by Susan Meier
With Bella in her crib, Matt returned to his room and Claire crawled under the covers on her bed again. She nearly got out her e-reader, expecting Bella to awaken soon and not wanting to fall asleep only to have to wake up again. But she drifted off to sleep and didn’t have another thought until the sound of Bella crying caused her to bounce up. Faint light peeked in at the meeting of the drapes. It had to be at least seven!
This time, she lifted Bella from her crib, took her into the bathroom and got her cleaned up for the day without waking Matt. She put her fingers over her lips to silence giggling Bella as they sneaked through Matt’s room to the bedroom door.
She was just about done feeding Bella some of the cereal that had been delivered the night before when Matt sleepily entered the kitchen.
“I told you I want to help. You should have gotten me up for this...and when she got up again last night.”
He wore the navy blue pajamas he’d worn the night before. A big navy velour robe hung loosely on his shoulders. Untied, the belt dangled to the floor and followed behind him like a thin train.
Still, with his hair sticking out in all directions and his eyes drooping sleepily, he was incredibly sexy. Sort of messed up like a guy who’d spent the morning making love. And much more approachable than the guy in the white shirt and handmade suit.
Knowing her brain had gone in a bad, bad direction, she turned her attention away from him and onto the baby as she answered his question.
“That’s just it. Bella didn’t get up last night. After her three o’clock feeding she slept until now.”
Halfway to the counter, he stopped, faced her. “She did?”
“Yes!” She lifted Bella off her lap and nuzzled noses with her. “Our girl had a good night’s sleep. In the four days I had her she barely slept four hours. With you, she’s sleeping.”
Matt’s heart about stopped. “That’s good?”
“That’s excellent!”
He swallowed the lump of emotion that formed in his throat. He might not be brilliant at parenting. Hell, he might not be ready to parent, but it seemed Bella trusted him. That gave him such an emotional high he could have happily kissed Claire, but everything that had happened between them the day before came tumbling back and his chest tightened.
He didn’t want to get involved with her. Worse, he didn’t want her to know how tied in knots she had him. So he headed for the counter and pulled out the coffee and filters.
“You still should have woken me when she got up.”
“There was no need.”
Pouring grounds into the filter, he said, “She’s my responsibility and I take my responsibilities seriously.”
To his complete surprise, she sniffed a laugh. “No kidding. A guy doesn’t get to be where you are by shirking his responsibilities.” She paused, glanced around. “Unless you inherited your money.”
“No. I didn’t.”
She only smiled.
“You’ve never heard of me, have you?”
“Should I have? Are you some kind of celebrity?”
He gaped at her. “Don’t you read the financial pages? See the most eligible bachelor section of any Boston magazine? I’m not a movie star but I’m kind of well known in Boston.”
“Never heard of you until we were contacted by Ginny’s attorney.” She lifted Bella and tickled her belly with her nose. “Look, I get it that you’re some big-deal financial guy. And that’s cool, but I don’t keep up on that stuff.”
He said, “Whatever,” brushing her off, but his heart beat out a strange tattoo. It was the first time since he’d gotten rich that he met someone who didn’t know the details of who he was. He might have thought it would be insulting. Instead, it felt strangely liberating.
“I’m going to take her upstairs while I change.” Light and happy, Claire’s voice drifted over to him. “Now that her tummy’s full, she may go down for a nap, which will give us time to call the nanny service.”
His stomach plummeted. The nanny service. That explained the happiness. As soon as he officially hired help, she got to go home.
Annoyance zinged through him, making him snippy. She might be glad to be leaving, but she didn’t have to be so obvious about it. “I guess I may be doing some apologizing since you hung up on the service I called last night.”
She rose with a laugh. “Or we could just call a different service.”
“I thought you said that was the best one?”
“That one’s the best, but the other two aren’t too far behind. We’ll decide which to call when I get downstairs.”
