by Kaitlyn Rice
But she knew she’d just wake up, too, and feel as if she had to check on things. And after that hot and embarrassing night in the nursery, it was obvious they should avoid middle of the night encounters.
She grabbed the stroller’s handle and started pushing it back toward the house. “Hey, if you hear Rosie or Wyatt fussing, go back to sleep,” she said. “I’ll be glad to keep handling the night feedings.”
“Oh, but I want to help with the twins,” he said immediately. “I’ll come up when I hear them both cry.” He walked along beside her, and cleared his throat. “We haven’t talked about how we’re going to handle this, but people like us would probably want to get out of the house occasionally.”
“People like us?” she asked, wondering what category he thought they’d both fit into, besides human being.
“Yeah. We’re both single,” he said. “It’s fine if you want to go out on dates. I could watch the twins and…uh, maybe we could work out a schedule.”
She thought back to her last date. Sometime last winter, her mother and sister had tricked her into going out with the son of one of her mother’s friends who was visiting from out of town. Abby hadn’t been fooled again.
“A dating schedule,” she said feebly. “What a great idea.” There was no need for him to know about the sorry state of her romantic life. She’d just make one up, and he’d never be the wiser.
“In fact, I have a friend coming into town Friday night,” he said. “Do you mind if I go out for a while?”
He already had a date?
Swish went the revolving door, bumping her right on the derriere. Abby’s heart skipped a beat and she tripped over a clump of grass.
To cover herself, she leaned down to fiddle with a wheel of the stroller. “Of course I don’t mind,” she said. “Why would I mind?”
He stopped, too, and stood looking at the twins, who were pink cheeked and drooling as they waited for their ride to continue. “I’ll make a point to be home by the time the babies are ready to go to bed. About ten,” he promised.
She stood back up. “That’s not necessary. Take your time with your girlfriend.”
“Thanks,” he said softly. “But if you’ll teach me how to put them down to sleep, you can go out, too. I know you don’t think men are attracted, but they would be if you gave them a chance.”
Abby started pushing the stroller again. She didn’t know how to react. He was probably trying to be kind, but he was making her feel like a pariah. “Oh, I know,” she said breezily. “A banker in town has been watching me for ages, probably wanting to ask me out. I think I’ll take him up on it.”
“Phenomenal,” Jack said, following her quietly.
“Isn’t it though?” she said, pushing the stroller faster.
LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON, Abby sequestered herself in the nursery with a novel and a glass of mint tea. The twins had fallen asleep an hour earlier, and she’d told Jack she wanted to wait upstairs until they woke up.
That was partially true. She was waiting—but only until the revolving door quit spinning around. As silly as it was, she had no desire to greet his girlfriend.
Abby read the first twenty pages of her novel without comprehending a word, and tried not to listen to the silent-house sounds that must mean Jack was dressing.
When Rosie chirped a greeting from the crib, Abby rushed over to pick her up, thankful for the distraction. Wyatt woke awhile later, and she handed each baby a toy and promised a round of zwieback cookies, when they had the house to themselves again.
Soon after, the doorbell rang and a female voice floated upstairs. Judging from the careful modulation of that voice, Abby could hazard a guess about the woman’s looks.
Perfectly composed in dress and manner, Jack’s date would be wearing a chic outfit with shoes and handbag to match. Abby knew the type.
She resisted the urge to spy, and waited until they left before she ventured outside the nursery door. But as she went about her evening routine with the babies she was overcome with curiosity. Would they actually make it to dinner, or just rent a motel room?
That thought should make Abby happy. If Jack was otherwise occupied, she wouldn’t have to combat the terrible attraction growing between them. But in truth she was only irritated, so she forced herself to think about something else. Some other man. Now that she’d made her boastful noise about male interest, maybe she could drum some up.
She’d go into town this week. The curious-eyed loan officer at her bank seemed harmless enough—she’d work on him. She was way out of practice with flirting, but maybe it was similar to riding a bike. Maybe she hadn’t forgotten how.
