“Fine.” He knew better than to start an argument with Kit despite some of her spark dimming with every passing year. There was enough flicker there to light a fire when provoked. “A special occasion calls for steaks on the grill.”
“Now you’re talking,” she said as her eyes lit up. “The corn on the cob at Harden’s stand up the road is the best. We’ll pick up some of that along with a pair of potatoes. We can do ’em up with sour cream and the works.”
“It’ll be a feast.”
Blaize liked the excitement in her eyes and the hope in her voice.
The cattle ranch was in dire straits. He’d stayed up part of the night driving and the rest looking into the books. He hoped like hell he didn’t let her down the way he’d disappointed his wife.Former wife.The reality of those words struck like a physical blow. Blaize was no longer married. He was thirty-five years old. No kids. Very little money. And now he needed to save this small cattle ranch or watch his grandmother lose her home.
Life sure as hell knew how to kick you in the teeth when you were down.
Gloomy gray clouds rolled overhead. A couple of rain drops splatted on his forehead. Lightning streaked across an ever-darkening sky. Thunder boomed a few seconds later.
He ducked his head down. “We better head inside before this gets worse.”
In Blaize’s life, it always did.
CARYSHOLMES HELDa three-month-old baby in her arms, gently bouncing up and down in a feeble attempt to stop the little girlfrom crying.Hopeless.Carys was hopeless. This attempt was hopeless.
In times like these, she seriously questioned her career choice. Holding an inconsolable baby definitely fit into the downside category.
Her office door opened. Harrison Tucker poked his head inside.
“What is that baby still doing here?” her coworker asked, frowning, practically yelling over the noise.
It didn’t help. The little one screamed louder.
“I think she’s sick.”
He stared at her like…And?
“It’s just hard to throw her in a car seat and then drop her off at an orphanage when she’s this upset.”
The air stilled as the baby sucked in a breath before launching another ear-splitting wail. The kid had a good set of lungs on her.
“That’s the job, sweetheart.” The frown lines on Harrison’s face softened.
“She’s a baby, Harrison. Sister’s Love is severely understaffed right now. They had two people quit last week alone.” Carys looked down at the baby, who was winding up to belt out another loud cry. “They won’t have time to hold her like this.”
He pursed his lips. “Some days, this job is the worst and you go home wondering if you made any difference at all. Other days, you see a once-troubled teen now making straight A’s in school and on a better path because you intervened and they listened to your advice.”
That still didn’t answer the question of how she was supposed to drop off an innocent child at an understaffed orphanage. There were no available foster families and her babysitter’s husband said the baby couldn’t stay with them.
“She’s already lost so much already,” Carys said. “And there’s at least some hope the woman the vehicle was registered to hadloaned out her car. It is possible the baby’s mother wasn’t the one driving.” The fiery crash made it difficult to positively ID the female driver.
“There’s no proof she wasn’t, either. And the mother hasn’t shown up, so she still needs to be taken in.”
Fair point. Carys didn’t have a comeback for that.
The baby belted out another shrill. Did she know her mother might be gone?Is gone, Carys. There’s no reason to hold out hope the mother is somehow still alive.
“Sorry about knocking, but I have a raging headache and these walls are paper thin,” Harrison said as soon as she sucked in a breath.
“I have aspirin in the top drawer if you’d like some.” Carys needed to figure out a plan to quiet the crying. Her heart was cracking in half at the pitiful sounds—sounds that she could relate to for the same soul-deep reason. Loss.
He shook his head. “Took some a few minutes ago.” He paused for a beat, resigned. “You’ll locate and notify the father or a family member, and she’ll be picked up in no time. She might not even spend the night at Sister’s. You know how that goes.” He squinted like it hurt to look at anyone. “Plus, it’s Friday and you probably have a hot date tonight.”
Everything he said made sense, except the last part.
