Granted: A Family for Baby Read online

  Brady felt Suzy’s eyes on him. He stopped talking, glanced at her and missed the turn onto Forest Avenue.

  “What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I was just thinking that you don’t need to worry about winning this election.”

  “Yeah, right. You’re saying that so you can get out of your promise.”

  “I’m saying that because you’re good at your job.”

  “I’m good at my job because you run my office,” he insisted. He couldn’t imagine being sheriff without Suzy at his side. She was cool, calm and collected in the midst of crisis. An escaped prisoner from the county jail, a fight in the saloon on Main Street, ranchers stealing horses. Nothing bothered her. She was easy to look at, too, he had noted more than once. With her wavy blond hair and hazel eyes flecked with green and her sunny smile.

  She should have no trouble finding a husband. She didn’t need to launch a campaign. Which was too bad for him. Because if she wasn’t quite so easy on the eyes, he’d have a better chance of keeping her around. Ah, well, for now she was here. Thank God. Because as they mingled with the crowd before lunch, she occasionally whispered forgotten names in his ear, reminding him who were the potential big donors. And during his speech, he sought her gaze more than once, seeing encouragement there. Encouragement and warmth and something else, something that made him feel that everything was going to be all right.

  Back in the office he was restless. So restless he couldn’t stay seated behind his desk. He wandered into Suzy’s office in time to hear her answer the phone.

  “Oh, hi, Hal,” she said. “Yes, he’s here.” She handed him the phone. “It’s your chief deputy.” He sat on the edge of Suzy’s desk and discussed the plans for a poker game at his house on Saturday night.

  “Wait a minute,” Suzy interrupted. “Not Saturday.”

  He put his hand over the mouthpiece. “Why not?”

  “Because you said you’d baby-sit for me.”

  “Not on Saturday. Saturday is poker night at my house.”

  “You promised.”

  She was right. He remembered now. He sighed loudly. “Sorry, Hal. I forgot I have a previous commitment.”

  “On Saturday?” Hal’s tone was incredulous.

  “Yes, on Saturday. What about tonight?”

  But Hal was taking his wife to a movie and reported that the other married men had plans, too. Brady hung up, disgusted.

  “You’re sure you have to go to this dinner thing on Saturday?” he asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure. Tally’s counting on me. She’s been planning it for weeks.”

  “Wives,” he muttered.

  “What’s wrong- with wives?” Suzy asked, looking up over a file folder.

  “They make plans. Why are they always making plans? Why can’t they be more spontaneous?”

  Suzy put the folder down and braced her hands on the edge of the desk. “If you’re trying to weasel out of baby-sitting for me...”

  “Of course not.” Baby-sitting. Instead of playing poker. He hoped Hal hadn’t heard. He walked across the room and stood in the doorway between their offices.

  “I said I’d do it and I will. What time do you want me there?”

  At seven o’clock on Saturday night Suzy had Travis in bed and asleep. She was dressed and ready to go when Brady pulled up in front of her house. When she opened the door he was standing on her welcome mat. He took one look at her and stepped backward, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked startled.

  “That dress. I thought... I’ve never seen you in a dress. Not like that. I thought you were just going to dinner at Tally and Jed’s.” He couldn’t take his eyes off Suzy’s dress. It was made of some black material that hugged her curves like it was pasted to them. Cut low in a V in front, it revealed a tantalizing glimpse of creamy white breasts. He found himself unexpectedly short of breath.

  “I am,” she said calmly, as if she had no idea of how she looked in the dress. “But it’s a special occasion. They’ve invited friends from out of town.” She smoothed the skirt, then looked up at Brady, small worry lines forming between her eyebrows. “Why? Do you think it isn’t appropriate? Maybe I ought to change.”

  “No, no, don’t change. What have you done to your hair, anyway? You look...you look—” He searched his mind for the right word. Spectacular. Dazzling. Sexy. “You look nice,” he finished lamely. “Very nice.”

