Page 83 of The Cowboy and the Baby

Before I could pinwheel into guilt and emotions and memories, a hand pressed on my shoulders. I startled, jerked away from the memories of Mom’s voice, and looked up. Noelle’s bright eyes smiled softly at me.

“Cade?”

I swallowed, nodded. She held a squirming Lily. Noelle’s gaze softened into concern.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” I rasped. “Fine.”

She didn’t look like she believed me, but thankfully didn’t press it. “Lily is a little fussy, and I really need to pee. Would you like to hold her?” She peered more deeply into my eyes, and I knew she’d heard the call. Offered a safe distraction.

No, a reminder.

I reached for the baby as soon as she finished, and Noelle departed after a loving squeeze on my arm. Lily’s warm bundle filled my arms a moment later, and the prickling sensation inside immediately soothed. Here was someone real. Someone perfect, and innocent.

When Noelle disappeared around the corner, Lily gave a short-tempered cry. I stood up, patted her bottom, and whispered a soothing hush hush hush that Noelle used at night. Lily immediately calmed.

I stood at the window, focused on her.

“I’ll be here for you,” I whispered. “Always here for you, and how easy is that? There will be wolves that I won’t let through these doors after you. I’ll protect you the way my parents couldn’t protect me. You hear that? No lost time. I’m always here.”

The promise came out of me in a whisper, but felt like a roar. Such protectiveness had surely never existed. Such . . . care . . . for another soul. Mom couldn’t give me what I needed, but I could give Lily what she needed. Constancy. A home. She isn’t your baby, I reminded myself.

But it didn’t matter.

I’d show up for her, anyway.

My heart cracked in half when Lily’s eyes fluttered closed under my bouncing movements. The broken parts of me spilled fog and fire and ooze and then knitted back together, healing up, while Lily fell asleep in my arms and I comprehended the truth that not all family is blood.

Hawk: You’re meeting with Channing today, right?

Cade: On the way.

Hawk: Good. My friends call him the closer. He’s routinely pulled into difficult cases to counsel with existing firms on high-profile and delicate situations. Family law is only part of what he does.

Cade: Sounds ominous.

Hawk: Not if he’s your attorney. He’s interested in keeping me happy with him. Keep that in mind, and let me know how it goes.

Channing Finn entered the room, and all the air left.

He was a pristinely dressed man with a face like flint and a cold expression that transformed into something caring within a flash. One minute he strode into the room, file in hand, with an expression that promised he feared nothing. The next minute, he smiled warmly at Noelle, took her hand, admired Lily, and put himself in front of me. I wasn’t sure whether I respected or hated him, or some unsettling mixture of both.

Then he opened his mouth.

“Miss Morgan, it’s an honor to meet you. Cade, I’ve heard great things from Hawk about you and your sister. Please, take a seat. Let’s discuss the situation with Lily and her paternal grandparents. Their attorney and I have been corresponding over the last several days, and I have updates.”

Noelle sent me a worried glance, so I winked. She reached out, interlocking our fingers, and I squeezed them gently.

Having her seek me out for comfort?

Yes, please.

All day.

I gently brought Lily’s car seat in front of our chairs. We sat before a shiny desk that spanned almost half his office. A bank of windows peered over jagged, steep mountains that were covered with blankets of snow. The smell of coffee permeated the room, as well as the sounds of a law office.

Channing put his forearms on the desk and said, “First of all, Noelle, let me reassure you that I feel this is a case we can win.”