His Best Mistake (6 page)

Blatant curiosity had been nagging at her since she’d pulled into the gated drive. “The tour sounds good.” She decided to first release Carly from the confines of the car seat and lifted her up onto her shoulder, careful not to wake her. “After you.”

They crossed the lengthy great room where Kevin paused at the adjacent kitchen. “The microwave gets the most use in here,” he said with a smile.

Such a shame, Leah thought as she studied the immaculate stainless-steel refrigerator and black-granite countertops. And such a waste of a double oven, not that she cared to volunteer to put it to good use. “Is that the laundry room?” she asked when she caught sight of a louvered door.

“That’s the main one. There’s another washer and
dryer in a smaller room near the second master suite. I’ll show you that in a minute.”

When Kevin gestured her forward, Leah followed him past another living area that reflected some of Kevin’s former life. A curio cabinet housed his numerous journalism awards and a lot of sports paraphernalia—signed footballs and such. A row of theater chairs faced a massive flat-screen TV suspended on one wall.

Kevin turned toward her and continued to walk backward. “This is the den where most of the action happens.”

When Carly began to stir, Leah patted her back. “Action?”

“Where I watch all the games. I also have a media area adjacent to the master bedroom.”

She didn’t dare request to explore that area. “Where to now?”

“Your room.”

Kevin led her into a small corridor that ended in a lengthy hallway jutting out right and left. He paused and opened what looked to be the first of a series of doors. “This is the guest bath.”

Very lucky guests, Leah thought as she viewed the cocoa-colored marble counters and brass fixtures. “Very nice.”

Kevin shut the door and continued down the hall to their right. Once he reached the end, he opened another door. “This is your room.”

Leah walked inside ahead of Kevin, her mouth agape. The place was adorned in varying hues of blues,
including a king-size bed. A bed that looked all too familiar. “Is this your bedroom suite from the condo?”

He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Yeah. I bought a new set for my room, so I decided to put this one in here since I’d barely owned it a year.”

“I know when you bought it,” she said, an obvious edge in her tone. “I helped you pick it out.”

“Yes, you did.”

Great. Now she’d have to retire and wake up in a bed that she and Kevin had put to good use many, many times. She remembered some of those moments in great detail—Kevin’s expertise, the heat of his mouth, his feather-light touch, the weight of his body. She quelled the urge to shake her head in an effort to dislodge the images.

Kevin cleared his throat, drawing Leah back into the present, a place she should never leave again. He brushed past her and opened another entry. “As promised, your whirlpool bath.”

As soon as Leah stepped onto the white tile covering the floor of the huge bathroom, Carly lifted her head and whimpered, as if she too couldn’t believe their good fortune. “I wouldn’t know what to do with this much space.”

Kevin sent her a half smile. “You’ll figure it out. Now let’s go see my favorite room.”

No way, no how. Not after her previous remembrances. “Kevin, I really don’t need to see your bedroom.”

“I meant Carly’s room, Leah.”

Her face heated over her erroneous assumption. “Then lead the way.”

Again Leah followed behind Kevin while Carly began to wriggle restlessly against her. Perhaps the baby was excited over the prospect of new sleeping quarters, a ridiculous supposition since a three-month-old only looked forward to one thing—eating.

To say the nursery was totally amazing would be a colossal understatement. The room had been meticulously decorated in tones of muted purple, including a butterfly-bedecked comforter covering a round white crib with a matching canopy. Every imaginable stuffed animal lined a small daybed set beneath an arched window draped with frilly lilac curtains.

Leah turned to Kevin and smiled. “This is unbelievable. How did you get all this done in a week?”

“I had some help.”

No doubt from some woman, considering the noticeable feminine touch. “Your current girlfriend?” Now why on earth had she asked that? In truth, she didn’t want to know.

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t trust the decorating to just anyone, so I asked Mallory. She jumped in and took over, although I had the final say on her decisions.”

Leah was caught between unwelcome relief that he was unattached, and concern over how his sister had taken the news about the arrangement. In the limited time she’d been around Mallory, she’d grown to respect her greatly. “She did a wonderful job, Kevin. What did she say when you told her about Carly?”

“She was surprised, but she’s dying to meet her. I
told her we’d find a night in the near future to have dinner with her and Whit, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course.” She could handle dinner with people she’d considered friends before her breakup with Kevin. “What about your mother and father? How are they taking the news about the baby and the move?”

Kevin’s gaze faltered. “I haven’t found the time to tell them.”

Most likely he hadn’t found the fortitude to tell them. Although Leah had never met his mother and father, she did know they were traditionalists and might not look too kindly on her and Kevin living together. Of course, they weren’t living together in
that
way, nor would they be. Not if she kept her wits about her.

