Shawn leaned over the sink to splash his face free of shaving cream, careful not to drip water onto the little bundle of joy strapped to his chest by a baby carrier. He hummed as he dried his jaw with a hand towel, partially because Noelle seemed to appreciate either his voice or the vibration of his chest, and partially out of sheer gratitude as he remembered the outpouring of love and generosity parishioners had given him—them—on Christmas Day. Even though he’d been the pastor of his small congregation for several years, remembering the incredible scene at Heather’s house still sent him reeling with thankfulness for so many blessings.
Good people. Wonderful, amazing friends and neighbors.
After Jo and Frank had come and gone, he and Heather had been visited by at least a dozen other families, all bringing supplies for Noelle and extra food and gifts for Heather and her kids. He knew he shouldn’t be stunned at how quickly the word got around town that there was a baby in need, nor the amazing way people responded when they heard.
Serendipity was like that. Folks cared for each other, even to the point of interrupting their own holidays to make sure little Noelle had what she needed. Of course it wasn’t enough that everyone had had such open hearts toward the baby. They’d been thinking of Heather and her children as well, which Shawn considered far more than merely the icing on the cake. He had a whole new appreciation for living in Serendipity.
Since Christmas Day was on a Friday, Shawn had been able to spend the whole weekend with Noelle, and he was glad for the opportunity. His sleep deprivation hadn’t lessened, but that was to be expected. He was proud of how well he’d managed to adjust to the role of foster father. Of course, it helped knowing Heather was no more than a phone call away. He experienced far less pressure with Heather as his right-hand woman, and he had, in fact, made use of her expertise several times over the past two days.
There was definitely a steep learning curve where infants were concerned, at least for him. Someone had slipped him a copy of a baby-care book in one of the bags, which probably would have been a tremendous help to him—if he’d had nine months to prepare and memorize every line in the manual. It wasn’t as if he had time to sit down and read any book cover to cover between feeding and diapering duty, and yet that was probably exactly what he needed to do. Somehow. In his nonexistent spare time. As it was, he was grateful for the index and the table of contents that allowed him to turn to specific pages for assistance.
But as nice as the book was, it was nothing close to the advantage of having Heather on his side. She was infinitely patient with him, and didn’t seem to mind his endless string of clueless and sometimes brainless questions, nor the fact that he phoned her quite literally every couple of hours, even in the middle of the night. She’d been a great deal more than a shoulder to lean on. She was practically holding him up. She’d offered to spell him again if he needed her to take the baby for a while and gracefully let him know he could avail himself of the charity of her home should he need a bit more shut-eye than he was getting on his own.
He’d considered her invitation and more than once had been on the brink of accepting it, but thankfully, he and Noelle seemed to be hitting a stride with each other and he hadn’t had to put Heather out any more than he already had. He was certainly bothering her enough just with the numerous phone calls and questions. No need to further complicate matters by becoming a mainstay at her house.
She already had her three kids to take care of. She didn’t need two more.
Now that it was Monday, they’d made plans to take Noelle to San Antonio to meet with the social worker who was the point person for Heather and her three children. Heather had arranged for a neighbor to take care of Jacob, Missy and Henry so she could accompany him, giving him even more reason to be grateful for her. He was racking up quite a bill of kindnesses given to him, and he knew he’d never be able to repay her. Not only was she encouraging him by her presence and her connections, but she’d even offered to drive him to town. He was glad she was going along, if nothing else, to remind him of what a really good foster parent looked like—and to underscore the fact that he wasn’t that person.
With every minute that ticked closer to their appointment time, he found himself more urgently needing the reminder that he was not the right person to see to Noelle’s care on any kind of permanent basis. And what kind of crazy was that for him to even consider? Noelle deserved better than a cowboy pastor with zero parenting experience.
He would have thought that as much as he’d struggled to care for Noelle, especially at the beginning, he’d be anxious to put her into decent care with people who knew what they were doing. So why was this so hard? It shouldn’t be, practically speaking, but his heart wasn’t listening. It was going to be difficult for him to hand her off to a stranger.
