The Diaper Diaries

by Abby Gaines

“Whatever it is you’re trying to do—” Max shifted in his chair “—you don’t have to. I’ve always known you’re Mom’s favorite.” The words came out in a rush, as if he’d been holding them in for a long time, then his jaw slackened.

  “I don’t see it,” Tyler said frankly. “But Bethany tells me it’s true, and I believe her.”

  Max looked shocked at the acknowledgment, then maddened. Perhaps he’d been hoping Tyler would say Max was wrong about Mom. Oops. Maybe this wasn’t such a smart idea. Tyler tried a lighter approach. “I know it annoys you when Mom wants me rather than you to charm the old ladies—”

  “It doesn’t annoy me,” Max said, visibly annoyed. The temperature in the room seemed to have gone up a couple of notches.

  “You guys have got this all wrong.” Jake’s laconic interruption arrested the tension. Tyler sat back, looked at his cousin. “There’s only one favorite in your mom’s life, and that’s Mitzy.”

  Tyler laughed first, then Max joined in. Tyler sent his brother a look that requested a truce, and received a not-un-friendly shrug in reply.

  “If your visit here is a prelude to any kind of heart-to-heart with Bethany,” Max said with uncanny fraternal acuity, “you might want to plan what you’re going to say a little better.”

  Tyler grinned. Okay, so he hadn’t made the best job of hashing things out with Max. But surely they could move forward from here.

  “What’s happening with the cute kidney doctor?” Jake asked. “Is she available?”

  “Never to you,” Tyler said.

  OLIVIA PARKED out front of Silas’s house and wished she was a less selfish, nobler woman. One who wanted what was best for Silas, instead of just worrying about how miserable she was without him.

  She got out of the car, pulled her sable coat tighter around her.He must have seen her coming, for he opened the door as she stepped onto the porch. The sight of him filling the door frame set her stomach fluttering.

  The hope in his eyes told her she was doing the right thing.

  “You’re not the only one who has something to confess,” she said before she even stepped inside.

  He took her hands in his, tugged her over the threshold. “Tell me, my love.”

  No wariness, no sign that he would allow anything she’d done to change the way he felt about her.

  “I want you to know that I’m selfish, shallow and demanding.”

  He smiled, and he seemed almost boyish. “Those are the things I love most about you.”

  That couldn’t be true. Slightly less confidently, she said, “I was so worried about what my friends would think of you, I didn’t tell them about you. I wouldn’t have taken you to that ball if you hadn’t let me choose your clothes.”

  He chuckled. “I could have slapped you for that.”

  She gaped. “You knew?”

  He shrugged. “I love you,” he said, “no matter what.”

  “I’m not willing to take second place. Not to Anna, not to those frogs. Not to anything, not ever.”

  “You’ll always come first,” he said.

  Tears sprang to her eyes, because this was where she still couldn’t be certain. “How do I know you mean it?”

  He dropped a kiss on her lips, one so sweet that she almost caved right then and there. Then he led her to the living room, pushed her gently onto a sofa and sat down next to her.

  “You know that the Warrington Foundation gave me the money for the frogs,” he said.

  She nodded.

  “I’ve wound up my involvement, organized the trust to run without me.” He kissed her hand. “I’ve made my peace in here—” he touched Olivia’s hand to his chest “—with Anna. I loved her. I did something stupid, something terrible. I have to live with the consequences.”

  “Which brings me to my next confession.” She drew a deep breath. “Silas, I visited your children.”

  His jaw dropped.

  “I know it was forward of me, but I had to tell Jemma and Paul what a wonderful man you are. I told them you’d made a mistake and they had to forgive you.” She said proudly, “Paul seemed ready to talk to you. Jemma might be a tougher nut to crack, but I told her I’d keep calling, keep visiting, until she agreed.”

  “Darling.” He pulled her into his arms, kissed her tenderly. “You’re amazing.”

  When he looked at her like that, Olivia felt amazing.

  Silas knuckled his eyes. “I love you, Olivia, but I understand you might not truly believe that until I’m ninety-nine and no longer capable of saying it. But I’ll be in the bed next to yours in the nursing home and inside I’ll be saying I told you so.”

  She laughed and then she cried and then she kissed him with all the passion, all the love, she had. “I love you, too. No matter what. And that means I’m going to take the risk. I want to be with you always.”

  He kissed her so hard she couldn’t breathe. “I know it’s only a tiny risk,” she assured him.

  “Infinitesimal.” He kissed her again, did incredible things to her mouth with his tongue.

  When the kiss ended, she sighed against his chest. “Does this mean we’re engaged?”

  “Hell, no!”

  His vehemence startled her. “But you said—”

  He hauled her back into his arms. “I love you too much to get engaged and have you change your mind.”

  “I won’t,” she protested. “Silas, I’ve never felt like this before, not for any of my fiancés.”

  “Darling, I know I told you to take a risk, but I’m not as brave as you. We’re not getting engaged, we’re getting married.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Today.”

  “Silas!”

  He looked at his watch. “It’s a four-hour drive to Nashville, where there’s no waiting period, no blood test. We can have a license by three o’clock and be married by four.”

