by Karen Booth
“Sarah,” Aiden whispered.
“What?”
“You let me see the nightgown.”
Sleep deprivation makes me dumb. “I guess I did.”
“It’s gorgeous. I’m not surprised you’re having a hard time keeping inventory.”
She smiled to herself, there in the darkness.
“You were wrong when you said it wasn’t sexy.”
Sarah’s heart galloped at an unhealthy speed. Now she’d really never get to sleep.
“It shows off your legs. You have nice legs,” he continued. “And, well, it compliments other parts of you as well.”
If it were possible to die from flattery, Sarah was DOA. What was she supposed to say to that? Was she supposed to reciprocate? Those boxers you’re wearing sure show off your three percent body fat and ridiculously alluring physique?
“Sarah? Are you asleep?”
Dang. She should’ve pretended to be snoring. “Not quite,” she whispered.
“Did I say something wrong?”
No. You said everything right. “I think we should get some sleep. And I don’t want to wake the baby.”
Six
Aiden was rarely overwhelmed. He didn’t believe in it. Why panic when there’s a lot to do? Tackle it, and move on. But bleary-eyed, navigating the maze of boxes in the hall outside Oliver’s nursery and operating on very little sleep, he was officially off his game.
“How does a person who is so small need so much stuff?”
“You asked me the same thing yesterday. And I don’t know why, they just do.” Sarah balanced Oliver on her hip while she peeked into his room, where two delivery people were assembling furniture. “They should have the crib done soon. Somebody needs to sleep in his own bed tonight.” She cleared her throat and looked square at Aiden. “That goes for me, too.”
“Of course.” Yeah, he’d gotten the hint last night when he’d tried to say a few nice things and she’d hardly reacted at all. Although he’d caught her staring when he’d climbed out of the bath, and the look in her eyes said she approved, so which was it? It seemed like she was attracted to him, but maybe not.
It might have been a bad idea to invite Sarah into bed last night, but that was also his first dose of sleep deprivation at the hands of a crying baby. He could already see how a parent could end up giving in to any number of demands, just to have a respite.
Of course he hadn’t slept soundly. He’d worried that he might crush little Oliver, so he’d made a point of not moving, which didn’t lend itself to relaxation. He’d been intensely aware of every peep the baby made, hoping he’d sleep through the rest of the night. Sarah’s presence hadn’t helped. He’d ended up in bed with women in fewer than twenty-four hours before, but never like this, and never with a woman like her. As he’d studied her in the soft light that morning, he found himself not only admiring her uncommon beauty—the scattering of faint freckles across her cheeks, and lips that could make him lose all sense of direction if he thought about them too much—he had to extol the gumption contained in her small frame. She’d gotten through to him when that was the last thing he allowed.
“How are we supposed to get all of this put away with a toddler crawling all over the house?” he asked.
“Now you understand the challenge of caring for a child. It’s a constant juggling act.”
Oliver struggled and kicked to get down from Sarah’s hip.
“So I’m learning.” He yawned and took another sip of his coffee. This was going to be a long day. Not that he wasn’t looking forward to it. As much as he’d never imagined spending his weekend this way, and as tired as he was, yesterday had been incredible.
“He’ll go down for his morning nap soon and he’ll have the longer one in the afternoon. That should give us some time. Of course, it’d be a lot easier if we brought in reinforcements. Maybe you could call your family?”
Not this again. “I already told you I’m not ready for Oliver to be around my mom at all, let alone have her come in and spend any time with him on her own.”
“What about Anna? Didn’t she offer to watch him? She could take him for a walk and some fresh air.”
That could work. Anna was Aiden’s strongest ally in his family. He and his brother Adam had their moments, but he also represented some of the most painful parts of Aiden’s childhood—their father pitting the boys against each other, and deeming Adam heir apparent, even when logic said that Aiden, as the oldest child, should’ve eventually been handed the reins at LangTel.
Aiden’s other family ally was Anna’s husband, Jacob. He and Aiden were cut from a similar cloth—both dealing with the price a man must pay when he’s had a strained relationship with his father.
“Anna would love it.”
Sarah let Oliver down onto the floor. With the help of a cardboard box, he pulled himself to standing and began pounding on the top. “Yes. Please call your sister.”
Anna and Jacob were over to the apartment in less than an hour. Oliver was still taking his nap when they arrived. Sarah and Anna had gone up to Aiden’s room, so Anna could watch Oliver sleep. Talk about baby fever—Anna had it.
“Now that you’ve had twenty-four hours to come to terms with it, how’s fatherhood?” Jacob asked, settling in on the living room couch.
“Surreal. That’s the best way to describe it.” He scratched his head and glanced out the window—the sky was crystal clear. Not a single cloud. “Honestly, it’s the only way to describe it. It doesn’t feel real.”
“I take it you’re going to have a paternity test?”
“We have to for my name to be added to Oliver’s birth certificate. Then Sarah will sign over guardianship.”
