Found: One Baby Read online

  Last but not least, they brought the bottom point up and tucked it in the hem just under his chin.

  William had been patient while all the wrapping was going on. When he realized he could no longer wave his arms and legs, his face scrunched up and he let out another lusty cry.

  Michelle picked him up and looked down into his face. “Now, now, this is not so bad. Being swaddled like this is going to help you sleep.”

  William’s lower lip shot out.

  Thad laughed.

  William looked at Thad, as if wondering what this was all about. Thad looked at Michelle. The two looked so good together. So perfect. Like mother and son.

  She handed him over gently. “I think you should rock him now.”

  Thad frowned. “I’m not sure he’s going to go back to sleep. He’s had ten minutes.”

  Michelle gave them both an indulgent look. “I think he will if you rock him.”

  She was looking for an excuse to leave, Thad thought, before they found themselves alone and started kissing again.

  “You just want a good night’s sleep,” Thad teased.

  “Yep.” Michelle pranced out of his bedroom and back downstairs.

  Thad followed, William in his arms.

  Michelle paused in the hallway to kiss William’s cheek and look deep into Thad’s eyes. “Seriously, I hope this swaddling thing works,” she told him.

  “I hope so, too,” Thad said.

  Otherwise it was going to be a long night.

  Chapter Five

  The next morning, Thad had just finished giving William his nine-o’clock bottle when the doorbell rang. He’d been up for hours. He hadn’t had a shower or shaved yet. But maybe that was a good thing, he mused, if his early caller was yet another single woman hoping to rescue him from single fatherhood. Maybe she’d take one look at him and run scared.

  Holding William in his arms, football style, he made his way to the door.

  Michelle stood on the other side of the threshold. Unlike him, she was dressed for work, in a gray pin-striped suit, silky white blouse and conservative gray heels. A simple silver necklace rested just below her collarbone, in the open V of her blouse. She had her briefcase slung over one shoulder, her BlackBerry in her palm. She finished reading whatever was written on the screen, then looked at him, her expression grave.

  Thad’s gut tightened. There were times in his life when he kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. This was one of them. “Something up?” he asked casually.

  As Michelle nodded, her silky hair brushed against her chin. Her eyes held his. “May I come in?”

  “Sure.”

  Her heels clicking on his wood floors, Michelle followed him into the living room, where the gifts from the impromptu shower were still heaped in messy stacks. Thad knew he should be doing something with all the stuff, but right now he had no idea what to do with most of it. Although a few of the blankets and a couple of baby rattles had already come in handy.

  The fragrance of Michelle’s hair and skin sending his senses into overdrive, Thad reached down with his free hand and cleared a place for her in a club chair.

  She flashed a too-polite smile, then gracefully moved to take the seat. “Glenn’s in Fort Stockton this morning taking a deposition for another case, so he asked me to cover for him.”

  Thad moved past her and sat down on the sofa across from her. “What’s happened?”

  Michelle’s eyes reflected the concern of someone left to deliver bad news.

  “We just got word from Family Court,” she told him matter-of-factly. “Your case has been assigned to Judge Barnes.”

  “That’s bad, I take it.”

  Michelle hesitated a second too long for Thad’s comfort. “Judge Barnes is something of a stickler.”

  Meaning, Thad thought, old-fashioned and sexist.

  “He’s really by-the-book,” Michelle continued with obvious reluctance. “And he doesn’t mince words. He tends to say exactly what’s on his mind.”

  William snuggled against Thad’s chest and, even in his sleep, let out a contented sigh. Thad tore his gaze from the baby’s precious face. “And what is on Judge Barnes’s mind?” he inquired warily.

  Briefly worry lit her pretty green eyes. “We’re about to find out. He wants you and William and your representative—which right now is going to be me—and the Johnsons and their attorney, Karin Hendricks, in his courtroom at 1:00 p.m. today.”

