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It was heartwarming to see, made her chest feel warm and shimmery and something else she’d never felt before, but it stirred in her soul clear down to her toes, and while she’d always admired Travis, she felt something more. Something stronger as she looked at him holding the tiny baby.
She supposed women through the ages had looked at men in the same way. Something about seeing a man holding a baby, and not just holding it, but holding it like they would face death itself in order to protect it, stirred every feminine cell she had and brought them to attention.
“You can keep in touch.”
“I can’t. I have to go.”
They watched as she turned and hurried off, disappearing into the darkness.
“She doesn’t even have a car,” Ellen murmured.
“Maybe she just parked it a little ways away so we wouldn’t see it and couldn’t report her.”
“Is it illegal to give someone a baby?” Ellen asked, thinking that it probably should be, although maybe not. Maybe it was better to do what this woman had done, to give her baby to someone she thought could take care of her, rather than abandon her completely. Or, worse yet, keep her but allow her to be abused.
No, Ellen had no doubt the woman loved the baby and thought she was doing the very best thing she could for her.
“I need to call Roger,” Travis murmured.
“Are you two still standing there?” Shanna said, walking out with her baby held loosely on one hip.
Ellen had completely forgotten about Shanna. Although it wouldn’t have surprised her, as angry as she seemed, if she would have walked back in and not come out again.
Travis would be honor bound to go in and get her, Ellen was sure, since he had bought her lunch bucket.
“You need to excuse me for a moment. I have a phone call to make,” Travis said, barely looking at Shanna as he moved away.
Ellen almost offered to hold the baby, but it didn’t look to her like Travis had any intention of giving her up. It was adorable, and she figured she could spend a lot of time just staring at him holding the little one, but he would probably appreciate her trying to appease Shanna more than her staring at him at the moment.
“Can I give you a hand with the kids and help get the food out on the table while he talks on the phone?”
“We’re going to eat whether he does or not,” Shanna snapped, grabbing the bucket from one end of the table, setting it down at the other, putting a child on the bench, and holding the other as she put first one leg and then the other over the side of the seat and sat down.
“You want me to go inside to get you drinks?” Ellen asked.
Shanna jerked her head up. “Shoot. I totally forgot about drinks.”
“What would you guys like? I’ll go and grab some. I don’t think Travis will be long on the phone.”
“He better not be. I want my money back. If I had known that he was going to completely ignore me, I wouldn’t have been so interested in having him buy my meal.”
Shanna had never been overly kind to her, but Ellen felt bad for her anyway. She could commiserate with that, even if she didn’t blame Travis for not really wanting to spend a lot of time with her, not that he had much choice, since the night had been rather eventful. But it would hurt Shanna’s feelings.
Knowing she was a poor substitute for Travis and Shanna didn’t want her anyway, she hurried into the community building to grab some drinks.
Chapter 11
“Hey, Travis.” Roger’s voice was casual and easy on the other end of the line. Travis knew the time zones as well as someone who had lived in Brazil would, and he also knew that they were heading into fall, or the rainy season where Roger was. “You’ve only been gone a week. Surely you’re not thinking that you need to check up on me already?”
He was feeling jet lagged. The traveling was exhausting, and he’d made it worse by pushing as hard as he could to get home to Ellen. He had really wanted to buy her bucket and catch up with her. Tonight had not gone as planned. That was for sure, he thought as he looked down at the little baby snuggled in his arms. For now, it was fine, since the baby seemed to be sleeping, but what was he going to do when she woke up? He had no clue how to take care of a baby.
Not to mention, how was he going to work and take care of an infant at the same time?
Surely he would be able to figure out some answers to his questions, but the first thing he needed to do was deal with his brother.
“You didn’t tell me you had a baby,” he said.
There was silence on the phone.
