It Must Be Christmas

by Jennifer Crusie

  “Okay,” she finally said. “Let’s have a look at this little one.”

  Dave looked down inside his coat. He must have thrown off some good heat because the baby was sleeping, little tiny lips moving in and out as it breathed. As gently as he possibly could, he slid his opposite hand inside and cradled the baby’s bottom in his wide palm, using his shoulder and upper arm to assist him in shifting the baby out of his coat.

  “You’re good with babies,” she offered. She reached for the bundle and took it into her hands. They were good hands, he realized. Despite her small size, her hands were strong and capable. Ordinary—no polish, just smooth, rounded nails, and as their fingertips brushed, her skin was soft against his. Yesterday they’d had the thickness of gloves between them. Now, as their hands touched while shifting the baby, the contact felt somehow intimate. It was the damnedest thing.

  Cradling the infant in the crook of her elbow, Charlie peeled back the blanket. The baby was dressed in a blue fuzzy sleeper and a thin stretchy hat.

  She smiled up at Dave. “I’m guessing it’s a boy.”

  There was no note tucked in with the baby as far as Dave could see. Instead he followed Charlie to an exam room with better lighting. She lay the sleeping baby carefully on the exam table and began looking him over. First, checking what she could with the sleeper on, and then she began unsnapping the pajamas. The baby woke then, disturbed by the feeling of being undressed and exposed. At the same time there was a knock at the outer door.

  Charlie never looked up from her examination. “Could you get that? It’ll be the police.”

  Dave went to the door and flipped the lock, letting in the other man, who was dressed in his uniform and was big enough that Dave figured most men in town would think twice before picking a fight. “Officer,” he greeted, holding open the door. “I’m Dave Ricker.”

  “Is Dr. Yang in trouble?” The cop pushed into the reception area, his eyes sharp.

  “No, no, of course not.” Dave shook his head. “Follow me. She’s in here.”

  The officer followed Dave back to the exam room and brushed by him at the doorway. “Dr. Yang? Are you okay?”

  She looked up, keeping one hand on the baby’s belly, as if anchoring him in place. “Hello, Todd.”

  Dave watched as the burly officer’s hard gaze softened as he looked at the baby. “Well. Who have we here?”

  “I wish I could tell you.” She met Dave’s gaze across the room. “Dave, this is Todd Smith. Come on in and tell him what happened, Dave, and I can finish up my exam. This little guy would probably like to be bundled up again.”

  Dave stepped a little outside the door, the urge to cuddle the infant, to quiet his crying surprisingly strong. He watched as Charlie felt the little one’s tummy gently, her concentration focused solely on the baby. “It might be quieter out here,” he suggested.

  He felt strange now that his arms were empty. He’d gotten used to holding the baby so quickly.

  “You said your name’s Dave?”

  He turned away from the sight. “That’s right. David Ricker. I’m renting a cottage in the area and work on the docks. Charlie and I were at the tree lighting tonight.”

  “Together?”

  There was an edge to Todd Smith’s voice that Dave recognized. That was another thing he was learning about small towns. People looked out for each other. He was actually really glad that someone had Charlie’s back. He got the feeling she felt she was mostly on her own.

  “Not together together, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Though they would have been if Dave had had any say about it.

  “Go on.”

  “We were walking to the pub—we were going to meet some people there for a bite to eat. I thought I saw someone hanging around the manger, and then they went running off.”

  Smith’s gaze sharpened as he looked up from his notepad. “You saw who left him?”

  “Not exactly. I mean I did, but I just saw a person. I couldn’t tell you what they looked like. Young, maybe? Slight. Probably a woman. A girl.” He let out a breath.

  “So you checked it out.”

  “I did. When I looked in the manger, I couldn’t believe it. Who the hell would leave a baby outside, in a nativity scene, on a December night?” His jaw tightened. “What if we hadn’t been there? That baby might have frozen to death.”

  Smith nodded. “Lucky for him you did see. Why didn’t you wait there? I would have looked the scene over.”