  “You don’t think…” Thad swallowed around the sudden compression in his throat. “He’s not going to order William into foster care, is he?”

  From her inscrutable expression, Thad noticed Michelle wasn’t making any promises. “Besides, I thought I didn’t have to go to court for thirty to forty-five days.”

  “Generally, that’s the way it works,” Michelle allowed.

  “But not in this case?”

  Michelle tugged down the hem of her skirt, which had ridden up slightly on her thigh. She leaned forward. “There are unusual aspects to the origin of the agreement between you and the Johnsons regarding the adoption, as well as how you came to have physical custody of the child. It’s appropriate for Judge Barnes to want to go over everything and make sure everyone is on the same page.”

  FOUR HOURS LATER Michelle met Thad and William just outside the hearing room in the Summit County Courthouse. Thad looked very handsome in an olive-green suit and tie. William was wearing a white sleeper with a satin yellow duck sewn across the front.

  Had Michelle not known better, she would have thought Thad was William’s father in every sense. Which made the stakes for this hearing all the higher.

  As Michelle expected, Judge Barnes didn’t waste any time getting down to the business of the hearing, once he was seated behind the bench. His penetrating stare was as no-nonsense as his close-cropped gray beard and thick, closely shorn hair. Gruffly he made himself known to all parties present, then he slid his black-rimmed bifocals down the bridge of his nose, and spoke to the attorney for the Johnsons. “As discussed, due to Mr. Johnson’s hospitalization, I am waiving your clients’ appearance today, but next time, I’ll expect to have at least Mrs. Johnson present in this courtroom.”

  “Yes, Your Honor,” Karin Hendricks said.

  The judge turned to Thad. His assessing gaze rested on the baby cradled in Thad’s arms, then he looked at the papers in front of him one last time.

  The suspense was almost unbearable.

  Finally Judge Barnes frowned and said, “Let’s make sure I understand this correctly, Dr. Garner. This baby was left on your doorstep after the adoptive parents changed their minds about adopting him. They gave baby William back to the surrogate mother, and she didn’t want responsibility for him, either. The surrogate mother tried to give William back to one Russell Garner, the sperm donor, who also happens to be your brother. She couldn’t find your brother, so she left William on your doorstep with a note asking you to take care of the matter, and you’ve been caring for the little boy for the past three days.”

  Thad nodded. “That’s correct, Your Honor.”

  “You and the attorney present, Michelle Anderson, have spoken to your brother, Russell, and he does not wish to reverse his prior termination of any and all parental rights to the child.”

  “That’s also correct.”

  Judge Barnes slid his bifocals even farther down his nose. “And now you think you want to adopt him?” Skepticism rang in his voice.

  “I don’t think—I know,” Thad said firmly.

  Good, rock-solid answer, Michelle thought.

  Judge Barnes rocked back in his chair, took off his glasses entirely and set them on the desk in front of him. “Forgive me, son, for being blunt here, but you have no clue what you’re getting into. I’m a father myself—and I do! Parenting is hard work, a lifelong commitment, not something you take on as a whim or out of guilt or some misguided sense of family. This would make a lot more sense to me if you were already married and had kids of your own, or a
t the very least had another family member at home who could help you out. But you don’t.”

  Fearing the judge was about to remand William to foster care, Michelle cut in, “With all due respect, Your Honor, single people can foster and adopt.”

  Judge Barnes picked up his glasses and slid them back on. “Sure they can. When they’ve thought long and hard about it, and gone through all the proper interviews and home studies.” He pointed to the papers in front of him. “None of that has been done here. And while I applaud Dr. Garner for stepping up and trying to do right by this child, in these very unusual circumstances, I also think reacting emotionally is not the solution. Therefore, I’m ordering social services to begin an investigation immediately, starting today. If the social worker assigned believes the home environment is suitable for a newborn, William can stay with Dr. Garner until such time as an adoption petition is considered by this court.”

  “Thank you, Your Honor,” Thad said in obvious relief.

