planning presents and a belated baby shower.
He walked out of his office building into the sun and through the garden beds, on his way up to the house. Jenna would want to know that his parents were planning to visit as soon as they’d landed and been home to drop their bags and freshen up. He could have rung up to the house, but he was happy for the excuse to see his daughter.
As he walked across the back patio and neared the door, he could hear Jenna’s clear, sweet voice; she was singing in her own language. When he reached the doorway, he could see her in the living room, sitting on the floor in front of both babies, who were propped up on the sofa, so their faces were all at the same height. And she was singing something enchanting.
Jenna glanced up, paused in her song and smiled. “Hello, Liam. There’s a little girl over here who will be delighted to see you.”
Unable to resist either his daughter or her nanny—despite his promise to himself only two days earlier—he ambled over to the little group, picked Bonnie up and sat on the sofa with her on his lap. He’d done so well for those two days, keeping things professional with Jenna—though part of him had suspected he was only fooling himself, and any semblance of control would snap with one little crook of her finger. Still, another part of him clung to the belief that he was one hundred percent in control.
Jenna followed his lead, sitting beside him on the couch with Meg in her lap.
“Well, we’re lucky, aren’t we, girls?” she said, her voice playful. “A visit from Bonnie’s dad during the day.”
“Don’t let me interrupt what you were doing with them,” he said, putting his fingers out for Bonnie to grab with her little fists. “I only dropped by to tell you that my parents will be coming by tomorrow to visit.”
Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I thought they were in Europe.”
“They have been. It’s taken me a while to track them down because they’ve been moving around so much, but they’re coming home early to meet their first grandchild.” He’d told them he didn’t mind if they wanted to finish their trip, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They could visit Europe again, they said, but only see Bonnie at this age once.
“Oh, that’s lovely.” Jenna smiled broadly. “And you weren’t interrupting—I was just singing them a lullaby from Larsland.”
Something deep inside him wanted to hear her sing again...whether he was happy about that or not. He’d been charmed by her Scandinavian accent from the start, but hearing her sing had now taken his fascination with her voice to another level.
“Don’t mind me,” he said as mildly as he could. “Feel free to do whatever you’d be doing with them if I weren’t here.”
“All right then.” She looked from Bonnie to Meg. “Where were we?”
As Jenna crooned the lullaby again, the babies stilled, transfixed. And Liam was just as affected. She smiled softly as she sang, looking at each girl in turn. And when she finished, she kissed each baby on the cheek.
“That was beautiful,” he said once he could get his voice to work again.
She turned her bright smile—as dazzling as spring’s first blossom—to him. “They like to hear singing, especially if it’s our voices. You should try it.”
He shifted in his seat. Her expression was so earnest that he hated to disappoint. “I don’t know any lullabies. Well, I know fragments, but I can’t say I remember any the whole way through.”
She tickled Meg’s sides, eliciting a giggle. “I’d sing one with you,” she said, “but I only know them in my own language and that might be a bit hard for you to sing along with.”
He tried not to seem thrilled that he couldn’t be expected to sing. “You just go ahead on your own, then, and I’ll listen.”
“Bonnie would adore hearing you sing her something.” Jenna tucked some of her silky blond hair behind her ear. “What about a song instead? How about ‘California Girls’? No, something simple to start with. Do you know ‘Edelweiss’?”
He nodded, resigned. “My childhood was filled with my mother watching musicals, so I could probably manage that one.”
“What do you say, girls?” Jenna asked, tickling a baby with each hand. “Shall we give it a go?”
Jenna’s hand brushed his thigh and his heart skipped a beat, but no one else seemed to notice. Meg squealed her delight and Bonnie’s little legs started pumping.
“I think that’s a yes,” Jenna said.
She began the song, and after a few words, Liam joined in, uncomfortable at first, but once they reached the chorus he became more confident with the melody. Jenna moved into a harmony and his eyes strayed from Bonnie to her nanny. He’d never sung in front of anyone before, let alone in a duet, but it felt natural and...strangely, good with Jenna.
Her face shone and her angelic voice wrapped around him, lulling him into a magical place where anything was possible. She smiled when their last note faded away, so obviously enjoying having sung together that he closed the few inches separating them and kissed her.
At first, she didn’t kiss him back, but she didn’t pull away either, just let herself be kissed, and he was more than happy to oblige. Her lips were sweet, sensual, but not enough. He’d never get enough
Meg squealed in glee and they both froze, then quickly broke apart.
As he tried to regain his mind, Jenna blinked, then a fleeting frown marred her forehead and she turned to Meg and Bonnie.
“Did you know he could sing like that?” she asked them in a breathless voice. “We’ll have to encourage him to sing more often, won’t we, girls?”
It took him a bewildered moment to realize she was going to ignore the fact that they’d kissed. He should have been pleased that she wasn’t making a big deal out of it, but, for some reason, he wanted her to make a big deal, to be more affected. As affected as he was.
He drew in a breath, trying to get some oxygen to his brain. “I’m not so sure—”
“Bonnie loved it,” she said, smoothly cutting him off. “While I’m thinking of it, you should take some photos of Bonnie soon too. You take such gorgeous, professional shots and you should capture this age. She’ll grow up quickly.”
“What do you mean by professional shots?” he asked, trying to catch up on the conversation. “I can take some snapshots of her.”
“If you use the camera you use in your work, you could get some lovely portraits. We could hang one or two on the wall in here.” She swept an arm, taking in the pale walls of his living room.
He shook his head. As a diversionary topic that she’d pulled out of thin air, it wasn’t bad, but he needed to set her straight. “I don’t have any experience in photographing people, but feel free to call a professional out, and make sure you get some of Meg for yourself, too.”
“Liam, those photos on the bedroom walls aren’t just snapshots. The lighting, the angles you’ve chosen, the whole package—they’re good. Really good. You might see yourself as a scientist,
