COWBOY AND THE BABY, THE

by Ferrarella, Marie

  “Nice is my middle name,” he told her in a low voice, hoping not to be overheard by any of his siblings.

  He hoped in vain. Cole and Cassidy rolled their eyes in response to his comment. Connor merely shook his head. But since none of them said anything in response, Cody counted himself ahead in the game.

  “Good to know,” Devon replied before pushing the bassinet back into the guest room as Cody followed her with the baby.

  After moving the bassinet into a corner, she turned around to face Cody. There was something so very heartwarming about seeing him cradling her daughter in his arms.

  Snap out of it, Devon. No more entanglements, remember?

  Squaring her shoulders, she told Cody, “Why don’t you continue to hold her while I get everything ready?”

  “Don’t have to ask me twice,” he answered. Layla looked perfectly fine with this arrangement, Devon couldn’t help thinking.

  She swiftly laid out the baby’s new diaper and a change of clothing, thanks to the box of clothes Miss Joan had collected for Layla.

  With that ready, she went to the bathroom sink and ran the water, making sure it was just the right temperature for the infant. Aside from a large, fluffy towel, she also got a cup ready, placing it nearby.

  “Okay,” Devon said, taking the baby from Cody, “Time to make a water baby out of you,” she told Layla as she laid the infant on her bed.

  She removed the baby’s clothing, secretly relieved that Layla had seen fit not to leave any unexpected deposits in her fresh diaper.

  Cody watched her as she got the baby ready for her bath. “You sure you didn’t have any younger brothers or sisters?” he asked her.

  “Nope,” she verified, “it was always just me.”

  She seemed to be too confident about what she was doing to be a novice, he thought. “But you babysat a lot of infants, right?”

  “No. Why would you say that?”

  Slowly immersing Layla’s lower half into the water, she gently splashed a little water along the baby’s tummy. Layla made a noise that sounded as if she liked what was happening.

  “You just seem very comfortable with all this. I thought maybe you’d done it before.” And then he shrugged. “I guess you’re just a natural.”

  She laughed. For a second, she considered letting his impression stand, but then she thought better of it. She didn’t want him thinking she was something she wasn’t. There’d been enough of that in her life with Jack. She couldn’t play any games, even if they were the kind that was totally inconsequential.

  Tilting the baby back a little against one arm, she cupped her other hand and allowed a little warm water to wet the fringe of dark hair on Layla’s head.

  “Look in my purse,” she prompted. When he glanced at her curiously, she added, “It’s on the desk.”

  He wasn’t sure why she wanted him to look in her purse, but he retrieved it and then opened it the way she instructed. Inside was an extremely worn, dog-eared copy of a paperback book written by a popular pediatrician.

  “That was a new book when I got it,” she told him when he held up the book to make sure it was what she’d wanted him to find. “I was determined to be the very best mother I could be—and to be as prepared as possible for all the bumps and hiccups that were bound to come up in the first few months of this little partnership,” she told him. Devon leaned over and lightly kissed the top of her baby’s wet head.

  Devon made a face, wrinkling her nose.

  “What?” he questioned.

  “Shampoo,” she explained. “I guess I didn’t get all of it out. Here, I’ll tilt her back again. Fill that cup up and pour it along the back of her head,” she instructed.

  The directions sounded awkward, but he got the general gist of it. Very carefully, he allowed a stream of warm water to cascade along the back of her hair.

  A tiny squeal pierced the air.

  Devon raised her eyes, meeting Cody’s. “I think she likes it.”

  A wide, wide smile curved Cody’s mouth. He seemed to all but radiate pleasure. “You know, I think that you’re right.”

  She had the infant cradled against one arm while she gently used a washcloth to pass along the baby’s body with the other. She could see he appeared surprised at how well she was doing.

  “I practiced with a doll,” she confessed. She didn’t add that Jack had ridiculed her for it. She should have known then that it wasn’t going to work out for them.

  “Well, it looks like it paid off,” Cody told her. “You’ve got it covered.”

  The compliment pleased her more than she thought it would.

  “I do, don’t I?” she responded. “But I’d still like to know I’ve got backup, just in case,” she told him.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her.

  Between the two of them, Layla received her first bath—and got through it with flying colors.

  Lifting the infant out of the water, Devon wrapped the large white towel around her, gently patting the baby’s body.

  Her eyes met Cody’s. “We did it,” she declared happily. She placed Layla on the bed and then patted her completely dry.

  “You did it,” Cody corrected. He let out the water. “I was just a bystander.”

  “You were more than that,” she told him. There was gratitude in her eyes as she looked at him. “You were moral support.”

  Having dried off the baby, Devon diapered Layla and then slipped on a onesie that Miss Joan also had sent over with Cody.

  “Okay, you’re clean, changed and fed,” she pronounced. “Time for bed, little girl.”

  She placed the infant back into the bassinet, and then went into the bathroom to make sure everything had been cleaned up. To her surprise, Cody had missed nothing. Everything was back in its place. The man was incredible, she caught herself thinking.

