Kitabı oku: «A Bachelor, A Boss And A Baby»

Chapter One

Blaine Harrigan might have been the most delighted man in all of Conard County when he heard that a new planning manager had been hired. For years now the position had been vacant, the comprehensive plan was at least ten years old and he’d been dealing with all the county engineering while aware that they needed to update the plan. And he needed someone between him and the planning boards, which were made up of city council and county commission members. A little conflict of interest didn’t make his job any easier, especially with an out-of-date plan that they overrode readily because it was so old.

When he heard they’d hired Diane Finch, he’d read over her résumé and given a huge sigh of relief. She looked competent and had great recommendations from her previous job in Des Moines. Better, she sounded more than capable of standing up with him to the so-called planning boards that had started looking more to their personal interests than what was best for the county and city.

Well, maybe she wouldn’t stand up with him at first, not with her job so new, and not until she learned the lay of the land. But a professional planner? She probably wouldn’t be keen to play along with ideas that could make her look bad or adversely affect her career.

What’s more, she had to be aware that the county and city couldn’t get useful grants without an updated plan and a planner to write the proposals and oversee performance.

He’d probably have to wait awhile for the ally to emerge regardless. That was all right with him. He’d been poking his finger into the dike to stop the rash of self-serving plans for over five years now.

More than once he’d considered looking for another job, but his Irish blood wouldn’t let him run from a fight. Besides, he’d grown fond of Conard County, different in so many ways from Galway, where he’d grown up. Life had brought him here, and while he’d always be homesick for the beauties of Galway, he found different beauty here in the mountains and rolling prairie. He’d also found a place he was willing to defend and maybe sink some permanent roots.

With that random assortment of thoughts rolling around in his head, he strolled through the basement hallways in the courthouse, heading to the rooms that belonged to the planner. Diane Finch, according to the grapevine, had arrived early this morning, and for some reason the court clerks and the many city and county employees who filled the offices down here had been looking rather amused and whispering quite a bit.

He wanted to know what was going on. Was she a golden-scaled dragon or something?

Painting a smile on his face, he knocked briefly on the closed door and entered, ready to meet the woman he hoped would work with him. The sound that came through the door should have warned him, but since it shouldn’t be there, he’d assumed it was drifting down from the floor above.

He froze in astonishment as he stepped in. The unlikeliest of sights greeted him.

A lovely young woman with golden-blond hair, wearing what appeared to be a gray slacks suit, stood at a bare desk with a baby on it. She appeared to be busy trying to put a fresh diaper on the squalling, struggling bundle of pink bottom and pulled-up yellow cloth. The golden eyes that rose in surprise to look at him also appeared almost frantic.

Questions could come later, he decided in an instant. Swiftly closing the door behind him, he asked, “Need a little help there?” His brogue, so carefully erased, somehow pushed its way through.

“You’ve got kids?” she asked almost plaintively.

“I helped raise me five brothers and sisters. You’re new at this?”

“Very,” she admitted.

Without any hesitation, he rounded her desk and nudged her aside a bit. “I’m used to cloth diapers,” he remarked, holding the baby safely with a big hand placed gently on her tummy. The little bottom didn’t look irritated, so he just went about grabbing a wipe from an open container beside a disposable diaper at the corner of the desk. He cleaned the tot quickly before opening the fresh diaper with one hand and placing it on the little girl. Despite the child’s wildly waving arms and legs, it only took a few seconds, then he had her diapered and dry. Pulling down her onesie, he fastened the snaps easily.

Instead of quieting, the baby continued to cry.

“She been fed?” he asked.

“Just.”

“Ah.” Without another word he picked the child up and placed her on his shoulder, not caring he was probably going to need a fresh shirt after this. “Hush, little treasure,” he murmured, gently patting and rubbing her back with practiced ease while pacing the small office. After he took about a dozen steps back and forth, the babe’s fist found its way to her mouth and she quieted. Moments after that a small burp escaped her.

“There we go,” Blaine said, “but it’s probably not the last. You mind?”

She sank into the chair behind the desk and gave him a crooked smile. “Not at all. I’m so totally new to this I’m learning everything the hard way.”

“No prior practice, then?”

She shook her head. “Daphne is my cousin’s child. She’s in the hospital and I’m fostering. I thought it would be easy.”

