“Like I said,” she told Will, “don’t let your imagination run away with you.”
His eyes met hers briefly as he thought of their moment in the clinic when who-knew-what had possessed him and he had done what he knew a lot of other men in the area all yearned to do. In his opinion, he had already gotten carried away, and once had to be more than enough. Because he might wind up being seriously doomed.
Cassidy McCullough had a body made for sin and a temperament that would make a shrew envious. That was not a combination that he would fare well with.
Any way he looked at it, it spelled trouble, and he intended to live a long, prosperous life. That meant avoiding, as much as humanly possible, having his path cross hers.
And yet, she was offering to help. If he turned that down, who knew what sort of consequences he would wind up reaping? Cassidy became insulted easily, and her wrath was not the sort to be taken lightly. Besides, there was no denying that he could use the help.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he told her, thinking that might call an end to the exchange.
Something in Laredo’s voice challenged her, but that was for another time. Right now, there was a small human being depending on her. A small human being whose parents were probably frantically looking for him right at this very moment.
She knew she would be if she were in their shoes.
“As long as we’re clear,” Cassidy replied. The next moment, she leaned forward as far as she could in the backseat.
“There’s the house,” she said, pointing to it.
“I know what your house looks like, Cassidy,” he replied. “I was just away for a few years. I wasn’t strapped to some gurney, having my brain wiped clean by some evil scientist.”
The latter was a reference to the superhero comic books they had all read as kids. Back then, they had pooled their money together to buy one each month as it came out, and then they’d pass it around, each taking their turn reading about whatever adventures were taking place in the current issue.
By the time she would get her turn, the pages had been folded countless times, not to mention faded. Consequently, some of the lettering was hardly legible. Being the youngest definitely had its drawbacks, she recalled.
“Eric Smith was a lot handsomer than you,” she recalled, mentioning the hero he was referring to by the character’s secret identity.
“He was a comic-book hero,” Will reminded her. “He was drawn that way.”
“I know. Makes the truth that much sadder, doesn’t it?” she asked, looking at him pointedly.
He could almost feel her eyes boring into the back of his head.
The next second, he was calling her attention to something else.
“Looks like you’ve got a welcoming committee,” Will observed, nodding at the front door. It was opening, and the next second, Connor came out.
The oldest McCullough didn’t exactly look happy, Will observed.
“Where the hell have you been?” Connor demanded the moment Cassidy opened her door. Connor walked over to the truck quickly. “Why didn’t you call, and why are you so wet? It’s raining, but you look like you’ve been swimming in the river.”
Reaching the truck, her brother saw the baby in her arms just as he was starting to cry. His brow furrowed. “What are you doing with Cody and Devon’s baby?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Cassidy answered. “Because this isn’t their baby.” She passed the baby to him before getting out of the truck. Once her feet were on the ground, she reclaimed Adam.
Somewhat dumbfounded, Connor turned toward Will.
“You make sense out of this for me?”
Will merely shrugged. “Hey, she’s your sister. I haven’t understood a thing she’s said since the day I met her.”
“Come in before it starts raining again,” Connor ordered. The sky had darkened again, and there was every indication that it would pour despite a short, promising break in the weather.
He waited until they were all inside the house. Will brought in the supplies the doctor had given them for Adam. Closing the door behind him, Connor faced the two of them. “Now, whose baby is this?” he asked. And now that he’d gotten a closer look at Will, he must have noticed that the latter was in the same condition as his sister. “What the hell were you two doing out there, and how does it involve this baby? You both look like you’ve been swimming in the river.”
“There’s a reason for that,” Cassidy told her brother, shifting the baby to her other arm. Adam was small, but he wasn’t exactly weightless.
“I’m listening,” Connor said, waiting.
She glanced at Will, thinking that he might jump in and interrupt her. When he didn’t—there’d always been something about Connor that put Will on his best behavior, she thought grudgingly—Cassidy went on to answer her brother’s questions.
“I saw the baby caught up in the flash flood, and I dove in to rescue him.”
“I rescued her rescuing him,” Will added, filling in his part in the story.
Connor’s eyes went from his sister to his friend, speaking volumes even as he remained silent and continued to wait.
Connor could always make her squirm, she thought, annoyed. She shrugged. “Maybe he did at that.”
“I look forward to hearing the details,” Connor told them. “But right now, why don’t you both change out of those wet clothes? I’ve got some clothes in my bedroom that’ll fit you, Will.”
As he spoke, Connor took the baby from his sister with the confidence of a man who had expertly taken care of his three siblings over the years, as well as, most recently, his niece. “I’ll just wait for you down here with the baby. Whose is it?” he asked again as they both began to head for the staircase.
“That’s the big mystery,” Cassidy replied, starting to take the stairs two at a time.
