A Baby on the Ranch

by Stella Bagwell

  It was a good thing they were stopped, Lonnie thought. Otherwise, he might have run smack into the vehicle ahead of them. “Oh, no! Lonnie isn’t a name you want to pin on your boy. It’s, well, it’s sorta redneck. He needs something strong and sophisticated.”

  A faint smile dimpled her cheeks. “I don’t know where you ever got such an idea. I think Lonnie is strong and masculine. Just like you.”

  In the bright glare of the snow, Lonnie knew there wasn’t any way he could hide the red color filtering into his cheeks. He wasn’t used to a woman giving him a compliment. Especially not such a personal one.

  “That’s nice of you, Katherine. But I just don’t think—”

  “What is your middle name?” she interrupted.

  “David.”

  She smiled. “Lonnie David McBride. I’ll call him David. Do you mind?”

  He tried to speak, but his throat was suddenly so thick he had to swallow before he could get anything out. “Why no. Why would I mind?”

  The traffic light changed and though he desperately wanted to look over at her and the baby, he had to keep his focus on the traffic around them.

  Katherine shrugged. “Well, you’ll probably get married and have a son of your own someday. Your wife might want to name him Lonnie David, Jr., and then she might not like it that my son is running around with your name.”

  Lonnie’s chuckle was self-deprecating and full of disbelief. “Oh, no, Katherine. No—that won’t be happening.”

  She frowned at him. “How can you sound so sure? Have you sworn off marriage or something?”

  Nervously he rubbed a palm against the side of his face. “Uh, not exactly. But—just believe me when I say I’d be honored for you to name the boy Lonnie David. Real honored.”

  Several minutes later Lonnie was holding Katherine’s long list in one hand and pushing a shopping cart between rows of baby products. Quickly, without too much attention to name brands, he tossed in a car seat, blankets, Tshirts, socks, powder, baby oil, cotton swabs, wet wipes and a bottle. Along with those items, he added a little stuffed horse and a tiny orange cap with the words I’m a Longhorn written above the bill. Now all he needed was to pick up the diapers.

  “Well, Sheriff Corteen! What are you doing here?”

  Lonnie groaned inwardly as he recognized the voice of one of his closest neighbors. Effie Boatright was a good woman. She worked hard at raising her three grandchildren, whose parents had been killed in a small, commuter plane crash. And Lonnie admired her dogged spirit, but she’d always been on the nosy side, especially where Lonnie’s personal life was concerned. Effie hated the idea that he lived alone, and she was always trying to fix him up with a date. Probably because she was lonely, he figured, and she thought that he was lonely, too.

  “I have a guest who’s just had a baby and she needs a few things.”

  The large, rawboned woman gave him a bright smile. “Well now, that’s excitin’—a guest with a new baby. She from around here?”

  Lonnie glanced pointedly at the list and hoped Effie would get the message that he was in a hurry.

  “No. From Fort Worth.”

  “Guess you must be friends with the father.”

  “Er—something like that.” Lonnie never did take to lying about anything. But he knew if he gave Effie a hint of Katherine’s situation, she’d have the news spread all over Hereford in a matter of minutes. Not that he was embarrassed about having a woman and a newborn baby in his house. But he didn’t want any sort of false rumors to hurt Katherine. She’d already been hurt enough by the man who’d left her.

  “Nice seeing you, Effie. You drive safe on these roads,” he told the older woman before he hurriedly pushed his cart on down the aisle toward the diapers.

  Out in the parking lot, he’d left the engine running in the SUV so the heater would keep Katherine and the baby warm. When he opened the door to load the packages, the sound of little David’s squalls blasted his ears.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  Katherine rocked the baby to and fro in an effort to calm him. “He’s hungry.”

  Lonnie shut the door on the last of the packages and climbed into the driver’s seat. He glanced with concern at his new namesake.

  “Well, I don’t know how you’re going to feed the little tot,” he exclaimed. “You only had one bottle written down on the list and you didn’t have formula written down at all.”

