by Carol Grace
“Too bad he can’t be here,” he remarked, reaching for the crackers Morgan had thrown on the floor, and handing them back to her.
“Yes, well...” Laurie folded and refolded her napkin in her lap as the waiter delivered her sandwich along with a bottle of imported beer to the man. “He’s already seen it, I mean them.” She waved her hand in the direction of the magnificent display of falling water outside the window. There was a long moment of silence while they all stared out the window. Even Morgan seemed impressed by the fifty thousand cubic feet of water per second that flowed over the precipice.
When the waiter returned to bring him his turkey sandwich, Coop paused and considered taking the sandwich and moving back to his table. He couldn’t even remember why he’d left in the first place. Oh, yes, the toy. It certainly wasn’t to admire the baby, though he had to admit it was flattering to think he could make her stop crying. And it certainly wasn’t to pick up some married woman. He had no intention of picking up any woman at all. Then why was he here, retrieving falling objects for a baby and coming on to a beautiful blonde who didn’t say she was and didn’t say she wasn’t married?
Curiosity, he told himself. Pure and simple. The same scientific curiosity that led him to the field of hydraulic engineering. To find out how to recover the maximum amount of energy from a river without destroying its natural beauty. His eyes strayed to the curve of Laurie’s cheek, the straight line of her nose, the indentation of her throat. Speaking of natural beauty...
“I’m Cooper Buckingham. I work here at the dam. Mind if I join you?” he heard himself say as if he hadn’t already joined them. “Or are you waiting for someone?”
After a brief pause she shook her head. “We’re alone for now. I’m Laurie Clayton and this is Morgan.”
“What’s wrong with Morgan?” he asked, reaching for the troll that Morgan had thrown to the floor a few minutes ago.
Laurie sighed and looked from him to the baby. “Nothing as long as you’re around. I don’t know how you do it. She stopped crying when she saw you. You have a real knack with children. I suppose you have several at home?” Laurie dipped into the strained beets with a small spoon in a gallant attempt to feed them to Morgan. But Morgan swerved her head at the last minute and the beets sprayed onto her little blue outfit.
Coop watched the scene unfold, dismayed by the mess, but even more so by the question she asked. Why on earth had he joined these two and why did she have to pry into his life?
“No kids,” he answered brusquely. “No wife, either. I travel light, work on temporary assignments like this one. Here for a few months, then on to the next place. Which reminds me,” he said as he signaled the waiter, “ I’ve got to get back to work.”
Laurie nodded and reached for her purse. But all she came up with was the diaper bag. A cold chill came over her despite the wool sweater she had over her shoulders. Frantically she looked around the chair, on the floor and in the diaper bag. She couldn’t, she didn’t, she wouldn’t have left her purse in the locked car, would she? Oh, no, no, no... Cooper was holding the check, her check? His check? Their check and stared at her horrified expression.
“I... uh... seem to have left my purse in the car,” she confessed.
“And the car’s locked?” he asked.
“Yes,” she admitted, “and Morgan threw the keys into the Falls.”
He nodded. “I saw that.” He took his credit card from his wallet and laid it on the table. ”This is on me, then.”
“I can’t let you do that,” she protested. “Give me your address so I can send you the money.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s taken care of. What about your car?”
Laurie’s face flushed. She hoped he didn’t think she did this on purpose. “The car? Oh, yes, the car. I’m just going to call a friend to come and get it and me... and Morgan.”
“Not your husband?” he inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“No, not my husband. I don’t have a husband.”
“Just a baby,” he suggested.
“Not a baby, either. Morgan isn’t mine. She’s my goddaughter. I’m just babysitting. That’s why I don’t know what to do when she cries or throws things. But I’m learning.”
She gave Cooper what she hoped was a confident smile. Then she picked up the bag and the backpack and extricated Morgan from the high chair and after another smile and more thanks she strode out of the dining room with what she imagined was great dignity. Which was marred only by the sound of Morgan, who, upon realizing they were leaving Cooper, began to cry all over again.
