Полная версия
The Sheriff's Son
Striding over to her, he looked down at her upturned face. “I’m glad you realize that, Justine.”
Her nostrils flared as her eyes scanned his face, then settled on the firm line of his lips.
She realized a lot of things about him, Justine thought. That these past six years had not only lined his face and muscled his body, they had extinguished the light that once burned in his eyes. The smile that had always been so ready on his lips had totally disappeared. What had happened to the Roy Pardee she used to know?
“Go ahead. Do your search,” Justine told him, her eyes drifting to a point over his shoulder. “You won’t get any resistance from me.”
Roy’s lips twisted. Too bad she hadn’t resisted his advances all those years ago. If she had, then maybe he wouldn’t be feeling this awful, empty anger inside him now.
“Thank you. I’ll try to be quick.”
He left the room, and Justine immediately sagged against the table. Dear God, let this be over soon, she prayed. Let him be gone from here before her son and aunt returned.
Justine didn’t know how long she stood there before the fussing of the babies called her back to the living room. Kneeling down on the pallet, she checked both their diapers. They were dry, so she patted their backs and tried talking to them. Neither the girl nor the boy seemed interested in what she had to say. Both simply chewed their fists and cried harder. Justine knew there was nothing left to do but heat their bottles and feed them.
By the time Roy returned from his search through the house and over part of the grounds, Justine was sitting on the floor with the babies, doing her best to balance bottles in each hungry mouth.
“Thank God you’re back!” Before Roy could say anything, she picked up. the boy and thrust him into his arms. “You can feed him while I take the girl.”
Stunned, Roy looked helplessly at the baby in his arms. “I don’t know anything about feeding a baby!”
Frowning at him, she cradled the redheaded girl in her arms. “Just put the nipple in his mouth and keep the bottle tilted up. He’ll do the rest.”
Roy awkwardly carried the boy and the bottle over to the couch and took a seat on the edge of the cushion. As soon as he offered the baby the nipple, the little tyke latched on to it like a hungry pup.
“I didn’t come here to act as a temporary daddy,” he muttered.
Temporary daddy. Justine’s lips twisted with a grimace as she repeated the two words to herself. The man didn’t look as if he’d be comfortable in that role, much less being a father in a permanent capacity.
“I know you didn’t come here for this. But I can’t handle two of them at the same time. And when a baby gets hungry, he doesn’t care where he is or who he’s with, he wants his dinner. Surely you know that.”
Roy shot her a glare as the baby reached for the shiny badge pinned to the pocket of his khaki shirt
“How would I know that? I’ve never had a child!”
He growled the question at Justine, and, if it was possible, her face went even whiter. I’ve never had a child. What was he saying? What about Marla, and the baby she and Roy had been expecting all those years ago? The questions roared through her head like a tornado.
Through offhand remarks of her father’s, Justine had learned that Roy and Marla’s marriage had ended and the woman had moved far away. At the time of the divorce, it had been rumored that Marla was pregnant, but Tom had never heard anything about a child being born and he hadn’t wanted to appear nosy and ask Roy outright. Especially since the two of them had been divorced.
Down through the years, Justine had simply assumed the baby had been born and lived with its mother in another state. Now Roy was telling her he’d never had a child! What did it all mean?
Struggling to collect her thoughts, she said, “I—Well, I just figured you were probably a daddy by now.”
Roy glanced down at the auburn-haired boy in his arms. The tiny fingers were doing their best to tug the sheriff’s badge away from his shirt. Carefully he plucked the baby’s hand away, only to have the stubby little fingers wrap tightly around his forefinger.
“Do I look like one?” he asked gruffly.
No, she thought, her teeth grinding together, Roy Pardee was the very image of a man who liked to make babies, not father them.
Ignoring his question, she asked, “Did you find anything outside?”
The baby was still clinging to his finger. It made him feel hemmed in, but needed. And that was a strange feeling for Roy. No one had ever really needed him. As a lawman, maybe. But not like this helpless little fellow in his arms.
“No. I need to talk to your sisters. When do you think they’ll be in?”