When Carly began to fuss, Leah said, “I think someone needs a diaper. Do you mind getting her bag for me?”

“Not necessary.” Kevin walked to an armoire in the corner and opened the doors to shelves stocked with everything a baby could ever need, and then some.

He pulled a diaper from the top of one stack, a plastic tub of baby wipes and a pink changing pad that he laid on the daybed. “Give her to me and I’ll do it.”

Shock prevented Leah from moving for a moment. “Are you sure?”

He patted the bed and smiled. “Yeah. I’ve been practicing.”

“On one of your nieces or nephews?”

He seemed suddenly ill at ease. “Actually, on Sally Sweetness, one of my niece’s dolls.”

She wouldn’t necessarily qualify that as solid experience unless the doll magically squirmed. But Kevin looked so determined, Leah didn’t have the heart to refuse him.

She laid Carly on the pad and pulled the little pink and white bloomers from her bottom. The baby glanced at her before turning her complete attention to Kevin, who’d seated himself on the edge of the mattress. “I might not be as fast as your mom, kiddo,” he began as he removed the diaper. “So you’re gonna have to be patient with your old dad.”

Leah kept a reasonable distance, allowing Kevin to proceed at his own pace. After all, diaper-changing wasn’t major surgery. Like a pro, Kevin had the baby cleaned and rediapered in a matter of moments, and all the while Carly simply stared at him, smiling.

Leah couldn’t suppress her own smile, or the urge to applaud. “Good job. And now that you’ve passed that test, the big one comes a little later.”

“Are you going to grade me on bottle preparation?”

“No. You’re going to give your daughter a bath.”

Kevin looked back at her and frowned. “How hard could that be?”

B
ABIES SHOULDN’T
only come with manuals, they should also come with handles. Kevin made that decision once he realized his soaked, squirming daughter would eventually have to come out of the water. Luckily, the tub Leah had brought fitted securely in the kitchen sink, which meant he didn’t have to grab her from a kneeling position. That didn’t make the task any less daunting. “What if I drop her?” This coming from a guy who played wide receiver in his high-school football tenure. Man, he needed to get a grip. Literally.

Leah opened a pink towel against her chest. “You won’t drop her. Just hold her securely like I showed you, and then hand her to me. It’s not that difficult.”

Carly grinned as though she was enjoying his predicament. But then she’d been grinning at him since she’d arrived. That smile had more value than any journalism award. “Okay. Here goes, kiddo. Try not to move too much.”

Slowly he clasped Carly by the waist, carefully lifted her up and handed her off to Leah before one drop of water reached the tile floor.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Leah asked.

Bad, no. Scary, yeah. Not that he would admit just how anxious he’d been. “Piece of cake.”

Leah bundled Carly up into a tight towel cocoon. “I know it’s unnerving, but you’ll get the hang of it.”

Damn, if she hadn’t read his mind. “I guess so, but someone ought to develop some sort of lifting device, just in case.” Or the aforementioned handles.

“I’ll be sure to do that in my spare time. Right now I need to get Carly ready for bed,” she called out as she walked from the kitchen and into the hallway.

Kevin followed her into the nursery, and once there, Leah laid the baby in the crib and grabbed a diaper and powder from the armoire before returning to the baby. “You’re going to have to find her night clothes. They’re in a blue suitcase somewhere in my bedroom. I should’ve unpacked instead of napping with your daughter.”

Kevin had insisted she take that nap on the daybed in the nursery. In another time and place, he would’ve asked her to nap with him, minus the nap. “You needed some rest. Besides, you don’t have to find any clothes for her tonight.”

Leah looked appalled. “I’m not going to put her to bed in just a diaper.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He crossed the room and opened the top drawer in the bureau to reveal several outfits in every imaginable color. “Mallory gave me some of the girls’ baby clothes and she helped me buy a few things. It’s all been washed.”

“That was incredibly nice of Mallory.”

“She enjoyed it.” He rummaged around and after he found one particular item, he turned and held it up. “I picked this one out myself.”

Leah hinted at a smile as she read the words embroidered across the front of the pink sleeper. “‘Daddy’s Girl.’ Very sweet.”

“It was either this or a mini football jersey, but I couldn’t find one small enough. I’ll get her one eventually.”

When Kevin tried to hand her the footed pajamas, Leah wagged a finger at him. “I’m not going to dress her. You are.”

The dressing part didn’t seem so intimidating compared to the bath. But then he had to admit all the snaps looked confusing. “Okay, but don’t blame me if I put it on backward.”

When Leah moved aside, Kevin unfolded the towel encasing Carly and applied the diaper with ease. Now came the hard part.

