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Alicia. For a minute he’d forgotten she was with him. Now he wished she wasn’t, but he had to keep up some kind of front. “I’m sure this is a mistake.”
She let go of his arm and backed away. “Why don’t you call me when this mistake is back with its mother?”
“You don’t have to leave.”
“No, by all means stay,” Ashley insisted. “I imagine Kyle will need some help tonight. That is unless he plans to invite the baby’s mother over. Then it might get a little crowded. Of course, what’s a crowd for some people is a ménage à trois for others.”
“Call me later, Kyle, like when the baby starts college.” Alicia turned and headed toward the elevator.
“Oops. Looks like you lost that one. She’d have to be wearing skates to escape any faster.”
“Thank you, neighbor. I didn’t really want to enjoy myself tonight anyway. Now, take your borrowed baby and go home.” He leaned against the door. “Unless you’d like to take Alicia’s place. Actually, it’s the least you can do, now that I think about it.”
“You’re such a romantic. No wonder the women flock to your door.”
“No, that’s the result of my other talents. So, what do you say? Do you want to take that baby back to wherever you got her and join me for a nightcap?”
“You just don’t get it, do you? This baby is yours.”
“No way. I—”
The baby started to cry, interrupting his protests. Ashley rocked the infant in her arms until it quieted, then poked the note in his face. “This was in the basket. The message is extremely clear.”
Kyle took the note and read it slowly, panic whipping through him as the words jumped from the pages in alarming clarity.
Dear Daddy,
Mommy can’t take care of me right now, so I’m coming to live with you. All you have to do is make sure I’m fed regularly and have a warm, safe place to sleep. Mommy put an empty bottle and a plastic pouch of my formula in the back corner of the basket. Just mix it according to the directions. There’s a few diapers there, too, to get you started. You’ll need to change me when I’m soiled or wet. But most of all, Daddy, I need you to love me as much as Mommy does, and to take care of me until she comes back to get me.
Your daughter
Holy smokin’ gun. This was too crazy for words. It had to be some kind of sick joke. No one in their right mind would leave a baby in his care.
Ashley pushed the baby into his arms, leaving him no recourse but to hold it. The infant wiggled and squirmed so that he was afraid he might drop it.
“Looks like you have things under control,” Ashley said, but her voice had lost its acidic edge. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
Panic struck again, this time with the force of a huge fist to the gut. Ashley was about to walk away and leave him with this—this little person. He’d never begged before, but this seemed like a real good time to start. “Please, Ashley. You can’t be heartless enough to leave me all alone with this baby. If you’re not worried about me, think of the baby. I don’t have a clue what to do.”
“Then I guess you better call 911.”
“What? And have the cops come out and arrest her?”
“They don’t arrest babies.”
“Well, she’s a little young for the cops to give her an ice-cream cone and have her wait at the station house until her mother shows up to claim her.”
“They won’t do that, either. They’ll call the authorities.”
“What authorities?”
“How would I know.”
“You’re the one who said to call 911. You shouldn’t give advice if you don’t know what you’re talking about.” This was ridiculous. He was standing in the hall arguing about what to do with a baby someone had abandoned at his door. Still, the mother had asked him to take care of this baby until she came back to get her. With luck that would be in the next minute, but he sure couldn’t count on it. And now she was starting to cry again.
“What do you think’s wrong with her?”
“She’s probably hungry, for one thing.”
“Then don’t you think we should feed her?”
“We?” She spread her hands palms up and her gorgeous green eyes flashed fire. “There is no we, Kyle. Never has been. Never will be.”
The baby’s cries became a loud wail. His muscles tightened and his insides bucked as if someone had force-fed him a jar of jalapeños dipped in chili powder. “Please, Ashley. I’ll owe you one, anything. Just help me feed her and get her quiet.”
“Anything?”
“You name it.”
“Clean the grout on my kitchen floor?”
“You’ll have the cleanest grout in the building,” he promised. “I’ll scrub it with my own toothbrush if necessary.”
