to the point of ridiculous. I never understood why your work and your event wins were just never enough for you. Nobody’s perfect, Bree. But if a human could be, you would be.” Which was the truth, and just one of the reasons he hadn’t yet figured out how to make his life work without her.
“You must think I have your laundry done and a nice hot dinner in the oven, too, then, after caring for Will all afternoon. Your definition of perfection, right?” Her voice was suddenly tight and sarcastic, and he hated to hear it.
“Come on, Bree.” Was she really going to dredge all that up again? “That was your twisted version of what I said I wanted. Wanting kids doesn’t mean I expect my wife to stay home and wait on me. I know your work is important to you. That surfing and competing is important, too. Didn’t I show you I believe a couple should be a team in everything? Including child care and house stuff? I don’t want to hear again what a—”
Her cool fingers pressed against his lips as she grimaced. “I’m sorry. Really. I don’t know where that came from—just bubbled up from being around you again, I guess. It’s history, over and done with, and there’s no point in talking about it.” The smile on her face was forced, but it was better than the disdain that had been there a few seconds ago. “How about we sit down and go over our work schedules for the next couple days and figure out a plan?”
“Good idea.” He sucked in a breath. Apparently he wasn’t the only one feeling unwelcome emotions about their past. Too many different kinds, and he focused on tamping them down as he turned to the small desk in his kitchen to grab a piece of paper and pen to give her. “Have a seat at the table and write yours down while I make some coffee.”
“All the coffee you drink is going to give you an ulcer one of these days. Though I’m not going to nag you about it, since I bet you need even more than usual with all that’s gone on. Of course, I don’t have a right to nag you anyway. I mean, I guess I never did, but—” She stopped and shook her head, sucking in a breath that had his attention shifting to the outline of her bra. The contour of her breasts in the thin white T-shirt she wore, and the memories of exactly how she looked under that fabric, had him sucking in a deep breath of his own. “Anyway. How is Emma? I feel bad that I was so worried about Will I forgot to ask.”
The rueful apology and slight embarrassment in her eyes had him nearly reaching to cup her cheek in his hand, and he shoved his hands into his scrub pockets. How she managed to infuriate him, turn him on, then soften his heart in a span of sixty seconds, he had no idea, but he had to somehow steel himself against all of it. “She’s still critical, but stable. Everyone is cautiously optimistic that she can be taken off the vent soon.”
Making the coffee was a welcome distraction. He sent up a prayer about his sister’s recovery, and a second one along with it. Asking for his mother to get here soon, before he ended up doing something he’d regret. Like shouting at Bree about her unbelievable attitudes, or kissing her until they were both senseless the way he had on the hospital roof, or both.
“Cream and sugar with a little coffee,” he said as he pulled a mug from the cupboard, “though I still don’t get the point of drinking it that way.”
“It’s dessert with a little caffeine. Which is normal, though a guy who’s still trying to figure out a way to inject coffee straight into his veins wouldn’t understand that.”
She glanced up at him with a cute smile, then quickly down as he set her coffee in front of her on the table, making sure it wasn’t too close to the shimmer of hair covering half her face as she scribbled on the paper. Out of old habit, he nearly reached to tuck it behind her ear until he saw the stiffness of her shoulders, the wary look in her eyes as she glanced at him again with a deep crease between her brows.
Reminding him again—as if he should need any reminding—that things weren’t like they used to be. That they never would be. Which was okay. It was.
And if he said it often enough, maybe he’d eventually believe it.
He sat a safe distance across from her and concentrated on pulling up his schedule on his phone. “You already know I’m on call. Is it possible for you to stay here tonight, in case I have to go in? I know it’s a lot to ask of you. But I’m off tomorrow, starting in the morning.”
“That’ll work out, since I have to leave here at seven a.m.”
It struck him that she’d be in bed in his house, without him in it with her, and had a bad feeling that would result in a long, torturous night without enough sleep. He tried to distract himself from picturing her all warm and soft in his guest bed by writing down his work hours, until his nephew’s lungs and vocal cords went into action again. He and Bree lifted their heads at the exact same time, and something about the way they both froze at the sound, their eyes widening, seemed to strike them both as funny.
Bree laughed softly and shook her head. “Pretty pathetic that two educated adults are scared of a tiny infant. Babies have been showing up in people’s lives for millennia. We can handle this.”
“This from the woman who was about at her wit’s end not long ago, doing the Watusi in my kitchen to try to quiet him.”
“It wasn’t the Watusi. It was the hula with maybe a little Macarena thrown in.”
How he’d missed those amused, twinkling green eyes. Before he could get lost in them all over again, he shoved his chair back to check on Will and see what he could be upset about now. “I’ll be back.”
“I’ll come with you. I need to learn what to do with him.”
“First day of Baby Care 101 for both of us. Problem is, the professor’s absent.”
Will’s tiny arms and legs were jerking around as Sean reached to pick him up. “Did you change his diaper?”
“Yes, but probably an hour ago. I fed him, too, though he spit some up. I don’t suppose the baby store, or the nurses in NICU, gave you a baby manual?”
He glanced at her, and swore she looked serious. “Baby manual? If there is such a thing, I want it. But I have a bad feeling that, right now, we’re on our own.” Her crestfallen expression made him grin in spite of everything. “I guess we’ll try those two things again, then take him outside if they don’t work.”
“Sounds like as good a plan as any I came up with,” she said with that rueful twist of her lips back in place.
“We’re both playing this by ear, Ms. Perfection, so stop expecting us to do this right until we learn how.”
“Your mom will be back before I’m even close to learning how.”
Probably true. And the sooner she got here, the better, with this strange awkwardness between him and Bree, bantering like old times one minute, then stiffening up, reminded of the bad way things had ended and how they didn’t much like each other anymore.
Or something like that.
He heaved a sigh, then laid Will on the changing table he’d bought, thankful he’d pretty much quit crying, for the moment at least. Maybe he’d just wanted attention. The baby gazed up at him, and his little round face made Sean smile, in spite of everything.
“Seems a little pointless to put clothes on newborns,” Bree said, tipping her head as she studied Will. “I mean, why not just keep them wrapped in a blanket or something? He’s kind of a little blob at the moment, with his
