Wyoming Special Delivery

She waved a hand in front of her. “Anyway. That is old news. This,” she said, smiling down at the baby, “is breaking news and all that matters.”

The love and reverence and sincerity in her voice caught him by surprise, and for a moment, he just gazed at the baby with her. Finally, he cleared his throat. “My name is Harrison McCord,” he said, stiffly sitting down in the chair by her bed. “I got you a little something. Well, I got him a little something,” he added, gesturing at the tiny human lying alongside her arm. The newborn was skinny and cute with wispy brown curls. His eyes were closed at the moment. “I’m in Cabin No. 1 at the ranch. I booked it for the week.”

“But it’s just you?” she asked. “Cabin No. 1 sleeps four.”

“Just me,” he said.

She waited a beat, as if she expected him to elaborate, but now was certainly not the time or the place. He’d wait a couple days, give her a chance to settle back at the main house at the ranch with the baby, and then he’d ask for a meeting with her and her brother. And drop a bombshell. The timing wasn’t good, but that couldn’t he helped.

“So what’s his name?” he asked.

“Tony. After my late grandpa, Anthony Dawson. I haven’t decided on a middle name,” she said. “Given what you did for me—for us—I’d like to use your middle initial.”

He gaped at her. No, no, no, no, no. Noooo. “That’s very thoughtful, but there’s no need for that.”

“You came to our rescue, Harrison. You helped bring this little guy into the world. I’d like to honor that.”

He swallowed, his T-shirt suddenly tight around his neck. “Um, I...don’t have a middle name,” he lied. He actually did—Leo. “I’d better get going,” he added, bolting up. “I did call your brother. He’s on the way.” He put the teddy bear on the table beside her bed.

She tilted her head at him. “Oh. Okay. Well, thanks again. For everything.”

As she turned her attention back to the baby, he took one last look at her, not wanting to leave—but how could he stay? Now that he’d met Daisy Dawson under these unusual circumstances—like delivering her baby and calling her brother and visiting her in the hospital and bringing baby Tony a teddy bear and hearing how she’d been left at the altar—he felt something of a connection to the new mother. The news he planned to deliver in a couple days wouldn’t be as cut-and-dried as he’d expected.

It’s just straight-up, on-paper business, he reminded himself. Nothing personal.

She wanted to give her baby his middle initial!

Things with Daisy Dawson had suddenly gotten very personal.

Chapter Two

Okay, Cabin No. 1 guest who very unexpectedly helped deliver her baby? Definitely mysterious. Her wanting to use his middle initial for Tony’s middle name had him jumping up like an electrocuted porcupine. What was with the guy?

Then again, he’d had a pretty eventful last hour.

“Well, Tony,” she said, looking at her baby son. “It’s just me and you. And I think I’ll use my mother’s first initial for your middle name. Her name was Leah. Let’s see... Liam. Lucas. Lawrence. Lee, Landon, Lincoln. Louis. Levi. Leonardo DiCaprio.” She stared at Tony, thinking he didn’t look anything like the actor. “How about Lester, as in Lester Holt?” she suggested. “Tony Lester Dawson. Tony Lucas Dawson. Tony Lincoln Dawson. Hey,” she whispered. “I think we have a winner. Very presidential, right? Anthony Lincoln Dawson, it is.”

Luckily she’d gotten the name squared away, because the room suddenly filled with the five Dawson brothers and Sara, her sister-in-law and best friend. There were gasps and oohs and ahhs and so many flowers, balloons and stuffed animals, a few huge, that another person could not squeeze in.

“I present your nephew, Anthony ‘Tony’ Lincoln Dawson,” she said. “Tony for his very special great-grandpa Anthony Dawson.” Gramps had always been called Anth, interestingly enough, a nickname started by his mother when he was very young, but the moment Harrison McCord had helped place the newborn on her chest on the side of that road, she’d instantly thought: Tony.

“Gramps would like that,” Axel said, and they all nodded reverently.

“The L in Lincoln for Mom?” Noah asked with a gentle smile.

Daisy gave a teary nod just thinking what a wonderful nana Leah Dawson would have been. The six Dawson siblings had three mothers among them. Ford from the first marriage, Rex, Zeke and Axel from the second, and Daisy and Noah from the third. The siblings had all gotten to know Daisy and Noah’s mother pretty well since she’d been so kind and welcoming that their mothers had felt comfortable dropping them off for weekends and weeks in summer with their not-exactly-attentive father. That had stopped when Leah had died when Daisy was eleven, though. A few hours here and there were all the other two mothers had trusted Bo Dawson with their kids.

