Baby Talk and Wedding Bells

He focused on Cassie, eager to get the class started and finished.

What he learned during the thirty-minute session was that the librarian had a lot more patience than he did. Even when there were babies crying, she continued to read or sing in the same soothing tone. About halfway through the session, she took a bin of plastic instruments out of the cupboard and passed it around so the babies could jingle bells or pound on drums or bang sticks together. Of course, the kids had a lot more enthusiasm than talent—his daughter included—and by the time they were finished, Braden could feel a headache brewing.

“That was a great effort today,” Cassie told them, and he breathed a grateful sigh of relief that they were done. “I’ll see you all next week, and please don’t forget the Book & Bake Sale on the fifteenth—any and all donations of gently used books are appreciated.”

Despite the class being dismissed, none of the moms seemed to be in a hurry to leave, instead continuing to chat with one another about feeding schedules and diaper rashes and teething woes. Braden just wanted to be gone but Saige had somehow managed to pull off her shoes, forcing him to stay put long enough to untie the laces, put the shoes back on her feet and tie them up again.

While he was preoccupied with this task, the woman who had been seated on his left shifted closer. “I’m Heather Turcotte. And this—” she jiggled the baby in her lap “—is Katie.”

“Braden Garrett,” he told her, confident that she already knew his daughter.

“You’re a brave man to subject yourself to a baby class full of women,” she said, then smiled at him.

“I’m only here today because my mom had an appointment.”

“That’s too bad. It would be nice to have another single parent in the group,” she told him. “Most of these women don’t have a clue how hard it is to raise a child on their own. Of course, I didn’t know, either, until I had Katie. All through my pregnancy, I was so certain that I could handle this. But the idea of a baby is a lot different than the reality.”

“That’s true,” he agreed, only half listening to her as he worked Saige’s shoes back onto her feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cassie talking to one of the other moms and cleaning the instruments with antibacterial wipes, which made him feel a little bit better about the bells that his daughter had been chewing on.

“Of course, it helps that I have a flexible schedule at work,” Heather was saying. “As I’m sure you do, considering that your name is on the company letterhead.”

“There are benefits to working for a family business,” he agreed.

Cassie waved goodbye to the other woman and her baby, then carried the bin of instruments to the cupboard.

“Such as being able to take a little extra time to grab a cup of coffee now?” Heather suggested hopefully.

He forced his attention back to her, inwardly wincing at the hopeful expression on her face. “Sorry, I really do need to get to the office.”

She pouted, much like his daughter did when she didn’t get what she wanted, but the look wasn’t nearly as cute on a grown woman who had a daughter of her own.

“Well, maybe we could get the kids together sometime. A playdate for the little ones—” she winked “—and the grown-ups.”

“I appreciate the invitation, but my time is really limited these days.”

“Oh. Okay.” She forced a smile, but he could tell that she was disappointed. “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me on Tuesday mornings.”

“Yes, I do,” he confirmed.

Somehow, while he’d been putting on her shoes, Saige had found his phone and was using it as a chew toy. With a sigh, he pried it from her fingers and wiped it on his trousers. “Are you cutting more teeth, sweetie?”

Her only answer was to shove her fist into her mouth.

He picked her up and she dropped her head onto his shoulder, apparently ready for her nap. He bent his knees carefully to reach the daisy pillow and carried it to the librarian. “Thanks for the loan.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. Then, “I wanted to ask about your mother earlier, but I didn’t want you to think I was being nosy.”

“What did you want to ask?”

“In the past six months, Ellen hasn’t missed a single class—I just wondered if she was okay.”

“Oh. Yes, she’s fine. At least, I think so,” he told her. “She chipped a tooth at breakfast and had an emergency appointment at the dentist.”

“Well, please tell her that I hope she’s feeling better and I’m looking forward to seeing her on Thursday.”

“Is that your way of saying that you don’t want to see me on Thursday?” he teased.

“This is a public library, Mr. Garrett,” she pointed out. “You’re welcome any time the doors are open.”