  When she came back into the bedroom, she found that Cody was sitting on the edge of the bed, gently pushing the bassinet to and fro. The motion created a soothing sensation.

  Devon paused over the bassinet and peered in. Layla’s eyes were closed and she looked very peaceful. The infant was asleep.

  She glanced back up at Cody. “You’re an absolute wizard,” she told him.

  “The bassinet has wheels,” Cody responded. “They did the hard part.”

  Devon sat down on her bed, suddenly feeling as if the very air had been drained out of her. She hadn’t realized that she was this tired. Just remaining upright took effort.

  “I really had no idea I was so exhausted,” she confessed.

  “You put in a full day, making breakfast for all of us as well as dinner,” Cody enumerated. “And being a mom, especially a new one, is a full-time job. If you weren’t exhausted, I would have said there was something seriously wrong with you.”

  “Then I guess there’s nothing wrong with me,” Devon told him, “because I can hardly sit up.”

  “Then go to sleep,” he suggested simply.

  Cody began to get up so she could do just that. But he found that he couldn’t leave. Devon had caught hold of his arm. When he looked at her quizzically, she said, “Don’t go yet. Talk to me.”

  Sitting back down, he acted as if she’d just made the most normal request in the world. “What about?”

  A long sigh escaped her lips. “Anything you want.” And then, because that was so vague, she got him started. “Tell me about your day.”

  “It wasn’t very exciting,” he told her.

  She was starting to feel very sleepy—but she still didn’t want him to leave. She felt as if he was her good-luck charm.

  “Did you get to talk to anybody?” she asked.

  “Sure.” The sheriff’s office could be a very noisy place.

  “Then it was exciting,” sh
e assured him with a yawn. Devon settled in against him, surprising Cody when she leaned her head against his shoulder. “Talk,” she requested again, and then tempered her plea because she didn’t want him feeling like a prisoner in his own house. “Just for a little while longer.”

  “I’ll talk for as long as you want me to,” he promised, slipping his arm around her shoulders.

  Cody doubted that she even consciously noticed that, although she did seem to curl into him a little bit more, not unlike a kitten seeking shelter.

  “Okay, then,” he murmured.

  Cody started to talk, giving Devon a full report of his earlier interaction with Miss Joan as well as with the sheriff and the other deputies, Joe and Gabe.

  He talked slowly, purposefully, stretching out his narrative as much as he could. As he spoke, he tried not to get distracted by the feeling of her hair brushing against his cheek or the scent of what he took to be her perfume, which seemed to be everywhere.

  Or maybe that was just her shampoo, he amended. Whatever it was, it was something light and herbal, but he still found it extremely stirring and distracting.

  It also made him realize that it had been more than a while since he had socialized with any of the young women in the area who were around his own age.

  That had not been a conscious decision. It had evolved on its own because he’d been so busy learning all the ins and outs of his relatively new position as deputy. This while still lending a hand on the ranch whenever Connor got in over his head and needed him and the others.

  His life might not have been exciting by anyone’s standards, but it definitely could be taxing at times. The salary he earned as a deputy went into a communal account, along with the money that Cole brought in and whatever Cassidy managed to earn working part-time both at the diner and at Olivia Santiago’s law firm as her assistant.

  It wasn’t an easy life for any of them, but Connor had been there for them when they needed it and they were returning the favor. If not for Connor, they would have been farmed out to foster homes, most likely separate foster homes. And though Connor never talked about it, he had given up his dreams in order to keep them all together while running the ranch. The three of them had agreed long ago that they would never be able to actually pay Connor back for what he’d done, but they could damn well try at least.

  In a way, this helped Cody understand why Devon insisted on finding a way to pay them back.

  Cody realized after a few minutes that he was telling Devon all this, sharing more of his life with her than he had ever done with anyone else outside of the family, besides Miss Joan. But then the older woman had just intuitively known the details without his having to say them.

  She always knew everything.

  Sharing this with someone else, namely Devon, was a new experience. As soon as he realized what he was doing, he abruptly stopped.

  Cody began to rise, trying to gently shift Devon’s weight so that she would be lying down in the bed.

  But as he started to do so, he heard a little noise of complaint escape her lips. Glancing down at her face, he saw that Devon was still asleep.

  Still, he was sure he’d just heard her whisper, “Stay.”

  Debating, Cody decided to remain just a little longer, at least until she had fallen into a somewhat deeper sleep. After all, he had nowhere to go and nothing pressing to do.

  And there were worse things than sitting beside a beautiful, sleeping woman, he thought with a smile.

  So Cody remained where he was, sitting on Devon’s bed, keeping his arm supportively around her so that she wouldn’t just slump forward or fall over.

  It occurred to Cody that a lot of people would have considered this to be the perfect ending to a rather hectic day.

  A kernel of contentment opened up within him and spread even as darkness tiptoed into the bedroom, wrapping all three of them in a blanket of peace.

  Inexplicably, a fresh wave of her shampoo filled his senses. Cody smiled again.