“That’s really nice, Daisy,” Noah said, and she could see how touched he was.

“So Tony for Gramps, Lincoln for my mom, and Dawson because Jacob called off the wedding and being a father.” She explained about the text. Tossing her phone and engagement ring. And then about her car sputtering on the service road and Harrison McCord coming to her aid.

“We all owe him one,” Noah said. “No phone, hot as hell out, rural stretch of road. Thank God he came along.”

Daisy nodded. “I kind of wonder why he did, though. There’s something up with the guy.”

“What do you mean?” Ford asked in cop tone. A police officer in Casper, Ford didn’t let anything escape his attention.

“Well, Noah can probably attest to how odd it is that a guest would book a cabin for four and then show up solo and not partake in a single activity at a dude ranch,” Daisy explained. “I’ve only seen him walking the grounds. In fact, any time I’ve been out, I feel like he’s been around. And then he’s suddenly five minutes behind me on the service road to the freeway?”

Noah narrowed his eyes. “You know, now that you mention it, he does seem unusual. He wasn’t interested in being matched with a horse. And twice I’ve looked up while in the barn or talking to the ranch hands, and there’d he’d be, suddenly pulling out his phone like he had to make a call that second.”

“Sounds like he’s watching you two,” Axel said. A search-and-rescue expert, Axel wasn’t one to believe in coincidence.

Daisy shrugged. “He did help me, though. And then came to visit me and Tony. He brought this,” she added, pointing at the teddy bear. “I told him I wanted to give Tony his middle initial, and he turned white. Said he didn’t have a middle name and made excuses to leave.”

Rex, the businessman of the brothers, crossed his arms over his chest. “Hmm. Something is definitely up with him. But like you said, he did come to your rescue. You and Tony are safe and healthy.”

Noah nodded. “That’s all that matters right now.”

“Couldn’t hurt to check him out,” Zeke said. This from the mysterious brother. Zeke had long refused to talk about his work and would only say it was highly classified, whatever that meant. Sometimes Daisy thought he was a spy.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Ford said, taking out his phone. “What’s the guest’s name? I’ll start with a simple check on the guy. Just to be safe.”

“Harrison McCord,” Daisy told him. “Wyoming plates. Silver Lexus.”

“Harrison McCord,” Rex repeated, clearly thinking. “That name does sound familiar. I’ve heard it before. In business circles, I think.” Rex lived out in Jackson, Wyoming, which was hours away from Bear Ridge.

Ford nodded and stepped out of the room, phone in hand. It was good having a cop in the family.

“I’ll keep an eye on McCord,” Axel said. “Turns out I’ll be staying for a week or two. I’m on enforced R&R from my search-and-rescue team.”

All eyes turned to Axel. He rarely said so much about his private life. She wondered what had happened to get him sent on “vacation.”

“I’d like to stay at the main house with you, Daize,” Axel added, “if you’d like the company.”

She beamed. She’d be able to work on keeping Axel in town forever! She almost wanted to add a mock-evil mwahaha, she was so happy about the news. “I’d love it. But you’ll be woken up all hours of the night by a shrieking newborn. Just pointing it out if it didn’t occur to you.”

Axel stared at the creature in her arms, his blue eyes widening slightly as he ran a hand through his thick dark brown hair. “Not like I’ll be getting any sleep anyway, so bring it on, little nephew.”

Daisy laughed, but as she glanced at Axel, she could see something was eating at him—something about the enforced vacation and whatever had gone down there. He could probably use a little distraction, right? She would put her matchmaking plan into action. Within two weeks, he’d never want to leave anyway, because he’d be too in love. With the woman she had in mind for him and with his darling baby nephew, who’d be the apple of his ole eye. He’d sign on with a new search-and-rescue team much closer to Bear Ridge and build a big, gorgeous modern log cabin on the edge of the ranch property. That was the dream—having all her brothers back home.

Yes, Daisy was feeling better about knowing three of her brothers would be leaving later today or in the morning. Because Noah was here, of course. And now Axel would be, too.

“The baby looks just like you,” her sister-in-law, Sara, said, her eyes misty. “I can’t wait to introduce him to his little cousins. Cowboy Joe is watching them right now.”

