The Baby Bond Read Online Free PDF Page B

sir.”
    “Nic rescued Alex, too,” Cassidy said, glad for the first time that Nic had returned to the room. His professional ease and knowledge of the situation seemed to be exactly what the devastated Browns needed.
    “Thank you, Nic,” Beverly said and hugged him. The firefighter embraced her as if he’d known her forever. Nosurprise there. Nic Carano was comfortable with people, especially women.
    Cassidy’s grandmother had kept her peace for about as long as she could. “We need to plan services, I suppose.”
    The other four turned to look at her. Perched on the chair like a queen on her throne, Eleanor would run the show or die trying.
     
    Somehow Cassidy stumbled through the visit to the funeral home, the preparations for the services and the double funeral four days later. In the midst of making all sorts of arrangements and decisions she hadn’t realized were necessary, she’d warded off Grandmother’s attempts to “deal with the issue” of Alex until after the funeral.
    She and the Browns had taken turns sitting with the baby at the hospital where they’d discussed the painfully few options for her nephew, but none of them were emotionally ready to make a permanent decision.
    To Cassidy’s discomfort, Nic Carano had returned every day as well, sending the baby into an excited display of arm and leg pumps and slobbery smiles. Cassidy, on the other hand, suffered a pain the size of Dallas. Every time she saw him, she had an unbidden vision of the yellow-clad fireman carrying Janna from the house, limp and dead. He was too much of a reminder of that night, of her sister’s last hours and moments.
    Out of uniform, he looked different, more like the wild and crazy Nic in funny T-shirts she remembered. She couldn’t understand why he kept coming around. Surely not to see her. Having had her fill of womanizing playboys, she’d let him know from the start that she was not interested.
    Alex was the only explanation. Through the shared tragedy, Nic had bonded with the child. That’s all it could be.
    Until today, the doctors had kept her nephew in the hospitalfor observation and respiratory therapy. Two hours ago, he’d been discharged into Cassidy’s care—temporarily.
    Now on this pleasant April afternoon, she sat on the off-white sofa in her tidy living room with Alex asleep in her lap, feeling as if she were a house of cards, ready to tumble at the slightest breeze. The grandparents were on their way to make the decision.
    “Oh, baby boy,” she whispered to his peaceful, innocent face. “What is going to become of you?”
    Earlier, her pastor had stopped by with a word of counsel and a prayer for comfort and guidance as she made important decisions in the days ahead. He’d prayed for Alex, too, that God’s will and perfect plan would unfold. To her way of thinking, God’s perfect plan should have been Janna and Brad raising their son together. Yet, she’d found relief in Pastor John’s prayers. Since the accident, praying had been difficult.
    Heart as heavy as it had ever been in her life, Cassidy dreaded the family meeting that would decide Alex’s fate.
    A bitter laugh escaped her throat.
    “Family,” she muttered with a shake of her head. “Some family you have, baby.”
    Beverly and Thomas Brown were fine people, but Beverly’s heart wasn’t strong. She’d had two bypass surgeries already. They couldn’t raise an infant and had admitted as much, though they loved Alex with all the grandparent love in the world. Eleanor, thank goodness, had never even considered “taking him on.” Had she wanted Alex, a moving freight train could not have stopped her.
    Grandmother wasn’t a bad person, just a focused, determined businesswoman who’d never forgiven her only daughter for marrying a penniless missionary and then dying in a “heathen” land. Janna and Cassidy had borne the brunt of her unforgiveness.
    With a shudder, Cassidy made up her mind that her nephew would never live that