Painful.
Maybe it was his lack of sleep, or maybe it was that he’d had two days with no one to talk to except Heather and the tiny infant, but he had bonded with Noelle. It was the strangest thing. He felt as if his large heart was tied to her tiny one by a delicate thread—a string that would snap the moment Noelle was lifted from his arms.
If he had a wife by his side to mother the infant, he knew he wouldn’t think twice before volunteering to foster Noelle, maybe even adopt her. But he didn’t. And even with a woman by his side, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be father material.
His own family was a train wreck of gigantic proportions. Shawn acknowledged that he was the cause of all his family’s ills. A mother hospitalized under permanent psychiatric care. A father who loved the bottle more than his life. His brother...
He couldn’t let himself think about David.
There was no way he could ever put another human being in that kind of jeopardy. He didn’t trust himself, and never would. As much as his heart went out to Noelle, he couldn’t be responsible for a child’s life.
He brushed a blue terry-cloth towel down his face to remove traces of aftershave and stared at himself in the mirror, but he didn’t see his own reflection. Instead, he saw his younger brother’s face.
Little six-year-old David, his ginger hair sticking to his sweaty forehead, his fair, freckled skin burned and red. His palms flat against the surface of the car window, fingers spread. His mouth open wide in a silent scream, pleading for Shawn to reach him.
To save him.
Shawn shuddered and turned away from the mirror. He hadn’t been able to rescue David, and he hadn’t been able to salvage what was left of his mother’s sanity after her younger son had died. His father had never picked up a drink in his life until he’d watched his younger son being lowered into the ground.
Shawn had done that. He had failed his family on every conceivable level.
Noelle needed better than that. She needed safety. Security. Someone who knew what he or she was doing, someone confident around an infant and able to make the kind of permanent commitment the baby required.
She needed a good family who would give her the love and care she deserved.
Please, God, let it be so.
His prayer was shortened by the sound of a car horn.
Heather.
Shawn didn’t want to keep her waiting. He grabbed the infant car seat off the kitchen table on his way out, thankful that Zach and Delia had been willing and able to temporarily loan it to him for Noelle’s one-way trip into San Antonio. He swallowed back the emotion that burned his throat. There was no point in his buying a car seat for her when he’d only need it for today. Her new foster parents would no doubt purchase one for her.
Ignoring the ache in his chest, he exited the house and waved to Heather as he approached her silver midsize SUV. She hurried around to the passenger side and opened the back door while he unfastened Noelle from the baby carrier on his chest.
“The car seat goes in the middle,” she informed him, gesturing toward the interior. “Why don’t you let me hold the baby while you get it snapped in?”
He nodded and handed Noelle to Heather, giving his shoulders a mental straightening as he turned to meet this new challenge—strapping in a car seat. It couldn’t possibly be that difficult, right? Besides, he’d looked up the directions online, although he probably wouldn’t admit that part aloud. It was a first for him, but he didn’t want to look incompetent around Heather, and he wanted to get it right for the sake of Noelle’s safety.
Five minutes turned into ten. The metal clip that was supposed to be used to keep the shoulder strap stable was next to impossible to thread onto the seat belt, and it had to be perfectly positioned to keep the backward-facing baby seat tight. Just as he was about to give up and let Heather have a go at it, the lock clicked.
He uncurled himself from the backseat with a sigh of relief. He thought Heather might be amused by his amateur attempt at securing the car seat but her expression was serious.
He flashed a self-effacing grin, hoping to lighten the moment. “Wow. That car seat really gave me a run for the money there, didn’t it? My lack of experience is showing again. Is there anything about caring for an infant that is easy?” he joked.
She started to shake her head and then stopped, tipping her chin so her hazel eyes met his. “Love. Loving them is easy.”
He felt her words like a swift uppercut to his jaw.
KO. Knockout.
Yes. Loving Noelle was easy. But it wasn’t simple, because right now loving Noelle meant letting her go. And that was as complicated as it got.