Daisy smiled. Cowboy Joe was the grizzled sixty-two-year-old cook at the guest ranch cafeteria. He adored babies.

Noah put his arm around his wife, and they gazed at the baby. “Welcome to the family, Tony Lincoln Dawson,” he said to his nephew. “You’re gonna be spoiled rotten.”

Daisy grinned. She felt so lucky that her baby would have five incredible uncles, one amazing aunt and two instant baby cousins. Sara had five-month-old twins, Annabel and Chance. Sara’s husband had died just a couple months after she’d given birth to twins, only one of whom had survived—supposedly. Within a half hour of the birth, Sara’s twisted husband had actually left frail newborn Annabel on Noah Dawson’s doorstep after telling Sara the girl twin had died. But the truth had come out seven weeks later, and Sara and her daughter had been reunited. Noah, who for all that time had taken care of Annabel on his own, thinking she was his baby—per the false, anonymous note left with her—had never looked so happy than on his wedding day, when he, Sara and the twins became a forever family.

Ford stepped back in the room, pocketing his phone. “Harrison McCord is a successful businessman—mergers and acquisitions—in Prairie City. Owns his own firm. Clean record. On local charitable boards. Highly regarded. From basic reports, a top-notch guy.”

“Well, he did deliver Tony and ruin a really expensive-looking dress shirt,” Daisy said with a grin. “So that’s not a total surprise.”

“He lied about not having a middle name, by the way,” Ford added. “It’s Leo.”

“L for Leo!” Daisy said. “Turns out Harrison Leo McCord got a piece of the middle-name honoring whether he liked it or not.”

“Probably just didn’t want a fuss made over what he did,” Rex said. “Likely he doesn’t think he did anything anyone else wouldn’t have done.”

Except Harrison was the only person around. And he had come to her rescue. So that was all she knew.

“Still worth keeping an eye on,” Axel put in, and Daisy caught Ford and Noah nodding.

She wondered what was behind Harrison’s mysterious behavior. Still, when a nurse came in to check her vitals and bring Tony to the nursery, she forced herself to stop thinking about her impromptu birth partner so she could catch a much-needed nap. But between wishing she could have Tony back in her arms and wondering about Harrison McCord, she was wide-awake.

With visiting hours at the Gentle Winds hospice about to end, Harrison sat at the bedside of ninety-four-year-old Mo Burns, an over-bed table between them holding a deck of cards, Mo’s favorite candy—sour jelly beans—and a full house. Mo had beaten Harrison at poker again.

“Gotcha, kid,” Mo exclaimed in his whispery voice, his filmy blue eyes beaming with pride.

Harrison had been volunteering at Gentle Winds, where his aunt was a patient just down the hall, ever since Lolly McCord had moved in ten days ago. Lolly had stage-four cancer, caught too late to do anything, and she was often very tired. Harrison liked to be close by to his only relative, so he’d asked about volunteering, and every day, before or after he visited his aunt, he’d spend an hour or so with a few different patients, reading to them, talking sports, playing cards and often just listening to a lifetime of memories. Eighty-eight-year-old Clyde Monroe liked to talk politics, so Harrison read to him from the Converse County Gazette about national and local happenings. Danielle Panowsky loved reading true-crime books but couldn’t see the tiny type anymore and couldn’t stand e-readers or earphones, so Harrison found her a few great crime podcasts they could listen to together. And Mo liked poker and winning, so Harrison mostly let the sweet man win. But today, Harrison hadn’t even had to ignore his good cards. His mind was not on the game.

“How’s your aunt feeling today?” Mo asked, picking up his cards.

“Lolly was sleeping when I arrived. I’ll check in on her in a little while.”

Mo nodded. “You’re a good nephew. I’ve got so many nieces and nephews and grands and great-grands I can’t keep their names straight, but I love when they come see their old great-uncle Moey. They always bring me my favorite beef jerky. I can’t chew it, but I love the smell of it.”

Harrison laughed. He adored Mo. And he’d met quite a few of Mo’s boisterous, large clan, a few always popping in every day. Harrison had figured he’d be paired with patients who didn’t get many visitors, but he was assigned to anyone who’d filled out a form requesting volunteer visitors—or their families had. For Mo, the more the merrier.