Justine shrugged as she absently rocked the child in her arms. “By dark. Maybe later. Rose is probably out in one of the pastures checking on the cattle, and Chloe should have been down at the stables with the horses. You didn’t see her?
“No. The barns and the stables were all empty.”
Glancing down, Justine studied the little girl’s round face, dimpled cheeks and soft red hair. “Do you think it was the parents that left these children here? I mean, how could someone do such a thing? If I hadn’t come home when I had—” Shuddering at the thought, she shook her head. “With just a little motion, they could have turned that basket over. No telling what would have happened to them.”
Roy could see that the idea of the babies being harmed alarmed her greatly. It bothered him, too. Still, he didn’t think the person or persons who’d left the twins had meant to put their lives in jeopardy. “It’s too early to say if it might have been one or both of the parents, or someone unrelated. The only thing that’s clear to me is that whoever left them here meant for you or one of your family members to have them.”
Justine’s head swung back and forth. “But that’s insane! Why would someone want me or my sisters to have their babies?”
Roy shrugged. “You’re a nurse. Maybe someone knew that and believed you’d take good care of them.”
Milk was dribbling from the corner of the baby’s mouth. Drawing a handkerchief from his pocket, Roy dabbed it away. With the bottle still in his mouth, the little boy grinned broadly and let out a happy goo.
Scowling, Roy jammed the damp handkerchief back in his pocket. Poor little guy, he thought grimly. He wasn’t even aware that he’d been abandoned. He was too small to know about the pain of rejection. But Roy knew all about it, and even though the person or persons who’d left these babies behind might not have intended physical harm to them, they still needed to be strung up by the heels. Roy vowed then and there to track them down, no matter how long it took!
Across the room, Justine watched the dark, angry expression spread over Roy’s face as he looked down at the baby in his arms. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. There was such hardness in his eyes and on his lips. Was the man totally heartless? Didn’t he feel anything for the helpless child in his arms?
If it hadn’t been for the girl still feeding in her arms, Justine would have ripped the baby away from him and ordered him out of the house. As it was, however, she was hardly in a position to vent her feelings to him.
But she would someday, Justine silently promised herself. Someday she’d let him know what a selfish, heartless man he really was.
From out of nowhere, hot moisture blurred her vision. She shut her eyes and swallowed at the unexpected rush of emotion. This wasn’t like her to get teary and mad and vindictive. Normally she was a loving woman. But Roy Pardee, or the thought of him, had never left her feeling normal.
The sound of a vehicle caught both her and Roy’s attention. Rising up in the rocking chair, Justine glanced out the window. Her heart immediately dropped to her stomach.
“It’s my aunt,” she told Roy.
He nodded.
Moments later, a screen door banged and the patter of racing feet on Spanish tile grew closer. Then, suddenly, the running footsteps stopped and Charlie, her five-year-old son, stood just inside the living groom, his wide blue eyes going from his mother and the baby in her arms to the strange man on the couch.
“It’s all right, darling. You can come on in,” Justine told him gently.
With a cautious eye on Roy, the boy scurried to Justine’s side.
“Mommy, where did you get the baby? Who is that man? He’s got a baby, too!”
Justine cast a glance at Roy. He was staring at her and Charlie, his eyes squinted to slits, his jaw rigid. She couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking, but it was quite clear that the appearance of her son wasn’t pleasing to him. And suddenly she knew she’d been right all those years ago. She could stop beating up on herself, stop feeling guilty. Roy Pardee hadn’t been father material then, and he wasn’t now.
“Yes, honey. Mommy found the babies, and the sheriff has come to help find out where they belong.”
Smiling with instant fascination, Charlie carefully touched the red fuzz of hair on the girl twin’s head. “She has red hair like you, Mommy!”
Justine smiled at her son’s observation. “She sure does. Now, will you go get Aunt Kitty? The sheriff would like to speak with her.”
Charlie glanced curiously over at the man and the baby on the couch, then started toward the door. “Aunt Kitty had to go to the bathroom! I’ll get her!”
Charlie raced out of the room. Once the boy was out of sight, Roy released a long breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“You have a son?”
