Madge drained the last of her beer and set the mug down with the exaggerated care of a person who is slightly in the bag and doesn’t want anyone to know it. “I take notice, Herman. That’s all I’m saying. I mean, they’re right there.”
“But, sugar cakes, you said you wanted to take your binoculars to the game so you could see the plays. I had no idea you were interested in fannies.”
“There are many things you have no idea about, Herman.” She rose ponderously to her feet. “We have to be going now.”
“But love button, if I’d known all along that you were interested in—”
“Time to go now,” Madge said, raising her voice a notch. “I left something on the stove.” She gripped her husband purposefully by the shoulder, stopping short of hauling him to his feet, but her grip was firm enough that it could easily be her next tactic.
Herman sighed in resignation and stood. “Yes, honey lamb.”
Joe made sure he didn’t look at Darcie for fear they might both start laughing and lose all the ground they’d gained. “Thanks for dropping by,” he said. “And I’ll do something about the cow. A joke’s a joke, but I realize we can’t have a full-grown cow in Tannenbaum.”
“If any of your friends come to town, I’d be happy to have them over for a glass of eggnog and some fruitcake,” Madge said as she shoved her husband toward the living room.
“That’s hospitable of you, Madge.” Joe followed the Elderhorns to the door, and Darcie picked Gus out of the high chair and came along, too, probably to protect any places that might come unraveled in her outrageous story.
Before Madge went out the door, she turned back, her gaze shrewd. “I can’t imagine how you’ll have time to put together an animal rights campaign and still build a holiday display, though.”
“That’s where I come in,” Darcie said. “Joe plans to win the prize so he can donate that to the campaign, as well, and I’ve agreed to help out by being his hostess and providing assistance in any way I can.”
Madge lifted her eyebrows. “I hope he’s paying you well for that assistance. See you both later.”
Joe closed the door after the Elderhorns and turned to Darcie with a grin. “Incredible. I have no idea how you’re planning to keep that story alive, but I’m blown away by your imagination.”
“I’m counting on Geraldine to help me,” Darcie said. “She offered to do anything I needed done. And I already know she loves to play dress-up. We can make it look like all sorts of people are coming and going from this house.”
“Sounds like an I Love Lucy episode.” He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of Geraldine coming and going all the time. The woman didn’t seem to care for him and apparently considered him a threat to Darcie’s happiness, which he wouldn’t be. In fact, he was trying to help her win twenty-five hundred bucks. That shouldn’t make him the villain.
“I think Geraldine will enjoy it,” Darcie said.
“A Save the Animals Millennium Project. How did you come up with that?”
Gus bounced in Darcie’s arms. Do you even have to ask?
“Maybe it’s being around this leprechaun all day.”
Gets all her best material from me, she does. Gus began to wiggle impatiently in Darcie’s arms. And don’t be making cow eyes at her, laddie, unless you fancy having me pinch your shamrocks next time I’m in the neighborhood.
Darcie glanced at Joe. “He needs a change and some dinner. I’d best get his diaper bag from the truck and take care of him before I unload our belongings.”
Joe heard the tired note in her voice and realized she must be exhausted after cleaning houses all day, loading up her stuff and then having to deal with a cow and the crazy Elderhorns.
“I’ll bring in the diaper bag,” he said. “Then you can take care of Gus while I try to get Bill on the phone again. Then I’ll unload everything from the truck and start some dinner for us.”
She blinked. In the whole long list of activities he’d listed, the last one truly captured her attention. She hadn’t considered how they were going to manage the food question. “You cook?”
He smiled. “I do.” He winked at her and headed out toward the garage.
Darcie gulped and fanned herself with her hand. “Oh, Gus, that’s quite a smile and wink the man has!”
Oh, he’s a darlin’, he is. Wouldn’t trust that lad further than I could toss a keg of Guinness.
“And did you see how he looked when he first came in, sort of tousled and sweaty-like? My heart almost stopped beating.”
