Baby: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone

by Janie Crouch

  There didn’t seem to be much that he didn’t take in stride.

  She knew she had money in her bank account—at least enough to cover soup and coffee. It probably really was just a matter of making sure they knew all of her purchases would be in Wyoming now.

  Her phone rang from where she’d thrown it on the table.

  She picked it up, shaking her head when she saw it was Peter again. He’d picked the wrong time—right when she was thinking about how broke she was.

  “I really have nothing to say to you,” she said without greeting. “Or, nothing nice, at least.”

  “Just who do you think you are?” It wasn’t Peter’s voice; it was a woman.

  “Who is this?” Quinn asked.

  “This is Nancy. You might remember me as the woman Peter decided was better suited for him than you.”

  Oh, Quinn knew exactly who Nancy was. She was also currently wearing a ring that had been bought with the money that would have made a big difference in Quinn’s life right now.

  “Just so happens I have nothing to say to you, either, Nancy. Why are you calling me?”

  “You think because Peter is out of town that you can do something to mess with his bank account? How dare you have the banks put a stop on his debit card.”

  Quinn rubbed her fingers across her eyes. She and Peter no longer had combined bank accounts, but they still used the same bank.

  “I didn’t do it. It must be some screw up with the bank. In fact, the same thing happened to me today—”

  “We know it was you who broke into the house last week, despite trying to say you’re in Wyoming. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but you need to let go. Peter has moved on. Why can’t you do the same?”

  Quinn forced herself to count to ten before answering. Maybe if she had done that when Peter had accused her of misconduct, she wouldn’t be in her current situation.

  She got as far as three. “Listen, Nancy. I have been out of Peter’s life for two years since the divorce. I have no idea what’s going on with the debit cards, but why don’t you try asking the bank first rather than assume it’s some nefarious action on my part?”

  “We have every reason to think that this could be you. You have proven yourself—”

  “Was it your debit card that was having the problem?”

  “No, it was Peter’s, but—”

  “Then I don’t know why I’m having this conversation with you. Tell Peter to call me himself when he gets back in town.”

  She didn’t want to talk to him, but she definitely didn’t want to talk to Nancy.

  “Just because Peter is too kindhearted to say what he really feels about your actions doesn’t mean that I am.”

  Maybe Peter finally felt a little remorse for what he’d done. How he’d successfully left her with zero options. Jobless and ostracized, without a network of friends. Broke.

  All because he thought she was self-sabotaging when a string of bad luck hit. They’d already been divorced by that time, but it would’ve been nice for him to not have thrown her under the bus like they’d had no history whatsoever.

  But he was Nancy’s problem now.

  “Tell Peter to check with the bank,” she finally said. “I had problems with my debit card today too, so maybe they are having some sort of systemwide issue.”

  “If this is some sort of ploy to get Peter back...”

  Quinn laughed. Like, belly laughed. She was aware there was a hint of hysteria to the sound, but she couldn’t stop herself.

  Nancy was obviously offended. “What’s so funny? Everyone knows you didn’t take the divorce well.”

  Two years had given Quinn perspective about her marriage and divorce.

  One of the hardest things she had to face was that she really hadn’t been heartbroken over losing Peter as a husband. She’d been hurt by the fact that he’d dropped wanting a divorce on her without any warning. She’d mourn the loss of the person she thought was her partner in all aspects of life.

  But missing the man himself? Not so much.

  And the passion between them? She wasn’t sure that had ever been there. She’d felt more passion toward Baby in the past two weeks than she had in nearly ten years of marriage.

  The lack of passion was on her, not Peter. She’d settled for that, never tried to change it or figure out what was missing.

  But all the things he’d done in the two years since their divorce? The responsibility for that fell squarely on his shoulders. And whatever love she might have felt for him had been stomped out with every unnecessarily selfish thing he had done.

  “He’s my man now,” Nancy reiterated.

