Jingle-Bell Baby. Linda Goodnight

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      “I don’t think he likes us, Sophie,” she murmured. Though she couldn’t imagine why. He’d behaved the same way in the car yesterday, as though she’d angered him. Yet he’d helped her. And he’d come to visit her in the hospital.

      “What a strange man.”

      He’d left so fast, the scent of a very masculine cologne lingered in the room like a contrail. Were all Texas cowboys so…reticent? Well, it didn’t matter. She would likely never see the man again, and the truth was, Dax Coleman had saved her, saved Sophie, and she would be forever grateful.

      Before she had time to ponder further, a woman entered the room. Dressed in a black pantsuit and white, round earbobs of the 1960s, the woman carried a clipboard and a stack of papers.

      “I’m Alice Pernisky from the business office.” She rolled an over-the-bed table in front of Jenna. “Let’s put the baby in the bassinet while we take care of the paperwork.”

      Her no-nonsense style brooked no argument, so Jenna did as she said. She was worried enough about completing these forms.

      “Let’s take care of the birth certificate first.” The woman pushed a paper under her nose. “The doctor has filled in the basics, but we’ll need your complete information, your name, the father’s name, and of course—” she allowed a thin smile “—the name you’ve chosen for your baby.”

      Heart thudding crazily, Jenna stared down at the form and wondered if falsifying a birth certificate was illegal. Ink pen hovering over the sheet, she considered long and hard.

      After a few seconds, Alice Pernisky said, “My dear, if you don’t want to put the father’s name, that’s fine. Just take care of the rest. We see more of that kind of thing than we used to.”

      Heat flushed from her toes to her head. They thought she was an unwed mother who had no idea who Sophie’s father was.

      “My husband died,” she said, which was true, though Derek had been out of her life long before the car crash that killed him.

      “I’m sorry,” Alice said automatically, although Jenna did not think the woman believed her.

      Would people always assume the worst if she didn’t put Derek’s name on the birth certificate?

      Of course they would. This document would follow Sophie all the days of her life. And Jenna would not do that to her daughter.

      Taking a deep breath, Jenna bent to the form and began to write. After the divorce, her parents had insisted she return to Carrington and she’d gladly done so. Derek had humiliated her enough. But now, his name might be the one thing that could keep her and Sophie from being discovered.

      If she was going to start her life anew with Sophie, she would do it correctly. She would lie only if she had to, and pray her family wouldn’t be able to trace her through hospital documents bearing only her married name.

      As she handed over the form, another form appeared beneath. “Those are your release forms, your instructions on self-care, and of course your hospital bill. Do you have insurance we can file?”

      Jenna gulped. Lie number one. “No.”

      “How do you plan to take of this? We take check or credit card, of course, and if need be, we can set up a payment plan.”

      “Cash. I’ll pay cash.”

      The woman pulled back, startled. “Cash?”

      “Yes.” Accessing her bank accounts or using her credit cards would be too easy to trace. Until she and Sophie were established and on their own, she would not even consider such a thing. Maybe never. Cash was the only way.

      Jenna reached for her handbag, aware of how out-of-place the designer crocodile looked in the hands of a woman without health insurance. As she withdrew the funds from her wallet, she had the absurd thought that Alice might think she’d stolen the bag, along with the money. What if she called the police?

      Jenna’s hand trembled as she counted out the correct amount and handed it over. She could feel the woman’s curious stare and almost hear the wheels turning in her head.

      When the last paper was signed and the woman left the room, Jenna felt light-headed with relief. Before putting her purse aside so she could hold Sophie again, she counted the remaining bills in her wallet. A quiver of worry drew her brows together. Never in her life had she needed to consider money. A Carrington simply grew up knowing there was plenty. Discussing personal finance was considered vulgar.

      But she was no longer a Carrington. She was no longer one of Pennsylvania’s old money debutantes with an endless supply of cash and credit cards. She was a single mother alone, scared…and nearly broke.

      A tangle of nerves and hormones and uncertainty gathered inside Jenna a short time later as she leafed through two newspapers, including a national one, and waited to be dismissed from the hospital.

      After careful scrutiny of each page, she sat back against the scratchy chair and let some of her tension ebb away. There was no mention of a missing heiress. At least, not yet.

      She flipped to the classifieds of the local paper, the Saddleback Sentinel, and scanned the help wanted ads. After a couple of minutes, her lips curved in wry humor. If she could run a drilling rig or drive an eighteen-wheel truck, she’d be in business before nightfall.

      “Looking for anything in particular?”

      At Crystal’s voice, Jenna jumped. The nurse stood in front of her with a wheelchair, smile curious.

      The newspaper crinkled as Jenna refolded it and placed it on the nightstand. Part of her longed to confide in the friendly nurse and admit she needed a job. She opened her mouth to do just that but Sophie chose that moment to awake with a startled cry. All thought rushed to her baby.

      “Is she all right?”

      Crystal chuckled. “Yes, Jenna. She’s fine. Baby’s cry. Get used to it. Real used to it. I probably startled her with the noise of the wheelchair.”

      “Oh.” Jenna fought down a blush and gingerly scooped her daughter from the Isolette. “Shh, darling, Mommy’s here.”

      To her joy, Sophie stopped crying immediately. Her scrunched-up face relaxed as she blinked up at her mother. A swell of love ballooned in Jenna’s chest.

      “You two ladies ready for your free ride in a wheelchair?”

      “Can’t we walk?”

      “Hospital regs, I’m afraid.” Crystal patted the black seat. “Hop aboard the Wolf Express for the only free thing in this hospital.”

      With a smile at Crystal’s humor, Jenna complied, jittery to think that in a few minutes, she and Sophie would be alone and on their own. She’d known when she left the estate that this would happen, but she hadn’t expected it to happen quite so soon. She’d hoped to be settled somewhere before Sophie’s birth, to have the trunk full of layette items set up and ready for the baby’s homecoming. She’d even had fantasies of a job where she could keep Sophie with her. Instead, she was down to her last few dollars with nowhere to take her newborn daughter.

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