“Morgan,” she murmured, heading for the public telephone in the lobby of the hotel, but having no idea who to call. “Don’t cry like that. Not over a man. They aren’t worth it. I know. Especially that kind. The kind who travels light. Who isn’t married and doesn’t want to be. Who has no children and doesn’t want any. Believe me, I know.”
Plunking her equipment on the floor and lifting Morgan up onto her shoulder, Laurie stared at the telephone, then picked up a brochure for the hotel that boasted rooms with no TV or radio, just wall-to-wall views of the Falls and the river, overstuffed chairs, old-fashioned tubs and extra large beds with down quilts.
Laurie looked longingly at the glossy photographs, picturing herself sinking into the depths of a down quilt. An odor permeated her thoughts and Laurie wrinkled her nose. She suddenly realized that Morgan needed a new diaper. Now. She had to do something, find enough space to change her, then give her a nap. Then she had to find a way to get home. If she had money she’d call a cab. But she didn’t.
First things first. The diaper. The ladies’ room. But Morgan didn’t want to go to the ladies’ room. She cried louder and louder. Laurie couldn’t move, couldn’t think.
* * *
From the lobby where he was meeting with three other engineers, Cooper heard the frantic cries. How could he miss them? He could have suggested another meeting place like the bar. But he didn’t. He excused himself and walked in the direction of the loud crying and found them by the telephones.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, as if he didn’t know.
At the mere sound of his voice, Morgan stopped crying, squirmed in Laurie’s arms and looked at Cooper through tear-soaked eyelashes. Then she held out her arms to him, a man she’d never seen before that day, a man she knew nothing about except that her godmother told her to beware of him. But he did nothing, this man she adored. He just stood there, his gaze shifting back and forth between the two of them, his arms at his sides, waiting for her answer.
“Nothing,” Laurie said at last. “Nothing at all. My car keys are at the bottom of the Niagara River, my purse is locked inside the car, the baby desperately needs a new diaper and I have no way to get home.”
“Other than that, is everything okay?” he asked with a faint smile.
“Just great,” she assured him as Morgan leaned toward him, making little baby sounds that were hard to ignore. But Cooper did. He continued to stand with his arms locked at his sides, his forehead creased, an uncertain look in his dark blue eyes. Then, without Coop knowing quite how it happened, perhaps through sheer willpower, Morgan transferred herself from her godmother to him. She threw her chubby arms around his neck while he awkwardly put his hands around her wet, diapered bottom.
He’d never held a baby in his arms before. Wet or dry. He would have remembered if he had. The feeling was unforgettable. She was heavier than a sack of flour, and harder to get a hold on even with her arms wrapped around his neck in a death grip. When she pressed her tearstained cheek against his, he looked over her head at Laurie, who was watching him with wide brown eyes, an anxious expression on her face.
His own feelings were pretty anxious at that point. There was a tightness in his chest, a shortness of breath he couldn’t explain except to think it was sheer terror. He wanted to give the baby back, but he didn’t want her to start that horrible crying again. He wanted to go back to the lobby, to continue his meet
ing, but he couldn’t do that either, not when they had no way home.
What happened to “the friend,” he wondered. Maybe there was no friend. No friend and no husband. Just one beautiful, if inept substitute mother and one wet baby. He held Morgan out and Laurie took her back.
“You can change her in my room,” he said reluctantly. He wanted to say, “but that’s all.” But he didn’t.
“You’re staying here?” she asked, patting the baby gently on the back.
“It’s convenient. Close to work and the food in the dining room’s decent. I’m not here long enough to rent a house.”
“Well, if you don’t mind,” she said. “Then we’ll get out of your way.”
He didn’t ask how they’d get out of his way. He was afraid to. Wasn’t it enough he’d made the baby stop crying and was now offering his room as a changing area? They wouldn’t, they couldn’t ask him for a ride home, too, could they?