Blaine allowed a quiet chuckle to escape him. “It’s not hard. You probably need to worry a whole lot less. Unless the tot is sick, what it most needs is love, food and a clean nappy. Simple. And it will all go a lot easier when you relax.”

She looked askance.

“She feels your nervousness, so she gets uneasy. By the way, I take it you’re Diane Finch?”

She nodded. “And you’re...?”

“County engineer. Blaine Harrigan. Do the bosses know you’ve got company?”

“You mean Daphne? No. I was hoping I could find decent day care when I arrived in town. That certainly isn’t as easy as I thought. I’m also learning I have a lot of qualms about leaving her with someone I don’t know.” She sighed and drummed her fingers briefly on the arms of her chair. “This is going to cost me my job, isn’t it?”

“Bringing the baby to work? I suppose it could. I also suppose I could help you batter the bosses down. It’s only temporary, after all.”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “That’s a nice offer, Mr. Harrigan, but I’m very much afraid this isn’t going to be temporary. At least not the part where I foster Daphne. I should get some kind of day care sorted out, though.”

“Then we’ll start with that,” he said. Now he had a sleeping child on his shoulder and he was reluctant to put her down in the car seat in the corner. He also wanted to know what had happened to bring Diane Finch to the point of taking care of her cousin’s baby indefinitely when she was obviously so unprepared for the task.

She was a beautiful woman, all right. He couldn’t help but notice the way that satiny blouse caressed her breasts when she moved and her jacket fell open. Nice shape, adorable face and what appeared to be natural blond hair. Attractive like a flower to a bee. Not the time to be thinking such things, boyo, he told himself.

But now he was also seriously intrigued. “So, how did you come to be a foster mother?”

Her face closed a bit. “My cousin is seriously ill. She can’t care for Daphne and probably won’t be able to for a long time. That left me or putting her in the foster care system. Maybe for adoption, although my cousin...” She broke off. “Anyway, it’s me and Daphne for as long as she needs me.”

That raised more questions than it answered, but he let it go. She didn’t know him from Adam, and this was very personal ground. There were few secrets in Conard County because most people knew each other, but Diane was new and she was probably going to face a lot of prying. He well remembered how he’d been questioned. A new face always drew attention. He didn’t need to add to it.

But he had to admit to feeling some admiration for a woman who’d foster her cousin’s baby while starting a new job. Not many would want the combination, he was certain. And Diane, by all appearances, was very new to this baby thing. He wondered if she’d find it presumptuous if he offered to help. Probably. Talk about sticking his nose in the tent.

* * *

Bemused, Diane watched the tall, muscular man holding tiny Daphne on his shoulder with such ease and calm. Daphne had come to her care only four days ago, when she’d been almost packed and ready to hit the road. Her cousin MaryJo, with whom she’d never been very close, had been committed indefinitely to a mental hospital with paranoid schizophrenia. Diane had been too busy the last couple of weeks to do more than to peek in on MaryJo and her new baby, and hear how sick she had become. The three-month-old Daphne had barely entered her consciousness until the social worker had told her that Daphne would have to go into long-term foster care because MaryJo couldn’t possibly be a safe caretaker.

The instant she heard the words foster care, Daphne had loomed large on her radar, far larger than her poor cousin. Diane simply could not let that darling baby go to strangers, and the social worker also pointed out that MaryJo was too mentally ill to legally put the child up for adoption.

Adoption?

There wasn’t even a father to turn to. Whoever he’d been, he was apparently long gone.

Adoption? No.

The last days had turned into a whirlwind of packing, signing papers, gaining permission to take the child to her new job, getting baby supplies and a travel bed—oh, yeah, and a car seat—then Daphne had been delivered into her care.

Diane had never doubted that this was right thing to do, but it had all landed on her like a train wreck, and she was still figuring out how to handle everything. Most especially how to care for the baby. She didn’t have siblings, and she’d never watched anyone else’s kids because she’d been too busy with an after-school job at a local law office. What did she know about kids?

Only that she couldn’t let Daphne wind up in the foster care system. And part of her problem, as she’d discovered since she’d arrived in town two days ago, was that she didn’t want to leave the baby in anyone else’s hands, either. Most day care around here was in-home. The one early-learning center didn’t have an opening. Her reluctance to trust someone else with the baby’s care was likely to become a big issue.

So here she was, her first day on the job, with a baby. Yeah, she expected trouble, but she didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t have begun to explain why she cared so much about a baby she’d only had for a few days, or why she was feeling so reluctant to put her in a stranger’s care while she worked.

