Maverick Christmas Surprise

Amazingly, he did, and tapped it to initiate the call.

“Hello?”

The female voice that immediately answered sounded frantic.

“Um...hi,” he said. “I’m trying to reach Leighton Ames.”

“You and me both,” she replied, sounding as if she was fighting tears.

He frowned at that. “Is this still her number?”

“Yes, but she forgot her phone when she left.” The woman on the other end of the line sighed. “Or maybe she didn’t forget it.”

Which didn’t make any sense to him, but all he said was: “Well, if you hear from her, can you ask her to call Wilder Crawford?”

“Why?” She sounded both curious and wary. “What business do you have with my sister?”

Sister?

He couldn’t recall Leighton mentioning a sister, but surely a sister would know if Leighton had had a baby. And if this was Leighton’s baby, that meant the woman on the phone was the baby’s aunt.

Before he could ask, she spoke again. “Wait a minute—did you say Wilder Crawford?”

“I did,” he confirmed.

“I found your name and a Montana address scrawled on a Post-it note in Leighton’s apartment,” she said. “I think she might be on her way to see you.”

The knots in his stomach tightened. “She might have been here already...and left something.”

He heard a sharp intake of breath. “What kind of something?”

“A baby,” he admitted. “Did she—”

“Cody!” she immediately interjected, not giving him a chance to finish. “You have Cody?”

“That’s the name in the note,” he confirmed.

“Note?” she echoed.

“The baby was left on my doorstep with a note.”

“I don’t understand. Why would she leave her baby?”

“I wish I knew,” he told her.

“Are you Cody’s father?” she guessed.

“Obviously your sister thinks so.”

“You haven’t seen her or talked to her?”

“Not in the past year.”

“But Cody’s with you? At the Ambling A Ranch in Montana?”

“That’s right,” he confirmed.

“Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she promised.

“Wait—”

But she’d already disconnected the call.

“What did you find out?” Max asked, when Wilder returned to the table where Lily had resumed serving dessert and Avery rocked the now quiet baby.

“The kid’s mom is Leighton Ames,” he said. “I spoke to her sister, but she doesn’t know where she is or why she left the baby here.”

“Because she wanted him to be with his dad,” Max suggested as an answer to the latter question.

Wilder hoped like hell his father was wrong.

“Do you want ice cream with your pie?” Merry asked him.

Because for the rest of the family gathered together, today was still a celebration—and it was time for dessert.

“Sure,” he said.

Though he wasn’t even sure he wanted the pie now, he didn’t want his family to know how freaked out he was about the arrival of the baby they were all happy enough to assume was his and turning down dessert would be a definite red flag.

“I want ice cream,” Wren piped up, pushing her bowl toward her soon-to-be-stepmother who was scooping it.

“You already had ice cream,” her dad reminded her, pulling the bowl back again before Merry could indulge the little girl’s request.

Wren pouted and dragged her spoon around the inside of the empty vessel.

Wilder took the plate Merry passed to him and murmured his thanks. Then he halved the scoop of ice cream with the side of his fork and slid half into his niece’s bowl.

Wren beamed at him; Hunter scowled.

“There’s a reason I’m the favorite uncle,” he said, and winked at the little girl.

“I’m finished with my dessert,” Finn said to his wife then, “if you want me to take the baby.”

“I can manage the baby,” Avery assured him. “If you want to be helpful, you can start clearing the table.”

As Finn began gathering empty plates and glasses, Wilder dug his fork into his pie, giving up the pretense of an appetite.

“Did you ask for a baby for Christmas, Uncle Wilder?” his niece asked, around a mouthful of ice cream.