Chapter Five
Knox stood outside longer than he should have, watching her go. Then he found himself a little too cold when he jogged back inside, moving immediately to check on the baby once he shut the door behind him.
It occurred to him then that he hadn’t been alone with Hailey since Christmas Eve. Since he found her on the doorstep and had spent those couple of hours trying to keep her calm before Ramona arrived.
He found himself smiling at the little girl, getting down close so he could put his hand on her cute, round little belly wrapped up in one of the little onesie pajamas that Ramona had brought with her, since it seemed the woman thought of everything.
And he felt like there was too much pressing in on him.
He felt like Ramona was a ghost here now in this house he’d built himself and should not have had any kind of hauntings at all.
He kept expecting to look up and find her still here, in the kitchen, or coming to settle down in this little baby area he’d made in front of the fire, when he knew perfectly well she was driving home.
The weather had finally cleared and that meant that it was time to get back to reality. A reality that was markedly different than it had been a few days ago, at least for him.
Because whatever happened, one thing Knox knew was that he wasn’t walking away from this child. Whoever had left her on his doorstep had signed up for his involvement in this child’s life, forever.
He’d never really been someone to do anything by half.
His phone buzzed, and even though he knew with near certainty that it wouldn’t be Ramona, he was still disappointed when it was the family text instead.
Ryder and Rosie and the babies are at the ranch house, Wilder texted. Full family assembly required.
That was when Knox realized that he was actually going to have to explain all this to his family. Or more accurately, it was when he realized that he had kind of been hoping to somehow avoid it.
But that wasn’t reality.
And if the past few days had taught him anything, it was that asking for help was the right move. Even from his own family, though he could acknowledge that he hadn’t really done that too often in the past.
It was part of being the youngest. He was offered so much unsolicited advice that it never occurred to him to ask for it when he actually wanted some.
He’d informed his family that he was going to college when he received a scholarship, not before.
There had been accusations of secrecy, but he’d never seen it that way.
He’d never been hiding anything. It was just with so many strong opinions, he sometimes preferred his own.
But he wasn’t sure baby Hailey qualified. He’d watched the way the family behaved around little Kiel this fall. Everyone pitched in. Everyone helped where they could. The kid was growing up with a village whether he liked it or not.
It was going to be the same with Ryder and Rosie’s new twin girls.
And it wasn’t that Knox had determined that he was going to become this child’s father—since he knew he wasn’t, in fact, her father—but that didn’t mean Hailey shouldn’t benefit from that kind of Carey consideration and care until he figured out what would become of her.
She’d been left here all alone. That didn’t mean she had to live here the same way.
After a quick internet search, Knox realized that he didn’t have the appropriate equipment, so he was going to have to do his best with what he did have.
He bundled them both up, then carried her outside, and rigged up a workable car seat situation on the passenger side of his truck.
Maybe not optimal for any kind of distance, but he figured it would work to get him up to the ranch house.
Then he found himself following the tracks that Ramona had laid down along his drive to hook up with the main road that led up to the ranch house.
Instead of following her down toward the little valley that made up Cowboy Point, he turned right and followed the grooves that were already carved out in the snow, no doubt Ryder driving his expanded family back from the Marietta hospital now that the weather had cleared.
When he got up to the ranch house, he could see smoke coming from the chimney and all the Christmas lights twinkling out into the bright morning the way they would for weeks yet, because Belinda liked her Christmas lights to stay up as long as possible.
She usually started on Thanksgiving and ended sometime before Valentine’s Day, depending on the year.
He found a parking space next to all the other trucks, and braced himself a little, because it was a full house.
He unstrapped Hailey, and smiled down at her as she made her little noises, wiggling around in her car seat.
“You’re going to meet my family,” he told her, in the solemn way he’d taken to talking to her. Like she understood him. “They’re a lot. But don’t worry. Underneath, they’re solid.”
She babbled something, then looked at him very closely and contemplatively, as if considering what he’d said.
