she was so concerned about the baby’s well-being.”
Sharon Lynn sighed. It was something she hadn’t even considered, but it made sense. “You’re probably right. Why do you suppose she’s waiting?”
“Having second thoughts would be my guess. From appearances, she’s had a tough life. I can’t imagine she’s any too eager to disrupt her current routine to care for a baby.”
“Why? What’s her routine?”
“Let’s just say she likes her afternoon toddy a little too much. There’s a bartender in Garden City who says not a day passes that she’s not in his establishment from sundown until he closes up.”
His description was enough to solidify her resolve. She couldn’t turn Ashley over to a woman like that. Somehow, some way, she would protect the baby. Her baby.
Oh, God, she thought as she realized what she’d been thinking. Her hand shook as she reached for her own cup of coffee. It had happened, just as everyone had warned it would.
That innocent little baby wasn’t hers, she reminded herself sternly.
But that wasn’t how it felt. In every way that counted, she felt as if she were Ashley’s mother.
Chapter Twelve
It had been a stressful day from beginning to end. The baby had awakened fussy and remained that way. Advice had been offered from every single customer who’d passed through Dolan’s. Sharon Lynn was ready to scream.
“She’s teething,” one person said.
“Too young,” another had scoffed. “Probably colic.”
“Maybe a little winter cold,” suggested another.
When Cord walked in just after five, she glowered at him. “Don’t you start.”
Rather than asking what the devil was wrong with her, he bypassed her completely and went to pluck the miserable baby from the portable crib. Only when he was pacing up and down with the baby gazing at him adoringly—and without a single tear—did he turn to Sharon Lynn.
“Rough day?”
“Oh, go to blazes,” she muttered, uncertain whether the remark was directed at him or the traitorous child in his arms. He did have a way with the baby that was enviable.
He grinned and tickled Ashley, who gurgled delightedly. “Guess so,” he concluded, then gazed at the child in his arms. “Were you the cause of that?”
The baby responded with a series of incomprehensible sounds. Cord nodded as if he’d understood every word. “Guess what she needs is a night on the town,” he concluded. “What do you think, little angel? Should we take her out to dinner?”
“I’m not going out to dinner,” Sharon Lynn grumbled. “I’m going to go home and crawl into bed and pretend I’ve never met either one of you.”
Cord gave her a look that would have singed steel. “Works for me. The crawling into bed part, anyway.”
“You’re not invited,” she shot back, then sighed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be taking this out on you.”
“I can take it,” he said easily.
She sank down onto a stool at the counter and regarded him wistfully. “I just don’t get it. I have done everything I know how to do all day long and I could not get her to settle down. You walk in here and, bingo, she’s smiling and babbling.”
“You know, darlin’, there are just some females who respond to a man’s touch. If you’d like, I can hold you and see if you won’t feel better, too.”
Ah, the power of suggestion. She instantly thought of what it would be like to have those powerful arms of his folded tightly around her, of how reassuring it would be to rest her head against his chest, to listen to the beat of his heart. She imagined being surrounded by the clean, soap-and-water, all-male scent of him. It was tempting, all right. A little too tempting. And he, blast him, clearly knew exactly how easily he could get to her.
Up until now, she had been very careful not to cross the line with Cord, not to let him think for even a second, that there would ever be anything between the two of them. Okay, there had been a kiss or two, but kisses happened all the time. Chaste kisses. Experimental kisses. Even the kind of breath-stealing kisses she’d shared with Cord didn’t have to foreshadow a relationship.
She owed it to herself and to him not to muddy the waters now, just because she was exhausted and desperately in need of a hug. If she intended to spend the rest of her life single, she couldn’t start leaning on someone else the minute things got a little rough.
“I think I’ll pass,” she said eventually, but even she could hear that her voice