“Is there any chance he might not be yours?”
After his first look into Oliver’s eyes yesterday, and especially after seeing his birthmark, Aiden had been viewing the paternity test as nothing more than a formality. There was no way that Sarah could’ve popped into his life with a baby that looked just like him. But the question brought up feelings he’d wrestled with for so long. Had his dad done a paternity test? Was that the moment when things went wrong? When Roger Langford decided he wanted nothing to do with him?
“I don’t want to entertain the thought, to be honest. I look in his eyes and I know he’s my son. It’s the best feeling, even if it has been out of the blue.”
Jacob smiled and stretched his arm across the back of the couch. “I can’t believe Anna and I are so close. Only six weeks until her due date. Talk about surreal, try touching someone’s stomach and feeling a kick and realizing there’s a tiny person in there.”
“Are your parents excited about becoming grandparents? That’s a lot of pressure on you as an only child.”
“My mom says she is, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Your mom, on the other hand. All she talks about is the baby.”
That gave Aiden a sliver of optimism.
“Look who’s up from his nap.” Anna waltzed into the room, talking in a happy singsong, holding Oliver and smiling warmly at him. It was funny the effect that Oliver had on people. Aiden felt as though he’d been given a ray of sunshine.
Jacob got up from the couch and went to Anna, wrapping his arm around her back. “Holding a baby suits you. You look perfect.”
Anna’s smile only grew. “Oliver is perfect. I have the perfect nephew. It’s a fact.”
Aiden soaked up the joy radiating from his sister. He needed to share Oliver with his family, which meant he needed to get his mother up to speed and invite her over to meet him. It was time to let her in. Aiden walked over to Anna as Oliver cuddled with her. He pressed a gentle kiss to his petal-soft cheek. This child will always know love. Oliver would never doubt that he was wanted and adored. Not for a minute.
“If you guys
are going to take him on a walk, I’ll show you how to use the stroller.”
* * *
As she watched the elevator doors to Aiden’s apartment draw closed, and Oliver, along with Anna and Jacob, disappeared from sight, Sarah was struck by one thought. We’re alone.
She turned and walked square into Aiden’s chest.
“Slow down, champ.” He grasped her shoulders. “I know they won’t be gone long, but we have time to get down to business.”
Get down to business. Why did her brain have to translate everything he said into a rambling internal dialogue about S-E-X?
“No time like the present.” She laughed nervously. He still hadn’t let go, and his warmth poured into her like a waterfall into a thimble. She was sure he was trying to hypnotize her with his blue eyes.
A smile rolled across his lips and Sarah was now distracted by his mouth. It was so tempting, so kissable, and she was dying of curiosity. Which version of Aiden Langford would she get if she kissed him? The powerful, broad-shouldered businessman? Walking sex in a suit? He’d probably want to be in charge in the bedroom. Or would it be the effortlessly sexy tattooed guy in board shorts? The one who needed space and jumped out of planes? She could see that guy taking his time, tending to the small touches that send a woman over the edge. She shuddered at the realization—she wanted both.
“I just want to thank you.” With no other sound in the apartment, the timbre of his husky voice echoed in her head.
“For what?”
“For bringing Oliver to me. I never imagined I would feel like this.”
“That’s a big turnaround from the guy who ignored my emails and phone calls for three weeks.”
He nodded like a man accepting guilt, a storm of blues and grays swirling in his eyes. “I know. And I apologize. I didn’t want to believe it was true. It’s impossible to know how you’ll feel about parenthood until you have a child. If you’d asked me two days ago if I wanted a baby, I would’ve said absolutely not. I don’t feel like that anymore.”
Sarah’s ovaries were whispering to her, God, he’s good. A ridiculously hot guy confessing his tender feelings for a baby? Forget about it. After the bath last night and later being in his bed, Sarah was tempting fate. She needed to keep things professional. “It’s been nice to watch you and Oliver connect. That makes me happy. Now let’s go upstairs and get his room squared away.”
Aiden released her from his grasp, leaving shockwaves of heat. He drew in a deep breath through his nose, studying her face. “Okay. Whatever you say.”
Sarah did an abrupt about-face to lead the way upstairs.
“Hold on a sec,” Aiden said.
“What?”
“Since when do I have a cookie jar?”
“Since you left me alone with the internet and your credit card. You have a little boy in the house. You need a cookie jar.”
“I thought nannies didn’t allow children to have things like cookies.”
Sarah shrugged. “It’s nice to show someone how much you love them by giving them something sweet.” She resumed her trek to the stairs, holding her finger up in the air. “Just not every day.”
Upstairs, the dark wood crib was waiting in the corner of Oliver’s room. There was a combination dresser and changing table, and a beautiful rocking chair as well. All it needed were finishing touches—artwork, more books, his most precious toys—the special things that would make Oliver feel at home.
Sarah had already washed the crib bedding. “Let’s make up his bed. I’ll show you how to lower the side of the crib.”
