The Lawman's Yuletide Baby. Ruth Herne Logan

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СКАЧАТЬ two weeks ago, and there were only a handful of us there. Adrianna died while she and her crooked friends were robbing a Thruway exit convenience store. And my mother never said anything about a baby. I can’t believe she wouldn’t have told me during one of our phone calls.”

      “Did your mother live near her?” she asked.

      “My family is in Saratoga County, on the upper side of Albany. Adrianna got herself mixed up with a bunch of gang members after she dropped out of high school. A wild crowd, according to Mom. She’s done time, twice. And now this.”

      The baby squirmed, stretched and blinked.

      “Is there a bottle in there?”

      Gabe searched the bag. “No. But there is a can of formula.”

      “Try the insulated pocket on the side.”

      He did and withdrew a cool bottle. “How’d you know that was there?”

      “Between my two sisters-in-law, I am surrounded by babies. I think all diaper bags have insulated pockets now, but not when I was dragging things around for Tee and Callan.”

      “Right.” He didn’t remember that with Gracie’s diaper bag, either.

      “You might want to heat that quickly, because when she decides she’s hungry, she’s going to let us know in no uncertain terms.”

      He remembered that, too, but there was no way Corinne would know he had actual experience because he didn’t talk about it. To anyone. Ever.

      He hurried to the kitchen, set the bottle in a large coffee mug and filled it with really warm water as he hit Mack’s number in his cell phone. He and Susie not only knew Gabe’s background, they were familiar with the rough family dynamics. They’d give honest advice. Then he hit 9-1-1, reported what happened and brought the warmed bottle into the living room just as the darkened sky painted an end to their Indian summer day. The wind picked up.

      He handed Corinne the bottle because the last thing he was about to do was sit and feed a baby. “I’ve got to shut the door against that wind.”

      “I’ve got this.” She lifted Jessie from the carrier as if she did it every day, then snugged her into the crook of her left arm once she settled into his big, broad recliner. She leaned back and stroked the baby’s cheek with one slim finger.

      The baby turned eagerly. When she found the soft tip of the bottle, she latched on as if it might be her last meal.

      “Isn’t it amazing, Gabe?”

      “Finding an abandoned baby on your doorstep?” Talk about an understatement. “Yes.”

      “Well, that.” She looked at the baby with a smile so sweet and warm that her cool and careful image dissolved before his eyes. “How instinctive we are for survival. God’s plan, to nourish us and nurture us. She knows she needs food, she demands it unequivocally, and when she gets full, I bet she smiles up at me to say thank you.”

      He recalled that oft-played scenario. Gracie’s smile. Her first tear. The way she gripped his finger in the hospital nursery...

      He remembered every single moment, which was exactly why there was no way he could ever do it again.

      Three cars pulled into his driveway minutes later. Mack and Susie climbed out of the unmarked car and hurried to the door.

      Chief of Police Drew Slade and a uniformed officer followed from their respective vehicles.

      “Gabe Cutler, what’s going on?” Susie kicked off her shoes and crossed to Corinne’s side as if magnetized by the sight of such a small baby. “Oh, have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” she whispered softly. “Mack, come see.”

      Mack raised a questioning brow toward Gabe, then followed Susie. “It’s a baby, all right.”

      Susie jabbed him with her elbow. “It’s an amazingly beautiful and wondrous gift from God,” she scolded, only half teasing. “And someone left her here, Gabe?”

      He waited until Drew was inside, then shared the details.

      “I’m not sure of any other particulars,” he said, “but it seems we have a situation on our hands.”

      “Not a situation.” The baby fussed and didn’t burp, so Corinne stood and circled the room. She rubbed the tiny girl’s back and murmured soft and sweet encouragement. “She’s a baby, not a situation. There is a big difference.”

      “A baby whose presence has caused a situation, then,” he acknowledged. Now what on earth was he going to do about it?

      “Then Jessie is your cousin, Gabe?” Susie eyed the baby from her spot in the middle of the room, and he’d have to be blind to miss the look of longing in her gaze. She and Mack had been trying for years to have a baby, with no success.

      “Well, kind of. Her mother is, so I guess she is, too.”

      “She’s your first cousin once removed,” Corinne said softly. “If you have kids someday, she’d be their second cousin. Oh, there,” she crooned when the baby let forth a burp far too big for such a tiny child. “Good girl, doesn’t that feel so much better?”

      The baby pulled her little head back and smiled a big, wide, toothless grin of agreement.

      The entire room stood still.

      “Oh, Gabe.” Susie looked over at him, then Mack. “She is so perfect.”

      “And I expect she wants the rest of that bottle now,” Corinne supposed. “Susie, do you want to feed her?”

      “May I?” She exchanged one of those feminine looks with Corinne, the kind men recognize but can never quite comprehend.

      “It would be rude of me not to offer,” Corinne told her as she laid Adrianna’s daughter into Susie’s arms. “This way we both get our baby fix.”

      Susie sank onto the couch and began feeding the baby.

      “Well, it is a tough situation.” Drew didn’t mess around with semantics. “Gabe, she may have left the baby with you but not with your consent, so we’re still talking a possible case of child abandonment here. Except with Adrianna gone, the baby becomes a ward of the state, I believe.”

      “Leaving her with her cousin isn’t the same as on a stranger’s doorstep.” Corinne didn’t hesitate to jump in, but then Drew was her brother-in-law. “She had the presence of mind to draw up legal papers countersigned by witnesses and a notary. I think she did way more than most desperate mothers might do under the circumstances. She had a contingency plan when things went bad and had her friend implement the plan, but the mother’s intent is clearly defined in these papers.” She held up the legal forms Gabe had retrieved from the diaper bag.

      “There’s protocol, Corinne.”

      “Drew. Darling.” She crossed the room and looped her arm through her brother-in-law’s and Gabe knew the chief of police didn’t stand a chance. “There is always protocol. And sometimes there are moments when protocol gets bested by common sense. Gabe’s СКАЧАТЬ