Never did take kindly to a winking man. Now let me get the lay of the land here. Gus wiggled to get down.
“Not yet, Gus.” She glanced around the living room and noticed all the hazards there—lamp cords, decorative glass, potted plants, even the stairs leading to the second floor. She wondered if Joe realized how different the house would have to look in order to childproof it and if that would bother him. “We have to work out some things before I can put you down to roam, baby boy.”
“Here’s the diaper bag,” Joe said, bringing it in. “Want me to take it upstairs for you?”
“That would be great. Which bedroom did you want us to use?”
He hesitated a fraction of a second.
In that short space of time, Darcie suddenly realized how very close they were going to be to each other and how deliciously tempting it would be for both of them. From the look in Joe’s eyes, so did he.
He cleared his throat. “Since there are three bedrooms, would you like to set Gus up in the smallest and you take the other guest room?”
Darcie’s first thought had been to share with Gus so as not to take up too much room, but in her apartment she’d given Gus the bedroom and she’d set up her bed in the living area. Gus had taken to rocking himself to sleep if he awoke in the middle of the night, and he rattled his crib something fierce. In desperate need of rest, she’d given up the bedroom to Gus. Still, having the baby in her room here would be some protection from temptation.
Ah, but to have her very own room again for a change, that would be heaven. And she’d decided to consider herself on vacation. “That sounds fine to me,” she said.
Should have stashed us in the same room, lass. Here comes a peck of trouble, sure as my name’s Angus Sean O’Banyon.
“Good.” Joe gestured toward the stairs. “After you.”
Hoisting Gus to her shoulder, Darcie climbed to the second floor ahead of Joe. She’d never been more aware of a man following her. Perhaps he wasn’t looking at her bottom, but she suspected he was.
Quite the gentleman, aren’t we? After you, he says. Got my eye on you, though. Don’t trip over your tongue going up the stairs now.
Darcie reached the top of the stairs out of breath, although she climbed stairs so many times in the course of a day that she could hardly be winded. It was the idea of having Joe follow her up that was stealing her breath.
She turned into the small bedroom to her left. Her bedroom would be one door down, straight across from the master bedroom. Fortunately, it was a very wide hallway.
“Here you go.” Joe set the diaper bag on the floor next to the first twin bed. “Did you bring his crib?”
“I did.” She put Gus on the bed and he promptly started crawling toward the edge of it. She grabbed him with one arm around his middle and reached for the diaper bag.
All the while she was aware of Joe standing there in the small bedroom, watching her. The light outside the window was fading and soon it would be dark. She and Joe would sleep under the same roof tonight with only a small baby as chaperon. “I had to take the crib apart, so it has to be reassembled.”
“You look like you could use some help.” Joe approached the bed. “What can I do for you?”
Stop drooling over her and set up the crib, Romeo.
Keeping a firm grip on Gus, Darcie glanced at Joe.
He met her gaze and his eyes grew warm and dark. His eyes had taken on that look the night before, just as he’d
kissed her.
She swallowed. “Don’t ask me what you can do for me. You might not like the answer.”
His voice was husky. “Or maybe I’d like it too much.”
Faith, I’d like to cut my next tooth on you, Joseph Northwood.
“Either way, we’d both be heading for trouble, Joe,” Darcie said gently. “You’d better go downstairs. I’ll handle Gus.”
“Right.” With one last glance at her, he left the room.
Not long afterward, he was back, moving a small dresser to make room for Gus’s crib in a corner. “I decided to do this before I called Bill so that you could feel sort of moved in and settled.”
“Thank you.” Darcie had decided to change Gus on the floor, and she glanced up from her work for a moment to see if Joe had the idea of what to do. Apparently, he did. “You look as if you’ve done that a time or two,” she said.
“A time or two. And I’ve always been handy when it comes to how things fit together.”
By St. Paddy’s beard, this one never lets up.
