Baby: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone

by Janie Crouch

  Quinn’s eyes got a little big at Jess’ words. It was easy to forget that the town’s child-genius was a little overwhelming when you first met her. They all just knew and loved her.

  “Your Ethan, huh?”

  Jess smiled and slipped her hand into Ethan’s. “Yup.” She said it as if that settled it. And for Jess and Ethan, it kind of did. The two of them had been inseparable for years.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Ethan said.

  “I like your sweater,” Jess started up again. “But I really do have to go to the bathroom. Uncle Baby threw us in the car so fast, I didn’t have time to go before we left.”

  Quinn opened the door. “Sure, come on in.”

  Baby smiled as Jess and Ethan slowly walked inside. Quinn glanced back at him before she followed them. Thomas squeaked and Baby hefted Thomas higher on his shoulder. “Well, kid, at least she didn’t slam the door in my face.”

  “The bathroom is down the hall on the left,” Quinn called.

  Baby looked around. He’d only been in here once, when he was ten years old. His mom had asked him to take Mrs. Mazille some muffins she’d made. He hadn’t been old enough to pay much attention to what the inside of the house looked like, but it couldn’t have been much different than how it looked now.

  Thomas reached his little arms toward Quinn’s face.

  Good taste, little man.

  “Do you want to hold him?” Everybody always wanted to hold him. He was such a good-natured little guy and friendly with everyone.

  “Um, I’m not really sure. I’m not very good with babies.”

  “I happen to know at least one Baby you are very good with.” He winked at her. “Plus, this little guy is my secret weapon for getting you to forgive me for changing plans again.”

  He put Thomas in her arms. “You have to hold him so you’re overloaded with cuteness and your benevolent genes come closer to the surface.”

  She laughed; Thomas smiled and cooed at her. She ran a finger down his chubby cheek. “Such strategic use of a tiny human.”

  “You learn to use whatever tools are available when it comes to gaining the good graces of a beautiful woman.”

  She rubbed her cheek against Thomas’s soft head. The magic was obviously working. “Oh, all right, you’re forgiven.”

  Perfect. The day was saved.

  Then he cringed as he sniffed the air. Oh no, Thomas couldn’t have done it again. That smell... Even Quinn’s eyes widened in alarm.

  Ethan giggled from the doorway. “Looks like you get more practice on why you should use protection, Uncle Baby.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I swear I did not bring all these kids over just so they could use the bathroom at your house.”

  Baby pulled Thomas from her arms, holding the child stiff-armed out in front of him.

  Baby shook his head at his nephew. “You’re fired, Thomas.”

  “I told you we were cuter,” Jess said as she came back out of the bathroom.

  “I don’t think I brought the diaper bag.” Baby looked closer to panic than Quinn had ever seen him.

  “Dad keeps some emergency supplies in the glove compartment,” Ethan said. “He swears the poop monster always waits until it’s his turn to watch him and then makes five poopy diapers in a row.”

  This was the most bizarre conversation Quinn had ever been a part of. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told Baby she wasn’t good with kids—the tiny one or the bigger ones. Of course, her interaction with them had been extremely limited. From the very beginning, Quinn and Peter had decided that neither of them was particularly suited for children. And thank goodness now.

  Baby was still holding Thomas at arm’s length as he pushed her front door open with his hip and muttered as he headed back out to the Jeep, leaving her with Jess and Ethan.

  “Where did you get all this wonderful stuff on the walls?” Jess asked, walking over to trail her fingers loving across the pattern in the living room.

  “The wallpaper?” A child Jess’s age had probably never seen wallpaper before. At least, not paper this loud and colorful.

  Jess nodded without looking away from the wall. “It’s paper that can go on walls? It’s so pretty.”

  Ethan had wandered over to look at the makeshift end-table Quinn had made with books. He trailed his fingers up the spines with the same sort of awe that Jess was showing about the wallpaper.

  She went over and crouched down beside him so she could be eye to eye with the boy. “Do you like to read, Ethan? These are mostly volumes of poems and stories written hundreds of years ago, but you’re welcome to borrow one if you think you might like it.”

  The boy swallowed hard. “I’m really just learning how to read.”

  Quinn frowned. She didn’t know much about kids, but she would’ve said Ethan was at least eight or nine years old. He should’ve learned to read way before now.

  “I’m getting much better at it. My mom—Charlie. She’s not really my mom but...”

  “She’s your mom in every way that matters. I understand,” Quinn said softly.

  He nodded. “She’s a reading specialist. I’m dyslexic, and I couldn’t read for a long time.” He looked over at her. “All the letters got mixed up in my head, and it was hard for me to understand the words.”

  “Yes, I could understand how that would make reading very hard. But your mom helped?”

  He nodded and trailed his fingers up the book again. “Yes, taught me ways to train my mind to look at words. It’s kind of like a code.”

  Increased neural activation. It was a common method of helping people with extreme dyslexia. Quinn wasn’t overly familiar with speech and language pathology, but she’d read some academic papers that had crossed over with her field of comparative literature.

  “Sounds like your mom really knows what she’s doing.”

