“A favor,” he repeated, his voice gone husky. “What kind?”
She drew in a shaky breath. “It’s about the twins. Do you think it might be possible for us…I mean, my sisters and me…to keep them here until…you locate the real parents?”
“Why would you want to do that? I’m sure you and your family have plenty to keep you busy besides two demanding babies.”
“Of course we do. But my sisters are infatuated with the babies, and since…Daddy’s death, well, I think it would be good for all of us to have them around.”
Roy knew that Justine had been very close to her mother and father. She was probably still grieving over Tom’s death. If the babies could help ease the ache, what the hell, he thought. Even though she’d made his life miserable, that didn’t mean he wanted to rub salt in her wounds.
“You don’t have to sell me on the idea, Justine. I know I can trust the twins’ welfare to you and your family.”
She couldn’t believe he’d so readily agreed to her request, and for a moment she didn’t know what to say.
“Justine? Isn’t that what you wanted to hear?”
“I—Uh, yes,” she finally managed to answer. “Is that all we have to do? Is your permission enough to keep them here?”
“Legally, no. I’ll have to get a court order from Judge Richards. But he and I are good friends. He’ll go along with my feelings on the matter.”
“That’s all there is to it?”
“You sound surprised.”
She was. She’d expected Roy to resist everything about the idea. Now, because of who he was and what he was, he was going to make it legally possible for her family to keep the babies. She didn’t know what to think.
“I guess I expected it to be a lot more complicated.”
“Well, since it’s only a temporary situation, there’s not that much legal red tape.” He paused, then asked, “Justine, you do understand that once this case comes to some sort of end, you’ll have to give the babies up?”
“Yes. I understand. I don’t know if my sisters will. But I do.”
“Then, for their sake, you’d better remind them.”
“I will. And thank you, Roy.”
She thought she heard him sigh. “Good night, Justine.”
“Good night.”
Slowly, Justine replaced the receiver, then stared blankly at the floor. After a moment, tears blurred her eyes. She wiped at them viciously and tried to swallow away the tightness in her throat.
She didn’t know what was the matter with her. Her sisters were going to be very happy, and Roy had been almost nice to her. There was no reason for her to get emotional. No reason at all.
A light knock sounded on the bedroom door. Justine quickly wiped her eyes again. “Come in.”
Stepping into the room, Chloe looked hopefully at Justine. “Did you call the sheriff?”
Justine nodded. “We can keep the babies.”
Chloe gasped with joy. “Oh, Justine, that’s wonderful! See, I knew you could persuade him!”
Justine sighed. “Believe me, Chloe, there was no persuading to it.”
Chloe eased down on the bed beside her sister. “You don’t sound very excited about it.” She peered anxiously at Justine. “Have you…been crying?”
Justine quickly shook her head. “No, of course not. I think—I might be coming down with a cold. The clinic has been full of sniffling people.”
“Why don’t you go to bed early tonight?” Chloe suggested as she rose to her feet. “Rose and I will see to the babies. She’s gone up in the attic right now, to see if she can find our old baby bed and playpen. I’d better go see if she needs some help.”
“What’s Charlie doing?”
Chloe laughed. “He’s playing with the twins. He thinks those babies are the grandest things to come along since dump trucks and tractors.”
Justine smiled wanly. She’d never wanted Charlie to be an only child. But time had a way of passing on. Now he was five, and she was no closer to marrying and adding to her family than she had been when she gave birth to him.
Rising from her seat on the bed, she said, “I’m glad he’s taken to the twins. But right now it’s getting close to his bedtime. I’d better go coax him into the bathtub.”
As the two sisters walked down the wide hallway, toward the living room, Chloe slung her arm around Justine’s shoulders.
“Do you realize how lucky you are to have a child, Justine?”
In spite of Roy, and the fact that Charlie was growing up without a father, Justine was very aware of the precious blessing her son was to her. She wished with all her heart that Chloe could have the chance to be a mother.
Slipping her arm around her younger sister’s waist, she gave her an affectionate squeeze. “I realize it every day.”
Chloe sighed. “You know, there has to be a reason for those babies showing up here on the ranch.”
“I’m sure there is. We just don’t know what it is yet.”
“Well, I think they’re a gift from God. He took Daddy from us, so he’s given us the babies to fill his place in the family.”
Justine glanced anxiously at her sister. “Chloe, Roy wanted me to remind you and Rose that keeping the babies on the ranch is only a temporary thing. You’ll have to give them up eventually. You know that, don’t you?”
“You wouldn’t give Charlie up, would you?”
She tried to imagine Roy filing for custody of his son, and found the image so frightening that she instantly put it out of her mind. “Not for anyone or anything. But, Chloe, Charlie is mine. There’s a difference.”
“Well, those twins are going to be mine. You just wait and see,” she said.
Justine didn’t argue with her sister. Instead, she silently prayed that Roy would soon solve the case.
The next morning, Justine was taking a much-needed coffee break on a little bench outside the clinic building when she saw Roy walking up the sidewalk toward her.
He was dressed as he had been yesterday, in jeans, boots and a khaki shirt. Justine couldn’t help but notice his long legs and lean waist, the width of his broad shoulders beneath the close-fitting fabric. He was a very sexy man. But sex was all he had to offer a woman. She knew that better than anyone.
“How did you know where I worked?” Justine asked as he came to a halt in front of her.
A faint smile touched his lips, as though he found her question amusing. “I’m the sheriff, remember? I can find out most anything I need to know.”
Not everything, she promised herself as her thoughts went to their son. He could search all he wanted to, but there was no way he was going to find out he’d fathered Charlie. Unless she told him. And right now, she couldn’t see herself ever doing that.
“What did you need to see me about?” she asked, her fingers curled tightly around the foam-cup of coffee in her hands.
He pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and unfolded it. “I need your signature on this before I take it back to Judge Richards.”
She accepted the paper from him and read it carefully. Once Justine was satisfied that she understood it, she slipped a pen from a pocket of her shift and quickly signed her name.
Handing