Darcie figured she was demented. Joe’s statement was a simple explanation of his skills, not a boast about his ability in bed. He was talking about assembly of furniture, not the meshing of body parts.
And yet from this angle, as she admired the fit of his jeans, that was all she could think about. Apparently, she’d been too long without sex—that would explain her preoccupation.
“There we go.” Joe gave the crib an experimental shake. “Now I’ll go get his mattress and your suitcases.” And he was off, bounding down the stairs like a mountain goat.
Such energy, Darcie thought as she snapped Gus into his overalls. Even Gus seemed interested in Joe’s burst of activity. A fine specimen, that Joe. If he put that much energy into making love, the result could be electrifying. And there she was again, focusing on the very thing she needed to put out of her mind.
By the time she’d dressed Gus, Joe had carried all their belongings up to the second floor and had contacted Bill to arrange for him to come over and pick up the cow. Then he headed downstairs to start dinner.
Darcie decided now was the best time to make up Gus’s bed so that she could pop him into it when he grew sleepy. Scooping him up in her arms, she walked into her room to unpack his crib sheet and blanket from one of her suitcases.
In the doorway she paused with a little gasp of surprise. On the bedside table sat a vase of red tulips.
JOE BROWNED THE CHICKEN and worried about the tulips. He’d been a half hour late punching in this morning because he’d jogged over to the florist, bought the tulips and put them in her room before leaving for work.
There was also a bottle of wine chilling in the refrigerator, to sip with dinner. The wine was okay, he thought. Lots of people drank wine with dinner.
At the time he’d bought them, the flowers had seemed like a great idea, too, sort of an inside joke and a cute way to welcome her to the project. But now he wasn’t so sure he should have done it.
When she came into the kitchen with Gus on one hip, her color was high. “You bought tulips and put them in my room. Why?”
“I thought…” He paused and glanced at her while the chicken spit and crackled in the pan. “I thought you’d laugh, I guess. That you’d like having someone bring you flowers and put them in your room for a change. Hell, it was probably a mistake.”
Her green eyes grew misty. “No, it wasn’t a mistake. They’re beautiful, and I love the thought that you took the trouble to put them there, but I have to know your intentions, Joe. Geraldine said you were up to something, moving me in like this. Are you?”
He gazed at her standing there holding Gus, who was eyeing him very suspiciously. Because of that baby, she deserved the most honest response he could give her. “This situation has messed with my head, Darcie. We started our whole relationship with fantasies about making love to each other.”
She gulped. “I guess we did.”
“I’ve tried, but I haven’t been able to erase those fantasies even though you’re not French, not anything the way I pictured you, in fact. But you’re still very…desirable.” Even now he found himself enjoying the sweet rise and fall of her breasts, wanting to touch her, wanting to kiss her again.
“Thank you.”
“I’m not trying to flatter you. I’d be better off if you were a dog, to be honest. Then there’d be no distractions. We could work on this contest, win the damn thing, and I’d have the money to go partners with my cousin Derek in a cabinet shop in Denver. I really want to do that, Darcie.”
“I understand. But then why did you bring me tulips, Joe?”
“Because….” He hadn’t brought them to lure her into bed. Once they were in bed together, he’d be caught, and he didn’t want that. So what was his lamebrained excuse for those damned tulips? “I guess I wanted to make you smile,” he said at last.
Bless me, the man came up with the right answer.
Tears gathered in Darcie’s eyes. “My da used to say that when he’d bring me a little present.”
Joe’s heart ached for what he couldn’t offer this woman. Someone needed to love and cherish her. Someone needed to give her all the warmth and security she deserved. But he wasn’t that someone. All he could provide were tulips and some spare cash, and that didn’t seem like very much right now. “You’re not smiling, though. You look like you’re ready to cry.”
“No, I’m not.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes with her free hand. “Thank you for the tulips, Joe.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Now you’d better tend your chicken. It’s burning.”