  “It was cold. Considering the baby, Charlie wanted to come here where it was warm, and make sure he was okay.”

  “That’s all right. I’ll call this in and go back over and see what I can find.”

  Charlie came back to the reception room, the baby dressed again in his sleeper and wrapped in the blanket. “He’s a bit on the small side, but otherwise he looks well enough,” she decreed with a smile. The baby was burrowed into her neck, sucking on his fingers. “But he’s going to be hungry really soon.”

  It looked disturbingly right, the way she was holding the child.

  “I have to contact child services,” Smith said quietly. “He’ll have to go into foster care until this is sorted out.”

  “Of course,” Charlie answered, while Dave’s gut churned. This poor little thing. Abandoned and then pawned off into foster care. It didn’t seem right.

  Charlie’s hand was on the baby’s head now, stroking the fine, blond hair. “Listen,” she said to Smith, “why don’t we leave him under my medical care until morning? That’s soon enough, don’t you think? We’ve got a stock of diapers and emergency formula here. I can care for him until then, make sure there aren’t any other medical issues that weren’t immediately apparent. You’ll have a better idea of the situation by then too.”

  “You’re up to it? Because this baby’s pretty little. There’ll be no sleeping through the night or anything.”

  Charlie smiled softly. “I’ll be fine. I did my neonatal and pediatric rotations and everything.” She bounced the baby a little bit. “We’ll be fine, won’t we, buddy?”

  Dave jumped in, even though he questioned whether or not he should. “I can help too.”

  Smith raised an eyebrow. “What sort of experience do you have with babies?” he asked, laughing a little. “Because believe me, it’s harder than it looks. My sister has two. I volunteered to babysit for a weekend once.” He shuddered, and Charlie laughed.

  Dave paused, annoyed at how easily Charlie seemed charmed by the young officer, annoyed at how he was made to feel left out of their little club. “I have a daughter,” he said quietly, his gaze shifting to Charlie, watching as her smile slipped from her lips and her eyes registered confusion.

  He probably should have mentioned that before inviting her back to his place. But it wasn’t exactly icebreaker sort of conversation. It was the kind of thing he’d rather ease into.

  “A daughter?” she whispered, and he felt like an absolute heel for springing it on her and for letting himself be baited by his own stupid male pride.

  “Yes,” he replied. “She lives with her mother in Kennebunkport.”

  “Oh.”

  He hated the disappointment he saw in Charlie’s face. But now wasn’t the time to explain. Instead he turned his attention to the police officer. “I’ll help Charlie get settled, give a statement at the station, whatever you need.”

  “I appreciate your help, Mr. Ricker.” He wrote a phone number on a slip of paper and handed it over to Charlie. “This is my cell number. You call if you need anything or think of something you might have missed.” Smith gave her a stern look. “You should program that into your phone too, so you can avoid calling dispatch.”

  “I don’t think that’s necess—”

  “You do it. You’re part of this town and around here we look out for each other. You’ll be getting a call from us too, I expect. I’m sure there will be more questions.”

  He was gone in a gust of cold air, leaving them alone in the clinic again,
the silence loud between them.

  * * *

  Charlie hadn’t thought she’d ever be glad to hear a baby cry, but the moment the infant sent up an impatient squall, she finally let out her breath.

  She could focus on the baby and not on Dave. Dave with his soulful eyes, helpful nature … and his kid.

  He had a child. It seemed to her that was pretty important information.

  “I need to fix some formula,” she murmured. “Here. You hold him. It’ll be faster that way.” Without sparing him another glance, Charlie turned away and headed down the hall to a cupboard, where she removed a can of baby formula. Then she marched to the kitchen in the back, putting a kettle on to boil and then taking a bottle and nipple out of the cabinet. She wasn’t sure how she felt about this new tidbit of knowledge. Wasn’t sure she even had the right to be out of sorts about it.

