Autumn Wish (2 page)

Rae

Nikki stared at the paper in amazed disbelief.
Oh, boy
. This changed everything. She refolded the paper and slid it back in her pocket as her gaze fixed on Ella’s face. Marissa had suggested she bring something over to meet the guy.

Pie?
Cliche
.

Mail?
Totally transparent
.

Delivering the baby he didn’t know he’d fathered? Now
that
was original.

Chapter 2

Sam Mallin parked his truck outside the garage and leaned his head back against the seat. He should clear the boxes from inside, but it’d been a long day of roofing after he’d stayed up way too late unpacking last night. At least they’d finished the job before the forecasted rain tomorrow, and once again, Carter was pleased with his work.

A long time ago, he’d learned the hard way job security depended on staying out of trouble, impressing the boss, and keeping him happy. Carter Hansen was one of the nicer men he’d worked for over the years, so he didn’t mind putting in extra effort. Completing the roof meant they could work inside if the weatherman was right about the rain for tomorrow.

Rubbing his hand over the stubble on his jaw as he thought about the next day, he decided the hell with the boxes in his garage and on his dining room table. Tonight, he was going to have a beer, watch Monday Night Football, and go to bed early.

After grabbing the sandwich he’d picked up at Figaro’s in Pulaski, he went inside and flipped on a few lights and the TV. He tossed his sandwich onto the coffee table before heading into the kitchen.

He’d just reached into the refrigerator for a beer when the doorbell chimed. The cheery summons grated across his nerves, making him cringe. Could he ignore this unwanted visitor who appeared to have practically been waiting in the bushes for him?

A glance over his shoulder gave him the answer. Nope. His bare windows, glaring lights, and the volume of the TV made it impossible to pretend he wasn’t home. Curtains and blinds seemed a great investment right about now.

Kicking the fridge shut, he twisted the cap from the bottle. The doorbell went off again, twice as long as before, as if the person on the other side held it down.
Damn it
. If this was another married woman bringing him pie, he was going to—

Smile, and say, “Thank you.”
That’s what neighbors did, right?

He took a long, fortifying pull off his beer, then thumped it on the counter on his way to answer the door. Too bad his neighbor right next door hadn’t been one of those pie-wielding visitors. He’d have invited
her
inside.

Then he got a glimpse through the window...of
her
standing on his front porch.

“Well, whadda ya know,” he murmured with a sudden grin of anticipation. Maybe she’d come in and watch the game with him. Hell, he wouldn’t even care if she held a pie in her hands.

He swung the door open and smiled his welcome at the pretty blond. His gaze dropped, then froze. Where he would’ve preferred a pie, she held a baby carrier—complete with baby.

Damn, she had a kid. After what his mother put him and his sister through, he didn’t do women with kids.

“Samuel Mallin?”

He lifted his gaze up from all that pink to a pair of guarded blue eyes. Forcing his lips to maintain their upward curve, he answered, “I prefer Sam. And you’re Nicole, right?”

“Nikki.” She frowned. “How’d you—”

“I had some of your mail in my box yesterday,” he admitted.

“Ah.”

Her wry smile was appealing enough to make him forget about the baby. But it faded fast as she took a breath, shifted her stance, then extended her arms, carrier and all.

“Sam, this is yours.”

There was a crumpled envelope clutched between the fingers of her right hand. Tilting his head, he read his name in the crinkled address field and removed it from her grasp with a laugh. He liked that she’d chosen to bring his mail over personally. If he’d been thinking, he’d have done it first—and found out about the kid.

“Thanks,” he said as her baby began to fuss. “I just put your stuff in your mailbox.”

Nikki lifted the carrier higher with an exasperated huff. “You don’t understand.
She
is yours.”

In the middle of stuffing the folded envelope into his back pocket, his gaze dropped to the baby. Blue eyes, just like her momma. It took his brain a moment to make the connection, and then his pulse jumped as his eyebrows shot skyward. “Uh...I don’t think so.”

