by Kaitlyn Rice
“I can’t tell you how surprised I was to see such a cosmopolitan man sleeping with a baby on his chest,” she said. “You looked pretty comfy.”
“Sometimes we men have to stick together,” he said, thankful that she wasn’t angry.
“You’ll spoil that baby boy.” Her lecturing tone was contradicted by the glowing light in her eyes.
He was tempted to kiss her to see if it would ignite.
“You have to put him down and let him fuss a bit,” she said. “Or he’ll forget how to go to sleep on his own.”
“Maybe next time you can show me,” Jack said, unable to look away.
“Sure.” She turned to pick up Wyatt.
And just like that, Jack was dismissed. Which was just as well; he needed a shower, a shave and coffee. A few clothes might be a good idea, too.
Heading downstairs, he hurried through his routine, deciding to approach the subject of daily schedules over breakfast. So far this week, Abby had handled the bulk of the baby-care duties. She seemed to view him as a part-time baby-sitter, but he wanted to do more. He still had a lot to learn, and she made a good teacher.
Before he left his bedroom, though, he dug his robe out of a box of unpacked clothes and hooked it over his doorknob. Next time he was needed at night, he’d go upstairs fully covered. Perhaps Abby could give him a lesson in how to put a baby to sleep, instead of how to snuff out a wildfire of sensual imagery.
Unless she came to the nursery in that T-shirt again, or some other scrap of a nightie. The only good his robe would do in that case was cover up the evidence of his desire.
Because one thing was certain—his gentlemanly behavior would never last a year with both of them running around naked.
And if he slipped once, he might slip again. And that could start an avalanche into a giant heap of complications.
He’d managed to avoid such a thing over the course of his entire adult life. He only got as involved as necessary to gain companionship. But he couldn’t do that with Abby. She wasn’t the type to play around, and besides, she’d been hurt enough already.
Something about her brought out his latent protective instincts, and he’d brandish a shotgun around his own backside before he added to her pain.
So he had to get out, very soon, and play off some energy. And she had to wear more clothes at night, even if he had to buy them for her himself.
CHAPTER FIVE
“SLOW DOWN, ABBY! Pull in up here to the right.”
Abby started to nudge her foot on the brake, but she groaned and lifted it as soon as she saw the car dealership Jack was pointing to.
“We ventured into town to restock the refrigerator,” she said dryly. “Not your giant playboy toy box.”
“Stop here,” he insisted. “You said ten minutes ago that my car was…let’s see, how did it go? ‘Insanely useless for a man with a child.’ That was it.”
“It has only two seats and the trunk space is laughable,” she pointed out. Then gasped when Jack’s hulking torso slammed against her side and a powerful leg crossed hers to stomp on the brake pedal.
“Jack! The twins,” she shrieked, chomping on her lip as he grabbed the steering wheel and forced it to the right.
Helplessly, she watched as her own truck hurtled into the car lot, with her in the driver’s seat and Jack steering.
As soon as they were safely parked, she swiveled around to look in the back seat. Both Rosie and Wyatt seemed oblivious to any danger. Their pacifiers were waggling furiously in their mouths, and they were slumped in their car seats, staring out the window.
She whirled back around to glare at Jack, but now that they were no longer moving, she realized how very close he was. His leg was still plastered on top of hers, and his shoulder pressed against her chest.
His solid heat felt welcome against her softness, and he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave. He turned his head toward hers and opened his mouth, but no words came out. He just let his eyes wander over her face.
As she did with his.
That mouth was sexy, and when he held it open, it was hard not to imagine it slanting across hers. It was harder still to think about moving, but there was something—a seed of a thought somewhere deep in her brain—that she needed to nurture. There was something she needed to remember….
Oh, yeah. The plan.
Today they were taking the twins to the grocery store so he could experience the joys of cranky babies and endlessly long and boring rows of shelved food. This side trip to the car lot was definitely not going to work.
Neither would the kiss she was craving about now.
“Jack, get off,” she whispered.
He didn’t seem to have heard her, because he didn’t move.
“Jack!” she roared. “What are you doing?”
Well, that did it. Wyatt let out a piercing shriek, which was followed by Rosie’s deafening howl.
Now the twins were frightened.
Jack scowled as he handed her the keys. Then he untangled himself and scooted over to get out on his side of the truck. By the time Abby stumbled out, he was leaning in the back to remove Wyatt from his car seat. The truck’s cab blocked her complaints, so she opened Rosie’s door to call across the back seat, “I asked what you were doing.”
He lifted Wyatt out and said, “Looking at cars.”
Her hands flew to her hips. “I don’t have all day to mess around. We came out to get groceries, and that’s all.”
“This won’t take long,” he said, winking and smiling before he slammed the door between them and walked away.
By the time Abby caught up, toting Rosie, Jack was staring into the tinted windows of a sleek white four door. “Jack, we need to get back,” she repeated as she followed him around the classy vehicle.
He scrutinized the trunk lid. “I just want to look.”
“Why?”
He stopped studying the car and frowned at her. “As you put it so candidly, just awhile ago, I need a more practical car now.”
