Stella Bagwell - The Sheriff's Son

“Aren’t they the cutest things you’ve ever seen?” Chloe exclaimed as she scooped a spoonful of fruit into the boy’s mouth. “What do you think we should call them?”

Justine glanced anxiously at her aunt then back to her younger sister. “Chloe, we can’t name the babies. Remember what I told you earlier? Someone from social services will be out tomorrow to get them.”

Chloe kissed the top of the boy’s head, whose dark auburn hair just happened to match her own, then glanced adoringly at the girl sitting contentedly on Rose’s lap.

“Oh, Justine, surely we can keep them until the real parents are found. And who knows? They might not be able to get them back. Not after dumping them like they did.”

Justine sighed inwardly. She knew what these two babies probably meant to Chloe. At eighteen, an infection had scarred her reproductive organs and left her barren. Now, at twenty-three and with no chance of ever having a baby of her own, she probably saw the twins as two little angels sent from heaven.

But Justine knew it wasn’t that way, and she didn’t want Chloe or Rose to get attached to the babies, then go through the heartache of giving them up.

“Chloe,” Justine began, “we don’t know who left the children here. And I doubt—”

At twenty-eight, the chestnut-haired Rose was the oldest of the three sisters, and always the quiet one. But at this moment she chose to interrupt, making the other three women look at her with raised brows.

“If Sheriff Pardee allowed them to stay here tonight, perhaps he’ll consider letting them stay until the case is solved.”

“Yes!” Chloe seconded that idea with an eager yelp, then turned pleading eyes on Justine. “Justine, will you call and ask him?”

Justine glanced frantically at her two sisters. “Me ask him! Why me?”

“Well, you knew him from a long time ago,” Chloe pointed out.

“I did?” Justine asked cautiously.

As far as she knew, no one in her family had known that she and Roy were together, as friends or anything more. At the time she became involved with Roy, he’d been dating Marla, his boss’s daughter. But he’d assured Justine the relationship wasn’t serious and he was trying to gradually break away from her without angering Marla or her father. So she’d agreed to keep their dating a secret. Now that secret was buried deep in her heart.

“We all went to the same high school,” Rose reminded her.

“Oh—yes, I guess we did,” Justine admitted with relief. “But he was three grades higher than me, and I never associated with the guy. Besides—”

Chloe butted in. “Justine, men take to you like ducks to water.”

“Oh, please,” Justine groaned. “I haven’t even dated a man in a long time.”

“Well,” Rose said, her pretty face suddenly taking on a hard edge, “I’m sure not a femme fatale, and I’ll not try to be.”

As Justine glanced at her older sister, she realized she wasn’t the only one who’d suffered because of a heartless man. Since her disastrous engagement ended nine years ago, Rose had shunned virtually all men.

“And you know how easily an arrogant man can rile me up,” Chloe added. “Before I could bite my tongue, I’d be telling the sheriff to jump in the lake. Instead of wooing him to our way of thinking.”

It was true Chloe had a feisty temper. She got along with her horses far better than she did with men. Still, it went against everything inside Justine to ask Roy for anything.

“I don’t know why you two are doing this to me,” Justine said wearily.

“Because you’d have a far better chance of persuading the sheriff than Rose or I,” Chloe insisted. “Come on, say you’ll do it. Please!”

If her sisters only knew, Justine thought sickly. What would they think if she told them that Sheriff Pardee was Charlie’s father?

Closing her eyes, Justine pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. “We’re already shorthanded here on the ranch. You and Rose work like dogs from sunup to sundown. How are you going to take care of two demanding babies?”

“I’ll manage through the day,” Kitty spoke up. “Charlie is big enough to fetch things for me. Besides, since Tom died, the house seems so quiet and empty. The babies will put a little life back into things around here.”

Justine groaned. Rose smiled and nodded, while Chloe clapped her hands together.

Chloe pressed on. “That’s right. The babies will help take our minds off all the problems we’ve been having lately. And it will be good for Charlie to have other children around.”

Justine let out a long sigh. How could she say no, when the whole family was counting on her? “It could only be temporary,” she pointed out.

“Temporary is a start,” Rose said quietly.

Justine tossed her hands resignedly up in the air. “All right, okay. I’ll call him. But don’t get your hopes up. Sheriff Pardee doesn’t strike me as a warmhearted man.” In fact, Justine didn’t think he had a heart at all, but she couldn’t express that thought to her sisters. Not without raising some eyebrows. As far as they knew, he was just an old acquaintance, not the only man she’d ever loved.

Normally, Justine helped with cleaning the kitchen after the evening meal, but this time, both sisters shooed her out of the room.

“We’ll take care of this mess. You go call the sheriff,” Chloe told her.

Knowing her sisters wouldn’t let her put it off any longer, Justine walked down to her bedroom and shut the door. If she had to talk to Roy, she wanted to do it in private.

As a nurse, Justine had been schooled to remain calm in a crisis. She’d seen people broken and bleeding and dangerously close to death, but she’d forced herself to be collected and focus on her job. Yet just the act of dialling Roy’s number had her hand shaking and her breaths coming in shallow little jerks. It wasn’t right that one man could have so much of an effect on her, she thought with self-disgust. Especially when he’d been out of her life for years now.

It rang four times, and Justine was on the verge of hanging up when he answered.

“Sheriff Pardee.”

“Roy.”

He knew instantly that it was Justine. No other woman had ever said his name quite like she did. He closed his eyes and gripped the receiver.

“Yes.”

“This is Justine.”

“I know.”

Her shaky legs forced her to take a seat on the edge of the bed. “I—I’m calling about the twins.”

“I didn’t think you were calling to ask me for a date,” he said dryly.

Her nostrils flared as she closed her eyes. She wished she could get her hands around his throat! No—she instantly changed her mind. She didn’t want to touch him. Ever! If she did, she didn’t know what she’d do. Kiss him? Claw him? Break down in tears? She wasn’t going to test herself.

“I don’t know how you ever won the sheriff’s election,” she muttered.

To Justine’s amazement, he chuckled. The sound sent little shivers of nerves tumbling through her stomach.

“I won it because the majority of the people in Lincoln County like and trust me.”

Even if you don’t. Justine could hear the unspoken words hovering on the line between them.

Knowing she’d never get anywhere with him if she allowed her temper to get the better of her, she said, “I heard you got ninety percent of the vote. Are you sure you had an opponent?”

“Somebody mentioned there was another guy running for the job. I didn’t notice.”

His cockiness had Justine rolling her eyes. “Well, I’m glad to hear you’re so liked and well-thought-of around here,” she said, “because I’m going to…ask a favor of you.”

Roy had been lying back in his leather recliner, but now his boots hit the floor with a loud thud. In his wildest dreams, he’d never expected Justine Murdock to want or need any sort of help from him. He didn’t know whether to tell her to go to hell, or silently thank God. In fact, for years now Roy had never been quite able to decide if he hated Justine or loved her.