“Yes, it is,” he agreed through the catch in his throat. He reached for Noelle and fastened her into the car seat. Then he moved around to the front driver’s side to open the door for Heather, allowing her to take her place behind the wheel before he moved around to the other side of the SUV. “I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me,” he added as he slid into the passenger seat.
“For Noelle, you mean,” she responded without looking at him, her voice barely above a whisper.
It felt like a rebuke to Shawn’s already raw heart. This day was getting tougher by the moment. But she was right. It wasn’t about him.
“For Noelle,” he agreed, hoping she couldn’t hear any telltale grief in his tone.
The hour-long drive to San Antonio was made almost entirely in silence. Twice Shawn tried to make small talk, and twice the conversation quickly lapsed into stillness. It wasn’t an easy silence between them, either. The air felt prickly. Shawn didn’t know how Noelle managed to sleep so peacefully through it. Heather kept her attention on the road, but Shawn sensed there was more to it than good driving habits. She kept both white-knuckled fists clutched onto the steering wheel. The smooth skin at the corner of her jaw occasionally twitched with strain.
What bothered him most wasn’t just that she was acting withdrawn in general, although there was that. This day wasn’t going to be easy on anyone, Heather included. It was more the sense that she was purposefully withdrawing from him, and he didn’t know why.
It had been her idea to accompany him, after all. She was here to help him, or rather, as she’d so succinctly pointed out, to help Noelle. But it appeared she didn’t want to share any more of herself than was absolutely necessary. Shawn didn’t even know how to begin to address the issue. Every time he spoke up, he ended up floundering to an awkward halt.
So much for being a friend to her. And his pastoral training was no help whatsoever, completely deserting him when he most needed it.
Heather seemed to relax as they entered the city. Her posture changed. Straightened and softened. She lost her stiffness and her eyes gleamed with anticipation.
Shawn, on the other hand, was a bundle of tense muscles and overactive nerves that twitched and tightened more and more with every mile they drove closer to their destination. He wanted to tell Heather to turn around and drive back to Serendipity...but he knew that wasn’t an option. No matter how he felt about it personally, this thing needed to be done. It was the only way, the logical and rational conclusion to everything that had happened since the moment he’d first found Noelle in the manger.
But the knowing didn’t make the doing any easier. Not for Shawn.
“You’ll like Maggie,” Heather remarked softly as she turned the SUV into the parking lot of the government building. “She’s very down-to-earth and quite practical, but you can tell she really cares for the kids. And at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting her.” No, he wasn’t. Shawn rubbed his palms against his khaki slacks and then reached for the door handle.
“Shawn?” She reached for his shoulder, her touch hesitant and her voice quivering with emotion.
Swallowing back emotion, he turned and appraised her. She gave him an encouraging smile, but her gaze was filled with doubt.
“It’s going to be okay,” she murmured.
“Yeah.” His voice dropped an octave and turned the consistency of harsh gravel. He wasn’t sure he believed her. He didn’t even know if she believed her own words.
She slid her hand down the length of his arm until her palm met his. Her hands were tiny and fragile and her fingers shook as they squeezed his. Here she was trying to make him feel better when she was probably struggling herself. This wasn’t easy for either of them. Suddenly he felt as though he ought to be the one doing the reassuring. Somehow that thought infused him with courage. His hand closed over hers and she tightened her grip. Their gazes met and locked, giving and taking.
Abruptly, she broke the moment, snatching her hand from his and practically tumbling out the door in her haste to put distance between them.
“We’re going to be late,” she said, her voice sounding high and squeaky.
He slid a hand over his hair, feeling oddly as if something precious had been taken away from him. He didn’t know what had just happened, but it had nothing to do with needing to get to the social services office. Yet what else could he do but go along with her?
“Right. I’ll get the baby.”