She left the kitchen and he found a bowl and a box of cereal. By the time she returned, he’d eaten and read the morning paper.
She set the baby monitor on the table. The small screen above the little speaker showed Bella sound asleep in her crib.
“I thought that needed to stay in her room.”
“The camera and microphone are in the room. The screen and speaker go where we go.” She sighed. “It took me a little longer to get her to sleep than I’d expected.”
He set the paper aside, trying to be nonchalant about the fact that the cute jeans she’d changed into had set his heart to humming again and her desire to go home annoyed him. He shouldn’t want her to stay. He should be glad she was going. So that’s how he acted. Cool. Casual. Unconcerned that she was leaving.
“Give me a minute to get into some clothes and we’ll call the nanny service.” He headed for the door, but stopped. Just because he was annoyed that didn’t give him license to be a bad host.
“Have you eaten?”
“No, but a cup of coffee will be enough.”
He frowned. “Really, Ms. Kincaid. A professional like you should know a good breakfast is necessary.”
She laughed. “Yeah. I should know. But I’m not much of a breakfast person.”
She turned, opened a cupboard, grabbed a mug and poured herself a cup of coffee.
Matt stood watching her, mesmerized. She was so casual around him, and his home, that the place didn’t feel so...sterile. Maybe that’s why he didn’t want her to leave? Even filled with people, his house never felt like a home.
He shook his head. Now where the hell were his thoughts going? He had to stop this.
He turned away from the sight of her sipping her coffee and left the kitchen.
In his closet, ridiculously, he stared at the clothes. She made simple jeans and a T-shirt look good. It wasn’t that he felt he needed to one-up her. He didn’t even feel he should be trying to entice her. But he had the strangest urge to look really good.
Irritated with himself for thinking such weird things, he grabbed jeans and a T-shirt and put them on. God only knew why this woman made him think like this. But he wasn’t falling victim. He refused.
He found her in the kitchen reading the same paper he had read while she was with Bella. “Ready?”
She snagged the baby monitor as she rose. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Finally. A little sadness in her voice. Not that he wanted her to stay. He was sure he and Bella would be fine once they got a nanny. It was simply insulting that she was so eager to bustle away. He knew her sadness probably stemmed from not wanting to leave Bella. But that pleased him more than thinking she didn’t want to leave him. Bella was a baby who needed all the love and affection she could get. He was a grown man who could find himself a new sex partner and be happy—
He frowned. Now, why did that suddenly seem tawdry? Unappealing?
She met him at the door. Holding the baby monitor in one hand as she slid the other into the back pocket of her jeans, she looked up at him. “The business cards are still in the den?”
His mouth went dry. Putting her hand behind her back caused her breasts to punch out, just slightly. But enough to bring his gaze there. He followed the path of a neat little pink T-shirt that hugged her trim waist and fell short of meeting the waistband of her low-rise jeans, exposing an enticing strip of pink skin.
> “Well?”
His gaze jumped to hers. “Huh?”
“The business cards? Are they in the den?”
“Um. Yes.” Praying to God she hadn’t seen the direction of his gaze, but knowing she’d have to be blind to have missed it, he pushed on the swinging door and headed down the hall.
In his office, she set the monitor on the desk between them as he picked up the business cards she’d given him the day before.
If it killed him, he intended to get his cool back. “Okay, agency number one is out for now, since you hung up on them.”
She sniffed and looked away.
“So we’re on to agency two.”
He dialed the first three numbers on the landline on his desk and suddenly a squawk came from the monitor. He glanced at the screen and saw Bella pulling herself into a sitting position as she sobbed.
Claire rose. Motioning with her hand, she said, “You keep going. I’ll get her. She probably needs a diaper change.”
He winced at the thought of changing a diaper, but replaced the receiver back in its cradle. “No. I’m taking advantage of as much time as I can to learn what I need to learn. I’m not sitting on the sidelines. I haven’t changed a diaper yet and while you’re here I’d like to do that.”