  “But I want a proper wedding with a five-thousand-dollar dress and hundreds of guests.”

  “Too bad.” He stood, fished in his pocket for his car keys. “We can do the big event later—after we’re married. I’m not going to risk losing you, Olivia.” He pulled her to her feet, silenced any further protests with a kiss.

  Olivia followed him out the door, happier than she’d known it was possible to be. She might be about to marry a man who was wearing jeans with holes in them and non-matching sneakers, but she would travel to her wedding in a Maserati.

  TYLER HAD CALLED Bethany and asked her to come to his house. “It’s urgent,” he said. Then he hung up.

  Heedless of the extravagance, she took a cab. It could be a crisis, something to do with Ben. Even if it wasn’t, she was desperate enough to see Tyler again that she wanted to get there as fast as possible.When the taxi pulled up outside his house, Tyler stood in the doorway, waiting. Tall, gorgeous, the man she loved. And yet, not the same man.

  This Tyler looked as if he didn’t have a designer suit to his name. He wore baggy sweatpants, a ratty T-shirt that couldn’t have belonged to him—he must have wrestled it off some homeless guy—and his feet were bare. His hair was rumpled, not in a sexy way—though she found it sexy anyway. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in a couple of nights.

  “Bethany.” His gaze skimmed her new outfit, a wrap dress in green wool, her curves, her hair. “You look fantastic.” He sounded hungry. For her?

  Bethany’s stomach lurched in response, and she put a hand to it. “What’s so urgent?”

  She followed him into the house and realized it felt more like home than anywhere else in the world.

  “I have something for you.” He led the way to the dining room. On the antique wooden table sat a familiar, faded green duffel bag, incongruous in the luxury of the room.

  “Another baby?” she said stupidly.

  He smiled, a grim movement of the lips. “No, but that’s not to say I didn’t think about using that ploy, before I hit on the rather obvious idea of giving you money.”

  She lost the end of that sentence in her focus on the first p
art. “A ploy to what?”

  He picked up the bag, tossed it to her.

  Bethany caught it. At first glance, she thought it was empty. Then she saw a small rectangle of paper. She pulled it out, dropped the bag on the carpet so she could examine her find.

  “It’s—Tyler, it’s a check for a hundred thousand dollars.” Made out to her.

  “It’s your research money,” Tyler said.

  “But you said the foundation won’t fund two projects in the same field.”

  “This check isn’t from the foundation.”

  She glanced down at the slip of paper. The account name swam in front of her. “This is your personal check.”

  He nodded. “I wish your dream wasn’t to sacrifice yourself on the altar of your sister’s memory, but it is, so I’m damn well going to help you climb up there. Then I’m going to hang around until you’re ready to get down again.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “I want you to come to Washington with me. There’s a team there working in the same field. I spoke to the doctor in charge and he’d welcome another fully funded researcher on board.”

  She knew the team he meant—they were top-notch. “You said Toronto were the best people to do the work.”

  “It’s your dream,” he said again. “I can’t say it makes a lot of sense to me, and I sure can’t say I’m happy about it. But if we’re going to get married I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being nagged by you about your kidney research.” He pulled her into a loose embrace. “Besides, I’ve met my in-laws, and you know what they’re like about this kidney stuff.”

  She put a hand to his chest. “Did you say get married?”

  He sighed. “I can’t see any way around it. You’re not likely to stay with me if I keep dating other women, are you?”

  “I’d kill you if you even thought about dating other women,” she said. “Tyler, you don’t need a babysitter, you don’t need female companionship, you don’t need a woman to tell you you’re wonderful—”

  “It would be too damn bad if I did, with you around,” he interrupted.

  “So why are you even talking about me and marriage in the same breath?”

  “Why do you think?” He smiled so tenderly, so lovingly, it took her breath away. “I love you, Bethany.”

  She couldn’t speak.

  “Here, I’ll show you.” He let go of her so he could reach into his back pocket. He pulled out his wallet, produced his driver’s license. “Look.” He pointed to the small print.

  It said Tyler was registered as an organ donor.

  Laughter welled within Bethany, bubbled over.

  “Hey,” he protested. “I just signed up to give away some of the best parts of me when I die.”

  “And this is proof that you love me?” she teased, seeing the way his mind was working and loving him even more.

  “These guys have to wait until I’m dead.” He stuffed the license back in his wallet, tossed it onto the dining table. “But you—” he took her in his arms again “—you get all of me right now. You want a kidney, it’s yours.” His eyes darkened. “And you already have my heart.”

  “Oh.” It was hardly expressive of what she felt, but it seemed sufficient for Tyler to claim her mouth in a scorching kiss.

  Bethany let her lips, her tongue, say what she needed to. When Tyler pulled away, he was shaking. He held her close, his chin resting on her head.

  “I know you’re way too good for me,” he said. “Too kind, too nice.”

  “Too smart,” she inserted.

  “I don’t think so,” he said smugly. “If you were at all smart, you’d have figured out by now that I’m crazy about you, and you’d have worked out some way to take advantage of my pitiful state.”

