The Sheriff's Son

Smiling with instant fascination, Charlie carefully touched the red fuzz of hair on the girl twin’s head. “She has red hair like you, Mommy!”

Justine smiled at her son’s observation. “She sure does. Now, will you go get Aunt Kitty? The sheriff would like to speak with her.”

Charlie glanced curiously over at the man and the baby on the couch, then started toward the door. “Aunt Kitty had to go to the bathroom! I’ll get her!”

Charlie raced out of the room. Once the boy was out of sight, Roy released a long breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“You have a son?”

The sound of his low, gravelly voice caused Justine to jerk ever so slightly. She looked up from the baby and over to him. There was an odd look of betrayal on his face. As though he knew…But no, she swiftly assured herself. He couldn’t know anything. No one, not even her sisters, knew that Roy Pardee was Charlie’s father.

Chapter Two (#ulink_808a3110-06bc-50bb-bad8-e386db5b24d5)

Justine’s chin unconsciously tilted upward. “Yes. Charles is my son.”

Of course, it had been obvious when the boy called her Mommy. But hearing Justine admit it out loud was like the blow of an ax to Roy.

His face like chipped granite, he said, “Someone told me you’d been engaged to be married, then later I heard the marriage had been called off. But I didn’t know you’d had a child back then. Did you…ever get married?”

Roy hated himself for asking. He wanted to appear indifferent. He wanted to be totally disinterested, but he couldn’t be. Justine Murdock had done something to him all those years ago. She’d shown him heaven and then shown him hell. She’d given him. his first true love lesson. One that he’d never forget. There wasn’t such a thing as real love.

“No. I’ve never been married,” Justine admitted, then wondered what he could possibly be thinking. Let it be that she was a promiscuous woman. Anything would be better than the truth.

“You had the boy while you were in college.”

It was a statement, not a question, but Justine found herself nodding at him anyway. She was determined to appear cool, no matter how much her insides were shaking with fear. “Being pregnant and going to school wasn’t a picnic. I had to cut down on my classes and scrimp and save the money my parents sent me. But I managed to get through.”

“So where is his father?”

She met his gaze, and her green eyes were unusually dull. “After I became pregnant with Charlie, he realized he didn’t want to be a family man. He didn’t even want to get married. So we—ended things, and since then he’s been totally out of my life.”

Roy wanted to tell her she’d been a fool to bear such a man’s child, but at that moment a petite woman with short salt-and-pepper hair walked into the room. Justine’s son was tagging close to her side.

“Charlie said I was wanted,” Kitty said. “What’s going on here?”

With the twin girl still in her arms, Justine got to her feet. “Roy, this is my aunt Kitty. She’s my mother’s sister. She came to live with us before our mother passed away.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Roy said, with a nod toward the older woman. “It seems that your niece found two babies on the porch when she came home from work. You wouldn’t happen to know who they might belong to?”

Kitty’s mouth formed a perfect O as she glanced from one baby to the other. “Land sakes no! You mean they were on the doorstep? Just like in the movies?”

“That’s the way Justine described it.”

Justine turned her eyes on him. “That’s the way it was,” she said crisply.

“Well! What do you think about that?” Kitty asked no one in particular. “I wish Lola and Tom were alive to see this.”

Charlie ventured over to Roy, who’d just slipped the empty bottle from the boy twin’s mouth.

“You have a badge,” Charlie told him.

Roy looked at the boy. He had a stocky build, like his late grandfather Tom. His thick hair was light brown and fell in a straight bang across his forehead. Freckles dotted his broad-bridged nose and dimples dented both cheeks. He was an endearing child, and Roy couldn’t help but somehow feel cheated that Justine had chosen to have some other man’s baby.

“Yes, that’s a badge,” Roy told him.

“You have a gun, too,” Charlie went on, his gaze on the pistol holstered to Roy’s hip.

“That’s right.”

“Are you a policeman?”

“I’m a sheriff.”

Charlie repeated the word. “What does a sheriff do?”

“He tells the other policemen what to do.”

Charlie grinned and plopped down beside Roy on the couch. “So you’re the boss.”

In spite of everything, Roy found himself smiling back at Justine’s son. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“Would you like for me to take the baby now, Mr. Pardee?” Kitty asked him.

“Thank you, ma’am.” He handed the twin over to the older woman, and was instantly struck by the emptiness of his arms.

“He looks like the one you have, Mommy,” Charlie said, pointing at the tiny boy in his aunt’s arms. “Is that his sister?”

“Yes, honey. I expect they are brother and sister,” Justine told him.

“I can’t get over it,” Kitty said as she strolled around the room like a doting grandmother. “Babies left on our ranch! Where do you think they came from?”

“I was hoping that you or Justine’s sisters might have some clues,” Roy told the woman. “Are you certain you don’t know anyone who’s had twins in the past six months? An old friend or distant relative?”

Kitty thought for a moment, then shook her head. “My old friends are too old to have babies, and most of my relatives live here on the Bar M.”

Sighing, Roy glanced at Charlie, who was sidled up to him the way a tomcat would a warm stove. The sight of the trusting child disturbed Roy almost as much as the sight of Justine.

Rising to his feet, he said, “Well, if neither of you can think of anything else, I’m going to get on the phone and find a place to take these babies tonight.”

Roy headed out the door. Justine glanced at Kitty, then quickly placed the twin girl down on the pallet and followed him out on the porch.

Hearing her footsteps, Roy turned, his brows arched with speculation.

“Was there something else you wanted to tell me?” he asked.

Justine met his eyes, moistened her lips, then glanced away. “Just that there’s no need for you to find a place for the babies to stay. We’d be happy to keep them here.”

He didn’t say anything, just kept gazing at her through narrowed eyes.