Now their siblings had thrown a baby right into the mix.
He could’ve walked away.He could’ve left the baby with Ellie, and that might’ve been the more virtuous thing by a mile.But the minute he’d seen her, that little squirt, lying in the bassinet, abandoned by both of her parents, he’d known that she was his.
Hisresponsibility, if nothing more.
He’d never been able to help his little brother straighten his life out.Ty had been hell in cowboy boots from the moment he was born, and what had been cute for a long time had turned into something reckless and dangerous, and he’d taken Melanie down with him.
Now Clark was responsible for this little girl.And bringing her home with him.At two in the morning.
The hospital had stocked them up with things like diapers, formula, bottles, and some extra onesies.And Ellie was going to follow him back to his place.
“God Almighty,” he muttered again as he got into the truck.“Just follow me,” he said before closing the truck door.
Ellie disappeared from view, and a few moments later, a small sedan emerged from a parking space, and he pulled out in front of her, making sure to signal as he left the parking lot so that she could follow him.
He was exhausted.And completely lost in thought on the way back home.So much so that he almost missed the turnoff to his own driveway.He put his blinker on quickly and cranked the wheel, with the car behind him making the same abrupt maneuver.She was going to be mad at him about that.
This outcome felt right, almost, as much as it felt wrong and broken.His new house was finished.Now he felt like there was a purpose to it.Like this place existed for her.
For that little baby.Who needed a name.
He pulled up to the front of the house and turned the truck off slowly.
Then he opened the driver’s side door.By the time he got around the truck to open up the back and get the baby out of the car seat, Ellie was there.
“I’ve got her.”
He nodded.He opted to gather the baby supplies, including a little bassinet that had been gifted to them by the hospital, and carry them into the house.
The place still felt so new.It was barely lived in at this point.The entryway was bright, clean.Everything was immaculate.He was proud of that.
His heart clenched tight.His brother’s decision to surrender his rights made him sad.But it was also heroic.He and Ty had grown up in the middle of the hell of their parents’ addictions, and his brother hadn’t come out unscathed.Their parents had passed it all on to him, and the one thing he’d done to break the cycle was to make sure his own kid didn’t get caught up in it.
Their parents hadn’t been able to do that for them.
Clark really appreciated that his brother had done that for his daughter.
This was why he had a nice house.It was why he was clean and sober, not even indulging in so much as a beer, even though that had been unpopular on the rodeo circuit.
It was for this.Because he couldn’t save Ty.
But he could save this little bundle.
That mattered.
“I don’t know much about babies,” Ellie said softly, unbuckling the car seat right there in the entryway, and taking the little girl out of it, cradling her in her arms.
Goddamn.Ellie had always been pretty.
But pretty was a dime a dozen.There had always been something about her that appealed to him specifically.Something that made his breath catch every time he saw her, even in moments like this when he shouldn’t be thinking about her that way at all.
But it was always like this.He’d lost track of the number of times they’d shown up at the same location to bail Mel and Ty out—sometimes literally.
Ellie was a lot less angry with him this time than she normally was.But maybe he could credit the baby with that.
Harder to call him names with a child present.
And with such high stakes.