  “Well, thank you, she said with a grateful smile. “I was afraid for a minute I—I mean the way you looked at me like I’d suddenly changed into a vam pire.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t pay any attention to me. I don’t know anything about clothes.” He did know, however, hat in that dress, Suzy looked gorgeous. As she walked him through the house, he followed, unable to drag his eyes from her gently swaying hips, her long legs in sheer black stockings. He had a hard time,keeping his mind on her instructions. How to heat a bottle, how to change a diaper, where to find the pediatrician’s number.

  Instead he had to keep reminding himself that this woman in the black dress was really just good-old Suzy, his secretary, his right arm and his key to winning the election. That’s why he was there, baby-sitting on a Saturday night, instead of playing poker. But why did he keep staring at her, wondering what, if anything, she was wearing under that dress? As if he’d never seen a beautiful woman in a black dress before with her blond hair swept up revealing a slender, delicate neck.

  “Okay, fine,” he said after she’d repeated every instruction at least once. “I got it. You can go now.”

  Suzy glanced out the front window. “I can’t leave yet. I’m being picked up.”

  “Picked up?” he repeated. “By who?”

  “My date. I have a date, remember? His name is Allan. He’s an old friend of Jed’s who’s flying in for the party. That’s all I know about him.”

  “You’re going out in that dress with someone you don’t know?” he asked, letting his gaze rake her over once more. “Some rich guy. What’s he going to do, buzz the house and land his Cessna in the backyard?”

  “I imagine he’s landing out at the ranch. He’ll probably come for me in Jed’s car. Any minute now.” She held out her hand with a gold chain and a small stone on it. “Could you help with this necklace?”

  He nodded, and she dropped it into his hand and turned around in front of him.

  He looped the chain around her neck, his fingers all clumsy thumbs. A hint of a disturbingly haunting perfume reached his nose. He leaned foreword, his lips only centimeters from her bare neck, inhaled deeply and dropped the necklace down the back of her dress.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Hold still.” She shivered as he wedged his hand down under her dress to fish it out. His fingers brushed against her smooth skin. So there was nothing but smooth skin under the dress. No bra, anyway. Suddenly the temperature in the room skyrocketed. He finally felt the slender chain and pulled it out. By now his heart was pounding so loudly he was afraid she could hear it. His palms were damp and he was in no condition to fasten a necklace around anyone’s neck, especially hers. But what if she asked her date, this Allan, to do it? Determined not to let that happen, he put the chain around her neck once again, focusing grimly on the clasp until he heard it snap.

  He turned her around by the shoulders just to see if he’d done it right and saw the pendant had disappeared into the valley between her breasts. He was filled with an uncontrollable desire to reach once more under her dress. This time he’d take his time, let his hand linger before he rescued the gem.

  Just then the front doorbell rang. He heaved a sigh of relief as Suzy dashed off to answer it. What was wrong with him? He’d put women out of his mind and out of his life for the past few years. One night, a little perfume, a sexy dress, and he was behaving like an adolescent.

  The guy was just the way Brady’d pictured him. Wearing an expensive dark suit and a big smile, which got bigger when he saw Suzy in th
at dress. Brady stifled the urge to throw a blanket over her body. Did she have any idea the effect that dress had on the male species? He stood glaring at her so-called date while the two of them made conversation about the weather. Finally, just when he was beginning to feel like a piece of the furniture, Suzy introduced him to Allan.

  “Brady is my baby-sitter. For tonight, that is.”

  “Good to meet you, Brady,” Allan said. “I know Trevor is in good hands with you.”

  “Travis,” Brady corrected. “His name is Travis.”

  “Right. Shall we go?” Allan suggested with what Brady was sure was a blatantly lecherous smile.

  “Wait a minute,” Brady said. “What time will you be back?”

  “I’m not sure,” Suzy said. “But you have the number, don’t you? Didn’t I leave my phone list for you?” she asked Brady as Allan opened the door for her.

  “You left everything for me. Don’t worry. I’ll leave the light on for you,” he said pointedly.