“I think that’s a great idea.”
In Bella’s bedroom, she held back while he approached the crib. Bella sobbed, her little arms raised as if begging for someone to hold her.
“I’m here,” he said, feeling the full weight of that. He was here. He would care for her. He would do this.
But when he lifted her into his arms, she didn’t settle. She wiped her wet face on the shoulder of his shirt, but still screamed as if the hounds of hell were chasing her.
“Shh. Shh. Bella, it’s okay,” he crooned, taking a few steps, rocking a bit to comfort her, but she kept crying.
Then she saw Claire. She stretched toward her, wailing like a banshee.
Claire caught his gaze. “May I?”
He levered Bella over to her. “Please.”
Bella wrapped her arms around Claire’s neck as if she’d found a lifeline.
“I guess she didn’t wake up because she needed a diaper.”
Claire sniffed a laugh. “No. I think she might have had a bad dream.” She rubbed her nose against Bella’s face. “Hey, sweetie. It’s okay. Don’t cry. I have you.”
Her crying subsided a bit, but she curled into Claire as if trying to get inside her skin. As if she was afraid of being left.
Matt swallowed. She was afraid of being left. She’d lost both of her parents five days ago. Then she’d been put into Claire’s custody and Claire had become her anchor.
Bella hadn’t slept through the night because she trusted Matt or even because she liked her new crib. She’d slept through the night because she was finally growing accustomed to Claire.
And Claire was leaving.
He scrubbed his hand across his mouth, unsure of what to do. He hated to see Bella cry but he also hated being dependent upon Claire. She had a life. She was leaving.
He stepped forward, took the baby from Claire’s arms. “Hey,” he said, then—against every male instinct in his body—he sucked in a breath and did what he had to do. He danced her around in a big sweeping waltz step. “There’s no need to cry.”
As if by magic, Bella stopped crying, but Claire laughed. “You’re dancing.”
No kidding. Humiliation and embarrassment buffeted him, but he ignored them. “It’s not a big deal,” he said, though he knew it was. He probably looked like an idiot. “We’ve done this before.”
“You have?”
“Yes. Yesterday, before you got here, I discovered dancing keeps her quiet.”
“I discovered it the first night I had her.”
A little more comfortable, Matt waltzed her around the room again. “She likes it.”
“Maybe her mom danced with her?”
He stopped. Sadness made his stomach plummet. “Maybe she did.”
She caught his gaze. “Don’t take that the wrong way. It’s nice for Bella to have that connection.”
“It’s good to remind her of her mom?”
“I don’t think she thinks of her mom. I think she associates the dancing with love.”
His heart froze in his chest. He looked from Claire to Bella and back to Claire again. “Dancing makes her feel loved.”
“That’s what I’m guessing.”
“Then we’ll dance.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
TEN minutes later, Claire carried Bella to Matt’s office, an odd feeling in her stomach. For as much of a big, strong, stubborn guy as Matt Patterson was, he really wanted to do what was right for this baby. He genuinely wanted to be a good daddy. He didn’t mind looking a bit silly. And he wanted to learn.
She sat on the chair in front of the desk as Matt dialed the number for the nanny service.
“Hello, this is Matt Patterson. May I speak with Mary Mahoney?”
He sat in silence, waiting to be transferred, while Claire straightened the collar on Bella’s pale green one-piece pajama. “You look especially pretty in green.”
As if she understood the compliment, Bella grinned at her, but her little blue eyes were red from crying and still watery. Claire’s heart twisted. In an hour or so they’d put her down for a nap again, then the temporary nanny would arrive, Claire would leave and Bella would wake up to two people she considered strangers. Plus, there was no guarantee that the nanny would teach Matt. Or even let him spend any quality time with Bella. Or let him dance.
If Matt knew more about babies, he could stand his ground with a stern nanny. But as unconfident as he was now, he’d let a nanny take over. And Bella would lose her daddy.