Yet a stranger had just diapered Daphne with practiced ease and was now pacing slowly with the sleeping girl on his shoulder. Daphne was still tiny at three months, but Blaine Harrigan made her look minuscule.

He was dressed casually in a short-sleeved khaki work shirt and jeans. The last place she had worked, a polo shirt and slacks was as informal as it got. Apparently things were different here. He certainly looked like a man ready to work hard, a sharp contrast to the way he handled Daphne: easily, gently, yet confidently. She envied that confidence. She wished she could siphon off a gallon of it and put it in her veins.

Well, she’d get there eventually. She’d learned everything else she’d needed to in life. Usually. God, she hoped she wasn’t kidding herself and running headlong into a big failure.

“Are you looking forward to this job?” he asked her.

For the first time, she realized that his voice seemed to resonate from deep within his chest, below baritone but maybe not quite bass? An interesting, slightly rough sound. “I think so, yes. I know I was before life got out of hand.”

He smiled faintly. “This little one, you mean? Ah, she won’t be any trouble now. I was wondering, you worked in a larger city before. Why come to a small town?”

“The challenge,” she said. “An outdated comprehensive plan that needs to be rewritten, and that covers an entire county. I’ll have a lot of input. I’ve always wanted that.”

He hesitated as if he wanted to say something, but then resumed his gentle pacing, rubbing Daphne’s back all the while. “Did you visit first?”

“Of course. I came out for the interview. I’m surprised I didn’t meet you then.” And she was. They’d have to work closely together. She began to wonder how this place functioned.

“I was on vacation. I didn’t hear a thing about you until I got back.”

Okay, that was strange, she thought. Given his position, he should have had some say in her hiring. For the first time, she felt uneasiness about the job itself. Was there something going on here? But she couldn’t ask Harrigan, because he worked here, too. Until she had a read on everyone involved, asking questions could be dangerous. Wisdom dictated that she keep everything on a professional level.

Although that was already a limit she had broken, considering her infant cousin was riding on the shoulder of the county engineer. Very professional. Under other circumstances, she might have been amused. Starting a new job, not so much.

Then, for the first time, she really saw his face. Looked at it and took it in, and felt her stomach flutter. Dark, nearly black hair with blue eyes so bright the color was arresting. The rest of that face was great, too, squarish, a good chin, with fair, unblemished skin. His last name suggested he was Irish, as did a few hints in his pronunciation. He couldn’t have left the isle very long ago, she thought. Western sun and wind hadn’t kissed him for long.

Fortunately, Daphne made a small sound, drawing Diane’s attention before she stared at Blaine too long. Somebody should have warned her that a man holding an infant was more irresistible than one standing solo. She never would have dreamed. She watched as he pulled a visitor’s chair back from her desk and slowly lowered himself into it. The chair was springy, and he rocked gently.

Then she felt embarrassed. “Would you like me to take her back?”

He smiled over the baby’s head. “It’s been a while since I held a baby. I’m liking it.”

She felt her mouth frame a smile in return. She had to admit that this early into her new role as a mother, she was glad of a brief break. She’d had no idea that her patience wasn’t infinite, that she’d be losing a lot of sleep and that she could get frazzled by a baby’s persistent crying.

The new character insights didn’t exactly make her feel proud. Now she not only needed to deal with a job and the baby, but she needed to deal with herself, as well.

“So what brought you here, Blaine? I’m assuming you didn’t grow up here.” An assumption based on those faint traces of an accent.

“No, I grew up in Ireland, I did. Galway. I’m liking it quite a bit here, but missing my family.”

“You said a big family?”

“I’m one of six. The eldest.”

“That’s a big family,” she agreed.

He leaned back a little farther and crossed his legs loosely. Tight denim left no doubt that his lower half was built as well as his top half. Diane swallowed and dragged her gaze away.

After a bit, he spoke again. “You look tired. Not sleeping well?”

Finally she felt a bubble of real amusement, for the first time in days. She’d begun to wonder if she still had a sense of humor. “What do you think?” An attempted joke that might have sounded like a challenge, but his demeanor didn’t change. God, was she going to have to watch her tongue now, as well? Somehow she needed to get more sleep.

He nodded. “Babies are hard at first. It does get better, though. Just snatch your sleep whenever you can. So has anyone primed you for how things run around here?”

She sat up a little, fatigue forgotten. “What do I need to know?”