  Quinn sighed. There was more passion in Nancy’s one sentence than Quinn had felt for Peter in years, if ever.

  “You know what? You’re welcome to him. And I wish you the best of luck. But your man got me fired and blacklisted because he decided I was guilty of things I didn’t do. Then, your man decided to clear out a bank account I’d forgotten he was still listed as a co-signer on.”

  “What are you talking about? Peter would never do any of those things. He’s not a thief.”

  The thing was, Nancy was right. Peter wasn’t a thief, but he was a pathological narcissist. Everything was about him and what he considered to be right. He honestly didn’t see anything wrong with the things he had done to Quinn, because, to him, it was for the greater good.

  But there wasn’t any point in trying to explain that.

  “When Peter gets back into town have him contact the bank. Don’t call me again, Nancy.”

  “Now you listen here—”

  Quinn disconnected the call. That was twice she’d done that now, and it felt pretty good.

  It was time to cut out the old. Time to take charge of her life. She’d decided that two weeks ago during the long drive from Massachusetts to Wyoming. She promised herself she wouldn’t remain trapped in the pattern she’d found herself in when she’d given Peter all of the control.

  If she was waiting for an apology from him, it was never going to come. And to be honest, she didn’t need his apology. He didn’t hold that type of space in her head or heart anymore. His apology wouldn’t change anything that had happened between them, or the situation she’d found herself in. All she could do was move forward.

  Experience the experience.

  Go on a date with someone with more passion in his pinky than Peter had ever felt toward her. So what if the relationship had nowhere to go? Quinn most certainly could take a little time and have fun for once.

  She made herself a cup of peppermint tea and walked over to the window to look out at the mostly darkness.

  Fun. It always seemed so frivolous, not something she was interested in. But had she shied away from fun because she wasn’t interested in it—all caught up in the forward progress of her career and making a name for herself in academic circles?

  Or had she avoided it because she was afraid she wouldn’t be very good at it? God knew, Peter would never be described as fun. And she’d chosen him as her husband, so what did that say about her?

  A movement out at the edge of the trees caught her attention and dragged her thoughts back to reality.

  Maybe it was the hurt dog. She went and grabbed a can of tuna out of her pantry. Did dogs like tuna? She had no idea but figured if it was hungry enough, it would eat anything. It was worth a shot, at least.

  She dumped it on the plate and walked outside toward where she’d seen the movement.

  “Here doggy. Come here, I have some nice fish for you. I promise I’ll buy some real dog food tomorrow while I’m in town, but I don’t want you to be hungry.”

  She didn’t feel nearly as stupid as she thought she would talking to a dog she couldn’t see.

  When the dog didn’t come for the food, she walked back to stand at her front door. Maybe it was wary of people and wouldn’t come nearby if she was around. But when it still didn’t go to the plate, she figured dogs must not like tuna.
<
br />   Oh well, hopefully the little guy would hold out till tomorrow when she could get proper dog food.

  She was about to go grab the plate when something—she wasn’t sure exactly what—caught her attention in her peripheral vision. Something definitely taller than a dog.

  “Hello?”

  God, there it was. That feeling like the other day. Like someone was watching her.

  Her pulse raced as her gaze darted around the darkness. She took a slow step back toward the door and looked around, trying to catch any movement in the moonlight.

  Nothing.

  “City girl,” she muttered. She was letting her Bostonian mindset run away with her again—she could probably blame her conversation with Nancy for that. There hadn’t been anyone watching her last time she’d felt this way, and there wasn’t anybody now.

  But she still couldn’t force herself to go back out to get the plate. City girl or not, she went inside and locked the door.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Baby couldn’t believe it was happening again.

  The last time he’d missed his date with Quinn—and no matter what she wanted to call it, he’d still thought of it as a date—it had been because of three tangoes whose threat he’d been forced to neutralize.

  And dammit, it was happening again, but this time, with three very different tangoes.

  “Uncle Baby, I’m pretty sure Thomas just did a big number two in his diaper. He’s so stinky.”