Rosie was starting to fidget. “But we don’t have to drag the babies around,” she said, following him as he strode across the lot. “Just go alone sometime.”
He ignored her. He was circling a sunshine-yellow wagon and bouncing the boy to keep him from fussing. Abby followed, but stopped talking.
Car shopping wasn’t a lot of fun for babies, was it? After a while, their fidgeting should turn to whining. Especially if some salesman arrived on the scene to talk a mile a minute. Most adults could hardly take such a thing, let alone a baby. Maybe she had a little spare time, Abby decided.
She caught up and made sure she had his attention before she said, “Okay, but I have a lot to do today. Plants and babies don’t take days off. You have half an hour.”
“This wagon’s pretty sporty, and it’s as practical as hel—” He stopped and looked at Rosie, who by now was threatening to cry. “As a helmet. As practical as a helmet.”
Abby looked at the car. It was pretty sporty all right. Way, way too sporty and fun. She had to find something wrong with it.
Frowning in concentration, she peered through the side window and laughed triumphantly. “Not that practical,” she said. “The snow-white interior would show every puddle of baby drool. Come on.”
Abby led him down the row, stopping at a big, battered wagon. She rested a hand on the faded tan fender and said, “Here’s a good family vehicle. There’s room enough for kids, groceries and spare computers, and you wouldn’t worry about spit-up spots or grocery cart dings.”
There. Maybe now he’d understand about the sacrifices involved in raising a baby.
Jack looked down his nose at the car as he stalked past. “There’s no need to surrender my pride just because I need a bigger car,” he said.
He squinted across the lot and practically jogged to a sedan in a rich charcoal-gray. Wyatt’s vibrating giggle at the bumpy ride grated on Abby’s nerves.
When she approached with Rosie, Jack touched his index
finger to the little girl’s nose and said, “This is fun, isn’t it? And you’re not going to bawl at all.”
The traitorous Rosie kicked her legs, pointed at the car and said, “Deek.”
Jack took off his baseball cap, threw back his head and laughed. “That’s right, sleek,” he said, and winked at Abby. “And it has a back seat, a big trunk and a dark interior.”
Abby leaned down to look in the window, and Jack bent down beside her to whisper in her ear. “And it’s as hot as you-know-what.”
She glared at the car, looking for faults. She walked around it and stopped when she reached the price sticker. Then she laughed and tapped a fingernail against the glass. “And at this price, you would bawl if anything happened to it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
She practically skipped across the row and stopped at a boxy green minivan. “The sticker on this one says it was rated safest in last year’s crash tests,” she hollered. “And you’d have room for babies, groceries, computer junk…and up to four girlfriends.”
“Very funny,” he yelled back. He opened the door of the sedan and sat in the driver’s seat with Wyatt on his lap.
Abby stared across the row at him in that car.
Its trim lines seemed to suit him, and the front end looked astonishingly like a woman’s face. A pair of slanted headlights waited for his hands to make them glow, and the grill seemed to smile brilliantly.
The darn thing seemed to be mocking her.
She strolled over to wait while he puttered with the controls, but when he didn’t come out within a few minutes, she pulled open the passenger door and sank into the seat.
“I want to drive this,” he said immediately.
Wyatt seemed just as excited as he patted his chubby hands on the steering column.
“No more playing today, big boy,” she said as she shook her head at Jack. “We have the twins to consider.”
“So we’ll take them for a ride,” Jack said. “You two want a ride, don’t you?”
Rosie was too fascinated with the glove compartment latch to respond, but Wyatt bounced and smacked his hand against the horn. When the car’s jazzy beep sounded, he squealed.
“See? He wants to go.”
“That’s silly. We’d have to move their car seats.”
“So we’ll move them,” Jack said with a shrug. “We can drive around, maybe even take this car to get groceries. Then we can swing back by here and transfer everything to the truck before we head home.”
“That’s really silly,” she said.
“No, it’s really fun.”
She blew her bangs away from her face. He had a way of thwarting her little lessons in boredom and self-sacrifice.
“For you it’s fun. For me it’s extra work and wasted time.”
He reached down to her seat and started tugging at something under her thigh. When he got his flattened baseball cap out from under her, he grinned and punched his fist inside to pop it back into shape.
Then he put it on her head. “Oh, but I’ll let you drive first,” he said, with a wink and his best “gotcha” grin.
JACK REREAD THE NOTE he’d left on his office desk a few days ago, wondering if he could find a local shop that would pack up a robe and send it over this afternoon. He’d had no idea that a female roommate would cause this much bother to his libido, and frankly, he was surprised.
Although he’d always been attracted to Abby, her sharp edges had held him in check. Somehow, since he’d gotten to know her better, her scrappiness seemed cuter.
He could never resist a little teasing, just to see her eyes flash. He’d had an incredibly good time this morning, convincing her to drive that car. And then he’d wallowed in sheer delight as she gave in to the excitement and sat behind the wheel.
He’d never realized that watching a fully dressed woman drive to the grocery store could be sexy. He needed to keep her fully dressed, at all times, or he might be tempted to help her get fully undressed.