  Ethan nodded solemnly. “I can read chapter books now. Not the same as Einstein over there.” He hooked a thumb toward Jess and looked so much like his uncle she had to smile. “She can read almost anything. But I’m still working at it. I hope someday to be able to read books as big as these.”

  The child stood and she followed. “Well, these books aren’t necessarily meant to be read like chapter books. But I have no doubt that some of the modern chapter books that are just as thick as these you’ll be reading soon if you keep your mind to it.”

  “Like The Giver or A Wrinkle in Time?”

  “Ah, science fiction fan.”

  “You like sci-fi?”

  She grinned at him. “Sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, romance? I like it all.”

  “So many good books. I want to be able to read them.”

  She ruffled his hair then put her hand back down, afraid she might have insulted him. But he smiled at her. “You’re on your way,” she said.

  “I’m going to tell my mom I want some of this wallpaper stuff!” Jess’s voice rang out from the kitchen. “Look at the sunflowers,” she squealed.

  “You’ve created a monster,” Ethan said. “By the time she gets home tonight, she will have already researched all the different types of wallpaper and will begin her plan of attack for talking her mom and dad into letting her get some.”

  “Isn’t she five?”

  “Five going on forty,” Baby said from the door.

  Quinn spun around. She had no idea how long he’d been there. Probably long enough to figure out she was a total book geek.

  He bounced Thomas in his strong arms. “Was actually mostly a false alarm. More stinky than messy.”

  “Yeah, he does that sometimes.” Ethan nodded solemnly at his little brother.

  “But we better get you guys back home in case he decides he wants to regroup and try again.”

  Quinn couldn’t help the snicker that escaped. She met Ethan’s eyes. He was snickering too.

  “Glad you think it’s funny.”

  That only made them laugh harder.

  “Okay, all rug rats into
the car.” Baby turned and pointed at her. “I will be back to get you in a couple of hours for dinner. No kids this time.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  Baby did show back up on time. Quinn hadn’t had any real doubts that he would, even though she had teased him about it.

  She opened the door as he knocked, immediately falling under the spell of his charming smile as she opened it.

  “Good, you’re still here.”

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t be?”

  He looked adorable standing there in his jeans, dark gray Henley, and damp hair from the shower he’d obviously just taken.

  Hell, adorable was way too innocent a word for how Baby looked.

  Mouthwatering.

  That was a much better phrase to describe the man standing in front of her.

  “After last week, and then earlier today, I totally wouldn’t be surprised at any woman who decided to play games by not answering the door.”

  It hadn’t occurred to her that maybe she should get back at him slightly by making him wait. She didn’t know if that was because of her age—thirty-nine was getting a little old for playing games—or because it had been so long since she’d been on a first date.

  He tapped her on her nose. “You just got your professor look.”

  “Professor look?”

  He nodded. “When you’re examining the different angles and trying to figure something out. You have that look a lot, so I gave it a name.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “I see.” She threw his own phrase at him.

  He smiled, a deep, personal smile that she knew was just for her. Baby smiled a lot; he was a friendly guy. But she was beginning to realize that his smiles had different meanings.

  This smile said she better be careful or he—

  “Fuck it,” he muttered, leaning her back against the door. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about doing this for more than a week.”

  His lips crashed against hers.

  She clutched him to her, aching. She’d ached for him since the night in his truck. She wanted to beg him to do that to her again while she was fully sober, to prove to herself that it couldn’t possibly be as good as she remembered.

  So impossibly good.

  She lost all train of thought as one of his arms banded around her hips and pulled her up against him, the fingers of the other hand sliding into her hair under her bun. All she could do was wrap her arms around his neck and hold on.

  This wasn’t a gentle kiss. It was hot and demanding, deepening until it was a melding of mouths. Quinn was drowning in it.

  Eventually he pulled back. She didn’t want him to, and it helped he didn’t seem to want to either.

  “Damn it.” He leaned his forehead against hers, his heavy breathing matching her own. “I’m taking you on that date. I’ve messed up twice, and I’m not going to let even my own libido stop me this time. I’m going to sit across the table from you and show you that I can, in fact, be the type of man you want to spend time with.”

  She reached up and ran her fingernails lightly down the back of his neck, not able to deny the thrill it gave her when he shivered. “I already know that. I don’t have to go to dinner for you to prove that’s true.”

  “Good. But I’ve been watching three rug rats all day, and if I start kissing you again there’s no way I’m going to have the energy to follow through the way I want to without sustenance. Dinner.”

  “Dinner.” She smiled.

  “Where do you want to go? We can drive into Reddington City if you want. I know you’re still trying to avoid Phoenix.”

  She shook her head. “I’m going to have to face him sometime. If we happen to run into him tonight, then so be it.”

  “Good. Because I know he’s been distracted over the stuff that happened to him and Girl Riley, but eventually he’s going to remember that I mentioned knowing you.”

  “You did?” Oh God. That couldn’t be good.

  He looked sheepish. “Yeah, at Cade and Peyton’s wedding reception. I happened to mention that he’d missed your birthday, so he knows I know you. Fortunately, the woman he loved got kidnapped so I got out of further explanation.”

  She laughed. “Got to love conveniently-timed kidnappings.”