“And will I find you here if I come back?” he wondered.

“Most days,” she confirmed.

“So this is your real job—you don’t work anywhere else?”

Her brows lifted at that. “Yes, this is my real job,” she said, her tone cooler now by several degrees.

And despite having turned down Heather’s offer of coffee only a few minutes earlier, he found the prospect of enjoying a hot beverage with this woman an incredibly appealing one. “Can you sneak away for a cup of coffee?”

She seemed surprised by the invitation—and maybe a little tempted—but after a brief hesitation, she shook her head. “No, I can’t. I’m working, Mr. Garrett.”

“I know,” he said, and offered her what he’d been told was a charming smile. “But the class is finished and I’m sure that whatever else you have to do can wait for half an hour or so while we go across the street to the café.”

“Obviously you think that ‘whatever else’ I have to do is pretty insignificant,” she noted, her tone downright frosty now.

“I didn’t mean to offend you, Miss MacKinnon,” he said, because it was obvious that he’d done so.

“I may not be the CEO of a national corporation, but the work I do matters to the people who come here.” She moved toward the door where she hit a switch on the wall to turn off the overhead lights—a clear sign that it was time for him to leave.

He stepped out of the room, and she closed and locked the door. “Have a good day, Mr. Garrett.”

“I will,” he said. “But I need one more thing before I go.”

“What’s that?” she asked warily.

“A library card.”

* * *

Cassie stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was joking. “You want a library card?”

“I assume I need one to borrow books,” Braden said matter-of-factly.

“You do,” she confirmed, still wondering about his angle—because she was certain that he had one.

“So where do I get a card?” he prompted, sounding sincere in his request.

But how could she know for sure? If her recent experience with the male species had taught her nothing else, she’d at least learned that she wasn’t a good judge of their intentions or motivations.

“Follow me,” she said.

He did, and with each step, she was conscious of him beside her—not just his presence but his masculinity. The library wasn’t a female domain. A lot of males came through the doors every day—mostly boys, a few teens and some older men. Rarely did she cross paths with a male in the twenty-five to forty-four age bracket. Never had she crossed paths with anyone like Braden Garrett.

He was the type of man who made heads turn and hearts flutter and made women think all kinds of naughty thoughts. And his nearness now made her skin feel hot and tight, tingly in a way that made her uneasy. Cassie didn’t want to feel tingly, she didn’t want to think about how long it had been since she’d been attracted, on a purely physical level, to a man, and she definitely didn’t want to be attracted to this man now.

Aside from the fact that he was a Garrett and, therefore, way out of her league, she had no intention of wasting a single minute of her time with a man who didn’t value who she was. Not again. Thankfully, his disparaging remark about her job was an effective antidote to his good looks and easy charm.

Taking a seat at the computer, she logged in to create a new account. He took his driver’s license out of his wallet so that she could input the necessary data. She noted that his middle name was Michael, his thirty-ninth birthday was coming up and he lived in one of the most exclusive parts of town.

“What kind of books do you like to read?” she inquired, as she would of any other newcomer to the library.

“Mostly historical fiction and nonfiction, some action-thriller type stories.”

“Like Bernard Cornwell, Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler?”

He nodded. “And John Jakes and Diana Gabaldon.”

She looked up from the computer screen. “You read Diana Gabaldon?”

“Sure,” he said, not the least bit self-conscious about the admission. “My cousin, Tristyn, left a copy of Outlander at my place on Ocracoke and I got hooked.”

For a moment while they’d been chatting about favorite authors, she’d almost let herself believe he was a normal person—just a handsome single dad hanging out at the library with his daughter. But the revelation that he not only lived in Forrest Hill but had another house on an island in the Outer Banks immediately dispelled that notion.

“My brothers tease me about reading romance,” he continued, oblivious to her thought process, “but there’s a lot more to her books than that.”

“There’s a lot more to most romance novels than many people believe,” she told him.

“What do you like to read?” he asked her.