“Deal.” Ashley took the baby from him. She didn’t look much more adept at holding her than he’d felt, but she settled the baby on her shoulder, and after a few pats on the back, the baby stopped crying.
“That’s right, sweetie. Ashley has you now, and she’s going to help your daddy fix your formula.”
“I’m not her daddy,” he said, but he opened the door, grabbed the basket and followed Ashley inside his apartment. Amazing. He’d been trying to get Ashley inside his place for months. One crying baby had accomplished the task in mere minutes. A crying baby and a promise to clean her grout.
Ashley Garrett was definitely not easy.
* * *
ASHLEY COULDN’T imagine that she was going to be much help. She knew less than nothing about taking care of infants. Even when she was little, she hadn’t been much of a doll person. Books, computer games and puzzles had been more to her liking. But a bargain was a bargain, and her grout could use a good cleaning. Besides, she couldn’t trust Kyle with the care of this poor baby. He’d probably feed her cold pizza and beer.
“I’ll prepare the formula,” Ashley said, walking straight to the kitchen. “You change her.”
“Change her into what?”
“Change her diaper. She’s probably wet, maybe worse.”
“Oh, no. I don’t do dirty diapers. I draw the line there.”
“Then you’re going to have a very smelly apartment.”
“If I’m doing the grout, the least you can do is change diapers.”
“I don’t think so, Daddy. The deal is just that I help you get her fed and quieted down until you hand her over to someone who’ll know how to take care of her properly.” She passed the baby to Kyle. The darling wailed in protest, not that Ashley blamed her. He held her like a sack of potatoes. Still, he did look a little different with a baby in his arms. Less suave. More vulnerable. Sexier than ever. Not that she’d admit that to him.
“Give your daddy a break, sweetie. He’ll probably get your diaper on backward, but at least you’ll be dry.”
“Backward, huh. How hard can it be to change a diaper?”
“I guess you’ll soon find out.”
“And don’t call me her daddy in front of her. She may start to believe it.”
“Why shouldn’t she? I do.”
He made a face as he turned to carry the baby and one of the diapers to the bedroom. Ashley went back to the task at hand. What a night this had been and it wasn’t over yet. Well, technically it was, because it was half-past midnight according to the clock on Kyle’s microwave, but she had the feeling it might be a long time before she got to crawl into her own bed and get some sleep.
* * *
KYLE LAID THE BABY on the bed, then sat down beside her. She kicked and boxed her little hands in the air, though she was no longer crying. In fact, she appeared to be enjoying the opportunity to stretch and kick, unhindered by her baby seat or someone’s arms.
He eased his face closer to her bottom and was grateful that no unpleasant odors assaulted his nostrils. Actually she smelled...like a baby. Not that he knew a lot about how babies were supposed to smell.
She made a cooing noise and kicked all the harder. She’d be a heartbreaker when she grew up. Thick, dark hair that curled around her heart-shaped face. Big chocolatey eyes accented with thick lashes. And the cutest little mouth he’d ever seen. He touched a finger to one of her chubby little hands, and she grasped it, holding on to him as if she wanted to shake hands.
“At least you’re not as unfriendly as Miss Ashley,” he said, talking to her as if she were a peer. He wasn’t about to try that baby-talk stuff Ashley spewed when she talked to her.
When she let go of his finger, he sat back and dealt with the shock of a baby in his bed. “Your mother must have been desperate to desert a little charmer like you. But don’t worry, she said she loves you. She’ll be back soon.”
Only if she really loved her little daughter, why had she dumped her at his door? What if he hadn’t come home tonight at all?
Easy question. If he hadn’t come home, Ashley would have been stuck taking care of the baby by herself instead of the two of them doing it together. But here they were, all nice and cozy, with Ashley in his kitchen wearing nothing but a silky black slip that showed off her body to perfection. Admittedly the slip and garments she had on under it covered far more than Alicia’s dress had, but still, a slip was one of those unmentionables, and that was sexier than any dress.
