The Baby beneath the Mistletoe

скачать книгу бесплатно


“That’s why I’m going to keep him with me.”

She laughed shortly, shaking her head. “Like I said, I don’t like seeing babies given a bad break.”

If she wasn’t going to leave, he was. He placed Justin back into the baby seat and began to redo the straps. They were worn and shredding in places. “I don’t know why I’m even talking to you about this.”

With a quiet sigh, Mikky moved him out of the way and proceeded to tighten the straps herself. “Because you need help, and you don’t know how to ask.”

The way she just came in and elbowed him out of the way galled him no end. Just what gave her the right to think she could take over like this? “If I needed help, I wouldn’t ask you for it.”

“I know.” Finished, she smiled at him. “Lucky for you I can read between the lines.”

What the hell was she talking about now? “Lady, there are no lines.”

“What do you feed a baby?”

The question, when he’d been expecting more barbs, caught him off guard. His mind went blank. “Stuff. Food. Milk.”

He was just picking things out of the air, Mikky thought. Left alone long enough, even monkeys eventually typed out the encyclopedia. “Would you like to go on to iron filings?” she asked sweetly. Mikky lowered her face next to the baby. “See, he doesn’t know the first thing about feeding you.”

Straightening, she made up her mind, knowing she was probably going to regret this. “All right, you’ve talked me into it.”

Like a man in a cartoon, Tony felt like looking behind him to see if there was someone else there. Someone else with whom she was carrying on a conversation. Because it certainly wasn’t him. “Talked you into what?”

She pushed the strap of her purse up on her shoulder. “Helping you.”

“When did I say that?”

The smile on her lips had to be upgraded just to be called patronizing, he thought darkly. “You didn’t have to, the look on your face says it all.”

“If it did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation—Not that it’s much of a conversation, more like a monologue, and I just seem to be feeding you your cues.”

It was getting late. If she worked this right, there still might be time to take in the last show with Johnny. She knew her brother wasn’t going to be happy about that, but it couldn’t be helped. “Let’s get going before I change my mind.”

Did she think that was a threat? Tony wondered. Okay, maybe he wasn’t up on baby care, but how hard could it really be? “Oh, like it doesn’t rotate 365 times every minute.”

Stopped at the door, she raised her eyes to his. “If you’re going to insult me—”

He had to stop short to keep from walking into her. At this proximity, looking down into her eyes, he found that they were an extremely dark shade of blue. It seemed as if nothing about her was in half measures. “Yes?”

Mikky thought of telling him off, of saying something curt in response, but where would that lead? Better that one of them kept their sense of humor, and since she seemed to be the only one who had one, it was up to her.

“Never mind, let’s just go.” Holding the door open, she waited until he stepped through with Justin. “There’s a supermarket not too far from here. We should be able to get what we need there. At least for tonight. I’ll lead, you follow.”

He went down the steps, his eyes on the baby he was carrying. “What do you do when you’re not being a drill sergeant?”

“I work on compiling a directory of polite men,” she deadpanned. “So far, I’m not having any luck finding any.” He was parked on the other side of the lot. She wondered if he was actually going to wait for her to pull her car around.

The night air was cold and the lot had an aura of isolation about it, even though Tony could see the headlights from passing cars just down the road. They were moving like tiny white jewels rolling down the road. “That’s because they probably all hide when they see you coming.”

She stopped at his car. Without waiting to be asked, she took Justin, baby seat and all, from him and let him fish out his car keys unencumbered. “Enough foreplay. We’ll go shopping for a few essentials and then go to your place.”

“My place?” He hadn’t thought of her coming over. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. This was getting way out of hand. “Be still my heart.”

With the car door open, she handed Justin back to him. The next moment she was already sprinting back to her car. “To have your heart be still,” she called out over her shoulder, “you would have had to have one beating in the first place.”

He watched her go for a second, a moth watching the flame that was destined to kill it gain breadth and depth. “Touché,” Tony murmured, fastening the baby seat in the rear passenger position. He always believed in giving the devil her due.

Shopping with Mikky, Tony quickly discovered, was not unlike trying to find evidence of footprints in a snowstorm. Just when he thought he saw her going down one aisle, she’d be heading for another. He had half a mind to leave without her, but in his heart he knew that she probably did have more experience at this than he did. The female of the species, he grudgingly allowed, had a better feel for this kind of thing. Even wolverines.