“Anything and everything,” she said. “I have favorite authors, of course, but I try to read across the whole spectrum in order to be able to make recommendations to our patrons.” She set his newly printed library card on the counter along with a pen for him to sign it.

He did, then tucked the new card and his identification back into his wallet. By this time, Saige had lost the battle to keep her eyes open, and the image of that sweet little girl sleeping in his arms tugged at something inside of her.

“Congratulations,” she said, ignoring the unwelcome tug. “You are now an official card-carrying member of the Charisma Public Library.”

“Thank you.” He picked up one of the flyers advertising the Book & Bake Sale along with a monthly schedule of classes and activities, then slid both into the side pocket of Saige’s diaper bag. “I guess that means I’ll be seeing you around.”

She nodded, but she didn’t really believe him. And as she watched him walk out the door, she assured herself that was for the best. Because the last thing she needed was to be crossing paths with a man who made her feel tingles she didn’t want to be feeling.

* * *

His daughter slept until Braden got her to the office. As soon as he tried to lay her down, Saige was wide-awake and wanting his attention. He dumped the toys from her diaper bag into the playpen—squishy blocks and finger puppets and board books—so that she could occupy herself while he worked. She decided to invent a new game: throw things at Daddy. Thankfully, she wasn’t strong enough to fling the books very far, but after several blocks bounced across the surface of his desk, he decided there was no point in hanging around the office when he obviously wasn’t going to get anything accomplished.

There were definite advantages to working in a family business, and since his baby wouldn’t be a baby forever, he decided to take the rest of the day off to spend with her. He took her to the indoor play center, where she could jump and climb and swing and burn off all of the energy she seemed to have in abundance. Then, when she was finally tired of all of that, he took her to “Aunt” Rachel’s shop—Buds & Blooms—to pick out some flowers, then to his parents’ house to see how Ellen had fared at the dentist.

“Ga-ma!” Saige said, flinging herself at her grandmother’s legs.

“I didn’t think I was going to get to see you today,” Ellen said, ruffling her granddaughter’s silky black hair. “And I was missing you.”

“I’m sure she missed you more,” Braden said, handing the bouquet to his mother. “She was not a happy camper at the office today.”

“Offices aren’t fun places for little ones.” Ellen brought the flowers closer to her nose and inhaled their fragrant scent. “These are beautiful—what’s the occasion?”

“No occasion—I just realized that I take for granted how much you do for me and Saige every day and wanted to show our appreciation,” he told her. “But now that I see the swelling of your jaw, I’m thinking they might be ‘get well’ flowers—what did the dentist do to you?”

“He extracted the tooth.”

“I thought it was only a chip.”

“So did I,” she admitted, lowering herself into a chair, which Saige interpreted as an invitation to crawl into her lap. “Apparently the chip caused a crack that went all the way down to the root, so they had to take it out.”

He winced instinctively.

“Now I have to decide whether I want a bridge or an implant.”

“And I’ll bet you’re wishing you had oatmeal instead of granola for breakfast,” he noted, filling a vase with water for her flowers.

“It will definitely be oatmeal tomorrow,” she said. “How was Baby Talk?”

“Fine,” he said, “aside from the fact that I was the only man in a room full of women, apparently all of whom know my life story.”

“They don’t know your whole life story,” his mother denied.

“How much do they know?”

“I might have mentioned that you’re a single father.”

“Might have mentioned?” he echoed suspiciously.

“Well, in a group of much younger women, it was immediately apparent that Saige isn’t my child. Someone—I think it was Annalise—asked if I looked after her while her mother was at work and I said no, that I looked after her while her dad’s at work because Saige doesn’t have a mother.”

“Hmm,” he said. He couldn’t fault his mother for answering the question, but he didn’t like the way she made him sound like some kind of “super dad” just because he was taking care of his daughter—especially when they both knew there was no way he’d be able to manage without Ellen’s help.

“And you’re not the only single parent with a child in the group,” she pointed out. “There are a couple of single moms there, too.”

“I met Heather,” he admitted.

