Lone Star Baby (McCabe Multiples Book 5) Read online

  Violet nodded. “They came into the ER last spring when Jared fell ill during a weekend trip to Lake Laramie. Gavin stabilized him. I was called in because he was a stage four cancer patient.” Having a last hurrah with his teenage wife.

  “You also know that Jared died last summer.”

  “Tammy wrote us, to let us know.” Violet struggled to contain the lump in her throat. “It wasn’t all bad news, though. She was pregnant. In fact, shouldn’t she be due to deliver in a couple of weeks?”

  “That’s what we need to talk about,” Mitzy said solemnly. “It wasn’t just Jared who was sick. Tammy had a heart condition that made carrying a baby unwise. She chose to ignore medical advice and get pregnant anyway. Although Ava was born a month early, she’s fine.”

  “And Tammy?” Gavin asked.

  Mitzy shook her head. “Her heart wasn’t strong enough. She died during childbirth.”

  Violet laid a hand over her heart. “Oh, no...”

  Gavin squeezed Violet’s hand.

  She relaxed into his grip, accepting the quiet comfort he offered.

  “Because she knew her death was a possibility, she left a videotaped will of her wishes.” Her expression still solemn, Mitzy clicked on the file.

  Tammy Barlowe appeared on the screen. She was clad in a hospital gown and robe. Her short brown bob looked lackluster, her freckles stood out beneath her pale skin, and there were pronounced dark circles beneath her eyes. And yet there was a serenity about her; a deep maternal happiness that seemed to shine through despite her physical difficulties. Hand protectively cupping her swollen belly, she looked straight into the camera and said, “Hey, Dr. McCabe, Dr. Monroe. If you’re seeing this, it means I’m not here anymore...but my baby girl, Ava, is. And that means she needs a home and family to watch over her.”

  Tammy swallowed. Lower lip trembling, she pushed on. “I wish Jared and I had relatives we could call on, but we don’t.” She paused to look long and hard at her audience. “And the last thing either of us ever wanted was to have a child of ours grow up the way we did, in the foster care system.”

  A soft sound of dissent was heard in the background.

  Tammy grinned and lifted a hand at her off-camera audience. “No offense to the social system that helped us, and the social workers and legal aid attorneys who are helping me now. But being a ward of the state is not the same as living with parents who love you and will make sure you grow up right.” Clearing her throat, she glanced toward the camera again. “Which is where you come in, Dr. McCabe. You’re not just a great lady doc, you’re everything I ever wanted in a mom. And, Dr. Monroe, you’re everything I ever wanted in a dad.”

  Violet could see that Gavin would make a wonderful father. Not that she’d ever heard him talk about wanting kids. Or not wanting them, either...

  Tammy continued with her trademark enthusiasm. “Both of you were so wonderful to me and Jared. And you work so well together when it comes to caring for people.” Another long pause. “And I also know, ’cause I did a little checking, that neither of you is married or has any other kids of your own...”

  She hitched in a bolstering breath. “So I’m asking you both to step in, in the event of my demise, and adopt my Ava together. You don’t have to be married or anything. Just be the mom and dad she needs.”

  Violet turned to Gavin, who looked as stunned as she was.

  “But if you both can’t do that, or if one of you wants to and the other doesn’t, that’s fine.” Tammy sighed, as if already having anticipated being disappointed on that score. “I’m okay with just one of you becoming her actual legal guardian, as long as she has extended family—like either the Monroe or the McCabe clans—to take care of her. So that no matter what, she will never end up in the system...” Tammy teared up. “And will always have family around to raise her.”

  That, really, Violet thought, her heart going out to her late patient, wasn’t too much to want.

  More murmurs could be heard prompting in the background.

  Tammy turned back to the camera. “It’s a big decision. You both will need time to think about it and discuss it with each other.”

