Yuletide Baby Bargain

“There was nobody here at the house to notice anything?”

“No.”

She’d finished diapering the baby. She kept her palm on the baby’s chest as she glanced up at him. “No?”

He frowned. Her pretty eyes were as dark as chocolate and yet the doubt in them was as clear as a spotlight. Another thing that hadn’t changed over the years. Everything going on inside Maddie’s head was broadcast through those expressive eyes. Her two sisters had the exact same eyes—the exact same looks, in fact, since they were identical triplets—but he’d never thought their emotions were as transparent as Maddie’s.

And he’d never looked at Greer or Ali and felt a slow burn inside.

“Who do you think should have been here?”

She looked back at the baby. “I figured you’d have a housekeeper or something.” She slipped the baby’s kicking legs back into her stretchy clothes. “At least she seems to have been warm enough. I don’t see any signs of frostbite. She still needs an exam, though.” She folded the used diaper and wipe into a ball, secured it with the sticky diaper tapes and held it out.

He was glad his hands were full. He lifted them—formula can in one, empty bottle in the other.

She rolled her eyes and picked up the baby, nestling her in one arm as she stood. “Kitchen still in the same place?” Not waiting for an answer, she walked past him and around the staircase.

He followed. “Where would it have gone?”

She ignored the question. When she reached the kitchen, she tossed the diaper into the trash bin located in the walk-in pantry, then returned to stop in front of him. She took the can from his fingers and set it on the wide soapstone-topped island. Then she took the bottle and before he knew it, she was holding out the baby.

Layla watched him with wide blue eyes. She was going at the pacifier as if it might actually produce milk.

“Oh for heaven’s sake, Linc!” Maddie sounded exasperated. “Just take her. She won’t break.”

He wasn’t so sure. He gingerly placed his hands near Maddie’s, underneath the baby’s arms. As soon as he did, Maddie moved hers away. She went to the sink and turned on the water to wash her hands.

The baby was a lot lighter than he expected, considering how heavy she’d been when strapped inside the car seat.

She opened her mouth, the pacifier dropped out and she let out an ear-piercing wail. For such a tiny thing, she made a helluva racket.

He wasn’t a man who panicked easily, yet that was all he’d done since he’d realized there was a baby on his doorstep.

“Nope.” He pushed the kid back at Maddie. “No way.”

“Oh, for the love of Pete.” She took the baby back. “Get me the pacifier.”

It had rolled under the scrolled wooden edge of the island. He grabbed it, handing it to her.

“Wash it, would you please?” She handed him the bottle. “And this, too.”

He joined her at the sink. “Aren’t they supposed to be sterilized or something?”

“In a perfect world, probably. But who knows what other conditions this baby has endured. For now, hot water and a good wash with soap will have to do.” Without waiting for him to finish washing the pacifier and bottle, she tucked one wet finger into the baby’s mouth.

The crying stopped.

But that was the only bit of relief he got.

“Now that my hands are busy, you can make her a bottle,” Maddie ordered. “Directions are on the side of the can.”

He peered at the small print on the can. He’d left his reading glasses in his jacket and it was impossible to read.

Maddie was pacing around the island, bouncing the baby a little with each step. “How do you know for sure she’s Jax’s baby, anyway? Do you know her name?”

“Layla. And of course she’s Jax’s.”

“He told you?”

“He didn’t have to.” Glad for the excuse, he left the can on the counter and went back out to the foyer. When he returned, he had his reading glasses as well as the note. He unfolded it and spread it on the counter so she could see. “This was stuck in the car seat with her.”

Maddie pursed her lips as she studied the single line of looping handwriting. “Jaxie, please take care of Layla for me,” she read. Her eyes lifted to his for a moment. “Jaxie?”

“You know how women are with Jax.” Even Maddie had been susceptible to his brother, once. Until Linc set her straight.

“The note isn’t signed.”

He gave her a look. “Presumably, Jaxie knows who the mother of his own child is.”

“But he obviously didn’t tell you about her.”

“Yeah, well, we don’t really talk to each other a lot anymore.”

“How long has he been out of town?”

He shrugged. “Little over a week.”

“He still lives here, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. So?”

“So how can you live in the same house and not talk to each other?”

He wished he hadn’t said anything. “It’s not germane.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Oh. Well, if it’s not germane.” She gave him a wide-eyed stare and grabbed the washed pacifier, trading it for the tip of her index finger in the baby’s mouth. Then she took the baby bottle and filled it part way with tap water, added a few scoops from the can of formula without so much as a glance at the tiny print, and screwed on the nipple. She shook the bottle vigorously and held it under running hot water. “While you’re feeding her, I’ll call my uncle and check in with my boss to let him know what’s going on. I have enough autonomy to set up the emergency placement, but Ray’s still going to want to know about it. He’s a stickler that way. But no matter where the placement ends up being, Layla still needs an exam first, particularly considering the way she was left. Just because I didn’t see any signs of injury, it’s not a medical assessment. And Uncle David’s qualified to make one, which means maybe we can avoid having to involve the hospital, too. Are you sure you don’t know who her mother might be?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t have needed to call you.” He tossed his reading glasses onto the island alongside the note. “And what the hell is ‘emergency placement’ supposed to mean?”

Chapter Two (#uf078ba68-6042-5ccd-9461-528bac324d69)

Ignoring Linc’s annoyed tone, Maddie turned off the water and dried the bottle with a towel she pulled from the drawer next to the sink, all with one hand. The white cloth was clean and crisp, just like the towels that Ernestine had kept there when Maddie was a child. She wondered if Linc had changed anything at all around the house since his grandmother died.

The black-framed glasses were definitely a new addition for him, though—and an unwelcome, unexpectedly sexy one.

“Emergency placement,” she repeated smoothly. “It’s what it sounds like.” Layla’s eyes were fastened on the bottle and she wrapped her little starfish hands around it as soon as Maddie put the nipple near her lips.

The baby’s eyes nearly rolled back in her head as she guzzled the lukewarm formula. “Poor baby. You’re so hungry.” Anger threatened to boil inside her over the baby’s neglect, but she knew better than to let it get the best of her. She couldn’t be effective in her job if she let herself be consumed by anger or horror over the situations she saw.