“She’s a pretty girl. And a loving mother.”

“I’m not interested in a woman who’s obviously looking for a man to be a father to her child,” he warned.

“She told you that?”

“She gave me the ‘single parenthood is so much harder than most people realize’ speech.”

“Which you already know,” she pointed out.

He nodded again.

“So maybe you should think about finding a new mother for Saige,” she urged.

“Because the third time’s the charm?” he asked skeptically.

“Because a little girl needs a mother,” she said firmly. “And because you deserve to have someone in your life, too.”

“I have Saige,” he reminded her, as he always did when she started in on this particular topic. But this time the automatic response was followed by a picture of the pretty librarian forming in his mind.

“And no one doubts how much you love her,” Ellen acknowledged. “But if you do your job as a parent right—and I expect you will—she’s going to grow up and go off to live her own life one day, and then who will you have?”

“I think I’ve got a few years before I need to worry about that,” he pointed out. “And maybe by then, I’ll be ready to start dating again.”

His mother’s sigh was filled with resignation.

“By the way,” he said, in a desperate effort to shift the topic of conversation away from his blank social calendar, “Cassie said that she hopes you feel better soon.”

As soon as he mentioned the librarian’s name, a speculative gleam sparked in his mother’s eyes that warned his effort had been for naught.

“She’s such a sweet girl,” Ellen said. “Smart and beautiful, and so ideally suited for her job.”

Braden had intended to keep his mouth firmly shut, not wanting to be drawn into a discussion about Miss MacKinnon’s many attributes. But the last part of his mother’s statement piqued his curiosity. “She’s a librarian—what kind of qualifications does she need?”

His mother frowned her disapproval. “The janitor who scrubs the floors of a surgery is just as crucial as the doctor who performs the operation,” she reminded him.

“But she’s not a surgeon or a janitor,” he pointed out. “She’s a librarian.” And he didn’t think keeping a collection of books in order required any particular knowledge outside of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet.

“With a master’s degree in library studies.”

“I didn’t know there was such a discipline,” he acknowledged.

“Apparently there are a lot of things you don’t know,” she said pointedly.

He nodded an acknowledgment of the fact. “I guess, when I went into the library, I was expecting to find someone more like Miss Houlahan behind the desk.”

His mother chuckled. “Irene Houlahan’s been retired more than half a dozen years now.”

“I’m relieved to know she’s no longer terrifying young book borrowers.”

“She wasn’t terrifying,” Ellen chided. “You were only afraid of her because you lost a library book.”

“I didn’t lose it,” he denied. “I just couldn’t find it when it was due. And you made me pay the late fines out of my allowance.”

“Because you were the one who misplaced it,” she pointed out logically.

“That’s probably why I buy my books now—I’d rather pay for them up front and without guilt.”

Which didn’t begin to explain why he was now carrying a library card in his wallet—or his determination to put it to use in the near future.

Chapter Three

Cassie stood with her back against the counter as she lifted the last forkful of cheesy macaroni to her mouth.

“You might be surprised to hear that I like to cook,” she said to Westley and Buttercup. “I just don’t do it very often because it’s not worth the effort to prepare a whole meal for one person.”

Aside from the crunch of the two cats chowing down on their seafood medley, there was no response.

“Maybe I should get a dog,” she mused. “Dogs at least wag their tails when you talk to them.”

As usual, the two strays she’d rescued from a box in the library parking lot ignored her.

“Unfortunately, a dog would be a lot less tolerant of the occasional ten-hour shift at the library,” she noted.

That was one good thing about Westley and Buttercup—they didn’t really need her except when their food or water bowls were empty. And when she was away for several hours at a time, she didn’t worry because they had one another for company.

But she did worry that she was turning into a cliché—the lonely librarian with only her cats and her books to keep her company. Since Westley and Buttercup were more interested in their dinner than the woman who fed it to them, she put her bowl and spoon in the dishwasher, then went into the living room and turned her attention to the tightly packed shelves.