Thankfully, it was easier to remove Noelle from her car seat than it was to put her into it, and soon they were approaching Maggie Dockerty’s office, such as it was. There was no receptionist at the front desk, only a clipboard with a lined sign-in sheet dangling off the front counter by a worn chain. A felt-tip pen was attached by a piece of Velcro.
Shawn glanced around. A couple of raw, informal cubicles were sectioned off by gray partitions that looked as though they’d seen better days. Hand-me-down office equipment littered the area. The whole place felt old and decrepit, not at all what Shawn would have expected from an office dedicated to finding children good homes.
A middle-aged brunette with short, spiky hair popped her head around the corner of the nearest partition. “Heather? It’s good to see you again. And you must be Shawn O’Riley,” she continued, nodding his direction. “Come on back and take a seat here. I’m anxious to meet that precious little baby girl Heather has been telling me all about.”
Maggie’s tone and words set Shawn’s mind at ease. At least she appeared to genuinely care about Noelle, to acknowledge her as a person needing care.
That was something, wasn’t it?
They entered Maggie’s cubicle, and Shawn offered Heather a seat before taking his own, careful not to disturb Noelle, who was sound asleep in the curve of his arm. His gaze darted from place to place and finally settled on Maggie’s desk, which was littered with paper. He couldn’t look at Noelle or he would simply lose it, and he didn’t dare meet Maggie’s eyes, afraid his distress would show. He hadn’t shed tears since the day they had buried David, but right now his eyes were burning like hot coals, and it took every ounce of his will to screen his emotions.
“I’ve already got the papers drawn up for you, Shawn,” Maggie informed him, pushing a stack of papers across the desk and into his view and waving a ballpoint pen under his nose.
“Papers?” he echoed, confused. He took the pen from her, but only because she wouldn’t leave off waving it at him.
Why would they need him to sign anything? He wasn’t the child’s guardian. Was it because he was the one who’d found her?
“Naturally, we’ll have to schedule a home visit so I can make sure you’ve got everything baby-proofed, but it’s mostly just a formality. We don’t have nearly enough foster parents, and it certainly isn’t every day that a man steps up for a child the way you are right now.”
Steps up? What was Maggie talking about?
He shifted his confused, questioning gaze to Heather, whose hazel eyes widened in dismay. She grimaced, her hand flying up to cover her lips.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Maggie,” she blurted out. “You must have misunderstood me. Shawn was gracious enough to take care of Noelle until we could get to San Antonio, but he can’t keep her. Not permanently.”
“I see.” Maggie pinched her mouth around the edges and tiny lines formed on her upper lip. “I beg your pardon, Shawn. I was under the impression that you’d come in today to apply to become Noelle’s foster father.”
“I—I can’t,” Shawn stammered, heat rising to his face and his throat tightening, cutting off his supply of oxygen. “I would, but I—”
“Of course. I understand.” Maggie cut him off before he could finish the sentence, and he was glad of it. He didn’t know how he would have finished that sentence if Maggie hadn’t taken pity on him and interrupted when she did. It wasn’t so much a matter of “wouldn’t.” It was a matter of “couldn’t.” He couldn’t take care of baby Noelle. He couldn’t risk it. She deserved so much better than anything he was capable of offering.
“As Heather well knows, it’s difficult to foster children when you’re single,” Maggie continued. She smiled gratefully at Heather, but Shawn noticed the stress lines that had formed on her forehead. He imagined it wasn’t an easy job for her, finding homes for all the tough foster cases she dealt with every day. No wonder she looked taxed. “Heather told me you’re a pastor in addition to being a rancher, Shawn. I commend you for that, and I’m sure you’re far too busy with your congregation and your ranch work to care for an infant.”
“No,” Shawn snapped back immediately. “It’s not that at all.”
Both women looked at him as if he’d grown an extra eye on his forehead, and he grimaced before apologizing for his tone. He was better than this. Taking a deep breath, he focused his attention on his voice, leveling it out to something less...frantic.
