The One-Week Baby (Yours Truly)

by Gardner, Hayley

  But all that was a fantasy, Annie knew. Her major problem would be convincing West that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she had his offspring and then walked away. And knowing what kind of man he was, changing his already set mind would be impossible—even if she had the time.

  “Okay,” she said, turning back to West, “let’s play it your way. What happens with your plan to help me get my dream if I don’t have a father lined up?”

  “We go ahead with it,” he said, catching her eyes with the twinkle in his. “As I told you last night, I’m sure I can help you out in that department.”

  If only, she muttered under her breath.

  “I’ll arrange something.”

  His comeback had been so quick, for a second or two she thought he’d read her lips. But he was looking innocently back at her, dashing her hopes in that direction.

  “Why look for a prospective father if I can’t afford the baby anyway? Remember, I can’t take on better paying cases and still have time for the people who really need me. I tried that. It didn’t work.”

  She was steering this all back to money again. West gave her a concerned frown. “Surely for something this important, you could compromise a little?”

  “I tried compromise.” She smiled whimsically. “I took on some bigger clients, and when Marcia needed help, I didn’t have time for her. Compromise doesn’t work in this case. This experience with Teddy and Marcia has proven to me I can’t be happy with people who need me at the bottom of my work pile.”

  But she wouldn’t be happy without having a baby, either, West thought, trying to figure out what was really standing in Annie’s way. He didn’t think it was only money.

  “Have you considered working for something like legal aid to get a steady paycheck?”

  “Yes, but then I might end up having to defend someone who is really guilty of something horrendous. I don’t want to do that, either.”

  “Hmm” was all he said.

  Annie stiffened. “What does that mean?”

  “For someone who claims to really want a baby, you seem to be using every possible avenue out of having one you can find.”

  He said it so gently, Annie didn’t think he was trying to make her mad. So that meant only one thing.

  “Why, West, are you discovering I was right after all, and there is no solution to my getting what I want?”

  “There might be if you weren’t so darned stubborn about every detail.”

  “I thought that was the idea behind having your dream come true.”

  “Next thing you’ll be telling me it’s got to be a boy.”

  She shook her head slowly, her face awash in sadness. “I’d be an equal opportunity mother, West-if it ever happens.”

  “It will happen,” West promised her, unable to stay angry. After what she’d been through in life already, she couldn’t help not believing in what he did. She was kind of a lost soul, going through life not having all that she could, and he couldn’t abandon her until he helped her get her dream baby. “Even though you’re leaving soon, we’ll keep meeting until you get your dream. I promise.”

  Annie felt a rush of some deep feeling go through her insides. This business about dreams might be just so much hype, but West really believed in them. He was so hopeful, when he ought to be jaded-like she was. Admiration for the man and a little bit of envy flooded through her. She’d believe he was a miracle worker if she got her baby, and not a minute before, but there was one thing she was sure of either way.

  “West Gallagher, you are one nice guy. But are you still going to be this nice when I win the bet and steal Teddy away from you?”

  “You aren’t going to win the bet.”

  “Wanna bet?” she asked cockily.

  West’s grin came quick and easy, but it also covered his confusion. Now that the time of reckoning was at hand, he didn’t know if he wanted her to leave or not.

  Annie rose and began gathering things to take inside as West finished the last of his sandwich. When her hands were full, Annie saw that he was done eating and paused.

  “What do you say we get this over with, West? Get Teddy inside so we can settle our bet?”

  “Sounds good to me,” West said, rising. Much as he liked having her there, he needed her to leave so they could have a little distance from each other. When she came out of the kitchen and back to the table, he asked, “So how exactly are we going to figure out who Teddy prefers as a parent?”

  Pausing, Annie stared at West for well over a minute, and suddenly she began to grin. “I don’t know.”

  “We’re even on the points, you know.”

  She sincerely hoped so, for every time West had thought of something, not to be outdone, Annie had snuck a peak at her baby book and found something else she could get a credit for.

  “Let’s go inside,” she said, walking over to pick up Teddy. “And we’ll figure it out there.”

  “You go ahead. I’ll get the playpen.”

  Trying to think of some fair way to end this particular dispute, Annie scooped up Teddy and went inside the kitchen. She was just reaching the door leading to the hallway when the phone rang behind her. She sprang for it, hoping it was Marcia and the question of Teddy, at least, would be settled.

  “Gallagher residence,” she said, just as Teddy grabbed for the receiver and started a loud string of “dadadada” in her ear and the mouthpiece.

  “Well, hello,” came a feminine voice that held both surprise and a hint of a chuckle all at once. “I’m West’s sister-in-law, Gina, and I’m just dying to know why West has a female answering the phone with a baby yelling ‘dada’ in his very own house. Could you put him on, please?”

  West was at the door, waiting, his eyebrows raised hopefully. Annie held out the receiver and smiled. “You’re in trouble. It’s your sister-in-law.”

  “Oh.”

  “The one who got you those adorable shorts,” Annie added, unable to stop herself.

  West groaned and took the phone. “How about if you go outside before you cause any more damage?”