“Feet first,” Leah said before Kevin had time to figure out the mechanics.

He managed to get her legs into the sleeper but he wasn’t sure how he was going to deal with the rest. “I’m not going to hurt her when I put her arms in it, am I?”

“Just take one arm at a time.”

Kevin was surprised that it wasn’t as difficult as it looked. Of course, Carly was totally cooperative, as though she’d done this before. Probably because she had. After he had the garment in place, he went to work on the snap maze that ran up one leg and all the way to
her neck. He only missed a couple at first but before long, he had his daughter dressed. “All set, kiddo. You did good.”

“So did you,” Leah said, her smile fully formed.

“Thanks. I hope I’ll get faster with practice. What now?”

“You can feed her if you’d like.”

Kevin looked down at his chest and then back up again. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly equipped for that.”

A touch of sadness crossed Leah’s face. “I stopped breast-feeding this past week. I rarely found the time to pump while I was at work and my milk production was basically next to nothing. She’s on formula now, and I hate that.” Her tone indicated exactly how much she hated it.

When Leah glanced away, Kevin asked, “When a new mother comes to you with the same predicament, how do you respond?”

She sighed. “I tell her that the breast is best, but formula is a healthy alternative if it doesn’t work out.”

“Do you tell them they should feel guilty?”

“Of course not.”

“Then you need to practice what you preach. You gave her that all-important colostrum, and you hung in there a lot longer than a lot of women with your schedule would have, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“How do you know about colostrum?”

“I’ve read up on it and a lot of other baby-rearing aspects.”

Finally, her smile returned. “Have you ever given a baby a bottle before?”

“No, but I’m a quick study.”

“I’ll be right back.”

After Leah left, Kevin gathered Carly into his arms, stood, and sat in the padded rocker across the room. She studied his face a moment before lifting her fist and bopping him twice in the chin. “Okay, I probably deserved that for a number of things, including not being there the day you were born.”

She smiled as if to say,
That’s okay, Dad. You’re excused
. He bent and kissed her forehead, drawing in the scent of the lavender baby shampoo that had soothing properties, according to Leah.

He saw very little of his Irish father in Carly and a whole lot of his Armenian mother, right down to her dark eyes and hair. But then he, too, was a chip right off Lucine O’Brien’s genetic block. And he couldn’t discount Leah’s Venezuelan heritage on her great-grandfather’s side, either.

He continued to marvel at his daughter’s features and recognized that every new dad most likely felt the way he did—that their kid was flawless. But as far as he was concerned, Carly was the portrait of perfection. Perfect face. Perfect hands. Perfect sweet disposition.

Without warning, Carly screwed up her face, stuck out her bottom lip and let out a scream that could rival a car alarm. Feeling helpless, Kevin held her against his shoulder and rocked the chair rapidly, patting her back. And when that didn’t work, he got up and paced the room.

Thankfully, he saw Leah appear, bottle in hand, and saying, “That’s her hungry cry.”

“I gathered that,” Kevin replied as he took the bottle and sat back down in the rocker.

Miraculously, the minute he stuck the nipple in Carly’s mouth, she fell silent, aside from some serious sucking sounds. Yeah, she was definitely hungry.

Leah hovered above them, watching Kevin’s every move. “Make sure you keep the bottle tilted up so she doesn’t get much air in her tummy. A gassy baby is not a happy baby.”

“Am I doing it right?” he asked.

“Yes, you are.”

“Do you plan to watch me until she’s done?”

“I do.”

Talk about the consummate mother hen. “I promise I’m not going to screw this up, so in the meantime, why don’t you go put the whirlpool to good use?”

“I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”

Frustration hit him full-force. “Listen, Leah, I supervise ten junior reporters and I have a master’s in journalism. I’ve even rebuilt a transmission and I made my mother a curio cabinet in high-school shop class. I’m capable of giving a baby a bottle on my own without—”

“I meant I’m not sure taking a bath is a great idea. I might never want to get out.”

Okay, so he’d engaged in some severe conclusion-jumping. But in light of her attitude, and lack of trust in him, who could blame him? “If you’re not out in thirty minutes, I’ll check on you.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Leah bent and kissed Carly’s forehead. “I’ll be back in twenty.” When she looked down at where her palm rested on Kevin’s forearm, she jerked her hand away, as though she’d touched a radiator.

Her reaction prompted Kevin to say, “It’s going to happen.”

She pulled her arms tightly around her middle. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“We’re going to touch each other every now and then, even if it’s only when we hand the baby to each other. You don’t have to make such a big deal of it and act like I have some communicable disease.”

“I’m not making a big deal of it, and I won’t, as long as you understand that’s the only touching we’ll be doing.”

