The Texas Rancher's Vow: The Texas Rancher's VowFound: One Baby

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Thad had no idea how long ago it had been when he heard the bell. Five minutes? Fifteen? It still felt like a dream. Except for the flesh-and-blood woman and tiny newborn in front of him. “You’re sure standing here next to it,” he observed wryly.

  “Only because I wanted to ask you what was going on,” she shot back.

  Aware he probably should have grabbed a T-shirt before bounding outside, Thad studied Michelle and the newborn in her arms. He didn’t know why, but she seemed to be accusing him of something nefarious. “You’re the one with the baby,” he pointed out.

  Michelle patted the baby snuggled against her. The protective note in her sweetly feminine voice deepened. “True, but I’m not the one who left said baby on your front porch.”

  She sounded like a lawyer. “What are you talking about?”

  She pointed to the infant paraphernalia next to her feet. “Someone left a baby on your doorstep.”

  Single women in Summit had done a lot of crazy things to get his attention, but this topped everything. “Someone should have told you it’s way too late for an April Fools’ joke,” Thad scoffed.

  “I’m well aware today is April sixth,” Michelle replied coolly, “and if this is a ploy to get your attention, Dr. Garner, I assure you, it’s not mine.”

  Thad looked into Michelle’s face. He rubbed the last of the sleep from his eyes. “Why would anyone leave an infant with me?”

  Michelle motioned at the piece of white paper wedged between the side of the baby bed and the mattress in the bottom of it. “Perhaps that envelope will tell you.”

  Thad knelt down to get it. His name was scrawled across the front, all right.

  He tore into it and read.

  Dear Thad,

  Brice and Beatrix may have changed their minds about becoming parents—I haven’t. It’s up to your brother, Russell, to decide what to do about William, since William is his kid.

  I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but again, it’s not my problem. I did what I signed on to do. And that’s all I’m going to do.

  Sincerely,

  Candace

  P.S. I hope you have better luck tracking down Russell than I did.

  “What the…?” Thad muttered, scanning the letter once again.

  Still trying to make sense of what it said, he held it out so Michelle could read it, too. “Who are Brice and Beatrix?” she asked with a frown.

  Aware the baby looked blissfully happy snuggled against his neighbor’s soft breasts, Thad said, “No clue.”

  Michelle pulled the blanket closer around the baby’s tiny body. “Candace?”

  Thad shrugged and studied the wisp of dark, curling hair escaping from beneath the crocheted blue-and-white knit cap. The baby’s clothes looked expensive. “Also no idea.”

  “But Russell…?”

  “Is most definitely my brother and my only living relation,” Thad replied, taking in the baby’s cherubic features and fair skin. Was that his imagination or did William have the Garner nose? And Garner eyebrows? And chin?

  He knew his older brother prided himself on his vagabond lifestyle, but could Russell really have turned his back on his own son? Or did he not know about him? Had the mother of this obviously unwanted child decided Russell was a bad bet as a father and put their baby up for adoption without consulting Russell? Only to have the adoptive parents back out at the last moment?

  Michelle stared down at the baby as if he were the most adorable infant ever to grace the earth. Thad knew how she felt—the kid was certainly cute enough to grace a baby-food ad.

  Michelle looked up at Thad. “Do you think your brother even knows he’s a father?”

  Thad exhaled. “Hard to say.”

  Irritably he scooped up the diaper bag, infant car seat and Moses basket and set them in his foyer. “Please come in,” he said gruffly.

  Michelle did so, albeit hesitantly, warily.

  Not that she had ever been particularly friendly with him, Thad thought.

  Since moving to Summit some three months earlier to take over the law practice of a retiring local barrister, she’d barely had the time of day for him. He wasn’t sure why she was so aloof, at least where he was concerned. He’d never been anything but cordial to the attractive attorney.

  Of course they hadn’t encountered each other all that often. She worked from nine to six Monday through Friday. His shifts were generally twelve hours and varied according to the demands of the Summit, Texas, emergency room.

  Nevertheless, he’d had a hard time keeping his eyes off the willowy strawberry blonde.

  Michelle Anderson carried herself with the self-confident grace of an accomplished career woman. On workdays she could usually be seen in sophisticated business suits and heels. On weekends and evenings, she was much more casual.

  This morning, she was wearing a pair of navy running shorts that made the most of her long, shapely legs, a hot-pink-and-navy T-shirt that paid similar homage to her breasts. Her running shoes and socks were white. Her hair was caught up in a ponytail on the back of her head, and the few escaped tendrils were attractively mussed. Her peaches-and-cream complexion had a healthy glow, while her emerald-green eyes held the skepticism of a woman who had seen and heard way too much in the course of her profession.

  But then, Thad thought, walking over to snag a navy blue T-shirt off the back of the sofa and pull it on, so had he…

  “Well?” Michelle asked, bouncing slightly to comfort the now-squirming newborn, as Thad slid on a pair of moccasins and came back to stand beside her. “Does that letter make any sense at all to you?” she demanded.

  Thad watched the baby root around as if looking for a nipple. “Unfortunately, yes,” he admitted reluctantly, not proud of this part of his family heritage. Spying a baby bottle in the pocket of the infant seat, he plucked it out and unscrewed the lid.

