Borrowed Baby Read Free Page A

have anywhere to go!"
    Griff put his arms around the sobbing girl he hadn't seen in two years and held his sister close. "Yes, you do. You're home."
    But as he held her, he became aware that there was something between them, something Sally was holding. It squealed. Griff moved back abruptly as if he had been burned.
    Sally was holding a baby.
    Griff stared down at the bundle, dumbfounded. "Um, when did—?"
    Sally pulled back the blanket from the child's face. "Six months ago. Griff," she said, her hopeful eyes on his face, "this is your niece, Cassandra."
    It took Griff a full minute before the shock had passed and he could speak again. "Sally, we've got a lot of talking to do."

Chapter Two
    Griff unlocked the front door feeling both sad and apprehensive. And angry. A baby. How could she have gotten herself into this much trouble? Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed that Sally stood in the open doorway, looking a little uncertain. The anger softened. "Nothing's changed since you left," he assured her.
    He set down Sally's single suitcase and the infant seat next to the living-room sofa they had picked out together. "Traveling light, aren't you?"
    Sally took a deep breath and appeared to slowly absorb the surroundings. Her face seemed to relax a little as she smiled sadly. "I haven't acquired too much since I last saw you."
    Griff looked dubiously at the baby she cradled against her hip. "Oh, I wouldn't say that." He watched Sally move around the room, touching, absorbing, obviously remembering. She looked a lot thinner. The baby gurgled. Griff's thoughts returned to the infant. "Was it the guitar player?"
    His sister swung around. Her arm tightened around her daughter. "His name is Buddy." Sally raised her small chin defensively.
    "His name is mud from where I stand." He saw the tension return to her face and reach her shoulders. They weren't going to get anywhere arguing, he told himself. It was enough that she was back. Griff raised his hands to call a truce. "Okay, we'll drop it for now. Hungry?"
    Sally looked relieved that he had changed the subject. She nodded her head.
    Griff grinned. "I can still boil a mean frozen dinner pouch;"
    Sally laughed, obviously remembering that it was practically the only kind of meal they had ever had. "Anything," she said.
    Griff looked down at the baby. He still couldn't bring himself to accept that it was hers. Part of him, he knew, still thought of Sally as a baby. "How about, um—?" He nodded toward the infant.
    "Casie," Sally supplied quickly. "Cassandra's kind of a big name for her," she admitted, "but she'll grow into it. Buddy picked it out."
    "It figures," Griff muttered.
    Sally acted as if she hadn't heard. "I have everything she needs right here." Sally patted the oversize weather-beaten tan purse that hung from her shoulder. "Don't worry, she'll let us know when she's hungry."
    "Swell. C'mon." He led the way into the kitchen. Shifting Casie higher on her hip, Sally picked up the infant seat and followed him.
    "You really haven't changed anything." Sally looked around the small kitchen with its light blue wallpaper. Tiny flowers networking their way up the walls gave the kitchen a warm feeling. She and Griff had spent a lot of time in this room, talking. Sally set the infant seat down on the table and strapped Casie into it.
    "I didn't have to. I liked everything the way it was." He opened the freezer and took out a Chinese entrée that promised heaven in a transparent pouch. Griff pulled out a pot from the cupboard and filled it with water. He kept his silence long enough to place the pot on a front burner and turn up the heat beneath it. Then he turned and looked at his sister.
    "So what happened?"
    Sally didn't meet his gaze right away. Instead, she nervously played with the ruffle on Casie's dress. "You mean lately, or in the past two years?"
    Griff crossed his arms before his chest and leaned back against the sink. "Any way you want to tell it."
    She shrugged, and he