Aiden stood by her side, again making her nervous, as she showed him how to lift up on the side rail of the crib before lowering it. “Seems simple enough.”
“Be sure that the side always goes up. You don’t want him escaping.”
“Or staging a coup.”
“Very funny. Since Oliver’s pulling up on furniture, the mattress is on the lowest setting. It goes at the top for a newborn. To save your back.”
“Unless there’s something I don’t know, I wouldn’t ever need to put it up higher, would I?”
Sarah started to put on the waterproof mattress pad and Aiden helped at the other end. “Maybe you’ll get married and have another baby.” Why she’d chosen to go on a fishing expedition was beyond her.
“I’d have to keep a woman around for more than a few days for that to happen.”
Leave it to Aiden to casually own up to his playboy ways. “I take it your very short relationship with Oliver’s mom was the norm?” Gail had been spare with her account of Aiden, saying that he was charming and sexy and up-front about not wanting anything serious. Sarah couldn’t blame her for a second for going for it. She would’ve done the same thing if she were brave enough to have a fling. She’d never had a talent for walking away from an amazing guy.
“Remember when I said that I need space? That includes my love life.”
“Space. That’s such a cop-out.” Sarah might have subjected herself to horrible heartbreak, but at least she’d taken chances for love.
“Excuse me?”
“So, you’ll jump out of an airplane, but getting serious with someone is off-limits? You meet a woman and you decide before the start that it’s going nowhere.”
“No, I decide precisely where it’s going. I know how it ends. I know my limitations and I accept them.”
Sarah draped two small blankets over the end of the crib. “If that’s what makes you happy, that’s great. I just don’t think you’re being honest with yourself. You said you need space, but it didn’t take long for you to get comfortable with Oliver.”
“That’s not the same thing, at all. Oliver needs me. And what about you? You’re the one who said you won’t make time for a boyfriend.”
“My situation is completely different.”
“How?”
“Because I refuse to treat a man as temporary.” Exactly the way they tend to treat me. “But you treat women that way. It’s sad, really.”
“I don’t need you to feel sorry for me.”
“Oh, I don’t. So don’t worry about it.” She shook her head. She had to escape this line of conversation. She’d learned enough frustrating details for one day. Aiden was everything she’d first thought—the guy who does not commit. “Can we please talk about my business? I need you to hold up your end of the deal. I’m at the point where Kama could either take off or crash and burn.”
“Kama? Is that what it’s called?”
“Yes. It’s the Hindu god of desire. Our fabrics all come from India, so I thought it was fitting.”
He nodded and jutted out his lower lip. “I like it. Simple. Elegant. Plus, it makes me think of the Kama Sutra and you know what that makes me think of.”
You walked right into that one. “Will you please take this seriously? The next six months are crucial and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I’m terrified it will fail.” That was an understatement. She couldn’t imagine a future without Kama. She’d be left to start all over again, doing what, she had no idea.
“It really is important to you, isn’t it? Your little business of making nightgowns.”
“Don’t be so dismissive. It’s my livelihood. My career.”
“And like I said last night, if it means that much to you you have to own it. You were hiding it from me last night. That’s troublesome.”
I was hiding me from you last night. Not the same thing.
“And whatever you say, you still have nannying,” he continued. “There will always be children to care for and you’re so good at it. Not everyone is an entrepreneur.”
“I don’t know how many times I need to tell you. I am not a nanny.”
“Now who’s living a contradictory life? I watch you with Oliver and you clearly adore h
im. So you love kids, but refuse to earn a living that way?”
“I want the challenge of making this work.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” That’s all I’m going to tell you.
“Okay, then. Walk me through the whole thing.”
“Let me show you.” She pulled up some photos on her phone. She’d taken them to show the bank when things started to take off and she’d tried to get a loan for expansion. “Flip through these. You’ll see some of what I’m up against.”
He swiped at the screen. “It’s tiny. How can you get anything done in this space?”
“Honestly? I have no idea, other than I have some incredible employees who are willing to put up with a lot. I have six people doing assembly. If I were going to keep up with demand, I could easily have two dozen, but I’d have nowhere to put them. Moving means a huge lease, more equipment, health insurance and finding qualified people. It’s a lot. I barely sleep as it is.”
“So outsource. Let someone else do your manufacturing.”
“I can’t fire these people. They’ve been with me since the beginning, and they all do exceptional work. They have families to support.”
“You’re destroying your margins.”
“Not if I’m in with the right retailers and can demand a better price point. Plus, our margins will improve once we’ve streamlined our manufacturing.”
“Okay, then. Why don’t I become an investor? I’ll write a check and we can be done.”
Here was Aiden’s propensity for clean and simple, in sharp focus. It wasn’t merely his attitude toward romance—he did this with everything that could get messy. No matter what, he was not going to become her investor. She needed to see out this ten days and get out of Dodge before his eyes made her do something she would regret.