Suddenly Matt straightened in his chair. “Hello. Yes. Ms. Mahoney. I’m Matt Patterson. I recently got custody—”
She pressed her fingers on the button in the cradle for the phone receiver and disconnected the call.
He gaped at her. “Are you trying to make me look like an idiot?”
“No.” She hugged cuddly Bella to her, swept her lips across her downy hair. “But I think it might be premature to leave Bella with a nanny. I think what we need to do is have me stay another day so she can get more adjusted to you.”
He slowly replaced the phone receiver in its cradle. “You want to stay?”
Refusing to meet his gaze, she fussed with Bella’s pajamas again. “I wouldn’t say I want to stay, but I think I need to stay for Bella’s sake.”
“I can’t say it’s a bad idea, but you might want to mention these things to me before I call someone, instead of just hanging up the phone when I’m talking.”
She winced. “Sorry.” She said it casually, but the full ramifications of what she’d done by hanging up the phone began to sink in. She’d slept in a bedroom next to his the night before. True, she’d closed the door, but she was still in his house. And they’d kissed—because they were attracted. True, they’d talked that out. They weren’t suited. So they were avoiding or ignoring that attraction.
But what if something happened that they couldn’t? What if they kissed again? What if he wanted to do more than kiss? Could she resist him?
She mentally shook herself. Of course she could resist him. She’d been resisting men for five years—men she hadn’t been attracted to.
She peeked up at Matt. Strong shoulders. Handsome face. Sexy eyes.
She’d be spending another whole day with him...sleeping next to his bedroom again—
Oh, boy.
Studying her across the desk, he leaned back in his chair. “So what do we do now?”
The smart thing to do would be to keep them so focused on Bella and so busy she could forget this ridiculous attraction. Especially since he didn’t seem to be having the same trepidation about it that she was. “You said you wanted to learn a few more things before a nanny completely takes over. Why don’t we spend today doing some of that?”
&nb
sp; He sat up. “Okay.”
Trying to be nonchalant, she said, “Too bad she doesn’t need a diaper change, since you danced instead of changed her diaper the last time she cried.”
He sniffed a laugh.
The room got quiet.
The urge to run bubbled up in her, but she gathered her courage. After all, she was doing this for Bella.
“So since she doesn’t need a diaper, has already been fed and doesn’t want to sleep...maybe we should play.”
He glanced over. “Play?”
“Sure.” She rose, walked the baby to the thick Oriental rug in front of the sofa and lowered herself and Bella to the floor. “Babies are naturally curious. So sometimes playing can be as simple as setting her on the floor and letting her explore.”
He ambled over. “And how do I fit into this equation?”
“You keep her from getting hurt, as you point out things that might be fun for her.”
He sat on the floor beside her. “Like what?”
She peered around. There wasn’t a damned thing in his house that might interest a baby. Worse, sitting on the floor with him only inches away, sprawled out comfortably, caused weird feelings to ripple through her. This was how he’d be with Bella. A sort of clueless but affable dad. He’d be sweet. Loving.
Great. Adding emotion to her attraction had been real smart.
She popped up off the floor. Seeing him as a good dad upped his likability by about a thousand percent. If she wasn’t careful, she wouldn’t just be fighting a sexual attraction; she’d be falling for another guy who was all wrong for her.
“Maybe I should go upstairs and get her one of the rattles and her bear.”
She walked up the spiral staircase and back the hall to his bedroom, then took a deep breath as she leaned against the closed door.
She was fine. There was nothing to worry about. She’d learned her lesson about falling for self-absorbed men. She wasn’t in any danger of losing her heart. Even thinking that was stupid. She’d agreed to stay for Bella. Bella needed a real daddy, not just a guy who paid for a nanny. She needed a daddy who would play with her when he came home from work, tuck her in at night, kiss her forehead. And she could teach him to do all that, if she kept her wits about her. It might be a little uncomfortable for her and she might have to miss work—