He chucked the baby under the chin. “Ah, now I know who you are, sweetheart. My own little Cupid who dropped by to get Ashley and me together. You just keep working your magic, and I’ll turn on the charm. With us teamed up together, she’ll never be able to resist me.”
Now for the diaper. He held it up. It looked fairly simple, but the last thing he wanted was to get it on backward and prove Ashley right. A row of pink and blue bunnies danced along the top border. He was sure that was a clue, but the thing had obviously been designed by a woman. A man would have just printed the word front on one side and back on the other.
He lifted the hem of the pink dress and pulled off the ruffled bloomers, a task far more difficult than it looked. Evidently babies didn’t know they were supposed to cooperate during the procedure.
“Is that as far as you’ve gotten?”
He looked up as Ashley stepped to the door, bottle in hand. “I could have been finished, but Cupie and I were bonding.”
“Cupie?”
“It’s a private joke.”
“Well, drop it. A nickname like that could scar her for life.”
Ashley stepped to the bed and took over the chore of changing the diaper while he stood back and watched carefully so he’d be sure to do it right next time. If there was a next time. With any luck, he’d be able to keep Ashley on duty until the real mom came to her senses. Or until he was forced to call the authorities Ashley talked about and have them take her away.
Take her away. Even the words were cold—heartless. He forced them from his mind as he watched Ashley tug and smooth the diaper before finally snapping it into place.
“All done,” she said, smiling as if she’d accomplished some major feat.
He realized then that she was a big fake. She didn’t know any more about tending babies than he did, yet she was giving this her best shot. He’d lusted after her for months. Found her wit and sexy looks a killer combination. But this was the first time he’d realized that he actually liked her.
Her hips swayed seductively as she marched into the bathroom, disposed of the wet diaper and washed her hands before rejoining him at the bed.
She picked up the bottle and held it out to him. “Do you want to feed her?”
“Me?”
“Well, if it turns out that she is your daughter, you’ll have to learn. You might as well start now.”
“It’s not going to turn out that way. I’m telling you this is all a mistake.”
“How can you be so sure? Every time I see you, you’re with a different woman. You don’t expect me to believe that you’ve never had sex with any of them.”
“Not as many as you seem to think. I’m rather choosy about who I go to bed with. Besides, when I do have sex, I use protection.”
“Protection is not a hundred percent. You won’t have to worry about it for long, though. I’m sure that once the authorities read the note the mother wrote, they’ll demand that you have DNA testing to determine whether or not you’re the father.”
A new blow to his system. He hadn’t even considered that possibility. Not that he was afraid of the outcome. No one was more careful than he was to make sure he avoided this kind of surprise. He had his life all planned out and it didn’t include kids until he was at least forty. He had fourteen years to go before that date approached.
“Guess your daddy is scared to try.” Ashley crawled onto his bed, picked up the baby and poked the nipple into the tiny mouth.
The baby latched on to it as if she’d been starving for days, though the rolls of fat on her thighs indicated otherwise. He could hear the sucking sounds from where he was standing and the soft mewing purrs of contentment as warm milk filled her stomach.
His own problems slipped to the back of his mind as the image seared its way into his consciousness. Ashley Garrett on his bed, bottle-feeding a tiny, helpless baby. The sight of it made him feel funny, like watching a sad movie and pretending not to be affected.
He wasn’t sure what it was all about, but he had the sneaking suspicion that it couldn’t be good.
* * *
“SHE’S ASLEEP,” Ashley whispered. “Throw back the spread so that I can lay her on the sheet.”
He did as he was told, and Ashley put the infant down slowly, right in the middle of his king-size bed. She wiggled a little but didn’t open her eyes. So far, so good.
Ashley eased from the bed and started toward the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To get the baby’s blanket from the basket. It’s softer than yours.”
“Just so you don’t think you’re sneaking out of here.”
“No way.”
“Good.”
“I don’t sneak.”
He flashed her a less than authentic smile as she sashayed out of the room. By the time she returned, he’d kicked off his shoes, settled back on the pillow and closed his eyes.
