Yuletide Baby Bargain Read online

  She felt her jaw loosen a little. “Uh, sure. Whatev—”

  Mercifully, Layla decided to take center stage at that moment, opening her mouth and letting out a loud wail.

  Maddie jiggled the baby, who’d been an angel up to that point. “She’s sleepy and probably hungry by now.” She pulled the pacifier out of the purse Linc was holding and looked up at him. The baby turned her face away from the pacifier and wailed louder. “We should—”

  “Go,” he finished. “Good idea.” He gave Morton a dismissive smile that Maddie couldn’t help but enjoy as they turned and headed toward the hospital exit again. Only when they reached it did Linc’s hand finally move away from her shoulder.

  He held up her coat. “You’ll want this. It’s started snowing again.”

  She looked through the glass entrance. Sure enough, the snow was falling again. She knew there was no point in trying to hand Layla to him, particularly with the way she was crying, which meant Maddie had to suffer through him helping her on with her coat while she shifted the fussing baby from one arm to the other.

  But when he started to button her in, she couldn’t take anymore and she quickly stepped away. “I’m good. Thanks.” She tried offering the pacifier to Layla again, but the baby still wanted nothing to do with it.

  “Hold on.” Linc gestured at the arrangement of chairs near the doors. He set the purse on one of them, pulled out the premixed bottle and uncapped it.

  Maddie exchanged the pacifier for the bottle, and Layla went to town on it, her cries immediately ceasing. Maddie swirled the puppy blanket up and around the baby. “Okay,” she said, feeling a little breathless. “We’re good now.”

  “We can sit here if you want.”

  She already felt like they’d been drawing more than enough attention. “She’ll be fine finishing in the truck.”

  He looped the long strap of the flowery purse over his shoulder again and they headed out.

  The snow danced around them, but Maddie didn’t mind. She felt overheated to her bones, courtesy of the hand that he lightly pressed against the small of her back as they walked through the parking lot.

  When they reached the truck, she passed him Layla’s bottle long enough to get the baby latched into her seat, then hurriedly climbed up beside her again.

  “Not worried about getting carsick?”

  Their fingers brushed when she quickly took the bottle back from him and offered it once more to Layla. “She can’t hold the bottle by herself yet.”

  That was true, at least.

  He reached in and set the purse near her feet. Then he straightened and his eyes met hers, probably not even intentionally.

  But she still felt something in her chest squeeze.

  His eyebrows drew together. “What?”

  She shook her head and made herself push some words out through her tightening throat. “You have a snowflake on your nose.” And on his hair. On his shoulders. Like nature had decided to sprinkle him with glistening sugar.

  He brushed his hand over his perfect nose and closed the truck door.

  She let out a shaky breath and managed to somehow fasten her own seat belt one-handed since Layla was adamantly opposed to having the bottle nipple move even an inch away from her.

  Then Linc was getting in behind the wheel, and starting up the truck. He flipped on the wipers and they brushed easily through the snow accumulating on the windshield. Maddie imagined she could feel his gaze on her through the rearview mirror, but kept her own strictly on the baby. He steered the truck out of the hospital parking lot and within minutes, they were leaving the town behind.

  The only sounds were the engine, the thrum of tires on the snowy highway and the sweet, soft noises Layla made as she guzzled.

  Maddie leaned her head against her seat and unfastened her coat. She started to relax.

  “So what’s the story with Meadows?”

  So much for relaxing.

  She focused on Layla. “There’s no story.”

  “Two of you sleep together or something?”

  She looked up, gaping at him in the rearview mirror. “No!”

  “Yeah. Figured. No chemistry between the two of you at all.”

  She huffed. “Then why even say such a thing!”

  “Because it’s pretty entertaining seeing the way you react.”

  She rolled her eyes. If her cheeks were as red as they felt, she would look in need of calamine lotion again. “You’re annoying.”

  He actually chuckled.

  She would have been even more annoyed at that, if she weren’t flabbergasted to hear him laugh.

  “He stood me up for dinner,” she admitted severely. “No meal together, much less anything else.”

  “So he’s an idiot. What about Jax?”

  The baby bottle almost slid out of her hand. She quickly adjusted it before Layla could get riled up. “What about him?”

  “Sleep with him?”

  She opened her mouth. Closed it again. Shook her head. “This is not a conversation we are having,” she muttered as much for her own benefit as his.

  “So you did.”

  “No, I did not sleep with Jax!”

  “Ever?”

  She kicked the back of his seat. She’d rather have kicked him, but since she was not a violent person, it had to do. “I was seventeen when you told me I needed to stay far, far away from Jax.”

  “Which isn’t an answer.”

  She kicked his seat again. “I wasn’t sleeping with him at seventeen! Or eighteen, or any other time. And none of it’s your business anyway! Not Martin or Jax or—”

  “Who’s Martin?”

  “Morton!” She thumped her head against her seatback. “Just...just be quiet. My sex life—” or lack of it, she amended quietly to herself “—is none of your business. I’m not asking you about the women you’ve slept with.” Just the thought of them was enough to make her feel jealous, and she hated that fact.

  “Been a while, has it?”