  “Don’t worry,” he muttered watching them leave in a red sports car.

  He could tell right away he was the one who was going to worry. Worry about what kind of guy this Allan was. Suzy was so vulnerable, so innocent, despite her past affair with Travis’s father. He had no idea what happened there. She was just an employee at the feed and fuel store when he first came to town. That’s where she’d met Travis’s father, who skipped out on them before Travis was born.

  Suzy probably had no idea what was in Allan’s mind. But Brady did. He knew exactly what was in his mind. And Brady might have stood there on Suzy’s front porch waiting until they got back if Travis hadn’t started crying.

  In seconds Brady was standing at the side of his crib looking down at the screaming baby. After all Suzy’s instructions, he hadn’t the foggiest idea what to do. Had Suzy told him and he hadn’t listened? Had he listened but forgotten already? .

  He reached into the crib and picked up the little boy. Was he wet, hungry, thirsty? Or just bored? Brady slung him over his shoulder and carried him into the kitchen. With one arm securely around his bottom, Brady opened the refrigerator door with one hand and reached for a tippee cup of juice and handed it to Travis. The boy pushed it away.

  “Okay, no juice, How about some apple sauce?” Brady asked sliding Travis into his high chair.

  Travis shook his head.

  “Crackers, cookies, what?” Brady asked pulling boxes off the shelf and scattering an assortment on the tray of the high chair.

  Travis picked up a vanilla wafer and, with a mischievous grin, threw it across the floor in the general direction of the wastebasket.

  “Missed,” Brady told him, relieved to see how fast the tears dried and the smile appeared. He straddled a kitchen chair, took a cookie and studied it carefully before he tossed it expertly into the wastebasket where it landed with a satisfying smack. A perfect shot. “What do you say about that, sport?” Brady asked the little boy.

  Travis clapped his little hands together.

  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” Brady assured him with a grin and proceeded to run through his bag of tricks. Shooting the cookies from between his legs, over his shoulder and around the table.

  Travis tired of the game before Brady did, wriggling and lifting his arms to be picked up. After Brady convinced him to drink some juice, he put him back to bed. For a few minutes the house was mercifully quiet. Brady stood outside the baby’s bedroom door, his back against the wall, and breathed a sigh of relief.

  He glanced into Suzy’s bedroom across the hall, at the four-poster bed covered with a patchwork quilt, the old-fashioned armoire and a bedside stand with a stack of books on it. The delectable scent of her perfume wafted out the door. He took a step toward the door and breathed in the essence of Suzy.

  Which was Travis’s cue to start crying again. Louder and louder until Brady couldn’t stand it. He opened his door and lifted him out of his crib.

  “Travis,” he said, holding him at arm’s length. “Be reasonable. You’re supposed to sleep through the night. Your mother said you would. I’m tired. Aren’t you tired, too?”

  Travis reached for Brady’s nose and pulled hard. Brady got the message. Travis was not tired. Travis wanted to play.

  So they stacked blocks in the middle of the living room floor, Travis laughing and knocking them down as fast as Brady put them up. When the boy yawned, Brady hopefully hauled him back into the bedroom, but Travis indicated in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t that tired. And he let Brady know that he was not, definitely not interested in going back to bed. He wanted to have fun. So they played horse, with Brady crawling through the house on his knees, Travis clinging to his back. They played with the stuffed animals lining the shelf in Travis’s red, white and blue bedroom and they looked at the pictures in Travis’s many books while Brady grew hoarse reading the stories over and over.

  Meanwhile, Suzy lingered over a crown roast of lamb dinner in Tally’s new dining room, listening to Jed and his friends reminisce about the trip they’d taken to a remote island in Alaska in a friend’s float plane. When they’d finished, the men went outside to look at Jed’s new truck, and Tally beckoned to Suzy to follow her into the kitchen.

  “So what do you think of him?” Tally asked.

  “Who?”

  “Allan, that’s who. Are you paying attention? Are you looking for a husband or not?”

