Lone Star Baby

“In the hospital in Dallas, where she was born two weeks ago.”

“Two weeks?” Gavin echoed at last.

“Ava came into the world only weighing four pounds.” Mitzy went on to explain the medical problems the preemie had already endured, which included breathing struggles, weight loss, feeding issues and difficulty absorbing nutrients.

“She won’t be released until she’s into a regular bassinet, taking food from a bottle and gaining the appropriate weight. But if you two are willing to become legal guardians, at least temporarily, we could transport her by the end of the week to the hospital here. Naturally, it helps that you’re both physicians.”

And hence would be better equipped to help a struggling newborn, Violet thought, switching quickly into caretaker mode.

The social worker lifted her hand. “I know neither of you had any idea you’d been named as Ava’s legal guardian. Never mind consented to Tammy’s request. So I don’t want—or expect—either of you to give me an answer about any of this right now. Talk it over with each other before making a decision.”

Gavin nodded his understanding.

“We’ll get back to you tomorrow,” Violet promised, still feeling a little dazed.

Mitzy gathered her belongings and left.

Gavin turned to Violet, his expression serious, intense. “So,” he said heavily, seeming to be in as much a quandary as she was, “what do we do?”

Chapter Two (#ulink_52f37c78-1610-5a4d-8916-1390ffa9c9a1)

The usual idealism shining in her pretty brown eyes, Violet turned to Gavin, frowned and said, “Obviously, we can’t adopt baby Ava together.” She walked back outside and he followed her. “We barely know each other.”

Barely?

While it was true they hadn’t hung out together as kids and had run in different social circles—it was certainly different now that they were both physicians.

Irked to find her so quick to discount the time they had spent together, Gavin stepped in once again to lend a hand unpacking the trailer. “We’ve worked together for the past five years while we completed our residencies and fellowship training.”

“You know what I mean. Yes, I know your preferred ways of dealing with certain medical situations, just as you surely know mine. But when it comes to the intricate personal details of your life, I don’t know you any better than I know the rest of the staff at the hospital.” Violet plucked a lamp base out of the pile of belongings, rooting around until she found the shade. “And you don’t really know me at all, either.”

Gavin’s jaw tightened. Oh, he knew her, all right. Maybe better than she thought.

For instance, he knew her preferred coffee was a skinny vanilla latte. And that she loved enchiladas above all else—to the point she’d sampled all twenty-five types from the local Tex-Mex restaurant.

He tore his gaze from the barest hint of cleavage in the vee of her T-shirt and concentrated instead on the dismayed blush of color sweeping her delicate cheeks.

“And whose fault is that?” he inquired huskily.

“Mine, obviously,” she said with a temperamental lift of her finely arched brow, “since I prefer to keep a firewall between my professional and private lives.”

More like a nuclear shield, he thought grimly.

Having tried to pierce it once or twice himself, he’d given up and concentrated on his own work, moving on to occasionally date other women. Except for his one disastrous engagement, none of those relationships had ever amounted to anything more than a short-lived flirtation. Mostly because none of the other women had even begun to measure up to the sexy, irrepressible Violet McCabe.

He gazed into her eyes, chiding, “What private life?”

She looked down her nose at him, lamp and shade still in hand, as he stacked moving boxes onto the wheeled dolly. “You are too funny, Monroe.” She stepped back reluctantly to let him push the dolly into the barn for her.

Realizing how ridiculous it was to still be lusting after her when she was still not over losing Sterling, Gavin gestured to the place she’d been putting all the other boxes.

She nodded her approval and he set them down.

“Besides,” she taunted, watching as he straightened to his full six feet three inches, “it’s not as if you have a viable personal life, either.”

Unable to resist teasing her, he raked his eyes up and down her body. “Sure about that?”

She flushed. Hinting, to his pleasure, that she might be a little more interested in him, too, than she’d previously let on.

Violet grabbed the dolly and headed back out to the truck, her hips swaying provocatively beneath her shorts. “Let’s just say I find it highly unlikely,” she shot back. “Unless you’ve managed to get by on zero sleep the past four years—”

So she did know exactly how long it had been since his engagement to Penelope had ended.

“—and, the occasional cursory date aside, skirt around without detection. Which would be an even larger feat, given what an eligible bachelor you are.”

Clasping a palm to his chest, as if he had just taken an arrow to the heart, he drawled, “Women find me eligible?”

She mimed exasperation at his clowning around. “Please,” she said in an unamused voice that completely belied the twinkle in her eyes. She paused to put the two parts of the lamp together. “Like they don’t come into the ER and hit on you every day.”

They did. But a lot of single guys on the EMT, fire and sheriff’s squads came in just to flirt with her, too.

“Besides...” Bending, and giving him a very nice view of her luscious derriere, she rummaged through another box marked Fragile and emerged with a cardboard sleeve of lightbulbs. With an indignant sniff, she finished putting together the lamp. “Between your extended family and mine, and the nonstop demands of our residencies and fellowships, neither of us has had time to pursue anything remotely meaningful on our own.”

Which was, Gavin thought, yet another problem that had to be addressed.

Their residencies were over now.

Yes, they were still doctors with crazy work schedules, but they also deserved more of a personal life. He intended to find one.

He hoped she would, too.

“And,” she continued, brushing a hand through her sexy, side-swept bangs, “I don’t know if that will ever change.”

The unmistakable ache in her tone caught him unaware.

He studied her, for the first time realizing she might also be a little lonely, deep down. As well as privately longing for more, too. Despite her avowals to the contrary.

“So you’re thinking that because we both have so little spare time and energy on our hands, that we should just say no to Tammy’s request and hand the baby over to Dallas social services?”

“No.” Violet looked at him long and hard. “I’m saying we should say yes to temporary guardianship. Bring Ava here, make sure she gets absolutely everything she needs medically and then—once we’re sure she is okay—have Mitzy help us find her a loving family who will welcome us as godparents and allow us to watch over her as she grows up.”

Gavin heaved a sigh of relief, glad to find her being as pragmatic, compassionate and levelheaded as the situation demanded. Having been orphaned himself, albeit when he was about to enter medical school, he couldn’t live with himself if he turned his back on another parentless child.

It was bad enough the way he had let his own family down, by not being as available as he should have been in that difficult time.

He’d tried to make up for it since—by returning to Laramie for his residency and taking a permanent job there.

But if he had it to do all over again, he would have done what was right for everyone—not just him.