The Sheriff's Son. Stella Bagwell
of the babies being harmed alarmed her greatly. It bothered him, too. Still, he didn’t think the person or persons who’d left the twins had meant to put their lives in jeopardy. “It’s too early to say if it might have been one or both of the parents, or someone unrelated. The only thing that’s clear to me is that whoever left them here meant for you or one of your family members to have them.”
Justine’s head swung back and forth. “But that’s insane! Why would someone want me or my sisters to have their babies?”
Roy shrugged. “You’re a nurse. Maybe someone knew that and believed you’d take good care of them.”
Milk was dribbling from the corner of the baby’s mouth. Drawing a handkerchief from his pocket, Roy dabbed it away. With the bottle still in his mouth, the little boy grinned broadly and let out a happy goo.
Scowling, Roy jammed the damp handkerchief back in his pocket. Poor little guy, he thought grimly. He wasn’t even aware that he’d been abandoned. He was too small to know about the pain of rejection. But Roy knew all about it, and even though the person or persons who’d left these babies behind might not have intended physical harm to them, they still needed to be strung up by the heels. Roy vowed then and there to track them down, no matter how long it took!
Across the room, Justine watched the dark, angry expression spread over Roy’s face as he looked down at the baby in his arms. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. There was such hardness in his eyes and on his lips. Was the man totally heartless? Didn’t he feel anything for the helpless child in his arms?
If it hadn’t been for the girl still feeding in her arms, Justine would have ripped the baby away from him and ordered him out of the house. As it was, however, she was hardly in a position to vent her feelings to him.
But she would someday, Justine silently promised herself. Someday she’d let him know what a selfish, heartless man he really was.
From out of nowhere, hot moisture blurred her vision. She shut her eyes and swallowed at the unexpected rush of emotion. This wasn’t like her to get teary and mad and vindictive. Normally she was a loving woman. But Roy Pardee, or the thought of him, had never left her feeling normal.
The sound of a vehicle caught both her and Roy’s attention. Rising up in the rocking chair, Justine glanced out the window. Her heart immediately dropped to her stomach.
“It’s my aunt,” she told Roy.
He nodded.
Moments later, a screen door banged and the patter of racing feet on Spanish tile grew closer. Then, suddenly, the running footsteps stopped and Charlie, her five-year-old son, stood just inside the living groom, his wide blue eyes going from his mother and the baby in her arms to the strange man on the couch.
“It’s all right, darling. You can come on in,” Justine told him gently.
With a cautious eye on Roy, the boy scurried to Justine’s side.
“Mommy, where did you get the baby? Who is that man? He’s got a baby, too!”
Justine cast a glance at Roy. He was staring at her and Charlie, his eyes squinted to slits, his jaw rigid. She couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking, but it was quite clear that the appearance of her son wasn’t pleasing to him. And suddenly she knew she’d been right all those years ago. She could stop beating up on herself, stop feeling guilty. Roy Pardee hadn’t been father material then, and he wasn’t now.
“Yes, honey. Mommy found the babies, and the sheriff has come to help find out where they belong.”
Smiling with instant fascination, Charlie carefully touched the red fuzz of hair on the girl twin’s head. “She has red hair like you, Mommy!”
Justine smiled at her son’s observation. “She sure does. Now, will you go get Aunt Kitty? The sheriff would like to speak with her.”
Charlie glanced curiously over at the man and the baby on the couch, then started toward the door. “Aunt Kitty had to go to the bathroom! I’ll get her!”
Charlie raced out of the room. Once the boy was out of sight, Roy released a long breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“You have a son?”
The sound of his low, gravelly voice caused Justine to jerk ever so slightly. She looked up from the baby and over to him. There was an odd look of betrayal on his face. As though he knew…But no, she swiftly assured herself. He couldn’t know anything. No one, not even her sisters, knew that Roy Pardee was Charlie’s father.
Justine’s chin unconsciously tilted upward. “Yes. Charles is my son.”
Of course, it had been obvious when the boy called her Mommy. But hearing Justine admit it out loud was like the blow of an ax to Roy.
His face like chipped granite, he said, “Someone told me you’d been engaged to be married, then later I heard the marriage had been called off. But I didn’t know you’d had a child back then. Did you…ever get married?”
Roy hated himself for asking. He wanted to appear indifferent. He wanted to be totally disinterested, but he couldn’t be. Justine Murdock had done something to him all those years ago. She’d shown him heaven and then shown him hell. She’d given him. his first true love lesson. One that he’d never forget. There wasn’t such a thing as real love.
“No. I’ve never been married,” Justine admitted, then wondered what he could possibly be thinking. Let it be that she was a promiscuous woman. Anything would be better than the truth.
“You had the boy while you were in college.”
It was a statement, not a question, but Justine found herself nodding at him anyway. She was determined to appear cool, no matter how much her insides were shaking with fear. “Being pregnant and going to school wasn’t a picnic. I had to cut down on my classes and scrimp and save the money my parents sent me. But I managed to get through.”
“So where is his father?”
She met his gaze, and her green eyes were unusually dull. “After I became pregnant with Charlie, he realized he didn’t want to be a family man. He didn’t even want to get married. So we—ended things, and since then he’s been totally out of my life.”
Roy wanted to tell her she’d been a fool to bear such a man’s child, but at that moment a petite woman with short salt-and-pepper hair walked into the room. Justine’s son was tagging close to her side.
“Charlie said I was wanted,” Kitty said. “What’s going on here?”
With the twin girl still in her arms, Justine got to her feet. “Roy, this is my aunt Kitty. She’s my mother’s sister. She came to live with us before our mother passed away.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Roy said, with a nod toward the older woman. “It seems that your niece found two babies on the porch when she came home from work. You wouldn’t happen to know who they might belong to?”
Kitty’s mouth formed a perfect O as she glanced from one baby to the other. “Land sakes no! You mean they were on the doorstep? Just like in the movies?”
“That’s the way Justine described it.”
Justine turned her eyes on him. “That’s the way it was,” she said crisply.
“Well! What do you think about that?” Kitty asked no one in particular. “I wish Lola and Tom were alive to see this.”
Charlie ventured over to Roy, who’d just slipped the empty bottle from the boy twin’s mouth.
“You have a badge,” Charlie told him.
Roy looked at the boy.