The sound of his low, gravelly voice caused Justine to jerk ever so slightly. She looked up from the baby and over to him. There was an odd look of betrayal on his face. As though he knew…But no, she swiftly assured herself. He couldn’t know anything. No one, not even her sisters, knew that Roy Pardee was Charlie’s father.
Chapter Two
Justine’s chin unconsciously tilted upward. “Yes. Charles is my son.”
Of course, it had been obvious when the boy called her Mommy. But hearing Justine admit it out loud was like the blow of an ax to Roy.
His face like chipped granite, he said, “Someone told me you’d been engaged to be married, then later I heard the marriage had been called off. But I didn’t know you’d had a child back then. Did you…ever get married?”
Roy hated himself for asking. He wanted to appear indifferent. He wanted to be totally disinterested, but he couldn’t be. Justine Murdock had done something to him all those years ago. She’d shown him heaven and then shown him hell. She’d given him. his first true love lesson. One that he’d never forget. There wasn’t such a thing as real love.
“No. I’ve never been married,” Justine admitted, then wondered what he could possibly be thinking. Let it be that she was a promiscuous woman. Anything would be better than the truth.
“You had the boy while you were in college.”
It was a statement, not a question, but Justine found herself nodding at him anyway. She was determined to appear cool, no matter how much her insides were shaking with fear. “Being pregnant and going to school wasn’t a picnic. I had to cut down on my classes and scrimp and save the money my parents sent me. But I managed to get through.”
“So where is his father?”
She met his gaze, and her green eyes were unusually dull. “After I became pregnant with Charlie, he realized he didn’t want to be a family man. He didn’t even want to get married. So we—ended things, and since then he’s been totally out of my life.”
Roy wanted to tell her she’d been a fool to bear such a man’s child, but at that moment a petite woman with short salt-and-pepper hair walked into the room. Justine’s son was tagging close to her side.
“Charlie said I was wanted,” Kitty said. “What’s going on here?”
With the twin girl still in her arms, Justine got to her feet. “Roy, this is my aunt Kitty. She’s my mother’s sister. She came to live with us before our mother passed away.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Roy said, with a nod toward the older woman. “It seems that your niece found two babies on the porch when she came home from work. You wouldn’t happen to know who they might belong to?”
Kitty’s mouth formed a perfect O as she glanced from one baby to the other. “Land sakes no! You mean they were on the doorstep? Just like in the movies?”
“That’s the way Justine described it.”
Justine turned her eyes on him. “That’s the way it was,” she said crisply.
“Well! What do you think about that?” Kitty asked no one in particular. “I wish Lola and Tom were alive to see this.”
Charlie ventured over to Roy, who’d just slipped the empty bottle from the boy twin’s mouth.
“You have a badge,” Charlie told him.
Roy looked at the boy. He had a stocky build, like his late grandfather Tom. His thick hair was light brown and fell in a straight bang across his forehead. Freckles dotted his broad-bridged nose and dimples dented both cheeks. He was an endearing child, and Roy couldn’t help but somehow feel cheated that Justine had chosen to have some other man’s baby.
“Yes, that’s a badge,” Roy told him.
“You have a gun, too,” Charlie went on, his gaze on the pistol holstered to Roy’s hip.
“That’s right.”
“Are you a policeman?”
“I’m a sheriff.”
Charlie repeated the word. “What does a sheriff do?”
“He tells the other policemen what to do.”
Charlie grinned and plopped down beside Roy on the couch. “So you’re the boss.”
In spite of everything, Roy found himself smiling back at Justine’s son. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“Would you like for me to take the baby now, Mr. Pardee?” Kitty asked him.
“Thank you, ma’am.” He handed the twin over to the older woman, and was instantly struck by the emptiness of his arms.
“He looks like the one you have, Mommy,” Charlie said, pointing at the tiny boy in his aunt’s arms. “Is that his sister?”
“Yes, honey. I expect they are brother and sister,” Justine told him.
“I can’t get over it,” Kitty said as she strolled around the room like a doting grandmother. “Babies left on our ranch! Where do you think they came from?”
“I was hoping that you or Justine’s sisters might have some clues,” Roy told the woman. “Are you certain you don’t know anyone who’s had twins in the past six months? An old friend or distant relative?”