Harrison’s aunt Lolly wasn’t the type to want someone sitting in the chair beside her and reading from Anne of Green Gables, her favorite novel. Lolly had always been private and a keep-to-herself kind of person. Harrison was a little too much like that, but he was working on it. He’d lost his father a couple weeks ago, and when the grief had grabbed him particularly hard one night and he’d gone for a drive and passed a health club, he’d gone in, signed up for membership, and taken out his frustrations on the treadmill and punching bag and weights, and he’d felt a lot better when he’d left. It was also good to be around people who didn’t know him, unlike at work, where the looks of sympathy over his dad had gotten hard instead of comforting.

“You seem upset to me, buddy boy,” Mo said. “Spill the beans. Back in the day, people told me all their troubles. I shoulda charged ten bucks a trouble.”

Harrison smiled. “I’m all right.” Sort of. Except for losing my dad. And now having to say this hard goodbye to my aunt. And then there was the matter of Daisy Dawson.

All the Dawsons, really. But particularly her now.

“Guess what?” Harrison said. “I helped deliver a baby on the side of the road earlier today.” He felt himself smiling, the marvel coming into his face. “Isn’t that something? A boy.”

He thought of Daisy’s big blue eyes. Little Tony wrapped in Harrison’s shirt. Daisy wanting to give Tony his middle initial as a way to thank him.

He’d practically run out of her room after that. But he’d have to face her tomorrow. With some news she wasn’t going to like.

“I did that once,” Mo said, his eyes lighting up. “Hand to God. Lady went into labor right in front of me while I was showing a house. Did I tell you I used to be a real estate agent? It was just the two of us, and wham, the baby was coming. The ambulance got there a minute after I helped deliver the baby. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.”

Harrison stared at him. “Are you serious? That just happened to me. How can it be this common?”

“Hey, we’re a couple of uncommon dudes,” Mo said. “Baby was a girl and squawking her head off.”

Harrison laughed. “So what happened?”

“Well, a couple days later, the lady’s husband came to see me and tried to give me a hundred bucks and a cigar. I took the cigar and told him it was something anyone would do. But I’ll tell you, I did feel like a hero. I told that story for months until my brother told me to shut up already.”

Harrison smiled. “I felt like a hero, too.” But then his smile faded as he realized he was the opposite of a hero. He’d helped bring little Tony Dawson into the world—but was about to take something away from Daisy.

Her family ranch.

Which was really his family’s ranch.

How the hell was he going to tell her?

Every time he thought, Why did I have to be at the right place at the right time, he’d then realize—thank God I was. He couldn’t imagine that beautiful woman, so full of life, literally, giving birth alone on a stretch of rural road. Yes, getting rather intimate with Daisy Dawson had thrown a monkey wrench into things, but he’d come to the Dawson Family Guest Ranch to right a wrong, and he would. Whether he’d delivered Daisy’s baby or not. Whether he felt a connection to her—and that tiny baby—or not.

That’s neither here nor there, he forced himself to think, recalling his father’s favorite line when someone would try to inject emotion into business. Business was business. Signed documents mattered. The Dawson Family Guest Ranch was rightfully his father’s property, and now his. And he’d get it back in the name of his father.

And for Lolly—there was a long story there that he didn’t want to think about. Not with his aunt five doors down, barely able to consume even clear soups in the past couple of days. He had a lifetime of wonderful memories of family holidays and special celebrations with his dad and Lolly, and he’d hold on to those.

Mo’s eyes started to flutter closed, so Harrison packed up the cards and moved the table and jelly beans. He patted sweet Mo’s hand.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, friend,” he told Mo.

Daisy had mentioned she’d be getting discharged tomorrow afternoon. Harrison would stop by the main house at the ranch in the early evening and explain the situation. Who he really was. Why he was there. What the law said. He felt terrible about it, given the new circumstances, but he had to stop seeing Tony Dawson’s little fingers and button nose and bow lips—and Daisy Dawson’s big blue eyes, so full of thank you that he couldn’t bear it.

You’re righting a wrong, he reminded himself. Just focus on that. Do what you have to do and leave and you’ll never have to see those big blue eyes again. He’d never stop thinking about them, though.

How in the world was he going to tell Daisy he was taking away her home and family business?

Tony’s home and family business? A beautiful newborn he’d helped deliver.

Suddenly, that’s neither here nor there wasn’t working for him. Not one bit.

