The Sheriff's Son (7 page)

“It won't hurt you to learn,” she said, trying her best to sound casual. “You might want to become a father someday.”

He snorted, and Justine's heart cringed.

“I doubt I'll ever become a husband, much less a father,” he told her.

Justine's eyes dropped to the crown of Anna's red head. “In other words, you still don't want a family.”

If there was a caustic sound to her words, Roy didn't appear to notice. He spooned into the small mound of ice cream, then offered it to Adam. The boy promptly opened his mouth, and Roy cautiously slipped the spoon inside.

“It's not a matter of what I want,” Roy said after a moment. “It's just that I—” He paused and gestured toward both twins. “This isn't for me. I'm a sheriff and a rancher. What time I'm not doing law work, I'm taking care of cattle and horses. Besides, I never met a woman I wanted to get that close to.”

Other than you, Roy very nearly added, but he stopped himself short of that admission. It was bad enough that Justine had walked away from him without a word. The last thing he wanted was for her to know just how much she'd hurt him. She'd made his life sweet, filled it with purpose and meaning. He'd been able to talk to her about anything and everything. She'd not only been his lover, she'd also been his friend and companion. Since then, Roy had never found another woman who could fill the empty hole she'd left in him.

Deciding she'd heard enough of his cutting remarks, Justine put all her attention into feeding little Anna. After a few moments passed in silence, a burly man with balding gray hair and a thick walrus mustache approached their table.

“Hello, Roy. I see you made it in with the kids,” the man said, casting an eye at the twins and Justine.

“Fred, this is Justine Murdock. She's the lady who found the twins,” Roy told him.

Fred grinned with recognition. “She's also the lady who gave me a shot the last time I visited Dr. Bellamy.”

Justine nodded and smiled. “I hope I didn't hurt you too badly.”

Fred laughed and winked. “Best shot I ever had. Didn't feel a thing. ‘Course, it makes it a lot easier for a man to get jabbed with a needle when he has a beautiful woman to look at.”

Roy made a big production of clearing his throat. “What about the babies, Fred? Do you remember seeing them in here? Or was it another set of twins altogether?”

The middle-aged man stepped back from the table and carefully eyed both Adam and Anna, then nodded. “Yep, I'm pretty sure these are the two who were in here that day. I remember the boy having slightly darker red hair, and the girl had brighter hair like you, Ms. Murdock.” His expression suddenly turned thoughtful, as his gaze went from Justine to Anna and back again. “I know this sounds odd, but something about these babies look like you.”

Justine's mouth dropped open. “Me? Oh, no. It must be their red hair that's making you think such a thing,” she said with faint amusement “I have one child of my own, but I certainly haven't given birth to twins.”

“Well, like I said, I know it sounds crazy, but they both resemble you. Something about the chins, and the tilt of their eyes.”

Justine searched the babies' faces as she offered Anna
more ice cream. She hadn't seen a part of herself in either twin, but then, she'd had no reason to look.

Roy spoke up. “I think you're right, Fred. I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out.”

Justine glanced from one man to the other. “You're both ridiculous. How could these twins favor me? I don't even know anyone who's had twins, much less anyone who's related to me!”

Ignoring her protest, Roy asked Fred, “Can you describe the person who was with the babies?”

Fred shrugged. “A little. It was a woman. In her thirties, I'd say. She had dark hair that came to somewhere around here.” He measured a spot at the base of his neck. “She put the babies in high chairs and left them at the table while she went to the ladies' room.”

“How do you remember that? Yesterday you weren't sure you'd even seen the babies,” Roy reminded him.

Fred gave his mustache a thoughtful rub. “I just remember, Roy. Now that I've seen the babies, I know it was them. They came in the afternoon, while there was a lull in the place. I came out from the kitchen to fill the saltshakers. That's when I noticed that she got up and went to the ladies' room.”

“Did you speak to her at any time? Get her name? Did you notice the vehicle she was driving?”