  Perfect.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Without any actual planning or real forethought, Cody found that, over the course of the next few weeks, a routine had fallen into place.

  His mornings didn’t officially begin until he’d looked in on Layla and her mother. Usually, they were in the kitchen, with Devon effortlessly preparing breakfast for all of them. He always pitched in despite her initial protest. Being around Devon and her baby, even if it was just until he drove off to work, gave Cody something to look forward to the minute he opened his eyes.

  He knew that, eventually, this would come to an end, that Devon would one day, most likely soon, announce that she was ready to start forging a life for herself and her daughter somewhere apart from the McCullough household. But that day didn’t have to be today—and, as long as it wasn’t, he put it out of his mind and just enjoyed each minute as it happened.

  Living in the moment took on a whole new, vivid meaning for him.

  And all too quickly, it began to feel as if it was always this way, as if Devon and the baby had always been a part of their lives.

  A part of his life.

  And it didn’t go unnoticed.

  “You’re getting too attached,” Connor warned him one morning, following him out of the house just as he was about to leave for work.

  Cody kept walking, heading for his truck. “No, I’m not,” he protested, trying not to sound defensive.

  Connor kept pace with him. As Cody opened the door on the driver’s side, Connor put his hand on it, temporarily keeping it in place.

  “Yeah, you are,” Connor contradicted, concerned. “Things change all the time, Cody. You have to be prepared for that.”

  Cody planted his feet firmly, stubbornly turning to face his older brother. “I’m not twelve, Connor.”

  “No, you’re not,” Connor agreed. “Which is why it’ll really hurt when she leaves. And she is going to leave, you know that,” Connor emphasized. “She’s not the type to let things slide and have other people take care of her.” He nodded back toward the house. “That’s a lady who pays her own way.”

  Devon was already doing that. There was no reason for her to leave yet, Cody thought, resisting the idea that Connor was expounding upon.

  “According to her, she is paying her own way. She’s saving us from your cooking,” Cody said pointedly.

  “Very funny.” But Connor wasn’t going to let him put up a smoke screen.

  Cody tried not to get annoyed. He knew that Connor meant well. But he was getting a little too old to have his older brother meddling in his affairs.

  “I know what you’re saying—that this is just temporary. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it while it lasts,” Cody told him.

  “Nobody said that,” Connor agreed. “Get to work before you’re late,” he said, waving Cody off and stepping back.

  Once at work, since the atmosphere was so relaxed, Cody went on with his search to find the man who had abandoned Devon. He’d managed—working with the little that he had been able to get out of her—to discover the man’s name. Jack Tryon. That led him, after a great deal of effort and searching through various databases, to a New Mexico driver’s license that had Tryon’s picture on it. He circulated the photo, sending it to the various motels in a hundred-mile radius.

  He got no hits, but he refused to give up. The man had to turn up somewhere.

  * * *

  “WHAT’S THAT?” DEVON ASKED one afternoon several days later.

  Cody had come home early and, as was his habit, his first stop was the kitchen. He liked to hang around, talking to Devon while she prepared dinner.

  Devon’s question pertained to the bouquet of wild roses that Cody was holding out to her.

  Cody flashed an engaging grin. “Most people call them f
lowers,” he quipped.

  “I know what they are,” she said, and then tried again, “but why are you giving them to me?”

  “To celebrate,” he told her simply, deliberately doling out his answer slowly in small pieces.

  “Okay,” she allowed. “Are you celebrating anything in particular?”

  His grin was irresistible—she found that she didn’t stand a chance. “Today marks four weeks since you came here and made mealtime bearable instead of just something to get through.”

  Rather than laugh at his quip, Devon looked surprised. Since she’d arrived at the ranch, her days had begun to run into one another and she’d lost track of time more than once.

  But even so, she had to admit, if only to herself, that she hadn’t been this happy in a long, long time. She’d admonished herself, telling herself not to get used to it, but the truth was she just couldn’t help it.

  His words now were a jarring reminder. “My lord, has it been that long?” she cried.

  It felt as if she’d only arrived the day before yesterday. She hadn’t meant to take such advantage of them, she thought, the wheels in her head beginning to turn madly.

  “Actually,” Cody told her, “it feels like time’s just glided by.”

  But Devon didn’t see it that way. Still holding the flowers Cody had given her, Devon sank down at the table with a look on her face that Cody could only describe as dazed.

  There was almost shock and wonder in her voice as she realized, “I’ve taken advantage of your hospitality for an entire month.”

  “No,” Cody corrected firmly, “you’ve made our lives better for an entire month.” Devon still looked unconvinced. She couldn’t possibly be thinking of leaving, he thought nervously. “These are flowers,” Cody pointed out, “not an eviction notice. If anyone’s taken advantage of anyone, we’ve taken advantage of you.”

  The look in her eyes told him that she didn’t see it that way. “I should have found a place for Layla and me by now.”

  “You didn’t have the time,” he said. “You’ve been too busy taking care of her and cooking for us,” Cody reminded her, adding, “There’s no hurry. The invitation to stay on is open-ended,” he insisted.