Fortune's Secret Baby. Christyne Butler
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finishing his bottle.”
“Here, let me take him.” Kelsey’s sister plucked Anthony out of his arms and turned to her children. “Kids, park yourselves on the sofa and find something in your backpacks to keep you busy while your Aunt Kelsey and I get to know this adorable little thing.”
Dumbfounded, Cooper stood there as Anthony stopped his crying and gazed up at the woman as the children scrambled to do their mother’s bidding.
“Wow.” He finally found his voice, but the single syllable was the best he could come up with. “That’s … wow.”
“Cooper Fortune, your son’s kidnapper is my sister, Jessica Hunt-Myers.” Kelsey made the quick introduction. “Jessica, this is Cooper Fortune.”
“Hi, there,” Jessica said. “I think I can keep—ah, what’s his name?”
“Anthony.”
“I think I can keep Anthony busy for a few minutes if you want to make him that bottle.” Jessica sat in the chair Cooper had vacated and easily bounced the baby on her lap while answering three different questions from three different kids.
Cooper moved into the kitchen and quickly made a new bottle. He returned to the living room, expecting Jessica to give up her claim to his son, but she just motioned for the bottle, popping it into Anthony’s mouth.
He moved to the matching chair and sat, his gaze drawn to Kelsey. Perched on the end of the couch, with the youngest of her sister’s kids on her lap, she pointed to something in the book the little boy held. His tiny eyebrows puckered in concentration for a minute before he clucked like a chicken.
Cooper grinned. “Hey, that’s pretty good. Can you do a cow?”
The little boy looked at him. “We’re not at that page yet.”
“Adam.” His mother admonished him with one word, before she turned to Cooper. “I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce my children. The little one is Adam and he’s a very precocious three, and the twins, Braden and Bethany, are four. My oldest, Ella, is seven, so she’s at school.”
“What’s per-cos-ick?” Adam asked his mother.
“Precocious, and it means you’re very smart,” she answered with a smile as she set aside the empty bottle to lift Anthony to her shoulder. “All of my children are very smart,” she added when the twins started to protest. “They take after their father.”
“Kelsey told me about your husband. I’m sorry.”
Cooper watched as sadness flickered across the woman’s face before she offered him a smile.
“Thank you. She told me about Anthony’s mother. I’m sorry, too. You must have your hands full learning to be a single parent.” She patted the baby’s back, and soon Anthony let out a loud burp and giggled at his accomplishment. “I know what that’s like. If you need any help, just give me a holler.”
He turned to look at Kelsey, who seemed very interested in the picture book her nephew was holding. So, she really was serious about this matchmaking.
Hmm, right idea, wrong sister.
Cooper glanced back at Jessica. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Are you sure?” Kelsey stared at her sister over the roof of her car. “You really want to do this?”
“Are you kidding?” Jessica shot back as she shut her door and activated the automatic locks. “You have no idea how much I am going to enjoy myself.”
They walked across the parking lot toward the large building. Seconds later, automatic doors swished open and then closed behind them, locking out the Texas heat and bathing them in a cool breeze.
“With Mom and Dad watching the kids this afternoon, I’ve got three hours all to myself.”
Kelsey followed Jessica as she ventured farther into the brightly lit entrance. “So, go see a movie, get a massage, read a book … anything but this.”
“Spoken like a single woman who can be in and out of here in less than fifteen minutes and use the express checkout line.”
Jessica grabbed a large silver cart and aimed it toward the rainbow of colors that made up the produce section of the super-size grocery store. “Now, I can thump melons to my heart’s content, wrangle between cuts of meats at the butcher shop and actually make good use of my overstuffed coupon caddy.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes as Jessica’s fingers lightly danced over the vibrant array of apples, from light green to deep red, piled in front of her.
“This is nirvana,” her sister said.
They moved to the first aisle and Kelsey grabbed a bottle of wine from the end display and put it in the cart. A six-pack cellophane package of chocolate bars followed next.
She caught her sister’s disapproving glance. “Hey, you have your idea of heaven and I have mine.”
“Speaking of heaven,” Jessica paused as she looked over a selection of breakfast cereals in the next aisle, “that cowboy of yours is pretty dreamland-worthy.”
“He’s not my cowboy,” Kelsey protested. “In fact, I thought the two of you got along famously yesterday.”
“Yes, so famously that the guy could barely take his eyes off you the whole time.”
“Oh, please.”
“Besides, I told you before, I’m not in the market for a replacement for Peter.”
Her sister’s words were soft, but Kelsey heard the catch in her voice. “I’ve never suggested you replace him. That would be impossible. I just thought you’d finally turned the corner …”
“I have.” Jessica turned to Kelsey and gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “My life is filled with my children and my art. There’s no room right now for a man.”
“But you could fall in love again—”
“I h-had my shot at hap-happily ever after,” Jessica interrupted, her own words stumbling from her lips. “And it was wonderful for the short time it lasted.”
Her sister’s sudden interest in spaghetti sauce and the rapid blinking told Kelsey to change the subject.
Jessica took care of that for her as she grabbed the same brand of sauce she’d used for years and put it in the cart. “Now you, on the other hand—”
“Aren’t interested.”
Jessica looked her in the eye. “Liar.”
“Okay, so Cooper Fortune is a total hottie,” Kelsey relented, knowing it was useless to argue. She hated that her sister had always been able to tell when she was being less than honest. “But he and that adorable baby have got home and family written all over them and that’s not for me.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard you sing that tune for a long time. Ever since that jerk you dated all through college dumped you just before graduation for that former Miss Texas who could give him the proper home and proper children.” Jessica punctuated her last words with the two quick jerks of her fingers showing she was quoting Kelsey’s ex’s words.
“Well, he was right. Thomas is doing very well in his law practice and he’s eyeing a political future. He and his family made the cover of Texas Now! a few months ago.”
“Whoopee.”
“Besides, he never liked that I smelled like a barn at the end of the day.” Something he failed to mention even once during their four-year relationship after they met their freshman year at West Texas A&M University.
“An issue I don’t think Cooper would have a problem with.”
Kelsey grabbed a package of cookies from the shelf and placed them in the cart. “Been there, done that.