  “Sure.” She got to the door at the same time he told Gina hello. There was a short pause, and then Annie heard West sigh exasperatedly.

  “No, Gina, I haven’t been hiding a secret family from you and Matthew. Yes, she’s seen the shorts, and no, they didn’t do a thing for my love life.”

  Annie could say something loudly enough for West’s caller to hear.but she decided not to, not yet anyway. West hadn’t folded the playpen, so she put Teddy back in it and sat at the patio table where there was no avoiding the one-sided conversation floating through the window. Teddy happily started pushing himself up on all fours, his bright eyes seeking and finding her and not letting go as he babbled a string of unintelligible syllables.

  “That was Teddy and Annie. We’re baby-sitting,” West was saying. “Oh, no, don’t worry, I don’t need anybody’s help with Teddy. Believe me, Annie’s been more than enough help.”

  He sounded exasperated. Annie’s lips pursed together in close to a smile, but before she could worry that she’d put him in a bad mood, her eyes were caught by Teddy. At the sound of West’s deep voice, the baby’s head had turned to the window. Now Annie watched the baby, her forehead wrinkling as she thought.

  “Okay,” West added, “put Matt on…Yeah, it’s me.” His voice lowered, but Annie could still hear him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but we aren’t. Annie saw the shorts by accident. Did Gina tell you to ask me that?” West chuckled, but to Annie’s ears, the sound seemed grim. “No, I’m not the baby’s father. You can tell your sweet little wife that Annie is just a friend, and we’re doing a favor for another friend. I have no interest in being a father, it’s that simple. None, absolutely none.”

  “You’re protesting too much, West,” Annie called inside through the window, unable to resist.

  West shot her a scowl through the screen. “No, I swear!” he said into the phone. “Annie just has a warped sense of
humor. By the end of the week the baby will be back with its mama, and I’ll return to being the happy bachelor again.” There was quiet, and West spoke again, sounding worried. “You know I would love to see you and Gina, but it’s not a good time.”

  Not a good time to see the brother he’d only recently reunited with? Why on earth not? Pondering that one, Annie glanced back at the baby, and saw that the child had given up trying to crawl and was now looking intently in the direction of West’s voice.

  “Teddy,” she called. The baby’s head swiveled to her, and he let out another stream of syllables.

  She got up and as she bent over and picked up the baby, she got her idea. Maybe there was a way to figure out who would be the winner of the bet. If it worked, it sure would be interesting to see whom Teddy picked.

  “Thank you, Annie,” West said from the door. Walking over to the playpen, he began gathering up the padding. “Do you know how much trouble you got me into with your little remark about protesting too much? Gina wanted to come here and plan the wedding.”

  “Did you tell them we were making a baby first?” she teased, her mouth opening in a wide smile.

  “We are not making a baby,” he reminded her.

  “Well, technically, if you’re helping me figure out my dream, then we are.”

  His jaw set, he straightened, glaring fiercely at her. She held back a giggle. “Okay, West, whatever you say.”

  After a long look at her, West gathered up the rest of the playpen padding and disappeared into the house, coming back a minute later to unhitch the pen. He was glad Matt and Gina weren’t coming. He didn’t need any questions about Teddy—or about Annie. It had been hard enough to evade the particulars of his current situation over the phone. Face-to-face, he was sure he’d end up telling his brother and Gina all about this whole lost weekend, and then he’d never hear the end of it. Matt with teasing, and Gina with wanting to help him, because all his sister-in-law would have to do would be take one look at him and Annie, and she’d know West had lied about Annie just being a friend.

  For damned sure. He took a deep breath. The depth of his desire to pull Annie into his arms and kiss that know-it-all look off her face a minute before meant their relationship had already surpassed simple friendship—at least for him. Even now, he wanted to tell Annie she was right about him, that he couldn’t make her dream come true, and that he didn’t want to settle their bet, because he wanted her to stay right where she was—with him. He liked her. Not only did he admire what she wanted to do with her life—fatherless baby notwithstanding-he liked the courage she showed standing up to him and her willingness to fight for what she believed in.

  And God knew, he wanted her in his bed. But if he convinced her to stay with him and build a relationship without children, she’d end up hating him. And he couldn’t have it the other way, in case it didn’t work out between them. He couldn’t do that to their child, and he couldn’t be ripped away from love again.

  Women, he muttered under his breath, carrying the playpen into the house. The second you let them into your life, everything got too damned complicated.

  Silently, Annie entered the living room and sat on the couch with the baby. West watched as he set up the playpen in the corner. Now that he knew she would be leaving, he remained aware of her every movement, her every sigh, even the sound of when she kissed Teddy. She was driving him crazy, and he’d be a damned fool to let her stay.

  And he’d be a damned fool if he let her go. But he had to, so he didn’t end up breaking her heart—and his own.

  Done with the playpen, West stood, remaining well away from her. “Did you come up with any ideas?”

  Annie read hope in his eyes—he wanted to get rid of her. “As a matter of fact…. I did. While I wasn’t here, have you called Teddy’s name and had him lift his arms up to you, wanting to be picked up?”

  West nodded.

