Yuletide Baby Bargain Page 13

  His gaze was steady on her face. Uncomfortably so.

  She swallowed and strove for reason. “Linc. The only thing you need to be shopping for this week are baby bottles. Certainly not a wife.”

  “I don’t think I’d have to shop far.”

  Of course, he’d have some female in mind. A man like Linc would naturally have a woman around. Women around.

  The alarm spread, running through her veins like some rampant drug, bent on destruction.

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t,” she managed more or less evenly. “Whoever you were out with last Friday night, for instance. But trust me. You don’t need to jump that particular gun quite so fast. I mean, what if you’re not Layla’s uncle? Then this is all moot.”

  “If I’m not, then obviously, I’ll need a wife even more.”

  Her stomach churned. “Why?”

  He looked at her, as if it should be obvious. “You said yourself that there weren’t any unmarried male foster parents. How else can I make sure Layla could stay here? With me.”

  “You don’t really want a baby.” She gestured at Layla. The infant’s eyes were closed; she was blissfully unaware of being at the center of so much turmoil. “I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve actually held her. If she’s not your niece, then—”

  “You don’t know what I want or don’t want.”

  It was like being punched.

  Maddie exhaled carefully, knowing that he was right. Aside from what he believed his responsibilities were to Layla, she didn’t know anything at all about what he did or didn’t want. His ex-wife had been pregnant. This nursery had obviously been built for that child. A child he’d denied having in front of the judge.

  If his words were true, was he really simply trying to fill that void?

  “Okay,” she finally said. “You’re saying you want to keep Layla?”

  “Don’t you?”

  “Well, yes.” The admission came automatically. “But—”

  “Then the solution is simple. You can marry me.”

  Her stomach fell away completely. “What?”

  “Marry me,” he said with inordinate patience.

  She scrambled to her feet and the child-size chair tipped over, making a huge racket.

  He remained silent. His eyes followed her as she backed away. Though where she thought she would go, she didn’t know. Layla was now sound asleep in the swing. She hadn’t even started at the chair noise. If Maddie snatched her and took off, the only decent place to go would be her parents’ house. And she was too old to be running home to Mom and Dad just because her job was too uncomfortable.

  The job’s uncomfortable?

  She stiffened her shoulders, propping her hands on her hips. She’d keep her wits about her if it killed her. “Don’t joke. This is too serious.”

  “Layla’s already bonding to you.”

  “What do you know about babies bonding?”

  “I know enough. Forget I asked. I made the mistake of thinking you were as interested in her welfare as I am.”

  She clenched her teeth, feeling dizzy inside from her seesawing emotions. “Up until now, the worst thing you’ve ever said to me was that Jax and I were bad for each other.” She jabbed a finger through the air. “You’re the bad one. Suggesting you and I get married? We don’t even like each other. Much less feel any of—” she broke off, waving her hand and feeling her face getting hotter by the second “—that.”

  “I’m not suggesting a real marriage,” he said evenly. The more uptight she got, the more reasonable he seemed to sound. And it was infuriating. “Just a mutually beneficial arrangement where Layla is concerned. Although you’re living in la-la land if you really think there is no—” he waved his hand mockingly “—that between us.”

  The top of her head ought to be smoking, considering the fire burning inside her face. “Go find some other nitwit to fill the bill.”

  He watched her through narrowed eyes for a long moment. Then—as if her answer really didn’t matter all that much, anyway—he shrugged and stood. “That may be some of your best advice yet.”

  He stepped around the swing and she quickly moved even farther aside.

  “Don’t worry, Maddie. I’m not my grandfather. I won’t ask five times.”

  Her hands curled into fists. She lifted her chin and made herself meet his eyes. Why would he, when there was no love at all in the asking? All he needed—thought he needed—was a wife for the sake of appearances only. “And I’m not your grandmother. So at least we’ve got that clear!”

  Chapter Ten

  By Friday, Maddie didn’t need to turn on the lights anymore when she headed downstairs to fix Layla’s middle-of-the-night bottles. She’d gotten plenty of practice memorizing the stairs by then.

  And fortunately, aside from the night of the marriage “discussion,” she hadn’t run into Linc during any of her nighttime foraging.

  Truthfully, she hadn’t run into Linc much at all.

  On one hand, it gave her much-needed breathing room.

  On the other hand, his absence just made everything worse.

  Because if she’d been concerned about his lack of physical interaction with Layla before, it was even more worrying now, the longer it went on.

  He left the house at dawn each day. And then he didn’t return until Layla was already in bed for the night.

  Working a lot? Keeping wolves at bay?

  Avoiding the very baby he claimed to want?

  Avoiding you?

  Out trying to find a nitwit wife?

  The noise inside her head was deafening.

  Maddie looked down at Layla in the dim light from the pantry while they waited for the bottle to heat.

  “He sure hasn’t stinted on stuff for you, though,” she murmured to the infant. The bottle warmer was state-of-the-art. So was the set of bottles and nipples that went with it. Linc may have been intentionally absent, but he was making certain that Layla had every material thing she could possibly need.