  Both his eight-year-old nephew Ethan, and his five-year-old honorary niece, Jess, busted out laughing at Jess’s words, the way only kids could when it came to talking about poop.

  Baby looked over at two-month-old Thomas, smiling angelically, and took a whiff.

  He reared his head back and looked at the children, wide-eyed. Holding Thomas out at arms’ length, he cried, “Good Lord. How in the world can something that smells that bad come from a creature so cute?”

  Ethan and Jess looked at each other in absolute glee. That wasn’t good.

  “Mom said if Thomas got a dirty diaper that we should make you change it,” Ethan said.

  Jess grinned. “Aunt Charlie said it would remind you of the importance of protection.”

  The little girl obviously did not have the same adult frame of reference for protection as Charlie had meant, but Jess knew Charlie had wanted to poke fun at Baby in some way so had memorized it verbatim—including the tone and know-it-all pose.

  Moreover, Baby was sure Jess and Ethan just wanted to see his reaction to having to change a poopy diaper.

  Baby let out an exaggerated sigh. “Remind me never to babysit ever again. Does anybody have any gas masks around?”

  More giggles. The kids followed Baby, egging him on about how horrible the smell was. Baby played along, and the kids nearly rolled on the floor in laughter when he questioned if the smell would cling to his clothes.

  Baby changed the diaper, acting like he had no idea what he was doing, much to the kids delight. The retching sounds weren’t totally fake. He caught Jess rolling her eyes when he tried to wrap a second diaper around Thomas’ body.

  He was babysitting for Charlie and Finn while they took Charlie’s father to a new medical specialist. Charlie’s parents lived with them in their large house.

  Mr. Devereaux probably didn’t have much longer to live, so Baby didn’t mind helping out so that Finn could be there to support Charlie and her family. He hadn’t mentioned he had a date this afternoon, because he didn’t want them to ask who it was with, and because they were scheduled to be back long before now.

  They’d called after lunch to say the doctor wanted to run a couple more tests while Mr. Devereaux was there. They promised they’d be home by around three. That would be perfect, giving Baby just enough time to run home before he needed to go pick Quinn up for their date.

  But then they’d called again to say things were delayed and they wouldn’t be home until dinnertime.

  Normally he’d drop the kids by his mom’s house or one of the Linear Tactical guys—who were all family anyway—but every single person he’d called had been busy.

  He was going to have to contact Quinn and slide their date back by couple hours. He’d beg for her forgiveness. His stomach dropped, knowing that it would be hard to convince her that yet another emergency had come up.

  He barely swallowed a blistering curse that would’ve had the kids tattling on him in a heartbeat when he realized he didn’t actually have Quinn’s phone number. A frantic call to the Eagle’s Nest to try to get in touch with Lexi to get the number ended in futility.

  And then the poopy diaper struck. A complete blowout where shit had gone all the way up little Thomas’ back.

  Give him tangoes with grenades any day over this. He was supposed to be at Quinn’s house in fifteen minutes and had no way of getting in touch with her to let her know why he wasn’t coming.

  Just like last time.

  Even if he threw the car seats and kids in the car right at this second, he’d barely make it in time.

  Actually...

  “Okay, the poop machine is clean! Grab your stuff and get in the car. We’re going on a field trip.”

  They obviously had no idea what he was talking about, but those two were never ones to turn down an adventure.

  There is no way they could take Baby’s truck with the car seat situation, but Finn’s Jeep was still here, so they would take that. Baby chuckled as he opened the passenger door of his brother’s beloved vehicle. In the backseat was a baby carrier and a booster seat—a testament to how often Jess was with them—a far cry from the bachelor mobile it used to be.

  He figured out how to click in the baby carrier with Ethan’s help, while Jess buckled herself into her booster seat. Baby jogged around, got in, and started the Jeep.