  “Yes, yes, of course. He seems nice.”

  “Not only nice, but not bad looking, successful, unmarried...”

  Suzy yawned. “I’m sorry, Tally. What’s wrong with me? The first eligible man I’ve seen in a long time. I should be flirting, but something...somehow...”

  “I saw him looking at you across the table. No wonder, you look terrific in that dress. But you seemed distracted. Maybe you’re worried about Travis. Is that it? Leaving him with Brady. I’d be worried, too.”

  “Why? Brady knows CPR.”

  “But Brady doesn’t know kids. Brady knows criminals. Brady is a sheriff. I can’t believe you got him to baby-sit,” Tally said.

  “It almost didn’t happen,” Suzy confessed. “When he volunteered, he forgot about his Saturday-night poker game. Maybe I ought to give him a call.” Not that she was worried. Brady had her number. But still...

  After five rings Brady finally answered.

  “Where were you?” she asked.

  “We’re in the living room playing cards.”

  “We?”

  “I’m teaching Travis to play poker.”

  “Poker? What’s he doing up at this hour?”

  “You’re asking me?”

  “It’s late, why don’t you put him back to bed,” she suggested.

  “Because I don’t like to hear him cry.”

  “Is he all right?”

  “As long as I keep him entertained. When are you coming home?”

  “We haven’t had dessert yet. But if you need me...”

  “Oh, no. Not while I’m winning. The kid owes me over three hundred dollars.”

  “Well, if you’re sure he’s okay...”

  “He’s fine. Hey, that Allan guy hasn’t tried anything, has he?” he asked gruffly.

  “No, of course not. Why?”

  “Because I don’t like the way he looked at you.”

  Suzy rolled her eyes. As if it was any of his business. “Goodbye, Brady.”

  “Everything’s okay?” Tally asked, removing a large cheesecake from the refrigerator.

  “Brady’s acting weird. Sometimes I don’t understand him,” Suzy said, watching Tally cut the cake into generous wedges. “He had the funniest look in his eyes tonight... He didn’t like my dress...I don’t know. I guess he’s just nervous about the election.”

  Tally licked a crumb off the cake knife. “Hmm,” she said.

  After dessert, Suzy stifled another yawn and said she’d better be getting home on account of the baby-sitter and so forth. Everyone protested, but Allan drove her home. He kept up an
entertaining line of light chatter until they pulled up in front of her house.

  “Ever been up in a small plane?” he asked.

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “We’re thinking of taking a run over to Vegas tomorrow. Have dinner, play the slots. Would you like to come along?” he asked.

  “To Vegas, in a small plane?” Suzy asked as if he’d suggested a safari across the Gobi Desert. “I couldn’t do that. I have a baby.”

  “What about your baby-sitter?”

  “My baby-sitter? He’d probably love to go.”

  Allan shook his head. “I mean what about hiring your baby-sitter to baby-sit while you come to Vegas with us?” He reached for a strand of her hair and twirled it in his fingers. She backed against the passenger door until she was out of his reach and stifled a smile, imagining the look on Brady’s face when she asked him to baby-sit while she flew off to Vegas for the day.

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  “Let’s go in and ask him,” Allan suggested. “You never know with these people.”

  “Trust me, I know,” Suzy said, pressing down on the door handle. “Thanks a lot for the ride. It was nice meeting you.”

  “Yeah,” he said, clearly disappointed. “Same here.”

  Suzy hurried up the walk, noting that every light in the house was on, shining through the windows into the dark night. She let herself in and stood just inside the door, staring aghast at the living room, which looked like a hurricane had struck. Several decks of playing cards were strewn around the floor. Piles of blocks were scattered all over the carpet. The coffee table was covered with plastic toys, the chairs were littered with stuffed animals, and on her way to the couch she stumbled over a wooden train engine, six cars and a caboose.

  In the middle of all this, on the couch along the far wall, lay Brady, flat on his back sound asleep, with Travis, also asleep, sprawled facedown across his chest.