  “Don’t thank me.” Judge Barnes glowered. “Just make sure you consider this carefully and do right by that child.”

  “YOU DON’T HAVE to worry about the social-worker evaluation,” Thad told Michelle as she led the way out the rear entrance of the limestone courthouse to the parking lot. “I work with social workers all the time at the hospital. The people in the department know I’m a good guy.”

  Talk about naive, Michelle thought. Briefcase still in hand, she struggled to keep up with his longer strides. Not easy, considering the narrow hem of her skirt.

  She curled a hand around his biceps, wordlessly slowing him down. “This isn’t about whether or not you are a good guy, Thad,” she told him grimly. “It’s about what is best for William. Child Protective Services could easily decide that he would be better off in a home with a mother and a father. He’s a newborn. There’s no shortage of people waiting for a baby—people who have been waiting for years! People with little hope of actually receiving a child anytime soon, given how long the lists of available, approved, adoptive parents are.”

  “Those families aren’t related to William by blood!”

  For Thad and William’s sake, Michelle wished that was all that counted. Unfortunately it wasn’t.

  She slowed her pace even more and broke the news to Thad as gently as she could. “Technically, from a legal standpoint, neither are you. Your brother, Russell, terminated his rights at the time he donated the sperm. So legally, he has no say in what happens to this baby. To get those rights reinstated would involve a long, complicated process.” A reinstatement that Judge Barnes was, at least at the moment, unlikely to grant.

  Thad stopped next to his SUV, the still-sleeping William in his arms. “You said a private adoption is possible, if the Johnsons agreed I could have William.”

  Michelle stepped closer to Thad to allow another couple to pass. “That’s right. It is possible. And there was a chance,” she continued, “had baby William not been dropped off on your doorstep after he was given back to the surrogate, that this petition of yours might have gone through without a hitch. But William was left on a doorstep. And it’s possible that social services will decide foster care is the way to go for the moment.”

  Michelle’s phone rang. She listened intently to the caller on the end. “Yes,” she said firmly, not all that surprised at the speed with which everything was happening now. “He can be there. Fifteen minutes is fine with us.”

  FIFTEEN MINUTES for what? Thad wondered, studying the concerned look on Michelle’s pretty face.

  She ended the connection and slid her BlackBerry back into the outside pocket of her briefcase. “Tamara Kelly, the social worker assigned to do the home study and make the evaluation, is on her way to your place.”

  Thad tried to recall if he had even done the dishes. He didn’t think so. In fact, he was certain he’d left his cereal bowl, a couple of baby bottles, as well as assorted cups and glasses in the kitchen sink.

  Upstairs, his dirty clothes were scattered across the floor. He hadn’t had a chance to fold any of his clean laundry or do anything with the stacks of hand-me-down baby gifts in the living room.

  Damn it. If only he’d had some advance notice. Even a half-hour warning would have been a huge help in getting ready for the inspection. But then, he supposed that was the point. They didn’t want him to have a chance to do anything that hadn’t already been done.

  He looked at Michelle. “Tell me you can be there for this.”

  Michelle glanced at her watch, frowned.

  He could see her taking an emotional step back already. She bit her lip. “It’s not usually the case to have an attorney present for this.”

  Thad realized that. He also knew, if Tamara Kelly based her decision on how much laundry had been left undone, or the condition of his bedroom and bath right this minute, there could be a problem.

  Normally he did household chores on a semi-regular basis. The past few days, since he’d been taking care of William, he’d let everything—but caring for the baby—go. Whether his bed had been made or his dirty clothes picked up off the floor hadn’t mattered. Now, suddenly, they did.

  Thad looked Michelle in the eye. “As Judge Barnes pointed out, this isn’t a usual case.” Thad did not want any more unexpected developments.

  Michelle looked at William, then back at Thad. “All right,” she said. “Let me call my office and reschedule a few things, and I’ll meet you at your house.”