They didn’t ask anything. No one spoke at all in the elevator to the third floor. While Cooper phoned the lobby and made excuses to his colleagues, Laurie quickly and efficiently changed Morgan’s diaper in the commodious tiled bathroom that smelled faintly of sandalwood soap and after-shave. Returning to the bedroom with a dry, clean, quiet Morgan, Laurie looked around. With a fire laid in the fireplace, the room looked just as inviting as the pictures in the brochure.
“Put her on the bed for a minute,” Cooper said. “You look like you could use a rest.”
Laurie knew how she looked. She’d caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the sink. Tangled hair, smudged face, shirt streaked with purple beets. But it was more important to clean up Morgan than herself. She’d do it later when she got home— Oh God, she’d almost forgotten. She had no way to get home. But she spread a baby blanket in the middle of the king-size bed and put Morgan down on her stomach. Just for a minute. Just until she caught her breath. Until she decided what to do.
Then she sat on the edge of the bed watching the baby’s eyelids flutter closed. “I never knew they could wear you out like that,” she mused. “What do people do who have more than one?”
“They don’t give them their car keys to play with,” Coop observed dryly from the easy chair at the window where he’d stretched his long legs out in front of him.
Laurie bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. She didn’t need to have her stupidity pointed out to her.
“How about a drink?” he asked, crossing the room and unlocking the small, well-stocked refrigerator. “You look like you need one.”
“I know what I look like,” she said, dabbing at a spot on the front of her shirt. “You don’t have to remind me.” For one moment she thought longingly of her old life handing out trays and filling drink orders in an impeccable uniform with every hair in place. But a glance at Morgan’s flushed cheeks, her little clenched fists made her smile in spite of her weariness.
Ignoring her remark, Coop poured her a glass of chilled white wine. What she didn’t seem to know was that her tangled blond hair and wrinkled clothes only accentuated her classic features. She wasn’t vain. That was rare in a woman with her looks. Cooper knew that much.
“I really shouldn’t,” she said, taking the wine from him. “I’ve got to stay focused and try to decide how to get out of this mess.”
His hand brushed hers and she looked up, startled at the rush of adrenaline that pulsed through her body. His eyes met hers just for a second, then he touched his glass to hers. “Here’s to your safe return,” he said and sat down next to her on the bed. She took a sip of wine, wondering if he had to sit so close on such a large bed, so close his leg was pressed against hers. She became aware of the muscles in his thigh, the heat from his body, the beating of his heart. Or was that her heart? Suddenly she had to hold her glass with two hands to keep it steady.
“The way I see it,” he said, his face so close she could see his eyes were really a deep navy, and his hair looked so soft and thick she had an uncontrollable desire to run her hands through it, “you have two choices.”
“What are they?” she asked breathlessly. She was unable to move in any direction, to even look away from the stranger who’d paid for her lunch, invited her to his hotel room and was now plying her with white wine and coming closer with every passing second. Where was Morgan when Laurie needed a chaperon? Conked out on the bed. On the other side of the bed.
Coop paused. He was stalling for time. He didn’t know what to say. The only choices that came to mind had nothing to do with car keys or a sleeping baby. They had to do with the woman next to him. The same woman he wanted nothing to do with. He still didn’t. He just... couldn’t seem to get away from her. There was something about the way she was handling this crisis, the loss of her keys, the cranky baby, that summoned his grudging admiration. It was partly the way she picked up the baby and walked out of the restaurant, as if she hadn’t a care in the world, that made him want to help her.
Under her bravado was a vulnerability he couldn’t seem to ignore. But he had to ignore her. He couldn’t do any more for her. Except maybe call a cab. While he thought about it, he wondered if her hair felt the way it looked, like pale silk. And what made her smell like hothouse flowers, her lotion or her perfume? Was that desire that flared in her eyes a minute ago, or just a reflection of what he felt? He wasn’t going to hang around and find out. Not now. Not ever.
