One Bear and a Baby: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 1) Read Online Free

along the street to see if there was anyone lurking there. No one. Still she could not shake the sensation that something was off. Shrugging, she headed back to the front door and lifted her hand to knock … the door opened before she had the chance to.
    “Hello, Jesse. Hello, Maisie,” she said.
    “Hi, Sheriff, won’t you come in? Cade is just getting out of the shower.” Jesse stood back to allow her to pass, although she seemed reluctant. Isabelle decided to keep her guard up; the Eastons were a good family, but not all bad people were obvious. For all Isabelle knew they might be secret serial killers.
    “Can I get you some coffee?” Jesse asked, heading to the kitchen.
    Isabelle followed. “Yes, please.” It would give her more of an excuse to hang around, even though she had already drunk enough coffee this morning to keep her awake for the rest of the day and half of the night.
    “He won’t be a minute,” Jesse said, baby still in her arms.
    “Can you manage while holding Maisie?” Isabelle asked.
    “She doesn’t like being set down,” Jesse said. “She’s not used to the strange house yet.”
    “Here, let me…” Isabelle held out her arms, and after a moment of hesitation, Jesse let her take the baby. “Hi there.” She had an ulterior motive of course. While Jesse made the coffee, Isabelle took the time to inspect Maisie, feeling her weight, seeing that she was well fed, and there were no other obvious injuries. Isabelle wanted to reassure herself that the child was not being systematically abused.
    Looking into the trusting eyes of the infant, she was certain Maisie was well looked after and loved. Apart from one that one small burn. Isabelle smiled at Maisie, and wondered if she had got it wrong. Maybe Cade was the good guy here, and it was Maisie’s mom who had hurt her and he had brought her here to keep her safe. As sheriff, she would like to help him do that, or maybe encourage him to press formal charges against the mother. In short, she wanted answers. Isabelle had learned long ago that the more information you had, the easier it was to deal with issues before they became problems.
    Still, anger bubbled up inside of her. Someone had hurt this poor defenseless child. And if she found out it was Cade, she would have him before a judge in no time and Maisie put into care. Nothing gave another person the right to hurt a defenseless child.
    “Jesse. Has Cade told you any more about where he has been and who Maisie’s mom was?”
    Jesse turned to look at her, and then turned away to stir the coffee as she spoke. Avoiding eye contact: so she was about to lie.
    “Who her mom is . She’s still alive.” Jesse placed a mug of coffee down next to her, and smiled sadly at Maisie. “Her mom left her, just dumped her on Cade and then disappeared.”
    “So Cade has been solely responsible for Maisie? Her whole life?”
    “Yes.” Jesse avoided her eyes again.
    “Jesse, you have to tell me the truth.” If that was the truth, it meant Cade had to be responsible for the burn mark. If it was a lie, then what was the truth, what were they trying to hide?
    “It’s just so sad. That a woman could leave their child like that.” Jesse turned back to her and for the first time she purposefully made eye contact. “You are one of us. I’ve seen you out on the mountain, as a bear, right?”
    “Yes. That’s why I came here to Tawny Valley. It’s always easier to have a shifter as sheriff if a large number of the population are the same.”
    “Then you’ll understand we don’t want a lot of questions about Maisie and her parentage. No DNA tests, or anything.”
    “I understand, but I’m a sheriff first, shifter second.” She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to get rid of the tingling there. Something about this house was causing her to feel wrong. Off her game. Damn, she hoped whoever Maisie’s mom was, she hadn’t come to some terrible end and was now buried in the back yard.
    “Of