This Baby Business

by Heatherly Bell

  “Hello, darlin’,” Levi said as he approached Cassie.

  “Hi, cowboy,” Cassie said with a wink. “How’s that precious baby girl this morning?”

  He rested a hip against her desk. “It’s not the mornin’ that’s the problem. It’s the middle of the night.”

  “Ah, she’s still not sleeping through the night?”

  “Any advice for me?”

  “Well, it’s like that advice they give to parents about sibling rivalry. You know the best way to avoid it?”

  This was not his problem, and the way things were going with his love life, Grace would never have a chance at a sibling. “Tell me.”

  “Have one kid. So if you’d like your baby to sleep through the night? Fast-forward a few years.”

  “Aw, hell’s bells. Not helpful. And I’m going to need me a new sitter, too.”

  “What happened?” Emily asked as she walked out of Stone’s office.

  “Annie got married. She called me from Reno this morning.”

  Emily slapped a file on Cassie’s desk. “What? No heads-up or anything?”

  “What did you do with Grace?” Cassie asked, a little squeak in her voice.

  He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I left her with my next-door neighbor.”

  “Carly, I hope.” Cassie nodded.

  “Yeah. How’d you know?”

  “I know everything,” Cassie said.

  It didn’t surprise Levi much, since Cassie was pretty much the senior-citizen oracle of Fortune, California.

  “I was in a bind. Annie quit on me, no notice.” Levi relaxed and took a seat near Cassie’s desk. “I have a good sense about people. She’s obviously got a few rug rats of her own running around. Said she’s an expert.”

  “Um, not exactly,” Emily said, coming around to her desk.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? She lied to me?” His spine stiffened. If she’d lied, he’d have to get out of here now and go pick up Grace. He did not deal with liars. Period.

  “I doubt she lied to you. Her mother died last year and left the family a baby company, and Carly’s running the show now. So that’s probably what she meant by she’s an expert,” Cassie said.

  She’d never said she had children of her own. He’d just assumed, and she hadn’t corrected him. Not quite the same as lying, but he still didn’t like it. Maybe sleep deprivation had his senses off-kilter. Wouldn’t surprise him any.

  “This time I suggest you take a little more time finding a sitter.” Cassie frowned in his direction. “You need someone who has the time to do it. Someone like Carly, reliable and dependable, but with the extra time to give attention to a baby.”

  He shrugged. “Annie said I didn’t pay her enough, but I was paying all I could afford.”

  When the landlord had told him how much he wanted for rent, Levi had thought the man was kidding. Levi had made a joke about the Kardashians, which the landlord hadn’t found funny. Levi hadn’t thought it funny, either, once he’d realized the rent figure was actually considered a deal for the area. Back home in Lubbock, he’d have land at those prices. But he had steady work and benefits as a pilot in Fortune, and Stone had promised him a raise as soon as possible.

  “Sandy’s parents still want me to bring Grace back to Atlanta. I don’t want to give them any reason to think I can’t handle raising her and working.”

  “Millions of women and men do it every day. Why can’t you?” Emily said.

  “Exactly.”

  While he’d like to believe he had nothing to worry about with the Lanes, nothing in life was one hundred percent certain. Least of all when it involved people and their emotions. Not everyone had mastered mind over matter. Sandy’s parents, for one. They were somewhat hysterical people who were still operating from raw emotion. He’d tried to be understanding, given that they’d lost their daughter. But while he was sure they understood that Sandy’s death had nothing to do with him, he’d become a convenient scapegoat for their pain. He got an email from Frank Lane every day, and they were never kind.

  As far as Levi was concerned, he would raise Grace on his own. It didn’t matter where. At the moment it happened to be in the small town of Fortune, where he had a good job and a community of friends. But he’d go where he had to go in order to make ends meet. To create a life that worked. No need to get sentimental and emotional about one particular place when there were so many all over the country. If there was one thing he’d learned in the summers he’d spent with his grandfather on his ranch while his parents were traipsing all over the world, it was to rely on himself.

  For now, he’d stay in Fortune. It was what he told himself every time his boots got too itchy about the idea of settling down in one place for too long. The stability of a small town would be good for Grace. With the Sierra Nevada Mountains and snow just hours away, the beach a forty-five-minute drive and San Francisco only an hour away, both location and weather were near perfect. And despite being south of the larger Silicon Valley, he’d found a small community of like-minded people here, in a place where he could see himself raising Grace.

  A few hours and flights later, Levi headed home to Grace. This had already become his routine, and it had become comfortable. On some mornings, he smelled garlic wafting from the closest town, the garlic capital of the world. He drove down Monterey Road toward his residential development on the other end of Fortune. When he’d landed here weeks ago, he’d discovered a three-stoplight town. A bedroom community just south of San Jose. Even so, here in Fortune, Levi had immediately noticed a strong sense of community, reminiscent of a small town.

  It was no Lubbock, even though there were still a few small mushroom farms hanging on for dear life. This was the mushroom capital of the world, after all. The smell of fertilizer didn’t faze him at all. Instead, it was the high cost of living. The price of gasoline. The heart attack–inducing price tag on ownership of a single family home. He could go on, but why depress himself?