She had just buckled the twins into the high chairs for a late dinner of oatmeal and applesauce when the front door opened. Jack was returning, and it was only—Abby glanced at the kitchen clock—eight-thirty!
He spoke softly upon entering, and she realized he must be bringing his date inside. Abby began shoveling mounds of baby food into the twins’ mouths, trying to rush them through their dinner.
She refused to be downstairs when he and this woman were shut up in his bedroom. If she heard them in there making noises she would barely recognize after so long, she’d be nauseated.
But Jack came strolling into the kitchen before she’d had a chance to stuff a third spoonful into either baby’s mouth. “Abby, I want you to meet Paula,” he said. “She’s an old friend of mine.”
The blonde’s navy halter dress showcased a set of evenly tanned and toned shoulders, which were made even more flawless by the pearls at her neck and earlobes. Bingo.
“Paula, this is Abby,” he continued, seeming pleased with himself.
The woman extended a hand. “How lovely that we should meet,” she said in that same cool voice. But the expression was all wrong, because this lady was simmering.
Abby stood and wiped her hand on the hip of her jeans before offering it. “Hullo,” she said with a quick smile.
“And this is Rosie and Wyatt.”
“I’m not usually interested in babies,” Paula said as she eyed the twins. “But I suppose these two are…cute?”
“They’re absolutely precious,” Abby said as she sat back down between them. While she’d been distracted, Wyatt had stuck his hand in the bowl of cereal and slicked it across his hair, making the ends of his curls clump together and spike up adorably.
Abby took the bowl and spoon away from him and began to feed both twins again. Grinning, she said, “Look at that! Now Wyatt’s hair is as wild as Jack’s when he gets up in the middle of the night.”
She tugged her bottom lip in between her teeth as she looked up at Jack’s hair.
Paula was looking up there, too.
Jack put a hand to his head and frowned.
Paula folded her arms across her dress and said, “Getting up in the middle of the night, are you, darling?”
“Only if both babies cry,” he said.
“Uh-huh,” Paula said, in a way that made clear she didn’t believe him.
“It’s none of your concern, anyway,” he said. “And I need to help Abby bathe these babies. You’d better go.”
“Hmm. Well. I suppose I should be heading back to the city,” Paula said, as if it had been her idea to leave in the first place. But she stood in the middle of the kitchen and looked at Jack expectantly.
“Thanks for bringing the package,” he said.
“Walk me out, darling,” Paula said, folding her arm around the crook of his elbow and pulling.
Jack shrugged and followed obediently.
As they left, Abby heard Paula whisper, “I see what you mean about your roommate’s appearance.”
Abby frowned. That whisper had been just loud enough for her to hear, and it had met its mark. She spent the next few minutes wondering what Jack had said, and why this Paula person found it necessary to mention it.
Jack returned a few seconds after the front door had closed. “I’m sorry she was rude,” he said. “She was just je
alous, you know. I’ve never lived with anyone, although she has hinted for several years.”
“Uh-huh,” Abby said, copying Paula’s disbelieving tone.
“I didn’t tell her much about your looks, Abby. Although I do think I said you were the girl-next-door type.”
Abby carried the bowl and spoons to the sink. She ran water over them and returned to get the babies down from their chairs. “You don’t have to explain,” she said. “I guess I can understand why she might be catty.”
“She was that, wasn’t she?” Jack said, taking Rosie from the high chair and holding her while Abby wiped the excess goo from Wyatt’s hands and hair.
“She’s eye-catching, though,” Abby said. “She reminds me of an apple taken from the tree a few weeks early. Her looks are so perfect you get all worked up about how great she’ll be, but after one bite you want to spit her right back out.”
Jack’s laughter was vigorous and sustained. He laughed so heartily that soon both babies joined in, and the four of them spent a few minutes in fits of giggles.
