“In front of the waterfall?” She glanced around again. “Sheesh. Man. Do you really need all this stuff?”
“It’s my reward.”
“Well, you must have worked your butt off to feel you deserved all this.”
“I did. And it makes me happy.”
It really did. Being in this room reminded him that this was what he’d been working for his whole life. The freedom to live his life as he wanted. His mom had lied to him about Cedric being his father. He’d never felt he fit into his own family. He had even become distant from his sisters, who didn’t care about real dads and pretend dads and bloodlines or lies. But he fit here. He was happy here. And some five-foot-seven slip of a woman wasn’t going to make him “think” he wanted something else out of life. Especially not after only a few hours.
Besides, she was here to help him with the baby, to show him the ropes. He didn’t want to waste this opportunity.
He strolled over to the first sink where she ran water while she pulled out a diaper and one-piece sleeper from the diaper bag one-handed.
“Here. Let me hold her.”
Not meeting his gaze, she handed the baby to him. “Thanks.” When the baby was securely on his arm, she said, “Is the linen closet around here?”
“What do you need?”
“Towels. A washcloth.”
He walked over to the corner, pressed a button and the wall opened. He pulled out two fluffy white towels and a washcloth. “Here you are.”
While he was gone, she’d removed a pink bottle, a little yellow bottle and a taller white container from the diaper bag.
“What are those?”
Taking the baby from him again, she said, “Lotions and powder. Baby wash. Nothing special.”
He frowned. Had that been a quaver in her voice?
“Are you okay?”
Removing Bella’s one-piece outfit, she said, “I’m fine.”
But not chatty. He knew he’d discouraged conversation in the limo, but she’d seemed fine, bossy even, until…He glanced around. Until they’d started talking about his tub? This bathroom?
Maybe he’d flaunted his wealth a bit too much. Or maybe his casual comments had seemed to her as if he was rubbing her nose in his success.
“Look, I’m sorry if I came across as an idiot talking about my tub. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m not upset.”
“Your voice says you are.”
She sighed and sat naked Bella in the sink she’d filled with water. “Okay. I’m not upset as much as reminded of some things I’d rather not think about.”
“Ah. The bad boyfriend.”
“No, the distant dad.”
“Your distant dad had a big claw-foot tub?”
“Among other things.” She rinsed water along Bella’s tummy, and made the baby laugh. “My father was a successful businessman.” She slanted him a look. “Not anywhere near your caliber, but he did okay.” She shook her head. “He lived for the deal.”
Yet another reminder of why he shouldn’t get involved with women. He lived for the deal, too. And Claire’s current sadness was the reminder of the fallout of that kind of life. “I bet that thrilled your mother.”
“My mother died when I was six.”
“Oh.” That news shifted through him oddly. He could picture her. A little girl with big sad brown eyes and long brown ponytails, left alone by a dad who didn’t know how to care for her.
His stomach knotted and he understood why she was so sympathetic to Bella. Right then and there, he strengthened his commitment to be the best father he could for his little girl, even as his chest tightened with sorrow for Claire’s loss. “I’m sorry.”
She poured one of the gels onto the washcloth, worked it into suds and leisurely ran the cloth over Bella’s soft skin. “It’s certainly not your fault.”
“I was apologizing for bringing up unhappy memories.”
“It’s okay.”
It really wasn’t. Not just for Claire, but for him. He’d spent most of his adult life upset over his mother taking him away from his real father and saddling him with a stepfather who didn’t want him, and then angry that his biological dad never tried to find him, to meet him—to anything.
But after hearing of Claire’s losses he felt like a heel.
He pointed toward the bedroom. “I’m going to go check on the crib, make sure that sheet is okay.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
Inside the bedroom, out of Claire’s sight, he ran his hand down his face. He got it. Lots of people had lives worse than his. But that didn’t diminish the fact that he had some problems. Not only did he have to meet four half siblings, but the twin and half sisters he’d been raised with would be in Texas, too. He had to meet his new siblings and deal with the old ones, when he was turned inside out about raising a baby because he’d lost Ginny. The one person who’d always loved him. Any other ex-wife would have been happy to be rid of him, but she’d kept him as a friend, made sure he had a part in her life even after she remarried. There was no one like Ginny who’d understood the real Matt Patterson and still liked him. True, she couldn’t be married to him but they had been friends. Good friends.
But now she was gone. And for the first time since he’d met Ginny, he was alone in the world.
Truly alone.
Claire lifted Bella out of the sink and rolled her in the thick fluffy white towel. She tickled her tummy and played with her a bit, but inside she was dying. The loneliness she’d felt after her mom’s death rolled over her as if it were yesterday, not decades ago. And she wished…well, she wished Matt would have comforted her. After that kiss, it was clear they both were attracted. Neither one could deny it. But he couldn’t find it in his heart to stay in the room and comfort her…or even really talk about her life.
Still, that was her luck with men. Her friends found good men, strong men, who knew how to love, how to comfort. She always seemed to be attracted to the self-absorbed guys.
Like Ben. He hadn’t really loved her. But she’d thought he had. And she’d loved his company. She loved having somebody to spend time with, somebody to think about the future with. But when he’d introduced her to his wife at her graduation—the day she’d believed he would propose to her—her whole world had fallen apart. Instead of proposing, he’d broken up with her. And not by saying, “I’m sorry. It didn’t work out.” No. He introduced her to his wife. A not-so-subtle way of saying, “Now, that you’re leaving the university, I have no need of you.”
Discovering
