Elusive Echoes (39 page)

Mel packed away the other items, one at a
time, faltering at the heart-shaped stone. With a sob, she tucked
that safely into the corner of the box. Her stomach began to
protest and she reached for another cracker. A sob escaped her
throat when she found the picture of Glenn, her baby girl's father.
He'd never looked back, just like she'd wanted. So he didn't know
his daughter had been born and had died the same night. She shoved
the picture and her pay stubs in with the rest of her things.

The last thing to go into the box was the
picture of the two innocently happy children playing on the swing.
It would be the first thing she saw the next time she lifted the
lid.

The cracker wasn't doing it. Bile rose.
Having found out that it was far easier to make it to the bathroom
to barf up the contents of her stomach if she walked slowly while
taking deep breaths, she stood and tried to maintain her calm as
she crossed the tiny apartment.

Moments later, she rinsed
her mouth and splashed water on her face. Looking up, she caught
sight of her reddened face in the mirror.
Now for the complementary hot flash
.
This crap was draining her and attacking her resolve. It would have
been nice to have someone who would take care of her.

Time to pack the memory box
away
. She ambled back to the sofa and stood
with her fingers on the lid. The picture of herself and Sean
playing on the swing looked up at her, mocking her with its
happiness. Mel sat back down, staring at the picture but no longer
seeing it for the tears that flooded her eyes.

Who was she kidding? She couldn't do this.
Her baby had been stolen from her when she was just a teenager. She
couldn't leave now and do the same thing to Sean. Whether or not
they were together, he and their child deserved to know each
other.

Her decision made, she stood and crossed the
tiny apartment. For the first time in weeks, she felt confident she
was doing the right thing. At the door, she grabbed her coat and
tugged it on, too impatient to zip it. Ricky had shoveled the snow
from her steps and laid salt, but she negotiated them carefully
nonetheless, then climbed into her already partially loaded
Jeep.

She never saw him coming. She was just ready
to turn onto the main road when Sean's big pickup skidded to a halt
in front of her. She jammed on her brakes to keep from running into
him. Surely it was a sign of some kind. Her heart in her throat,
she threw open her door and slid down to the pavement.

Sean approached from the other side of his
truck like a man on a mission. Oh no, had he somehow guessed? Was
he mad? He had every right to be.

It didn't matter. She was going to get it
out before he said anything to make her change her mind.

They stopped three feet apart. He obviously
had something to say. But so did she, and if he knew about the
baby, she wanted her say first.

"We're having a baby."

"Joe found your baby."

Mel shook her head. Had she heard him
correctly? "How did Joe find out about our baby?"

Sean stared at her. "His
investigator tracked her down. Wait.
What
did you just say?"

"Which baby are you talking about?"

Sean's face screwed into a confused frown.
"The one you had when you were fifteen? How many babies have you
had?"

Mel felt a sense of inexplicable calm
settling over her. "That one . . . and the one I'm going to have in
about eight months or so."

Sean's mouth dropped open. He staggered and
clutched at the fender on her Jeep. "You said you had a blood
test."

"It was inconclusive. The followup test
was—is positive."

"Our baby . . ." A weak smile tugged the
corners of his mouth upward, and he took a step forward.

"I couldn't leave without telling you."

Sean's mask settled in place. "I see." He
glanced at the back of her Jeep, his eyes roaming over the boxes,
and seemed to choose his next words with care. "I guess this
doesn't change your plans then."

"It . . . I—" She eased forward, about to
wager her heart on what she had seen in his initial happy reaction.
"I was going—"

Without effort, Sean closed
the distance between them. He tugged her into his embrace, holding
her so tight that her feet left the ground. "No, you
aren't
going." He spoke
against her lips and she felt his voice rumble in his chest under
her hands. His kiss was hard and fast. And she had no doubt of the
need driving him. "It's not over, Melanie. We're
not
over. I won't let it
happen."

He captured her mouth again, angling his
head and cupping her cheek with one hand, taking them both deep,
deep into the realm on the other side of need.