  By the time Thad got home, a small sedan was already parked in front of it. A tall, efficient-looking woman with frizzy, fading red-gray hair emerged from the car. She smiled at William, who was snoozing away in his car seat, then turned back to Thad and introduced herself as head of the Summit County Child Protective Services Department.

  He shook hands with her. “It’s an unusual situation,” he said.

  Tamara Kelly nodded, her eyes kind but impartial. “I understand you’re trying to do the right thing,” she said gently.

  The fortysomething social worker just did not look or sound as if she felt that adopting William was it.

  Thad was used to proving himself in his profession—E.R. doctors were constantly put to the test.

  Not in his personal life.

  Of course, there had never been this much at stake in his private life. Not since he and Sela ended their relationship three years ago.

  Another car pulled up. Michelle’s. She stepped out, looking calm and professional. She introduced herself to Tamara.

  Thad unbuckled William from his car seat and led the way inside.

  Tamara Kelly carried a clipboard and pen with her. She looked in every room of the house. Occasionally she asked a few questions. Mostly she just wrote things down. She wrote a lot of things down.

  Thad was a confident guy. And with good reason. He had earned everything he had ever gotten. But the silence, the inscrutable expression on Tamara Kelly’s face, the fact that she rarely made eye contact with him were making him nervous.

  Michelle, for all her outward cool, seemed edgy, too, as they walked past Thad’s unmade bed and the borrowed bassinet that now served as William’s sleeping berth.

  Tad had liked having William close by during the night.

  He could see, though, that to the outside observer, he looked completely clueless when it came to setting up for a baby. As if he didn’t care enough to do things right.

  Finally Tamara made her way back downstairs to the foyer.

  Abruptly she seemed more than ready to leave.

  Thad looked at Michelle.

  Michelle looked at the social worker and said, “We’d like a copy of the report as soon as possible.”

  “Certainly.” Tamara Kelly flashed another officious smile. “I probably won’t have it typed up until tomorrow morning.”

  “Could we have a brief verbal assessment now?” Michelle persisted.

  Tamara hesitated.

  Thad cut in. “I know the place is a mess. Like most new parents I’ve been al
l about the baby for the past few days, but if there’s something I need to fix, I’d really like to know about it as soon as possible.”

  Clipboard pressed to her chest, Tamara took another moment to consider. Finally she said, “Let’s sit down, shall we?”

  Bypassing the mess in the formal living room, they retreated, instead, to the formal dining room. The table had an inch of dust on it. Ditto the china cabinet. Thad made a mental note to clean those, too.

  “Okay, first the things you have going in your favor,” Tamara told Thad, her glance touching briefly on the newborn baby sleeping contentedly in his arms. “Baby William has obviously bonded to you. You have a home in a nice, safe neigh-borhood. A good job and a fine professional reputation, both at the hospital and with our department. There is nothing physically or fiscally wrong to prevent you from becoming a fine parent.”

  “Great!” Thad said with relief, figuring he’d heard enough to know he’d passed the test.

  “And the cons?” Michelle asked, every bit the I-don’t-believe-it-until-I-see-it-in-writing attorney.

  Tamara frowned. “Your home is not baby-proofed, Dr. Garner. Baby clothes and gear are heaped all over the living room. There’s no nursery, no crib set up, no food in the fridge, no spouse or other family member to help with child care.”

  “I have a babysitter lined up for when I go to work,” Thad reminded her.

  “And I made note of that.” Tamara pointed to her clipboard. “But you’ve also never been married. Never reared a child. You have a reputation, socially, within the community as a man with a notoriously short attention span when it comes to relationships. The bottom line is you lose interest in a woman after a few dates. How do we know you won’t lose interest in a child just as quickly?”

  THAD HAD NEVER figured, in his attempt to give every potential woman and relationship a chance to turn into something lasting, that he was making a mistake.

  Now he knew better.

  And so, apparently, did Michelle Anderson.