She sounded to Kevin as if she might be trying to convince herself. “Understood.”

She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “I’m going to take my bath now. Again, I won’t be long.”

“Take your time. The towels are in the linen closet and Mallory stocked the shelf with aromatherapy stuff. Use whatever you’d like.”

She began backing to the door. “Be sure to burp Carly after she’s finished. I’ll be back in time to put her to bed.”

Once Leah had left the room, Kevin regarded Carly, who had already drained almost half the bottle. She paused long enough to smile at him.

“What’s so funny, kiddo? Me giving you a bottle or your mom putting me in my place?”

She reached up again and this time tweaked his nose. He took her hand and kissed it softly, watching as her eyes closed briefly and slowly opened again.

Several times he’d heard his siblings talk about the joys of parenthood, but he’d never given it much thought until now. He never would’ve believed that holding a baby would be so satisfying. That he could feel such strong emotions for a child he’d only recently met. At least now he understood why his sister was such a daddy’s girl.

Damn, if he hadn’t become a certified sap. But that was okay. He’d trade all his machismo for these moments with Carly, and enjoy them while he still had the chance—before her mother took her away for good.

S
HE’D SPENT
way too much time in the bathtub. Dressed in the worn pink-cotton robe she’d owned since her freshman year of college, Leah wrapped her hair in a towel and hurried into the bedroom. She heaved one suitcase onto the mattress and rifled through it for something comfortable to wear, only to come across the animal-print pajamas Kevin had asked about during their phone conversation a week ago. And, like a practiced liar, she’d deceived him again. Although she’d intended to toss them during her packing, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Silly, considering she hadn’t worn them since she and Kevin had called it quits. Correction. Since Kevin had quit on her. But then, she’d done some fairly inane things of late.

She remembered several memorable nights when
Kevin had taken them off her, slowly. Nights when he had taken her beyond the limits of lovemaking, using his hands and his mouth and his body. She shivered just thinking about the way he’d spoken to her in that deadly low and patently sexy voice of his. How easily he could draw every ounce of pleasure out of her until she thought she had nothing left, only to have him lead her right back into a sexual realm she’d never known existed….

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

At the sound of his voice, Leah whipped around toward the door, clutching the presumably trashed lingerie behind her back. Kevin stood in the open space, one arm braced on the frame, the other dangling at his side. He looked so imposing, so gorgeous, she wanted to shield her eyes before she did or said something stupid. “You might try knocking next time.”

“Kind of hard when the door’s open.”

She wasn’t particularly fond of his logic, or her lack thereof. “I was listening for the baby. By the way, where is she?”

He streaked a hand over his whisker-rough jaw. “She found my keys and went for a joyride. I tried to stop her but she’s faster than she looks.”

She wasn’t fond of his attempt at humor, either. “Could you be serious for just a moment?”

He slid his hands into his jeans pockets and attempted to look contrite. “She fell asleep so I put her to bed.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that.”

Amazing. “Did you put her on her back?”

“Yes, I did. Like I told you, I’ve read the books.”

He was trying hard to impress her, and he was doing a fairly credible job. “Just remember, she rarely stays down the first time you put her down.” Otherwise, Leah might be upset over not having the opportunity to say good-night to her daughter. “I’ll go check.”

“I would’ve heard her if she wasn’t still asleep, and so would you.” He pointed toward the nightstand and a silver object resembling a remote control set next to the alarm clock. “That’s a wireless monitor. I have one in my room, too. The receiver’s in the nursery. It’s portable so you can carry it with you.”

Evidently he’d thought of everything. “Great. That will come in handy. Now do you mind leaving so I can get dressed?”

“Sure, just as soon as you tell me what you’re hiding behind your back.”

“None of your business.” Infuriating, nosy man.

He took a step toward her. “Did you buy me a gift?”

She took a step back. “No, I did not.”

“If it’s your panties, I’ve seen them before. Many times.” He inclined his head and leaned forward. “But that’s not what you’re keeping from me, is it?”

Before Leah could react, he was on her like a moth on a porch light, grabbing for the pajamas. She managed to play keep-away by sidestepping out of his reach, but he didn’t let up. She retreated and he stalked her until he had her backed up to the bed. The same bed
where they had made long hot love more times than she could count. Dangerous, dangerous territory.

Everything seemed to come to a standstill except the rapid beat of Leah’s heart. He was so close she could reach up and trace the line of his lips. Better still, she could kiss him. She could once more experience Kevin’s thoroughly gifted mouth. When his gaze drifted to her lips, wisdom won out, causing Leah to concede that if she didn’t give in and let him see the pajamas, she could be giving in to something much more unwise.