up early to a naked baby. I’d never hear the end of it.” Bree’s laughing eyes met his before he wrestled the knit pants off and over Will’s tiny feet, opened the kid’s diaper to remove it, then grabbed a new one from the pile on the table. “No BM, but it is wet. Maybe that’s what was bothering him.”
“I’m impressed,” Bree said, and that twist of her lips mingled with a surprising admiration. Surprising because he sure didn’t deserve it. “No one would know you were new at this.”
“You always said I was a quick learner.”
“True. Though learning tennis seems a whole lot easier than this.”
“Only when you’re a superstar, like you. I had to take those damned private lessons for weeks before I could regularly get the ball back across the net to you.”
“You took lessons? Other than from me?” Her wide-eyed stare had him cursing himself for making that little confession. She was so good at everything she did, he hadn’t wanted to look inept, even though she’d known he’d been a beginner. The first time she’d offered to teach him, his competitive nature had kicked in—probably his ego, too—and now she knew he wasn’t just naturally gifted at whacking a ball across a net.
“Maybe a lesson or two.” He turned back to the diapering, frowning a little as he tried to figure out the sticky tabs, because they didn’t seem to be working right.
“Um, I take back what I said.” She pointed at the stack of diapers. “I think the picture on the diaper is supposed to be in the front, not the back.”
He had to laugh. That should have been obvious, but he blamed the distraction of Bree being so close, and that admiring look on her face that had made his chest stupidly puff up a little, though she was sure as heck grinning at him now instead. The admiring look that had made him feel like Superman when they’d been together.
He slid the diaper from under the baby’s bottom to try again, leaning over to study the sticky tabs, only to be startled by a stinging spray right into his eye. “Yikes!” he yelped, yanking his head back from the stream of urine now hitting his chest as Bree’s laughter filled the room. “Can you please help instead of cracking up at my expense?”
“I’m sorry,” she gasped in the middle of another peal of laughter, though at least she grabbed a towel from the rack and began to wipe his face. “But that was about the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Are we keeping score? Because right now, I think it’s Will five, and you and me zero.”
“Yeah. And we have to turn that around.” He managed to get the diaper closed and secured as Bree moved the towel down to wipe at his shirt. The feel of her massaging his chest, and never mind that her touch was brisk and not at all sensual, made him breathe a little harder. He grabbed the towel from her, deciding he’d better get his shirt changed before the massaging made worse things happen to him than getting short of breath.
He slid his shirt up over his head and, when he pulled it off, saw Bree’s eyes focused on his bare chest. Her lips parted slightly, her eyes darkened, and he knew that look well. The look he used to love. The look that said she was thinking about the same thing he’d been thinking about when he’d seen her rear end dancing around in those shorts, and the involuntary stirring his body had felt then was back in spades.
“Watch Will,” he said, turning away. “I’ll be right back.”
He washed his face then took a minute to splash cold water on it for good measure before finding a new shirt to wear. How was he going to handle this? Being anywhere near Bree was messing up the equilibrium he’d fought so hard to get back the past six months, and apparently hers, too. Getting out of the house and somewhere public seemed like a good plan. Someplace other than his house, where every room suddenly brought reminders of making love with her, and laughing with her, and planning a not-happening future with her.
He blew out a breath then walked into the baby’s room to see Bree struggling with the child’s clothes, his little shirt all twisted sideways.
“You do this,” she said. She huffed out a frustrated breath and held out the pants. “There’s got to be an easier way.”
“You’d think so.” He reached for the pants but she didn’t let go. Both held on to them for a long moment, and he found his gaze fixated on her mouth. The mouth he didn’t realize he’d been starving for until he’d kissed her on the helipad. The way she was looking at him had him wondering if she was thinking about the same thing, which then had him thinking about kissing her again to find out. Which would be real smart, considering she’d dumped him and shredded his heart into little pieces he still hadn’t managed to put back together.
He dragged his attention from her mouth to focus on the clothes as he tugged them from her hand. Pulling Will’s little foot through the pants at the same time the baby kept pulling his leg up to his chest took serious concentration, which made it a welcome distraction. Finally, he managed to get one tiny, curved leg through, then the other, before glancing at Bree again. “Getting this kid dressed is like putting socks on a clam, you know?”
Soft laughter left those beautiful lips. “Never tried putting socks on a clam, but it sounds accurate.”
They smiled at each other before he finally got the ridiculous pants pulled up and straightened the mini shirt. Feeling pretty proud of the achievement, he picked the baby up and held him up to Bree. “It was a struggle, but you’ve got to admit he looks awful cute now that he’s all dressed and manly-looking in pinstripes.”
She reached out to stroke the baby’s cheek, and the sweet, soft expression on her face shocked him. Stole his breath. “Yeah. He does. Manly might be a little bit of an overstatement for a three-day-old, but there’s no denying he’s one cute kid. No doubt he’s going to be as handsome as his uncle when he grows up.”
Her gaze moved above Will’s head to meet his, and there it was again. Something in her eyes that made his heart beat harder and his insides get all knotted up, and just as he was about to put the baby down and reach for her, and to hell with the consequences, she turned away.
“I’m going to take a short walk. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Yeah. She was feeling it, too, and getting some fresh air sounded like a very good idea. He was pretty sure sitting alone in the house with Will wouldn’t cool the heat that pumped through his veins every time she walked back in the room. But outside? They couldn’t get in much trouble on the public bike path that wound around the bay outside his house, with all kinds of people going by, right? “How about we put him in the stroller and go for a walk together?”
“What if going outside makes him start crying again?” she said, that worried pucker diving back between her brows.
“Then we’ll come back in. Worked before, didn’t it?”
“Sounds good.” Her smile showed she was happy with the idea, which managed to help him smile, too. “Where’s his stroller?”
“Not sure.” He scanned all the stuff the delivery guy had piled into the room. “Maybe still in the box?”
Bree shoved things aside to unearth it. “Here it is.” She tugged and tried to wrestle the stroller out of the box, but it seemed glued inside. “How the heck do they have this thing crammed in here?”
He tucked the baby into his arm and held the box down. “You should have been here to help
