Patricia Johns - The Lawman's Baby

But it hadn’t, and she wasn’t sure what that meant. She’d agreed to be at his home by seven in the morning. So she flung back the covers and shivered in the chilly predawn. She grabbed a bathrobe and pulled it on before she flicked on her light and opened her closet.

Paige got dressed in some warm layers, ending in a soft, mauve sweater and a pair of jeans. It felt good to be dressing down for a change—she had to admit that. But waking up this early and plunging out into the morning cold still felt like it was a workday.

She’d had a few appointments with a counselor about her panic attacks and decisions for her future, and one of the things the counselor had pointed out was that Paige had never taken a proper break. What would life look like if Paige didn’t have this job? Stress leave was about more than giving her frayed nerves a rest—it was an experiment in what life would be like without her duties as a social worker.

So far, that had meant ordinary days—grocery shopping, watching Netflix, looking through the want ads at the jobs that came up in Eagle’s Rest. She hadn’t found an encouraging number of jobs she was qualified for, or interested in.

She’d considered getting another appointment with the counselor, but she needed to make her own decision. No one else could do this for her. If she left her career, she’d be the one to reap the rewards or live to regret it. And this assignment with Mike and Benjie was a bit of a relief. It was less time in her own head. Less agonizing about her decisions.

Paige’s house was a two-bedroom bungalow with an unfinished basement and ancient plumbing, but it suited Paige just fine. She stopped in her little kitchen for a cup of hot tea and toast with extra butter. Then she cleaned up, put on a bit of makeup and let herself out into the chilly predawn darkness.

The sky was clear of clouds, and she paused in the driveway in front of her house to look up. It was a habit from childhood—looking for the constellations she knew. But she could see only the brightest of the stars still visible. The mountains loomed like a black wall to the west, and she shivered as a gust of icy wind wormed its way against her neck.

Paige unlocked her car and got in. She turned the key and rubbed her hands together, then pressed them between her legs while the engine warmed up and the frost melted off her windows. Winter was coming—and soon enough the mountain snow would work its way down to them.

This really did feel like going to work, except for the casual dress, and she had to remind herself that this wasn’t. Not really. Mike had agreed to pay her a fair wage for the three weeks, but this wasn’t the job that had her heart in knots. This was a strange break—a newborn, a clueless guardian and a couple of weeks where she could put off making the biggest decision of her career. She sucked in a few deep breaths, counting four seconds in, holding it for four seconds and then releasing for four seconds. It helped to center herself in the moment.

“I’m fine,” she murmured to herself. “It’s early, and I’m tired, but I’m fine.”

Her phone dinged, and she looked down at an incoming text. It was from her friend Liv Hylton. She’d just gotten married and was both pregnant with her first child and running a successful bookstore in downtown Eagle’s Rest, but she’d made time to chat with Paige last night. For that Paige was grateful.

Speaking of new career ideas, ever think of running a day care? Eagle’s Rest could use one.

What were friends for, if not to help a girl brainstorm a whole new career? She was too young to call this a midlife crisis, but it was a crisis. She flicked on the heater in the car before she started texting back.

Not a bad idea actually. I’m looking forward to being a nanny for a few weeks. This baby is so adorable... 5 lbs of cute!

She was making light of things, as if a cute baby and three weeks with a ruggedly good-looking cop could solve her problems. They couldn’t, obviously, but neither could Liv, so Paige wouldn’t unload on her pregnant friend this morning. Paige might feel overwhelmed, but that was no reason to be a burden on her friends. She wasn’t even willing to call her brother this morning, and she and Nathan had always been close.

She tossed her phone onto the passenger side seat and put her car in Reverse. She didn’t want to be late.

Her phone pinged again, and Paige glanced at the incoming text from Liv.

The 250 lbs of cute can’t hurt, either.

“Har, har,” Paige said aloud, then chuckled as she backed out of her driveway. But Mike wasn’t quite the diversion from reality that Liv seemed to think.

The drive across town only took ten minutes, and most of that was stopping at empty intersections. This time of year, there were fewer tourists to clog the roads, but they still had the traffic lights that were so necessary in the busy season, and Paige seemed to hit every single red light. She stopped at the elementary school, the window already aglow this early, and then she stopped again at the corner with the laundromat and the diner. The next red light was by the bus station, and she watched a teenager sitting with a backpack inside the well-lit waiting area.

Going somewhere...alone. It sparked Paige’s instincts because she had dealt with a few runaways in her career. But then an older woman appeared at the girl’s side, handing her a can of pop and sitting down next to her. The light turned green, and Paige pressed on the gas again. Eagle’s Rest was her town, and she felt like one of the guardians here—keeping it safe and secure for everyone else.

When Paige pulled into Mike’s driveway, the sun had started to peer over the horizon, flooding the sky with pink, setting the snowcapped mountain peaks into a golden glow.

Lights shone from the windows of Mike’s little bungalow, and when she knocked on the side door, it opened almost instantly.

Mike stood in the doorway barefoot, Benjie wrapped in an afghan, his little eyes open wide and his downy hair standing up straight. Mike’s uniform shirt was unbuttoned and hung open, revealing a white undershirt beneath, and he looked like he’d had a rough night.

“Morning,” he said, stepping back. “Am I glad to see you.”

“How’d it go?” she asked. She closed the door behind her, then bent down to touch Benjie’s soft little cheek with the back of her finger.

“Long. He kept waking up hungry. Like, every hour.”

“I warned you,” she said. “That’s actually a good sign.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mike yawned. “You want to hold him?”

“Sure.”

Mike eased the baby into Paige’s arms, and she looked down at Benjie with a smile. She smoothed a hand over his ruffled hair and sighed. This was soothing... She glanced up, expecting Mike to head back the bedroom to get ready for work, but instead he yawned again and opened the fridge.

“Have you eaten yet?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Not much,” she admitted.

“I fix a mean omelet,” he said. “Interested?”

“Will I make you late?” she asked.

“Nope, I’m cooking, anyway,” he said, pulling some ingredients from the fridge.

Paige peeked into the living room and spotted a few cloths strewn across the couch, three empty baby bottles sitting on a side table.

“How do you feel about me taking Benjie out today?” Paige asked. “I might want to go out for lunch or something. Are you comfortable with that?”

“Sure.” He glanced over his shoulder. “That’s not daunting for you?”

“Not really,” she said.

He turned back to the stove. “You weren’t the one up all night.”

“You could have called,” she said. “I actually expected you to.”

“Nah.” He stifled a yawn. “I’ve got to soldier through, right?”