  He definitely felt squeezed like an orange, but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t familiar with sacrifice. One way or another, he’d find a way to make it work.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A THOUSAND OR so years later, Carly had changed Grace’s diaper about five hundred times, give or take, and fed her all three bottles. Levi had better get his cute ass here on time, or someone was going to blow a gasket. At this point she really couldn’t say whether it would be her or Grace. Possibly both.

  Oh, yes, because Carly had cried at times right along with Grace. Turned out to be kind of cathartic. It had been a while since Carly had had a good cry. She’d always been guided and driven by her emotions, despite her attempts to think with her head and not her heart. She was a full-grown, twenty-six-year-old woman who’d always struggled in school, seen her career go up in flames, lost her mother from a sudden heart attack and had her father nearly confined to a wheelchair due to a hip injury. Carly considered herself a survivor. But today she’d been reduced to sobs because of a helpless baby.

  As it turned out, Grace did sleep. Occasionally, that was, and only when the spirit moved her. It seemed to move her every half hour for about forty-five minutes, give or take. Carly had tried to get work done during that time, but she was so tense and exhausted that all she could do was sit and stare at the blank screen. Where to begin? Practice safe sex. Don’t have a baby until you’re ready to be tortured by a fifteen-pound human with a set of lungs that should belong to a six-foot-three male. But probably her audience wouldn’t appreciate that. All of her readers were already stuck—correction, blessed—with babies.

  Regardless, Carly had made it through the day, and she couldn’t help believing she deserved an award for that. A badge or a trophy. Something. She’d certainly received an education. This baby business was so much harder than it appeared from a distance. Right now her li
ving room looked as if someone had stood in the middle of the room and thrown everything she owned up in the air. She hadn’t had a shower yet. She’d barely eaten any breakfast, much less lunch. In fact, she hadn’t even managed to change out of the clothes she had on since this morning.

  “When your daddy gets here, if he so much as thinks about judging me...I’ll—I don’t know what, but it won’t be nice.”

  The good news was she’d narrowed down her favorite brand of diaper with Grace’s help. The bad news? She still had to write the blog post, because they didn’t write themselves. The fact that she’d struggled all her life with the written word, fighting and working around her dyslexia, meant that it would take her twice as long as it had ever taken her mom to write a simple blog post.

  Interesting. Carly had dared to set Grace down on the activity blanket that a brand-new baby start-up had sent her for a review. She hadn’t made a noise in about five seconds. Might be a record. She kept blinking as if she couldn’t quite trust her eyes. She seemed fascinated by the plastic mirrors sewn to the blanket, as if she’d just found a friend she wasn’t sure she liked or hated.

  “I guess that makes two of us.”

  Carly wasn’t sure that she liked Grace. She was way too loud, for one thing, and had the manners of a chimpanzee. Once today, she’d looked Carly straight in the eye and spit up all over her shirt. Carly thought for sure Grace had been aiming for her eye and missed. She’d been changed twice and now wore a red velvet dress that a new baby fashion company had sent Carly.

  But Carly had learned something significant today when she’d pulled out Mom’s baby bible during one of Grace’s power naps and tried to get through some of the entries in it. Crying wouldn’t hurt a baby. Grace would still be in one piece when her daddy came to pick her up.

  And because Carly wasn’t actually Grace’s mother, just the babysitter, in a few minutes, her clueless dad would pick her up. Carly would be able to give her back. She’d take a shower, clean up her house, write her blog post and go to bed, where she would sleep without interruptions. She had an end in sight.

  Maybe, just maybe, Grace could help her a little bit longer. Just until she got Mom’s company in the black. Because Grace could go a long way toward solving her authenticity issue. She could turn Carly into a serious baby expert.

  She wasn’t sure Levi would be interested in her proposition, but why couldn’t Carly just fill in until he found a new babysitter? She was right next door. Easy. And good grief, if Levi even went through half of what she’d been through today, he needed her help. She would suggest—no, demand—that he allow her, a bona fide baby expert (in training), to help him.

  Incredible. It had to have been four whole minutes and Grace was still on her belly, blinking into the mirrors. She gurgled, reached out with her chubby hand and tried to grab it.

  “You like that, don’t you? It’s something new. I think I’ll give it a five-star review, since it’s kept you quiet.”

  The doorbell rang.

  Levi. Right on time. Great. Carly shot up from her chair, but she didn’t know if she should take Grace with her to answer the door. What if something happened to her in the two seconds Carly would be out of the room? And what would Levi think? But if she picked Grace up now, she risked opening the door with her crying again. That also wouldn’t look too good.

  The doorbell rang again. Impatient man!

  Carly picked Grace up off the blanket again like a delicate china plate, taking the blanket along.

  “Please don’t cry, baby. I need to make a good impression. You don’t know this, but you and I could be partners. I know you don’t like me, but to be fair, the feeling is mutual. You threw up on me and I know you were aiming for my eye. Don’t even try to deny it.”