  “Now listen to me.” He eased the Jeep down the driveway and onto the main road. “I’m going to meet a lady friend. I need you guys to act as cute as possible. That won’t be a problem for Thomas unless he poops again.”

  More giggles. “And what happens if he does, Uncle Baby?” Jess asked with a grin.

  “We move to Plan B,” Baby teased.

  “Which is?” Ethan asked with an eyebrow raised.

  “We book it back here, and I never talk to my lady friend again.”

  The kids erupted into giggles, egging baby Thomas on to poop his pants again.

  “Is this a date? Who is it with? Someone we know? Is she nice?” Jess fired out her questions like she always did. “And I’m pretty cute when I try to be, you know.”

  The kids knew Boy Riley pretty well. They’d be delighted to find out that the lady in question was his sister. But until Quinn was ready to make that secret known, Baby wouldn’t tell it.

  “She’s the new waitress at the Eagle’s Nest. Her name is Quinn, and she’s very nice.”

  He was already twelve minutes late when he pulled up in front of Mrs. Mazille’s house. This place didn’t look any better in the daylight hours than it had the night of her birthday.

  Not that he’d been paying too much attention to the building itself.

  He glanced in the rearview mirror at the crew in the back seat. This was so not how he’d planned on this date going.

  “You two stay here. I’m going to take Thomas with me. Maybe it will get me some cuteness brownie points.”

  “Aw man.” Jess pouted. Ethan shook his head in disgust.

  “You two just be cool.”

  He unhooked the baby carrier and smiled down at Thomas, who was busy sucking on his tiny fist. “Okay, buddy. It’s your time to shine.”

  Jess and Ethan were both still muttering about how they were cute too as Baby closed the door, walked up to Quinn’s door, and knocked. She answered a few moments later looking quite cool and composed in her blue sweater and trim pants.

  She leaned against the door frame casually and flicked her gaze to him. “I thought maybe you weren’t coming again.”

  He sighed. “I really
need to get your phone number. That would make conversing with you a lot easier.”

  “You had my email address through the college; you could’ve used that.”

  He definitely hadn’t had the time it would have taken him to write an email. “Didn’t think of it. Probably because of the rug rats I got roped into babysitting.” He held up the baby carrier. “This is Thomas, my nephew. He’s adorable, see? Therefore, I’m hoping you’ll forgive me for being late for our date. Again.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Did you kidnap him?”

  But when she looked down at Thomas, she smiled. Of course, she smiled. Who couldn’t look at this adorable infant and not smile?

  “My brother Finn and his wife Charlie had to take her parents into Reddington City for some medical tests. It took longer than they thought. I really am sorry, but I didn’t want you to think I was blowing you off. I wasn’t. I promise.”

  “Excuse me, Miss Quinn?” Jess’s voice rang out from the Jeep. “Ethan and I would like to say that we are very cute too, just bigger than Thomas. And I was wondering if I could use your bathroom.”

  Baby shook his head. “That’s my other nephew Ethan and my honorary niece Jess. Also part of the package. I’m really sorry about this. Finn and Charlie should be back by dinner, and I still want us to go out. But I wanted to let you know why I wasn’t here on time, and this little field trip was my only option.”

  She smiled. “Thank you for making the effort. I’m not great with kids, but they’re certainly welcome to come in and use the bathroom.”

  “I have a feeling this is more about talking to the woman I told him I was taking out on a date than it is actual facilities usage. But, they’re good kids, they won’t break anything if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  She gave a little laugh. “No, I don’t have much to worry about breaking.”

  Baby hooked his arm, signaling that the kids could come in. They let out a cheer and ran for the door seconds later. Thomas began to fuss a little, so he set the carrier on the ground and unhooked the baby to get him out. “He likes to be up where he can see what’s going on around him. A Bollinger trait.”

  “Hi. I’m Jess O’Conner. Cade Conner is my dad. Yes, the country music superstar, although his legal name is Cade O’Conner. Peyton O’Conner is my mom. And this is my Ethan.”