  Quietly, she pleaded, “While you are doing that, I’m going to ask that you personally care for my little girl rather than put her in foster care. Until such time one of you but preferably both decide to raise Ava as your own—which is what I hope will happen—or can work with the social workers to find a suitable adoptive family. One with a lot of close relatives as backup to ensure she is loved, no matter what.”

  Again, Violet thought, realizing how much she counted on the extensive McCabe clan for love and support, it was not too much to ask for. Gavin had a big, loving family in the Monroe clan, too.

  “Ideally, I’d also like Ava to be raised in or around Laramie, Texas, so you can watch over her and if not be her parents, at least be her godparents as she grows up. What I want most for my daughter is for her to be cherished. And I know the two of you have hearts big enough to do just that. So—” Tammy swallowed hard, moisture glistening in her eyes “—thanks. For everything you did for me and Jared last summer and everything you’re going to do for my darling Ava.”

  Tammy wiped a tear from her cheek. A murmur could be heard in the background. She nodded and the video ended.

  “I realize this is a lot to hit you with, which is why I wanted to talk to you in person,” Mitzy said.

  No kidding, Violet thought. Her heart had been turned inside out just hearing about the situation. And she hadn’t even met the little darling yet.

  Gavin had to be equally thrown by the request, yet it was impossible for her to tell from his inscrutable expression.

  Still feeling a little shell-shocked, Violet swung back to Mitzy. “Where’s the baby now?”

  “In the hospital in Dallas, where she was born two weeks ago.”

  “Two weeks?” Gavin echoed at last.

  “Ava came into the world only weighing four pounds.” Mitzy went on to explain the medical problems the preemie had already endured, which included breathing struggles, weight loss, feeding issues and difficulty absorbing nutrients.

  “She won’t be released until she’s into a regular bassinet, taking food from a bottle and gaining the appropriate weight. But if you two are willing to become legal guardians, at least temporarily, we could transport her by the end of the week to the hospital here. Naturally, it helps that you’re both physicians.”

  And hence would be better equipped to help a struggling newborn, Violet thought, switching quickly into caretaker mode.

  The social worker lifted her hand. “I know neither of you had any idea you’d been named as Ava’s legal guardian. Never mind consented to Tammy’s request. So I don’t want—or expect—either of you to give me an answer about any of this right now. Talk it over with each other before making a decision.”

  Gavin nodded his understanding.

  “We’ll get back to you tomorrow,” Violet promised, still feeling a little dazed.

  Mitzy gathered her belongings and left.

  Gavin turned to Violet, his expression serious, intense. “So,” he said heavily, seeming to be in as much a quandary as she was, “what do we do?”

  Chapter Two

  The usual idealism shining in her pretty brown eyes, Violet turned to Gavin, frowned and said, “Obviously, we can’t adopt baby Ava together.” She walked back outside and he followed her. “We barely know each other.”

  Barely?

  While it was true they hadn’t hung out together as kids and had run in different social circles—it was certainly different now that they were both physicians.

  Irked to find her so quick to discount the time they had spent together, Gavin stepped in once again to lend a hand unpacking the trailer. “We’ve worked together for the past five years while
we completed our residencies and fellowship training.”

  “You know what I mean. Yes, I know your preferred ways of dealing with certain medical situations, just as you surely know mine. But when it comes to the intricate personal details of your life, I don’t know you any better than I know the rest of the staff at the hospital.” Violet plucked a lamp base out of the pile of belongings, rooting around until she found the shade. “And you don’t really know me at all, either.”

  Gavin’s jaw tightened. Oh, he knew her, all right. Maybe better than she thought.

  For instance, he knew her preferred coffee was a skinny vanilla latte. And that she loved enchiladas above all else—to the point she’d sampled all twenty-five types from the local Tex-Mex restaurant.

  He tore his gaze from the barest hint of cleavage in the vee of her T-shirt and concentrated instead on the dismayed blush of color sweeping her delicate cheeks.

