Hired by Her Husband (15 page)

“I doubt it,” Sophy said with an indulgent smile, then answering the ring.

“It’s Tallie,” her sister-in-law began. “I have a favor to ask.”

“Sure, name it.” Sophy prepared herself to console Lily when Tallie explained that it wouldn’t work out today.

“Could you and Lily come now? And stay? Take care of the boys, I mean,” she said apologetically. “I know it isn’t what we planned, but I’m afraid I’m having the baby!”

“Y
OU CAN BE MY
Rent-a-Mom,” Tallie told Sophy cheerfully as she kissed her boys and gave them last-minute instructions while Elias tried to chivy her out the door.

“You don’t have to rent me,” Sophy replied “I’m glad to do it. Just go now—and have a safe quick delivery and a healthy baby girl.”

“I will,” Tallie promised, giving each boy another hug. And then she gave Lily a hug as well. “I hope she’s just as beautiful as this little one.”

“Come on. Come on,” Elias muttered, Tallie’s overnight case in one hand and his wife’s arm in the other. “You don’t want to have this kid in the entry hall.”

Tallie just laughed as Elias steered her out the door toward the waiting cab. “He’s always like this,” she said. “A basket case.”

“Damn right,” Elias said, “and I have reason. Digger was almost born in the cab. I’ll call you,” he told Sophy. “Mind,” he said sternly to his sons.

The three of them bobbed their heads solemnly. “We will.”

And surprisingly, they did. The twins took Lily off to show her their toys and she went happily. The little boy, a three-year-old named Jonathan, but called Digger, stayed with Sophy and looked worried.

“Everything will be fine,” she assured him. “Would you like to read a story?”

He nodded soberly and went to find not one but twenty books, which he brought to her.

“Are all these your favorites?” she asked as she settled him on her lap and opened the first of the books.

He gave another nod. Sophy began to read. By the fifth or sixth book, Digger began to tell her about the pictures and which characters were the best. By the tenth, he was telling the story along with her. And by the last one, he was taking her by the hand and saying, “Wanna see my trucks?”

She accompanied him out to the small back garden where he showed her his trucks in the large sand box where deep holes and tunnels provided evidence as to how he got his nickname. “Did you do all this?” Sophy asked him.

Digger nodded happily, and there was a real light in his eyes. “Me ’n’ Uncle George.”

“George—I mean, Uncle George dug this with you?”

“Uncle George likes to dig. Sometimes we go to the beach an’ dig. We make plans. Wanna see our plans?”

“I’d love to.” Sophy followed him back into the house and into the family room, where he tugged out the bottom drawer of a large map cabinet.

“Here.” He pulled out papers that held simplified diagrams and elevations of a series of tunnels and pits.

Sophy stared at them, amazed and captivated. The drawings were neat and meticulous—exactly the sort of work George did when he was designing an experiment—but on a basic elementary level.

“You don’t just dig a tunnel,” she murmured, tracing one of the passages with her finger.

“You can,” Digger told her. “Sometimes we do. But sometimes they fall in. So we plan. It works better. When’s my mommy coming home?”

Ah. For all that Digger was happy to show her his things, his mother was never far from his mind. “Probably the day after tomorrow,” Sophy told him. “She has to have the baby and then have a day or so to rest. It’s a lot of work having a baby,” she told him.

“Daddy says I was in a hurry,” he told her. “Maybe the baby will be in a hurry, too, an’ she can come home sooner.”

Sophy brushed a hand over his glossy dark hair. “Maybe she will.”

But they had no word the rest of the afternoon, so apparently the new baby wasn’t in as big a hurry as Digger had been. By the time George got there at five, Elias still hadn’t called.

“He hasn’t?” George scowled, looking worried.

Sophy stepped between him and the boys so they couldn’t see the expression on his face. “Not yet. But I’m sure he will before long. Babies come in their own good time,” she said cheerfully to the boys.

“Ours didn’t,” George muttered under his breath.

Sophy remembered Lily’s birth all too well. Her labor had been long and painful and twice had seemed almost to stop before a sudden rapid delivery that had made her strangle George’s hands.

“That was my first,” she said quietly just to him and then more loudly so the boys could hear. “I’m sure Tallie is an old hand.”

“Can we call her?” Nick asked.

“Or Dad?” Garrett suggested.

