This Baby Business

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.

Balance. It was all about balance. She’d do it as mothers all over the country did. Like the readers of her blog did. Like her mother had.

“I can handle her. I’m great at time management.” Boy, the lies kept coming, didn’t they? Getting easier, too. “And also, Grace—and babies everywhere, in fact—happens to be a big part of my career. Because babies are my business.”

She did a chin lift on that one, as she’d noticed Jill do on a number of occasions when she wanted to make the point that she was hot shit.

Levi seemed to notice and maybe even appreciate the new confidence. His shoulders lowered, and he gave her another one of those slow, sexy smiles. “It would be a big help to me. I’m out of the air force recently. Originally from Texas.”

Hence the drawl. She pictured hot and humid plains, oil, ranches and cowboys. Levi didn’t look like a cowboy, even if he sort of sounded like one. And something told her that it was just a matter of time before Levi knew a lot of people in the area—mainly those of the female persuasion.

“I know a lot of people in Fortune,” Carly said. “I’m practically a fixture here. And I can try to find you the perfect babysitter.”

“A grandma type?”

“Sure, if that’s what you want.”

“I want someone who really likes kids. Someone who will stick around for a while. I don’t need a whole lot of help, except for when I’m at work. But maybe she needs a woman’s touch.”

When he threw another one of those protective glances at Grace, and this time rubbed his jaw against her little semibald head, Carly’s knees went weak. “Yes,” she managed to squeak out. “Good idea.”

“There’s another problem.” Levi shifted Grace in his arms. “I can’t pay you much right now. That seemed to be an issue for Annie.”

“No worries. Pay me what you can, when you can.” In fact, any money at all would be welcome.

Maybe she should pay him.

“Are there any grandparents nearby?” she asked conversationally and got herself a beer.

“No one nearby. My parents are out of the country right now, working with the World Health Organization.”

“Impressive. How long have they been doing that?”

“All my life, really, but there’s more time for it now that they’re retired.”

“If I can ask, how did you lose your wife?”

He cleared his throat. “You must mean Grace’s mother. Car accident. And we were never married.”

“Oh. I guess I...misunderstood.” Not a sad widower, then.

“No more than most people do. I guess I should wear a sign or something.”

She laughed and brought her hands together. Mentally cracked her knuckles. Maybe she’d asked enough questions, and it was time to move in for the pitch. “So here’s my offer to you. I’ll watch her for you during the week and a few nights, too, if you’d like.”

“Really?” His eyebrows went up on that one.

“Sure. Why not?” She set her beer down. “I just want most of the nights free so I can catch up on any work I can’t get done during the day. But maybe you want to go out sometime with the guys. Or your girlfriend.”

He smiled. “Are you sure? She’s kind of a...handful.”

“She’s adorable.” She threw what she hoped was a loving look in Grace’s direction. At least she seemed to be happier in her father’s arms. He didn’t even have to walk around the house and pace and jiggle to keep her quiet.

“What about your husband? Will he be cool with a baby around some of the time?”

She caught Levi staring at her lucky ring. Oh, damn. She’d nearly forgotten. She’d had the ring all through high school and design school and wore it as much as a week before a major test for the extra good juju. It wasn’t anything fancy, a simple gold ring that she liked rubbing and twisting around her finger like a worry stone. But these days it fit on only the ring finger of her left hand.

“I’m not married. This is just my lucky ring.” And lately, she needed the extra luck.

He set his half-finished beer on the counter. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we both take the weekend to think about it?”

Seriously? He didn’t want to jump on this opportunity to have the owner of RockYourBaby babysit his daughter? How had she failed to sell this to a desperate man?

You have to apply yourself, Carly. Try a little harder. I know you’re not stupid.

The words of every teacher she’d ever had growing up reverberated in her mind. This was a challenge, like RockYourBaby was a challenge. Like reading and writing had been for so many years when it felt like no one understood how hard she did try. All she had to do was work harder. Smarter. It might take her twice as long as someone else, but she’d get it done.

“Sure, sure. I understand. Why don’t you check out my website over the weekend and tell me what you think?”

“It’s a deal.” Levi smiled one last time, then he and Grace were out the door.

CHAPTER FIVE

THAT EVENING LEVI fed Grace dinner, cleaned up her mashed potatoes and high chair mess, bathed and powder-puffed her, dressed her in one of those so-called sleepers with a bazillion snaps, then laid her on a baby blanket in the living room. It was eight o’clock and he had no delusions Grace would be ready for bedtime, but at least she wasn’t wailing.

He took a seat on the floor near Grace and pulled out his laptop. He was about eighty percent sure he would take Carly up on her offer to babysit, because he had no other choice. She seemed determined to look after Grace until they could find someone else and it made sense. But this time he hadn’t wanted to jump as quickly, because he’d been in reactive mode since he arrived in Fortune. And frankly, he’d been a little too intrigued by Carly to just accept outright. More curious and drawn to her than felt comfortable despite her being single.

