Shadows Of The Past. Frances Housden

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СКАЧАТЬ the wisdom of her impulsive offer. Only one course of action made sense, for her to stay over at the Rocking D until they came up with a regular schedule for the baby.

      On the surface it wasn’t a difficult proposition. Getting the work done on both ranches wouldn’t be a problem. Until they bought the cattle in May, they only had to fix fences and take care of the horses. Her dog Sadie got along fine with Fleafarm. Sebastian had a spare bedroom.

      But every time Matty thought of sleeping here, of sharing every meal and every waking hour with Sebastian, her stomach churned. With that much togetherness, he would eventually figure out that she had a huge, incurable crush on him.

      For years, she’d hidden it successfully behind a tough ranch-woman facade, but caring for this tiny baby would make that a hard act to maintain. Already she’d felt unexpected longings as she cradled the helpless infant in her arms. Maybe the reason she’d refused to take care of her nieces and nephews when they were babies was that she’d subconsciously known it would be a painful reminder that she had no babies of her own.

      Sebastian came into the dining room, his hands held high as if he’d scrubbed for surgery. “My gown, nurse.”

      As she gazed at his strong, hair-sprinkled forearms and capable hands, hands she’d dreamed would someday touch her with tenderness, funny things happened to her heart. “Smart aleck,” she said, and grinned because he expected that. But she was so afraid everything she was feeling shone in her eyes that she glanced away. “Come on over here and take hold of this kid so I can start reading up on how we accomplish this. We don’t want her falling on the floor when we’re not paying attention.”

      “Oh, God.” He blanched and hurried over to the table. “Maybe we should just do it on the floor so there’s no chance we’ll drop her.” He moved in close, hip-to-hip with Matty.

      “Yeah, down there with the dog hair and the bread crumbs. That’d be super.” She put an inch or so of space between them. After the way she’d been thinking a moment ago, body contact wasn’t a good thing. She maintained her sisterly tone of voice with difficulty. “You do a decent job of cleaning for a guy, but I wouldn’t want to put a baby on your floor. The table’s fine if we keep track of her. Here, put your hand on her chest and keep it there while I get the instructions.”

      Sebastian settled a tentative hand on Elizabeth, who stared up at him without blinking. “I wonder if she knows that we’re greenhorns at this diapering business?” he said.

      “If she doesn’t know now, she will soon enough.” Satisfied that Sebastian had Elizabeth secured on the table, Matty moved away and picked up the typed list of instructions. She had to give Jessica points for thoroughness. She must have been somewhat concerned about the kid to go to all this trouble.

      Matty scanned the pages until she found the section on diapering. “Okay, we’ve got her on the changing pad on a flat surface and we’re making sure she doesn’t roll off. Now unsnap the sleeper gizmo so you can take it off the bottom half of her.”

      Sebastian started fumbling with the small snaps with his free hand. He blew out a breath. “I can’t do it with one hand. Would it bother your feminist sensibilities to help with this one part?”

      “I guess not.” But it played hell with her hormones to move in close enough to smell his citrus aftershave and feel the warmth of his body close beside her. She put down the instructions and concentrated on the snaps as best she could, considering that all she wanted was to snuggle against him and feel those strong arms around her.

      “Why does she keep staring at me like that?” he asked.

      Because all females do, you lunkhead. You’re gorgeous. “She’s probably trying to figure out who the heck you are.”

      “I think she has my eyes.”

      “You know what? I’m not so sure.” She didn’t want to believe that Sebastian had made love to Jessica, even if he couldn’t remember the incident. She hurried on with the instructions. “Now you carefully unfasten the tabs on the diaper and slowly take it off, because—” Matty started to giggle.

      “Because?” Sebastian prompted.

      She spoke around the laughter choking her up. “It says here that you never know what you’re going to find and you need to contain whatever you encounter.” She wiped her eyes and chuckled. “I’ll say this for your Aspen friend. She has a wry sense of humor.”

      “Oh, she’s a laugh a minute, dropping babies on doorsteps like this,” he muttered as he worked at the tabs on the diaper. “Can you come over here and put a hand on this little girl while I wrestle with these tab things? I can see right off this is a two-person job.”

      Matty did as he requested, which made them very chummy, their bodies bumping against each other, his warm breath on her neck, his elbow nudging her breast. She tried to remain oblivious and failed.

      “What’s that perfume you’re wearing?”

      “Wh-what?” She couldn’t believe his thoughts had been anywhere near hers.

      “What kind is it?”

      “I forget the name.” Her heart pounded. “It’s supposed to smell like jasmine. Why?”

      “I like it.”

      “Oh.” She tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter one way or the other. He was making idle conversation. But what if he wasn’t?

      “There, it’s off.” He sighed with relief. “We lucked out. It’s just wet.”

      She laughed, feeling giddy from his comment about her cologne. “I don’t think your luck will hold forever on that score, cowboy.”

      “Probably not. What’s next?”

      She glanced at the set of instructions she’d forgotten she clutched in her hand. “Roll up the diaper and dispose of it later. Then clean her with a baby wipe.”

      “Where’s that?”

      “Hold onto her.” Matty extricated herself. “I think I saw them in the box.”

      “Can you imagine me doing this all by myself? I would have killed her by now.”

      She found the baby wipes, pulled one out of the container and handed it to him. “No, you wouldn’t, but it does seem to take both of us to replace one experienced mother.”

      “That’s what I’ve been thinking.” He leaned over Elizabeth. “Hold still there, little one.”

      Watching him tend to the baby with such gentleness made Matty’s throat tighten. He was going to be one hell of a daddy, if it turned out this little bundle belonged to him.

      “Matty, do you think you could see your way clear to stick around here for the next few days?” he asked casually, not looking at her as he continued to work on Elizabeth.

      Her heartbeat quickened. Although she’d been expecting the request, she wasn’t ready with her answer.

      “I know it’ll be a pain in the neck,” he continued, still concentrating on the baby. “But I don’t see how else we can manage this. We can bring Sadie over here, of course, and I’ll help СКАЧАТЬ