“Everything is so simple now,” Diana said. “But I guess it’s a sign of life, too. Disposable diapers, disposable spouses.” She looked at the crib. “I didn’t know baby beds were this small. Do you have to buy a new one every few months as they grow? Disposable cribs.”
“It’s a travel crib. You don’t throw it out. And it’s bigger than it seems. That should last another year at least.”
“There’s so much I don’t know.” And that was discouraging. She didn’t like feeling so helpless, but that’s how she felt. She wanted Jessica to remember her time with Auntie Diana as a great experience. Auntie Diana?
“Don’t look so lost, Diana,” he said, breaking into her thoughts. “You did a great job.”
“Really?” She brightened at that. She’d take praise anywhere she could find it, but coming from Nick made it all the more special.
“Come on. I’ll make you a glass of my special homemade lemonade.”
“Powdered, right? You look like a powdered-lemonade kind of guy.”
“I’m crushed. In fact, I’m a squeezing-lemons kind of guy.” His blue eyes were full of mischief.
Nick was a nice man. He really was. He was handsome, sexy and nice. A deadly combination for someone who had been in love with the fantasy she’d had of him for years. As she followed him back down the hallway toward the kitchen, she started having guilty twinges about letting him believe she didn’t remember him.
But she had been afraid if she did, he’d read her mind, her eyes, her body language, letting him know she remembered him all too well.
Then again, maybe some things were best left unsaid. At least for a while.
So Diana, for the second time that morning, leaned on a kitchen counter, her chin resting in the palm of her hand, and watched Nick squeeze lemons. He didn’t use some little sissy squeezer either. He flexed his muscles when he squeezed, and he relaxed them when he finished. Flex, relax. Flex, relax. Oh, he was a magnificent squeezer. She sure knew how to pick the guy to dream about.
He handed her a glass full of juice and ice. He drank his in one swallow. “I was thirsty. All that diaper changing about wore me out.”
“You did so much work.” She sipped her lemonade slowly, savoring the texture and the flavor, knowing his hands had been on what was now going into her mouth.
“Did you pack your bag?” he asked.
It took a full fifteen seconds—she really had to stop zoning out—before she realized he’d been talking to her. “No, I haven’t packed yet. I was too busy getting Alicia’s recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese.”
“Hey, that’s great. I lived on macaroni and cheese in college. Only not homemade, we always ate the stuff in the box.”
“Well, then, you’ll feel right at home.”
She walked over to where Nick had taped Cathy’s instruction list to the refrigerator door. Four pages of singlespaced typewritten instructions. The words car seat jumped out at her. She pulled the instructions off the door and carried them over to him. “I think you’d better go put Jessica’s seat in the car, because as soon as she gets up, we’re going to have to get her some food, and then I have to get to the bookstore, to buy some material on child care.”
“Thank you.”
Two simple words, said with the most heartfelt gratitude she’d ever heard. It had been so long since anyone had thanked her for anything. Not even those people at Yale, who should have thanked her for forcing them to build a new lab, had thanked her. Yet here was Nick, a Logan, and he was thanking her for changing a diaper and helping him take care of his niece.
Now, if only things went smoothly from here. The one thing she didn’t want to do was blow them out of the house. She might as well ask and get it over with. “Nick, you don’t by any chance have a gas stove, do you?”
7
“I’M NOT BEING PREJUDICED when I say this. But Jessica is the smartest baby I’ve ever met.”
“Sure she is,” Nick absently agreed as he placed the car seat in the back seat of the Bronco and leaned in. He figured securing the seat should be pretty easy. All he had to do was lift the handlebar, or whatever they called that thing put on a car seat for the express purpose of letting kids bang their hands on so they can drive unsuspecting uncles crazy. Then, when the handlebar was all the way up, he’d pull the seat belt out of its resting position, and take it as far as it would come out. Once he had a lot of excess seat belt, he’d weave the strap through the steel rods on the bottom of the car seat, then click the seat belt into place.
