A Baby for Dry Creek and A Dry Creek Christmas. Janet Tronstad

felt her heart smile. It sounded as if she had one friend in Dry Creek besides Reno. With the two of them by her side, she’d be fine.

      “Oh, I can’t wait to see the baby!” Linda whispered as she stopped about a yard from Chrissy and then tiptoed closer. Linda had a butterfly tattoo above one eye and a copper-red streak in her dark hair. “Is it sleeping?”

      “No, he’s awake.”

      “So it’s a boy.”

      Chrissy nodded. She decided she had no reason to feel self-conscious about her orange dress here. Linda was wearing a purple velvet dress and a large pink apron.

      Linda just stood grinning at her. “And you! How are you? You know, I meant to write, but I lost your address and then I forgot to ask Garrett for it again and, well—” She stopped to take a breath. “You’re here!”

      “It’s good to be back,” Chrissy said. “I thought about writing you, too, but there was the baby and then I was working and—well, it’s good to see you.”

      Chrissy knew Linda and her boyfriend, Duane “Jazz” Edison, were running the café to earn enough money to buy a farm of their own so they could get married. Unless Linda had had a birthday since Chrissy was here last, Linda was twenty.

      “Now, sit down and tell me about the baby,” Linda said as she motioned to one of the tables with the flowers on them. “What does he like to do? Are you nursing him or is he on the bottle? I want to know everything. I love babies.”

      The door to the café opened again, and Reno came in with the diaper bag.

      “Well, Justin eats good, so he’ll be growing fast,” Chrissy reported.

      “He’s going to be a baseball player someday,” Reno added as he set the diaper bag on the floor at Chrissy’s feet. “He’s got a good grip in his fingers. Don’t you, big fella?”

      Chrissy watched as Reno ran his thumb softly over the smooth skin on Justin’s tiny hand. “I can feel him practicing his pitches already.”

      Justin gurgled in response to Reno’s words.

      “That’s right,” Reno murmured.

      Chrissy’s throat went dry and she had to swallow. Where had she been for these past days? She hoped Justin wasn’t becoming too attached to Reno. Was it possible for a baby to even do that? Chrissy remembered how painful it had been for her when she was young and her mother’s boyfriends would leave. The first few times it happened, Chrissy didn’t understand and thought the men had disliked her for some reason. She didn’t want Justin to have that same hurt in his life.

      “The baby seems to like you,” Linda said quietly to Reno.

      “Yeah.” Reno grinned as though he’d been given a first-prize ribbon.

      “Justin just likes the sound of men’s voices,” Chrissy added quickly. She was beginning to see just how complicated this all was.

      She had more to worry about than whether Justin was becoming attached to the sight of Reno. She also had to worry about the hurt Justin could do to Reno.

      Reno might not recognize the speculative look in Linda’s eyes, but Chrissy did. Linda was wondering if Reno was Justin’s father. Of all the things Chrissy had worried about in coming to Dry Creek, this was one that hadn’t occurred to her. Reno had told her about the letter that had come to the Dry Creek postmaster, but she didn’t believe anyone in Dry Creek would seriously believe Reno was the father of her baby.

      “The baby’s father is still in Las Vegas, you know.” Chrissy would rather talk about almost anything than Jared, but she wanted the record to be straight in this small town. If she had to talk about her past with someone here, she’d rather it was Linda than anyone else.

      “That’s got to be hard,” Linda said as she reached over to give Chrissy’s shoulder a squeeze. “So it was the guy you were engaged to…”

      Chrissy nodded. “But it’s all right. We’ll be fine, Justin and I. Just as soon as I get a job.”

      “Oh, that’s right.” Linda jumped up. “Getting a job won’t be a problem in Dry Creek. We have a bulletin board over here for jobs.”

      “Really?” Chrissy asked as she turned to Reno. “Will you hold Justin for a little bit while I look at the ads?”

      Reno nodded as he put out his arms and accepted the baby.

      If he hadn’t been distracted by Justin, Reno would have noticed right away that something was odd. As it was, it took a few minutes of the excited chatter over at the bulletin board before it dawned on him that Mrs. Hargrove’s posting for a housekeeper wouldn’t generate that much enthusiasm.

      Reno stood up and walked closer to the bulletin board that was on the west wall of the café. He couldn’t believe his eyes. There had to be a dozen notices scribbled on index cards and tacked to the board.

      “Here’s one that looks interesting,” Chrissy was saying. “Dancing instructor wanted for gentleman. Twenty dollars an hour.”

      Linda nodded. “Jacob put that up. He said he was thinking he’d like to be able to dance the next time someone has a wedding in that barn south of town.”

      “We did line dancing at that wedding,” Reno interrupted. “There’s nothing to learn. You just put your foot where the caller tells you to put it. In. Out. Whatever.”

      “Before you got there, we had waltzing,” Linda said.

      “I can waltz.” Chrissy was still running her fingers down the cards lined up on the board. “Here’s one that calls for someone to do some mending.”

      “Elmer swears he’s got a dozen shirts with no buttons on them,” Linda said. “He said he’s flexible on the timing of it, too. He’s lived without buttons for a while now. He just wears a sweater over everything. But with summer coming, he wanted some shirts to wear that don’t require a sweater.”

      Reno looked at the cards in astonishment. Had everyone in town listed a job on the board? It sure looked like it. What were they doing? Everyone knew there were no jobs in Dry Creek.

      “Ah, here’s one for a cook/housekeeper,” Chrissy said. “That sounds promising.”

      Reno relaxed. Finally she was looking at Mrs. Hargrove’s notice.

      “But where’s the Wilkerson place?”

      “Lester’s?” Reno’s voice came out so loud it made Justin start to fuss. Without thinking, Reno started to slightly rock the baby where he stood.

      “Now, now.” Chrissy turned and started to coo. “It’s all right.”

      Reno wasn’t sure if Chrissy was cooing at him or Justin. “Why’s Lester advertising for a cook?”

      “Well, he is alone out on his ranch all the time. He could probably use some help,” Linda said as she gave Reno a look that said he shouldn’t be making this so difficult.

      Reno grunted, but didn’t back down. “The man eats from cans. All he does is heat it up. Hash. Chili. Soup. It’s all the same. A cook would be wasted on him.”

      “I don’t know,” Chrissy said thoughtfully as she held out her arms for Justin. “He did seem to enjoy that pie at the big Thanksgiving dinner at the ranch last fall. I make a pretty good apple pie, and I think that’s his favorite.”

      Reno frowned as he handed Justin to her. He didn’t like the thought of Chrissy making pies for Lester. “If he wants pie, he can come to the café.”

      “We don’t serve pie,” Linda reminded him.

      “And it’s a live-in position,” Chrissy said as she cradled Justin upright against her breast. “That way I wouldn’t have to pay rent anywhere, and Justin will have a place to play.”