  She closed her eyes and threw her free arm over her face for good measure. She’d choke before she told him just how long a while. The last date she’d had was almost a year ago. As for sex, that was even longer ago. “Whatever this game is, I’m not playing.”

  He chuckled again. “You’re pretty cute when you’re pissed off.”

  “I must be cute around you all the time, then,” she muttered.

  “So when is your grandmother’s party supposed to be?”

  “Night before Christmas Eve.” She dropped her arm and watched his forehead in the rearview mirror. “And why are you being so chatty, anyway?”

  “It’s better than thinking about those cheek swabs or what that judge of yours is going to say tomorrow morning.”

  He couldn’t have said anything more effective.

  All of her annoyance drizzled out of her.

  Layla hadn’t quite finished the bottle, but her eyes were closed, so Maddie fit the cap back on the bottle and dropped it inside the purse. “Linc, even if the judge doesn’t rule in your favor tomorrow morning, it doesn’t mean that Layla’s going to disappear somewhere terrible. I promise you, she would be with very qualified caregivers. I would see to it personally.”

  “That doesn’t make this any better.”

  She leaned forward as far as her seat belt allowed, and touched her fingers to his shoulder. “I know. But you’re doing everything right here. If you’re her uncle—”

  “What if I’m not?”

  She hesitated. “You’ve been adamant that you are.” She hadn’t considered that he’d allowed any room for doubt, no matter what her opinions might have been. “And you know, Jax will come back. Like you said. He always comes back. He’s just off somewhere skiing or...or something. Chances a
re, he’ll show up and explain all of this. Who Layla’s mother is. Why she would have left Layla the way she did. And he’ll do what’s right.”

  “If he even recognizes what’s right,” Linc murmured. “He’s with Dana. My ex-wife.”

  Maddie blinked. She wasn’t sure if her “Oh,” escaped her lips or if it was just sounding inside her head. “I’m sorry,” she finally managed. She didn’t know what else to say.

  “Me, too.” The tires hummed in the silence. “For him. He should have learned his lesson where she’s concerned by now.” He was silent for another moment. “He’s too much like our parents. Maybe he never will learn.”

  She sincerely hoped he would learn. His mom and dad had never been any sort of parents. She’d recognized that even as a kid. It had been Ernestine who’d provided her grandsons with love and attention and boundaries. Was it going to be left to Linc to do the same with Layla? “If he’s with your, uh, with Dana, then do you know how to reach them?”

  “I know who he’s with. Doesn’t mean that I know where.”

  She chewed the inside of her lip. “You don’t think that Dana is Layla’s—”

  “No.” Linc’s voice was flat.

  She let it drop even though her head was about to explode with unasked questions. “Right now, let’s just take it one step at a time. The first step is the hearing tomorrow morning.”

  He made a sound. Of agreement, she supposed.

  She looked over at Layla. The baby’s sleeping face was angelic, and she lightly grazed her fingertip over her soft, soft hair.

  Then she had to close her eyes, because they were suddenly burning with tears.

  * * *

  The next morning, Maddie beat Linc to the courthouse.

  In fact, she and Layla seemed to beat everyone.

  When Maddie pushed the stroller through Judge Stokes’ courtroom door, the room was empty.

  She didn’t worry, though. She knew she was a few minutes early. But it had just been easier to come to the courthouse than keep huddling around the space heaters and the fireplace at home, because the temperature had dropped another ten degrees since the day before.

  There were three rows of wooden bench seats on either side of the center aisle behind the bar, and she maneuvered the stroller into the front row.

  She unwrapped the blanket tucked around Layla and smiled into her face, squeezing the squeaking giraffe until the baby chortled and grabbed the giraffe for herself. Layla squeezed it, too, and jumped when it squeaked, then laughed all over again.

  Maddie cupped her hand tenderly over the baby’s head. “Sweet girl.”

  “What the hell are you doing here, Templeton?”

  Maddie jumped, dropping her hand. She looked around to see Raymond Marx standing in the doorway of the courtroom. To say her forty-year-old boss looked displeased was putting it mildly. His bald head was red, his wrinkled tie was more askew than usual, and he was sweating. As if he’d run all the way to the courtroom from their office down the street.

  He approached her and jabbed a finger in the air. “I warned you. No cases for two weeks.”

  “Ray—”

  “Don’t Ray me. You do this all the time, and I told you it had to stop. You’re going to burn out and quit, and I’m going to lose my best worker.” He reached her row and put his hands over the stroller handle.

  Panic shot through her and she grabbed the side of the stroller. She wasn’t sure what she could do if he decided to take Layla from her, but she knew she couldn’t let it happen.

  “Best worker or not, you had no right approaching the judge the way you did. This is an agency matter and you know it.”

  She opened her mouth to defend herself, but he raised his palm, silencing her. “You’re off this case as of right now.”

  “But—”

  “And while I decide what to do with you, instead of vacationing for the next two weeks, consider yourself suspended instead. Without pay. Maybe then you’ll take me seriously.”

  She shoved off the bench. “That is not fair.”

  “What’s not fair is you thinking you don’t have to follow the rules.”

