Some kind of wonderful (7 page)

Lacey grimaced and folded her arms over her chest.

Peggy noticed and jabbed her with an elbow to the ribs. "Oh, chill out, Lace. You've been losing weight, not putting it on. Nobody thinks it was you."

"Totally," Donna said, nodding until her hair jumped around her face. "Parents." She shook her head as if completely dumbfounded by the stupidity of adults.

"Really," Peggy chimed in as she flipped through a stack of brochures announcing the Fourth of July celebration. "Like we wouldn't notice somebody pregnant. What, are we complete morons?"

"I know," Lacey added as she rubbed Quinn's head. "It's not like you could hide something like that. I mean, Vicki Chambers was getting fat for a while."

"Yeah," Peggy said, picking up one of the flyers to fold and jam into her shorts pocket. "Now the PTA's probably going to drag out the whips and chains to interrogate all the fat girls."

Carol sighed inwardly. She could understand how the mothers in town would be a little frantic. And even why the girls were so dismissive. But the simple truth was, someone had had a baby.

And that someone had walked away from it in the middle of the night. But try as she might, Carol couldn't think of a single local girl who could have given birth. Anyone suspiciously pregnant would have been the talk of the town for months. And the only chubby girls Carol knew of had been steadily dropping weight for the last several months—ever since a Weight Watchers office had opened up on the edge of town.

Heck, her Alien Baby theory made more sense than thinking a high school girl could cover up a pregnancy in a small town. So, if it wasn't a local girl... then it had to be someone passing through. And Carol wondered if the woman would keep on going—or if already she was turning around and coming back to claim her baby.

Her heart clenched at the thought. And she had to remind herself that she was not getting attached to Liz. She absolutely was not.

Right.

Then she thought about Jack Reilly and the determined glint in his eyes. He might not want to be the town cop, but anybody with half a brain could see he was a cop clean down to the bone.

"I bet we could figure out who the mom is," Peggy said.

"You think?" Lacey frowned and rubbed Quinn's head.

"We know the girls in town better than our parents do," Peggy insisted, getting a decided gleam in her eye at the thought of playing detective.

"Maybe you should let your brother handle this," Carol suggested.

But Peggy wasn't listening. In fact, Carol could almost see the wheels turning behind her pretty eyes.

"Carol," one of the other girls called out from across the store, "did you get the new pearl polish in yet?"

She gave Peggy another wary look, then turned back to business. "Yes, it's in the back room." She glanced at Lacey. "Would you mind getting it for me? I don't want to leave the baby."

"Sure." Lacey slipped behind the counter and through the door to the storage room.

Donna and Peggy wandered off, exploring the shop, laughing with their friends. Which left Carol plenty of

time to indulge her thoughts. Unfortunately, most of those thoughts went straight to the tall, dark, and cranky man who'd just run for the hills.

Maggie Reilly Cooper trusted her instincts. She was a good judge of character and, more often than not, went with her gut instincts when making a decision.

Which was how Carol Baker had become temporary foster mother to a newborn baby girl. It wasn't always easy to find emergency foster families. And since Carol had offered to help out in a pinch, Maggie would have been crazy to turn her down.

'There are a few forms to fill out," she said and drew a sheaf of papers from her briefcase. Setting them on the kitchen table, she slid them over to Carol to read and sign.

While she waited, Maggie indulged herself and scooped the baby up out of her drawer bed. Her youngest was in kindergarten now and every once in a while she got that old urge for another baby. Which she promptly stomped out. Babies were fun, but it was even better when the little curtain climbers could pour themselves a cup of juice when they were thirsty. Still, "She's a cutie, isn't she?"

"She really is."

"How are you getting along with her? Any trouble?"

"Oh, you mean except for the part where I don't know much about babies?"

Maggie laughed and rocked the sleeping infant. "You'll learn. We all do."

"You said you were looking for a more permanent situation for Liz. Any luck yet?"

''Nope." Maggie sighed and smiled at the baby. "You're

it, Carol. There's no one else to take her right now. So, if you're still okay with it..."