  “And whose fault is that?” he inquired huskily.

  “Mine, obviously,” she said with a temperamental lift of her finely arched brow, “since I prefer to keep a firewall between my professional and private lives.”

  More like a nuclear shield, he thought grimly.

  Having tried to pierce it once or twice himself, he’d given up and concentrated on his own work, moving on to occasionally date other women. Except for his one disastrous engagement, none of those relationships had ever amounted to anything more than a short-lived flirtation. Mostly because none of the other women had even begun to measure up to the sexy, irrepressible Violet McCabe.

  He gazed into her eyes, chiding, “What private life?”

  She looked down her nose at him, lamp and shade still in hand, as he stacked moving boxes onto the wheeled dolly. “You are too funny, Monroe.” She stepped back reluctantly to let him push the dolly into the barn for her.

  Realizing how ridiculous it was to still be lusting after her when she was still not over losing Sterling, Gavin gestured to the place she’d been putting all the other boxes.

  She nodded her approval and he set them down.

  “Besides,” she taunted, watching as he straightened to his full six feet three inches, “it’s not as if you have a viable personal life, either.”

  Unable to resist teasing her, he raked his eyes up and down her body. “Sure about that?”

  She flushed. Hinting, to his pleasure, that she might be a little more interested in him, too, than she’d previously let on.

  Violet grabbed the dolly and headed back out to the truck, her hips swaying provocatively beneath her shorts. “Let’s just say I find it highly unlikely,” she shot back. “Unless you’ve managed to get by on zero sleep the past four years—”

  So she did know exactly how long it had been since his engagement to Penelope had ended.

  “—and, the occasional cursory date aside, skirt around without detection. Which would be an even larger feat, given what an eligible bachelor you are.”

  Clasping a palm to his chest, as if he had just taken an arrow to the heart, he drawled, “Women find me eligible?”

  She mimed exasperation at his clowning around. “Please,” she said in an unamused voice that completely belied the twinkle in her eyes. She paused to put the two parts of the lamp together. “Like they don’t come into the ER and hit on you every day.”

  They did. But a lot of single guys on the EMT, fire and sheriff’s squads came in just to flirt with her, too.

  “Besides...” Bending, and giving him a very nice view of her luscious derriere, she rummaged through another box marked Fragile and emerged with a cardboard sleeve of lightbulbs. With an indignant sniff, she finished putting together the lamp. “Between your extended family and mine, and the nonstop demands of our residencies and fellowships, neither of us has had time to pursue anything remotely meaningful on our own.”

  Which was, Gavin thought, yet another problem that had to be addressed.

  Their residencies were over now.

  Yes, they were still doctors with crazy work schedules, but they also deserved more of a personal life. He intended to find one.

  He hoped she would, too.

  “And,” she continued, brushing a hand through her sexy, side-swept bangs, “I don’t know if that will ever change.”

  The unmistakable ache in her tone caught him unaware.

  He studied her, for the first time realizing she might also be a little lonely, deep down. As well as privately longing for more, too. Despite her avowals to the contrary.

  “So you’re thinking that because we both have so little spare time and energy on our hands, that we should just say no to Tammy’s request and hand the baby over to Dallas social services?”

  “No.” Violet looked at him long and hard. “I’m saying we should say yes to temporary guardianship. Bring Ava here, make sure she gets absolutely everything she needs medically and then—once we’re sure she is okay—have Mitzy help us find her a loving family who will welcome us as godparents and allow us to watch over her as she grows up.”

  Gavin heaved a sigh of relief, glad to find her being as pragmatic, compassionate and levelheaded as the situation demanded. Having been orphaned himself, albeit when he was about to enter medical school, he couldn’t live with himself if he turned his back on another parentless child.

  It was bad enough the way he had let his own family down, by not being as available as he should have been in that difficult time.

  He’d tried to make up for it since—by returning to Laramie for his residency and taking a permanent job there.