Fred looked regretful. “Didn't notice what she was driving. I only asked her how she was doing, that's all. I didn't make conversation with her. Some women don't take to that, and besides, she seemed antsy to me.”

“What do you mean, antsy?” Roy asked.

Adam had discovered Roy's badge again, and was pulling on it with great concentration. While waiting for Fred to answer, he disengaged the baby's fingers.

“Oh, you know, Roy,” the man went on. “Kinda nervous-like. But I didn't think anything about it. I figured it
would make most any woman nervous to care for two little ones like this without any help.”

Roy nodded and glanced over at Justine. She was wiping Anna's face, and as he watched her, he didn't have to wonder what kind of mother she was. Charlie had a tender, attentive mother. One who would protect him fiercely and love him with every fiber of her being. But that didn't surprise Roy. He instinctively knew that Justine would be passionate about anyone she loved. She just hadn't loved him that way.

“Don't worry about it, Fred. What I'd like for you to do is get. together with a composite artist and see if you can come up with a close likeness of the woman. I'll have to call an artist in from Albuquerque, and that may take a day or two, but when he or she arrives, I'll let you know.”

“Sure, Roy. I'll be glad to help.”

The two men talked for a minute or two more before Fred left to go back to the kitchen. Once they were alone again, Justine looked at Roy. “What do you think? Do you believe he really remembers the twins and the woman?”

Roy nodded. “I also think he hit the mark when he said Anna and Adam, or whatever their real names are, resemble you.”

Justine let out a long, impatient breath. “Roy, I'll say it again. That notion is farfetched.”

Shrugging, he took a sip of his coffee. “Maybe so. But I want a list of your relatives.”

“You know my relatives.”

“I'm talking distant ones now.”

Anna began to squirm and fuss. Justine stood the baby up against her shoulder and patted her back. “Well, let's see, we have an elderly uncle on my mother's side. He lives in a nursing home in Texas.”

“Does he have children?”

Justine shook her head. “Never married.”

“We can mark him off.”

Justine tapped the tabletop with her fingertips as she went down a mental list in her mind. “There's an aunt on my mother's side, also. She lives in Colorado. She's married and in her sixties. She could never have children. Then there was a brother of Dad's. He's been dead several years. He had a son and daughter. Both of them are a little older than my sisters and myself.”

“Do they have children, or could they perhaps have had twins and decided to dump them on the Bar M?”

It was a preposterous idea, but Justine supposed in this sort of situation Roy needed to cover every angle. “I have no idea where either of my cousins are now. The last we heard, Neil had been in trouble with the law, and Earlene, his sister, was living in some sort of commune up in one of the northern states. The whole family was strange, and never really associated with us.”

“Do you have any old addresses? We might be able to trace them. It's a slim chance, but we have to start somewhere.”

She nodded. “I'll look for them tonight.”

“The woman that Fred just described to us, does she sound familiar? Like one of your relatives?”

Justine quickly shook her head. “The only female cousin I have is Earlene, the one I mentioned to you. She's a large blond woman. Of course, it's not unusual for a woman to change her hair color.”

Adam began banging both fists on the tabletop. Roy tucked the baby beneath the crook of his arm, then scooted the both of them back from the table. “Do babies never just sit still?” he asked Justine, while studying the child on his lap. “Looks to me like after a few minutes of this he'd be all tuckered out. I'm already getting that way.”

“They're both going to get fussy and tired if I don't get them back home,” Justine told him. “Are you ready to go?”

His lips curved mockingly. “Are you that anxious to get rid of my company?”

She was and she wasn't. Being with Roy this evening hadn't been all bad. But it hadn't necessarily been good for her, either. He made her think things, remember things, that were better left gone and forgotten. Still, she couldn't deny that Roy Pardee pulled on her like a magnet. She didn't want to be close to him, but she was drawn to him anyway.

“We've done what we came to do,” she said crisply. “I have things to do at home, and I'm sure you have plenty of work to get back to.”