“Wait, what?” Connor asked. Babies didn’t just appear out of nowhere like in some fairy tale. Babies had parents and a definite entry point.
“We brought him to the clinic to get checked out,” Will told him. “But the doc didn’t recognize him. Couldn’t tell us who he belonged to. Then I called the sheriff about it—”
“—and he’s having Cody and Joe look into it,” Cassidy concluded as she hurried the rest of the way up the stairs. Her clothes were starting to feel clammy as they stuck to her, and she welcomed the thought of changing into something dry and more comfortable.
“Will,” Connor called to him, stopping the other man for a moment. Will turned and looked at him, waiting. “Thanks.” He didn’t elaborate any further.
He didn’t have to.
Will shrugged away Connor’s words. “Couldn’t exactly let her drown, now, could I?” he asked glibly. “Wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy—come to think of it...” Will’s voice trailed off as he grinned.
“Right,” Connor replied, knowing the game that went on between his sister and the man he and his brothers had known—and liked—all of their lives. “Just go change.”
Left alone, Connor gazed down at the baby in his arms. Bright blue eyes looked back up at him, as if trying to absorb everything in the immediate area and make sense of it.
“Well, you look none the worst for the experience,” Connor observed. “Want to give me a clue?” he asked. “Just whose baby are you?”
The baby just went on looking up at him.
* * *
HE WAS STILL wondering that several minutes later when both Will and his sister came back downstairs.
Cassidy, he noticed, might be trying to assume an air of complete disinterest and nonchalance, but she’d dried and combed out her hair rather than just catching it back in a wet ponytail the way she might have when they were a lot younger. And she’d put on a light blue blouse, one that brought out the color of her eyes.
“What do you plan to do about this baby?” Connor asked once they were both downstairs.
“Do?” Cassidy echoed.
“Yes, do. A baby takes a lot of work,” he reminded her.
She didn’t like being put on the spot, especially with Laredo witnessing all this. “I know that. I thought that we could all take turns.”
“And just when would your turn come up? As I recall, you’re normally putting in some pretty long hours at the law firm. Cody’s got a full-time job—not to mention a wife and baby to take care of—and Devon’s teaching,” he reminded his sister, referring to Cody’s wife. “Cole’s working at The Healing Ranch now, and that leaves me running the ranch here.”
Cassidy felt overwhelmed for a moment. She glanced in Will’s direction, but rather than say anything about him, she asked, “What about Rita?” Connor had recently hired the young woman on what amounted to a part-time basis. She did some light cleaning, and occasionally cooked dinner since all of them had taken on more responsibilities in the last few months. “She comes from a large family. A baby should be a piece of cake for her.”
“Having a large family doesn’t immediately qualify her to take care of a baby,” Connor pointed out. The baby was fussing, so he shifted the infant to his other arm, then began to slowly rock the child.
“Why don’t we just ask her if she’d like to pitch in? Between all of us, we’ll be able to handle one little baby,” she told her brother with confidence. “Besides, this could all be just for a short duration, just until Adam’s parents can be found.”
“Adam?” Connor repeated somewhat uncertainly. “You know his name?” If that was the case, then locating the parents shouldn’t be a problem.
“No,” she admitted, quickly adding, “We thought it might be helpful to have something to call him while we try to find his parents and take care of him. The name was Will’s idea.”
Connor wasn’t sure if she was giving the other man credit, or blaming him. He looked at Will. “So it’s a boy?”
“You can’t tell?” Will asked, feigning surprise.
Connor looked at him as if his friend was kidding. “It’s a baby,” he said pointedly. “At this age, they all look alike.”
Will laughed, amused.
Cassidy wasn’t. “If you ever get married and wind up having one of these little people yourself, make sure that your wife never hears you say that,” she warned her brother.
“If I ever do get married—” something Connor highly doubted, given that his life was almost always all about work and, until not that long ago, about watching out for his siblings “—and have one of these, I’ll know what it is when it’s born. There’ll be no reason to say that they all look alike.”
“Look, why don’t I just take him with me?” Will offered.
Cassidy turned to stare at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You?” she questioned, looking at Will incredulously. What did he know about taking care of a baby?
“Yeah, why not?” Will asked, taking offense at her tone. “I know I can take care of a baby as well as you can.”
Connor sighed. “As entertaining as this anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better refrain might be, why don’t the two of you put aside this competition thing you’ve had going on since forever and join forces to take care of this little guy until we find out just what his future is going to be?”
“Join forces?” Cassidy echoed as if her brother had suddenly lapsed into a foreign language. “You mean like, live together?”
Connor nearly choked at the very mention of the idea. “I don’t think the world is ready for that kind of warfare just yet. I was thinking more along the lines of you two each pitching in a few hours a day.”
“Laredo’s got a ranch to run by himself, remember? He can’t very well strap the baby onto his back,” Cassidy protested. “I’ve got a better idea. I’ll take the baby into work with me tomorrow.”
