At home, Annie quickly changed into jeans and a T-shirt and packed a small bag, but then she stood at her door and thought about what she was about to do. Really thought. West Gallagher was a total stranger, and she was going to move in with him for three days. Three days—and nights. She didn’t care if he did have broad shoulders, blue eyes, and infinite compassion for abandoned babies. Now that she was due to head back to his house, she felt like she was playing a role in a survival movie for women, and the narrator was telling the viewers, “Under no circumstances do what Annie Robicheaux is about to do.”
What she needed was some assurance that she’d be safe. She thought guns were a scourge on the earth, was too afraid pepper spray would be turned against her, and had two left feet when it came to all those defensive moves they taught women—as if she really believed she, at five foot three, one hundred and ten pounds, could flip a six-foot, two-hundred-pound West Gallagher on his butt anyway. No, what she needed was some real protection—the kind that would totally overwhelm West Gallagher if he chose to get funny on her while they were wrestling over Teddy.
She needed her aunt Gigi.
It was close to ten-thirty when Annie made the turn onto Gallagher’s street. Before leaving her apartment, she’d left a message on her aunt’s machine, telling the older woman that she was moving in with a strange man over the weekend, the address, and not to worry. That was sure to get her aunt here in an eye blink.
She smiled fondly at the thought of Gigi Perkins, the only parent she’d known since her own had given her up. Growing up with Aunt Gigi had been a bit like a walk on the wild side of life, and except for Jean-Pierre, Annie had strayed in the direction of establishment just to cope with her aunt’s eccentricities.
Annie smiled again as she pulled into Gallagher’s driveway and followed it to where it swung into an open garage under his house. If her message shocked Gigi, it would serve her right for going on that Caribbean cruise with the mailman the year before without any warning, and calling Annie an old lady because she’d been upset.
Gigi’s car wasn’t there yet, but Annie knew she’d come as soon as she got the message. Her aunt had never failed her—unlike almost everyone else in her life.
Pushing aside bad thoughts, she parked and got out, pulling her purse strap over her shoulder and patting the baby manual inside. Her security blanket. She wasn’t about to rely on only a rusty memory and her own judgment when it came to taking care of another human being—especially one who couldn’t talk yet.
Grabbing two of the four sacks from the market, she walked around to the front of the house because the kitchen entrance was locked and she didn’t want to ring the bell in case she woke up Teddy. At the doorway of the living room, she stopped when she saw Gallagher.
He was on the far side of the couch, holding Teddy, his cheek resting on the baby’s head. Annie’s breath caught. The man really seemed to care about what happened to this child. She stared, unable to move, but then she warned herself not to make too much of what she was seeing. West was just keeping Teddy entertained, that was all. She would have done exactly the same thing. He hadn’t rounded the curve and surpassed her in this parenting game. She’d have her chances to prove herself better, and then she would get out of there and away from West Gallagher.
And while she was here, she didn’t have to think about the fact that West was a man if she didn’t want to. Just plain getting by in this world was hard enough without her remembering she was a woman with needs, too.
“I’m back,” she called in a whisper, just in case Teddy was sleeping.
He wasn’t, she saw when Teddy raised one of his small hands in the air as though he thought the feminine voice might be his mother. He looked confused for a second, and gave a short wail.
West cooed in the baby’s ear to distract him, welcoming the chance to hide the relief on his face that Annie had returned. Not because she was a welcome sight and easy on his eyes, but because she’d brought formula.
That’s what he told himself.
“Did you get everything?” he asked her.
“Everything I put on my list,” she said. He smiled, and she wondered if her point had even registered.
“I think he’s cutting teeth. Did you think of a teething ring?”
“Standard equipment,” she said, as if she knew exactly what a thoroughly modern baby needed. Actually, she had just walked up and down the baby aisle, snatching whatever looked necessary—and that had been about one of everything. Then she’d taken a quick peek in the baby manual and found out that six-month-olds could eat baby oatmeal and pureed fruit, and were supposed to be starting on chunky foods, so she grabbed boxes and jars, too.
“If you’ll just show me where your kitchen is, we can get this stuff unpacked and a bottle prepared. Teddy has to be getting hungry.”
“True.” He carried the baby toward the far side of the room and led her through another door into a shining, utilitarian kitchen, unlocking the rear entry at her request. Hurrying outside, Annie got the other two sacks, leaving her overnight bag in the car for now. Feeding Teddy came first—then they would discuss sleeping arrangements. Back inside the kitchen, she started unbagging the groceries, taking a second to steal a look at West and wonder if he slept in the buff.
Get in, get out, Annie, she reminded herself, blushing as she ripped the plastic packaging off a refrigerator magnet shaped like a baby’s bottle. With resolve, she plopped it on the face of the refrigerator to hold the schedule she was going to make later.
Caught by surprise, feeling as though his territory was being invaded, West stared at the magnet on his refrigerator door. If he’d seen anything like that before, it hadn’t been something he’d paid any attention to. Why Annie needed a magnet, he had no idea, but he had a question. “I don’t suppose you could have gotten a regular old black magnet?”