He murmured words of love against her mouth,
her neck. His low voice carried the warmth she'd craved over the
past weeks and she went still, mesmerized at the sound. "I was
wrong about you," he said. "I was afraid you were dead when you
didn't come out of the fire, and I let all my emotions get away
from me." He retreated from the embrace to stand just a few feet
away from her and traced her jaw with a forefinger. "But mostly, I
let my pride get the better of me. I knew you'd never be involved
in anything so heinous as that. And I let you down when I didn't
stand up for you—fight for you."

For the first time in her life, Mel
literally threw herself at a man. With her arms around his neck, he
easily lifted her, and her legs settled around his waist.

"I love you, Sean McGee." She kissed his
jaw, his cheek, the corner of his mouth. Finally, she met his
lips.

"Can we go up to your place?" he asked after
he ended the soul-completing kiss. "I really need to get us to a
private place."

Mel's eyebrows rose. "Missed me that
much?"

He nodded and winked.

Chapter Twenty-Two

She was even lovelier now
than he'd ever seen her before. Her hand was still bandaged to
cover the burns she'd sustained in the fire.
For me. She got hurt helping me.
It
sliced into his heart, that bit of white stretched across her palm
and wrapped around her wrist. He couldn't change the past, but he
could affect her future. Their future.

Sean pointed to the sofa. "Sit there." When
she did, he smiled, knowing this was one of the few times she would
ever follow such a direct order. "First things first," he murmured.
Kneeling in front of her, Sean took her uninjured hand in his. "I
seem to be getting in the habit of asking you to marry me. So let's
consider the first time was practice." He kissed her fingers. "This
one's for real. Will you marry me, Mel, even though I'm moody and
mean and a thorn in your very lovely rear end?"

Mel squirmed and tugged her hand out of his.
Shoving it into her pocket, she pulled out his ring. When he would
have taken it from her, she shook her head and closed her fingers
around it. "I figure I owe you this one." Carefully, she set the
ring on her finger and slid it over the knuckle. "I should never
have asked you to take it off me."

Sean slid up Mel's body, reveling in the
feel of her softness against him once again. He paused to press his
cheek against her belly, where their child grew. Finally, he pushed
her back on the sofa and nuzzled her neck. He kissed her long and
deep, losing himself in her taste, her scent. When she opened her
mouth and her tongue tangled with his, Sean felt his control
slipping. Reluctantly, he leaned back.

****

Mel whimpered when Sean sat up. But he
pulled her to sit as well, careful of the hand she still had
wrapped in gauze.

"I'm sorry you got hurt." Sean grazed his
fingertips up and down the top of Mel's arm, his slightest touch
raising instant goosebumps. "Sorrier still I was such a jerk that I
let you go to the hospital without me."

She twisted the hand over and considered the
white swathe of gauze. "It doesn't hurt so much anymore."

Sean picked up the thick folder he'd brought
in with him. "Listen—about your little girl."

Mel pushed back the sadness. It was
something she would have to deal with or it would take over her
life. But just for now, she wanted to absorb all the happiness Sean
was offering without that cloud hanging over her. She shook her
head, afraid her voice would fail if she tried to speak.

"I should have been there for you when you
saw your father, and I wasn't." Sean lifted a strand of hair and
settled it behind her ear. His hand lingered at her neck. "I can
only imagine what you felt when he told you that he'd thrown your
baby in the garbage."

Tears welled, spilled over. "Sean, please, I
don't want to talk about it."

"Someone found her, Mel. Someone found the
baby in the trash." He laid a newspaper clipping in her hands.

She tried in vain to still her trembling as
she read about the "I-40 Baby," a tiny infant girl found in the
trashcan in the men's room of a rest stop along the I-40 corridor
just outside of Oklahoma City.

"She was alive when he left her," Mel
whispered. Her gaze slid to the picture of a newborn baby wrapped
in newspapers. Her eyes were open and she was obviously crying.