If she ever got it in her head that she wanted a date with him, it wouldn’t be as easy to turn her away. And it probably wasn’t a good idea to date his babysitter, anyway, whether under twenty or someone like Carly, who definitely appeared to be his age. While he couldn’t put his finger on what it was about her, she drew him in with those soulful hazel eyes. And they had something in common, too.

They were both desperate.

He did a Google search for Carly Gilmore and came up with a Facebook profile, mostly filled with photos of her with friends. She was linked to a business page and the RockYourBaby website. He clicked on the link and a busy website came up with the slogan The Place Where Babies Come First. A buddy of his had started a paddleboard business a while back, and Levi had firsthand knowledge of the cost of a professional-looking website. Carly’s looked like a top tier–priced website, and he noticed several popular baby product companies advertised prominently on the landing page. There were several photos of Pearl Gilmore, obviously the image behind the company. A grandma type if there ever was one, she had short salt-and-pepper hair, a wide and toothy smile, and a regal and distinguished air about her that said, “You can trust me with your baby.”

And he would trust this grandma type. Carly, he wasn’t so sure about. She had the baby company, so he didn’t understand why she’d take on Grace, too. He wanted to believe she was simply being kind and neighborly, but that didn’t ring true on some level. She wanted something from him.

There were a few photos of Carly on the website, and a clear indication that she had taken over in Pearl’s place. What would it feel like to be called a baby expert and have no children of your own? His guess was that she might feel like a bit of a fraud.

It takes one to know one.

He’d been the only child of parents who were overachievers and had instilled the same values in him. Study hard, work hard and give back. He’d spent summers at his grandfather’s ranch in Texas because Levi’s own parents didn’t seem to have time for him if it didn’t involve quizzing him on his studies. He’d had to make the honor roll every semester or suffer a long sermon about wasted opportunities. Pop’s ranch had been the only place Levi could be himself and unwind. Have fun for a change.

He’d gone straight to the Air Force Academy after high school and received his degree, going into the service as an officer. His good friends, his AF brothers, were the only ones who understood Levi Lambert could be impulsive at times. Wild. He’d carefully compartmentalized his life to be two people: the officer and the playboy. A bit of a cliché, but hey, he’d paid his dues.

Then Grace had come along. She had brought out the very best in him, but he’d had such a wild past that anyone who could see him now would be stunned. Spending nights alone with his daughter, looking forward to nothing more than a full night’s sleep. If he got lucky. There again, getting lucky had taken on a whole new meaning. It used to mean a night of uninhibited, balls-to-the-wall sex with a woman who didn’t want much in return other than a couple of orgasms. He could give her that but not a whole lot more. The whole love, marriage and kid thing had never been on the agenda.

Grace rolled over, squealed and kicked her legs out, reminding him that a kid was now on his agenda, like it or not. Then she went knees up and elbows out again and did her rocking thing. She squealed her delight at having managed to roll over to her back again, bringing an end of the blanket with her in her chubby little fist. The corner of the blanket was now in her mouth.

Levi pulled the blanket closer to him, taking the edge of it out of her mouth. He handed her a pair of plastic keys to chew on. He’d try keeping her up late tonight, then maybe she’d be too tired to wake up much during the night. Logically, it should work.

It was the way he liked to tackle any problem in his life. Logic always won over emotion, hands down. He’d been taught to never make knee-jerk decisions. Emotions tended to cloud good decision making. Contrary to what some of his friends believed, he hadn’t chosen to raise Grace out of emotion. Out of overwhelming love and devotion. No, that had come a little later. His had been a logical decision, based on responsibility and doing the right thing. Not abandoning his child, the way his parents had abandoned him. Sure, they’d done it for the greater good. But it had still left him feeling unwanted. Expendable. They could go ahead and save the world’s children. He would start with his child.

Of course, it was always better to make life-changing decisions on your own. He hadn’t had that luxury.

Still, Sandy’s parents clearly didn’t see Levi as a shining example of a father, saying they’d never even heard of him. At first they’d tried to claim that Grace’s father was Sandy’s boyfriend, a man who had died in the same car accident. But thankfully the birth certificate stated Levi Lambert as the father. The DNA test had confirmed it.

He assumed Frank and Irene were grieving, and he got that. He understood the grieving process. But he wasn’t the enemy. If they had been logical about it, he would have agreed that, of course, they could be involved in Grace’s life. Instead, they’d come out guns blazing and demanded that he give her back to them. Even tried to file a motion in family court to bar him from leaving the state of Georgia. Hadn’t worked. They continued to insist that Sandy had meant to leave them in charge, but she’d died suddenly and without a will. Frank, who loved to hurl insults via email, had once referred to him as “the sperm donor.”

Levi could take a lot of shit and not blink, but when they insulted him, they were insulting Grace’s father, too, so he got a little more sensitive. To his mind, how she’d been conceived was nobody’s business. The way he raised his daughter would be his business and his alone. He’d be there for her—present, not absent like his own parents had been, although the distance his parents had created wasn’t one he or anyone else could blame them for. They’d been concerned for the poverty-stricken people of the world, and Levi wasn’t one of them. As a child, he’d had the added weight of guilt for missing his parents. They were off saving the world. And him? At least he’d had his grandfather.

