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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 (#ulink_808a3110-06bc-50bb-bad8-e386db5b24d5)
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.”