The baby sucked hard on a pacifier, her eyes shifting back and forth as she squirmed in the confined seat.
Oh, hell no
. He lifted his gaze once more, taking note of the woman’s curves on the way up. Yeah, she was pretty, but not worth this level of crazy. He’d have much preferred another pie.

“May I come in?”

“No,” he stated. “She’s not mine.”

He fumbled for the edge of the door. The woman stepped forward as he began to shut her out.

Her chin lifted and those blue eyes of hers glittered with determination. “Her name is Ella. She’s three and a half months old.”

“I haven’t—”

He broke off as she shouldered her way past, into his living room. Sam closed the door and followed her to the couch where she set the carrier and an overflowing diaper bag. He glanced toward the kitchen, searching out his cell phone on the counter. Was he going to have to call the cops to get rid of her?

The baby started to cry, so Nikki picked her up and rocked her while speaking in a soft, crooning voice. The gentle sound soothed his nerves until common sense returned with a vengeance.

Denial shook his head as he moved to stand in front of her. “Listen, I don’t know what you think you’re going to get out of this, but we’ve never met before, much less done what we would’ve needed to do to create that baby.”

He damn sure would’ve remembered her—though he kept that thought to himself. Anything that could be construed as encouragement would be a dumb move right about now.

Her eyes sparked when she shifted her gaze to meet his. “I said she’s yours, not
mine
.”

What?
“Now you’re really not making sense.”

The pregame music began to play on his TV as she pulled a folded piece of paper from her jeans pocket and handed it over.

“I found her on your front porch an hour ago. Do you know someone named Rae?”

The name hit with the force of a sledgehammer. Oh, God,
Raelyn
. He slowly reached for the paper, dread sinking in his stomach as he unfolded the note and read the words. He dropped down onto the couch as his legs went numb.

What the hell?

“So you
do
know her,” Nikki observed, a hint of accusation in her voice.

“Rae is my sister.”

“Your
sister?
”

Rae. What were you thinking?

“So, Ella really
isn’t
yours.”

He was an uncle. Who apparently was now expected to care for the child. But he didn’t know the first thing about kids. There was no way in hell he could care for one.

Numb, Sam lifted his gaze to the woman standing before him, still rocking the now-quiet baby as she watched him. Sympathy simmered in her wide blue eyes. She extended the pink bundle in her arms. “You want to hold your niece?”

“No.” Alarm propelled him to his feet, and he moved to put the couch between them. As if a physical barrier would stop what was happening. Man, did he wish
that
were true.

She smiled with gentle understanding. “Not familiar with babies, are you?”

“No. And I don’t want to become familiar with them.”

“She won’t break,” Nikki assured him as if he hadn’t said that last bit.

Yeah, right
. His hands were best at gripping a hammer, or a nail gun, not cradling a tiny human being.

“Can you call your sister?”

He lifted both hands to the back of his head, clasping his fingers tight. “Rae, ah, travels around a lot. We haven’t kept in touch.”

“Obviously.”

The glare he directed her way was ignored.

“Is there anyone else who’s close to her?” she continued. “Or who you could call to help? Your parents, other siblings?”

Frustration mounted and he shook his head. “It’s just us. But there’s no way I can take care of a baby. She’s gotta be joking.”

“Leaving your baby girl with a note on your brother’s porch doesn’t seem like a joke to me,” his neighbor observed with reproach in her voice.

“I don’t know anything about kids. I don’t know what the hell my sister was thinking.” Actually, he might be able to guess, but he wasn’t about to share that information with a stranger.

“You’ll learn.”

“I don’t want to learn,” he exclaimed, lowering his arms.

She glared at him. The baby spit out her pacifier and it tumbled to the floor despite Nikki’s quick grab. She squatted to pick it up, then headed toward the kitchen, her jaw clenched tight, shoulders rigid.

So?
What did she care? And what did
he
care what
she
thought? Bracing his hands on the back of the couch, he glared at the TV while trying to figure out what to do. White static fuzzed in his head.

He heard the water turn on and off, and then a moment later his neighbor returned to the living room to stand beside him with the baby.