  Katherine looked at him in amazement and then lifted a hand to her mouth as she started to giggle. “Oh, Lonnie. I’m going to feed him the natural way. We women are equipped for that, you know.”

  Lonnie’s lips parted, and then his face grew ruddy with embarrassment. “See. I told you I wasn’t father material.”

  She reached over and touched his arm. “I’m not sure I’m mother material, either. I don’t guess anyone knows what kind of parent they’ll be until they’re given the role.”

  “Maybe. But I should have been using some common sense.” He started to put the gearshift into Reverse and then suddenly remembered the car seat he’d purchased. From the looks of the contraption, he figured it would take hours to get the seat strapped securely into place.

  He looked over at her and little David, who was still emitting short, angry cries. “I got the car seat,” he told her. “But it’s too cold to try to set it up now. I’ll drive carefully on the way home to the ranch. And if you want—go ahead and feed him. I won’t look.”

  “Thank you, Lonnie.”

  He backed out of the parking slot and headed the vehicle toward the highway leading out of town. Beside him, he could hear the rustle of Katherine’s clothing and then the hungry smack of the baby’s lips as it latched on to her nipple.

  The image burned Lonnie’s mind with all sorts of intimate thoughts, and suddenly he wished that he had the right to watch her nurse the baby, the right to touch her breasts and the rest of her soft body. But she didn’t belong to him, and he’d be a fool to think she ever would.

  Chapter Eight

  Later that afternoon, at the sheriff’s office in Hereford, Lonnie held the phone away from his ear as Seth practically shouted at him.

  “She had the baby? At your house?”

  “That’s right,” Lonnie told him. “There wasn’t anything I could do about it. All the ambulances were tied up, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I could have driven her to the hospital. We were barely able to drive to the ranch. So I delivered the baby myself.”

  Seth made a noise that implied he found the whole incident incredulous. “You know, I’ve been a lawman for nearly twenty years, and I’ve never delivered a baby. But you—this is your second one, isn’t it? What do you do to women anyway, Lonnie, to get their motors running?”

  Still feeling pretty proud of himself, Lonnie grinned. “I don’t know. I guess you could say I’ve been in the wrong place at the right time or maybe that’s the right place at the wrong time. Anyway, I’m beginning to ask myself if I should have been an obstetrician instead of a sheriff. Might be a safer job.”

  “Dealing with irritable women?” Seth asked with comic disbelief, then turned a more serious question on him. “Where are you now, Lonnie, still at the ranch?”

  “No. I’m here at work. At my office.”

  “Oh. So you got Katherine and the baby to the hospital. I guess they’re still there?”

  “They spent a few hours there so the doctor could check them out. But they’re home now. At the ranch. The doctor didn’t see any need to keep them at the hospital.” Lonnie smiled, feeling a touch of pride. “She’s not wimpy, Seth. I guess you’d say she was a real Ketchum—strong as a whip.”

  His friend totally ignored the strong part and instead gasped with amazement. “Mother and baby are out at your place? Damn it, Lonnie, they shouldn’t be alone!”

  Lonnie doodled on a message pad lying among the papers and communication devices scattered across his desk. “I am the sheriff here, Seth. I have responsibilities I need to attend
to. Katherine assured me she would be fine for a couple of hours. In fact, I think she was looking forward to having a bit of privacy. You know me—I’ve probably been smothering her a little too much.”

  Seth grunted with wry amusement. “Yeah, I imagine you have been smothering her. I guess you two have gotten pretty close during all of this,” he added thoughtfully.

  Lonnie’s doodling stopped as he recalled the images of Katherine straining to have little David. He’d felt her pain and desperately wanted to take it all away. He’d been frantic at the notion she might hemorrhage to death right before his eyes. And then later, when he’d kissed her, he’d felt as if she was the only woman he was ever supposed to kiss, or even want to kiss. Yeah, he was getting close all right, he decided. But he wasn’t about to let himself believe it was a two-sided thing.

  “A little.”