  Bethany had never seen anyone less deserving of pity.

  “But even though you’re all of those things and I don’t deserve you,” he said, serious now, “I love you too much to let a better man have you. Be mine, Bethany, for always.”

  She swallowed an instantaneous yes. “Are you sure this isn’t because you miss Ben? Because you associate me with him, which makes you emotionally vulnerable to me?”

  “That’s what I’ve been telling myself the last week,” he said. “I do miss Ben, like crazy. But the way I feel about you is…well, it’s all about you.” He looked into her eyes. “Bethany, put me out of my misery. Do you love me?”

  “For someone who knows a lot about women, you’re pretty dumb,” she said. “Of course I love you, you idiot.”

  He shook his head at his own stupidity. “I don’t know how I didn’t figure that out, given those endearments you lavish on me.” He put a finger under her chin, tilted it. “I can’t wait to get you into bed.”

  “Yes, please,” she said.

  “We’ll get married,” he said. “We’ll have children.”

  “Yes, please,” she said happily.

  Tyler’s face clouded. “It would be great if we still had Ben, wouldn’t it? But we can get started on those kids right away, if you want.”

  “We might have one sooner than you think,” Bethany said. “I told my parents I plan to invite Ryan to live with me. That means with you.” She held her breath and watched him process that.

  “Uh, great.” He thought some more, then said firmly, “You’re right, it’s a great idea. We’d better start checking out schools. Day schools, no more boarding.”

  Selfish playboy Tyler Warrington was taking on her brother, just like that? He was putty in her hands—the power almost made Bethany dizzy.

  “There’s something I have to do,” she said, “and I really hate to do it.”

  “It doesn’t involve kidneys, does it?”

  “Sort of.” She picked up the check she’d dropped on the table. She tore it in half.

  “But—”

  She put a finger to his lips, smiled when he kissed it. “Tyler, you made the right decision giving that money to Toronto. I hadn’t realized I don’t even like doing research. I like working with kids—I was getting more satisfaction out of my E.R. work than anything else.”

  He kissed her. “So that’s what you want to do? Be an E.R. doctor?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve seen an awful lot of illness in my life. I want to treat sick kids, but I also want to see healthy kids, help them stay that way. I want to work in a private practice, with lower-income families—you’ll have to subsidize me with your fabulous wealth, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “I want to help them make the most of what they’re doing right, treat them when they’re going wrong.”

  He nuzzled her neck, sending shivers through her. “That sounds flexible enough for us to fit our own children in somewhere along the line.”

  Bethany nodded. “Though in some ways I’ll always feel as if Ben was our first child.”

  “Me too.” He gazed down into her eyes. “He brought us together.”

  “I love you, Tyler.”

  His kiss was thorough, demanding, rapturous. Bethany wanted it to last forever.

  From a distance, she heard the doorbell.

  Tyler broke off the kiss to say, “Ignore it,” then he kissed her again.

  But the bell rang again, and again, and again. Finally he released her.

  “Dammit,” he growled as he strode to the door. “If it’s those religious nuts in the white robes, they can go to hell.”

  “With your reputation, I daresay that’s where they think you’re going,” Bethany pointed out.

  He yanked the door open.

  “Kylie.” All heat was gone from his voice.

  Bethany came out into the entryway. Kylie stood on the doorstep, Ben in his stroller in front of her. He’d grown, even in a week, and he was more adorable than ever.

  “Come in.” Tyler picked up the front of the stroller and lifted it over the doorstep.

  Kylie’s smile was tremulous but happy. “I’ve brought him home. To you.”

&
nbsp; For the Novelchicks: Karina Bliss, Sandra Hyatt and Tessa Radley. Wonderful writers and wonderful friends—I couldn’t have done it without you, gals.

  EPILOGUE

  JUST WHEN TYLER thought he couldn’t get any happier…he did.

  He and Bethany—his sexy, gorgeous, adorable wife—had Ben back in their home, and the adoption would be through any day now.Kylie was as excited about it as they were—she loved her son, but she was certain she wasn’t ready to be a mother.

  She needed to focus on her own family, on her mom, whose life had been blessedly extended, but who wouldn’t last much longer now. Some time in the future, Kylie wanted to go to college, then get a job working with kids. One day, she’d told them, she wanted to get married, have a family of her own, do it all properly this time.

  But for now, she wanted to be an aunt to Ben, and a much-loved member of the extended Warrington family. Just like Ryan, and just like Silas and Olivia, the unlikeliest couple Tyler had ever known—and, next to him and Bethany, the happiest.

  With Ben and Kylie in their lives, Tyler and Bethany hadn’t been able to move to Washington—he’d had to pass on the think-tank job. But that was okay, Tyler was full of ideas for the Warrington Foundation—he’d talked them through with Max, and the new direction they’d set had him excited about his work.

  Best of all, he had Bethany. Just looking at her made him want to laugh out loud—then kiss her senseless. He couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life with her, with their family.

  Who’d have thought caring could be so much fun?

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-1432-7

  THE DIAPER DIARIES

  Copyright © 2008 by Abby Gaines.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.