But something had gone right for him today when he’d knocked on Carly’s door. He’d found himself an expert. If nothing else, maybe her heart was in the right place. Not to mention her legs. Her ass. Okay, he was going to try not to notice that again.

She’d offered to babysit nights, which meant he could have a social life again.

He hadn’t seriously dated anyone in years. Grace had reformed him overnight, but the stiff boots still didn’t quite fit. He’d need to stretch them out, wear them in. Carly was just the kind of girl he never would have approached in the past. Nice girl. Good girl. Pretty and sweet, but wouldn’t want to get too dirty or anything.

* * *

LEVI WOKE WITH a start. The midafternoon Saturday sun slid through the cracked blinds of his bedroom, almost blinding him. It was official. Grace had turned him into a vampire. He’d fallen asleep with the baby monitor in his hands when he’d only meant to close his eyes for a second.

Since he was off the clock, he’d fallen asleep when Grace went down for her nap. And dreamed of sweet Carly, which made no sense when he could dream about a Playboy centerfold, Katy Perry or anyone else in his wild fantasy life. But the girl next door was kind of smoking hot up close. Unapologetically curvy, with legs that went on for a country mile. Sensual, full lips. He’d been dreaming about licking those kissable lips of hers and more. Much more.

The doorbell rang and Levi groaned, rolling out of bed. He rubbed his eyes and quickly looked in on Grace to see that she was still sleeping in her crib—it was daytime, after all, what else would she be doing—then went to open the front door.

Carly stood there smiling until her eyes locked in somewhere around his pecs. As if she could see right through him again. She wasn’t smiling any longer but seemed something more like transfixed. He checked to see if Grace had spit up on him again, and that was when he realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“Crap. Come on in.”

Levi dipped into his bedroom to grab a T-shirt and pulled it over his head, meeting Carly in the foyer. “Sorry about that. I fell asleep.”

A smile had become frozen on her face. “Am I interrupting...anything?”

It took him a minute, because sue him if he was beginning to forget what a sex life resembled. Lately when he took off his shirt in the middle of the day, it was because there was regurgitated baby food on it. But Carly had just reminded him of how much he missed sex. This was not helpful.

He rubbed his prickly chin. Hadn’t bothered to shave this morning, when the only girl he had to impress didn’t have any of her own teeth. “Nah, I was sleeping when Grace sleeps.”

Smile back full force. “That’s smart.”

“You doing okay?” He felt a smile coming on. She seemed so...enthusiastic.

“I could use some help if you have a little time. No worries if you don’t.”

“What’s up?”

“A manufacturer sent me a crib to review that’s supposed to be the easiest to assemble, and I thought I’d put it together and test that out.” Her hands were in the air, as if trying to reenact the process. “And then if you decide I can babysit her, she can take naps at my place, instead of in the car seat. But—”

“Too many moving parts?”

She sank her teeth into her lower lip. “The diagram makes no sense to me.”

“That’s okay. I put together Grace’s crib in a few minutes. It’s not a problem.” He went to his bedroom to grab the baby monitor handset, then followed Carly to her house.

Carly led him to the spare bedroom, where he set the handset on a nearby dresser. The room had a sewing machine in one corner, piles of fabric on the chair and a dummy wearing half a dress. In the middle of the room stood random parts to the crib. The rails, headboard, baseboard and screws and nuts were scattered all over the floor. A screwdriver lay near the diagram and instructions wrinkled enough to appear as though they’d been through someone’s fist. So it looked like she’d tried, really tried, to understand the instructions. Made him smile. She was winging it. In many ways, he could relate. Oh, hell, who was he kidding? Lately, in all ways.

And for someone who had gone through his life with a plan set in stone, sue him if he felt like the ground underneath him was constantly shifting these days. But this, assembling a crib, he could do. It was mechanical. The parts fit together and made sense. What’s more, they’d stay together after he was done.

He went to his knees and took a quick look at the instructions. Simple. But when he grabbed the screwdriver, Carly stopped him.

“You should teach me how. Let me do it.”

“Seriously?”

“Sure. I mean, if I’m going to rate how easy or how not easy it is to assemble for moms, I think I should be the one to do it.” Her amber eyes fixated on his, hand held out for the screwdriver. Waiting.

He handed it over after a beat. Reluctantly. It was her house and her crib. Next door, he had a tool kit with power tools, including a screwdriver. But hey, this could be a lot more fun.

He did, in fact, enjoy working side by side with her for the next few minutes and surely could be excused for taking a whiff of her hair when she leaned close to grab a screw. Smelled like coconut.

“Here,” he said, handing her another screw and nut. “You’ll need this next.”

She took it from him, her hand bumping into his briefly. Her skin was silky soft. Smooth. And all this talk of screws and nuts had made him as horny as a bear after a long damn winter. It had been a while since he’d felt this attracted to or this pulled in by any woman. But why did it have to be this woman?

After a few more minutes, Carly successfully attached one side rail—while he held it up for her—and smiled at him with such obvious pride that his heart pinched.