  But if he had it to do all over again, he would have done what was right for everyone—not just him.

  “That’s what I think we should do, too,” he said firmly.

  “Then it’s decided?” Violet asked.

  Gavin nodded. The idea of raising a child with such a sweet and sexy woman had been a nice, brief fantasy—but that was all it was; a tantalizing idea. One he was far too practical to waste any time pondering.

  “I’ll call Mitzy and tell her that we’ve talked and decided what we want to do.”

  * * *

  “WHO KNOWS? THIS might be just the change you’ve been looking for,” Lacey McCabe told Violet two days later.

  Violet looked at her mother. An accomplished physician and neonatologist, and head of the pediatrics department at LCH, she had come down to the ambulance bay to await the arrival of baby Ava.

  Violet refused to encourage her mother’s hope that all six of her daughters would end up with children of their own, in marriages just as solid and strong as hers. “It’s just a temporary guardianship, Mom.”

  “I know you think that now, but babies have a way of latching on to your heart.”

  “Not in this case,” Violet insisted.

  She wasn’t ready for motherhood.

  She certainly wasn’t the best choice, long-term, for an orphaned newborn.

  But with the help of her family, and Gavin’s, she could do the right thing, in the short run. That, she knew.

  “Just don’t confuse the love you and Gavin will no doubt feel for this child for anything else,” her mother continued.

  Violet blinked. “Like what?”

  Lacey shrugged. “Babies in jeopardy have a way of bringing people together in other ways, too.” She paused, concern in her eyes. “Ways that don’t last.”

  Was her mother intimating that she and Gavin would become closer, too, as a consequence? “You don’t need to worry about that,” Violet huffed, folding her arms across her chest. “Gavin and I know how to work together for the good of a patient—or in this case, a ward—without crossing any boundaries.”

  Lacey nodded, her maternal gaze cautious. “In any case,” she went on, with an approving hug, “I want you to know your father and I are proud of the way you and
Gavin are stepping up to take on this unexpected responsibility.”

  Gavin joined them. He’d been on the midnight-to-noon ER shift. Clad in surgical scrubs with a shadow of beard on his face, he looked as ruggedly handsome as always. He smiled at Violet and her mom. “Jackson said the same to me a little while ago,” he confirmed.

  Lacey’s dad was not just LCH’s chief of staff, he was also famously protective of all six of his daughters. He never hesitated to offer encouragement or to step in with a word of caution if he thought one of them was headed down the wrong path.

  “In fact, I think everyone at the hospital is interested in doing what they can for the little one.” Gavin hovered closer. “How much longer until they get here?”

  Violet dutifully consulted her watch. “Should be any minute now. In fact, Mitzy should be here shortly, too.”

  Right on cue, the social worker appeared. She had a clipboard full of papers to be signed.

  The next few minutes were spent filling out the appropriate paperwork. By the time they’d finished, the ambulance pulled up beneath the portico. The doors opened and the incubator containing baby Ava was brought out. They caught only a distant glimpse of the newborn as she was whisked through a series of corridors that led straight to the Special Care Nursery. “Showtime,” Gavin said as they fell into step behind the EMTs.

  Was he as nervous about all this as she suddenly was? There was no way to tell. But she was glad he was here with her every step of the way.

  Together, Gavin and Violet waited in the corridor outside the unit. Finally, Lacey McCabe came out. Clad in a sterile yellow gown thrown over her clothing, she had a stethoscope around her neck and a smile on her face. “Ava’s doing great. You can go in and see her now.”

  The two of them slipped on yellow gowns and Violet took a bolstering breath as they went inside.

  Ava was snuggled on a white flannel blanket that covered the bottom of the enclosed Plexiglas incubator. She had a knit cap on her head, a white knit sweater on her torso that covered her spindly arms and a diaper. Monitors were attached to her chest and foot. She had a nasal cannula to help her get the oxygen she needed.