“I think they’re pretty busy right now,” Sophy said. “Your dad will call as soon as something happens.”

“Come on,” George said briskly. “Let’s go over to the park and play ball.”

Sophy went along and played, too, determined to make
sure that George didn’t overdo things. But she needn’t have worried. Lily took care of that.

“My daddy gets a headache when he plays too long,” she told the boys. “So we can only play for a little while.”

“How come you get a headache, Uncle George?” Garrett wanted to know.

So George explained about the incident with Jeremy and the truck. The boys were all wide-eyed with awe and appreciation. And Lily clearly basked in his reflected glory.

“Daddy’s a hero,” she told them solemnly.

George shook his head. “A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do.” Then, “Come on, let’s play ball.”

They played. And Sophy, watching, thought that however good a father George was with Lily, she could easily imagine him with sons as well. Lily brought out his protective instincts as well as his playfulness. But with the boys there was a different sort of rapport and a rugged role model that they could emulate.

She stood there, smiling, as the sun went down, turning the red and yellow leaves to copper and gold. When her phone rang, she plucked it out of her pocket.

It was Elias. “It’s a girl. She and Tallie are fine.” His voice quavered a little. And Sophy heard him take a deep breath. “It was an emergency C-section in the end. The cord was around her head.”

“Oh, Elias!”

“She was cutting off her own oxygen. And Tallie was a wreck. I was, too,” he admitted. “But—” another breath “—she’s okay now. Everyone’s okay.”

“Wonderful,” Sophy breathed a sigh of relief, too. “I’m so happy for you. Here. You can tell the boys.”

She called them over and let them each talk to their father while she told George and Lily the news.

“We can go see ’em after we eat dinner,” Nick reported, beaming. “Dad says so.”

And Digger’s eyes shone when he handed the phone back to Sophy. “Let’s go eat dinner.”

Alethea Helena Antonides was a lot smaller than her name. But with big eyes, round cheeks, rosebud mouth and a thick cap of fine dark hair, she was absolutely beautiful.

When they got to the hospital, she was snug in Tallie’s arms, having just nursed. Her brothers all peered at her, wide-eyed, then looked at their mother as if they were still not sure what had happened or what was going to happen next. Tallie looked exhausted but radiant. Elias just looked beat.

“She’s gorgeous,” Sophy breathed.

And George, holding Lily up so she could get a better look at her newest cousin, nodded and swallowed as he studied his niece. “Very nice.”

“Just nice?” Tallie looked indignant.

“
Very
nice, I said,” George corrected her. Then he swallowed again, looking at his sister. “She’s beautiful, kid. I’m glad you’re both okay.”

Tallie reached out a hand to him and he gave hers a squeeze.

“Me, too,” Lily said and wiggled her hand in between theirs. “I like your baby,” she told Tallie. Then she looked around at her own mother. “Can we have one, too?”

Sophy felt her cheeks suddenly begin to burn. She didn’t dare look in George’s direction. “Here, Digger,” she said, hoisting the little boy in her arms. “I bet you’d like to come sit up here by your mommy and Thea.”

Digger liked that very much. Then all the boys crowded on the bed with their mother and sister and father, and George took their picture. Lily wanted to be in it, too.

“No, honey. That’s
their
family,” Sophy said as George snapped a couple more.

“Then Uncle Elias can take one of
our
family,” Lily insisted. “Me an’ you and Daddy.”

Sophy looked at George. George looked at her. Lily looked at both of them, then took matters into her own hands. “Here.” She grasped them each by the hand and pulled them to the chair. “Daddy, sit here.”

Obediently George sat. Then without waiting for further direction, he hoisted Lily up on the arm of the chair, then tugged Sophy down onto his lap.

“George!” she protested as she bounced onto his thighs. But he simply wrapped a strong arm around her and tugged her back hard against him. And Sophy had no will or desire to protest. She could feel his breath against the back of her neck. It made her knees weak.

“Smile,” Elias commanded and snapped the picture. He studied the image. “Not bad.” He took another and another. “Yeah,” he smiled at the last one. “That’ll do.”

Each of the boys then got to have their picture taken with their new sister. And Elias took one of Lily holding Thea, too, because he said, “You girls have to stick together.”

Picture taking done, it was time to take the children home.

