Found: One Baby

Thad sighed. “Wish me luck. That attic is a mess.”

“IT’S NOT THERE,” Thad reported in frustration a short time later.

He’d only been up in the attic twenty minutes, Michelle thought. She removed the bottle she’d been heating from the bowl of warm water. “Are you sure?”

Thad looked at William, who was lying patiently in his Moses basket, eyes wide open, trying awkwardly to get his thumb to his mouth. “I checked through the most recent boxes.”

Which meant Thad hadn’t checked through everything belonging to his brother, Michelle deduced. “Maybe it’s in an older box,” she suggested, wiping the outside of the bottle dry. “Do you want me to go up and look?”

Thad glanced at her clothes. “It’s kind of grimy up there,” he warned.

Michelle tested the bottle on the inside of her wrist. “Not a problem. You’ll have to feed William, though.”

“He’s ready to eat again?”

“Yes, he is.” Michelle handed Thad the bottle of formula.

Thad smiled, as if he relished his first chance to give William a bottle.

“You know, we could probably just wait and ask Candace Wright.”

“That’s assuming we can find her and she’ll talk to us. She may not. In any case, it’s best to be as prepared as you can be before you walk into a situation like this.” She sighed. “So if Russell thinks the papers he signed are in the attic, I think we need to do everything possible to find them. Because if we can find them, then we will know what attorney he used to prepare them.”

“What if they didn’t use an attorney? What if they just went online and printed out some do-it-yourself forms and signed those?”

Michelle exhaled. “Then none of what they’ve done may be legal. But again, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.” She held up a staying hand. “How do I get to the attic?”

Thad picked up William and the bottle. “We’ll walk you up there.”

Thad motioned her up the stairs. Past the master bedroom, with its heavy mahogany furniture and big, comfortable-looking bed. There was a stack of books and what looked like medical journals on both nightstands. Baskets of what looked like clean, unfolded laundry, and an overflowing hamper. On down the hall, past another bath and bedroom, decorated in teenage-boy motif, with a big sign on the door that read: Russell’s Room—No One Else Allowed. Next to that was a study, with a desk and cozy leather armchair and ottoman. Along one wall was a stack of gift boxes, reminding Michelle of all the women in town who were chasing him. Before she could stop herself, she blurted, “What’s this? The trophy room?”

“I’m planning to donate it all. I just can’t do it anywhere in town. ’Cause someone will know and then I’ll hurt somebody’s feelings…and I don’t want to do that.”

She could see he was serious. “It must be hard to be you,” she said dryly.

He returned her droll look and opened a door leading to the third floor. “Up there.”

Michelle hit the switch next to the door. Light flooded the third floor and spilled down the rough wooden stairs. “Thanks.”

Thad wandered back in the direction they’d come. “William, let’s go into the master bedroom and have ourselves a bottle, shall we?”

Shaking her head, Michelle headed up the stairs. Thad was right. It was a mess. And a pretty big one. Most of it seemed to be Russell’s, judging by the name scrawled in black Magic Marker on the sides of boxes.

She began looking. And looking. And looking. Finally, thirty minutes later, she hit the jackpot. Or at least she hoped she had. She found a metal lockbox, the kind where people tended to store their important papers. Only problem was, she noted, it was locked.

Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Thad came up to stand beside her. “Any luck?”

She waved her find. “This could be it.”

Thad towered over her, six feet two inches of attractive single male. “I didn’t know he had that up here,” he murmured in a low, sexy voice.

Once again, Michelle forced herself to set her attraction to the handsome doctor aside. She moved past him and headed briskly down the stairs. “Where’s William?”

Thad followed laconically. “In his Moses basket, asleep.”

Which meant she now had Thad’s undivided attention, at least for the next ten minutes or so, until William awakened again. She ignored the tingling in her midriff and forced herself to stay focused on the task. “You don’t happen to have a key for this?”

He shook his head.

“How about a paper clip?”

“In my study.”

They peeked in the master bedroom, where William was sleeping, then ducked into the study, opened a desk drawer and rummaged around. Finally he produced a paper clip and handed it over.

She could feel him watching her as she sat on the edge of the desk and began to work on the lock.

She looked up. The intent, appreciative, all-male look in his eyes made her catch her breath. “What are you thinking?” she demanded.

Thad tucked a finger beneath her chin, moved in closer. “This.”

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