  There’d been the warmer and the bottles. A wardrobe fit for a princess. A potty chair that looked like an actual miniature toilet that wasn’t necessary, considering how far-off potty training would be. The fancy multistrapped baby carrier, though?

  Maddie bent over the top of Layla’s head and dropped a kiss on her sweet-smelling blond hair.

  The carrier was definitely spot on the money even though it had taken her several tries and watching a few online videos to get the hang of using it.

  Now, instead of having to hold Layla in her arms, she simply strapped her into the soft carrier. Layla got to look out at the world, whether they were the inside the Swift mansion or out in the yard. And Maddie’s back didn’t get quite so tired as she hefted around a baby that was gaining weight by the day.

  She pulled the bottle from the warmer and tested the formula. It was as perfect as the price tag promised and she offered it to the baby. For herself, she broke off half a brownie from the batch she’d made earlier that evening and stuffed it into her mouth. Then she flipped off the pantry light and padded barefoot through the dark kitchen. They went into the living room, but instead of heading straight for the staircase, she lingered in front of the unadorned picture window. It overlooked the long, sloping yard that glimmered whitely beneath the moonlight.

  She leaned her head closer to the baby’s as they stood by the window. “Your Uncle Linc used to pull me and my sisters on a sled down that hill,” she murmured. “Back then, I thought this was the perfect house with the perfect yard.” She shifted slightly from side to side, rocking Layla as she drank the bottle. “When you’re a little older, maybe he’ll take you sledding, too.”

  She heard a sound and quickly looked over her shoulder.

  But she saw nothing ex
cept the same dark shapes of furniture. As usual.

  “Old houses settle,” she told Layla. “That’s what I have to remind Ali all the time about our house. It’s not ghosts moving things around. It’s just the bones of an old house creaking.” She rocked her some more. “Maybe we’ll go over there tomorrow. See if Auntie Ali and Auntie Greer have agreed on a paint color for the kitchen yet. Shall we make a bet that they haven’t?”

  “What’re the odds?”

  She whirled, and Layla protested when she momentarily lost the bottle. Maddie blinked, peering harder into the darkness.

  “You don’t need to sneak around in your own house,” Maddie told Linc, finally making him out sitting in one of the leather wing chairs near the cold fireplace.

  “I’ve been here since you came downstairs.” She only realized he had a glass in his hand when he moved his arm and she heard the soft clink of ice. “When you started talking to yourself, I figured I’d better warn you I was here.”

  “I was talking to Layla.” She looked back out the window. The view from the bedroom and nursery upstairs was entirely different—from there, you could see the rear of the house and the stable that, sadly, sat empty these days.

  “You make the brownies?”

  She wiped her lips, as if he’d caught her with her mouth full. “Yes. Sorry. I kind of made myself at home.” Because she’d been going stir-crazy inside his home between endless diapers and bottles and sleepless nights not entirely due to Layla.

  “I ate half the pan when I got in a little while ago.”

  “Kind of late, even for you.” She tucked her tongue between her teeth, intending to leave it at that. But of course, to her shame, she couldn’t. “Hot date?”

  “And if I said yes?”

  She made herself shrug, though he probably couldn’t make her out any more clearly than she could him. “More power to you,” she said blithely. She kept looking out the window. “She know you’re in the market for a missus to your mister?”

  The ice clinked softly. She heard a faint rustle and felt herself tense as he moved to also stand at the wide window. “You always wanted to sit in the middle of the sled,” he said. “Greer in the front. Ali in the back.”

  “Greer liked to think she was steering. Ali liked to think the back was a wilder ride.” She pressed her cheek against Layla’s hair, finding that the contact steadied her. “Surprised you remember.”

  “I remember everything.” He lifted his glass and took a sip. Now that he was closer, she could make out the short tumbler and smell the whiskey. “The only happy days we had back then were when we were here with my grandmother.”

  “I’m glad you were here a lot, then.” She chewed the inside of her cheek. “Your grandmother was a really nice woman. My mom always said how much she loved you. You and Jax.”

  “I know what my dad did. Or tried to do.” He took another drink. “Where your mom was concerned. I didn’t know back then, but—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “It was a long time ago.”

  “If my grandmother knew, she would never have let your mom quit.”

  “That’s why my mother never said anything to Ernestine.”

  “Instead, she told you?”

  “She didn’t have to. I used to dust under the foyer table, remember? Not very noticeable to someone who isn’t looking.”

  He absorbed that and swore softly. “Another reason to apologize.”

  “You’re not responsible for what your father did.” She sighed faintly. “I didn’t even really understand what was happening until later when my mom explained why we weren’t coming here so regularly anymore. I don’t think your dad ever actually touched her. He just made it too uncomfortable for her with his comments.”

  “You started coming around again later with Jax.”

  And by then, Linc had gone away to college. But getting into that period of history was probably not the most sensible thing to do. They’d hashed it over enough, but the results were still the same.