  The formula smelled fresh. He screwed the top back on and handed it to her. “My brother is as reckless and shortsighted as they come.”

  “Meaning?” Michelle offered the bottle to William and smiled when he latched on immediately.

  Thad frowned. “It’s possible Russell’s gotten himself in a mess and left me to clean up.” And that was all Thad was prepared to say until he had talked to his only sibling.

  * * *

  AT THAD’S INVITATION, Michelle sat down on the sofa and gave William his bottle while Thad went off to make some phone calls.

  When he returned some thirty minutes later, he was dressed as if for work, his broad shoulders and impossibly masculine chest covered by a starched green shirt and tie, his trim waist, hips and long, sinewy legs draped in khaki dress slacks. His custom-made leather boots were buffed to a soft sheen.

  He smelled…so good. Like the forest after a drenching spring rain. And he looked great, too—his square jaw newly shaven, his golden-brown eyes alert with interest. “I left messages for Russell everywhere,” he reported grimly.

  Trying not to notice how the early-morning sunlight streaming in through the windows glimmered in his short, sandy-brown hair, Michelle shifted William to her shoulder to burp him. Up close, she couldn’t help but notice—once again—how ruggedly handsome Thad was. No wonder all the women in town were wild about him. When she tore her gaze from his chiseled jaw and sensual lips, it was only to meet the warm intimacy of his amber eyes.

  Finally she found her voice. “Any idea how long it will take for your brother to get back to you?” she asked, surprised at how casual and unaffected she sounded.

  Thad looked unhappy. “No telling.” He clipped a pager and cell phone to his belt, searched around for his keys. “Russell could be in any time zone. He’s a photojournalist for a wire news service, always off on assignment somewhere, but he checks his messages every day, unless he’s in a war zone. Then, of course, it can be harder to get in touch with him.”

  Michelle was rubbing William’s back gently. “What are you going to do?”

  Thad eyed her reluctantly. “That’s wh
at I wanted to talk to you about.” He sat down next to her and smiled tenderly at the baby, who was looking back at him with sleepy blue eyes. “I’m due at the E.R. in twenty minutes. I’m trying to get someone to cover my shift for me. Meanwhile, I need someone to watch William.” He offered his index finger to the baby and grinned when William instinctively wrapped his tiny fist around it and held on tight.

  Anxiously, Thad looked back at Michelle. “You know any babysitters I could call on short notice?”

  Michelle knew what he was really asking. “You can’t take him with you to the hospital?”

  Thad shook his head. “It’d be a bad idea. Too many germs in the E.R.”

  He had a point there. She looked down at her tiny charge. It didn’t matter what she thought of Thad. This child needed tender loving care. “How old do you think he is?” she asked softly, smiling when William finally let out a healthy-sounding burp.

  Thad chuckled, too. “A few days. Maybe.”

  And already abandoned. Michelle felt tears welling in her eyes. “That’s what I thought, too,” she murmured thickly. She wished she could simply take William to her place and give him the home he deserved. But life was never that simple. Wishes were never granted that easily. She would not get the baby she wanted in her life this way.

  “So back to the babysitter dilemma,” Thad persisted, oblivious to the yearning nature of her thoughts. “Any idea who I could call?”

  “Besides any of your legion of female admirers?” she quipped, offering the last of the bottle to William.

  “I’m serious.”

  So was she. Michelle tested the waters with an idea. “Violet Hunter knows a lot about kids.”

  “We dated a couple times, when I first came to town.”

  So Michelle had heard. The pretty single mom had been one of Thad’s most persistent admirers.

  “It was about six months after her husband died,” Thad continued cryptically. “It didn’t work out. From what I can tell, although it’s been about two years now, she’s still pretty vulnerable.”

  Michelle had met the twenty-nine-year-old nurse—and her two little girls—at a charity fundraiser the previous summer. She was very nice. And very much in the market for another husband.

  She looked at him, waiting.

  “I don’t want to give Violet the wrong idea,” Thad said finally.

  Michelle studied him. Close up, he didn’t appear to be the kind of guy who enjoyed stringing women along. In fact, the opposite. Life had taught her that appearances could be deceptive. She did better relying on facts in her personal life, just as she did in her practice of the law.

  “And the wrong idea would be?” she probed.

  Thad regarded her with the patient cool of an expert witness. “That something might be possible when it’s not.” Regret turned down the corners of his mouth. “And if I call Violet—or someone else I’ve dated—and tell them I need help with the baby I suddenly have on my hands…”

  “You’d probably be getting more than chicken enchilada casserole on your front porch,” Michelle said wryly.

  “Exactly.”

  “Whereas if you were to put me in charge…”

  He suddenly seemed defensive. “It’s pretty clear where you stand regarding dating me.”

  “But you’ve never asked me out, so I’ve never had the opportunity to turn you down.”

  “But you would,” Thad countered.

  True. If only because she didn’t want to end up wasting her time again on something that was never going to happen. Only this time, given Thad’s rep with the local ladies, she would know that going in. Deciding, since they were neighbors, it was best simply to be honest, she shrugged. “I don’t date players.”

