The Sheriff's Christmas Surprise

“Hold him, please,” she requested,

Now what? Rick eyed her uncertainly. Why was she giving him the boy? “You want me to feed him?”

She opened the microwave and took the bottle out again. “No, I need to test the milk to make sure that it’s not too hot for Bobby.”

Olivia shook out a few drops on her wrist. Then, because she didn’t want to just let the milk slide down her skin onto the floor, she quickly licked the drops up.

Why he found that simple act so sensual and arousing was something Rick told himself he’d have to explore at a later time. Right now, he figured it was best not to go there.

“What’s the verdict?” he asked.

She smiled, setting the bottle down on the table for a moment and holding out her arms. “It’s warm, but not too hot.”

“Like the fairy tale,” Rick commented, handing the baby back to her.

“Fairy tale?” Olivia asked, curious. Sitting down, she tucked Bobby against her and started feeding him. The moment she placed the nipple near his lips, he started sucking greedily.

“Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” Rick told her, resting a hip against the table as he watched the baby eat. “You know,” he elaborated, “too hot, too cold, just right.”

“Oh, right.” Her mind hadn’t gone in that direction for a reason, which she explained. “I didn’t take you for the type to know fairy tales.”

Rick laughed shortly. “I didn’t just appear one day, wearing a badge and a gun belt. I was a kid once, just like you were.”

The smile that came to her lips was sad, distant, as if she was trying to access something and wasn’t quite successful. She looked down at her nephew, taking comfort in just watching him. “I don’t remember ever being a kid. It feels like I was always an adult.”

He read between the lines, remembering what Olivia had said to him earlier. “How long have you been at it?”

Her eyes met his. “‘It’?”

He nodded. “Taking care of your sister.”

She didn’t even have to stop to think. She could have told him the figure in months if he’d wanted it that way. “Ten and a half years.”

No wonder she didn’t remember having a childhood. She practically hadn’t. She had to have been in her teens when she’d taken on the responsibility. “That’s a long stretch.”

She smiled at his choice of words. “You make it sound like a prison sentence.”

He paused for a moment, his eyes on hers. The woman didn’t sound bitter about it, which he found impressive. “Is it?”

“No,” Olivia said with feeling. “I love my sister.” She didn’t want him thinking she was being a martyr about this. Nothing could be further from the truth. “Do I wish that Tina was a little more responsible? Yes, of course I do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love her.”

“Didn’t say you didn’t.” Finished with his bottle, the baby’s mouth had traces of formula all over it. Rick took out his handkerchief and gently wiped away the milky substance. “But life’s a complicated thing. You can love someone and still find that there are times you don’t like them very much.”

To be honest, he expected more denials. He was surprised to see that he’d evoked a smile from the woman instead.

Her eyes crinkled a little as she said, “You have siblings.” It wasn’t a question.

Rick began to tuck the handkerchief back into his pocket and was surprised when Olivia put out her hand for it. He surrendered it to her and watched as she spread it over her left shoulder.

“One,” he told her. “A younger sister.”

“We have that in common then.” Placing Bobby against her shoulder, Olivia gently began to pat the baby’s back, waiting for the obligatory burp. “Except that your sister is probably one of those superresponsible types.”

He had no idea how she had guessed that. “She is.” Then he explained, “Abuela wouldn’t have allowed her to be anything else.”