The books were her reliable companions and steadfast friends. She had other friends, of course—real people that she went to the movies with or met for the occasional cup of coffee. But most of her friends were married now, with husbands and children to care for. It wasn’t that Cassie didn’t want to fall in love, get married and have a family, but she was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. The few serious relationships she’d had in the past had all ended with her heart—if not broken—at least battered and bruised. When she’d met Joel Langdon three years earlier, she’d thought he was finally the one. Three months after he’d put a ring on her finger, she’d realized that her judgment was obviously faulty.

Thankfully, she was usually content with her own company. And when she wasn’t, she could curl up with Captain Brandon Birmingham or Dean Robillard or Roarke. But tonight, she reached out a hand and plucked a random book from the shelf. A smile curved her lips when she recognized the cover of a beloved Jennifer Crusie novel.

She made herself a cup of tea and settled into her favorite chair by the fireplace, happy to lose herself in the story and fall in love with Cal as Min did. But who wouldn’t love a man who appreciated her shoe collection, fed her doughnuts and didn’t want to change a single thing about her? All of that, and he was great in bed, too.

She sighed and set the book aside to return her empty mug to the kitchen. Of course Cal was perfect—he was fictional. And she wasn’t looking for perfect, anyway—she just wanted to meet a man who would appreciate her for who she was without trying to make her into someone different. He didn’t have to be mouthwateringly gorgeous or Rhodes Scholar smart, but he had to be kind to children and animals and have a good relationship with his family. And it would be a definite plus if she felt flutters in her tummy when he smiled at her.

As she pieced together the ideal qualities in her mind, a picture began to form—a picture that looked very much like Braden Garrett.

* * *

Braden planned to wait a week or so before he tried out his library card to avoid appearing too eager. He figured seven to ten days was a reasonable time frame, and then, if he saw Cassie again and had the same immediate and visceral reaction, he would consider his next move.

He’d been widowed for just over a year and married for six years prior to that, so it had been a long time since he’d made any moves. How much had the dating scene changed in those years? Were any of the moves the same? Was he ready to start dating again and risk jeopardizing the precious relationship he had with his daughter by bringing someone new into their lives?

Except that Cassie was already in Saige’s life—or at least on the periphery of it. And by all accounts, his little girl was enamored of the librarian. After only one brief meeting, he’d found himself aware of her appeal. Which was just one reason he’d decided to take a step back and give his suddenly reawakened hormones a chance to cool down.

But when he picked up his daughter’s clothes to dump them into the laundry basket, he found the red engine that she’d been reluctant to let go of at the train table earlier that day. He had a clear memory of prying the toy from her clenched fist and setting it back on the track, but apparently—maybe when he turned his back to retrieve her diaper bag—his daughter had picked it up again.

Wednesday morning he dropped Saige off at his parents’ house, then headed toward his office as usual. But, conscious of the little red engine in his pocket, he detoured toward the library on his way. He’d considered leaving the train with his mother so that she could return it, but the “borrowed” toy was the perfect excuse for him to see the pretty librarian again and he was going to take advantage of it.

For the first six months after Dana’s death, his mother hadn’t pushed him outside of his comfort zone. Ellen understood that he was grieving for his wife and adjusting to his role as a new—and now single—dad. But since Christmas, she’d started to hint that it was time for him to move on with his life and urged him to get out and meet new people. More recently, she’d made it clear that when she said “people” she meant “women.”

He knew she was motivated by concern—that she didn’t want him to be alone. But whenever he dared to remind her that he wasn’t alone because he had his daughter, she pointed out that Saige needed a mother. Saige deserved a mother. And that was a truth Braden could not dispute.

A real home with two parents.

He shook off the echo of those words and the guilt that weighed on his heart. He wasn’t interested in getting involved with anyone right now. He had neither the time nor the energy to invest in a romantic relationship.

Getting some action between the sheets, on the other hand, held some definite appeal. But he knew that if he was just looking for sex, he should not be looking at the local librarian. Especially not when the woman was obviously adored by both his mother and his daughter.