When everyone started to calm down, Rosie’s chuckles had developed into a case of hiccups. Abby filled a bottle with water. “I’m surprised, Jack. I thought you two must be pretty attached, since she came to visit so soon.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been seeing her for a while, but I wouldn’t say I’m attached. She’s always been an available companion for social events. Anyway, she only came here to do me a favor.”
Abby pictured Paula lying across some hotel room bed purring, “Would you like me to move my hips a bit more, darling?”
Before Abby could stop herself, she asked, “A favor?”
“She brought me something from the store where she works. Incidentally, it’s something for you.”
She handed him the bottle. “Tell me that’s not true.”
“It’s nothing, really—just something that might help us with our nighttime duties.”
He walked off with both Rosie and the bottle, and soon returned with a dainty mauve shopping bag. “After the other night in the nursery, I thought you might find this useful.”
Abby accepted the bag, grazing Jack’s hand in the process. A burst of energy surged through her. Her startled eyes met his intense ones, and she looked away, into the bag. “You got me a piece of lingerie?” she squeaked, staring at the slinky black fabric inside.
He peered over her shoulder, wincing when he saw the garment. “It was supposed to be a robe, to pull on when we both have to help with the babies at night.”
Her heart returned to its normal rhythm. He wasn’t trying to flaunt her body, he was trying to cover it up.
She pulled the contents out of the bag, and it did turn out to be a robe. Satiny smooth and ethereal, but a robe, nevertheless. “A robe,” she said tonelessly. “Thanks.”
“Since we’ll both be getting up, I thought we’d be smart if we wore something.”
She turned around, embarrassed by her own naiveté, and stuffed the robe back into the bag. Whisking Wyatt from the chair, she headed for the stairs. “I agree,” she said on the way. “Thanks again.”
When would she get it through her thick skull that she wasn’t the type to attract men? Tim had told her she wasn’t feminine enough…that her very strength was boring.
But Tim had never looked at her with that teasing light in his eyes. And he’d never made her laugh as much as Jack did. She was beginning to think Tim had been the boring one.
Upstairs, she gathered the twins’ bath supplies and went straight into the bathroom. They were sitting up well enough now to be bathed one at a time, with the help of a bathing ring.
Abby ran water in the tub, allowing Wyatt to splash around in it as it filled.
“I brought Rosie up,” Jack hollered from the nursery. “I’ll entertain her in here. Let me know when you’re ready to trade.”
“Mr. Cordiality yourself, aren’t you?” she muttered to herself. “Without even thinking, you insult me.”
“Are you talking to me?” he asked, sticking his head through the doorway.
“Of course not. I’m talking to Wyatt.”
Glancing back, she noticed Jack staring at her bottom before he left again. She patted a hand back there to make sure she didn’t have a cracker stuck to her pants, and then turned her attention to a more manageable male.
Smiling at Wyatt’s cackling enjoyment of the water, she reminded herself that this little boy was worth a tiny nick in her self-esteem. Before Jack had moved in, she hadn’t felt great about her relationships with men, anyway. He merely confirmed what she already knew.
She managed to contain her emotions as they switched babies, and even acted normal as they worked together to ready the babies for bed.
But Jack didn’t leave after the babies were in their pajamas, and her feelings were too close to the surface for Abby to face him.
“All right,” he said. “Now will you show me your magic for laying them down?”
“Of course.”
Jack watched over her shoulder as she laid Rosie in her crib. When she tucked the blanket around the baby’s body, he moved closer. His breath hit Abby’s neck in warm waves, making her very aware of his nearness.
“Rosie goes without a struggle,” she said softly as she squeezed between him and the crib. “She always seems happy to snuggle down to sleep.”
Taking Wyatt from his arms, she crooned to the boy as she walked the four steps to the other crib. Barely breathing, she nestled him onto his mattress and folded a blanket around him. “Wyatt is trickier,” she whispered. “You have to tuck him in securely and let him get settled. He may complain for a few minutes, but he’s usually too tired to resist long.”