  Dave had followed her down the hall and now stood in the doorway. The baby wasn’t soothed at all, even as he jostled his arms up and down a bit. The cries only increased in pitch.

  “Do you have everything you need?” he asked, over top of the racket. “He’s a hungry little guy.”

  Charlie nodded, pouring the formula into a bottle and screwing on the top, then immersing the bottle in a cup of hot water to warm the formula. They stood in the small kitchen, the shrill cries rubbing on the edge of Charlie’s nerves.

  She looked up at Dave. “So. You have a daughter.”

  He nodded, staring her straight in the eyes. “Yes. And an ex to go with her, of course. You might as well get a complete picture.”

  He was edgy. Well, too bad. “It might have been nice information to have.”

  He switched the baby to his other shoulder. “I met you yesterday. Asked you out tonight. I wasn’t really sure of the when-to-bring-up-the-ex-and-kid protocol.”

  “I’m not sure either. It just feels weird.”

  “Why? Because you said yes?”

  He started patting the baby on the back as the tension in the small kitchen ratcheted up some more. “So you and Officer Todd. Is there some history there?”

  She frowned at the abrupt change in subject. “What?”

  “You know. You guys seemed pretty friendly. He was awfully protective of you.”

  She burst out laughing then, turned back to the sink, and took the bottle out of the water. “You think Todd and I have a thing?” It was ludicrous. Todd was a good five years younger than she was, and she was pretty sure he had a girlfriend. “First of all, I wouldn’t have … flirted with you if I were with Todd. And in case you didn’t notice, he was nothing but professional earlier.”

  His voice was quieter now. “You’re right. I guess I just got a little jealous.”

  Jealous? The idea sent a swirl of something delicious through her tummy. She turned back around and rested her hips on the edge of the counter, determined to keep her composure. The baby’s cries had subsided to whimpers now. “Believe me, there’s nothing romantic between Todd and me.”

  “Just so you know, I wouldn’t make a move on someone else’s girl,” he stated, and it made her want to smile. He sounded about sixteen years old. But she supposed it was a good thing. Honor and all that.

  “Poor thing,” she murmured, taking the baby from his arms so she could offer the bottle. “Can we put a pin in this and talk about it later? Right now I just want to focus on one thing at a time.” She laughed a little as the baby began drinking lustily. “And getting this guy fed and comfortable is top priority, don’t you agree?”

  Dave nodded, and let the matter drop. “I just can’t believe it,” he said quietly. “Who would leave a baby out in the elements like that? It’s barbaric.”

  Charlie regarded him sadly. “Things like this happen more than you’d think. People can’t cope. They get to the end of their ropes, and they do uncharacteristic and terrible things. As a doctor, I can’t let myself judge.”

  “You’ve seen something like this before?”

  She felt her heart constrict. She tried not to dwell on past cases. Still there were always a few that she couldn’t forget. Ones that haunted her long after they were over. “Once,” she said quietly, “when I was working backshift in New York, the ambulance brought in a preemie. She’d been left in a garbage can. The mother just … didn’t know what else to do and she panicked. The baby only lived a few hours after coming in.”

  One of the hardest things she’d ever done as a doctor was call that time of death.

  But then she shook off the heavy feeling of failure. “There are reasons why I chose to be a family doctor in a small town.” She didn’t want to get into all the reasons why, or how she’d found herself struggling to deal with the traumatic cases she saw on a day-to-day basis. She’d chosen Jewell Cove because it seemed idyllic. Like an East Coast Mayberry, where bad things simply didn’t happen. A place where she might find the life she wanted rather than the one that was expected.

  Of course bad things did happen, no matter where a person lived. Tonight was a prime example, though at least this one had the potential for a happy ending.

  “Anyway,” she continued, smiling a little, “thanks to you, we got to this little boy in time. He looks to be full term and hungry as a horse. You saved him tonight, Dave.” She smiled up at him. “Let’s go to the reception area where it’s more comfortable.”

