Because of the Baby(5)

Lark was sick of the feud. It had started with a bill of sale that had gone missing back in 1898. Edwin Holt claimed Titus McMann had sold him the two thousand acres in order to fund his trip to Alaska where gold had been drawing prospectors since the 1880s.

Unfortunately, Titus had died before he could leave town and when Holt’s bill of sale couldn’t be found in the town records, his brother subsequently sold the land to John Taylor. Although there was nothing overtly suspicious about Titus’s death, the fact that both the money he’d received from Edwin Holt and the bill of sale had mysteriously disappeared caused Holt to insinuate John Taylor had been up to no good.

A hard headed, unforgiving man, John Taylor hadn’t appreciated the trouble Holt’s allegations caused his family and did everything in his power to ruin his neighbor’s business and reputation.

Lark hated that her parents continued to be obsessed with the ancient land dispute. They couldn’t just let it go. It would be one thing if they’d been the ones who’d lost the land, but they’d won and couldn’t rise above their hostility. And she was ashamed that she’d let their spiteful rhetoric poison her against her own sister, something she’d give anything to fix. If only Skye would wake up.

“I heard they’re going to release Grace in the next few days,” he continued.

“I know.” The news that her niece was healthy enough to leave the hospital brought with it both excitement and panic.

“Are you planning on taking her home?”

Something about the intensity in Keaton’s manner warned Lark that this wasn’t just an innocent question. “Yes.”

“She’s just as much my responsibility as yours.”

“You don’t know that. If you did, you wouldn’t have asked for a DNA test to prove she’s your brother’s daughter.”

“The test isn’t for me,” Keaton assured her. “I trust that Jake and Skye are together and want everyone else to know it too.”

“What makes you so sure?” Lark asked, wanting him to reassure her.

“Your sister loves my brother. She’d never leave him.”

Then why had Skye been returning to Royal and where was Jake?

“I have to start work in forty-five minutes,” Lark said. “I really want to go spend some time with Grace before that happens.”

“What are your plans for her care while you’re working?” Keaton’s blunt question caught her unprepared.

Lark usually worked four twelve-hour shifts in a row and then had six days off. She liked the schedule, but it was going to make being Grace’s primary caretaker a little challenging. Lark had no intention of putting the tiny baby in day care and she didn’t like the idea of a stranger watching her while Lark was at work. She’d hoped her mother might be willing to watch her grandchild, but thanks to Skye’s estrangement from the Taylor family, Lark was pretty sure the answer would be no.

“I haven’t finalized anything.”

“Good.”

“Why good?”

“Because I intend to be involved.”



Keaton saw immediately that Lark didn’t like what he had to say.

“Involved how?”

“I’m going to take care of her while you’re working.”

“You, personally?” She shook her head. “What do you know about babies?”

“What I don’t know I can learn.”

“Don’t you have enough going on with rebuilding your ranch?”

When the tornado had torn through in October, the Holt ranch house had been demolished along with several of the outbuildings. Fortunately Keaton’s parents had been out of town and most of the ranch hands had been miles away checking the fence line for breaks.

Keaton and a few of his employees hadn’t been so lucky. Most of the men working nearby had made it to shelter before the tornado hit, but Keaton and his foreman had been in the barn. Jeb had suffered a minor concussion and Keaton’s shoulder had been dislocated by flying debris.

Because of the number of people injured by the tornado, Lark had been working in the ER when Keaton drove himself and three other injured men to the hospital. He recalled the way his spirits had lifted at the briefest flash of awareness that had sparked between them as her eyes first met his. A second later she’d blinked and became all business as she sorted out the extent of their injuries.

The fleeting connection reminded him of simpler days when they’d been kids and he found her both appealing and a curiosity. The three-year difference in their ages and the feud between their families had given him plenty of reasons to give her a wide berth. But it hadn’t stopped him from wondering about her.