And despite her discomfort with the house’s strangeness, seeing Julia all rosy and babbling noisily this morning was the confirmation Bronwyn needed that she would be able to care for patients in this place and see them not just in crisis but all the way through their crisis.
He gave the room another noncommittal once-over. “A medical office, too. That will be a tall order.”
The complete transformation she had in mind was a long-term project that could only be undertaken when the grant money came through, but who was he to think he had a right to an opinion about her future? And what was he doing here anyway? She’d made it clear last night that the baby was staying with her—and he wasn’t.
“And what, exactly, are you doing here?”
“Right now, I’m diapering a baby,” he answered blandly, deliberately misunderstanding the nature of her question. “I got on the Net this morning to research baby care. Picked up several good tips. Observe. I’ve put a clean diaper under her before taking the dirty one off. I also realized there were a few more supplies you were going to need, so I picked them up.”
“How did you get in?”
“Trust me, it wasn’t hard. I also stopped at a hardware store. I got new locks for the front and rear doors. I’m going to put a stop to them opening at will.”
“Are you saying you broke in?”
“Let’s say I let myself in.”
“What makes you think entering my house without permission is acceptable—now or ever?”
He turned to look at her, black brows drawn together in surprise. Even so, he kept one hand on the baby, she noted.
“You said she had to stay here, so she does, but the fact that she is still my responsibility is all the permission I need. I’m not going to dump this baby on you and walk away. Sweetheart, you’re a whole lot safer with me in this house than out of it. If that offends you, get over it.”
As if issuing a fiat was all it took to secure her acceptance, he resumed his conversational tone. “I needed to get here before breakfast. The Internet articles said Julia should be eating solid food in addition to formula, so at the grocery I picked up some jars of baby food, and I wasn’t sure what you had to eat, so I bought eggs and bacon, English muffins, and a honeydew melon.”
Against her will, Bronwyn felt laughter at his blithe justification bubbling in her chest. “You broke into the house so you could feed us breakfast?”
Garth grinned. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”
***
The only one who enjoyed Julia’s breakfast was Mildred. Not Julia. Not Bronwyn.
This morning, rehydrated, the aftereffects of sedation out of her system, Julia was a different child. In the light her eyes were neither blue nor gray. They were slate, and sparkling with intelligence and curiosity, they lighted on everything.
Her miniature, long-fingered hands picked up anything within her reach, and whatever she picked up went into her mouth. She had preferences, and she made them known. Her biggest preference was for movement.
As long as she was being carried, she was content to be held, but otherwise, she wanted to move. She squirmed; she rolled; she twisted. She did not want to be held on a lap to be fed. She squealed and made faces and turned her head away from the spoon. She either grabbed for the spoon or batted it away. Grayish blobs of baby cereal and yellowish smears of strained peaches clung unappetizingly to the dandelion fluff of her hair, her fingers, her toes, and everything in between.
As for Bronwyn, her left hand ached from trying to hang on to Julia and keep her oriented toward the business end of the spoon. She didn’t look any better than Julia. Her light green T-shirt was smeared; her hands were just as sticky as Julia’s; and she could have sworn that she had goo in her hair, too.
Mildred alone was pleased. She had thought snapping at flying gobs of baby food was a great way to start the morning. She sniffed the chipped paint of a cabinet door for any splats she might have missed.
“Let me take her.” Garth lifted Julia from Bronwyn’s lap. “You go get cleaned up.”
“That’s right. I almost forgot! I’ve got a contractor coming.”
“About that. I wish you would cancel. A contractor will have workmen coming and going. One guy in droopy jeans and a tool belt looks like any other. There’ll be no way to secure the area.”
“Secure what area? What do you think they’re going to do? The house needs renovation, but I want a contractor to look at the roof, too. I found water on the floor this morning. I need to get as much done as possible before I start back to work.”
He dodged a baby hand reaching for his mouth. “It’s just a few days. I just don’t want you to be letting men you don’t know into the house. Tell you what. Let me look at the roof. I can begin on the basic repairs. You won’t lose time, and it will probably save you a bundle, too.”
He sat Julia in one side of the double sink while he let the water run warm in the other side. While it did, he pulled the blue-and-orange-striped shirt over her head.
“She needs a bath, too.”
“I’m giving her one. Okay, kid, off with the diaper.” He steadied her with one big, brown hand that spanned her torso while he ripped the tabs. He checked the temperature of the water. He swung the faucet over, letting the stream of water land beside her.
“Alley-oop!” He balanced her on her tummy on his forearm, neatly clasping her legs with his spread fingers. Steadying her with his other hand on her back, he held her bottom under the running water.
“I don’t think that’s how you bathe a baby.”
“It worked last night.”
“She’s a lot more active today.”
Bronwyn wished she would shut up. The size and strength of his hands made his hold secure, if unconventional. There was just something unsettling about those big, strong, brown, long-fingered hands on that little, soft, pink baby. Something that made her lungs clench and fight her attempts to get a really deep breath.
“Julia likes it.”
