“You don’t know where his mind has been,” Sarah gently reminded, patting her baby’s back.
Isabelle snorted. “I think it’s safe to say not with his wife and two daughters or he wouldn’t have left us.”
“Maybe he wanted to come home but didn’t know how or if y’all would welcome him home. Maybe he’s just been waiting for a sign. Give him one.”
Sarah was as bad as Sophie. They both saw the world through their bright and shiny Christmas-goodness goggles. Santa probably struggled to know which of their names to put at the top of his nice list each year and ended up with them in a perpetual tie.
“I’m not tracking down my father, Sarah. Not even for Sophie.” Not even if it meant being left off Santa’s list. “Let’s talk about this weekend. What can I do to help with the Christmas tree decorating at Hamilton House?”
*
As Hamilton House’sfront door opened, Zach jumped up from where he checked light strings on the living room floor. Before he’d left for his shift at the sherriff’s department, Bodie had asked Zach to make sure all the bulbs worked.
“Down, Harry,” Sarah told the Australian shepherd-blue heeler mix that bounced all around her in a voice so gentle she could have been talking to the baby she carried. She used her hip to push the heavy wooden door closed, shaking the already-in-place outdoor Christmas wreath against its beveled glass center. “Just a sec, and I’ll let you have a peek at your favorite person in the whole world.”
She bent enough for Harry to have a gentle nuzzle of his snout against the baby’s cheek. Jeannie responded by making a gurgling sound, then happily stuck her middle and ring fingers into her tiny mouth.
“Satisfied that I brought her back safely?” Laughing, Sarah straightened from having let Harry see her daughter.
Apparently, the dog was satisfied as he let out a yelp.
“Hey,” Zach greeted, admiring how protective Harry was with Jeannie and how great Sarah was with including the dog, even when her arms were full. Had she brought anything home that needed unloading from her car still? “Can I help you?”
Sarah gave him a bright smile, the kind that made Zach feel truly welcome in her and Bodie’s home. He liked that meeting Sarah in person had lived up to the person he’d imagined from Bodie’s phone descriptions.
“Oh, that would be great. Here. Hold Jeannie while I love on Harry a minute.”
Not what Zach had in mind, but Sarah had already shoved the baby at him and was crouched before he realized what was happening. Panic hit that he was holding a baby. His urge was to grasp her as tightly as he could, to make sure he didn’t drop her. She was too fragile for that, so he just stood frozen.
“Who’s a good boy?” Sarah scratched Harry behind the ears and nuzzled her face against his. “Harry is, that’s who’s a good boy. The best. You’re such a good big brother to our sweet Jeannie. Yes, you are. Did your daddy leave you here to keep Zach company while he was at work tonight, keeping Pine Hill safe?”
His entire body focused on the baby in his hands, Zach suspected that was exactly what his friend had done when he’d realized Zach would be at the house alone. The bed-and-breakfast had been full the night before, but everyone had checked out earlier that day and the next guests wouldn’t arrive until the following morning.
With the awkward way he gripped Jeannie’s middle, her tiny legs wiggled back and forth from where they dangled in his outstretched reach. Her big blue eyes stared at him with forgiving wonder, and he’d swear she’d just batted her long lashes and given him a gummy smile. Warmth spread through Zach with the same force as if he’d been awarded a Medal of Honor. Cute kid, but that didn’t mean he wanted to hold her.
He didn’t want to hold her. Sure, he smiled back at her from a safe distance, but that wasn’t the same thing as having someone so tiny and fragile within his palms.What if his hand failed and he dropped Jeannie?
“She’s not going to bite you.”
Nervous to take his eyes off the baby, Zach hesitated to look toward where Sarah loved on Harry. “Because she doesn’t have teeth?”
Sarah laughed. Standing, she moved next to him. He assumed she planned to take the baby, because she really should. The sooner, the better. Instead, she began teaching Baby Holding 101, as if he needed to add that skill to his arsenal.
“Here, move your hands like this and put her against your body like that,” she instructed in a firm, and yet somehow gentle, voice.
“You should take her.” He pushed the baby toward her, but Sarah shook her head.
“You offered, and I really need you to watch her while I run to the bathroom.”
Zach winced. It wasn’t as if he could insist that she bring the baby into the bathroom with her. Well, he could, but what kind of houseguest would he be if he did that when she and Bodie had taken him in during hisvacation?
“Fine. Go,” he mumbled, thinking he liked held-out-away-from-him Jeannie better than close-against-his-chest-warm-and-snuggly Jeannie. Still, she was safer in his arms than in his palms. “Hurry.”
“Of course.” Sarah’s tone had Zach wondering just how long her daughter was going to be stuck with him.
He took a deep breath, then eyed the poor baby. Not that Jeannie seemed to mind his awkwardness. She just stared up at him with her much-too-trusting eyes.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, kid.”