  “So have I.” She took a deep breath. “This whole bet was based on who would be the better parent, and

  who Teddy would prefer—a man or a woman, you or me—to take care of him, right?”

  “Right.”

  “I’m proposing we sit Teddy on the floor and each sit an equal distance to either side of him. Then we call his name from either side until he turns toward one of us and shows a definite preference—let’s say by putting his arms out to be picked up. How about that?”

  He’d feel silly as hell, West thought, like he was in one of those ultra-sweet baby commercials. But he couldn’t think of any other way to end the bet. And every second he was in the room with Annie, smelling the rose of her perfume, he wanted to take her in his arms even more. He had to get some distance.

  He ought to just let her have the baby. She wasn’t going to turn Teddy in, he was sure of that now. She’d already said she felt she failed Marcia; she wouldn’t do it again by giving her baby to the authorities. Teddy was safe with Annie—West knew it in his gut-but for some reason, he just couldn’t let the kid go. Not yet. He didn’t want to face the empty house without him.

  “Sounds as good as anything,” West said finally. “Where?”

  “The hallway?” West had vacuumed earlier that day, so Annie knew the rug was clean. “No distractions,” she said, her mouth twisting with bittersweet mirth as she saw that Teddy’s attention was not focused on them at the moment, but on the crystal chandelier West had turned on when they’d come into the room.

  “Lead the way.” Following Annie and the baby into the hall, West waited as she sat Teddy down and went to the opposite side of him, about two feet away. Copying her position, he sat down and spread his legs into a vee.

  Let the games begin, fluttered through West’s mind, and he almost grinned.

  “Teddy,” they both said at practically the same time.

  Caught in the middle of both sounds, Teddy looked first at Annie, and then turned his head and looked at West. Annie’s breath caught as the baby seemed to stare at West longer, and she repeated his name again, just as West was doing.

  Teddy heard her and turned his head away from West toward Annie. West, watching, felt his heart sink as Teddy began to babble at Annie in absolute delight. The baby was going to her, he knew it.

  Slowly, Teddy rolled over on to his tummy, and then rose on to his hands and knees. Both Annie and West called his name one more time, and he began to creep along, carefully at first and then with more energy—right toward West.

  “He’s crawling!” Annie said, gulping back her sadness at the fact that Teddy was heading toward West, which meant she would not be needed here anymore. She caught West’s eyes. “Did you know he could do that?”

  Shaking his head, West thought of how he had believed Annie silly for putting all those pillows on his bed as a guard for Teddy each night, and swallowed hard. What if Teddy had started crawling in the middle of the night and fallen off?

  “He is, isn’t he?” he said.

  Teddy was. The baby was crawling, slowly but surely, West noted, right up toward him.and then right on past, until he reached the doorway leading back into the living room, where he gave out and fell to his tummy, flapped his arms and legs, and let out a stream of happy babbling. Still mesmerized by the sight of Teddy doing something for the first time, Annie rose and hurried to where Teddy had landed.

  She squatted next to West. “I don’t understand,” she said. “I thought he was crawling to you.”

  “I thought he was, too.”

  “So what’s so interesting in there?”

  They both leaned forward toward the doorway at the same time, and West found himself perilously close to Annie, who had stooped down on her knees. So close his upper arm brushed against hers, skin against skin, sending shock waves through him and making his body jerk with reaction. He pulled away a bit and she rearranged herself in the doorway, sitting and pulling Teddy backward onto her lap. In doing so, she brushed against West, more than once, and then her hip settled against his thigh.

  He caught a gr
oan in his throat, remembering the way her legs had looked in stockings. This was torture—and he wasn’t sure he wanted it to end.

  “He really crawled,” Annie said again. “Isn’t this great?” Her eyes lit up as she gazed at West, and he couldn’t stop himself.

  “Wonderful,” he repeated, not knowing whether he really meant Teddy’s crawling—or Annie. Leaning sideways and balancing on one arm, he met her lips in a tender kiss that took her by surprise, because she’d thought they were ending, not beginning.

  Annie’s skin began to tingle as West’s lips lingered against hers, touching gently, then pressing more firmly. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart began a strange beat. All at once she was again remembering West’s power, and wondered what it would be like to make love with him.

  The kiss ended when Teddy wiggled downward to the floor, plopped forward and began crawling again with a little more self-assurance than he’d shown before. Sitting himself down mere inches in front of Annie, he looked upward, and Annie and West followed the direction of his gaze.

  “The chandelier?” West asked.

  “No,” Annie said softly, lifting her hand and pointing to the wall. “I think Teddy found a rainbow.”

  “It figures,” West said, his voice a mixture of wry amusement. “We set up a bet, knock ourselves out for the kid for three days, and what does Teddy prefer to either of us? A rainbow.”

  “Maybe he’s trying to find the bright spot in all of this,” Annie said, meeting his eyes.

  Both of them started laughing, and West got the strangest feeling it was somehow right that Teddy had ignored them for the lure of a rainbow, that for some reason, they weren’t supposed to end the bet tonight. The three of them were meant to stay together until Teddy went home. The more he considered it, the more right the idea felt.