kitchen with her arms out. “Roman told me what happened. Unbelievable!”
The room suddenly got much quieter as Melody gave Ruby the bottle. “I know, but here she is.”
“Was there a note or anything?” Emersyn asked as she began looking Ruby over.
“Nothing,” Roman confirmed as he joined them, still being guided by Lucas. “Sorry. It took us a minute to get down the stairs.”
Melody clamped her lips together and looked back down at Ruby. She knew Lucas still took the stairs one at a time, and she would’ve given anything to watch Roman have to do the same.
“I didn’t find anything on or in the car seat, and I checked the front porch thoroughly,” Roman continued. “Do you have any surveillance cameras set up?”
Amar joined them just then, and he, too, came over to study the little girl. “I’ll have Raul check through the feeds. Anything that has to do with tech immediately goes to him.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Of all the problems we’ve had to solve, I never would have thought we’d be presented with one like this.”
“Is it possible that someone just left her on the doorstep of a nice house in the hopes that she’d have a good life?” Melody asked. It was the kind of thing you saw in old books or movies, but not the kind of thing that happened in reality.
“We’ll figure it out soon enough,” Amar assured her. “Melody, can I ask you to take care of her until we do?”
“Already on it, Chief,” she assured him. Melody braced the bottle as she grabbed a cloth to wipe a dribble of formula from Ruby’s chin. She felt awful that this adorable creature had been taken away from her mother and left with strangers, but her heart secretly soared.
“Great. I’ll get everyone together, and we’ll have a meeting in one hour.” Amar strode purposefully from the room.
“I’ll wait until she’s done eating, then I’ll take her into the exam room,” Emersyn said. “She sure is a cutie.”
“I’m not going to argue with that.” Melody smiled down at the cherubic face. She hadn’t asked for a baby for Christmas, but it looked like she was getting one anyway.
5
Roman stepped out the back door. It had been less than an hour since he and Melody had found that child on the doorstep, though it’d felt like a lifetime. The world was heaving and changing underneath him, and he couldn’t do anything about it. He belonged back in Sheridan. He knew that without even a trace of doubt. It was the one place he’d found that he really belonged, and the solitude of the rural Wyoming community was good for him.
But then he’d had to come to California and meet Melody. Roman walked out past the pool, gazing into its blue depths as he recalled the night before. He’d been unable to sleep in a new place, and the temptation of all those leftovers from the party had been irresistible. He hadn’t counted on finding something—or rather, someone—even more irresistible when he’d wandered into the kitchen. Roman smiled, remembering how she’d been swinging her ass from side to side as she sang, with hardly a care in the world. That was the beginning of all this change, but it was a change that was much easier to fall into.
He’d been so comfortable with her as they sat on the couch and watched that old movie. Roman couldn’t remember a time in his life when he’d found that level of ease so quickly with someone. That was just one of the many reasons he knew Melody was his mate. He could see himself falling for her just as easily as he’d fallen into bed with her, disrupting his entire life just to be with her. He knew, though, that it wouldn’t work if either of them had to give up what they loved.
That notion had been driven home as soon as he’d seen Melody dive into action with Ruby. She hadn’t delayed for half a second when she’d seen that child on the front porch, nor had she shown any reluctance to take care of her simply because she wasn’t biologically hers. In fact, the way Melody carried Ruby around, cooing and fussing over her, it was hard to believe she wasn’t the baby’s mother.
Roman shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to appreciate the scenery of the landscaped backyard, but it was too difficult to concentrate. All he could see was the beatific