  “I have followed the rules,” she said hotly. “Every single one. Except the vacation guideline. Guideline! You forced my vacation, and you know it. And while on vacation, I assessed Layla’s situation when I became aware of it. I saw to the safety of this child, and I reported it!”

  “To the court,” he said through his teeth. “What about to your boss?”

  “Good morning, Ray.” Judge Horvald Stokes ambled into the courtroom from the door behind the bench, carrying his coffee and a doughnut. He was at least twenty years older than Ray, and had all of the hair that Ray did not. It was just bright white. As was his beard. Which tended to make Judge Stokes look a little like Santa Claus, particularly when he wore a red sweater, as he was now. “You’re sounding in rare form this morning.” He lifted his doughnut in cheer. “Morning, Miss Maddie.”

  She swallowed, reminding herself that what she had done was nothing illegal, but just outside of protocol where her stickler of a boss was concerned. “Good morning, Your Honor.”

  The judge approached to peer over the stroller at Layla. “Aren’t you the cute one?” Then he headed back to the ramp that led up to his bench. He set down his coffee and swallowed half of his doughnut. “Ray, your knickers tighter than usual this morning for some reason?”

  “No, Your Honor.”

  “So you look like you’re gonna have a stroke every morning?”

  Ray gave her a fulminating look, as if this were all her fault. Which she supposed it was. “No, Your Honor,” he said grimly. “Just an internal matter that’s causing me some...concern.”

  The judge smiled. “Well. I’m not one to get into your internal matters. So what say you settle it outside of my courtroom?”

  “With pleasure.” Ray started to pull the stroller away from Maddie.

  She held fast. “Don’t do this, Ray. You can suspend me if you want. Fire me for that matter. But this child is in my protective custody right now. Not the department’s.”

  “If it weren’t for the department—”

  “I’d have still called Maddie.”

  They both turned to see Linc entering. His intense eyes lingered on her face as he approached. Tom Hook was with him. “What’s going on here?”

  “Internal matters,” Judge Stokes said dryly. He swallowed down the other half of his doughnut and pulled on his black robe, though he didn’t bother with zipping it up. “Morning, Tom. Good to see you. Been a while.” The side door swung open, and the court reporter came in, carrying his steno writer, followed by the clerk and the court officer. As usual, the judge greeted them all by name. Typically, Judge Stokes liked to keep everyone comfortable.

  Until he didn’t. Then he’d zip up his robe, and it would be all business. Period.

  Maddie was following the proceedings with one ear. The rest of her was focused on Linc, her boss and Layla. The baby’s face was scrunching up as if she sensed the tension around her and Maddie made herself relax. She sat down on the long wooden seat and squeezed the giraffe a few times. “Everything’s fine, sweet pea.”

  “This isn’t going to be the last of it,” Ray warned her. But even he didn’t have the nerve to interrupt when the court was called into session.

  Tom and Linc sat at the table in front of her, Ray at the other.

  She should have called Archer to come and represent her. She just honestly hadn’t thought she’d need him.

  The court clerk read off the details of the hearing, then handed Judge Stokes a sheaf of papers.

  “Thank you, Sue.” The judge folded his arms in front of him atop the papers he set on his desk. He looked at them all in turn. “So,” he said. “We’ve got what appears to be
an abandoned infant. That still the case?” He glanced up with an arched brow. Receiving no correction, he continued. “All right. That leaves us with the question of what to do about that.”

  Ray popped out of his seat like an overwound jack-in-the-box toy. “Your Honor, my department is fully prepared to handle the matter and I apologize that you were called in prematurely—”

  The judge lifted his palm, silencing Ray the same way that Ray had silenced Maddie. “Let’s just focus on the child for the moment. Aside from the note you referenced in the filing, is there anyone in this room who can tell me for certain who she is?”

  Tom Hook stood.

  Judge Stokes looked at him. “For certain, Tom?”

  “No, Your Honor. But my client is working to that end.”

  “Good for your client.” The judge focused on Linc. “What is it that you hope to prove, Mr. Swift?”

  Linc stood. He was wearing a black suit and was easily the most formally dressed one there. And Maddie could see just how tight his broad shoulders were. “That Layla is my niece. My brother’s child. Though I don’t believe he was aware of that fact.”

  “And your brother?” The judge glanced through the papers. “Jaxon Swift. Why isn’t he here today?”

  “Mr. Swift’s brother is out of town,” Tom interjected. “My client is making every effort to reach him. I can’t emphasize enough that he is very certain his brother is unaware that any of this has occurred.”

  The judge looked from Linc’s table to Ray’s, then back again. “I knew your grandmother, Mr. Swift,” he said suddenly. “A good woman.”

  “Yes,” Linc agreed quietly. “She was.”

  “Mmm.” The judge flipped through the papers again. “This is a problem. Suppositions aside, we have an unknown mother. Unknown father. Going to involve a heck of an investigation.”

  Maddie swallowed. She reached into the stroller and plucked Layla out of it, holding her close. Not because Layla needed it.

  But because she did.

  Particularly when the judge sat back and suddenly zipped his robe.

  Chapter Nine

  The judge looked at his clerk. “You awake there, Sue?”