The job was so simple anyone could do it
Five minutes later, he wasn’t so sure.
“You know,” Diana said chattily. “I talk to Jessica and she understands exactly what I’m telling her. It’s amazing.” She paused. “Are you having trouble?”
“Amazing,” he mumbled. Even more amazing was that Diana noticed that he was having a hard time. He couldn’t say he knew too many women who were that observant. Sure, it didn’t make his situation any easier the way Diana held Jessica, face out, giving the kid free kicking access to his rear end, which, Jessica being Jessica, used to her full advantage.
“I’m so glad you agree with me,” Diana said. “I wish you could have seen her while I was getting her dressed today. For the second time, after I spilled the baby powder, she told me she was tired of pink clothes. So then I put her in the yellow clothes, but she spilled her milk on that, which was probably better, because blue is really her color. And anyway, she was getting tired of changing.”
“Nooooo,” screamed Jessica giving Nick another kick.
“Tired.” He’d get the seat belt halfway there, then it would lock up on him. “I’m working as fast as I can, Diana. She can sleep in the car.” He’d have to release the belt, let it go all the way back to the starting point, and pull it back out again.
“Sleep? She had a pretty good nap earlier. I don’t think she needs sleep. What I think she’s tired of is saying the word no. Now, that ‘no’ she said before doesn’t mean ‘no’ like you and I would think a ‘no’ means. It’s not a negative response by any stretch of the imagination,” Diana explained. “I know this because she told me when I was changing her clothes that she’s hungry. What Jessica’s really saying is that she’s so excited that you’re taking us all out to eat. Now, now, Jessica, stop kicking Uncle Nick.”
“Hungry? I was, but not anymore. Losing my appetite. I guess you two are, though.” He’d been working that seat belt, and it wasn’t cooperating. The handlebar slipped from his grasp and hit his head just as he almost had the seat belt in place. “Three times the charm,” he said under his breath.
“Oh, absolutely. That’s why the third outfit, the blue one she’s wearing, is so nice. Because I also believe three times is the charm.”
“A charm, huh?” Did she think a charm would work? Well, why not? At this point, he’d try anything. “Diana, if you have some kind of magical charm that you can use to get this seat in, then I’m all for it.”
“I know she’s charming,” she went on, seemingly oblivious to what he’d just said. “And smart, too. And I’m not saying that just because she’s your niece. Okay, wait Maybe I should qualify that statement. If you were to question me closely, I would have to say I don’t know any other one-year-olds. But I don’t see why that should figure into the overall equation about how smart she is. You didn’t have to know Albert Einstein to know he was a genius.”
Jessica started kicking again, harder this time.
“Albert Einstein died before you were born. How could you know him?” Nick grunted after each word, which coincided with each kick. He didn’t think the manufacturer of car seats could possibly have meant getting the seat hooked up to be this complicated. “Shouldn’t she be getting tired of this game?”
“I don’t know. I really need to get to a bookstore. There’s so much I’d like to learn about what she’s doing and why she’s doing it. For instance, do you think they’ll have a Berlitz tape that will either teach an adult to u
nderstand baby talk, or teach the baby to speak words that we can all understand? I want something instructional that can teach me how to communicate with babies.”
“Instructions, that’s it!” He backed out of the car. “Diana, you’re a genius.” He pulled her to him and gave her a big kiss on the lips. “Thank you.”
Jessica squirmed between them, but that didn’t matter. He kissed her once, now he had to kiss her one more time. Mandatory, just like the instructions. This time he got stuck on Diana’s lips, her soft, tender, provocative lips. When she parted her mouth, he took that as an invitation to enter and explore.
Until he got kicked in the wrist. “We need to teach her about kicking the hand that feeds you.”
Diana’s brown eyes widened, her pink lips were slack. He liked her that way. “I’m going to get Cathy’s instructions. Be right back.” He jogged in the direction of the parking-garage elevators.