  His lips tightened. “I’m not a player.”

  Michelle kept her eyes off the sinewy lines of his shoulders and chest. She did not need to remember how he looked clad only in a low-slung cotton pajama bottom, or be thinking about the crisp, dark hair arrowing straight down the goody line. She closed her mind to any further licentious thoughts. “Right.”

  “I’m just honest about whether or not I see a future with a woman.”

  Doing her best to slow her racing pulse, she got a hold of her out-of-control fantasies and retorted, “And you usually don’t.”

  “Usually isn’t always,” he replied cryptically.

  Which meant what? Michelle wondered. He’d had his heart broken, too?

  Disconcerted—because that would give them something in common—she returned her gaze to the newborn nestled in her arms.

  If William were her baby…

  But he wasn’t, Michelle reminded herself firmly.

  Still, the little guy was here now. He needed someone to watch over him until this mess could be sorted out. Someone who wouldn’t leave him on Thad Garner’s doorstep all by himself.

  “Believe me,” Thad said, sounding as protective toward this tiny baby as she was, “if I had any other job, I’d stay and take care of the little fella myself. But I can’t leave the E.R. short-staffed. We’ve got the only trauma center in the entire county.”

  Lives depended on Thad.

  Just as William, it seemed, was momentarily depending on her.

  Before Michelle could stop herself, she was pushing aside every self-protective instinct she had and volunteering. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

  Thad’s eyebrows lifted in amazement. “You sure?” he said finally, standing. “It’s going to be twelve hours, unless I’m able to find someone to cover the rest of my shift for me.”

  Forcing herself to shove aside the memory of another child, another time, Michelle stood, too. There would be no such heartbreak this time because she wouldn’t allow herself to get that involved with William or Thad.

  Loving the way the now-sleeping William snuggled against her, she brushed off Thad’s concern. “I didn’t have much planned for today, anyway,” she fibbed. Her flower beds could wait.

  Thad breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

  Michelle had a few stipulations of her own. “I want to watch him at my house, though.” The less she knew about Thad, the less time spent in his abode, the better.

  “Of course.” Thad gently brushed his fingertips across William’s velvety cheek.

  The air between the three of them reverberated with tenderness.

  With apparent effort, Thad dropped his hand, stepped back and looked over at the baby gear in the foyer. “I hope everything you’re going to need is here.”

  Michelle lowered her face to William and smelled…spit-up. Knowing that was something that could easily be taken care of, she said quietly, “If you’ll carry the stuff across the street, I’ll sort through it.”

  “No problem.” He plucked up the items and followed her out the front door. “I owe you big-time for this,” he told her solemnly, falling into step beside her.

  “Yes,” Michelle agreed. “You do.”

  * * *

  WHERE TO START? Michelle wondered as soon as the door shut behind Thad, and she and William were alone. She supposed it best to change William’s diaper.

  She slung the diaper bag over her shoulder and carried him upstairs to her bedroom. His eyes were open again as she laid him gently down on the soft cotton quilt on her bed. “You know, we hear about things like this all the time,” she told him as she pulled a diaper and a packet of wipes from the bag. “Babies being left in the strangest places. I just want you to know that you shouldn’t take it personally. Candace was only doing what she thought best, taking you to your uncle Thad’s house.”

  Although why Candace had simply left him in the Moses basket on the front porch was anyone’s guess. “But I don’t want you to worry,” Michelle continued reassuringly. “Because we are going to find your parents and get this all straightened out.”

  One way or another, they would find a great home for William. Even if it meant calling the police and social services.

  “In the meantime,
I’m going to take care of you today, and then your uncle Thad is going to look after you. And before you know it, this little blip in your existence will be over. And it’ll all be good.”

  All she had to do, Michelle thought as she went about getting everything she needed out of the diaper bag, was not get emotionally involved in a situation that was ultimately a win-lose proposition for her.

  Winning, because she got to spend time with the most adorable baby she had ever seen.

  And losing, because she was going to have to let him go.

  Just as she’d had to let Jared and his son, Jimmy, go.

  And that was as painful an event as ever, Michelle mused, unsnapping the legs of William’s designer duds.

  Before she could get the diaper off, her phone rang.

  Seeing Thad Garner’s name flash on the caller-ID screen, she grabbed the portable off the bedside table.

  “How are things going?” he asked.

  It was ridiculous how glad she was to hear his voice. She hit the speaker button on the receiver and set it on the bed. Doing her best to play it cool, she said, “You just left him five minutes ago!”

  “More like seven.” Thad paused. “It sounds quiet.”

  Talk about overprotective! “He seems happy enough,” Michelle allowed.

  “He’s awake?”

  “Yes. I’m in the process of changing his diaper.”

  “While we talk?”

  “Believe it or not, I can multitask.” She used a baby wipe on William.

  “How does the diaper area look? Everything okay?”

  William turned his head slightly toward the sound of Thad’s voice.

  Michelle smiled. “As far as I can tell. It looks like he had a circumcision.”

  “Did they leave any antibiotic ointment for the stitches?”