Both Connor and Will stared at her as if now she was the one speaking in a foreign tongue. “What?” Cassidy challenged. “Olivia’s a mother. She can appreciate the problems that arise with having a baby.”
“This isn’t your baby,” Will pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter whose he is,” Cassidy insisted. “The point is that he is a baby, and he needs to be taken care of. She’s got a couple of her own—as does Cash,” she reminded them. “They’ll probably be very helpful.”
There were times when her optimism astonished Will, given her usual personality. No doubt about it. Cassidy McCullough was a mystery on two legs. Two very long, shapely legs.
“She’s good when it comes to volunteering other people, isn’t she?” Will asked her oldest brother, amused by the liberties she assumed.
“Always,” Connor agreed. “But maybe you have something there,” he told Cassidy. “And who knows? Maybe by then Cody or Joe will be able to find out who Adam’s parents are.”
“Or at least what happened to them,” Will added grimly.
“You think they were lost in the flash flood?” Connor asked him.
“It is a possibility,” Will acknowledged.
“That would make this little guy an orphan.” Connor looked at the infant with new interest. “Maybe you came to the right place after all, little guy,” he said, addressing the baby.
“Are you going to be here for a while?” Cassidy suddenly asked her brother.
“Why?”
“Because I still have to get my truck, and if you’re okay with watching Adam here for a little bit, Laredo can drive me back to where I left it.”
She turned toward the other man. “Right?” she asked him pointedly.
“Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to drop you off somewhere,” Will answered, forcing a smile. It appeared utterly fake.
“That okay with you?” he asked Connor.
“Go, take her.” One arm securely around the baby, Connor waved his sister away and toward Will with his free hand. “The sooner she gets her truck, the sooner she’ll be back herself.”
“You heard the man,” Cassidy said to Will. “Let’s go.”
Will sighed, following her out the front door. “Somewhere in the world,” he commented, “there is a small country missing its dictator.”
Chapter Eight
Neither one of them spoke as they got into Will’s truck. Nor were any words exchanged once they got back on the road. The silence seemed only to grow louder and more encompassing as they continued to travel back to the site where she had left her truck.
After a few minutes, the silence almost seemed deafening. Cassidy leaned over and turned on the radio. Despite the fact that she turned it up as far as it could go, no sound came out. Cassidy tried again, turning it off and then on again. Still nothing.
Biting back a few choice words, Cassidy tried pressing a few of the buttons, thinking that perhaps a couple of the stations were down, but, obviously, the radio itself wasn’t connecting.
In response to the frustrated sigh she exhaled, Will told her, “It’s dead.”
“I kind of figured that out,” she answered curtly. “Can’t you fix it?”
The radio, like the truck itself, had had its share of problems. “Not worth fixing,” he replied.
How could he stand driving around without a radio? In her opinion, music made everything more tolerable. “Then get a new one.”
He didn’t even spare her a glance. “Not exactly high on my priority list right now.”
There was an entire host of expenses facing him. He didn’t have the money to waste on a new radio, and he wasn’t handy enough to bring the car radio back from the dead.
&n
bsp; Cassidy contemplated lapsing back into silence, but the idea was just not appealing. Even arguing with Laredo was better than riding along in this all-encompassing silence.
Desperate for some sort of noise, Cassidy decided to try her luck at getting him to talk. “You know, I didn’t think you’d stick around after Cody’s wedding.”
“You didn’t think I’d stick around, or you hoped I wouldn’t stick around?” he asked, glancing in her direction.
They knew each other better than either of them was really willing to admit. “Both,” she answered. “When my brothers told me you had that big, knock-down, drag-out fight with your father and then just rode out of town, I really thought we’d seen the last of you.”
She’d almost slipped and made it more personal by saying, “I,” but she’d caught herself just in time. That was all she needed, to have Laredo think that she had some sort of personal stake in his being around.
“Well, you were the one who sent that letter from Olivia’s firm, notifying me about my father’s will, telling me that he left the ranch to me. I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t.” He’d always figured that his father was too ornery to die and would go on living on the ranch forever. The letter he’d received had knocked him for a loop. It took him a while to reconcile himself to the facts. “How did you track me down, anyway?” he asked.
“I had nothing to do with it,” she informed him. Then because he was looking at her, waiting for her to own up to the deed, she said, “Connor knew where to find you. And anyway, that notification wasn’t from me personally. As I already mentioned, I was told to draft the letter on behalf of the law firm.” Thinking he might need more of a background than that, she said, “Your father had Olivia draft the will leaving the property to you.”
Will heard the words, but he still couldn’t really make any sense out of what he was hearing. He shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like the old man. Leaving all his debts for me to pay sounds more like him,” he had to admit, “but not the ranch.”
The Rancher and the Baby Page 7