Kitty thought for a moment, then shook her head. “My old friends are too old to have babies, and most of my relatives live here on the Bar M.”
Sighing, Roy glanced at Charlie, who was sidled up to him the way a tomcat would a warm stove. The sight of the trusting child disturbed Roy almost as much as the sight of Justine.
Rising to his feet, he said, “Well, if neither of you can think of anything else, I’m going to get on the phone and find a place to take these babies tonight.”
Roy headed out the door. Justine glanced at Kitty, then quickly placed the twin girl down on the pallet and followed him out on the porch.
Hearing her footsteps, Roy turned, his brows arched with speculation.
“Was there something else you wanted to tell me?” he asked.
Justine met his eyes, moistened her lips, then glanced away. “Just that there’s no need for you to find a place for the babies to stay. We’d be happy to keep them here.”
He didn’t say anything, just kept gazing at her through narrowed eyes.
Justine heaved out a breath, then folded her arms across her breasts. “I love babies, but I wouldn’t go so far to steal a pair of them, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking,” he said roughly.
And she didn’t want to know, Justine thought hotly. “Well, think about this. There’s not exactly a plethora of orphanages around here. As far as I know, there’s not any. You probably know a few foster parents who’d be willing to take the babies in, but I doubt they would be any more capable than four grown women would be.”
His gaze slanted downward from her face, to settle on the bulge of her breasts spilling over her folded arms.
“Don’t forget to point out you’re an experienced mother,” he added sarcastically.
At that moment, Justine was certain she hated this long-legged man with hard blue eyes and an even harder mouth.
“Is there something wrong with being a mother?” she asked him challengingly.
Roy didn’t know why he was behaving so churlishly. Just because seeing Justine again had thrown him off kilter, that didn’t mean he lacked manners.
“No. There’s nothing wrong with it,” he said. Then with a tired sigh, he lifted his hat and combed his fingers through his hair.
The sun had set some minutes ago, and the sky over the ranch had turned dusky. The day had been a long one for Roy. He should be looking forward to going home, taking a hot shower and fixing himself a steak for supper. But not even the prospect of those things eased the weariness that had suddenly come over him.
“I suppose it will be all right for the babies to stay here tonight,” he said after a moment. “I’ll have someone from social services come out to get them tomorrow.”
He stepped off the porch. Justine suddenly realized he was going to leave. “You’re not going, are you?”
A faint smile touched his lips, but not his eyes. For one brief moment, Justine felt a sadness she didn’t quite understand. She only knew that a long time ago, Roy had smiled at her. Really smiled. But she would never see that man again.
“There’s not much more I can do here tonight, other than speaking with your sisters. And since they obviously weren’t around when the babies were left, they may not know any more than your aunt. But just in case, I’ll question them later. Until then, if any of you come up with something, let me know.”
He took a step toward a Bronco with the sheriff’s department seal painted on the side. Justine called after him.
“How long do you think it will take you to find out who did this?”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Not long,” he said grimly.
“But you hardly have any evidence to work with.”
“I’ve had less.”
Behind Justine, the door opened and closed. She peered around to see Charlie skipping toward her.
“Mommy, I’m hungry. When are we gonna eat?”
Justine took her son by the shoulders and turned him back toward the door of the house. “Go get a graham cracker. Aunt Kitty and I will fix supper in a few minutes.”
The child went back inside. Justine looked at Roy, and suddenly felt more awkward than she had since he first arrived. Maybe it was because he was leaving and she knew that she’d probably never see him again.
The idea should have relieved her, and it did, to a certain degree. But it also reminded her of how empty, how devastated, she’d felt when she lost him all those years ago. He’d been her first and only lover. Whether she wanted him to be or not, a part of him was still ingrained in her.
“Well, another hungry mouth to feed,” she said, with a faint smile and a shrug. “I guess I’d better get to work.”