  There was a beanbag chair in the kids’ area, and she held the baby against her shoulder while she lowered herself into it carefully. The form settled around her and she crossed her legs yoga-style. She took the opportunity to burp him and then reintroduced the bottle. The baby took it eagerly, little lips fastening about the tip with a ferocity that made her laugh. “Okay, okay,” she soothed, adjusting the angle of her arm for better comfort.

  Dave sat in a chair across from the play area and watched her. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but from the way his mouth was set and the troubled look in his eyes, she guessed it wasn’t good.

  “You don’t have to stay, you know,” she said, letting out a breath. “Formula, diapers … I have all I need.”

  “You’re going to stay here all night?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time,” she said easily. “Seriously, there are worse places to spend a night.”

  He smiled tightly. “I know. I’ve stayed in a few myself. But why don’t you go home?”

  She pulled the bottle away for a minute and wiped a dribble of milk off the baby’s chin before letting him have some more. “It’s just easier. My car’s still down on the waterfront, and I don’t have a car seat either. It’s really okay, Dave. It’s warm in here, there’s a fold-out cot in the back, and there’s even some food in the fridge if I get hungry.” She tried to stifle a yawn but failed. The truth was she was dead tired tonight, though she didn’t really know why. Maybe it was all the fresh air. Or maybe it was the brief surge of adrenaline from finding the baby. Now that she’d slowed down, relaxation was setting in. Not to mention how warm the baby felt in her arms. He really could throw some decent body heat for an infant.

  “You’re sure? I could stay if you wanted. So you don’t have to stay alone.”

  It was sweet of him to offer. Charlie was starting to think that despite surprises tonight, Dave was a really decent guy. But she was a big girl and she didn’t need to be rescued. Once more she removed the bottle from the baby’s mouth, and then put him on her shoulder and began patting his back, trying to relieve any gas that had built up from his gulping most of his supper.

  “I spend every night alone,” she answered, blushing a little. “The only difference is I’m here and not at my house.”

  “I suppose,” he answered, and she would have sworn he looked disappointed.

  The sharp crack of a burp echoed through the office and they both laughed.

  “There,” she said softly, shifting the baby to the crook of her arm again. “That must feel better!”

  This time when she put the nipple by his lips, he latched on and his eyes start
ed to drift closed. Her heart shifted a little as one tiny little hand moved to rest along the side of the plastic bottle, willing it to stay in place. What a sweet little treasure he was.

  “I guess I’ll take off, then,” Dave said, rather reluctantly, she thought.

  “Thank you for all your help tonight. I mean it. This little guy is so lucky you came along.”

  To her surprise, Dave got up from his chair and knelt in front of her. “I think he’s lucky you came along,” he said softly. “You’re a real natural with him, you know that?”

  “A baby’s needs are pretty simple.” She brushed off the compliment, disturbed by how touched she was by it. They’d just met. But it was the perfect thing to say.

  “Still.” He reached out and brushed a little piece of hair away from her face. “I was deployed when my daughter was born. I only got to see her at this age a few times.”

  Charlie looked away and bit her lip. “Do you see her now?”

  He smiled then, and it lit up his face. “Yeah. Janice and her new husband moved to Kennebunkport and opened a little inn. I came here so I could see my baby girl more often. I don’t want to miss out on all those important moments, you know? Jewell Cove isn’t permanent for me, but this job does let me be close while I figure out what happens next.”

  If he’d been attractive before, the knowledge that he was trying to be a good father definitely tipped the scales even more in his favor.

  He stepped back. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

  “I will,” she answered, but she knew she wouldn’t. She didn’t have his cell number, and she didn’t know the number for his rental cottage either. Which was okay. She’d be fine here tonight.

  He reached the door, but before he opened it he turned one last time. “Please lock this behind me,” he ordered.

  “Yes, boss.”

  He smiled at her once more before slipping out into the cold night, leaving her alone with the baby and the silence. And perhaps what surprised her the most was how, after he was gone, she really wished he’d stayed after all.