“What I mean to say is it’s not my job that prevents me from offering my services as a foster father to Noelle. I’ve come to care for her, and honestly, there is nothing I’d like more than to keep her with me. It’s just that—”
For a man who made his living off words, he was having difficulty forming anything remotely resembling a coherent sentence clarifying why he couldn’t take Noelle. The rationalization for his choice was murky in his own mind. He only knew that he couldn’t risk Noelle’s safety, never mind her happiness, on his potential inabilities.
“You don’t have to explain,” Maggie assured him. “It’s completely understandable. Believe me, I was completely aware that what I was asking you to do went far above and beyond what most folks could muster.” She wheeled her office chair over to the file cabinet in the corner of her cubicle and opened the third drawer down, riffling through several multicolored folders before she selected an olive-green one. “Let me just find the papers we need to get Noelle enrolled in a state home and I’ll take her off your hands.”
“A state home?” Shawn repeated, his heart suddenly coming alive in his chest, beating a wild, irregular tattoo marked by rapid shots of adrenaline. The fight-or-flight instinct was kicking in, though he wasn’t sure why. “I thought—That is, I assumed she’d go to a nice foster home. With someone like Heather.”
He heard a little gasp from Heather but he didn’t look at her. His gaze was focused entirely on Maggie, who was frowning and shaking her head.
“As you can well imagine, there aren’t enough people like Heather in the world. I’m afraid we have a serious overflow of foster children right now and not nearly enough homes for them. The procedure is that kids are temporarily assigned to state facilities until we can find potential foster families for them or they get permanently adopted, which doesn’t happen nearly enough. Noelle being a newborn plays in her favor, though. Folks are more interested in adopting newborns than the older kids like Heather’s taken. There’s that working for her, at least. She may not have to stay in the state home for long.”
“How long are we talking?” Shawn asked gravely. “A few days?”
“Weeks, more like. Sometimes months. It’s hard to say. Noelle will have to be formally evaluated by one of our physicians. Often in cases of abandonment, the baby has been exposed to illegal substances in utero, which makes placement more difficult due to the medical issues drug babies face.”
Shawn was stunned into silence, but his mind was screaming. Noelle in a group home with a bunch of other kids? What kind of care would she receive? How many adults would be there? Who would love her?
“A drug baby. Well, that might explain a lot,” Heather murmured. “About Noelle, I mean. It could be that she’s crying so often because she’s in physical withdrawal from her mother’s drug or alcohol habit.”
“It’s definitely a possibility,” Maggie affirmed. “I’ll make a notation in her file and we’ll get her a checkup immediately so we know what we’re dealing with. Now, if I can get some information from you, Shawn, I’ll get this new paperwork in motion.”
“No.”
Maggie’s green eyes snapped to his, her dark, contoured eyebrows displaying a high arch. “I beg your pardon?”
“No. I don’t want Noelle going into a state facility.”
Heather placed a hand on his forearm, which was a measure of comfort against the anxiety coursing through him that had him feeling as if he was about ready to jump out of his skin. Somehow she seemed to understand what was happening to him. Maybe she could see it. Every muscle in his body was crackling with energy. He was walking the proverbial plank with his hands tied out in front of him and manacles bound to his ankles.
But what else could he do?
“I’m afraid we don’t have any other options,” Maggie informed him crisply. “Group homes are an unfortunate by-product of the system, but I assure you that we’ll do all we can to make sure Noelle is well cared for. Texas has a strong support system. Her potential problems notwithstanding, I’m optimistic that she’ll eventually be placed in a permanent home. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”
Nothing for him to worry about?
The lady was clean out of her mind if she thought Shawn was capable of not worrying after handing an innocent baby off to her with no guarantee of where Noelle would land. It wasn’t as if he could simply walk out of the office and forget he’d ever found the infant in the manger Christmas Eve. As if he could somehow put it all behind him and go on with his life.
“‘Eventually’ isn’t good enough for me,” Shawn informed her, adjusting Noelle in his arms so his hold on her was even more secure. Right next to his heart, where she belonged—at least for now. “I’m taking her home with me.”