“Only that members of the city council and the county commission make up the county planning board. Two hats, you might say.”

She wanted to drop her head into her hands. In an instant she began to envision a skein of tangled relationships all knotted up with ego and personal aims. No real control on them at all, except for when they might get angry at one another. Why had they even wanted a planning manager?

Oh, yeah. They needed an updated comprehensive plan in order to apply for government grants. She was the path to get there. To be fair, however, her job always became political at some point. Money carried a lot of weight, and developers had enough of it to be persuasive.

She had hoped, however, that she might be little less boxed in here. Small population, for one thing, and no rapid growth for a while. Most of what was needed was bringing the plan up-to-date on new regulations from the state and federal government. Environmental regulations had increased dramatically...and there was seldom a way around them. She had that on her side, at least. Also, she needed to create a plan that would display a good future for the county and city, a good environment for the people as well as one that encouraged careful growth.

Still, it was bound to be tough, and even tougher when the cabal running matters was very small.

She kept her face smooth, however. She didn’t know Blaine Harrigan and didn’t dare express anything untoward. Now that she was here with her cousin’s baby in her care, she couldn’t afford to lose her job. To protect herself, she had to stay here at least a year, so she wouldn’t put a problem smack at the top of her résumé. Wonderful. She couldn’t afford a catastrophe.

“You get used to it,” he rumbled, gently patting Daphne’s back. “When are you supposed to meet with the gentlemen and lady?”

“Tomorrow evening. I hope by then I can find childcare. Do you know of anyone good?” she asked hopefully. If she had to choose someone, she’d rather they came with a recommendation.

A quiet laugh escaped him. The baby stirred a little and settled quickly. “I’m not in the way of having a family. But I have friends I can ask. I’ll call around today.” He rose slowly, taking care not to jar the baby. “I need to be off. I’ve got a meeting at ten a few miles out of town about a road repair. Might require some work on the culvert. I’d invite you but for the wee bit, here.”

“Oh.” A truncated pointless response, but she was holding her breath anyway as he slowly bent and placed Daphne in her car seat. To her relief, the child didn’t wake.

“I’ll see you later,” Blaine said as he straightened. He winked at her. “We’ll be together a lot. In fact, you and me might need to become a damn army of two.” A nod, then he let himself out.

An army of two? Diane bit her lip wondering what he meant. Had it been some kind of warning? Then she wondered at the ease with which he’d taken over with Daphne. Too bad he wasn’t looking for childcare work.

Resting her chin on her hand, she looked down at the baby and wondered how all this had happened. Well, the job, at least, was her fault. It might turn out to be a very good job, too, despite what she’d heard from Blaine.

But Daphne? While she was having trouble facing it herself, it remained that Daphne’s presence in her life was probably going to be long term. As in permanent.

MaryJo had been growing sicker for years, but it had been a slow process. A lot of it had been brushed away as quirks. Then, last year, MaryJo’s parents had died in a flash flood in Texas, and that seemed to have pushed MaryJo past her tipping point.

First had come the social workers, then had come a pregnancy during which she couldn’t take any meds, and the next thing Diane had known, her cousin had a full-blown psychotic break. After the baby was born, the meds didn’t help much.

MaryJo heard voices that told her to do terrible things. She even hallucinated. In short, MaryJo had vanished into an alternate universe, and nobody believed it was safe to leave Daphne in her care, or even nearby. To this day, Diane was ashamed of how little time she’d spared for thinking of her cousin on the far side of the state. She’d gotten the wrap-up from a social worker after MaryJo was hospitalized.

Then, a little less than three months after Daphne’s birth, the baby had come to live with Diane.

Inevitably, though, Diane looked down at the sleeping child and smiled. Except when Daphne was fussing and inconsolable, Diane always felt happy looking at her. Something about a baby.

Then she turned back to her desk and opened the folder containing all the notes for her new job that someone had left.

* * *

Around noon, a quiet knock sounded on her office door. She glanced at the still sleeping Daphne and decided she’d better answer it rather than call out. Rising, she rounded her desk and opened the door to find two women of about her own age, early thirties, standing there with big smiles. One had silky chestnut hair to her shoulders and wore a Western shirt with a denim skirt and cowboy boots. The other was a redhead who wore a flaming red slacks suit that she carried off with panache.