He didn’t know anything about this woman, not really. Only that she said the baby wasn’t hers. That she’d lost her keys and her credit card was locked in the car. It was possible. Anything was possible. Anything but taking her home himself. Two choices, he’d said. And one was...
“I could take you home,” he heard himself say. Now where did that come from?
Chapter Three
With Laurie sitting next to him, the baby in the back seat, Cooper began the long drive toward the truck farming region outside of Buffalo. They drove in silence. Only occasionally did he glance in her direction, each time silently admiring her profile in the twilight, the honey gold hair that brushed her cheek.
Finally she spoke. “I really appreciate this,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you today. I guess I’d still be in the hotel lobby.”
“Wouldn’t Morgan’s parents eventually come and get you?” he asked.
“They’re out of town, both of them. That’s why I’m here. Gretel, that’s Morgan’s mother, is my best friend. We used to fly together for Northeast Air. Then Gretel got married and moved to this apple orchard.”
Cooper turned to look at her. “This story sounds familiar.”
“I suppose it is. Woman has fun job. Meets man of her dreams. Quits job, lives happily ever after in apple orchard.”
“No, I mean it sounds really familiar,” he said. “Like something that happened to a friend of mine.”
“You have a friend who worked for the airline, too?”
“I have a friend who married a flight attendant and who lives on an apple orchard around here. Name’s Steve Lundgren.”
Laurie’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding. That’s Gretel’s husband.”
“What a coincidence. We were supposed to get together, but he’s been taking an agricultural course in Washington. I offered to give his wife, Gretel, a tour of the Falls, but she never called me. Anyway...” His voice trailed off. He’d avoided calling them, the way he’d been avoiding other old friends who might look at him with pity in their eyes, who might even try to fix him up with unmarried friends like Laurie here. Just what he didn’t want. Just what he didn’t need.
“It’s a small world,” Laurie murmured. Gretel’s words came back to her. A gorgeous guy. I wanted you to meet him. Well, she’d met him. And he was gorgeous, but he took her for a dimwit, a woman who couldn’t manage a day on her own without losing her keys, her purse and her self-esteem. And he’d be likely to pass on his opinion to Steve and Gretel as soon as he saw them.
“How do you know Steve?” she asked,
trying to fill the empty silence.
“We went to school together,” he said. “Fraternity brothers actually.”
“I suppose you’ll have a lot of catching up to do when you see him. How long has it been?”
He shrugged as if he couldn’t remember. But he remembered. Two years ago. At the funeral. “I really don’t know his wife,” he said, quickly changing the subject. “You say she quit her job?”
“When Morgan was born. She still has her benefits, so that’s how she was able to join Steve and take a second honeymoon. She just left today. That’s why Morgan’s so upset.” Laurie looked in the rearview mirror to see that the child was fast asleep.
“Was upset,” she continued, “until you came along. Anyway that’s why we’re alone, just the two of us.” Laurie took a breath. She couldn’t seem to stop talking, now that she’d started. You’d think Gretel had been gone for days instead of hours, she was so desperate to talk to an adult. “We were planning to go to the Falls before Gretel left, so I decided to come anyway. Now I wish I’d never seen that spectacular sight.”
Cooper didn’t answer, so Laurie continued. “I guess you wish you’d never seen us. Then you’d be watching the Falls illuminated at night from the comfort of your hotel room instead of transporting two helpless females across the state.”
“I’ve seen the Falls at night,” he remarked, “and I’ll see them again. How far did you say it was?”
She bit her lip, hearing an underlying impatience in his voice. “I’m not exactly sure, but I know it’s the River Road Exit we want.” She couldn’t believe she’d thrown herself at the mercy of this man. But what choice did she have? This was no time for pride. She had Morgan to think of.