“Nick,” she called out.
He turned.
“I have Cathy’s instructions with me. I can’t go anywhere without her instructions, because I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong.” He came back to her, and she handed them over to him.
“Diana, I have to tell you, one of the reasons I think this idea of yours is going to work, is that we listen to each other.” He’d never be able to tell her how much that meant to him. “I like that”
“It works both ways. You make me feel as if what I say is worthwhile.”
“It is.” He flipped through the four pages, and didn’t see anything that told him how to get the seat belt pulled out and wrapped through the bottom of the car seat without getting hit by the handlebars. “But, a picture is worth a thousand words, and these instructions aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.”
“I can try to get it in,” Diana offered.
“Sure, if you think you can.” He was man enough to let her try. He knew she couldn’t do it, though. After all, he was the one who could build a building with his bare hands, raise a roof in a single day. Diana was a thinker. A scholar. He respected that about her, but thinking didn’t get a car seat hooked in. For that, a person needed brawn, not brains.
Diana climbed into the back seat with Jessica, and sat her down next to the car seat, then backed her way out again.
“I’ve assessed the problem and I’ve figured it out”
She was cute. Going along with whatever she said was easy on the eyes and ears.
“Nick, installing this car seat is a two-person operation. Can you hold up this handlebar for me so it doesn’t hit my head?”
Diana leaned half her body into the car again, and Nick leaned over Diana. Nice. Soft Rounded in all the right places. “What do you want me to do?” He didn’t think it mattered whether she got the seat belt through the car seat or not. He liked leaning over her like this. He could stay this way for a while, and it wouldn’t bother him at all.
The truth was, he really couldn’t do much else anyway, because standing up straight at this moment would almost be an impossibility. “So, Diana—” His voice sounded an octave higher. He cleared his throat and tried again, deeper this time. “So, Diana, what do you suggest?”
She moved backward out of the car, and stopped when she ran into him. He knew the second she felt the reaction he’d had to her. She stiffened, too.
“I, ah…ah…figured it out,” she said. “If you would hold up the handlebar for me, I can push the seat belt through the bars.”
At this point, he’d do whatever she wanted. He leaned farther in the car, and lifted up the bar while she threaded the seat belt through the rods on the bottom of the car seat.
“Okay,” Diana said.
He took a deep breath.
“Nick, you can get up now.”
No, Nick couldn’t Not until his body stopped reacting, and he cooled down.
Diana turned her head. Her ponytail swung down, almost to the floor. Big brown eyes stared into his soul. “Nick?”
He knew what she was going to ask, and he wanted the same thing. All he had to do was say, “Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
“There’s nothing to it, really. It takes two people. It’s not something you can do by yourself.”
“I wasn’t planning on doing anything like it myself.” The very thought didn’t appeal to him. What he had in mind was a two-people operation.
“So, do you think we should tell Cathy to give more specific instructions next time?”
“Instructions?” He didn’t know what she was talking about. He didn’t need instructions. “If you feel you need instructions, Diana, I could teach you anything you want to know. Let’s leave Cathy out of this. She doesn’t need them. She already knows how.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“Well…if you insist.”
It seemed as if Nick had known Diana all his life. He was that comfortable with her. Talking about sex with any woman could be tricky, yet with Diana, the honesty and understanding they had with each other pretty much amazed him. This living in sin could get serious and he was glad to know they were in complete agreement with each other. He smiled at her. They were in this together. Partners. They would succeed.
Then he felt Jessica’s foot connect with his head.
“Jessica! What are you doing?” Diana placed her hand on top of the toddler’s moving feet just before they could gain momentum for another round.
All those feelings, a mixture of tenderness and sin, he’d been having while he leaned over Diana were pretty much overwhelmed by the pain in his forehead inflicted by the miniature football player in blue. Nick backed out of the car. His hands spanned Diana’s slender hips as he helped her back out, too.