  Lonnie’s evasive reply left Seth quiet for a few moments, then he said, “I really think I should come on up there, Lonnie. You can’t handle this by yourself. And once I’m there—”

  “No!” Lonnie interrupted. “Katherine isn’t ready for that. Too much has happened. We haven’t even had a chance to discuss you Ketchums yet.”

  “You were cooped up in your truck for hours yesterday. What did you talk about, the weather?”

  “Well, as a matter of fact, it did come up. We were in an ice storm, you know.”

  Seth groaned and Lonnie grimaced.

  “Look, Lonnie, it’s like you said a few minutes ago, you have your job to do. Katherine and the baby need care. If you don’t want me around, Corrina would be more than happy to drive up and help her.”

  Corrina was Seth’s new wife and a lovely woman. She and Katherine would no doubt get along. But Corrina was a Ketchum. Lonnie didn’t want to push anything or anyone about the family on Katherine until she showed him a sign that she was ready.

  “I’m sure Corrina would be a big help. But what would I say when she got here? Katherine, your sister-in-law, has come to the ranch to take care of you? Hell, Seth, she hasn’t even come to terms with the fact that Celia might not be her real mother.”

  Seth groaned with frustration. “Then what has all this gained us, Lonnie? You got her to your ranch, but if we can’t come see her—”

  “Give me time, Seth. I’ll nudge her around to seeing y’all. But I want her to feel comfortable about it.”

  The Texas Ranger on the other end of the line went quiet for long moments, and Lonnie realized this whole thing was hard on his friend. Seth and his family had loved their mother dearly and they’d been through a horrible ordeal with Noah’s murder. The Ketchums probably figured that bringing Katherine and her baby into the family would make up for some of the grief they’d dealt with over the past few months.

  “You’re right, Lonnie. I’m just getting anxious, and now that the baby has come I know everyone in the family is going to be excited to see him.”

  A broad smile lit Lonnie’s face. “Seven pounds and six ounces. Twenty inches long. He looks just like Katherine, Seth. And you’re gonna be surprised when you see her. She resembles Victoria a whole lot. She has your mother’s dark hair and green eyes.”

  A faint knock on the office door had Lonnie lifting his head to see one of his deputies entering the room with a fistful of papers. He made a motion to the man to wait, then to Seth he said, “I gotta go, buddy. Work is calling. I’ll keep you informed on how things are going out at the ranch.”

  “All right. But before you go, Lonnie, what did Katherine name her son?”

  Thankfully the deputy was studying the notes in his hand and missed the inanely proud grin he knew was on his face. “Lonnie David.”

  “That’s your name!”

  “Yeah, it sure is.”

  He hung up the phone before Seth could say anything else. Across the desk, the deputy said, “Sorry to interrupt you, Sheriff, but if you’ve got a minute, could you take a look at this information? I think we need to get the judge to sign a search warrant.”

  Lonnie took the papers and motioned for the deputy to take a seat. For now, he had to get Katherine and the baby out of his mind, but the sweet knowledge that he’d get to go home to them later made the sun shining across his desk seem a whole lot brighter.

  For the next three days, Katherine steadily regained her strength. At the same time baby David was forming a routine of when he wanted to eat and sleep. The weather turned nice and quickly melted away the last vestiges of ice and snow left over from the storm.

  Lonnie’s house was small, with odds and ends and pieces of furniture that were more comfortable than stylish. As soon as Katherine had been able to walk around and mosey through the rooms, she’d instantly fallen in love with the hominess of the place. Especially the kitchen, which was filled with old dishes and pots and pans that could actually be cooked in rather than just looked at.

  This evening she’d found a chicken in the freezer and a bag of noodles in the cupboards, along with a small package of corn bread mix. When Lonnie arrived home from work, he discovered her at the gas range, stirring something in a big pot. The smell of chicken and spices filled the little kitchen, and he sniffed appreciatively.

  “I don’t know what you’re doing, up and cooking, but it sure does smell good in here.”

  Turning away from the range, she smiled at him. “You’d better wait until you taste it before you compliment me. You didn’t exactly have the required spices for chicken soup, but I used what I could find. Don’t you ever buy groceries?”

