Their Instant Baby. Cathy Gillen Thacker

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      Had they been anywhere else, doing anything else, Amy would have told Nick Everton exactly what he could do with his suggestion that she appear in a state of undress in his presence. But unable to bear Dexter’s hiccupy sobs a second longer, Amy slipped into the bathroom and did as Nick proposed, pulling off her lemon-yellow shirt and donning the robe. When she came back out, Nick was standing next to the rocking chair, Dexter in his arms. His eyes seemed to darken at the sight of her, and he motioned her to sit.

      Her mouth dry, Amy did.

      Nick leaned down and put Dexter in Amy’s arms. With fingers that trembled, Amy tried to discreetly open her robe. Given the way Dexter was still flailing his little limbs and crying, it was impossible to hold on to him and do that simultaneously.

      Realizing she was attempting an impossible task, Nick rushed to the rescue. “Hang on. I’ll help you,” he said, regarding her matter-of-factly. He parted the terry-cloth lapels, revealing Amy’s throat and neck, and the uppermost curves of her breasts above the lacy transparent demi-bra. There was a moment of awareness between Nick and Amy as she noted he had just seen everything there was to see. Flushing, Amy turned her attention away from her tautening nipples and the rapacious gleam in Nick’s eyes, and back to the baby. Still attempting to soothe Dexter, she used both her hands to cuddle the infant close to her and settle his head against her chest.

      Amy saw immediately that Nick had been right about one thing. As soon as Dexter’s head contacted the soft upper swell of Amy’s breast and the feel of her bare skin, he paused, blinking, his tears soaking through to her bra. And although he had stopped crying uncontrollably, Dexter still seemed confused.

      “I don’t think he knows what to do,” Amy murmured.

      “Then I’ll show him,” Nick said softly, gallantly ignoring the way Amy’s lacy demi-bra was now clinging wetly to her breast.

      His touch both incredibly comforting and precise, Nick leaned down and guided the baby bottle to the infant’s mouth once again, murmuring soothingly all the while. Dexter blinked and looked up at Nick with his big, baby blues then sucked on the bottle half-heartedly, a suspicious look on his cherubic face. Nick backed away, still murmuring soothing words, and then three-month-old Dexter looked up at Amy again and began to drink from his bottle in earnest.

      Amy, who’d been baby-sitting from the age of twelve, took it from there, while Nick grabbed his cell phone and laptop computer and stepped out to the screened-in porch to do a little business and check for messages. Not once did he turn back and look at Amy and Dexter, and for that, Amy was very glad. She was still unbearably aroused from the close, albeit meaningless contact with Nick, and she didn’t want to know if he felt the same potent physical attraction. Because Amy wasn’t looking for a fling. She was looking for a deeply satisfying relationship of the heart. One that led to marriage and children of her own. Lola had said little to Amy about her older brother except that she adored him and despaired that Nick’s future did not and never would include marriage and kids.

      Which of course immediately struck him off Amy’s list, despite any attraction she felt for the sexy single man.

      Twenty minutes later Dexter had finished the bottle of Lola’s breast milk and was sleeping soundly in Amy’s arms. Figuring she had better put him in his crib to finish out his nap while she could, Amy stood ever so slowly up with the baby in her arms and made her way cautiously to the nursery. She placed Dexter on his back in the crib, then went to change out of Lola’s robe and into the yellow shirt.

      Apparently finished with his business calls and e-mail, Nick was waiting for her when she came back out to the living room, a worried look on his face. “What’s wrong?” Amy asked immediately, not really all that sure she wanted to hear the answer. She and Nick had been baby-sitting his nephew for only an hour or so, and already she was exhausted from simultaneously trying to do right by Dexter and fight her attraction to Nick. She couldn’t imagine how she would feel by the time Lola and Chuck returned, if this kind of emotional whirlwind kept up.

      Nick inclined his head in the direction of the kitchen. “By my calculations, there’re only a few days’ worth of breast milk in Lola’s freezer.”

      “We can buy formula at the grocery store and use that until Lola gets back.” Amy paused at the concern on his face. “You don’t think Dexter’s going to like it, do you.”

      “Probably not, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The more pressing question at the moment is—” he held her gaze “—how the three of us are going to manage in such tight quarters.”

      Amy told herself it was tension causing her heart to pound and her mouth to go dry, not his proximity. “I think it’ll be okay,” she fibbed as she brushed past him and headed for the refrigerator. Ignoring his frank appraisal of her as they talked, Amy pulled out a cold can of vegetable juice and popped the top. Right about now, she could use a healthy pick-me-up. Anything to calm her nerves and make the overall situation seem more manageable. “After all—” Amy continued, trying not to feel self-conscious in her snug-fitting, long-sleeved yellow shirt with the Amy’s Complete Redecorating Service logo, khaki shorts, sneakers and socks “—it’s not like you and I are going to be with each other twenty-four hours a day.” She offered Nick a bracing smile. “I am still going to have to go to work.” Which would offer a lot of personal satisfaction, as well as distraction from Nick’s sexy presence. “And Lola said you are going to be conducting some business here in Charleston, too.”

      Nick’s expression turned thoughtful as his gaze continued to drift over her hair, face and lips with disturbing thoroughness before returning to her eyes. “That’s right,” he said, moving closer, every inch of him the hard, indomitable male. “I have an idea for a new syndicated television show I want to pursue.”

      Amy took another swallow of chilled vegetable juice. “And I have a decorating job that has to be done right away for my aunt Winnifred.” Amy was embarrassed to feel a little excess juice on the corners of her lips. She paused to wipe it off with her fingertips, damning the fact that Nick had noticed—and tracked—that movement, too. “So most likely, you’ll be here with Dexter while I’m off doing my thing,” Amy continued with an airy confidence she didn’t begin to feel, “and then I’ll be here with him while you’re off doing your thing.” During the day, they could rarely, if ever, cross paths, Amy reassured herself optimistically, as she took another long, bracing swallow of juice. If she was lucky, she continued bolstering herself firmly, and Nick’s work included some evening jaunts, the same would be true of the majority of their nights, as well.

      “Actually, speaking of work…there’s something you could help me with,” Nick said, a hopeful expression on his face.

      Amy’s brow furrowed at the abrupt change in Nick’s mood. She didn’t know anything about producing television shows. “What?” she asked him curiously, as she glanced into the utility area on the back porch to see if a load of wash was done. It wasn’t.

      Nick flashed her a winning smile and focused on her flushed face and tousled hair. “Like getting me an introduction to your mother right away.”

      NICK SAW AMY’S SMILE fade and her eyes go dark almost instantaneously. Then and there he knew he’d made a mistake. “My mother has an agent who handles queries,” Amy said.

      “Her agent isn’t returning any calls about any opportunities right now,” Nick said.

      Hectic color filled Amy’s cheeks as she folded her arms defiantly. “That’s because my mother doesn’t want to work right now,” Amy explained with exaggerated patience.

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