She came out pulling Jessica across the back seat. “Let’s put her in the car seat and get to the restaurant. I bet she’s starving and that’s why she’s acting up.”
“Hungry or not, she doesn’t need a reason to act up with me.“
“Nooooo,” the baby screeched, trying to get her feet free again.
“You see. Did you tell her to do that?” Nick demanded.
“Of course not Why would I want her to kick you?”
“I don’t know why. I don’t even try to guess why women think some of the things they do. You all have these secret girl codes.”
Nick looked down at Jessica’s feet, which were still kicking wildly. Hard to believe such little things could inflict such pain. He looked at her now-smiling, grinning face. “It’s no wonder she’s hungry. The kid’s been doing step aerobics for the past thirty minutes. Kick my stomach, step on my head, kick my stomach.”
“You know she didn’t mean it”
“Do I, Diana?” He knew he sounded sarcastic, but he had finally gotten to the point where he didn’t care anymore. His ego, his head and his gut had taken a beating. “Do I really?”
Jessica bounced in Diana’s arms, her head bobbing up and down.
“See,” Diana said with pride. “What did I tell you? She knows what you said, and she’s telling you that not only is she hungry, but that yes, she’s been doing aerobics, too. You are so brilliant, Nick.”
“I give up.” He sighed. He put his arms around Diana and gave her another kiss. This one on the tip of her nose. “I don’t know how your father’s wife could possibly be doing all those things to you. I wish there was a way to make it up. You don’t deserve any of it.” And she didn’t. Diana had been given bad breaks all the way around. He’d do anything to try to fix it for her. Anything. Even if it meant putting up with Jessica just to keep Diana around for a few days.
Nick took Jessica from Diana’s arms, and placed her, as she kicked and screamed all the while, in the car seat He moved fast, and strapped her in quickly. For him, at least, it was almost painless. For Jessica? He wasn’t so sure.
Nick held Diana’s elbow and guided her toward the front of the Bronco, holding open the passenger-side door, he
lping her in. She seemed just as light and delicate as Jessica. Just as soft. But unlike his niece, Diana was very compliant. He closed the door and walked to the other side of the car, whistling “I Got You, Babe.”
Diana heard him whistling, recognized the song, and her heart about exploded.
She knew for sure Nick liked her in the physical sense, because she had backed into him and felt his desire. She knew he liked her mind, because he asked her questions, and listened to her answers. Really listened, not just half listened as if he were trying to formulate what he would say next. She knew he liked her emotionally. Perhaps that was the most important part of all. The way he held her elbow, or dropped a kiss on her forehead for no reason except to kiss her. Those were the best kind of kisses. Even better than any passionate kiss could be, because they were spur-of-the-moment, I just care a lot about you kind of kisses.
Diana also knew that when her father found out about her and Nick, all hell would break loose. Yet, that was the plan all along. Nick was a big man, even bigger than her father. Still, she had to wonder how he’d hold up against a father’s wrath.
She glanced over at him as he drove. Large, tanned hands held lightly on to the steering wheel. She could still feel those hands on her cheek. Strong, callused and tender. They were an incredible combination, just as she had always imagined they would be.
Nick would hold up well against her father, she decided. He was Charlie Logan’s son, and despite the feud, Diana knew he had come from good genes. After all, Charlie couldn’t be all that bad. Not if he had loved Elizabeth. Anyone who loved her mother was okay in her book.
THEY HAD ARRIVED at !Otra, Otra! in the middle of the business-lunch crowd. By Diana’s way of thinking, these people all needed to be back at work and not out eating.
Apparently, others didn’t see it that way, and !Otra, Otra! was packed wall to wall with people holding frozen margaritas.
As they waited in line, Diana kept a tight grip on Jessica, who had started to squirm. Until Nick came back with packages of soda crackers.
“Do you want one?” Nick asked.
Kidnapped / I Got You Babe Page 25