Babies in the Bargain. Victoria Pade

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      “Marla wasn’t always a whiz at it. She started out having trouble taking care of a baby—one baby—and everything else, too. We both did. But as time went on—”

      “I’ll get better,” Kira promised before he could finish what he was saying. “I mean it. I’ll come over here at four tomorrow morning before you or the girls are awake and—”

      “Whoa!” Cutty said with a shake of his head and a big hand held up palm outward. “I didn’t want to talk to you about trying harder—”

      “So you are firing me.”

      “I never hired you, how could I fire you? You’re just helping out and all I wanted to talk to you about was relaxing.”

      “Relaxing?” Kira repeated as if the word wasn’t in her vocabulary.

      “I think you’re trying too hard and getting in your own way.”

      Trying too hard? Was there such a thing?

      “It’s making you kind of fumble fingered.”

      “I know I seemed to drop and spill everything I touched today, and I spent all my time cleaning up my own messes rather than making any headway with the ones that were already here. I’m not usually that clumsy.”

      “And when it comes to the girls—”

      “They still don’t like me.”

      “You’re just unfamiliar to them, and they’re missing Betty—she’s like a grandmother to them. They’ll get used to you but you can’t force it. They can be pretty contrary when you try.”

      And Kira had the soiled clothes and shoes to show for it.

      Still she knew he was right. The way she’d handled the twins certainly hadn’t been the recipe for success, since all they’d wanted to do was escape from her overly cloying attentions—frequently by displays of temper—and Cutty had ended up having to step in to do everything.

      “I’m sorry,” Kira said again. Then, with another glance at the debris all around them, she added, “Maybe I can get some things done now.”

      “I think what you should do now is go soak in a bubble bath,” Cutty said. “And we’ll start over tomorrow. Maybe without so much concern about how Marla did things.”

      Kira had spent an inordinate amount of time asking how her sister did everything. “Betty said—”

      “I can imagine what Betty said. But Betty isn’t here and neither is Marla, and we just need to get things taken care of regardless of what Betty said or how Marla did things.”

      “Okay,” Kira agreed, thinking that that was a nice way of saying she just needed to get something—anything—done.

      But then he managed to raise her sinking spirits with a simple, winning smile. “You know, I appreciate that you’re here and willing to help out. And I’m glad you want to get to know the girls. I just think things will run more smoothly if you can go with the flow. Like I said, relax. Have a little fun, get a little done. There’s no right way. There’s no wrong way. There’s no big deals.”

      Kira nodded. “I’ll try.” But the truth was, she’d been taught that there was always a right way and that was how she had to do everything. She wasn’t too sure she could ignore that now.

      Cutty took his foot off the pillow and stood then. “Come on. Let me give you a key to the back door so you can get in whenever you want, and then you can go have that long soak in the tub. Tomorrow will be a better day.”

      Kira thought he was probably figuring it couldn’t be a worse one.

      But still, the idea of sinking into a bath full of bubbles was too tempting to pass up and she stood, too, following Cutty to the kitchen and feeling guilty for the sight of him limping even more than he had been the night before.

      “I really am sorry,” she told him yet again as they reached the kitchen.

      “I’ll let it go this time but another day like today and I’ll have to dock your pay,” he joked.

      He took a key from the hook beside the door and turned around, giving her a full view of a mischievous smile that put those creases on either side of his mouth and made an unexpected warmth wash through her.

      “Before this is over I might end up having to pay you,” Kira said, making a joke of her own. “In fact you can probably start a tab with those two dishes and the coffee mug I broke.”

      Cutty just laughed and again she liked the sound of it. “You are kind of a bull in a china shop,” he said as if it were a compliment.

      “Not usually,” she assured. “Honestly, no one who knows me would have believed this today.”

      He didn’t say anything to that. He merely gave her the key.

      But as she accepted it their hands brushed. Only briefly. And Kira found herself oddly aware of it. Of the heat of his skin. Of the little shards of electricity that seemed to shoot up her arm from the point of contact.

      It was just silly, she told herself.

      Although, she also thought when Cutty spoke again that his voice might have dropped an octave, and she had to wonder if he’d felt it, too.

      But if he did, he didn’t indicate it in what he was saying.

      “And don’t even think about coming over here at four tomorrow morning. Seven is plenty early enough. You’ll probably have to wait half an hour or so for the girls to wake up even at that. But maybe if you’re the first person they see instead of Betty, it’ll start things off more in your favor.”

      “Like ducks bonding to the first thing they see when they hatch?”

      He grinned. “Something like that, yeah.”

      “I’ll hope for the best.”

      There was a moment then when their eyes met and held. Kira didn’t understand why or what was in the air between them when it happened. But there was definitely something in the air between them. Something that seemed more than just the camaraderie of being in the trenches together.

      But then it passed and Cutty opened the screen for her, holding it while she went out.

      “See you in the morning,” he said then.

      “Good night,” she responded.

      But even as Kira walked across the yard to the garage apartment she could still feel the remnants of that change that had hung in the air for that single moment.

      What had that been about? she wondered.

      She honestly didn’t know.

      But she did know that even after the fact, it left her feeling all tingly inside.

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