"There's a lot more, but this is the most
important one." Sean took the first clipping and set it aside,
replacing it with one dated just the past summer.

"From Abandoned Infant to Champion Barrel
Racer," she read aloud. Mel's breath caught when she saw the
accompanying picture. It was like looking in a mirror back through
time. A slim teenaged girl with pale blond hair and light blue eyes
stood next to an appaloosa gelding. "Natalie Joy Carter, found
abandoned in a rest area on I-40 near Oklahoma City started life
off hard, needing life-saving open heart surgery before she was
twenty-four hours old. Now she rides hard for the wins she has
accumulated in ladies barrel racing events." Mel's cheeks were wet.
Sean wiped them with a soft tissue but her tears were falling too
fast to stop them. She sniffed. "My baby's a rodeo star."

"Read the horse's name."

Skimming the article, Mel finally found it
and laughed. "Aces High."

"Sweetness, Ben Jamison took the liberty of
contacting the parents. They were shocked to find out that their
daughter had been stolen from you." Sean brushed a hand over her
hair. His caring meant the world to her always, but never more than
in this moment. "They're a little afraid you'll want to have her
come live with you."

Mel shook her head, unable to take her eyes
off the little part of herself she'd never known other than the
kicks she'd felt in her womb. "No . . . I'd never take her from her
parents."

"They sent you a letter. That's the only
thing I didn't look at."

Mel dashed at her sopping wet eyes. "I can't
see. Will you read it to me?"

His hands trembled as he unfolded the single
blue sheet of paper.

Dear Melanie,

I hope it's okay for me to think of you as
Melanie. My name is Vanessa Carter, and my husband and I adopted
your baby girl. Mr. Jamison told us the story of how she was stolen
from you before she was left at the rest stop. I'm so very sorry
that happened to you, but when my husband found her in that trash
can, it was like a prayer had been answered. I can't have children
of my own, and it seemed like God had brought this little angel
into our lives. She needed open heart surgery right away to switch
around the main blood vessels in her heart. She had a rough start
but as soon as her heart was repaired, she thrived. We were allowed
to adopt her and we couldn't love her more if I had given birth to
her.

We have always been honest with her that
she's adopted. We knew she'd hear the story of how she was found so
we didn't lie about anything. But we did tell her that we didn't
know why her mother had to give her up. We only knew it must have
been something very hard to do.

Natalie Joy would like to meet you someday
and we would like that, too, if you decide you want to. Hugh and I
are very afraid that you will want custody of our little girl. The
thought of saying goodbye to her isn't something we want to face.
We only hope that if you decide this, we can get together and think
about what is best for all of us.

Your representative knows how you can reach
us. Thank you very much for our little angel. We've tried to take
the very best care of her.

Blessings,

Vanessa and Hugh Carter

Mel wiped her eyes for the millionth time.
"Stupid hormones."

Sean folded the letter and set it on top of
the pile of newspaper clippings, his own eyes bright with unshed
tears.

"Thank you for reading that to me. I don't
think I would've gotten through it." Mel opened her memory box and
set the letter and clippings inside. "I need to talk to Vanessa."
She picked up her cell phone and opened it. Before she dialed, she
turned to Sean. "I want you to know I'm very sure of my decision
here. I know what it's like to be ripped from your family and taken
away by strangers. Are you okay with my choice to let her stay with
her parents?"

Sean nodded. "As long as you are, yes."

****

Mel hung up the phone. It had been a very
emotional conversation all the way around. The Carters had asked
her to write to their daughter and tell Mel's side of the story.
They'd agreed with Mel that taking things slowly was the best
course of action. And when Mel told them she was going to have
legal papers drawn up stating she had no intention of using her
extenuating circumstances to seek custody of Natalie, Vanessa
Carter had cried.

Emotion spent, Mel lay in Sean's arms on the
sofa. She looked around at all her packed boxes. "You know, I seem
to have just a little bitty problem." Mel pulled back to meet his
eyes. "Since Sandy and I sold this place, I don't have anywhere to
live."