"We came to bring the baby a present. Y'all just keep your seats out there in the kitchen," she called out. "I'm going to steal this baby from Kate and rock her a spell. She needs to get to know me real good so she'll be comfortable with me when her mama goes to work."

Kate waited until Hattie was settled in the rocking chair before putting the baby in her arms. "She's a good baby. When Amanda finishes her supper, she'll come in here and open the present."

"Thank you!" Amanda called out. "I hope I'm not being rude, but I am going to eat first and open later. This is too good to let it get cold."

"I understand. Take your time," Hattie said. "I'm good right here. She's a beauty, with this mop of red hair."

"You think it will stay that color or all fall out and grow in dark like Gracie's?"

"She'll be a redhead, mark my words." Hattie began to hum a lullaby. "This is what I've missed about having my grandkids live so far away. I can't just pop in and see them for a little while and then go home."

Kate touched Victor on the arm. "Come on in the kitchen and have a glass of tea or some pot roast if you haven't eaten."

"I'm not sure I can get away from staring at this little princess," he said. "You looked pretty good with her in your arms."

"It felt good, but there's no use wishing for miracles," Kate said.

He followed her into the kitchen. "I've eaten, but I might have one of those biscuits with some honey."

"Sit down and help yourself," Jamie said. "There's plenty of everything if you change your mind. And Kate is a natural when it comes to babies. Most people in her position wouldn't be that comfortable with one."

"In my position?" Kate put a thick chunk of roast on her plate and covered it with gravy. "What does that mean?"

"That you haven't been around kids," Amanda answered for Jamie. "And that you are a career woman, not a mothering type. But I got to say, if any woman could have it both ways, I believe you would be able to do it."

"Do what?" Waylon poked his head in the door after a brief knock.

"Be a mother and run a business both," Amanda said. "Come on in and see Lia Beth."

Waylon removed his hat and laid it on the coffee table. "In my opinion, Kate could run a ranch, plus an oil company and a houseful of kids all at the same time."

"Where's my Supergirl cape?" Kate laughed. "Truth is that I'd trade it all if I could have a baby."

"There's other ways to get one than birthin' her," Amanda said. "There's adoption."

Kate shook her head. "That's a possibility, I guess, but my age might be a hold up for adoption."

"Forty is the new thirty." Jamie chuckled. "Or you could buy a dozen."

"Now that might be a possibility." Kate laughed with her. "Except Waylon tells me that's against the law."

It was the perfect time to tell them all in one fell swoop that she was taking a year to sort things out. She had no idea what she'd do, other than keep working part-time at the ranch. But she wanted to hold the decision close to her heart for a few days, be selfish with it and wait until that perfect moment to tell them and Waylon. Tonight was all about Amanda and the new baby, and she didn't want to steal their thunder.

Waylon held out his arms toward Hattie. "It's my turn to do some rocking."

"I'm an old woman," she protested.

He wiggled his fingers. "I bet Victor hasn't even gotten to hold her yet, has he?"

"No, I have not," Victor called out from the kitchen. "But you go on. I can take her away from you easier than I can get her away from Hattie."

"Oh, all right!" Hattie handed the baby to him. "You could have had a dozen of them if you hadn't been so busy chasing bad guys."

"Can't do a recall on that decision. Besides, you met my ex-wives. Which one would you pick to be a mother?" Waylon asked.

Hattie shook her finger at him. "Neither one. They were both too self-centered to ever have children."

"And there you have it." Waylon sat down and stretched his long legs out in front of him.

"Here, you can come and sit beside me, Gracie." Hattie patted the sofa. "Tell me what you think of your new sister."

Gracie snuggled up next to Hattie. "I thought she'd be big enough to play Barbies with me when she got here, but Amanda says that first she has to learn to crawl and then walk and talk and that all takes time. I guess I like her, but about all she did all day long when we got her home from the hospital was eat and sleep."

"You did that when you were a baby, too," Hattie said.

"Mama told me that. It don't sound very exciting, does it?"

Kate listened to them with one ear, but she couldn't take her eyes off Waylon. There was something extremely sexy about a big, muscular man with a tiny newborn in his arms. His eyes sparkled when he stared down at her, and when she wrapped her little fist around his forefinger, he absolutely beamed.

"What?" He looked up and caught her staring.

"You look pretty good with a baby in your arms, too," she answered.

"Every little girl needs an uncle to spoil her and teach her to ride horses," he said.

"Yes, she does," Amanda said. "We'll be christening her at the church as soon as we can take her out of the house. I want you and Kate to be her godparents."

"What about Jamie?" Kate stammered.

"I've talked to her about it. If something happens to me, she'd be glad to help you two out, but she has Gracie, and you two don't have any children."

"I'd be honored," Waylon said.

"Me, too," Kate said.

That solidified her decision right there. She was Lia's godmother, and she needed to be close by to help Amanda with her upbringing. Plus, Waylon would spoil her too much, and Kate needed to keep an eye on him.

No one saw her swipe a tear out of her eye or knew the peace that settled around her like a warm blanket on a cold winter night when she finally came to grips with the decision she'd been fighting for days.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.

The job had consumed Waylon for more than twenty years. From beat cop to detective had been a journey that had cost him, but there was no use in looking back. Good memories linked him with three different partners in that busy room through those doors. He finally pushed into the room to the nods of his fellow detectives and smiles from his partner and the new woman who was officially taking his place at the end of the month.

"You can't tell me you aren't going to miss this." Larry grinned.

"You could still work for another twenty years," Christina said.

Waylon set three cups of coffee on the desk. "It's time for me to go home, and I'm happy with the decision. So you think my phone call last week spooked the florist?"

"Oh, yeah," Larry said.

"And he's willing to talk?"

