single, unmarried man among them. So—”

  “I don’t care who or what they are. I’m not some perfect stranger! Everyone in this town knows the Swift family.”

  Not necessarily a good thing. She kept the thought to herself. “Swift Oil pumps a lot of money into Wyoming,” she allowed. “But—”

  “But nothing. That should at least buy me enough time with the judge so that I can prove she’s my niece!”

  He wouldn’t be able to buy anything else with the judge. She had plenty of experience with Horvald Stokes. The judge cared about one thing—the well-being of a child. Period. “Without the mother here to say anything, you’ll need a DNA test to prove it.”

  “Then I’ll get a freaking DNA test!” His voice rose. “How long can that take?” Layla’s face crumpled and she started crying again.

  And Linc looked like he was about to lose it.

  Maddie decided not to tell him that Layla would need the test, as well. And that would require the judge’s order, too. “I’ll call Archer,” she said again and this time, successfully lifted the baby out of Linc’s arms. She offered Layla the bottle, but the baby turned her fussy face away. Maddie put her against her shoulder as she walked back out to the foyer, rubbing her back. “It’s okay, sweetie. What a night you’ve had, huh?”

  “That’s one way of putting it.”

  She worked open her purse and started rummaging inside. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

  As if she would ever call him sweetie.

  Her fingers latched onto her cell phone and she dragged it out of her purse. “When did you start needing glasses?”