his office door burst open and Madelyn Gentry stormed in. She sighed heavily and marched over to Ty. “Really, you guys. What’s going on?” she asked as she took the baby fromTy’s arms. Without waiting for an answer, she strode to the diaper bags and began rummaging around. “Even through the closed door I could hear this poor child screaming. Were you beating her in here?”
Not at all happy to have a PR guru in the room to witness this disaster, Ty watched Madelyn retrieve a bottle. He knew very well that once she told the story of a lawyer bringing Ty a baby, everyone would assume Sabrina was his illegitimate child. He normally didn’t care about rumors, but he also wasn’t so stupid as to let one start three weeks before a reporter from the Wall Street Journal arrived. Particularly since he could so easily stop it.
“My cousin and his wife died. I got custody of their baby.”
“Just like this?” As Sabrina continued screaming, Madelyn arranged her across her arm to feed her and faced Pete. “Without a word of warning, you’re dumping this poor baby in his lap?”
“I’m perfectly capable of hiring a nanny,” Ty shouted, doing the further damage control of nipping any potential tale of his incompetence in the bud, but his voice echoed around him because Sabrina had stopped crying. Madelyn was leaning against his desk, feeding a bottle to the little girl, who gulped greedily as if she were starving.
Pete laughed and turned to Ty. “You’ll be fine,” he said, shaking Ty’s hand as if to finalize the deal. “Nice seeing you!” he said, as he and Renee hurried out of Ty’s office.
Ty glanced at the fired public relations gal. Even though he didn’t want to be wowed by her ability to get the baby to quiet down, he had to admit he was. But he was more impressed that she’d come in to help after he’d fired her. Of course, she could have been looking for leverage to get her job back. Ty almost slapped his forehead at his stupidity. Of course, she only came in to get her job back.
He took the suckling baby from Madelyn’s arms, careful not to knock the bottle from the infant’s mouth. “I believe I just fired you.”
Madelyn glanced at the baby and then back at him. Her pretty green eyes were full of confusion, but also concern. “You’re going to care for this child by yourself?”
“Like I said. I’m perfectly capable of hiring a nanny.”
Madelyn studied him for a few seconds and the curiosity left her expression. Her demeanor became professional and she pushed away from his desk. “Yes, you are. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“Of course I’ll be fine!” Ty snapped. The fact that she felt entitled to an opinion really rubbed Ty the wrong way. This was why he kept his private life private. He didn’t like answering to anybody.
Before Ty could say anything further, Madelyn Gentry began striding to the door. Almost simultaneously, Sabrina peered up at him and stiffened in his arms. Ty felt the storm brewing even before the baby spit the bottle out of her mouth and screamed.
He panicked. He might be able to hire a nanny eventually, but he didn’t have one now and the only help within a hundred yards was walking out the door.
“Wait!”
Madelyn laughed. “No. You don’t want me here. Call a relative or a girlfriend.”
“Shhh-shhh-shhh,” Ty whispered, patting Sabrina’s back as he inexpertly cuddled her to him. Apparently unimpressed that he let her slobber on his thousand-dollar suit, Sabrina cried all the louder. “With Scotty gone, my brothers are the only blood relatives I have aside from this baby.” Sadness rippled through him at the realization that his only cousin was now gone, but he didn’t let that show on his face or in his voice as he continued. “And you heard my secretary say she was leaving for the day. She’s not even going home. She’s taking her kids to the dentist. I couldn’t find her if I wanted to.”
Madelyn stopped walking and faced him. “No girlfriend?”
He wanted to tell her that was none of her business, but with Sabrina screaming on his shoulder, he only shook his head.
Madelyn sighed, then strode over to Ty. “I should have known no woman would have you.” She took the sobbing baby and bottle from Ty.
“I’m single by choice.”
“Whatever.”
Madelyn arranged Sabrina across her arm, slid the bottle into her mouth again, and resumed her position of leaning against Ty’s desk. “Poor baby,” she murmured, soothing the child, but irritating the hell out of Ty.
“Poor baby? This kid will have her own personal nanny, whose full-time job will be to cater to her every wish and whim.”
“Maybe. But you don’t have a nanny now and Sabrina is stuck with you tonight.”
Ty scowled. Damn it! She was right. A competent nanny couldn’t be brought in on a moment’s notice, not without investigating his or her background. Which meant he was going to be alone with this baby tonight. And he didn’t have a clue of how to keep Sabrina from crying, let alone how to care for her.
But Madelyn Gentry really seemed to know what she was doing.
“So what makes you such an expert about kids?”
“I have three brothers and sisters and eight nieces and nephews,” Madelyn said, aware that her ex-boss was up to something because his voice had shifted from rude to curious. “I’ve fed a bottle or two in my day.”
“Yeah, well, I raised two brothers, but Cooper was eighteen and Seth was fifteen when I took over. Until just now, I’d never even held a baby.” He paused and glanced at Madelyn. Sounding uncharacteristically vulnerable, he said, “I don’t think they like me.”
Madelyn couldn’t argue that. She knew firsthand that most adults didn’t like him. Why should a baby be any different? Still, she didn’t trust the sudden spurt of honesty. His vulnerable act could very well be a trick to get her sympathy. She cautiously said, “I take it you haven’t had much contact with this child before.”
“No. And even if Seth wasn’t out of town for the weekend, he wouldn’t be any better with her than I am. He’s only cooed at her when Scotty brought her to visit.”
“Great.”
Ty drew a quick breath. “Do you think it’s going to be hard to find a nanny?”
Oh, so that was it. He was making himself look vulnerable because he needed assistance finding a nanny. Well, sorry. He was out of luck.
“I don’t know. I lived in Atlanta for two of the past three years. Any contacts I made there are too far away.” Madelyn snuggled the baby closer and Sabrina’s sucking slowed, an indication that she was drifting off to sleep. “So I’m afraid I’m not much help.”
“Actually, you look like lots of help.”
Their eyes met and Madelyn read Ty Bryant’s intentions as clearly as if he had spoken the words. He didn’t want assistance finding a nanny. He wanted her to be the nanny!
Though careful not to jar the baby, she bounced away from his desk. “Oh, no. No. No. No. I am not a nanny.”
“You