Wyatt’s bottom lip trembled as he stared through the cage-like bars of his crib. Until he found his thumb. Once that was in place, his eyelids drooped quickly into sleep.
Abby backed up and bumped solidly into Jack’s chest. His hands sprang up around her middle—she supposed to help her catch her balance. But when she was steady on her feet, his hands remained. He brought his chest tight against her back and rubbed his face against her hair.
She closed her eyes and tried not to react. As much as she hungered for his touch, she knew encouraging it would be a mistake. But she couldn’t find the will to stop him.
She did resist the urge to turn around and taste his hot, male lips again. But when they touched the nape of her neck in a barrage of nibbles, her contrary spine bent like a willow, until his solid body was supporting her flimsy one.
His hands roamed up from her belly, and he gently cupped a breast in each hand. She felt a moan escape, and when his breath hit the side of her neck, she stole a glance at his face. He was looking over her shoulder, watching his thumbs trifle with nipples that stood out brazenly through her shirt, inviting contact. She forgot to breathe, until Rosie cried out in her sleep, and his hands dropped away.
Abby glanced over to the crib, satisfying herself that Rosie was okay. Then she walked on rubbery legs to the door of the nursery, with Jack following.
When they got outside the door, Abby closed it softly and turned to look at him. He looked back, but offered nothing more than a gulping swallow. She supposed he didn’t know what to say. She sure didn’t. She also didn’t know whether to step into his arms or run away from them.
She puffed out a shaky breath and watched in horror as he reached for her again. Was he going to gather her in his arms and whisk her off to bed? What should she do?
She shouldn’t have worried about it, even for a second, because he only yanked at the bottom of her shirt to pull it down smoothly over her belly.
“Good night,” he whispered, and walked quickly down the steps, leaving her alone to deal with her unruly desires.
She went to her room and sat on her bed, thinking. She must have let weeds take over in her head and crowd out every sane judgment.
Here she was, spending her days wearing dirt-encrusted clothes and pointing out the hardshi
ps of parenting so Jack would get restless and leave. Like Tim.
Yet at the same time, she was battling a persistent fantasy that this doggedly confirmed bachelor, and Wyatt’s legal guardian, would fall head over heels in love with her and stay. As no one had. Ever.
It was all complete lunacy.
CHAPTER SIX
JACK OPENED BLEARY EYES to the luminous red numbers of his alarm clock. He noted the time and closed his eyes again. Ten-thirty. Good, he had plenty more time to sleep. Last night had been hellaciously long. He’d spent most of it wrestling with knotted sheets and…
Wait, had that said ten-thirty?
He looked again and rolled off the bed with a groan. Abby probably thought he was a lazy bum, sleeping the day away.
After stumbling over last night’s clothes on the way to the door, he grabbed his robe from the doorknob and tossed it around his shoulders. He needed a shower and shave, and then he’d be out there to help.
Sweet mercy, he was tired. He’d spent hours in front of his computer, at some point even nodding off there. At five in the morning, he’d peeled his forehead off the keyboard and stared at the onslaught of equal signs and brackets that had taken over his computer screen.
He’d made himself wake up enough to repair the damage, and must have gone back to sleep on the way to his bedroom. He had no recollection of removing his clothes or hitting the bed. If Rosie or Wyatt had cried last night, he hadn’t heard them.
Fifteen rushed minutes later, he ventured into the main part of the house, prepared to apologize and offer to baby-sit for the rest of the morning. But the house was suspiciously quiet, and a glance out the back door to note the absence of Abby’s truck saved him a trip upstairs.
There was half a pot of cold coffee sitting near the sink, and a note on the refrigerator from Abby. She’d written that she had taken the babies with her to deliver a load of flowers to market. She would be home by noon.
He warmed up a cup of the coffee and headed for his office, deciding to use his free time to get some work done. He clicked on his mouse and maneuvered through the steps of his program, but he couldn’t make his mind start to work.
