Thad switched on more lamps, wishing he’d thought to vacuum or dust in the past month, instead of sitting around reading medical journals and working out at the hospital fitness center in his spare time.
“Please continue,” he prodded her.
She looked him straight in the eye. “You’ve got a reputation for dating around, not sleeping around.”
“Good to know,” he said.
The sparkle was back in her eyes. “Isn’t it?”
Thad figured it wouldn’t hurt to flirt. Especially since she’d started it. “As long as we’re on the subject, want to know what your rep in the community is?”
DID SHE WANT to know?
His goading look was all the provocation she needed. “Well, I guess now I have to know.”
Thad put William over his shoulder and gently patted his back, then turned his attention back to her. “Ice princess.”
Okay, that hurt. A little. Especially since she’d done nothing to deserve it.
She made her eyes go wide. “Really?”
“Mm-hm.” Thad stepped closer, still patting William on the back. “Word is, you’ve been asked out by at least twenty guys—”
“I think that’s a small exaggeration,” she said.
“—and said no to every single one,” Thad finished smugly, leaving no doubt that he’d been investigating the details of her romantic life, or lack thereof, too.
She shrugged, aware her pulse was racing, and defended herself. “Well, that’s because I won’t go out with someone if I don’t see hope of anything…happening.”
A smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he leaned down so they were practically nose to nose. “How can you know if you don’t go out with them?”
“I just do.”
He let his gaze drift over her slowly, before returning to her eyes. “See, I don’t buy that,” he told her with lazy male confidence. “I don’t think you can begin to know someone unless you spend one-on-one time together. You’ve got to take a risk—”
Michelle smirked. “Well, I hear you’ve done plenty of that.”
“—to reap rewards.” He sneaked a peek at the baby on his shoulder. He grinned when he realized that William was sound asleep again. He walked over to the Moses basket and gently laid the baby down, covering him with a blanket.
Trying not to notice how naturally Thad had taken to being a daddy figure to the abandoned little boy, Michelle rocked forward on her toes.
The thought of Thad reaping rewards with any other woman bothered her more than it should. Marshaling all her defenses, she asked sweetly, “How’s that method working out for you so far?”
“I haven’t hit pay dirt yet.” His gaze slid past the delicate hollow of her throat, to her lips and then her eyes. “I will.”
She took a deep breath, dropped her gaze. Then found herself remembering the way he’d looked, shirtless and just out of bed, that morning. Flushing, she tore her eyes from the masculine contours of his chest. “Sure you will.”
“Make fun all you like,” he said. He stepped closer. “You need to take more risks.”
His words hit a chord. She’d heard the same from others, too. “Just see if you can find the papers,” she instructed irritably, deciding Dr. Thad Garner was the last man she would ever get involved with.
Thad sighed. “Wish me luck. That attic is a mess.”
“IT’S NOT THERE,” Thad reported in frustration a short time later.
He’d only been up in the attic twenty minutes, Michelle thought. She removed the bottle she’d been heating from the bowl of warm water. “Are you sure?”
Thad looked at William, who was lying patiently in his Moses basket, eyes wide open, trying awkwardly to get his thumb to his mouth. “I checked through the most recent boxes.”
Which meant Thad hadn’t checked through everything belonging to his brother, Michelle deduced. “Maybe it’s in an older box,” she suggested, wiping the outside of the bottle dry. “Do you want me to go up and look?”
Thad glanced at her clothes. “It’s kind of grimy up there,” he warned.
Michelle tested the bottle on the inside of her wrist. “Not a problem. You’ll have to feed William, though.”
“He’s ready to eat again?”
“Yes, he is.” Michelle handed Thad the bottle of formula.
Thad smiled, as if he relished his first chance to give William a bottle.
“You know, we could probably just wait and ask Candace Wright.”
“That’s assuming we can find her and she’ll talk to us. She may not. In any case, it’s best to be as prepared as you can be before you walk into a situation like this.” She sighed. “So if Russell thinks the papers he signed are in the attic, I think we need to do everything possible to find them. Because if we can find them, then we will know what attorney he used to prepare them.”
“What if they didn’t use an attorney? What if they just went online and printed out some do-it-yourself forms and signed those?”
Michelle exhaled. “Then none of what they’ve done may be legal. But again, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.” She held up a staying hand. “How do I get to the attic?”
Thad picked up William and the bottle. “We’ll walk you up there.”
Thad motioned her up the stairs. Past the master bedroom, with its heavy mahogany furniture and big, comfortable-looking bed. There was a stack of books and what looked like medical journals on both nightstands. Baskets of what looked like clean, unfolded laundry, and an overflowing hamper. On down the hall, past another bath and bedroom, decorated in teenage-boy motif, with a big sign on the door that read: Russell’s Room—No One Else Allowed. Next to that was a study, with a desk and cozy leather armchair and ottoman. Along one wall was a stack of gift boxes, reminding Michelle of all the women in town who were chasing him. Before she could stop herself, she blurted, “What’s this? The trophy room?”
“I’m planning to donate it all. I just can’t do it anywhere in town. ’Cause someone will know and then I’ll hurt somebody’s feelings…and I don’t want to do that.”
She could see he was serious. “It must be hard to be you,” she said dryly.
He returned her droll look and opened a door leading to the third floor. “Up there.”
Michelle hit the switch next to the door. Light flooded the third floor and spilled down the rough wooden stairs. “Thanks.”
Thad wandered back in the direction they’d come. “William, let’s go into the master bedroom and have ourselves a bottle, shall we?”
Shaking her head, Michelle headed up the stairs. Thad was right. It was a mess. And a pretty big one. Most of it seemed to be Russell’s, judging by the name scrawled in black Magic Marker on the sides of boxes.
She began looking. And looking. And looking. Finally, thirty minutes later, she hit the jackpot. Or at least she hoped she had. She found a metal lockbox, the kind where people tended to store their important papers. Only problem was, she noted, it was locked.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Thad came up to stand beside her. “Any luck?”
She waved her find. “This could be it.”
Thad towered over her, six feet two inches of attractive single