  It wouldn’t be long until her brother was hunting her down. It was definitely time to let him know what was going on.

  She grabbed her jacket and purse, and closed up the house behind her as she and Baby stepped out.

  She couldn’t stop her pleased sigh as he wrapped an arm around her waist. “Since we’re not hiding out, is New Brothers Pizza okay?”

  Pizza, another thing she hadn’t had enough of in her life over the past ten years. “Pizza sounds great.”

  They walked toward the truck, his warm hand splayed against her lower back.

  Her face heated, remembering what had happened there the last time it had been parked in almost the exact same place. The fingers trailing circles on her back told her he was remembering the same thing.

  She stopped when she saw that limping dog over near the trees again.

  “Hey! Hey, there he is.” She flung her hand out and tapped Baby on his stomach. Good God, was he wearing a metal plate under his shirt or were those his abs?

  She dragged her attention back to the dog and pointed. “He was here yesterday. He’s back.”

  “Grizzly?”

  “Is that his name? I keep seeing him around.”

  Baby shrugged. “That’s what I call him. Or her. I don’t think he has a name, but I’ve seen him around town for a couple of years now.”

  “Nobody wants him? Is he vicious?”

  “He doesn’t seem to be. I’ve seen him run around with some of the kids during the summer, and they’re never afraid of him. And it’s not that nobody wants him, it’s more that he doesn’t want anyone.”

  “Oh.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve tried setting him out some food before. He’ll eat it, and I thought that might get him to stick around, but he never does.”

  “I set him out a plate of canned tuna yesterday.”

  A smile tugged one side of Baby’s lips. “And did he eat it?”

  Quinn didn’t want to get into her neuroses about the feeling she’d had that someone was watching her. Nobody lived around here for like a mile, and despite her mostly sleepless nights, there hadn’t been any sign of anyone nearby. Baby would probably think it was just a big city mentality.

  “I didn’t actually see him eat it, but it was gone the next time I checked.” She crouched down on the ground. “Here, Grizzly. Do you want to come over here?”

  The dog stayed at the tree line. She stood, feeling a little stupid, and self-conscious about her lack of general pet knowledge. “I’m not great with dogs. But I hate for him to be hungry. Was tuna something bad to give him?”

  Baby shook his head. “No, maybe a little fattening, but Grizzly could use it.”

  Thank God. “Do you mind waiting a second? I’ll get him another can of tuna and set it out on my porch. Maybe he’ll eat it while we’re gone.”

  Baby looked at her funny, and she hesitated. “Do you think that’s okay? I don’t want to make him sick.”

  He trailed a finger down her cheek. “I think it’s absolutely fine. But I want you to know that Grizzly has been taking care of himself for a while, so don’t take it as a rejection if he decides to ignore your food and do his own thing.”

  She ran back in and grabbed the tuna, opened the can, dumped the tuna on the plate, then took it out to the porch. Maybe Grizzly would eat it once he didn’t have an audience. She smiled brightly as she locked her door and made her way back toward Baby.

  He helped her into the truck then got in on the driver’s side. “You know, if you want a dog of your own, we’ve got a lot of places around here where you could get a great one. You could start with a puppy, or if that’s too much work, there are some housebroken dogs you could find. Having one out here so
you’re not alone might be a great idea.”

  A dog. She looked back over at Grizzly, who was studying the truck, his head cocked to the side. It was almost as if he was waiting to hear her answer.

  “No, I’m not a dog person. I’m not really good with dogs.”

  But she hoped Grizzly would eat the tuna. She didn’t want him to be hungry.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Baby knew almost everybody at New Brothers Pizza. And they all obviously loved him. He waved to the owner, Mr. DiMuzio, as they walked in. Baby asked if they could sit at the table in the back.

  Mr. DiMuzio winked and held his arm out toward the table. “Are you finally bringing a beautiful woman here for a date?”

  Baby nodded. “Mr. DiMuzio, this is Quinn.”

  Quinn held out her hand to shake the older man’s. “Quinn Harrison.”

  “Quinn works at the Eagle’s Nest for the lunch shift and also teaches at Teton State College.”

  Mr. DiMuzio nodded. “Harrison? Are you any relationship to Riley Harrison?”

  “Yes, sir. He’s my half-brother.”

  Before she had any inkling, Mr. DiMuzio pulled her into a bear hug. “Then you’re practically family. Boy Riley and Girl Riley are two of my favorite people, and every time Phoenix does a stunt around here, I get extra business for days. I can almost forgive you for being the reason lunch hour around here has slacked off.”

  Quinn patted the big man on the back awkwardly. She’d never been great at hugging. “Well, I think Lexi is more to blame for that than me.”

  Mr. DiMuzio let her go. “Yes, the mysterious Lexi. She’s on my list, I tell you.”

  Baby shook his head. “Everybody’s on your list, Mr. D.”

  Mr. DiMuzio laughed a big belly laugh. It was impossible not to smile upon hearing it. “You watch it, Baby, or you’ll be on the list, too.”

  Baby’s hand rested on her back again as he led her to the table. “Did you put him up to saying that? The part about finally bringing a date here?”