“I’m Aubrey,” said chestnut hair. “And this is my friend Candy. We’re in the clerk’s office. We heard you brought your baby, and everybody is dying to see her, so we thought we’d skip down here first and prepare you. And maybe you’d like to go to lunch with us?”

At once startled and charmed, Diane returned the smile. “You can peek, ladies, but she’s sleeping for the first time since 1:00 a.m. I’d rather nothing wake her.”

“Of course not,” said Aubrey, keeping her voice low. “I’ve been through it. Sleep before everything.”

Deciding it was okay, Diane stepped back and opened the door wider. Both women crept in quietly and looked down on the angelic baby who only a few hours ago had been wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. The mental image suddenly made Diane want to laugh.

“Ooh, how sweet,” breathed Candy. “She’s so pretty. And that’s saying something about such a young one.”

Aubrey elbowed her gently. “Wait till you have your own. But yeah, she’s gorgeous, all right. We’ll tell everyone to give you space, but now we can report back so they won’t be so curious. I didn’t know you were bringing a family. I thought you were single. Well, we all did.”

Diane flushed, realizing that the questioning had begun. She wondered how long before it turned into a cross examination.

“I am single. This is my cousin’s baby. I’m taking care of her because my cousin is seriously ill.”

“That’s a shame,” said Aubrey. “About your cousin, I mean. Well, I guess you don’t want to carry the baby across the way to the diner, but would you like us to bring you back lunch? And if you like coffee, don’t get it out of the machine in the hallway. It’s terrible. But walk half a block and you’ll get it world-class.”

“That’s good to know, because I do love coffee and tea. Especially a latte, but...”

“Oh, we’re part of the modern world,” said Candy. “The diner makes lattes. I do wish we’d get a decent Chinese or Mexican restaurant, though. Maude’s great, but basic.” She hesitated, then asked, “Do you want a salad or a sandwich? I can recommend the Cobb salad.”

“Or the steak sandwich,” Aubrey chimed in quietly. “That usually makes two meals for me. You wouldn’t have to cook tonight.”

“I love Cobb salads,” Diane said, but she couldn’t help thinking about a steak sandwich. Full of calories, but over two meals... “Let me get my purse. I think I’ll have the sandwich, after all.”

Candy quickly waved her hand. “Consider this a welcome-to-town present. It’s just a little thing. While we’re out, does the baby need anything?”

Yesterday’s trip to the market had pretty much taken care of that. “I’m stocked,” she said with confidence.

The women both smiled and began to make their quiet way to the door. Then Aubrey looked back. “Do you need day care?”

Diane’s heart leaped. “Yes. But...”

“You don’t know who to trust,” Aubrey finished. “How could you, being new in town? My brother’s wife works at the early-learning center. I’ll see if she can find you a space. Be back in a short while?”

With waves, the women left. Diane checked on the baby once again then settled at her desk, wishing for coffee and an answer to cosmic questions. She’d been so career focused until this, but now she had another life to worry about.

Forgetting the folder she needed to read, she sat and stared at the nearby baby. Daphne had already changed everything, and Diane suspected the changes had only just begun.

She just wished she had some experience to guide her.

* * *

Blaine stood on the road in question, surveying the situation. The road was elevated a few feet above the surrounding ranch land, which helped keep it dry and, in the case of blowing snow, relatively snow-free much of the winter.

But there was no question that the recent heavy rain and runoff had caused the road to dip dangerously, right over a culvert meant to equalize water buildup between the grazing land on either side and to prevent ponding as much as possible. But the recent rains had been anything but usual for this area, and problems had begun to turn up.

Climbing down to a lower position, Blaine scanned the figures the surveyor had gathered, then eyed the situation for himself. The question was whether they could save the culvert and road simply by clearing the asphalt, building up a layer of solid earth and gravel, then repaving over it.

Neither option would be cheap for the penny-pinching county commission, but the right option had to be chosen regardless of cost. A road cave-in could cause worse problems. And no matter what his decision, a lot of people were going to be bothered by a necessary detour.

His colleague Doug Ashbur, from the roads department, was inspecting the other end of the culvert. He called along it to Blaine the instant he saw him.

“Abandon hope,” Doug called, his voice echoing. “I don’t know about your end, but the metal’s rusting out down here, and the concrete casement is cracking.”

“Grand.” The view from his end wasn’t any better. He saw more than rusting steel and cracking concrete. He also saw a definite dip in culvert beneath the sinking road. The entire thing was trying to collapse.