The Unclaimed Baby Read Online Free PDF

me,” he said curtly. “Something tells me I’m setting you up for heartbreak.”

Chapter 3
    â€œT ell me again how you wound up with a baby,” Lizzy said when she arrived an hour later.
    She looked every bit the doctor with her little black bag and white lab coat over a silk blouse. She’d even coiled her long, black hair into a tidy topknot. Sharon Lynn still hadn’t gotten used to her professional demeanor. To her way of thinking, Lizzy was still first and foremost a rambunctious, anything-for-a-lark cowgirl. Her medical degree from the University of Texas said otherwise.
    As Sharon Lynn repeated the same story she’d told Justin, Lizzy’s eyes widened. Her mouth narrowed into a thin, disapproving line before she muttered a stream of expletives that would have blistered the ears of the person who’d abandoned the baby. Sharon Lynn said only, “My sentiments exactly.”
    â€œHow long was she outside, then?”
    â€œProbably not more than a minute or two. We heard a thump, went to investigate and there she was.”
    â€œSo her body temperature was warm enough when you brought her inside?”
    Sharon Lynn nodded. “She was pretty well bundled up. She felt fine to me. Cord thought so, too. I took her temperature and it was normal.”
    Just as Justin had, Lizzy seized on the mention of the unfamiliar name. “Cord?”
    â€œThe customer who was there when it happened. He was actually the one who found her.”
    â€œInteresting,” Lizzy said, studying her face. “Is this Cord person handsome, sexy and single?”
    â€œI have no idea,” she claimed. At Lizzy’s skeptical look, she conceded, “Not about the single part anyway.”
    Lizzy grinned. “Then he is handsome and sexy?”
    â€œI suppose. I hardly noticed.”
    â€œIf he’d turned up after you found the baby, I might believe that, but he’d been there how long? A couple of hours? That’s a long time to hang around a drugstore during a blizzard, unless the man had something besides food on his mind.”
    â€œAre you here to check out the baby or to cross-examine me?” Sharon Lynn grumbled.
    Lizzy patted her cheek. “Not to worry. I have time to do both. Come on, let’s see the baby. We’ll get back to this Cord person later.”
    Without waiting for Sharon Lynn, she headed tothe bedroom and bent over the baby, who was wide-awake and waving her tiny fists in the air. Lizzy sighed. “She’s a cute one, all right. And obviously someone has been taking good care of her. Looks to me as if her weight’s normal and her color is good. Just look at those rosy little cheeks.”
    She began examining her with practiced fingers, pausing to tickle a laughing response from her every now and again. When she was finished, she plucked her up off the bed and cradled her in her arms. “You are a little doll.”
    Sharon Lynn watched her aunt, who was actually younger than she was, and had an almost overwhelming desire to yank the baby out of her arms. Even she recognized that as a bad sign. If she was this possessive after less than twenty-four hours, what was going to happen when the time came to give the baby up? Maybe Justin had been right to worry. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d thought.
    â€œDon’t go getting any ideas,” she told Lizzy. “You’ve got one of your own and I don’t see Hank letting you bring another one home for him to take care of while you finish your residency.”
    â€œAre you kidding? Hank’s in seventh heaven playing full-time daddy. If he could figure out some way to convince me to stay pregnant and have another kid every nine or ten months, he’d be a happy man. He loves ranching, but parenthood is his true calling. I’m not sure which one of us was more surprised by that. For a long time making a go of hisranch was all that mattered