Heather’s pulse jolted to life at Shawn’s words. He was going to step up and foster baby Noelle, after all?
What man did that—set aside his own expectations, his own lifestyle, to care for the needs of another, especially one as innocent and helpless as Noelle?
None that she’d ever known. He was a rarity, for sure.
Shawn had already surprised her a number of times over the past weekend, beginning with the moment he’d volunteered to take Noelle into his care rather than pawn her off onto someone else on Christmas Eve. It would have been easy enough to hand her off to the police, or try to find someone else in town to take the baby on temporarily. But he hadn’t done that. He cared enough to sacrifice his own comfort to do the right thing, even when the going got rough. And then later, after being exposed to the truth about parenthood, he hadn’t broken. No matter how tired and sleep-deprived he’d been, he had never once lost his temper, yelled or complained—at least that she had heard.
And now, even after learning firsthand how difficult taking care of a newborn could be—very possibly a newborn with unforeseen medical problems—he was going to take the ultimate leap into foster parenthood.
What kind of man would make such a sacrifice?
Apparently, she was looking at him. She just couldn’t believe her eyes. Or her ears. Never mind what her heart was telling her.
Shawn was a man whose actions spoke louder than his words. He was a man who saw the worth in a tiny bundle of humanity who’d been thrown out to be eaten up by the big, wide, nasty world—and he not only noticed, but stepped up to do something about it. When Noelle had been abandoned, Shawn was there to protect and defend her.
In short, he very much appeared to be the kind of man Heather had once hoped and believed existed somewhere in the world but had long since given up on finding in reality. At least, her reality.
The jury is still out, she reminded herself sternly. She winced inwardly. She knew better than most that what a woman observed on the outside was not always what she got on the inside, not when push came to literal shove.
“Give me a pen,” Shawn said, his voice a deep, rich hum. “I’m ready to sign whatever legal documents are necessary to keep Noelle with me.”
“Excellent,” Maggie said. Unlike Heather, Maggie didn’t sound surprised that Shawn had changed his mind—or rather, made up his mind. But then again, thinking back over Maggie’s comments, Heather wondered if Maggie had been pushing Shawn that direction all along.
“Are you sure?” Heather couldn’t help but ask the question aloud.
Did he realize what he was getting himself into?
He’d come with the intention of handing Noelle off to another foster family, which of course was to be expected. Why should he change his whole life because he’d found a baby inside his church? Noelle wasn’t supposed to be his problem.
But now she would be. He was making her his problem, legally and officially. And Heather couldn’t imagine why.
She was well aware of why she fostered children, or at least why she’d taken Jacob, Missy and Henry in the first place. Her motives had shifted over the months she’d had the kids, as she’d fallen in love with the three little sweethearts. But that didn’t negate the fact that originally she’d signed up as a foster mother as a meager form of penitence. She wasn’t kidding herself about her motivation. While she would never be able to make up for the lives lost due to her negligence with Adrian, she could and did make her foster children’s lives better.
They were happy. She was as content as she’d ever been. And she loved her kids more than she’d thought possible.
But what were Shawn’s motives?
God presumably knew, but Heather certainly didn’t. If the pensive expression on Shawn’s face was anything to go by, she doubted even Shawn knew.
Shawn patted Noelle’s back in a gentle rhythm. “You mentioned baby-proofing my house.” He grimaced, cleared his throat and flashed a weak grin. “How do I do that, exactly? Do you have an instruction guide? Diagrams?”
“The best I can offer you is a policy-and-procedure manual,” Maggie said with a laugh. “We offer weekly parenting classes, but I’m not sure how feasible that would be for you, living as far out of town as you do.”
“I’ll manage,” he said. The corner of his lips twitched with strain.
“I’ll help,” Heather assured him, even though it went against the grain to make the offer. She had enough on her plate without getting more involved in Shawn’s drama, but even though she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with him, who else would be there to help him prepare his living situation for Noelle, if not her? “It’s really not that complicated. We’ll need to cover all the open electrical outlets and put child-locks on the cabinets. You’ll definitely want to move any harmful chemicals out of the reach of little hands and make sure any medicine bottles and firearms are well-protected.”