Yes, she seemed to. She was laughing and wiggling. The feeling in Bronwyn’s chest tightened. He turned Julia back upright and sat her in the sink. She splashed both tiny hands down in the quarter-inch of water and chortled loudly. Keeping both hands on the baby, he swiveled at the waist to look at Bronwyn. “I’ve got this. Go get dressed.”
***
Bronwyn looked out the window she was cleaning in the family room to see her friend JJ emerging from a hunter green Land Rover. She hit the off button on her boom box and stopped Chris Young’s lament that he wasn’t the man he wanted to be in mid-syllable. She ran through the kitchen, remembered Julia, clad in diaper and a shirt that said, “I’m sunshine,” scooped her up, and raced down the dark hall.
“JJ!” Bronwyn let the screen door slam behind her.
JJ waved. She wore cream slacks with a jacket woven in bright pinks and oranges. Her black-coffee, shoulder-length hair gleamed in the noon sunlight. She strode to the porch with her signature long-legged, hip-swinging style. “So this is the baby!” JJ stooped down to peer into Julia’s face. “Hi, Little One!”
Instead of smiling as she always did when Bronwyn, Garth, and even Mildred came into her line of sight, Julia mewed in protest and hid her face against Bronwyn’s shoulder.
The oddest combination of feelings washed over Bronwyn. A proprietary wish that Julia “showed well” by acting engaging; surprise that Julia suddenly reacted to strangers since she seemed to trust Garth, Bronwyn, and even Mildred without reservation; and the funniest, tenderest clutch in the vicinity of her throat that Julia had turned to her for protection and security.
JJ straightened. “She’s a little shy, isn’t she?”
“She’ll be all right once she gets to know you.” Bronwyn hoped she was telling the truth. And, in fact, although Julia still clung, she was already stealing peeks at JJ. “An
yway, I’m thrilled to see you. I didn’t expect you to bring the car seat yourself!”
JJ laughed. “I wasn’t going to send someone else when I wanted to see you myself. Guess who I brought with me?”
Bronwyn didn’t have to guess. She could see for herself the medium-height man who had come up behind JJ. A large box with a picture of an infant car seat was balanced on one broad shoulder and packages under the other.
“Her pack mule,” David supplied, dropping the packages and lowering the box to the floor. He gave Bronwyn a gentle one-armed hug while cleverly (Bronwyn thought) pretending not to notice Julia. “How are you doing?”
Bronwyn had been prepared to tolerate the husband JJ had married in such a hurry last Thanksgiving, even if she had doubts about the character of a man who would marry her friend for her money. She’d met his younger brothers and sisters at their wedding, though, and had discovered he came from a medical family as she did. They’d been equally unsure of JJ and had thought that by marrying her he was making too large a sacrifice.
Bronwyn no longer doubted that they were deeply in love and that David was good for JJ. She smiled and laughed now in a lighthearted way that she hadn’t since they were undergrads. At the same time, there was a new warmth and earthiness about her.
As for David, he appeared to have recovered from his injuries. The scars across his cheek had faded to become part of the landscape of his face. He was the most handsome man Bronwyn had ever seen.
“When he heard Garth was here,” JJ informed her, “he decided to ride along.”
“Where is he?” David asked.
“On the roof.”
“Why the roof?”
“There was water on the hall floor this morning. We couldn’t tell where it came from. And after the bad storms last night, he thought he should check it.”
“What’s all this?” Bronwyn waved at the bags David had unceremoniously deposited on the still-dusty hall floor.
“Oh, a former employee has opened a baby consignment shop,” JJ answered airily. “You needed baby things, and she needed customers. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.” As head of Carruthers’ Cars, JJ supported several charities, but few people knew how generous she really was—how she looked for opportunities to help build other businesses as she had built hers. “I can’t wait to try some of these clothes on her. There was the most adorable hat—I had to get it—and wait until you see the purple sneakers.”
“You can’t turn her into a fashionista!” Bronwyn laughingly protested. “She’s not even a year old.”
“A girl is never too young to get dressed up.” JJ’s green eyes looked askance at Bronwyn’s less-than-pristine green scrubs top over shorts. “And she’s never too grown either, my friend. You have a professional image to project. Scrubs are not going to cut it. You’re going to have to buy some decent clothes. And it’s my job as your friend to tell you so.”
“You want me to bring in the rest of the stuff now?” David interrupted.
Bronwyn seized on the distraction, since JJ had the totally unfair advantage of being right. She turned to JJ. “What ‘stuff’? There’s more?”
“A crib—high chair—playpen,” David answered. “Oh, and a swing. Really cool.”
“JJ, you shouldn’t have. I don’t know how long I’ll have her.”
“So, when you’re done with the things, we take them back to the consignment shop and the owner gets to sell them again. Everybody wins.” JJ read the consternation Bronwyn was sure was on her face and sobered. “When I say everyone wins, I include myself. I’m so glad you’re here—I need you. I only wish I had thought of a way to bring you to North Carolina myself. I will do anything to smooth your path so that you’ll stay. If that includes some baby things… hey, it doesn’t get much easier.”
“The rest of the stuff?” David reminded them he was waiting for a decision.
