Her Cowboy's Twin Blessings. Patricia Johns

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СКАЧАТЬ stood there with the baby up on her shoulder, her gaze directed down at the floor as she listened to whoever was on the other line.

      Casey kicked the new diaper box across the kitchen floor toward the living room. This was the routine. He kept a towel laid out on the couch, and he’d been using that as a changing station. It was a rough setup, but it seemed to work out okay.

      He laid Will on the couch cushion and sat on the couch next to him to do the honors.

      “That was the mechanic,” Ember said, coming into the room.

      “Oh, yeah?” Casey set to work on the sodden diaper, then reached for a new one. He was getting pretty good at this, but two babies went through a phenomenal number of diapers a day. He rolled up the soiled diaper, then lifted the little legs to pop a new one underneath the baby’s tiny rump.

      “It’ll be over a week before my car will be fixed,” she said. “There are other cars ahead of mine, and—” She sucked in a breath. “How would it work if I stayed on this ranch for a few days?”

      “I’d talk to Mr. Vern, explain the situation and see if he’d be okay with you staying up at the big house,” Casey said. “You wouldn’t have to worry about inappropriately close quarters here at my place, but you’d be close enough to make everything relatively convenient. I can pick you up and bring you back here no problem.”

      He fiddled with the snaps on Will’s sleeper—they were so easy to accidentally snap together one snap off-center so that he’d have to start all over again...

      “What about your niece?” she asked.

      “She’s got the flu, but even if she didn’t, the kid’s fifteen. She’s supposed to be in school, not minding children.”

      Ember eyed him. “And just to be clear...” She let it hang.

      “I just want a hand. I’ll find people to babysit when I give you the tours and all that, but I need another person—another set of hands until my aunt can get here. You can see how much work they are. We could both benefit, if you’re game. What do you say?”

      Ember looked down at the baby in her arms and wrinkled her nose. “This little guy dirtied his diaper.”

      Casey chuckled. “Let’s trade. Will here is clean.”

      Casey took Wyatt from her arms, and Ember awkwardly lifted Will up onto her shoulder. The baby snuggled up next to her neck like his brother had. She shut her eyes for a moment. Casey paused, watching her. There was something in her expression—more than discomfort...pain.

      “No pressure, if you’d rather not,” Casey said. “It would just help me out, is all.”

      “I thought you didn’t like me,” she said, her eyes opening again, and she fixed him with a direct look that made him shift uncomfortably.

      “I don’t like Bert, either, but who can be picky?” he said, shooting her a teasing smile. “I’m joking. I don’t like what you stand for, Ember Reed, but Will seems to settle right down when you’re holding him, and babies are like dogs that way. They smell bad people. And like I said, I’m a bit desperate right now. You help me with the boys, and I’ll go out of my way to help you find the information you need to make your choice about buying this place. Fair is fair. I’m as good as my word.”

      “Okay,” she said with a nod.

      He felt a wave of relief. At least he’d have a hand here for a few days, and that was a bigger boost to his peace of mind than she seemed to realize. “I’ll talk to Mr. Vern, then.”

      She smiled wanly. “I’m not good with kids—the childcare side, I mean. I should at least warn you.”

      “It’s just diapers and bottles,” Casey said, grabbing another fresh diaper and the bucket of wipes. “I only started on this a week ago, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. You’ll catch on.”

      And here was hoping that when he’d done his duty and shown her the ranch, she’d decide not to buy the place. But that was in God’s hands—the hardest place to leave it.

      * * *

      When Casey was finished with the diaper, they traded babies again. She was getting better at this—easing one baby into his arms and taking the other baby into her own. Ember looked down at the tiny boy in her arms. Wyatt. The baby was wide-awake, those deep brown eyes searching in that cross-eyed, newborn kind of way. She lifted him closer to her face, inhaling the soft scent of his wispy hair.

      She’d held her own newborn son in her arms ten years ago, and she’d breathed in the scent of him. She hadn’t named him. That wasn’t her role, but she knew the name the adoptive family had chosen—Steven. She would always remember how he’d felt in her arms, how her heart had stilled just having him so close... After spending one tearful night cradling him, feeding him with a bottle of formula lest she grow too attached, she’d passed him over to his new mom and her heart had broken. The sound of his cry as they took him away had slid so deep into her soul that she dreamed of it at night even now, and woke up with achingly empty arms.

      It had been for the best—that was what she told herself. But she wasn’t so sure anymore. Ember sucked in a stabilizing breath.

      “How did you end up with these babies?” she asked.

      “My cousin and his wife had asked me to be their guardian should anything happen,” Casey said. “I thought it was nothing more than a gesture, because I’m single. I’m a ranch manager. I don’t have time for kids, right? But then there was this horrible fire, and they managed to get the boys out, but Neil and Sandra didn’t make it. That left the kids with me.” He cleared his throat, blinked a couple of times.

      “Will you keep them?” Ember asked hesitantly.

      “Keep them?” Casey repeated, casting her a questioning look. “Yeah, of course. I’m the closest family they’ve got. What else would I do?”

      “Some might let them be adopted by another family,” she said.

      “Yeah, some might.” Casey finished with the sleeper’s snaps, noticed he’d done them up wrong and whipped them all open again to start fresh. “And honestly, it did occur to me. But—I don’t know. I can’t bring myself to do it.”

      Ember nodded. She’d felt nearly the same way...but she hadn’t seen any other choice. She remembered how helpless she’d felt at the prospect of single motherhood and losing the support her father offered if she didn’t cooperate and give the baby up...

      “How will you do this?” Ember asked. “Raise them on your own, I mean.”

      “How does any parent raise their kids?” Casey picked up the baby and put him onto his shoulder, then headed through to the kitchen. The water turned on, and he raised his voice to be heard. “I figure I’ll just wing it. Isn’t that what the rest do?”

      Ember chuckled at that. “I’m more of a planner, myself.”

      “Well, I’ve got a few plans,” Casey said, coming back into the room as he awkwardly dried his hands on a paper towel while balancing the baby on his shoulder. “My aunt has agreed to watch the kids for me during the days. I’ll pay her, of course. And I’ve been advised by СКАЧАТЬ