“Like in science class?” Teasing him because he looked so serious, she shuddered dramatically, a grimace on her delicate features, and shook her head.
“I didn’t think so.” He sighed.
“Is something wrong?”
“It’s so.” At a loss for words, he shrugged.
“Precious?” She smiled. “Don’t worry, Gallagher, a preference for cuteness isn’t catching. In a couple of days Teddy and I will be gone, and we’ll take all signs of adorable with us.”
“Teddy will be gone if and only if you win the bet,” West reminded her, rearranging the baby in his arms. “Which reminds me. How are we going to judge who’s better with Teddy?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Each time one of us comes up with something that needs to be done for Teddy, he or she will get a point, and the totals will be the final determining factor—assuming Teddy likes us equally.” She smiled. “But don’t worry, that will never happen.” She took out the teething ring and gave it to him.
“That’s right, it won’t” Very carefully, he ripped off the cardboard package without reading it, and stuck it in the freezer.
“Why are you doing that?” she asked.
“Common sense. Cold numbs pain.” He raised his thick dark eyebrows. “Point one for me.”
Annie shook her head. “Point one for both of us. Wash anything new out of a package before you let a baby put it in his mouth.”
Teddy still in his arms, West rose to pull the ring back out of the freezer and go to the sink.
“Look, West, Teddy needs a bottle,” Annie said, “and I can’t get to it until you’re done with the water, so why don’t you put him in his basket or let me hold him for you?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, his guard going up. “You’ll hold him all the way to your car, right?”
“I’m not going to run off with him. I promise,” she said. “Trust me.”
“I trust nobody,” he replied, holding Teddy with his left arm. His right hand did two jobs at once as he ran the hot water and held the teething ring.
“You must trust me a little bit, or I wouldn’t be h
ere with you.”
“You’re here just because I don’t trust you,” West admitted, purposely not looking over at Annie. He didn’t want to see if his remark had hurt her feelings. He didn’t want to know what she was thinking, and he didn’t want to have already noticed she’d changed clothes while she’d been out, or that her T-shirt and jeans were almost as sexy as the short skirt and V-neck blouse had been earlier. This whole arrangement ment was unsettling as hell, and he wanted to pretend Annie wasn’t there-but he couldn’t.
But she had come back, alone, and he supposed that he could try a little harder than he was. Besides, doing anything with a baby in one arm was more difficult than he’d imagined it could be. He sighed. “Okay, I give in. Please hold him for me.”
“It’s a good thing judges aren’t as hard to convince as you are—I’d never win a case.” She cooed to the fussing baby as she took him from West. Teddy curved into her body as though they were meant for each other and laid his head against her breast and her swiftly beating heart.
As he quickly washed the ring and then put away the rest of their supplies, West watched Annie’s every move out of the corner of his eye in case she started toward the door with Teddy. But she just stood where she was, holding the baby with a strange look on her face. West almost asked her what was wrong, but some inner sense of self-preservation screamed at him not to, that he’d be sorry if he started caring enough about her to ask, so he didn’t.
After he got the basket to put the baby in-a compromise so that neither of them would be in total control of Teddy—Annie, back to normal, made a score sheet to keep track of their points and put it under the magnet on the fridge. Then she filled his sink and washed the new bottles in hot, soapy water.
“So how come you’re not married?” she asked to make conversation.
He froze. Literally, while he was opening up a jar of baby food, he stiffened as though he’d been blocked in dry ice.
“Not that it’s really your business,” he said conversationally as he recovered and set about feeding Teddy. “But I’ve been too busy following my dream to deal with marriage. No wife and kiddies for me.”
“No family ever?” The second after the words came out, Annie winced. Really, why was she asking Gallagher questions about himself? She was simply not that interested in the man.
“Ever,” he agreed lightly.
“I think it would be pure misery to live life alone.”
“You get used to it,” he said, but to Annie the words sounded forced, and she wondered if he had.
“I never will.” Annie was at a bad angle at the sink, so she couldn’t read his eyes to see if they reflected the same level of nonchalance as his voice. So instead, she took in what she could see of him, his thick, dark brown lashes and the shadowy stubble of a beard on his cheeks. He was a mystery. He surrounded himself with people he tried to help during his seminars, yet he wanted no family.
“So what is this dream you’ve been chasing?” she asked, opening a can of formula.
“Two dreams.” He tilted the spoon and got most of the applesauce in Teddy’s mouth. “Renovating this house and obtaining total control over my life.”
“Good luck on the last. Take it from me, no one ever has total control over his life. There are always outside factors entering into it-other people’s wishes, friends and family you care about.” Her voice drifted off as she saw a pained look come over his face. “Is that why you don’t want a wife and children, West? Because they would interfere with what you want to do?”
West gazed at her intently. “I think Teddy would really like a bottle soon.”
“No problem,” she said sweetly as she finished readying Teddy’s bottle. Realizing that since he’d changed the subject from personal back to Teddy, he obviously wanted to keep their relationship superficial, she thought that would be fine with her.
The doorbell rang, and she remembered she forgot to tell him something.
“Uh, Gallagher?”
Rising, he thrust Teddy into her arms. “Clean him up, would you? That can only be Marcia, having realized the error of her ways.”