  He pulled off his Stetson and hung it on a peg by the door. As he ran a hand through his flattened hair, he said, “Every once in a while I’ll go to the store and buy a load of groceries and promise myself I’m going to cook nutritious things to eat rather than grabbing hamburgers or barbecue. But then I get busy and all my good intentions go down the drain.”

  She watched him pull the sheriff’s badge from the left side of his white shirt, then unbuckle the pistol from his hips. After he placed the weapon atop the tall refrigerator, he went over to the table where baby David was sleeping peacefully in a bassinet the two of them had concocted from a rattan basket.

  Bending over the basket, Lonnie gently adjusted the blue blanket across the baby’s shoulders, then ran a finger over the fine dark hair that Katherine had oiled and brushed to one side.

  “He’s really something, isn’t he?” he whispered.

  The tender awe in Lonnie’s voice touched Katherine in a deep, emotional way. Just as it always did when she watched his loving reaction to her son. His genuine affection for David made her wish she had met a man like him before Walt. It was also a poignant reminder that her son wouldn’t have a father. Especially a father as fine as Lonnie would be.

  “I still want to cry with joy when I look at him,” she admitted.

  Lonnie moved away from the baby and came to stand next to Katherine. As he peered curiously into the bubbling pot, she glanced up at him and felt her heart leap in a happy little jig. Each evening when he came home, she was reminded all over again of his big, strong body and his rugged, manly features. And each time she realized how glad she was to have his company. Living with him like this had turned out to be much sweeter than she’d imagined and she couldn’t hide the pleasure she felt whenever he was near.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked quietly.

  “I’m feeling great. David has been asleep most of the day and I managed to get plenty of rest.”

  His eyes slipped over her lightly made up face and further down to the thin beige sweater she was wearing over a pair of black slacks. Her full breasts were straining the fabric and her stomach was still a little pudgy, but to Lonnie that only made her sexier and more womanly. There’d been so many times these past three days that he’d found himself wanting to reach out and touch her, to press her soft body next to his. And standing beside her now, he realized the wanting was only getting stronger.

  “That’s good. But I hope you’re not doing this cooking on my ac
count. I don’t expect it.”

  Katherine had to smile. Lonnie was the most undemanding man she’d ever met. That made it even nicer to do something for him.

  “I know you don’t expect it. It’s just something I want to do. And it’s nice to have time away from work to cook and do things I don’t normally get a chance to.”

  He remained thoughtfully quiet for a few moments before he asked, “So you’re not missing Fort Worth yet?”

  These past few days Katherine hadn’t really asked herself that question. She’d been too absorbed with her new baby and with getting to know Lonnie and the home he was so generously sharing with her. But now that he’d posed the question, she realized she’d be happy if she never had to see Fort Worth again, which was a scary thought. Her job, her life was there. This time with Lonnie was only a temporary thing.

  “Not really. I love the solitude here. And my job can get awfully hectic at times. I’m not quite ready to jump back into it just yet. But don’t worry, I’ll get out of your hair soon.”

  He frowned at her. “You’re not causing any problems. You can stay as long as you like.”

  Feeling suddenly awkward, Katherine picked up a spoon and stirred the chicken and noodles. “That’s kind of you, Lonnie. But I will have to get back soon.”

  Just hearing her talk about leaving made him feel empty, and he wondered just how awful this place would be once she did leave. He wished he didn’t have to think about it. Now or ever.

  “How soon?”

  She shrugged and hoped he didn’t notice how rapidly her heart was beating beneath her sweater. “Oh, I don’t know. Before long.”

  He didn’t speak for a minute or two and when he did, his voice was low and husky. “Katherine, is there someone back in Fort Worth that you’re…close to?”

  Her head twisted around and she looked up at him in surprise. “Close to? You mean, like a boyfriend?”

  He nodded solemnly. “Yeah, like a boyfriend or a—lover.”

  It was all she could do not to wince at the last word. For months now whenever she’d thought of Walt, she’d vowed she would never let another man make love to her. But since Lonnie had appeared at her apartment, she’d been having long, second thoughts about that vow of celibacy.