Page 24 of A Christmas Baby for the Cowboy
His mother found him on the living room couch at one point. He was holding Hailey, who’d needed a little break from the excitement to finally fall into an exhausted sleep. Belinda sat down next to him, bumping her shoulder against his.
He had the sudden memory then of being a small boy, not much older than his nephews, and his mother sitting down with him just like this—bumping their shoulders together then, too. Though way back then she’d been the bigger one. Now he dwarfed her.
It felt like such an interesting inversion. Such a funny little slip in time and space, particularly with the little baby under his care in his arms.
“How on earth did you manage with this sweet little thing for the past few days without any help?” Belinda asked. “I would have taken a sled down the hill to help you out, Knox. You must know that.”
“I do know that,” Knox assured her. “But you didn’t need to be out gallivanting around in all that bad weather.”
Belinda made an offended noise, because she knew as well as he did that what he was really saying was that he didn’t want his mother risking herself in her advanced years—something he would never actually say to her, as she was only in her mid-sixties.
“Besides,” he said, going back to the neutral voice that had worked so well before. “I called Dr. Taylor. She came and helped out.”
Belinda’s hazel eyes gleamed. She gazed at him for a moment that started toward uncomfortable—her specialty—then dropped it to the baby. Hailey was at maximum cuteness, passed out like a drunk with her mouth open and letting out the sweetest little snores Knox had ever heard.
“Isn’t it interesting,” Belinda mused. When Knox only looked at her, unwilling to give an inch when they both knew she was digging, his mother smiled. “Who you think to call in a crisis,” she clarified. “It really cuts through all the noise, doesn’t it? Because you find out who really matters.”
Before Knox could answer her, she was on her feet, racing off to swat Zeke’s hands away from the dessert tray he’d already visited about ten times.
Meaning Knox couldn’t do anything but sit there and marinate in what she’d said. Whether he liked it or not.
It was a truth he hadn’t seen coming and didn’t quite know what to do with.
When people started to trickle out, Belinda commandeered Hailey, and waved him away.
“I’m sure you have things to do,” she said. “You didn’t expect a baby and can’t possibly have been prepared for one. Meanwhile, I could start preschool in this house. Right this very moment, if I wanted to. That’s how prepared I am for grandchildren. Leave her with me. Come back and get her later. Miss Hailey and I are going to get acquainted.”
That hadn’t really been Knox’s plan. And he found there was something inside of him that didn’t much like the idea, either. Not that he didn’t trust his mother, but he hadn’t been separated from Hailey since she’d been left on his porch. It didn’t sit well with him.
But he did have things to do. And he could definitely use some things for her in his house. She couldn’t have a pillow crib on the living room floor forever.
He kissed his mother on the cheek and kept his reservations to himself, mostly because he was kind of surprised by them. “There are a few things I could probably see to,” he agreed. “I think my first stop is going to be to see the deputy sheriff, to see if he’s ever heard of Shoshana Delaney.”
Because if Atticus Wayne hadn’t heard of someone in Cowboy Point or out in the mountains around here, they were either a tourist passing through or they didn’t exist.
“Sounds like a plan,” Boone boomed out from behind him, surprising him. When Knox looked over at him in surprise, Boone only nodded, looking as solid as a rock and a lot like one of the mountains around here, which had always been the vibe Boone Carey brought to any party he attended.
“If Atticus can’t work his law enforcement magic,” Wilder said from where he was lounging on the couch, “I’m sure we can head down into Marietta and see if Dawson O’Dell himself has any idea who she is. Maybe cast a wider net down there in the actual sheriff’s office.”
There was no dissuading them. Even when Knox tried, both of his older brothers piled into his truck and made it clear that there would be no dislodging them.
And as Knox drove down into Cowboy Point, all he could think was that this was the part that actually mattered.
His brothers like to talk shit. They did it all the time, and would no doubt continue doing it. Truth was, when it wasn’t directed at him, Knox kind of loved it.
Because talking shit was a love language and the other side of that coin was this. His brothers offering their full support, showing him that they believed him with their bodies and their time. Making it clear that a Carey brother only walked alone if he wanted to.
If he hadn’t thought they would mock him mercilessly for the rest of his earthly days, Knox might have shed a little tear at that.
He almost did anyway just to see if Boone would launch himself out of the truck in protest.
Down in town, they found Atticus Wayne in the official Cowboy Point Deputy Sheriff’s Office, a small outpost that was tucked in beside the tiny regional library. Both served the community and the folks way out in the hills, though Knox figured most people were happier when they saw Sara Jane Stark, the librarian, coming than they were to catch sight of Atticus. Atticus was around Harlan’s age and had been a fixture in Knox’s life for as long as he could remember. He looked like what he was: ex-military, current law enforcement, and a Montana man straight through.
Knox had imagined that he would have to go through a whole new round of justifications and explanations as he insisted that he was not the father no matter what it said on Hailey’s birth certificate, but it wasn’t necessary.
Atticus started nodding the moment he said the name Shoshana Delaney.
“I know the Delaneys,” he said in his gruff voice. “There’s a whole pile of them that live out near Devil’s Gorge. Not a happy place. Not a happy family. If Shoshana is who I think she is out of that crew, she’s already had a tough time of it.”
