Jingle-Bell Baby. Линда Гуднайт

      After careful scrutiny of each page, she sat back against the scratchy chair and let some of her tension ebb away. There was no mention of a missing heiress. At least, not yet.

      She flipped to the classifieds of the local paper, the Saddleback Sentinel, and scanned the help wanted ads. After a couple of minutes, her lips curved in wry humor. If she could run a drilling rig or drive an eighteen-wheel truck, she’d be in business before nightfall.

      “Looking for anything in particular?”

      At Crystal’s voice, Jenna jumped. The nurse stood in front of her with a wheelchair, smile curious.

      The newspaper crinkled as Jenna refolded it and placed it on the nightstand. Part of her longed to confide in the friendly nurse and admit she needed a job. She opened her mouth to do just that but Sophie chose that moment to awake with a startled cry. All thought rushed to her baby.

      “Is she all right?”

      Crystal chuckled. “Yes, Jenna. She’s fine. Baby’s cry. Get used to it. Real used to it. I probably startled her with the noise of the wheelchair.”

      “Oh.” Jenna fought down a blush and gingerly scooped her daughter from the Isolette. “Shh, darling, Mommy’s here.”

      To her joy, Sophie stopped crying immediately. Her scrunched-up face relaxed as she blinked up at her mother. A swell of love ballooned in Jenna’s chest.

      “You two ladies ready for your free ride in a wheelchair?”

      “Can’t we walk?”

      “Hospital regs, I’m afraid.” Crystal patted the black seat. “Hop aboard the Wolf Express for the only free thing in this hospital.”

      With a smile at Crystal’s humor, Jenna complied, jittery to think that in a few minutes, she and Sophie would be alone and on their own. She’d known when she left the estate that this would happen, but she hadn’t expected it to happen quite so soon. She’d hoped to be settled somewhere before Sophie’s birth, to have the trunk full of layette items set up and ready for the baby’s homecoming. She’d even had fantasies of a job where she could keep Sophie with her. Instead, she was down to her last few dollars with nowhere to take her newborn daughter.

      Crystal guided the wheelchair down the long, pristine hospital corridor and out the exit toward the parking lot.

      “So what did Dax have on his mind?”

      The question startled Jenna. She’d tried to put the rugged cowboy out of her thoughts. “I’m not sure.”

      “What did he say?”

      “He asked if Sophie and I were all right and then he left.”

      Crystal chuckled. “He’s not a big talker.”

      “I noticed.”

      “Hunky, though, huh?”

      “I suppose.” She really didn’t want to talk about the cowboy. “I think I scared him off.”

      “Nah. He’s just quiet. I don’t think anything scares Dax Coleman except his ex-wife.”

      “He’s divorced?”

      “Yep. For years, but as far as I know, he’s never dated again. Reba did a number on him, the witch.”

      Jenna, in spite of herself, tilted her head in question. “Was she?”

      Crystal hitched one shoulder. “I never liked her much, though some folks think the divorce was Dax’s fault.”

      He wasn’t exactly Mr. Congeniality, but after the way he’d helped her, she felt compelled to take his side. “Outsiders seldom know the full story.”

      She knew that from personal experience.

      “Too true. And Dax has always been one of the good guys. Or he used to be.”

      Jenna let the subject of the cowboy drop. Something about him unsettled her in the oddest manner.

      Wheels clattered over the concrete parking lot as Crystal pushed her and Sophie into the weak sunshine. The fresh air felt good on Jenna’s skin after the stuffiness of the hospital.

      Holding her pink-wrapped daughter snuggled close to her body, a few free baby supplies compliments of the hospital stuffed between her side and the arm of the chair, she couldn’t help thinking how different this dismissal would have been in Philadelphia. Surrounded by masses of flowers, a private nurse, and at least two burly bodyguards—one for her and one for Sophie—she would have been gently hustled into a waiting car driven by Fredrick, the family chauffeur, and driven home to the nursery suite especially commissioned and furnished by her mother. There, in the stark white nursery, a nanny would have whisked Sophie from her arms and taken over every nuance of the baby’s care. If Jenna was lucky and made enough fuss, she might get to hold her child occasionally.

      No, she’d made the right decision, even if she had no idea where she would go or what she would do now.

      The wheelchair slowed. “Which way is your car?”

      “Out to the left, I think. It’s a faded blue.” She scanned the parking lot, hoping she’d recognize the still-unfamiliar vehicle. Was it only four days ago when, in an effort to conceal her true destination, she’d taken the train as far as Baltimore and purchased the car from a classified ad?

      “There.” She pointed, gripping Sophie tighter as Crystal picked up speed.

      When they reached the car, the nurse held the baby while Jenna dug out her keys and unlocked the door.

      “Someone washed my car,” she said in wonder, gazing into the backseat. Someone had even cleaned the interior, which now smelled of vinyl cleaner instead of dust and designer perfume.

      “Interesting,” Crystal commented. “Must have been Dax.”

      “Why would he do that?”

      The nurse shrugged. “Don’t know, but it sure is interesting. Visiting you at the hospital and washing your car. Maybe he has a thing for new mothers.”

      Shocked, Jenna’s snapped around to stare at the nurse. Crystal burst into laughter. “Girl, you should see your face. I was only teasing.”

      “Oh.” But Jenna got that fluttery feeling in her stomach again. What was it about the mention of Dax Coleman that stirred her so?

      “Where’s your car safety seat?”

      “My what?”

      “Texas has a child safety seat law. You can’t leave the hospital with Sophie until you have one installed.”

      One more thing she hadn’t thought of. “Where can I get one?”

      Crystal studied her from beneath black eyelashes. “The hospital sells them. If you’d like I’ll run back inside and get one for you.”

      “Do you mind?”

      “Not a bit.” She named a price and Jenna extracted the required bills from her wallet.

      “Cute purse,” Crystal said. “Is that real alligator?”

      “Crocodile. It was a gift,” she hurried to say, downplaying her ability to purchase such a bag. What she really wanted to say was, “Want to buy it?” The cost of the handbag would go a long way toward apartment rent.

      “Wish somebody would buy me gifts like that.”

      “No, you don’t,” she nearly said to the nurse’s retreating back. You don’t want someone to try to control you with money and things and fear.

      While Crystal was gone, Jenna thought of her dwindling resources, spirits ebbing lower and lower. Even during her short marriage, they’d always had her considerable bank account, a fact that had changed her average Joe husband to Joe Millionaire in a matter of weeks.

      She tasted