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something infinitely sweet about a little person tucked so trustingly against your body. Granted, Sara was talking about a bag of flour, but nevertheless, I could feel my tender new-uncle feelings beginning to kick in.
    “I just have to keep it with me, right?”
    Yes, it was true. If I hadn’t already been the biggest sap in the world, I sure was now.
    Sara’s face lit up.
    “Oh, Mr. White, thank you, thank you! Now I don’t have to feel so dumb when I talk to Officer Cook. I promise I’ll do everything he says and get back here as soon as I can. Thank you!”
    She dumped the bag unceremoniously on one of my two visitor chairs, grabbed Vicky’s arm and disappeared out the door.
    I realized I didn’t know what time she had her appointment with Rick.
    I looked at the bag of flour on the chair and sat down behind my desk.
    “I think I’m an idiot,” I told my new baby.
    “I know you’re an idiot,” Rick said from where he was leaning into my open doorway.
    “Please tell me you have a meeting with Sara Schiller first thing this morning,” I said to him.
    “Sorry, buddy. No can do. Why would I be talking to Sara Schiller?”
    I dropped my head to my desk.
    The Mistress of Deception had struck again.
    “Hey, you’ve got somebody’s baby in here,” Rick said.
    I lifted my head and saw him picking up the bag of flour.
    “Gina told me about this assignment last week,” Rick told me. “She said I could be the child protection officer, and if I see any abandoned babies, I should pick them up and bring them to her right away. I was kind of hoping I’d find one at the end of the day, though, so I could take it over to her townhouse to return it to her.”
    “Her townhouse?”
    “Absolutely,” he replied. “She’s got an awesome deck with a fire pit out back. There were some beautiful nights this weekend, let me tell you. Gina must know the names of every constellation in the sky.”
    “Wait a minute. Are you telling me you’re dating Gina Knorsen? When did this happen?”
    He dropped into the chair and set the bag of flour on the front edge of my desk.
    “When I asked her out two weekends ago. You were out of town. You and Luce went to that bed-and-breakfast place in Stillwater for your anniversary, and I took Gina out to dinner.”
    He rubbed the diamond stud in his ear, his mouth curling into a smile.
    “We really hit it off,” he added. “I just didn’t want to tell you about it yet. You know … I didn’t want to jinx it.”
    “Afraid I’d tell her about your sordid past and all your serious character flaws?”
    “Something like that. I don’t know, I’ve just got a feeling about Gina.”
    “I hate to remind you, Stud, but I’ve heard the ‘I’ve just got a feeling’ speech from you before,” I pointed out. “Several times, in fact.”
    I glanced meaningfully at the diamond in his earlobe. Rick had come home with it after a vacation cruise with his then-girlfriend. Four years later, the stud was still there, but the woman was long gone.
    “Yeah, well, we all make mistakes,” Rick chuckled. “At least I didn’t go for the nipple ring.”
    “I don’t want to know,” I assured him.
    He pointed at the flour on my desk. “So where did you find this?”
    “I didn’t,” I said. “Sara Schiller asked me to babysit.”
    “Did you agree?”
    “Well, yeah,” I conceded. “But that’s because she said she had an appointment to talk to you about her truancy last week, and she was too embarrassed to be carrying in the flour. Plus, she said that she didn’t want an F in the class. I thought that alone was significant progress as far as Sara is concerned, so I said I’d take the baby for her.”
    Rick steepled his fingers and considered the flour.
    “So, technically, Sara did not leave her child unattended,” Rick concluded. “Though she lied to do so, she did obtain care for her baby.”
    I dropped my head on my desk again. “Yes.”
    “That’s awfully generous of you,