think you’re going about this all wrong.”
Didn’t this woman every stop flapping her gums? “And ‘this’ would be…?”
“The Christmas reunion.” She was beginning to think he was deliberately being difficult. “It’s supposed to be fun.”
“I’ll put on my happy face,” he promised her, sarcasm tingeing his words. And then he thought of something. They couldn’t just say they were engaged and expect the judge to believe them. He needed something to serve as outward proof that he was serious.
“Here, hold her for a minute.”
Not waiting for Greer to say anything, he thrust the baby toward her.
Surprised, Greer had no choice but to take the fussing baby into arms that were far more adept at holding on to stacks of tightly bound quarterly financial reports.
Then, to her further dismay, Rafe walked away from her.
“Where are you going?” she called after him. The baby squirmed in her arms.
“To get something” was all he said.
As Greer tried to hold on to Bethany without dropping her, her dismay deepened. This time it was a pint-size fiery womanette who was making her feel that she was decidedly out of her element. Large or small, the end result was the same.
With a sigh, Greer looked toward the room that Rafe had disappeared into. Now what?
Chapter 3
Once in his bedroom, it took Rafe only a few seconds to locate what he was looking for. The item was just where he’d left it, tucked in the back of the top drawer of the lone nightstand that stood by his bed. He’d never thought he’d have any use for it.
Taking it out, he rubbed his thumb over the top of the black velvet box. Strange the way some things worked out. When he’d won this from Albert Hackett that long weekend he, Albert and a couple of the other hands had played poker until dawn, he’d had every intention of going into town and selling it at the pawnshop the first chance he got. At the time, he’d had no more use for an engagement ring than Albert had. But he’d never gotten around to selling it and now, it looked as if that was a good thing. The ring was going to come in handy.
Closing the drawer, he walked back out into the living room and then stopped dead. If he’d ever seen anyone who looked more awkward than this woman as she tried to hold Bethany, he certainly couldn’t recall it. He didn’t think that even he’d been this ungainly the first time Lil had had him hold the baby. Weren’t women supposed to have some kind of a natural instinct when it came to babies? If so, someone must have forgotten to tell the Lawford woman that.
He shook his head as he crossed to Greer. It was a wonder she hadn’t dropped Bethany.
“You’re holding her like she was a sack of solidified sugar.” She looked as if his comment embarrassed her. That hadn’t been his intention and it chafed his conscience a little, which made him all the more short-tempered. “Haven’t you ever held a baby before?”
Greer turned toward him, relieved that he’d returned. Afraid of dropping Bethany, she’d begun to wonder if he was ever coming back. She had no idea that babies wiggled so much. The shrug was careless and self-conscious.
“No. It was never part of my job description.”
He held off taking Bethany for a minute, amused at the way Greer was holding the baby out to him, as if she were a wriggling snake that could at any moment turn and bite her. “Only child?” he guessed.
Something within her darkened. She wasn’t here to discuss her background, or the lack of it.
“Something like that.” Why was he just looking at her? Why wasn’t he taking the baby? “Would you like to take your daughter-to-be back?”
“Sure, I’ll trade you.”
It was then that she saw he was holding a small black velvet box in his hand. The kind rings were found in. But that was silly. It seemed odd that Rafe had an engagement ring just lying around. It wasn’t as if it was a spare tire or an extra pair of jeans to be kept around in case of emergencies. The kind of rings that were housed in velvet boxes were expensive.
“All right.” Gingerly, she began to negotiate the transfer. Just then, Bethany grabbed a strand of her hair and wound her fingers around it tightly. As the baby pulled hard, tears of pain sprang to Greer’s eyes. “Ow!”
“Hold it,” he warned. “I think we’ve got a snag here.”
Think? “What was your first clue?” Greer all but yelped.
Rafe laughed under his breath in response. Holding Bethany in the crook of his arm, the velvet box in the same hand, he used his free one to extricate Greer’s hair from Bethany’s grasp. For a baby, Bethany had a pretty strong grip. Like her dad, Rafe thought, sadness spearing him.
He took a step back in case Bethany tried to make another grab for Greer. The hair she’d clutched remained all stuck together.
He grinned. “I think you might want to wash that. Looks like Alyssa gave her something sticky to play with just before she brought her over.”
“Terrific,” Greer muttered.
Gingerly, she ran her fingers over the strand of hair that had been rescued. Rafe was right. It was decidedly sticky. Candy sticky. She probably looked like something straight out of a Halloween night, Greer thought glumly. Battling mushrooming embarrassment, Greer tried to smooth down the stiff strand of hair with her hand and knew she was probably only making things worse. She couldn’t wait to get back to her hotel room and take a hot shower. An extra-long hot shower to work all this tension out of her shoulders. Not to mention the rest of her.
“Maybe you’d like to wash your hands,” he suggested. Not waiting for an answer, Rafe led the way to his bedroom. Opening the door, he kicked aside the pair of jeans he’d left on the floor. “Bathroom’s right through there.” He pointed toward the open door at the far end of the room.
“Thanks.”
Walking into the room, she was exceedingly conscious of being in a man’s bedroom. It wasn’t something she was even remotely familiar with. The only men she had come in contact with until recently all wore three-piece suits and faced her across a boardroom table, not a bedroom.
She tried not to pay attention to the rumpled, unmade bed with its comforter dripping down onto the floor, or the thought of Rafe being in it. She tried even harder to ignore the jeans he’d kicked aside, the ones he’d stripped off earlier and left on the floor on his way to the shower.
Despite her efforts, the maleness of the room insisted on assaulting her from all sides.
Washing her hands quickly, Greer hurried away from the intimate surroundings as soon as she could, before their impression could have a chance to sink in any further than it already had.
When she returned to the living room, she found Rafe sitting on the sofa. Oblivious to her, he was busy playing with the baby.
She couldn’t help noting how at ease he seemed. His