Knox had the strangest sensation, like he could probably stand here and fall into that adorable little gaze in her sweet little face forever.
He picked her up out of the car seat and held her in the crook of his arm, adjusting the adorable blue hat with a huge pom-pom that Ramona had brought with her, so she was bundled up tight.
Blue mittens too, which had obviously been intended for a baby boy—but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
She was zipped up in the tiny parka that went with these items, that Ramona had claimed had been in one of the grab bags she’d put together for situations like his.
Are there a lot of situations like mine? he’d asked.
I always like to be prepared, was all she’d said in reply, and he hadn’t been able to tell if she didn’t want to answer him or couldn’t because she had to keep things confidential as a doctor.
Either way, he decided then and there that he should personally make sure that there were always more of these emergency packs available for whoever might need them in the future. Because they had certainly helped him out this time.
But he was stalling. He knew he was stalling, and it wasn’t like this was going to get any easier, initially. He was going to have to rip the Band-Aid off and there was no time like the present, because it was cold out here.
So he sucked it up and he trudged across the yard, making his way through the snow to the back door, following the boot tracks his brothers had left before him.
And he blew out a breath when he reached out to open that door, then walked inside.
He could hear the whole family immediately—all the usual sounds of the Carey family chaos.
He could hear his little nephews shouting, sounding sugared up, which meant either that they really had gotten into the candy or they were just excited to see their parents and their new baby sisters.
He could hear the rumble of his brothers’ voices and his sisters-in-laws’ softer tones.
And interspersed with all of that, his mother’s typical dire warnings to anyone who ventured too close to her stove and the sound of his father’s deep, gruff laughter.
Knox peeled off his coat as best he could and tossed it with the rest of the outerwear in the mudroom. He spent more time getting Hailey out of hers, so she was left in her pink fleece with her coppery hair standing on end.
And he couldn’t really deal with the boot situation since he didn’t want to put her down, so he just walked in.
Straight on into the kitchen, where most of his family was gathered around the big kitchen table. Everything was bright, cheery, and boisterous.
Knox just waited.
Because one by one, they all turned to look at him. And grew quiet.
Really, he thought, this was pretty funny. He wished he had an extra hand to whip out his phone and take a picture when the quiet finally reached everyone, and every single member of his family was finally silent—a miracle in itself—and staring at him.
With a whole lot of open mouths, too.
He hadn’t seen that before.
“Yes,” he drawled into the shocked silence. “I am holding a baby. No, she’s not mine. She was a Christmas present left on my doorstep on Christmas Eve.” He could have sworn that even more mouths opened then and jaws dropped lower. “I mean that literally.”
Hailey, apparently sensing a captive audience, blew a cute little bubble, then giggled.
And then everything kind of exploded. Too many voices. A great many exclamations. A wild din of demands for clarification and some comments he was glad he couldn’t quite hear.
It wasn’t until Belinda detached herself from the rest of them, stepping away from her beloved stove and marching over to him, that it quieted down a little bit.
“Let me see that baby,” Belinda demanded.
She didn’t wait for Knox to hand the baby over. She plucked Hailey into her arms and beamed down at her. And like every other being who encountered Belinda Carey, Hailey blinked, then beamed back.
“My goodness,” Belinda cooed. “What a sweet little love you are!”
There were other, smaller babies in the room that he had yet to meet, so Knox left Hailey with his mom.
He ignored all of the suspicious looks being thrown his way so he could go over to the kitchen table.
Rosie was sitting there with one adorable bundle of a red-faced, scrunchy-looking baby in her arms, while next to her, Ryder held the other.
“Look at these perfect little beings you made,” Knox said softly, and Rosie beamed. Ryder, he noticed, just gazed at Knox coolly over his babies’ heads.
“Their names are Holly and Ivy, because Christmas got the better of us and we couldn’t resist,” Rosie said, sounding besotted. “And so far they are perfect little angels, unlike their brothers. Or maybe we just got more sleep in the hospital this time around.”