Epilogue
Two Years Later
“We made a beautiful baby girl, didn’t we Dani?”
Shane sat next to Dani on the couch cuddling his two-week-old daughter in his arms.
“The most beautiful girl ever. I still can’t believe she has your blond hair.” Dani lightly ran her hand over the baby’s head. “Or will anyway, once this fuzz starts to grow. I thought for sure she’d have my hair.”
“She has your eyes though.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “All babies have blue eyes, Professor.”
He growled and nuzzled his face in her neck. “The way you say that makes it sound dirty and gets me hot.” He lifted his head. “Anyway, not this kind of peacock blue. Don’t argue with an artist about color. Her eyes are going to be just like yours.”
“If you say so.”
Dani learned quickly after they were married to pick her battles, and they’d had some doozies the first year. This was not a battle she wanted to fight.
“I still can’t believe I let you talk me into agreeing to name her Andrée. She’s going to get teased at school about it, I just know it. We’re not in France. It’s a boy’s name here.”
That, on the other hand, was a battle she was willing to fight. Though she’d lost.
“She’ll be unique and we’ll teach her to be strong. She’ll be fine. What we do need to worry about right now is teaching her to sleep through the night. I didn’t realize how much I loved my sleep until Andrée came along and wouldn’t let me get any.”
Shane chuckled. “She’s sleeping beautifully right now.”
“Which means I should be too, but Joe and Erika will be here soon.”
“Uh oh.”
Dani stiffened. It hadn’t taken her long to realize she married an absent minded professor. His ‘uh oh’ was Shane-speak, meaning he’d forgotten something. “What now?”
“Did I tell you Erika’s sister and her family are visiting them from California, and are coming over with them today?”
“Merde Shane. You did not.” She punched him playfully on the arm and jumped up from the couch. “I need to get some more cheese and crackers ready and get out another bottle of wine. How long until they get here?”
“Well.” He looked at his watch just as the doorbell rang. “Now?”
“Sacre bleu! I guess that answers it, then.”
“I’ll answer the door, you go take care of the food.”
“But what if you wake up Andrée?”
“She’ll be fine. Go.”
An hour later, after being passed around and held by all their guests, as well as being fed, Andrée was in a mood. A fussy, throw a fit kind of mood.
“Do you think she needs to be changed?” Erika’s sister, Laura offered.
As the only person there having any experience with children, Dani was hoping she could offer something more insightful than suggesting she change the diaper. “I changed her after I fed her. I’m pretty sure it isn’t that. Any other ideas?”
Laura laughed softly and threw an affectionate glance at her son, Maximillian, who was sitting on the floor looking bored to death. “The possibilities are endless. As stressful as it is, you need to savor every minute of it.” She gestured to her son. “Next thing you know they’re nine years old and too big to hold.”
“You still try to hold me whenever you get a chance, Mom. It’s annoying.” He wrinkled his nose at her and bent his head to watch his fingers as they messed with the hem of his T-shirt.
“You’re not fooling me, Lian. You’re a cuddler. You might as well embrace it. When you grow up, the girls are going to love you for it.”
He groaned and the back of his neck turned red. Dani stifled a smile, not wanting to embarrass him any further, but boy was he stinkin’ cute.
“Leave me alone, mom. Why don’t you help shut that kid up?”
She narrowed her eyes at her son, but didn’t respond to the remark. “It could be she’s over-stimulated. Maybe if you put her in the cradle wrapped up in her blanket, she’ll settle down.”
“But I feel like I’m abandoning her, if I do that.”
Laura smiled. “I know you feel like you have to be there for her day and night, but sometimes a baby needs to be left alone. If it doesn’t work, you can always pick her back up. It could even be colic or a reaction to something you ate. Most of the time it’s trial and error before you figure out what to do, and we all survive it in the end.”
Happy for any kind of input from someone with experience, especially since she didn’t have a mother to call for advice, Dani took the baby over to the bassinet they kept in the living room, and laid her down, making sure the blanket was snug. Her heart broke a little at Andrée’s pitiful cries and she wiped the baby’s tears away with her finger. “It’s okay, mon petit chou. Mommy won’t be far.”
Dani went and sat next to Shane, snuggling up into him and he put his arm around her, pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “The baby will be fine, my love. She’s got you.” He turned his attention to Erika as his hand absently caressed her arm. Which still had the power to make it hard for Dani to concentrate.
“I haven’t congratulated you yet, Erika. Head of the music department. Maybe we should be drinking champagne.”
She laughed. “We’ve been doing lots of celebrating here lately, don’t worry about it. That’s why Laura and Derrick flew in from LA for the weekend.”
“I’m glad you did. It’s great to see you. Feels like old times with all of us together again. Well, except for the screaming baby.”
Derrick laughed. “Well, that feels rather like old times for Laura and I.”
“Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad that Joe and I can’t have kids,” Erika added and took a sip of her wine.
“You’re all I ever needed, Darling,” Joe assured her and Erika gave him a grateful look.
Lian jumped to his feet. “Well, I can’t stand it. I’m going to sing to her and see if it helps.”
Dani was on the verge of getting out of her seat, but relaxed back against Shane with Lian’s announcement. She really hoped the boy could settle the baby down. The cries were breaking her heart and she didn’t think she could ignore them much longer.
He reached in the bassinette, Andrée’s little fingers curling around his forefinger, and when he started to sing, Dani’s breath caught in her throat. At the song and the sound of such a pleasing voice coming out of someone so young. She let out a sigh of relief when, by the time he’d finished singing, Andrée had settled.
“Can you move in with us Lian? Your voice is magic. Where did you learn that song?”
He stayed by the bassinette, Andree’s fingers latched tightly around his, and didn’t even look at Dani when he answered. “I just made it up as I was looking at her. She’s a cute little thing, isn’t she? She has the prettiest eyes.”
If you liked The Professor’s Secret, see how you can get Book 2 in the French Kiss series, Escape to Paradise, for free.
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