He studied her face for so long that Justine shifted on her seat and frowned at him. “What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I'm trying to figure why you think it's necessary to give me an iceberg act”

“I'm not acting.”

“What would you rather call it, then? Lying? Because I can see from the color in your cheeks that you're feeling anything but cool.”

She took a deep, calming breath. It didn't help. “The color in my cheeks is there because you're annoying me.”

He couldn't help saying, “You used to enjoy spending time with me.”

For a moment, Justine was knocked off kilter by his words. She hadn't expected him to be thinking back. Especially about her and him. “I used to enjoy a lot of things about you,” she said quietly. “But you're not the same you, and I'm not the same me.”

Adam's hand was on Roy's, the soft little fingers patting his knuckles, then gripping his forefinger. It surprised Roy, just how precious the baby's touch was to him. And at that moment, with the child on his lap and Justine sitting across the table from him, he wondered exactly what he might have missed by not having a family. A family with her.

“We're the same, only older,” he said.

“I hope you're wrong about that, Roy. Neither one of us was very smart when we were…together.”

Together.
That word sounded so warm and sweet to him. Yet he didn't understand why. Being together with Justine was not what he wanted. She was ice and fire. She would have him crazy before he could turn around once. So why was he so reluctant to leave and send her on her way? Why couldn't he forget and go on to some other woman?

Because he didn't want another woman, he realized with a start. God only knew how hard he'd tried to find another one after Justine left town. In the past years, he'd had several women in his arms and in his bed. Yet none of them had stirred him as much as Justine could with just one look.

“We might not have been smart, but we were happy. For a while.”

Justine glanced at him, then tore her eyes away. She didn't want to think of the brief happiness they'd once shared. It hurt too much.

Grabbing her purse, she clutched Anna to her shoulder and rose to her feet. “Well, you know how the old saying goes—ignorance is bliss.”

The cynical tone of her voice jerked Roy out of his melancholy thoughts. Tightening his hold on Adam, he dug his wallet out of his jeans, then tossed a few bills down on the tabletop.

“Yeah, well, as far as I know, I'm neither ignorant or blissful. So I guess I have changed.”

Justine felt too miserable to say anything else. Roy got to his feet and caught hold of her elbow.

“Let's get out of here,” he muttered. “I think we've enjoyed about as much of each other as we can stand for one day.”

A few minutes later, as Justine drove the twins back to the Bar M, she couldn't shake Roy from her mind. The more she saw of him, the more she was beginning to realize
he wasn't quite the unfeeling, steely-eyed sheriff she'd first believed. This evening, she'd seen flashes of tenderness in him when he dealt with Adam, and later, when he spoke of the two of them once being happy together, Justine had been certain she heard regret in his voice.

But then his mood had turned dark. She knew she could blame herself for that. She'd goaded him with her flip remarks. As far as that went, she could blame herself for a part of their breakup. Yet that wouldn't do any good. It was over between them. When was she finally going to realize that?

That night, as she sat on the floor in her father's office, searching for her cousins' addresses, Chloe came into the room, carrying a fresh cup of steaming coffee.

“Knock, knock,” she called.

Justine smiled at her younger sister. “I hope that coffee is for me.”

“It is. I thought you might need a break.”

Justine took the cup and saucer from her, took a sip, then motioned to the pile of old papers and envelopes on the floor beside her. “Still no luck. I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell Roy I can't find our cousins' addresses.”

“Did you try looking through Mother's bag of old Christmas cards? You know she rarely ever threw correspondence away.”

Justine's face brightened. “Good idea. I'll look in a minute. But right now,” she said with a contented sigh, “I'm going to drink this.”

While Justine sipped the coffee, Chloe plopped down in a desk chair and crossed her legs.

“How are things going with the horses?” Justine asked her. “I've been so busy these past few days, I haven't asked you how your work with the yearlings is coming along.”

“Slowly. But I can already tell the Pie in the Sky filly is going to have rockets on her feet. She loves to run.”