Nodding, Roy turned and walked the remaining distance to his Bronco. He needed to get back to work, too. But he could feel her eyes on his back until he heard the door to the house shut
Roy climbed into the vehicle and reached to start the motor. Before he could, his eyes were drawn to the house, and his fingers paused on the ignition keys. Through the living room window, he could see Justine bending down and planting a kiss on the top of her son’s head. The boy took a bite of cracker, then offered it to his mother. She took a bite, then put her arm around the child and led him away from Roy’s view.
Annoyed with himself for letting his attention stray once again to the family inside the house, Roy muttered a curse and started the engine. It was high time he got home.
Justine was helping her aunt prepare supper when Rose and Chloe returned to the house. Both sisters were instantly captivated by the twins and insisted on feeding them mashed bananas at the supper table.
“Aren’t they the cutest things you’ve ever seen?” Chloe exclaimed as she scooped a spoonful of fruit into the boy’s mouth. “What do you think we should call them?”
Justine glanced anxiously at her aunt then back to her younger sister. “Chloe, we can’t name the babies. Remember what I told you earlier? Someone from social services will be out tomorrow to get them.”
Chloe kissed the top of the boy’s head, whose dark auburn hair just happened to match her own, then glanced adoringly at the girl sitting contentedly on Rose’s lap.
“Oh, Justine, surely we can keep them until the real parents are found. And who knows? They might not be able to get them back. Not after dumping them like they did.”
Justine sighed inwardly. She knew what these two babies probably meant to Chloe. At eighteen, an infection had scarred her reproductive organs and left her barren. Now, at twenty-three and with no chance of ever having a baby of her own, she probably saw the twins as two little angels sent from heaven.
But Justine knew it wasn’t that way, and she didn’t want Chloe or Rose to get attached to the babies, then go through the heartache of giving them up.
“Chloe,” Justine began, “we don’t know who left the children here. And I doubt—”
At twenty-eight, the chestnut-haired Rose was the oldest of the three sisters, and always the quiet one. But at this moment she chose to interrupt, making the other three women look at her with raised brows.
“If Sheriff Pardee allowed them to stay here tonight, perhaps he’ll consider letting them stay until the case is solved.”
“Yes!” Chloe seconded that idea with an eager yelp, then turned pleading eyes on Justine. “Justine, will you call and ask him?”
Justine glanced frantically at her two sisters. “Me ask him! Why me?”
“Well, you knew him from a long time ago,” Chloe pointed out.
“I did?” Justine asked cautiously.
As far as she knew, no one in her family had known that she and Roy were together, as friends or anything more. At the time she became involved with Roy, he’d been dating Marla, his boss’s daughter. But he’d assured Justine the relationship wasn’t serious and he was trying to gradually break away from her without angering Marla or her father. So she’d agreed to keep their dating a secret. Now that secret was buried deep in her heart.
“We all went to the same high school,” Rose reminded her.
“Oh—yes, I guess we did,” Justine admitted with relief. “But he was three grades higher than me, and I never associated with the guy. Besides—”
Chloe butted in. “Justine, men take to you like ducks to water.”
“Oh, please,” Justine groaned. “I haven’t even dated a man in a long time.”
“Well,” Rose said, her pretty face suddenly taking on a hard edge, “I’m sure not a femme fatale, and I’ll not try to be.”
As Justine glanced at her older sister, she realized she wasn’t the only one who’d suffered because of a heartless man. Since her disastrous engagement ended nine years ago, Rose had shunned virtually all men.
“And you know how easily an arrogant man can rile me up,” Chloe added. “Before I could bite my tongue, I’d be telling the sheriff to jump in the lake. Instead of wooing him to our way of thinking.”
It was true Chloe had a feisty temper. She got along with her horses far better than she did with men. Still, it went against everything inside Justine to ask Roy for anything.
“I don’t know why you two are doing this to me,” Justine said wearily.
“Because you’d have a far better chance of persuading the sheriff than Rose or I,” Chloe insisted. “Come on, say you’ll do it. Please!”
If her sisters only knew, Justine thought sickly. What would they think if she told them that Sheriff Pardee was Charlie’s father?
Closing her eyes, Justine pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. “We’re already shorthanded here on the ranch. You and Rose work like dogs from sunup to sundown. How are you going to take care of two demanding babies?”