Found: One Baby

Deciding it was time to try again, she carried the sleeping William over to the elaborately lined Moses basket, and set him down gently on his back. She tucked a blanket around him to keep him warm. Relieved he still appeared to be asleep, at least for the moment, she walked over to the window where Thad was standing. “I’m not sure I should be involved in this situation.”

Thad looked surprised, then confused. “You’re a lawyer.”

Her pulse picked up as she pointed out, “I’m not your lawyer.”

Thad tilted his head. “You could be.”

She kept her expression impassive. “This is a family-law case.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And you have a background in family law. A pretty good one, from what I’ve heard.”

That was then, Michelle thought. This was now. And she knew better these days. She lifted her hands in a vague gesture of dissatisfaction and stepped away. “I did so much of it the first five years out of law school that I burned out on it. My current practice focuses on the needs of small business, wills and estate planning, real estate and consumer law. My law partner—Glenn York—does all the divorce, custody and adoption cases for our firm.”

“I know his reputation. He’s very good.” Thad paused. He glanced over at the sleeping William, then back to Michelle. “I’d still prefer you handle it.”

His was not an uncommon reaction. People with legal trouble often latched on to the first person who appeared able to help them out of it, without bothering to verify credentials or search out expertise in that specific area of the law. “You don’t even know me,” she said.

“You’ve handled the situation well so far.”

That wasn’t the only reason, Michelle decided. “You’re embarrassed by your brother’s attitude, aren’t you?”

A muscle worked in Thad’s jaw. “Wouldn’t you be?”

Michelle tried not to think how easy it was to be here with Thad like this. She shrugged. “I learned a long time ago not to judge people by the messes they get themselves into.” She had always been trained to look at both sides of every issue. “Besides, it sounds as if your brother was trying to do a good deed for someone. It just didn’t turn out the way he expected.”

Thad sobered. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

Michelle called upon even more of her law-school training. “Your brother may change his mind about the child.”

Thad’s mouth took on a downward slant. “No. He won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because of the way we grew up.” Thad’s mood turned reflective. “Our mom was really great—loving and fun, smart and kind—but she died from an aneurysm when Russell and I were in elementary school. We barely knew our dad—he was a geologist for an oil company. I’ve no doubt he loved us in his way, but he wasn’t interested in being a hands-on parent. Nevertheless, he left the project he was working on in South America and came back to Summit to take care of us.” He exhaled. “For the next ten years or so, he worked assignments around the state. When we hit our teens and were old enough to stay alone, he went back to the more exciting gigs in South and Central America. From that point on, until he died five years ago, we rarely saw him because he was just never home.”

Michelle touched Thad’s arm gently. “That sounds lonely.”

Thad glanced at her hand, then said, “Summit’s a closeknit community. We had a lot of people looking out for us. Plenty to eat. And the house across the street to live in.”

But, Michelle speculated, not what he had obviously wanted most—a loving, emotionally engaged and interested parent on the premises.

“What was your childhood like?” Thad asked, his rumbling drawl sending shivers over her skin.

She figured she might as well be honest, too. “I grew up in a well-to-do suburban enclave of Dallas. I was an only child of two very loving but ambitious people.” She paused. “So let’s just say, for me, failure in any venue was not an option.”

Thad chuckled sympathetically. “You’re giving me new appreciation for my laissez-faire teens.”

Michelle sighed. The understanding look on his face soon had her confiding further in him. “Don’t get me wrong. I had plenty of attention and everything I needed to succeed. Including special tutors and private coaches when necessary.”

Thad seemed to know instinctively there was more. “But…?”

“There were times when I felt as if I had been born on a treadmill set at high speed with no way to get off.” Times when she had felt she would never please her folks no matter how much she accomplished. Michelle forced herself to go on. “My parents were both tenured university professors and department chairs. When they weren’t hovering over me, urging me to greater heights, they worked all the time.”

William stirred and began to whimper again. She went over to pick him up before he began to wail in earnest. Soothing him with a cuddle and a kiss, Michelle walked back to Thad.

“That sounds rough,” he said.

Michelle nodded and handed the baby to him. “Too much so for my folks,” she admitted, watching with pleasure as William snuggled up to Thad every bit as easily as he had snuggled up to her. Then she frowned. “My mom and dad both died of stress-related illnesses a few years ago. Their health problems spurred me to reevaluate my own life. I decided I didn’t want to continue to live in the big city, so I began saving money and looking around for a place to live a quieter life.”

“I know what you mean. I went to medical school and did my E.R. residency in Houston. By the time I’d finished, I’d had enough of rush-hour traffic and crowds. When there was an opening at the Summit hospital, I jumped at it.”

William’s lashes shut. His breathing grew deep and even once again.

“But we digress,” Michelle said.

Thad cast a loving glance at the infant in his arms. “Yes,” he said softly. “We do.”

Forcing herself to pull back emotionally, before she got in way over her head, Michelle said, “You need to get this situation with William sorted out as soon as possible.”

Before either of them fell even more in love with this abandoned little boy.

THE FIRST ORDER of business, they both decided, after they had resettled the sleeping William in his bed, was to get the addresses and phone numbers of the people involved. That turned out to be easy enough. An Internet search quickly gave them contact information for Candace Wright, as well as Brice and Beatrix Johnson.

Aware he was so far out of his depth it wasn’t funny, Thad asked, “Any advice on how I should handle this?”

Michelle glanced sideways at him, reminding him, “I’m not going to represent you.”

Thad wondered if she had any idea how beautiful she looked in the soft light of her elegantly decorated living room, feet propped up on the coffee table, laptop computer settled on her jean-clad thighs. He propped up his feet on the coffee table, too, next to hers. “You could still advise me as a friend.”

Her eyes remained on the screen as she studied the information there. She typed in the print command. “Are we friends?”

Somewhere in the too-quiet depths of her house, he heard a laser printer start up. “I think we’re getting there.” As she put her laptop aside and moved to stand, he inhaled the orange-blossom fragrance of her shampoo.

He stood, too. “Why? Does that bother you?”

He followed her down the hall to the kitchen. A home-office space had been built into one wall, with floor-to-ceiling kitchen cabinets on either side. The printer was on the shelf above the desk. She plucked several pages out of the tray and gave him a look of lawyerly calm. “These are highly unusual circumstances.”

No argument there. Thad shrugged, aware he hadn’t been this affected by a woman in a long time. If ever. “What better way to get to know each other?”

Her lips curved cynically. “I hope you’re not hitting on me.”

Was he? “Wouldn’t think of it.” Thad matched her semiamused tone.

Silence fell between them. Knowing this would all go a lot easier if Michelle were there to help him and their tiny charge, Thad walked back to the living room with her. “Just help me get through the rest of the weekend,” he proposed.

In his bed, William pushed out his lower lip in indignation and began to whimper once again.

“Then if I need to hire someone, I’ll do it on Monday morning.” He picked up William and cradled him in his arms. The little guy couldn’t have weighed more than eight pounds and still had the faint redness of skin all newborns had. Yet he already had so much personality. “I don’t want to screw this up. This little guy has already been through enough.” Thad fought the unexpected tightness in his throat, continued in a voice that sounded rusty, even to him. “And since my brother is not acting responsibly…”