“Could you guys stay the night?” Elias asked as they were leaving. Under his elation he looked ragged and strained, his cheeks stubbled, his hair uncombed, his shirttails hanging loose. “I hate to ask you. I know you’ve been there all day. But—” he shook his head wearily “—I want to stay here. I
need
to stay here tonight.” He glanced back across the room at Tallie, who was holding Thea again. And there was such tender longing in his gaze that Sophy touched his arm.

She understood his words. Understood his need. Thea’s birth had been difficult and scary. No one said so, but all the adults knew it could have had a very different outcome. “Of course,” she said. “I’ll stay. George will have to see to Gunnar, but—”

“I’ll go home and put him out, then I’ll be back,” George said. “You stay with Tallie.”

Elias gave them a grateful smile. “Thanks. I’ll be home to take Nick and Garrett to school. And I’ll bring Digger back here with me.”

“Take as long as you need,” Sophy told him. “We’ll be fine.”

She took the kids home in a taxi while George caught the subway back to the Upper West Side. She oversaw baths and snacks and was letting the twins read in their beds while she read to Lily and Digger when George returned bringing a backpack with a change of clothes for her and Lily. His were in his briefcase, he told her. And he had to leave early to go home and put Gunnar out again before he headed up to the lab for a meeting with some high-powered grant people early the next morning.

“I’m afraid I’m sticking you with a lot,” he said. “I’d change it if I could. But it’s a meeting we’ve had on the books for weeks.”

“Not a problem,” Sophy assured him. “Why don’t you read to the kids while I clean up the kitchen?” It was in the same state they’d left it when they’d gone to the hospital right after they’d eaten.

“I could clean up the kitchen if you’d rather,” George offered.

Sophy shook her head. “You read. Lily likes it when you read to her. You do the best growly voices,” she quoted their daughter with a smile.

George smiled, too, a slow and, to Sophy’s eyes, sexy smile that curled her toes. “A man’s gotta use his talents,” he said in his best growly voice. Then he winked and headed upstairs.

Sophy rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, then turned it on and wiped off the table and countertops. She didn’t get to hear the growly voices because George was up
in their bedrooms. When she finished, she climbed the stairs, but it was quiet.

One peek in the back bedroom showed her that Digger and Lily were already fast asleep. Nick, too, was sprawled fast asleep in the top bunk of the room he and Garrett shared. Garrett still had his nose in a book. She didn’t see George.

Then she heard a noise and turned to see him coming out of the bedroom at the front of the house, carrying a pile of laundry in his arms.

“I changed the sheets in Tallie and Elias’s room,” he said.

And that was when Sophy realized there was only one bed.

The look on her face must have betrayed her realization. George’s expression didn’t really change so much as his eyes seemed to shutter for an instant before he said, “You don’t have to share it, Sophy. Not if you don’t want to.”

But even as he said the words, Sophy knew she did.

“I do,” she said, meeting his hooded gaze and feeling rather as if she were making a vow. “If you do.”

A muscle in George’s jaw ticked and a corner of his mouth lifted. “Oh, yeah.”

She gave him a tremulous smile and reached out to take the sheets from him. Their fingers brushed. “I’ll just take these downstairs and turn off the lights.”

George was waiting when she got back. He had turned down the bed and left on only the single small reading lamp by the bed. “Do you want a shower?” he asked.

She nodded, then made a face. “I feel like I’m covered with peanut butter and jelly and mac and cheese.”

He grinned. “A little boy’s delight.” But the look he gave her, though hungry, was far from boyish. He raised his brows. “Want me to wash your back?”

Sophy wet her lips nervously. “That would be…lovely.”

Their eyes met and Sophy felt the awareness tingle all the way to her toes.

And it was. He took his time undressing her, peeling her sweater over her head, then stopping to kiss her neck before proceeding. She fumbled with the buttons of his shirt and felt like an idiot when he did them for her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“I’m just impatient,” he said, a rough tremor in his voice. “It’s been a long time.”

Never, in fact. They had never taken a shower together. He had never washed her back. And by the time they were undressed, it wasn’t clear that they were going to take one together this time, either—or if their desire would lead them straight to bed.

But just then George, kissing her cheek, murmured, “Mmm, grape, I think,” and Sophy laughed.

“Yes, shower time for sure,” she decided, and stepped in. Fortunately George had already turned it on, so the water was warm. So was the slick wet body of the man who stepped in behind her, who reached around to cup her breasts and nibble his way along her shoulders.