“Uh, I don’t think so—”
“It’s either her,” he said, already headed out of the kitchen to the hall, “or another baby on my doorstep.”
Another baby? “How many single mothers do you know, anyway?” she called after him. But she didn’t have time to speculate as she wiped Teddy’s mouth and cheeks and slipped the bottle into his mouth.
West, hurrying to the door, thought it was just as well Marcia had returned. He didn’t know how he would have survived with Annie in the house until Monday night. It was bad enough they obviously couldn’t relate to each other—and the questions she was asking were unnerving—he was also so damned attracted to her he couldn’t think straight. He usually believed nothing in his life ever happened without a reason, but why his path had ever crossed with Annie’s he had absolutely no idea in the world.
“Marcia, thank God you’re back!” he said as he flung open the door. But instead of a familiar face, he saw an older woman he didn’t know holding her arms straight out in front of her. She had long, layered hair that fell down past her shoulders and she wore a flowing, jewel blue silk dress. Somehow she appeared oddly familiar, although West was positive they’d never met.
Suddenly he knew—just sensed somehow—that Annie was behind him. Turning slightly, he saw he was correct. She was holding Teddy, and smiling at the newcomer. Uh-oh. Trouble.
“Oh, you poor little babeee!” the older woman cried. “I am sick over this! I am taking you right home with me.”
Scowling, afraid she was going to grab Teddy, West moved to stand in front of Annie and Teddy to protect the baby from the stranger with the suspiciously fake French accent crossing the threshold. Another woman showing up to claim the child? This was too much to handle for one evening.
“Look, lady, I don’t know who you think you are,” he said when the newcomer stopped directly in front of him, “and I don’t know why I’ve suddenly become so popular, but you can’t come in, and you definitely can’t have Teddy—”
“It’s okay, Aunt Gigi. You’re already in, and West doesn’t bite once he warms up.”
Casting him a scornful look and tossing back her masses of auburn hair, “Aunt Gigi” swept around West and went right to Annie, hugging the smaller, younger woman to her more than ample bosom as well as she could with the baby between them. “Ma petite, my sweet child, you have flipped your noodle right to the ceiling, and it is sticking there. How can you move in with a man you barely know?”
“It was easy,” West said, relieved that Annie, not Teddy, was the babeee in question. “Your niece just showed up on my doorstep and announced she was staying. I took her right in. All she was missing was a basket and a few of her marbles. But the baby brought a basket with him, so maybe she’s planning on sharing. I guess her marbles will have to stay missing.”
“Gallagher, if you want funny, hire a comic, okay?” Annie suggested, shaking her head at him. “Aunt Gigi, this is West Gallagher. West, Gigi Perkins.”
Gigi clasped her hands to her chest and ignored the introduction. The older woman was very flamboyant compared to Annie, who was classy no matter what she wore, but yes, West could see the resemblance.
“You weren’t going to warn me we were having a houseguest, dear?” West asked Annie.
“Well, I was,” she said, turning pink in the cheeks, honestly embarrassed. It was his house, and he had every right to be annoyed. “But we got sidetracked with our conversation.”
About babies and families. West stared at Annie for a long minute. For a man who’d been avoiding the first and living without the last for years, all of a sudden he had more people in his life than he knew what to do with. Teddy, Marcia, Annie, and now Aunt Gigi. And he didn’t like it. Unfortunately, he had no idea what to do to get rid of everyone, except to give Teddy to Annie and let her leave.
He couldn’t do that. He couldn
’t abandon Teddy. The memory of how he felt when he’d been a young boy and totally alone was just too clear to him, and he had an emotional stake in the baby’s life now. In short, whether he liked it or not, he was stuck with all of them for a while. He glanced at the three and his gaze rested on Aunt Gigi. “I suppose you want to move in here, too,” West said dryly.
“Au contraire!” Gigi swung around to face her niece. “I have been agonizing about this ever since you called, Annie. This is a horrible thing you’ve done, moving in with this man. He could be anyone. He could be a bigamist!”
“Hey, wait just a minute—” West protested, but Annie was answering her aunt as though he weren’t even there.
“No way, Aunt Gigi. West has these dreams he’s chasing after. He’s too busy working on them to have one wife, let alone two or three.”
“He’s not a seducer of innocent women?” Gigi asked, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
West grinned and said saucily, “Sure I am. The line starts at the door.”
“We-est!” Annie groaned. “Don’t encourage her.”
“But I have to,” he said, grinning because this whole situation was starting to seem awfully funny—absurd even. And he was starting to feel a bit reckless. “If I don’t encourage her, who will? I make a living helping people achieve their dreams, remember? If your aunt’s dream is to meet up with a seducer of innocent women, who am I to object? I’ll be happy to play the part if she wants.”
For a few seconds, merriment exploded in Annie’s eyes like an old-time flashbulb, and West could have sworn she wanted to laugh, but then she seemed to sober up and become perfectly serious again.
“He’s kidding, Aunt Gigi. My virtue is safe,” Annie said, although West noted she sounded far from certain about that. “Tell her, West.”
The One-Week Baby (Yours Truly) Page 4