9
JOE MANAGED TO SALVAGE most of the chicken, but between the cow mooing at the kitchen window and Gus demanding attention, the meal was so frantic it didn’t much matter what they ate. Joe didn’t even bother to take the bottle of wine out of the refrigerator. He couldn’t imagine what he’d been thinking. Didn’t matter if you had one baby or three—people with babies didn’t have time to sip wine during a meal.
After dinner, Darcie took Gus upstairs for his bath and Joe drove to Home World to scrounge up some scrap lumber. The errand made him feel like a typical husband, and he resented that feeling. Or so he tried to tell himself. As long as he was in the store he decided to buy baby gates for the top and bottom of the stairs. Fooling with the damned gates was going to be a pain in the rear and he hated having to bother. Or so he tried to tell himself.
But as he pulled into the driveway and saw lights on in the upstairs bedroom where Darcie was putting Gus to bed, something warm and sweet stirred in his heart. She was doing her part for the little guy, and by installing gates to protect him from falling down the stairs, Joe was doing his part.
He blamed this sudden softheadedness on the sentimentality of the season. Everywhere he went he was confronted with pictures and songs about babies in mangers and idealistic scenes of little kids dancing around a Christmas tree. In reality, he knew what a disaster you could create with kids dancing around a Christmas tree. The triplets had demolished at least two trees he could think of, maybe more.
The upstairs light winked out. Gus must be going to sleep, which was a good thing. He was glad the baby was out of his hair for a while. Sure he was. That little stab of disappointment, as if he’d missed something by not seeing him before he went to bed, was another example of the effects of Christmas.
After unloading the wood in the garage, he hauled the gates into the kitchen. On the way in, he reminded himself to leave Darcie strictly alone. He shouldn’t tempt her to do something that wasn’t in either of their best interests. She wouldn’t even be here now if she didn’t need the money. He wouldn’t have invited her to stay if he didn’t need the money. They both needed to concentrate on the money.
He carried the baby gates into the living room and found her there laying out a faded bathrobe and a peach nightshirt on the sofa. The nightshirt was facedown, as if she hoped by displaying it that way he’d forget about
the obnoxious saying on the front.
She glanced up and smiled when he came in. He wished she’d quit doing that. If she’d glance up and scowl at him, he’d be a heck of a lot better off.
Her gaze fell on the baby gates. Then she looked back up at him, a question in her eyes.
“I’ll set them up first thing in the morning.” He leaned them against the wall next to the stairs. “We can’t have Gus getting hurt.”
Her expression grew soft. “What a thoughtful gesture, Joe. I’m touched.”
Damn, but he liked making her look happy.
“And let me tell you, those gates are even better than tulips. I’ve been wondering if I could safely put Gus down to crawl in this house, especially with the stairs. Thank you.” Her eyes got that glow in them that he found so hard to resist.
“You’re welcome.” It was a moment that should have ended with a kiss, as they said in some song he vaguely remembered. But kissing was on the list of forbidden activities.
She crossed her arms almost as if reminding both of them that barriers needed to be erected. But the invitation was still in her eyes. She cleared her throat. “How is that you know so much about taking care of babies—things like setting up cribs and baby gates?”
“When I was fourteen, my mother had triplets.”
“Triplets?” Darcie put both hands to her cheeks. “I can’t imagine. Gus is enough of a handful. If I had three like him, they’d have to come after me with a butterfly net.” She studied him. “Any other brothers or sisters?”
“Nope. Just me and the triplets.”
“I’ll bet you spent a good part of your high school years helping take care of those babies, didn’t you?”
“Pretty much.”
“I’m beginning to understand why you’re not ready to sign on for another tour of duty in the near future.” She shook her head in wonder. “Triplets. Think of the diapers.”
“I try not to.”
“I don’t blame you. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to change Gus while we’re here.”
Bringing Up Baby New Year & Frisky Business Page 9