Carol straightened up. "Sure. I'll keep her. At least until you find a permanent home for her."

"First," Maggie said with a sigh, "we have to try to find the mother." It went against the grain, she thought. The calm, rational part of her mind knew that any number of things could combine to make a woman desperate enough to abandon her own child—and then regret the action later. But the emotional, lead-with-your-heart part of her wanted to say, "No. Give your baby up and you don't get it back." Because, really, what was to keep the mother from changing her mind again? Abandoning the child again? Or worse, neglecting it or abusing it?

Thoughts of her own two kids roared through her and the protective instincts of a mother lion charged to the front of her brain. She'd do anything for her own kids, so it was damn hard to understand a mother able to simply walk away from her child.

"What are the chances of finding her?" Carol asked, signing first one form and then the next.

"Slim to none, unless she wants to be found," Maggie admitted. Laying the baby down again, she picked up her can of soda and took a long drink. "Let's face it. Christmas is a little town. If someone around here were pregnant and then suddenly not, we'd notice."

"True..."

"Secrets have a shelf life of about twenty-four hours around here," Maggie said. "More than likely, the mother was staying in a motel near here, dropped the baby off, and kept on going."

"What does your brother say?"

"Which one?" Maggie asked, with a laugh. "Sean's at the rectory, fielding frantic phone calls from parents,

wanting to know how to talk to their kids about this." She sighed. "And Jack doesn't say much about anything these days. At least not to me."

He'd changed so much in the last couple of years, he didn't even seem like the same brother she'd always known. And she wasn't the only one worried. "But he's working on it. Talking to people. Asking questions." Maggie tipped her head to one side. "I hear he's your new tenant."

"Another temporary situation," Carol assured her.

"How is he so far?"

"Crabby," Carol answered before she thought about it. Then she winced. After all, not only was Maggie Reilly Cooper Jack's sister, but a representative of Social Services. Carol really couldn't afford to piss her off. Not if she wanted to keep little Liz around.

But Maggie laughed. Blue eyes flashing, she shook her head, swinging her dark red hair back from her face. "Yeah, he is crabby. More so now than he used to be, too. But he's a good guy underneath all the crap." Then her features softened. "Just wish we could convince him of that. He's had a bad couple of years . .." She bit her bottom lip and let her words trail off, sentence unfinished.

Carol wondered what Maggie was leaving unsaid, but didn't ask. After all, she'd never been a part of a family, but she knew how they worked. They circled the wagons, protecting their own from outsiders. You didn't have to be on the inside to know it existed, she thought. Whatever secrets Jack had would remain secret unless he spilled them. And Carol really couldn't see that happening, so she'd just have to learn to live with her curiosity.

Dammit.

"Okay," Maggie announced as she checked over the

papers before stuffing them back into her brown leather satchel. "That'll do it." She stood up, swinging the bag's strap over her shoulder, then stopped just as she took a step toward the door. "You know, if you want, I could get Jack to stop by my place and pick up my kids' old crib."

Glancing down at the drawer, Carol nodded. "You bet, if you're sure you don't need it."

"Trust me on this," Maggie said, heading for the door, "I'm never going to need it again." She grabbed the doorknob, gave it a turn, and grinned at Carol. "Congratulations. You are now the proud foster mother of a bouncing baby girl."

Carol smiled and thought about how her life had come full circle. As a child, in one lonely year, she'd had a series of foster homes herself, bouncing from one place to the next, always hoping for permanence. Always hoping to find the one place where she could belong. Where she could stay.

Now, she was the foster parent.

And it wasn't permanent this time, either.

Carol's heart ached a little as she stared down at little Liz, so tiny, so beautiful.

Still, she had the baby for now. She would enjoy it. She would relish every minute, and then when it was time, she would let little Liz go. Because keeping her would mean loving her. And she couldn't do that. Couldn't love and lose.

Not again.

with the guy stepping out of the waves, shaking his head, sending water droplets flying from his long blond hair.

She sighed a little in pure appreciation. Seriously, JT Hawkins had really been working out. His excellent abs were totally dreamworthy.