  So far not a peep from Grace, who had a piece of the blanket in her mouth and seemed to be gumming it. She was going to write a glowing review for this blanket and title it Lifesaver.

  Carly opened the door to Levi, as suspected, and watched as his gaze went immediately to Grace. The way those blue eyes lit up gave Carly a little smackdown right in the chest, but then he noticed the dress.

  “You changed her?”

  “Do you like it?” When he didn’t answer, she waved him inside. “It’s a new dress and my gift to you both. And also, she spit up on two other outfits.”

  “Uh, thanks. And sorry. Welcome to my world.”

  Grace’s little legs kicked and pumped double time with some serious action at seeing Levi, and Carly handed her over.

  “Hey, baby girl.” His love-struck smile was quite a sight.

  Carly cleared her throat and got ready to tell a big fat lie. “She was perfect today.”

  “Yeah?” Levi checked Grace out from head to toe as if to make sure she wasn’t missing any parts.

  Carly tried not to feel insulted. “Do you like the dress?”

  “Sure, it’s...nice.”

  “But?”

  “Not too practical.”

  This was interesting information she could use, so she walked to the kitchen to get a pad of paper and pen from the counter. “So how would you rate it, say, on a scale of one to ten? If you were going to judge the dress, for instance?”

  His eyes narrowed slightly. “I appreciate the dress. I’m not judging it.”

  “No, of course not. I...didn’t mean to imply that.”

  She made a note on the pad of paper. Appearance: ten out of ten. Practical use? She needed Levi for that, because at the moment he had more experience with babies than Carly did. When it came to her own clothes and sense of fashion, Carly always erred on the side of appearance versus practicality. She’d once lost the feeling in her feet for a day because of a gorgeous pair of paisley-patterned five-inch-heeled Louis Vuitton boots, but it had been worth the agony.

  She could see it would be different with a baby.

  “It’s just that she looks uncomfortable.” He shifted her from one hip to the other.

  “You’re so right. There was something bothering me about the dress, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.”

  Liar. She was completely useless. Practical use: five out of ten. Six out of ten? She didn’t want to be unfair. “No one makes cute, stylish and comfortable clothes for babies, do they?”

  “But...she really seems to like this blanket.” He removed a corner of it from Grace’s mouth and handed it to Carly.

  If this all worked out, she would need the miracle worker again tomorrow.

  Levi picked up the car seat and diaper bag from the foyer. “Thanks again. We should get going.”

  “Wait!”

  She’d pretty much shouted the word, but rather than appear startled, he seemed slightly amused by her, his mouth twitching in a half smile. “Right. Sorry, I forgot to pay you.” He set the car seat down and, impressively juggling Grace, pulled a wallet from his back pocket.

  “No.” She put out her hand to stop him. “Today was a freebie.”

  Slow down, you don’t need to scare the man off. Take your time and do this right.

  “Freebie?”

  “How about... How about a drink of water before you go?”

  “I’m just next door.” Levi tucked his wallet away.

  “This will only take a minute. How about a beer?” She led the way to the kitchen, hoping with any luck he’d follow.

  He did. And stood in the framed opening of the kitchen entryway, holding Grace with an easy assurance she envied. Like a real pro. “Actually, do you know any babysitters you could recommend?”

  Sometimes, when opportunity knocks, you shouldn’t just open the door. Open the door, go make a pot of coffee and bake some cookies. Maybe it will stay awhile.

  She swallowed and gave him what she hoped was her best, most dependable babysitter smile. “Me.” She twisted
off the top, then handed the beer to him.

  He accepted it. “But you said just for today.”

  She waved a hand in the air, in a pay-no-attention-to-me-before-noon move. “That was before. Okay, here’s the thing. I can help you, and let’s be honest here, you need me.”

  He studied Carly, took a swig of his beer, but didn’t say a word. Maybe Rookie Daddy had finally wised up and decided he shouldn’t leave his baby with a complete stranger. He got points for that.

  Carly chose her next words carefully. “I kind of have this baby advice website.”

  “I heard.”

  Of course. If he worked at the airport, he worked with Cassie. And Cassie was an old friend of the family. Carly let out a breath. “I’m running the baby website RockYourBaby, but I don’t have any kids of my own.”

  “Heard that, too.” He quirked an eyebrow, and in that single move Carly realized he was less than thrilled with the fact that she hadn’t come out with the whole truth this morning.

  But she hadn’t exactly lied. What did her mom’s accountant say? Emphasize the positive, ignore the negative. Sell it! “But I’m still a baby expert.”

  “Uh-huh.” He didn’t sound too convinced.

  “Look, all I’m saying is that I can watch Grace until you find a new sitter. If you’re not sure about me, I’d be happy to give you references. I’ve lived here in Fortune all my life, and I’m extremely reliable. I’m always home. Besides, I’m right next door.”

  “And how will you watch her and run your company?”

  This suddenly felt like an interview, and she wished she’d prepared better. She’d done too much assuming that Levi would immediately take her up on this idea. But she’d become better at selling in the past few months, out of sheer necessity. If she told a little white lie every now and again, no one was the wiser.