Not Quite Mine (Not Quite #2)(5)
Author: Catherine Bybee

What if she didn’t do that? Right in front of her was a miracle Katie could never have on her own. She knew that one day she’d look into adopting, maybe even a surrogate birth. Hell, she’d be a mother already if life hadn’t killed that dream.

Bundled up in a neat little package was a dream realized. A dream that money really couldn’t buy.

Savannah wiggled in her sleep, the movement had both Monica and Katie leaning closer. Within seconds, the infant started to blink and open her beautiful blue eyes.

Katie felt her breath coming in short pants. She was so amazing. So perfect. Savannah stretched her arms wide and opened her mouth in a yawn bigger than she was. Then a high-pitched squeak erupted from her mouth.

Katie reached for the buckle and unsnapped it. Savannah watched Katie as she pushed the blanket away and wrapped her arms around the baby for the first time.

“Watch her head,” Monica instructed.

“Right.”

Careful to support Savannah’s neck, Katie lifted her onto her lap. Her tiny arms swam in the pajamas she wore. Little legs kicked Katie’s stomach with a tiny pat. She leaned down and kissed Savannah’s forehead and drew in the fresh, clean scent of her skin. Everything about her was so new. “When was she born?”

Monica picked up the birth certificate and said, “Two weeks ago today.”

Savannah’s hand curled around Katie’s finger and gave a squeeze as if to say, Don’t let go.

“You’re going to keep her, aren’t you?” Monica’s question didn’t have an ounce of judgment in it.

Katie shook her head no, then yes. “Her mother must have been desperate to leave her at my door. I think I should try to find her, find out what her letter meant.”

“And keep Savannah while you’re looking?”

“The police would put her in foster care. I can take better care of her than someone desperate for the money the state gives them.”

“What if you don’t find the mom?”

“Someone left a baby on my doorstep at one in the morning. There are cameras all over this complex.”

“In your foyer?” Monica glanced toward the front door.

“At least one, plenty more in the lobby, the main hallways…elevators.” There had to be someone with a baby caught on film.

Savannah squirmed and sputtered out a cry. Katie’s attention went back to the child in her arms. “Are you hungry?” she asked in a voice a full octave higher than her normal tone. What was it about babies that had people talking in voices that weren’t their own? “I’ll bet your mommy has something in this bag for you to eat.”

Monica’s hand dipped into the bag and removed a bottle and a container full of formula. “I’ll get this ready. Why don’t you see if she needs her diaper changed?”

As Monica stood to work her way to the kitchen, Katie stopped her. “I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I?” The question was foreign coming from her lips. Katelyn Morrison, millionaire and heiress to half of her daddy’s estate, had always run through life completely confident in everything she did. Yet with the package weighing less than ten pounds sitting in her lap and starting to fuss, she felt clueless about her next move.

“I have no idea.”

“What would you do?”

“I’d call my sister and ask her advice.” Monica and Jessie were very close. Up until Monica finished nursing school, she lived with Jessie and helped take care of Danny. They had struggled for money every day of their lives, but they loved each other, depended on each other.

“I don’t have a sister,” Katie stated the obvious.

Monica shook her head. “You do now. I say we sleep on it. If Savannah is going to let us sleep, that is. We’ll figure this out together.”

“OK.” They could do this. Katie reminded herself to kiss her brother when he returned from his honeymoon. Marrying Jessie was the smartest thing Jack had ever done. Monica was quickly turning into a true friend.

Dean reduced himself to stalker status. Outside of Katie’s penthouse suite, he waited for Monica to exit the building for her morning run. He’d extracted the information about her exercise routine during the previous evening so he could corner Katie alone.

Jack’s concern for his sister squeezed a nagging trigger inside Dean’s head. A trigger he wished weren’t there. He had to know for himself that his ex wasn’t in any real trouble. Dean told himself it was for friendship’s sake. Hell, it was his friendship with Jack that had kept Katie and Dean apart for a small lifetime. And when their affair fell apart, Dean couldn’t even drink through the pain of the breakup with his best friend, because his best friend had no idea about the relationship.

Still, in the year and a half that he and Katie hadn’t spoken outside of obligatory time together getting ready for Jessie and Jack’s wedding, Dean had watched and kept up with Katelyn Morrison’s life. What he could see from afar, that is.

The papers grasped onto every torrid and newsworthy turn in the heiress’s life. Dean knew that when she’d broken off with him, she’d rushed back into the arms of an old lover, proving that she’d never felt the same for Dean as he had for her. Looking back, he knew he’d rushed into a relationship with Maggie, and their breakup was probably for the best. What was wrong with him that women didn’t want to stick around? He’d pondered that thought for months until he simply turned his back on happily ever after. Sure, Jack made it look like fantasy material with Jessie. But Dean was done with long term anything when it came to the female gender in general. No-strings mutual affairs he could handle.

Commitment and promises of tomorrow, no way.

So what the hell was he doing suffering the early morning heat of a Houston summer waiting for Monica to jog her skinny butt around a few city blocks? The question swimming inside his head had him pushing off the building and turning to walk back to his rented car. Then Monica swung out of the building, waving at the doorman as she rested her sunglasses on her nose.

As Monica took off in the opposite direction, Dean removed his sunglasses and made his way inside the elite high-rise.

Dean walked up to the reception desk, praying the staff hadn’t changed over the last year.

“Mr. Prescott, how nice to see you again.” One hurdle down.

“Hello, Miss May. I see you’re just as lovely as ever.” Miss May was on the far side of sixty…and even further from “Miss” status.