He picked up the private phone he’d set up in his office, and decided to try his only connection to the fashion world. His old friend Paula was a buyer for an exclusive ladies’ apparel store in Kansas City—she should know of something appropriate. If she would speak to him.
As luck would have it, she answered on the first ring. And he was relieved by her diplomatic greeting. This was the Paula he recognized. Without hesitation, he asked if her store carried women’s robes.
“Of course,” she said. “Are you in the market for a ladies’ robe?”
“Yes, my mother’s birthday is coming up,” he said through clenched teeth. The statement was misleading, but it wasn’t exactly a lie. His mother’s birthday was next month. Only the robe wasn’t for her.
“We have just the thing,” Paula said more warmly. “Your mother is remarried, with a passel of kids to worry about, right?”
“Right,” he said, surprised that she remembered that much. He and Paula hadn’t talked about families.
“We have a line of flattering nightwear for the woman who wants to put the romance back into her marriage,” she began, sounding like a lingerie copywriter. “There’s a silk robe with a lacy peekaboo skirt that’s been selling well. We have it in smoke, orchid and midnight.”
Visions of Abby’s thighs displayed all the way up to her chin danced through Jack’s brain. “No. Ab— I mean Mom wouldn’t like that at all,” he said. “She likes to be covered at night, in case the kids are up and about.”
Remembering the firm curves underneath that old T-shirt, he wondered at the possibility of finding a thick bunting robe in sludge-green.
Perhaps decorated with shackles. Or wedding rings.
“Doesn’t she live somewhere that stays hot year-round?” Paula asked. “California or somewhere out West?”
“Arizona.”
“It’s still August, darling. No one in Arizona would want to be covered up.”
Paula wasn’t as helpful as he had hoped. He ran a hand through his hair. “Mom does,” he insisted. “Do you have anything?”
“Our winter arrivals are due in late this week. I suppose I could pull something from our holiday stock.”
“Perfect. I want something at least down to her knees, and thick. Mom’s always cold.”
“What size does she wear?”
Holding his hand out in front of him, he imagined Abby standing there. When he’d kissed her, he’d only had to lean down a few inches. “She’s about up to my nose, I guess. And built nice, for a mom. Slim, but not skinny.”
“We’ll say she’s about average in height and build. Should I wrap it up pretty and send it straight to her?”
“No,” Jack said, thinking fast. He needed that robe here as soon as possible. “I want to put a note in the package. Could it be personally delivered?”
“Personally delivered?” Paula asked. “You mean, by me? Darling, you’ve missed me, haven’t you? I’d love to visit!”
Jack slid down into his chair, thinking.
He hadn’t missed Paula all that much, but since they’d dated off and on for three years, he knew why she would make that assumption.
And Abby had mentioned him inviting a lady friend, now and again, hadn’t she? Maybe a visit from Paula would take his mind off Abby’s parts, solving several problems at once.
“Perfect,” he said. “Topeka isn’t as big as Kansas City, but I think we could find a decent restaurant. I’ll take you out to dinner. How soon can you make it?”
“You mean, this week?”
“Absolutely.”
“Darling, you must be so anxious to see me. I’ll come Friday after work, and I’ll bring your mother’s gift.”
“I NEED TO TALK TO YOU about our nights.”
Abby looked up from the double stroller, where she’d just buckled in both of the babies, and squinted toward the porch at Jack. “So talk, but make it quick,” she said. “Remember I lost two hours this morning to your little whim.”
He stepped off the porch and grabbed hold of the stroller’s handle. “Where are you headed?” he asked. “I can talk on the way.”
She scowled, wondering why he wasn’t tapping away at his computer keyboard. “I need to take pond samples,” she said.
“We have a pond?”
She sighed. “Beside the house, at the southern edge of the fenced lot. I need to get that done before it gets dark, and then I have the plants to water and the—”
Jack started across the farmyard in long strides, pushing the stroller ahead of him across the grass. She had to jog to catch up, and as soon as she did she waited for him to speak. But he didn’t. He simply barreled along beside her with the brim of his cap slanted against the afternoon sun.
She couldn’t see his expression, but she’d bet he had that same distracted grimace he got when he sat in front of the computer. Something had him perplexed.
He didn’t say a word until they reached the pond, and then he only asked about the new wooden structure that sat on a tiny island in the middle.
“It’s a duck shelter,” Abby explained. “Paige built it earlier this summer.”
“Where are the ducks?” he asked, looking around.
“She…well, she didn’t have time to get ducks.”
That was enough to shut both of them up for a while.
Abby dug her pond kit out of the bottom of the stroller and walked down around the shoreline to take water samples.
When she’d finished, she capped the test tubes and stuck them in her jeans pocket.
As she turned to climb the knoll to where she’d left Jack and the twins, she realized he was watching her. But when she got closer, he turned his attention to the water. And he still seemed bothered by something.
Against her better judgment, she decided to put him at ease. He’d said he wanted to talk about their nights. Maybe he was still feeling guilty about the division of labor.
It had taken some swift responses to baby cries, but she’d handled all nighttime duties for a while now. That had been a tough call. Getting up at night was one of the realities of life with a baby, and keeping him bleary eyed would have been a nice addition to her plan.