pulling her close enough that she couldn’t help but feel the rock-solid proof of how much he needed her again.
Her eyes widened, then went smoky dark, and he knew she was feeling everything he was. Good. He wanted to make himself indispensable to her over the next thirty days. He wanted to prove to her that he could be everything she and his daughter needed.
“But for now,” he pointed out, bending his head and stopping just a breath away from kissing her, “we’ve got a long Sunday with lots of hours to kill.” He leaned closer, his lips tasting, tugging at hers. “Got any ideas?”
“Oh,” she whispered, lifting her arms to encircle his neck. “A few.”
Eight
“Emily’s crying,” Kelly said, and gave Jeff a nudge.
“Hmm? What?” He came awake instantly and sat up. His gaze swept Kelly’s bedroom, and it only took a moment to remember where he was and why he was there. Oh, yeah. His plan. Well, it had worked. He’d spent the night with her at her house so that he could be on hand when Emily woke up.
Which, apparently, was now.
A cry sounded out again from the next room, and he smiled to himself.
“Go,” Kelly mumbled. “Bond.”
Swinging his legs off the bed, he jumped up, grabbed up his jeans from the crumpled heap on the floor and tugged them on. He looked at Kelly, still lying, face into her pillow, auburn curls spread across the spring-green linen, looking like a fire in a meadow.
Jeff just enjoyed the view for a long minute, relishing the simple pleasure of waking up alongside her. Damn, but it felt good. Right. His plan had worked beautifully. He, Kelly and Emily had spent most of yesterday afternoon together, with he and his daughter becoming acquainted. Thankfully, she was a happy baby, with an outgoing personality that was more her mother than her father. She simply looked at Jeff as yet another conquest, completely expecting him to adore her as everyone else did.
Naturally, he did just that. A swell of pride filled him. Emily was the brightest child he’d ever seen. Well, all right, he thought, he hadn’t been around enough children to make a real comparison. But anyone could see that she was clever and quick and so damn beautiful. She wore her heart in her eyes and every time she turned those big blue eyes on her daddy, he fell just a bit more in love with her. Her smile tugged at his heart, and her cries broke it.
Amazing really. He’d never known such all encompassing love before. Wouldn’t have believed it possible if someone had told him about it. But he guessed folks were right. You just never knew what love really was until you had a child of your own.
From the next room, his delicate flower sent up a screech of disapproval loud enough to pry one of Kelly’s eyes open. She looked up at him and without moving a muscle asked, “So are you going in to get her or what?”
“You bet, baby. I’m on my way.” But before he did, he planted one knee on the mattress, leaned over and kissed the top of Kelly’s head.
“I’d turn over and give you a real kiss,” she murmured, her words muffled by the sheets, “but I don’t want to move.”
“Later,” he said, knowing damn well that he was the reason she was so worn-out this morning. After all, it had been eighteen months since either one of them had had a marathon sex session. He grinned to himself at the memory of the long night before.
“‘Kay,” she said, and closed that eye again.
Climbing back off the bed, Jeff left the bedroom, closing the door behind him before going into his daughter’s nursery.
Everything a child could ever want littered the floor and was piled on the shelves lining the walls. Outside, dawn was just beginning to streak across the sky, and the pale, shadowy light was lost in the glow of the angel night light. Jeff flicked the small light off and looked into his daughter’s furious expression.
“Well, then, morning, sweet pea,” he crooned, and had the satisfaction of seeing that frown slide off her face to be replaced by a teary smile. And damn if he didn’t feel better than he would have if some General had just pinned a medal to his chest.
Emily grabbed hold of the crib rails and worked her feet frantically, trying to scale the barrier between them. He saved her the trouble. Scooping her up into his arms, he grimaced a bit at the dampness clinging to her and said, “First things first, little girl. Let’s get you a fresh set of drawers.”
She laughed and talked to him while he changed her diaper and clumsily did up the snaps on a fresh pair of pajamas. The little built-in slippers about did him in. How was a man supposed to tuck squirmy little feet into the blasted things without having the toes of the jammies turned around toward her heels?
But when the mystery was finally solved and Emily was as fresh as she was going to get, he picked her up and carried her toward the kitchen. With the warm, solid weight of his daughter against his chest, Jeff determined that the rest of their day would pass uneventfully.
“Why isn’t he answering the phone?” Kelly muttered, then pulled the receiver away from her ear to glare at it, as if this were all the phone’s fault.
“Perhaps he’s busy, dear,” Sister Mary Angela offered.
“How long does it take to pick up the phone and say, ‘Can’t talk now’?” For heaven’s sake, she’d called him an hour and a half ago and everything was fine. Where could he be? Why would he have taken Emily anywhere? And how was she going to stand being at school for another hour without finding out how things were going?
“Apparently, longer than he’s got,” the nun mused, smiling at the other woman’s obvious case of nerves. “You did want Emily’s father to be a part of her life, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
“And you do trust Jeff, don’t you?” Kelly blew out a breath. “Of course I do, Sister, it’s just that—”
“It’s just that you don’t want to share your daughter?”
A guilty flush stole over her. Was that it? Was she being jealous of Emily’s affections? No, Kelly thought. She refused to believe that. This was an honest-to-goodness, realistic worry. Her daughter was alone with her father for the first time, and he wasn’t answering the stupid phone!
“Sister Angela,” Kelly said, hanging up with another frosty look at the telephone, “Jeff’s never been around babies before and—”
“He’s an adult, Kelly. He’ll figure it out.” “You know,” Kelly said, a rueful grin curving her mouth, “you could let me get the whole complaint out of my mouth before shooting it down.” “No sense in wasting time, though, is there?” Sister Angela glanced at the wall clock in the school office. “Now, unless you want to try to bother your young man one more time, I’d suggest you rejoin your class. Recess is almost over.”
“Bother, huh?” Kelly asked as she headed for the door.
The school principal’s face took on the supremely patient expression she was famous for as she said, “He’s only going to be alone with Emily for four hours today, my dear. What could possibly go wrong in four miserably
