LITMIR.BIZ

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Russ called to him again. The man had actually followed him, carrying both bags of baby things. Did Russ really think he was going to stop him from leaving?

      “Well, we certainly can’t take care of it. We’re not authorized, but I know for a fact that you are. It’s your duty as town sheriff to take custody of this baby.”

      Jet hesitated at the bottom of the steps on the snowy sidewalk and contemplated his options. According to the local newspaper, the Teton Valley Gazette, Russ Knightly was beating Mayor Sally Hickman by ten points. If he became mayor, he could make Jet’s life miserable, and even replace him if he so chose.

      Despite all his complaints, Sheriff Jet Wilson loved his job and didn’t want to start over again in some other town...at least not yet.

      “You’re right about that, Mr. Knightly. I must have been mistaken. I thought you and Doctor Grant wanted to keep that poor, destitute, abandoned child overnight, which would be fine, according to the law, as long as I approved it. Which I do.”

      “Well, don’t, because we do not want to keep the baby overnight. We want you to take her. Coco...I mean, Doctor Grant, and I have other plans.”

      Jet got it loud and clear. This charming snake and Doctor Grant were in a relationship. Russ might as well have sucker punched him right in the jaw. It would have made more sense than this tawdry relationship.

      As much as it pained Jet, he walked back up the three steps, past Russ Knightly, then began walking up the flight of stairs to the doctor’s private residence, an apartment he’d never seen before, but had thought about many times.

      “You could have carried some of this stuff, ya know,” Russ complained behind Jet as the two men made their way up the steps.

      “I sure could have,” Jet said, offering no excuse, listening to Russ grunt as he tried to maneuver the steep stairs.

      Jet’s guilt kicked in and he was about to turn back around and grab one of the bags from Russ when the door opened to Doctor Grant’s apartment.

      She looked absolutely gorgeous, almost beatific, as if she was no longer human, but rather an angel that had come down from heaven. It was all there in her smile, a radiant, joyful smile not really intended for Jet, but coming from deep within her.

      Seeing the doctor standing in the doorway, with that tiny baby cradled in her arms, wearing a beautiful black dress that hugged all her curves, her short-cropped, almost black hair hugging her face, showing off that lovely long neck of hers, earrings gently dusting her bare shoulders and the low light from her apartment bathing her body in its warm glow, took Jet’s breath away. Her steel blue eyes seemed brighter, her lips fuller, and that chiseled nose set everything off making her look regal. Doctor Coco Grant always stood up straight, proud of her six-foot height, which Jet loved considering he cleared six foot four easy.

      No woman had ever had that kind of impact on him before. The world might as well have stopped spinning.

      For the first time in his adult life, he knew what it meant to be tongue-tied. It was all he could do to keep from blabbing like a schoolboy.

      “Thanks for coming out, Sheriff. I know it’s late, but we didn’t know what else to do,” the angel said, her voice low and enthralling.

      “I...um...”

      “Excuse me,” Russ said from just behind Jet, then nudged him out of the way. “But this stuff is heavy.”

      That knocked Jet back into reality...the reality of an abandoned baby cuddled up against Doctor Grant, with bare shoulders exposed to the cold of the stairway.

      Jet cleared his tight throat. “Not a problem,” he told Doctor Grant. “I picked up a few things on my way over.”

      “More like the whole store,” Russ muttered.

      All of a sudden, the baby started wailing. Jet figured it was the grating sound of Russ’s voice that set her off.

      Smart baby, Jet thought.

      “Why don’t you let me get some clothes on that little darlin’ while you make her a bottle. We can talk about how you found her after we get her settled,” Jet said.

      From the look on Doctor Grant’s face, he could tell she hadn’t expected him to know much about babies.

      “Are you sure?” she tentatively asked. “Because, I mean...”

      But Jet had already taken the tiny bundle wrapped in a fuzzy white towel into his arms. She felt as light as a feather as he spoke to her in a soothing voice and gently rocked her. At once the wailing turned into tiny whimpers.

      “How’d you do that?” Coco asked, but Jet wasn’t in the mood to answer her question. Instead he asked one of his own.

      “Any bruises on the child?”

      He walked past her and into the spacious apartment and immediately noticed all the lit candles on just about every flat surface in the large rooms, plus the open bottles of wine and scotch on the dining table that still held the remnants of what had to be a romantic dinner for two. A large bouquet of roses, undoubtedly a gift from her shining knight, sat in a clear glass vase in the center of the table.

      Sheriff Jet Wilson could only imagine the disruption this little girl must have caused. He did a mental snicker.

      “None that I could see,” the doctor answered using her official voice. “She looks well cared for, and she’s the appropriate size and weight for a two-week-old infant. I looked it up online.”

      “That’s good. Now, where can I change her?”

      “In my bedroom, down the hall on your right.”

      Jet picked one of the bags of essentials that Russ had dropped on the floor and went off to make little baby Lily a bit more comfortable in this uncomfortable situation.

      “Can one of you please bring in the other bag?” Jet asked, not turning back around. He assumed Russ would carry in the bulky bag, and the less he saw and spoke to that man, the better.

      Just last week he thought he’d seen Russ locking lips with a petite blonde woman over in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a town less than thirty minutes from Briggs. Jet had been there for a meeting with law enforcement officials when he spotted Russ through a restaurant window cozying up with a woman Jet had never seen before. And from the way they’d been eyeing each other, Jet had assumed they were an item.

      Apparently he’d been wrong.

      Apparently Russ Knightly liked to spread his affections around.

      “You wouldn’t be taken in by that kind of behavior, would you, Lily?”

      She blinked and pushed her spindly legs out from under the towel. He could tell she didn’t particularly like that heavy towel over her. Jet put her down on the bed, opened the box of diapers, pulled one out and quickly slipped it under Lily’s bottom and fastened it. Then he grabbed a white side-snap undershirt and slipped that on her. She at once looked much more comfortable and happy.

      “There, now you can relieve yourself at will, and no one will be the wiser.”

      Her little arms reached up as she let out a soft wail. “Aw, sweet cakes, don’t be cryin’. We’re gonna fix you up with a bottle, and I promise you, you’ll be well taken care of. No need to make a fuss.”

      As he soothed Lily, his mind wandered back to Russ and Jackson Hole, pondering whether or not the good doctor knew about the other woman or, for that matter, if the other woman knew about Doctor Grant.

      And if both women knew, were they okay with it?

      Call him old-fashioned, but in Jet’s world, a relationship consisted of two people who only had eyes for each other.

      Unfortunately, so far, those kinds of old-fashioned ideas hadn’t panned out so well. He kept falling for the wrong women, but dang it, after his last broken heart, he’d promised himself he would never do that again.

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