  So she changed the subject entirely. “How’d you meet your wife?”

  She felt him go still. “Dana?”

  “Have you already gotten yourself another one?”

  “Ex-wife.” His voice sounded clipped. “College.”

  That was what she’d figured. “Love at first sight?”

  He lifted his drink again. She could tell his glass was nearly empty just from the sound of the ice. “More like sex at first sight.”

  She was hardly a prude, but her cheeks turned hot. She pressed one against Layla’s head. That’s what she got for asking such a question. Being aggravated by the answer was her bad luck. “Sixty-two percent of relationships that start out as sex end up failing.”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “Entirely.”

  He let out a short breath. Not a laugh. But more amused than not. “I didn’t know your name was really Maude.”

  It was lobbed from the same left field as her question about his wife. Ex-wife.

  “Yes, well, I don’t much care for it. It is my legal name. I use it when I need to, but otherwise...” She shrugged. “All my friends know me as Maddie. Greer’s got a great name. Ali is really Alicia. Perfectly good name, too.”

  “Ali fits her better. And you do seem more like a Maddie than a Maude, too.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment. Our parents named us after some old relatives.”

  “And Archer?”

  “Family name, too. On my dad’s side. Archer and Hayley had a different mom. She died when they were little. Then my dad met Meredith, who already had Rosalind.”

  “Another sister? I don’t remember—”

  “She grew up in Cheyenne with her father. It was not an easy divorce between my mom and Rosalind’s dad. We only got to see her for holidays and a week during summers. She’s a lawyer too, though.”

  “Three lawyers, a cop and a social worker.”

  “And a psychologist,” she reminded. “Don’t forget Hayley. I studied psychology, too. Just didn’t take it in quite the same direction as she did.” Maddie realized that Layla had sucked the bottle dry, so she gently tugged it away. Then she stuffed it in the loose side pocket of her flannel pajama pants and unzipped the fabric carrier to slip Layla out of it.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I learned the hard way about her burping in this thing.” She lifted the baby to her shoulder and firmly patted her back. “Also learned how nicely the carrier turns out after a spin in your washing machine, though.” She didn’t need to see his face to imagine the grimace he was probably making. “This was a really good purchase,” she told him.

  “Terry picked it out.”

  “Ah.” She smiled faintly. “I wondered if you’d just opened a website and clicked a buy button or something.” Layla burped loudly. “Hurray, sweet pea. And no spit-up. Double hurray.”

  “She’s throwing up?”

  “Spitting up,” Maddie corrected. “She’s not sick. Just getting air with the formula and developing her digestive system. It’s normal.” She watched him from the corner of her eye. “Would you like to put her back down? She might not sleep as long as I keep hoping, but she does at least fall right back to sleep after her night bottles.”

  She held her breath when he actually hesitated.

  But then he swirled the ice in his glass and took a step away. “She’s used to you.”

  She exhaled. “Linc, she won’t get used to you unless you give her an opportunity. She’s had her poopsplosion for the day and she’s not spitting up. You’ve managed to avoid holding her except for a few occasions. What’s the problem?”

  “There’s no problem.”

  Layla sighed hugely and curled against Maddie’s chest. And oh, how she wishe
d that Linc could experience just how wonderful it felt.

  “Does it have something to do with the baby Dana had?”

  He didn’t answer for a moment. “She didn’t have it.”

  She sighed. “I was afraid it was something like that. You know, sweetie, miscarriages are—”

  “She had an abortion. By choice. Her choice.”

  Maddie’s words stopped up in her throat. It wasn’t that she was opposed to abortion per se. In fact, she considered herself to be squarely in the pro choice camp. As long as that choice was a responsible one. But Dana had been his wife. “I’m sorry,” she finally managed.

  “It wasn’t my child,” he said bluntly. “And you don’t have to make some big deal about that being why I don’t hold Layla.”

  There were some who thought the history between her parents was a little scandalous. But Meredith and Carter’s affair that ultimately produced Maddie and her sisters was nothing in comparison to the stories that just kept coming where Linc’s family was concerned.

  “Did you know all along that the baby wasn’t yours?”

  He turned and plunked the glass down on a side table. She thought he wasn’t going to answer, particularly when he moved away from the window and headed across the room toward the staircase. “No.”

  She winced.

  And he expected her to believe that his behavior now was unrelated?

  She deftly zipped Layla back into the pack—facing toward her this time—and pulled the bottle out of her pocket to leave next to his abandoned glass.

  Then she followed him, going up the stairs as quickly as she could without jiggling Layla too much. “When did you find out?”

  He stopped on the landing and it was a miracle that she didn’t bump right into him because of the dark. “I knew it was a mistake to tell you.”

  “Linc—”

  “I found out the baby wasn’t mine when I told my brother that Dana was pregnant.”

  She inhaled sharply. “Jax was the baby’s father?”

  He let out a short, unamused laugh. “That’s the irony. When he learned there was going to be a baby, he admitted they’d been sleeping together.”