“I’m not a hunter, so I don’t have any weapons in the house. And I’m as healthy as a horse, so I don’t have any prescription medicines around.”
“Any over-the-counter painkillers? Vitamins? Antacids?” Heather probed. “They’re all dangerous if ingested by an infant. Childproof caps are all well and good, but they certainly aren’t fail-safe.”
Light dawned in his pale blue eyes, along with a flash of panic. “Oh, yeah. Right. I didn’t think. What if I... That is... I don’t want to miss anything.” Shawn stroked his face, drawing Heather’s attention to the strong line of his clean-shaven jaw. He was taking this very seriously, she had to give him that much. It made her want to reassure him.
“You won’t. I remember how overwhelmed I felt when I first brought my three kids home. Just remember you aren’t alone. I’m here to help, just like I’ve been since Noelle came into our lives. Just a phone call away, day or night.”
“You will never even begin to comprehend how much that means to me,” he replied, brushing a kiss against Noelle’s dark hair.
“Oh, I think I do,” Heather murmured. She couldn’t help but smile at the admittedly adorable picture Shawn made, his expression as helpless as the baby in his arms.
“Is it all right if we stop at a discount store before we leave San Antonio? I’m going to need to buy a crib and a car seat immediately, and then you can help me make a list of the other supplies I’ll be needing.”
Heather chuckled. “Put diapers at the top of that list. Lots and lots of diapers.”
The neighbors who’d visited on Christmas Day had provided enough diapers, bottles, packages of formula and changes of clothes to get Shawn and Noelle by for a while, but Heather knew there would be numerous challenges in the days ahead, and she knew she would be able to help, even if it pained her to do so.
“Diapers. Right.” Shawn made a face. “Guess it goes with the territory.”
“Give it a week,” she advised. “Soon it’ll come second nature and you won’t have to think about it.”
He didn’t look convinced, but the glow in his eyes exhibited his resolve. He was clearly going to make a go of it on willpower alone, if nothing else.
“We can make a quick stop at Emerson’s Hardware once we get back into Serendipity. They carry all the baby-proofing items we’ll need. Right now Noelle is too small to get into too much mischief, but it’s only a matter of time before she’ll be crawling around your house. You’ll need to evaluate with an eye to what a baby might get into or be harmed by. Glass furniture, sharp edges, potentially hot surfaces, even the toilet bowl. That kind of thing.”
“And that will be the purpose of my visit, as well,” Maggie added. “Simply to ensure Noelle’s long-term well-being—not that I have any doubts, mind you. I already have a really great feeling about this particular matchup.”
Shawn glanced down at Noelle and a smile played at the corners of his lips. “Blessed by the Almighty’s hand.”
“Perhaps,” Maggie agreed mildly. “It certainly looks that way.”
“I don’t know why He picked me.”
That statement was somewhat enlightening. Was that what this was about? Shawn having some kind of guilt complex because he’d been the one to find Noelle? Was he doing this because he thought God had somehow ordered the circumstances, practically depositing Noelle in Shawn’s lap? How long would that conviction last—and what would it mean for Noelle in the aftermath?
“In any event, I assure you it’s not my intention to judge you or your home in any way except to make suggestions on how to keep Noelle safe and sound. I hope you’ll consider me your partner in this.”
“Safe and sound,” Shawn repeated with a nod. “My primary goal.”
Heather’s stomach turned over but she managed a light laugh despite her misgivings. “And surrounded by love. Don’t forget your main concern as a foster father will be to love her.”
His eyes widened on her, his shock evident. “I didn’t forget,” he assured her. “Loving Noelle—well, that’s just a given. It’s not going to slip my mind or anything. I don’t have to work on that part.”
“No, I don’t think you do,” Heather agreed, and she was astounded to find she actually believed him. This guy was quite literally putting his life on hold for this child. Perhaps there was good in the world after all.