"He's scared out of his mind, but he says he'll only talk to you. He's got a sign on the door saying he's closed this week due to a family emergency. Says for you to come to the alley door. What did you promise him when you talked to him that second time after we'd visited with Estrella Gonzales?"

Waylon handed each of them a coffee and sipped at his. "A way out."

"Well, then let's go take it to him."

Half an hour later, three empty coffee cups lay in a plastic bag in the backseat of Larry's unmarked vehicle behind the Red Rose Florist. A little round man with a bald head and wire-rimmed glasses poked his head out and motioned them inside before they even knocked on the door sporting a gang's spray-painted graffiti. He'd flipped on the overhead lights in his office, but the rest of the place was dark.

"I'm Detective Waylon Kramer. This is Detective Larry Johnson and Detective Christina Miller. We talked on the phone. I understand that you have something to say to me," Waylon said.

"You said that I could be held as an accomplice if I withheld information. Before I say a word without a lawyer, I want your word that-"

Waylon held up a palm. "You didn't think it was important, did you, Mr. Drummond."

He shook his head. "Of course I didn't, or I would have told you earlier."

"And then you remembered and you called me immediately, right?" Waylon wanted to pinch the man's head off for wasting his time, but more than that, for the misery he'd put Kate through by not coming forward at the beginning of the investigation.

Mr. Drummond's head bobbed up and down several times. "That's right. You see, Conrad was a very good customer. But the past few months, I got nosy and saw that he was signing the card with a different name. I figured he was sending the weekly roses for one of his buddies who had affairs all the time, like he did."

"How long had he been a customer?" Larry asked.

"Fifteen years, I'd say. The first lady he sent flowers to worked at Truman Oil Company. I'm the florist, so I don't ask questions. I just send them wherever he says." He ripped a tissue out of a box and wiped his hands. "There were lots more through the years, but his last few times I noticed that he signed 'Carl' to the card instead of 'Conrad.'"

"We know he used that name sometimes, so this isn't anything new," Waylon said.

"Let me finish," Mr. Drummond said. "So after a few weeks my protector"-he made air quotes around the last word-"came into the store and wanted to know all about Carl, the man in the picture that they showed me."

"We asked you about gangs weeks ago," Larry said.

"Didn't you hear me?" Mr. Drummond's beady little eyes bugged out. "Protector. Protection money. Murder in my shop. They shoot people for less than talking to the cops. I've been scared they'd kill me for even letting you know about Estrella."

"Go on," Waylon said.

"Stickler-that's the name of the gang leader-asked me if that was Carl in the picture with his sister. I told him no, that was Conrad."

"And?" Waylon asked.

"That's when I recognized the woman. It was Katrina Gonzales, the young bathing suit model that you see on the billboards around town," he answered.

"Go on," Larry said.

"Katrina is Estrella and Stickler's baby sister. She's not in the gang business, and they protect her like a mama bear with a new cub. My bet is that they checked into Conrad Steele and Carl Swanson, found out they were the same man, and you can do the math on the rest."

"They found out about his three wives and his other life," Christina said.

"And the dozens of other women he'd sent flowers when they came back and made me pull out my files." Mr. Drummond nodded again. "They've been back in a couple of times a week since that day, and my protection money doubled. I don't need a blueprint to show me that they will figure out that I told you about Estrella, and when they do, I'm as dead as Conrad."

"So you want to go into wit sec?" Larry asked.

"I do not," he snapped. "I'm retiring. Have a flight to a place where you can't bring me back, and I won't be using this name. I'm tired of all this gang crap. I'm only talking to you because of those three wives. It's not fair to them to suffer for what they didn't do. I saw that article in the newspaper and I felt guilty. I want to leave here with a clear conscience."

"One more question. Was it Stickler who killed him, or did he have it done?" Larry asked.

"There are six nanny cams scattered around my shop-I hide those so all people see are the surveillance cameras. Here are the flash drives from inside them. It was family, so Stickler and Estrella took care of it." He handed them an envelope. "I was hiding behind the counter and I didn't see a thing from the time the shooting started, but these will help you."

"Thank you," Waylon said. "That's good information. Enjoy your retirement."

The man followed them outside, locked the door, and got into a green SUV. Waylon quickly wrote down the license number and then tucked his notebook back into his vest pocket.

"You going to let him leave?" Christina asked.

"Take a look at these right now and then I'll decide." Waylon pulled several flash drive sticks from the envelope and put them into her hands. She quickly pulled a tablet from her purse and plugged the first one into it.

A quick run-through showed a male and female with their backs to the main surveillance camera, but the nanny cams caught their faces clearly. Their masks were pulled up so the last faces Conrad saw would be theirs. Then there was gunfire. The masks came back down in front of the surveillance cameras, and they walked away, leaving Conrad on the floor with yellow roses still clutched in his hands.

"Can we identify them with that?" Waylon asked.

"Oh, yeah," Christina said. "We couldn't see them on the normal camera, but this is pure gold."

"We couldn't lock anything down until now," Larry said. "Let's call in for a couple of warrants and go pick them up."

"Where?"

"At their bar down south of town. That's where the whole gang hangs out," Christina said. "They'll be there. The king and his sister don't leave the castle unless it's important."

"And you know this how?"

"I paid my dues on the street," Christina answered. "So now that we're getting the case closed, how long are you sticking around for, Waylon?"

"Until the end of the week. I want to see these two behind bars. And I need to clean out my apartment. Lease is up on September 1."

"You won't quit. Detective work is in your blood." Larry laughed.

"Watch me." Waylon smiled.

Christina's dues paid off, and they snagged both Estrella and Stickler in the bar right where she'd told them they would be. They lawyered up before they were even in the interrogation room, but it was over. Kate's name was cleared, as were Amanda's and Jamie's.

He called from his apartment that evening, and she answered on the fourth ring.