The Baby beneath the Mistletoe - Marie Ferrarella

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the light so she could get a better look at his face, Mikky saw that his olive complexion had grown almost pale. “What’s the matter?”

      His eyes averted, Marino refused to even look at her. “Nothing.”

      Mikky was tired of having him bite the hand she kept offering in friendship. She took the same tone she took with one of her brothers on the infrequent occasions when their moods turned nasty.

      “Don’t ‘nothing’ me.” When he began to turn from her, she butted her hand against his shoulder and pushed him back around so that he was forced to face her. He looked at her in mute surprise. “I was raised in a house full of brothers, and I know when a man’s trying to hide something. Now what’s wrong? You turned pale when you said the baby’s name.”

      She was going to harp on this until he caved, Tony thought angrily. It was none of her damn business, but he told her anyway. “Justin was my son’s name.”

      “Oh.” Where did she go from here, hobbling the way she was with her foot in her mouth? Mikky thought. She caught her lower lip in her teeth. “I’m sorry.”

      His scowl grew darker. “I don’t need you to be sorry.”

      The war was on again. It figured. His type didn’t know how to show any emotion other than growling. “Okay,” she said tersely. “Moving on. Did you see anyone?” The baby was beginning to leave a very wet spot on her shoulder where he was sucking on her blouse.

      Tony shook his head, frustrated. Why had someone singled him out? There had to be a reason, didn’t there? What was it?

      “There was a knock on the door. I thought maybe it was you, coming back to apologize. When I opened the door, there wasn’t anyone there, except for him.” He nodded toward the baby.

      It was exactly what she was coming back to do—apologize—but his thinking she had reason to suddenly threw a fresh log onto the dying fire of Mikky’s anger.

      Her eyes widened as she looked at him. “Why should I apologize?”

      “Because—”

      But before he could continue, she held up a hand, waving away whatever it was he was going to say that would undoubtedly launch them into another round.

      “Never mind, forget I asked. That isn’t important now.” She moved the baby into the crook of her arm. The smile that was on the rosebud mouth threatened to completely melt her heart. “But this baby is. What are you going to do about him?”

      “Me? You’re the one who’s holding him. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, remember?”

      There had to be more to this. Some kind of connection he wasn’t admitting to.

      “Whoever left him on your doorstep,” she pointed out, “obviously thought you could take care of him.” She consciously avoided using the baby’s name, though she thought of it as an odd coincidence.

      Take care of a baby? Tony thought. That was laughable. He could barely take care of himself right now, much less anyone so helpless. It was all he could do to function in the morning.

      He wasn’t answering her, she thought. Was he just ignoring her, or didn’t he know? Mikky tried again. “So what are you going to do?”

      Tiny fists opened and closed, catching air. Tony watched despite his effort not to. “I have no idea.”

      Chapter Three

      Confronted with his indecision, Mikky gave the situation only a moment’s thought and passed the baby to Tony. One of her brothers was a police detective. He’d take it from here. “Well, the right thing to do is to turn him over to the police.”

      Without realizing it, Tony held the baby closer to him. The whimper told him he was holding Justin too tight. “For what, loitering?”

      “If you’d stop being antagonistic toward me for a minute, you’d realize that—”

      “I’m not turning him over to the police.”

      Why was he being so vehement about it? A minute ago he’d been ambivalent. The answer had to be because she’d been the one to make the recommendation. “They won’t put him in a lineup. He’ll go to social services and—”

      The very word nudged forward memories. He remembered listening with disbelief as Shad had described what life had been like for him and Dottie after their parents had died. Tony could remember how grateful he’d felt, knowing he had two parents who loved him and were always there for him.

      “And what...be shunted around from place to place until someone gives him a home? If they give him a home?” He thought of how he would have felt if this were his Justin facing these alternatives. There was no way he would allow something like that to happen to the boy.

      She had no idea why she was trying to talk sense into him. The man had a head like a rock. She doubted even a state of the art explosive could made a dent in it “He’s a foundling—”

      “Yes, and I found him.” He looked down at the small, round face. Several teeth underscored a half grin. Tony realized that he was already lost. “As you said, whoever left him thought I could take care of him.” New resolve filled him. This wasn’t about him right now. This was about a small, helpless human being. “And I’m going to.”

      He didn’t know what he was letting himself in for. And Mikky didn’t know why she didn’t just say goodbye and go. Or why she should care what he did one way or the other. Maybe because she’d always been a sucker for the underdog, she thought. Even if the underdog insisted on snapping at her every word.

      “Very noble.” She nodded at the baby. “You could start by keeping his head up a little better.”

      Frowning, Tony realized that he’d let his hand slip. That was because she got him so irritated, he couldn’t think straight. It was like hearing nails being run along a chalkboard. He was the board, she was the nails.

      “I know,” he snapped, moving his hand up. “I’m not a complete idiot.”

      “No, not a complete one,” she allowed. “More like an idiot under construction.”

      “Look—”

      “No, you look. The longer you hang on to the baby, the more attached you’re going to get.” And she could tell by the look in his eyes, he was halfway gone as it was. The little boy was nothing short of adorable.

      What did it matter to her what he did? Tony wondered. And why did he feel called upon to justify himself to her? He owed her no explanations. And he’d given her more than the measure of courtesy she deserved.

      “I’m just looking to doing the right thing,” he heard himself saying.

      “And the right thing is to turn the baby over to the police. They get cases like this all the time.”

      Tony snorted. “So they won’t miss one if I don’t hand him over to them. Look, the mother may have a change of heart—”

      The dark, somber look that slipped over Mikky’s fair features made Tony stop talking. “If she gave it up, she didn’t have a heart—”

      He was too tired to go around about this, or even wonder why her expression had hardened the way it did. “Why did you come back here, anyway?”

      Initiated at Tony’s lack of understanding, at his total pigheadedness, Mikky shouted her answer at him, momentarily forgetting that this had been his initial guess. “To apologize.”

      “Fine.” His tone matched hers as he snapped back. “Apology accepted, now get out.”

      Turning on her heel, she stormed to the door. But then she stopped. Mikky blew out a breath and silently upbraided herself. She couldn’t just leave him if he was determined to take the baby in.

      With renewed determination to

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