Bronwyn swept up the hair that had slipped from her ponytail, undid the rubber band, and re-secured the whole while she thought. “Upstairs, I guess. But I haven’t picked out a room for her. And, as you can see, everything is dusty. And there’s moving mess everywhere.”
David smiled kindly. “Feeling a little overwhelmed, are we?”
“All my plans have been torn up, and I haven’t had time to make any new ones.”
“We thought you could use some help,” JJ told her. “We came bearing brooms and mops in addition to baby things—and we have work clothes to change into. Let David and me help you clean and sort things into some order.”
“I didn’t expect—”
“If Graziano’s here, there’s nothing to do but make him work.” Garth’s deep voice came from the top of the stairs a moment before he appeared. Bronwyn had a feeling he’d been there for some time, listening.
Garth and David did that thumb-grab, handshake-hug, back-thump thing men friends do. Garth kissed JJ chastely on the cheek.
***
“Spill!” JJ demanded. “The men are off doing manly things but no telling for how long.”
Bronwyn checked on Julia before answering. Bronwyn’s first act this morning had been to mop the brick-patterned vinyl floor of the addition off the kitchen so she could set Julia down on it. Julia wasn’t crawling on all fours yet, but using a sort of commando belly slide, she could travel quite a distance. Mildred, who had lost none of her fascination for the baby, lay on her belly also, watching attentively from the respectful distance Bronwyn had established. “I really can’t tell you anymore about Julia than I already have. Just, I think I’m doing the right thing.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. You, Garth. I want every word, every look, from the moment he got here.”
“What do you mean? It’s not like that.”
JJ gave her an exasperated look. “It’s exactly like that. I saw his face when he looked at you. He’s smitten.”
Bronwyn felt her cheeks get red. “Whatever notions he has, he can get over them. No way am I going there.”
JJ turned from the cabinet she was wiping out to send Bronwyn a puzzled look. “I know you were devastated by Troy’s death, but I thought you were moving on. Coming here is part of that, letting go of the memories associated with him. You said you were ready for another relationship if the right man came along.”
“Right man, I said. He isn’t.”
“No chemistry? Are you sure, because it looked like to me…”
“There’s chemistry. It’s the kind of man he is.”
JJ fisted her hands on the khaki shorts she’d changed into. “What did he do?” she demanded dangerously, ready to spring to Bronwyn’s defense.
What had he done? He’d gone out on a limb for a baby when anyone would have said the limits of his responsibility would be to drop her off at a police station or an emergency room. He had been kind and willing to care for others. To get involved. She didn’t believe he’d had any part in whatever had separated Julia from her parents, and she did believe he was doing all in his power to restore her to them.
He’d kissed her. He had taken advantage of a moment when her hands were occupied and she couldn’t get away from him, which was bad. And it had been the most blatantly carnal, and the most sweetly sensual kiss she’d ever known, which, let’s face it, was also bad—since her life was complicated enough—but she hoped he would do it again.
“Nothing,” she told JJ. “He reminds me of Troy, that’s all. And not in a good way.”
“He doesn’t look a bit like him.”
Bronwyn made herself consciously remember what Troy had looked like, something that had become harder. When the memory had first begun to fade, she’d been horrified, but after a while she had accepted that he was receding into her past. She had accepted that a picture of him no longer evoked him, but only memories of the past. “No. You’re right.”
“Then what are you talk
ing about?”
Bronwyn didn’t know how to put it into words. It was something she sensed, a restlessness, a hyperawareness, a feeling that he was always strategizing several steps ahead. She shrugged.
“Do you want to know what I think?”
Bronwyn and JJ got along because, even though they were very different, both were confident, assertive women. Each respected the other’s ability to look after herself and not let herself be overwhelmed by the other’s strength. For both, it was always such a relief to be with someone they didn’t have to hold back with. JJ was a powerhouse of determination and, once set on course, not easily deterred. Bronwyn grinned. “No?”
“I’m going to tell you anyway. I think you covered up and pushed down your feelings for so long, you were almost as dead as Troy. I think you’ve become afraid of feeling anything at all.”
Bronwyn heard deep male voices and then the thud of heavy footfalls on the porch. “They’re coming. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Yes, we will.”
***
“It’s hot up on the roof.” Garth took the ice water pitcher from the fridge. He poured two glasses and handed one to David. “We don’t see any shingles missing or any sign that water is coming in through the attic. The water must have come from somewhere besides the roof.”
“What does that mean?” Bronwyn wanted to know.
“We’ll just have to keep an eye on it. In a building, where you see the water can be a long way from its source. In the meantime, why don’t you choose a room for Julia? Once it’s cleaned, we’ll have a place to put her stuff, which will make the rest of the house easier to square away.”
Bronwyn heard a fussy “anh-anh-anh” from the family room and went to retrieve Julia from a tight space between two boxes. She’d crawled in, but she couldn’t put things in reverse and crawl out.
“Good thinking.” Bronwyn nuzzled the baby’s sweet neck, before setting her back down in a clear space. “Once the crib is assembled we’ll have a safe place to put her—which will also make the rest of the house easier to deal with.”
SEALed Forever Page 13