Chapter Three

“So I brought you some stuff you’ll really need,” Sara said with a smile, plopping into the chair beside Daisy’s hospital bed. She had a big red tote bag on her lap.

Daisy grinned and sat up, baby Tony sleeping nestled against her chest. The Dawson crew had left a few hours ago, and since visiting hours were ending in about a half hour, Daisy hadn’t expected to see any of them until tomorrow, when Noah and Sara would come pick up her and Tony to bring them home. She should have known her BFF would be back.

Sara pulled out three books. “Okay, you might not exactly have time to read. But if you do, you’ll want these. One,” she said, holding up a hardcover with “New York Times bestseller” atop it. “Motherhood for Total Beginners: Your Guide to Fusspots, Colicky Screamers, Nonnappers, Binky-Spitter-Outters, Diaper Rash and a Total Lack of Help.”

Daisy laughed. “That last bit clinches it as definitely the read for me, since I’ll be on my own.” A second ago she’d been smiling, but the moment the words were out of her mouth, she frowned, that vague fear that sometimes gripped her now hanging on tight. She’d expected to be coparenting. With a husband, her baby’s father. Instead, she’d be a single mother. Alone, alone, alone.

“Hey,” Sara said, giving Daisy’s hand a squeeze. “You’ve got me 24/7 a quarter mile away. Even if I’m in the middle of breaking up an argument between the goats or dealing with a guest issue, I’ll come running. You know that, right? So will Noah.”

She did know that. And she loved Sara and Noah for it. Having her family’s support made everything about single motherhood a lot less scary. “I don’t know what I’d do without you two.”

Sara smiled and held up the next book. “Your Baby’s Development by Month,” she read. “This one is a little more boring but very informative. My own copy is already full of Post-its. Basically what to expect. Don’t read ahead or you might get scared. Teething?” Sara mock shivered. “That’s next for us.” She held up the third book, a hardcover with pretty illustrations on the front. “This one is a baby book.” She flipped a few pages. There were pages to write down baby’s first word, laugh, step. “Every time Tony has a first, you can record it, and there are spaces for accompanying photos. Annabel’s and Chance’s baby books are full of blurry shots of them having their first spoonfuls of pureed peaches.”

Daisy laughed. “I love these, Sara. And thank you.”

Sara reached into the bag and pulled out a huge bag of lemon drops, which were Daisy’s favorite candy, and waved it. “Also in here? Everything a new mother needs—from nipple cream to a sitz bath to Extra-Strength Tylenol to this coupon indicating that Noah and I hired a cleaning service to come every other week for a few months.”

Daisy’s eyes misted. “I could not love you more.”

“Hey, that’s what besties are for. Plus you’re lucky that I’m also your sister-in-law, so you get the BFF love and the family treatment.”

“Thank you, Sara. Seriously.” She bit her lip and eyed the scary stuff in the tote bag. She’d read about those items but had forced them from her mind, so she hadn’t bought them. She was grateful to know she’d have them stored in the bathroom when she’d need them. “I wonder what it’ll be like, being home with him on my own. Doing this alone. I mean, I know I have you and Noah. But there’s no dad, Sara. You went through that. I know you know it’s scary.”

“It is scary,” Sara said. “But just like I knew I’d be all right, you know you’ll be all right. You do what you gotta do. You accept support. You say yes to every offer of help. You ask for help when you need it. You learn on the job. And the job is everything, Daize—motherhood. And motherhood is truly instinctive. The incredible love you feel for Tony, that love you’ve never felt before in your entire life before you held him? That guides everything. Everything else you look up in these books or google it. Like sudden bumpy rashes on Tony’s chest or a barking cough.”

Daisy felt instantly better. Yeah—Sara was right. Daisy had felt an instinctive burst of love, protectiveness, commitment, everything the moment Harrison McCord had placed her newborn baby boy on her chest. She’d be a good mother—she knew she would be. And for all the scary stuff that would come up, she’d ask Sara, who had several months of experience on her, or she’d hit the laptop.

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Gimme a lemon drop.”

Sara grinned and handed over the bag, two pounds’ worth and tied with a red wire bow. A few minutes later, a nurse popped her head in and pointed at her watch. Visiting hours were over for the day. Sara gathered her stuff, assured Daisy she and Noah would be back tomorrow afternoon to bring her and Tony home to the ranch, and then it was just Daisy and her newborn.