The day was perfect. Her shift at the hotel was over until tomorrow, summer crowds dotted the beach, and the scent of coconut oil drifted in the hot, still air. Perfect.

Especially while she had such a great view of JT.

"Hello? Earth to Peggy."

Peggy sighed again, pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, and without taking her gaze off JT, said, "Huh?"

"Clever." Lacey tossed a bottle of suntan lotion at her and grinned when Peggy yelped. Once she had her friend's attention, she said, "We were talking about tomorrow?"

"What?" Peggy reluctantly gave up the JT stare-fest and swiveled her head to face her friends. Donna and Lacey were looking at her like she was nuts. "Tomorrow what?"

"The Fourth?" Donna said in a tone that implied the word, "duh."

"The party?" Lacey prompted.

"Oh. .." Peggy nodded, lay back in her sand chair, and let her gaze slide back to where JT and his friends were laughing and throwing a football around. Naturally, they were only doing it so the girls on the beach would watch and admire—so who was she to deprive them and ruin the grand plan of the universe? "You really think the party's going to come off now?"

"Why not?" Donna wanted to know.

"Baby alert," Peggy muttered and slathered on another

layer of SPF 30. Hey, redheads didn't tan—they boiled. "Every parent in town is going crazy over this abandoned baby."

"Not just the parents," Lacey said, her gaze drifting over the people scattered over the sand. "Everybody's talking about the baby."

"Well, yeah," Donna said. "I mean, Vd like to know who the mom is."

Peggy thought about it for a long minute, following Lacey's gaze to sweep across the beach. She'd grown up in Christmas, just like Lacey and Donna. They knew all the same people, had been in school with them for like ... ever. So how could somebody sneak a pregnancy past any of them? "Maybe we could figure out who she is."

Lacey snorted. "Yeah? How?"

"I don't know." Peggy shrugged and smiled. "But we're all nosy, right? We can at least try to think of who it might be."

"Could be fun." Donna opened her eyes and glanced at them. "Like a detective novel or something."

"Maybe," Lacey said, sitting back in her chair and tipping her face up to the sun. "I mean, how hard can it be?"

"Exactly." Peggy smiled to herself and tossed the tube of sunblock to her towel.

Lacey tugged her too big T-shirt a little farther down over her bathing suit. She'd lost a lot of weight over the last few months, but she was still a little self-conscious about her body. "But before we turn all Sherlock Holmesy, what about the party?"

"I say we party." Donna stretched out on her towel, holding her arms out from her sides like she was about to be nailed to a cross. "We're good to go."

Peggy wanted to think so. Since graduating from high school the month before, the senior class of—as

the students fondly referred to it—Bah Humbug High had been planning a celebration. One last blowout together before their small class was split up and everyone went on to college and jobs, most of them leaving Christmas behind. A party that they'd been planning for the last two months. One that Peggy'd really hate to miss. But now, with the baby thing and her mom on Teen Patrol and her brother Jack the temporary police chief... things didn't look so good.

"We are going, right?" Lacey asked.

Peggy looked at her friends and smiled. Lacey and Donna were really gung ho for this party. In the last few months, they'd been on serious diets and for the first time in, like, ever they both were looking pretty darn good. Be a shame to waste it, right?

And this summer was really their class's last chance to be together. Not to mention the fact that the senior-class party was a Christmas tradition. Plus, once they were all off at college, nothing would ever really be the same again. They'd come home on vacation, sure, but everything else would be... different. Besides, she thought, it's a party. What could go wrong?

"Damn straight," Peggy said and tipped her face up to the sun. "A party's just what we need."

Liz had been fed.

Her diapers had been changed.

She'd burped like a champ.

And she was still screaming.

Something was definitely wrong.

Quinn whined and whimpered in sympathy. His cries rose and fell in tandem with the baby as though they'd arranged a concert in harmony.

This was one concert, though, Carol would have gladly missed.

"Quinn," she said tightly, "you are not helping." But the big dog only paced in time with her, his intermittent cries keeping a rhythm as his nails clicked against the floor.