Sam moved a few feet away before turning to face her. “There’s got to be someplace I can call, right? Family services or something.”

Incredulity widened Nikki’s eyes. “She’s your
niece. Family
. You can’t just turn her over to the state—she’ll end up in foster care with God only knows who!”

Pressure bore down on him, boxing him into a corner, with her and the baby blocking his way to freedom.

“Your sister trusted you.”

“Maybe she shouldn’t have,” he exclaimed. Nikki opened her mouth, and he threw up a hand to ward off her argument. “Just shut up and give me a minute to think about this. I didn’t even know my sister was pregnant!”

He spun around and paced to the kitchen. His neck prickled from the accusatory gaze drilling into his back with each step he took, and he fought not to shrug at the uncomfortable sensation. It crossed his mind to keep going, right out the back door, but it was his own damn house.

“You can think all you want, Sam,” Nikki called after him, “but it doesn’t change the fact that this little baby girl is depending on you to step up and take care of her. She needs you to not abandon her like your sister did.”

The heated reproach in her voice increased the effect of her words tenfold. The two-ton ball of lead sitting in the pit of his stomach grew a thick layer of guilt.
He
hadn’t stuck around for Rae back when their mother left them with their aunt. Seventeen and pissed off, he’d struck out on his own and didn’t return until his little sister had already headed too far down the wrong road to turn back. He didn’t even know how the hell she’d found him when he’d never been able to locate her over the years.

Damn it
. He owed her this, and he knew it.

Sudden silence from the living room brought him around in time to see Nikki set the TV remote on the counter next to his forgotten beer as she entered the kitchen. She stalked right up to him and pushed the baby into his arms before he could do more than take one reflexive step backward. The counter brought him to a jarring halt, trapping him when it dug into his back.

His heart leapt into his throat as his arms involuntarily closed around the tiny bundle.
She won’t break.
Despite the bulk of the blanket, she felt like a lump of plaster that he might accidentally squish with one wrong move. She was so light. And squirmy.

He stood stiff as a board, afraid
any
movement would be the wrong one.

“Relax,” Nikki instructed. “Hold her like a wide receiver holds a football as he’s running for the end zone.”

He jerked his gaze up to hers at the surprise analogy.

“Just don’t squeeze too hard,” she cautioned with an encouraging smile.

Sam quickly dropped his gaze. He gingerly shifted the baby, and she settled into the crook of his arm. Not so bad. He lifted his hand to move the blanket away from her face, and one little hand grabbed hold of his work-rough finger. Her skin was soft, but her grip was strong. A sudden lump formed in his throat as he gazed down into the baby’s eyes. They were so full of innocence and trust.

Ella.
Indefinable emotion constricted his chest, making it hard to breathe. At the same time, he felt a spontaneous smile tug at the corner of his mouth.

“There you go,” Nikki murmured, an odd note in her soft voice. “See? You’re going to do just fine.”

He glanced up for a brief second, then did a double take. Where those tears in her eyes?

She blinked those long lashes and turned away, headed for the living room. A new surge of alarm engulfed his entire body. Clutching the baby against his chest, he rushed after her. “Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“You can’t leave.”

She detoured for the couch and stopped by the over-stuffed bag next to the baby carrier. “I fed her and changed her just before bringing her over, so you should be good for a couple hours. Your sister left you enough diapers and formula to get you through a day or two, but you’ll need to go shopping soon. The base for the carrier is out on your front porch.”

A picture of first base on a baseball diamond flashed in his mind. “The base?”

“To lock the carrier in your truck when you’re driving. It’s the law, for safety reasons. I can secure it in the back seat before I go, if you want.”

“No, I don’t want. I don’t want any of this.” Panic edged his words as the entire situation threatened to overwhelm him once more. He tried to catch her gaze, but she refused to look directly at him, so he raised his voice when she moved toward the door. “You can’t leave me alone with her.”

The baby jerked in his arms, and her face scrunched up before she let out a wail that scared the shit of him.