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"I wish you wouldn’t--"

"It’s required, Mr Haggerty," he said as he stood At precisely thatwoman, presumably an ad a simply beautiful baby of about ten e curls that circled her head Her eyes were so big they dominated her face Her round cheeks were pink, she had a little, rosy, heart-shaped ely, showing two brand-new front teeth And she said, "Ma!" before her hand dropped But her sether and giggled

"Mr Haggerty,woman said

"Oh, God," Paul said

And little Hannah said, "Ha!" And then she giggled again

Paul did the du hands toward her and she fell right into them She put her chubby ar into his neck

"Think about it, Paul I can’t complete an adoption for a couple the mother didn’t know and didn’t name in her will very quickly There will be red tape, it’ll take weeks," Scott said

"Will you take her home with you?" Paul asked

Scott shook his head "I’m afraid my wife and I have family commitments We could squeeze Hannah in, but it would be corandkids But I’ll ets quality foster care…"

Paul nuzzled her She smelled heavenly Then he lifted his head and looked at Scott "Can I foster her until my wife and I have had a chance to ed "I don’t see why not Terri had you in oing to string me up by the balls and take strips of flesh off hed in spite of hierty?"

"Today she is," Paul answered

"Should you call her first? Before taking Hannah home?"

"That would make sense," Paul said "But I’m the one es Terri I probably don’t owe her thishe was this child’s father and it alht he owed her was--"Terri was very kind toa real hard time" But it wasn’t so much that as this precious child in his arone and the only person Terri had been able to think of was Paul

"Let erty like children?"

"She wants a houseful I was really looking forward to starting on that"

"Did you ever discuss a possible adoption?"

"No And we sure never talked about adopting an ex-girlfriend’s offspring" Paul sighed heavily "She’s going to killto need a car seat And all her stuff"

Paul was all checked out on the car-seat installation because of little Mattie He rigged up the mirror so he could see her froear, fro and cleaning up a little girl baby--but he had nieces and had been roped into babysitting a few times when they were small, so it all ca out of Grants Pass to say, "She leftscared hiave her a bottle to drink as they started the trip and headed for home

"I should’ve called her," he told Hannah "That was stupid, not calling It would have given her a good four hours to think But see, when I thought about taking you home, it was obviously a bad idea Just didn’t fit into our family plan All that made sense, until I saw you Until you blew raspberries on my neck"

Hannah took the bottle out of herher "Drink the rest of that bottle and close your eyes It’s a long drive"

"Ma!" she said loudly

"Unfortunately, you’re stuck withon Vanessa when you et"

He drove in silence for a while, barely hearing the soft suckling sound of Hannah finishing her bottle In a voice quiet enough that the little girl ood person She was beautiful like you and very funny That’s why I called her the first tiot her sense of humor And obviously she wanted the best for you Not that I’m the best--but the way she looked out for you, in case so happened, that’s what ato be okay" He cleared his throat "And I’ll ht he should probably rehearse what he was going to say to Vanessa, but nothing came to mind It wasn’t exactly that he took one look at the beautiful little girl and completely reversed his position Not at all It still didn’t work into his plans for the future But he did take one look and decided you don’t just turn your back on a hu, a helpless child, and leave her to a system that may not serve her best interests Someone had to be her advocate And while Paul didn’t think it should be him, he really couldn’t think of anyone better for the job Certainly not a biological father who had abandoned her when she was ainto Virgin River to change and freshen Hannah, smear a little lotion on her and make sure she looked and smelled extra sweet God, but she was beautiful And while he carried her on his hip to walk to the trash can to pitch the dirty diaper, she put her arainst his cheek four straight tiled

And Paul cried

He pulled her close and tears ran silently down his cheeks He gulped a few times His voice was a whisper "See, I wasn’t in love with her, but she was a very good person She wanted you very o it alone I was aliven you one ainst his cheek again

"This shouldn’t have happened to you," he said, s, callused hand "You shouldn’t have been left with no one"

"Ma!" She put her head down on his shoulder