The Baby In The Back Seat
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Suddenly aware he should have been at his destination by now, his thoughts turned to the immediate problem.
As a photojournalist, he’d flown, driven and hiked to more offbeat and secluded places than he could count. He’d won half-a-dozen awards for his photo stories and had the trophies to prove it. Heck, he was even an internationally known photojournalist.
Until today, he’d managed to find his way around without a problem. So how in hell had he managed to get himself lost on a dirt road on the western slopes of the Colorado Rockies?
He didn’t really mind getting lost, he told himself as he peered out the window, trying to pinpoint his present location. The surrounding terrain was beautiful and so photogenic his fingers itched to grab his camera. He’d start shooting the miles of fresh green grass that, after last night’s rain, glistened in the afternoon sun. Or he’d capture the shadows cast by the ragged mountains just beyond the horizon.
Too bad he’d packed his cameras in the back, he thought wryly. He couldn’t reach one without pulling off the road and rummaging through the boxes packed on the back seat of the car. Or in the cargo space, which was full of his belongings.
With a rain-soaked dirt road under the wheels, capturing on film the majestic green peaks was tempting, but it would have to wait until he reached his destination. If ever.
Getting lost really bothered him. Losing control. He was a man who wrote his own rules, traveled when, where and how he wanted and lived the good life. In his book, that meant being in charge.
To his growing disgust, he wasn’t in charge now.
In the background, he heard a baby whimper.
Sam frowned and checked the car radio. It wasn’t on. With a shrug he laid the sound down to an overactive imagination triggered by a guilt trip at having driven away from the one person he loved more than life itself—Annie.
The baby whimpered again, a demand for attention if he’d ever heard one, he thought miserably as he glanced through the rearview mirror.
The sight of the back of an infant car seat buckled on the back seat sent his adrenaline into overdrive.
A baby? Annie? If this was Paige’s idea of a joke, it was a damn poor one.
His attention momentarily diverted, the large white rented SUV bumped into a pothole, slid and, to his mounting horror, shot across a narrow ditch and aimed straight for an ancient weathered fence. His heart thundered as he threw all of his 180 pounds into stomping on the brakes. To his mounting dismay, the car skidded on the muddy road and continued on its wayward course straight for the fence.
Cursing his luck, Sam broke into a cold sweat. A giant stab of pain tore at his forehead. Terror washed over him as he realized the wheels had no traction. Heaven only knew where he would wind up. Or, if he was lucky, that the SUV would end up in one piece.
It wasn’t himself he was thinking about—it was the baby in the back seat he’d heard crying. He gritted his teeth.
Instead of coming to a stop, the SUV tore through the fence rails, careered up a small slope and crashed into a small water tower, with predictable results. As if in slow motion, the tower swayed, toppled and showered the car with a torrent of water. With a muffled curse, he wrested the door open, bounded out and headed for the rear door to rescue the baby in the back seat.
The baby was indeed Annie, and she was demanding attention in the only way she knew how. Tears rolled down her pink cheeks. Hiccups shook her tiny frame. To his relief she opened her eyes and smiled through her tears when she saw him.
Shielding her from the water with his body, Sam hurried to unfasten the baby carrier, grabbed it in his arms and stumbled away from the soaked SUV to dry land.
Annie’s brown eyes, golden-brown hair and teary smile brought a lump to his throat and questions to his mind. How had Annie gotten into the SUV?
A close look revealed a note pinned to her blanket.
“Sam,” he read with dismay, “I saw the way you looked at Annie when you said goodbye. I realized then she was better off with you than with me. By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way to Paris. Don’t bother to call me. I’ll call you. Paige.”
His heart beat double-time as he realized this was the reason Paige had been so anxious to help him load his belongings and to send him on his way.
He managed to muster a smile to reassure his infant daughter. There was no use scaring her, he thought as he regarded tiny teeth between quivering lips. A little dimple on her chin, a duplicate of his own larger one, clinched the deal. Annie was his responsibility.
Annie had been the unplanned result of a brief visit home fifteen months ago. Because of his commitments, he’d only seen her twice since she’d been born six months ago. Once, when she was born and her mother had shocked him by telling him she planned a divorce. The second, a few short hours ago when he’d kissed Annie goodbye.
His heart finally slowed enough so he could take a deep breath. It wasn’t only the accident that gave him pause. It was the thought of taking on the responsibility of raising a child on his own. Especially one as young as Annie.
One thing for sure, fatherhood had to be a daunting experience under any circumstances.
In his case, he honestly knew zip about babies. If Annie didn’t fit into her mother’s schedule, she didn’t fit into his own nomadic career, either.
He gazed at his infant daughter. She might have been unplanned and her presence in the SUV unexpected, but he loved every tiny inch of her.
His lifestyle was definitely going to have to change.
His immediate problem, aside from having Annie with him, was the car’s busted radiator. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and smiled his reassurance at the baby. Good thing she couldn’t know he hadn’t the foggiest idea of what to do now. Not with her or the car, either.
Shouts, the excited barking of a dog and the sound of a galloping horse drew his attention. In the distance he saw a rider bearing down on him. Thank God, he thought as he jiggled the baby carrier; help was on its way.
He drew a deep breath and fought to think of a lucid answer to the question that was surely coming. What in hell had caused him to crash through the fence and take down the water tower?