Kate Little - Jingle Bell Baby

“Well, you can keep her here until tomorrow. Or maybe even the day after,” Clint said. “Providing, of course, you want to.”

“Two whole days?” Jessie felt her deflated heart fill with joy. “You mean it?”

“I guess that’s a yes,” Clint said dryly, the hint of a smile teasing the corner of his mouth.

“Of course it’s a yes.” Jessie smiled up at him. “But why? I thought you said someone would come for her today.”

“The roads between here and Whitewood are a mess with the snow and the social services people at the hospital are all off for the holiday anyway,” he explained. “Nobody seems to think that there’s any emergency about bringing her in.”

“Did you hear that, baby?” Jessie happily whispered to Daisy. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will snow for a week.”

“Yeah, well, it just might.” Clint didn’t seem to consider this a fortunate turn of events, Jessie noticed. “We’ll see how you sound two days from now, snowed in with a tiny baby.”

“I wouldn’t mind being snowed in with her for a month,” Jessie replied.

Daisy, who was balanced on her hip, reached up and grabbed a long loose curl of Jessie’s hair. She yanked it with surprising strength. “Ouch!” Jessie yelped and gently pried the baby’s fingers free. “No, honey. Not the hair,” Jessie said patiently.

Clint glanced down at her with an “I told you so” look, but she ignored him.

“I brought you some supplies,” he said. “They’re out in the car.”

“Supplies?”

“Diapers, bottles, formula, rubber ducks. Hell, from what I’ve seen, babies need mountains of stuff,” he said as he pulled on his gloves and hat again. “And you can’t very well take her out in this weather,” he added, his hand on the door. “She doesn’t even have a snowsuit or a car seat.”

“Uh, no, she doesn’t. I guess you’re right,” she had to agree.

Snowsuits? Car seats? Jessie wondered how he had become so well-versed in the secret language of babies. Was he married with enough offspring to fill a minivan? He looked and acted single. And he didn’t wear a wedding ring. But all that could be said of many men who were anything but unattached, Jessie reminded herself.

“I’ll be right back,” Clint said, swinging open the door. “Better keep her out of the cold draft.”

“Oh, right. I’ll leave the door unlatched,” Jessie said, heading for the living room.

As Clint disappeared out into the snow again, Jessie dashed to her bedroom, hugging Daisy close. She set Daisy on the bed and quickly changed her diaper. She had perfected her technique during the night and now managed to put a fresh diaper on the baby without using up half a bag of them in the process.

She was about to scoop Daisy up and take her back out to the living room when she caught sight of her own reflection in the mirror over her oak dressing table.

Jessie winced.

After bringing Daisy in last night, she hadn’t had a moment to think about herself. Not even time enough to shower and change into her nightgown. She had slept in the rocking chair, wearing a big plaid bathrobe over her waitress uniform. Half the pins had fallen out of her hair and it now looked like something was nesting on her head.

Oh, Lordy! It was amazing the man didn’t turn and run when I opened the door this morning, she thought. She was about to put Daisy down and attempt some emergency repairs when she heard an unholy roar from the living room.

“What in God’s name—” It was Clint. She scooped up Daisy, then rushed down the hallway just in time to see Clint standing in the doorway of her living room with white parcels hanging from each hand.

She wondered what the problem was. Had he hurt himself? Twisted an ankle in the snow? She drew closer and stood right behind him. She looked past his broad back and through the doorway to see what he saw.

The living room looked like a cyclone had struck. Large, white balls of rejected diapers littered the couch and floor. Baby clothes, towels, all of Daisy’s blankets, cotton balls and a few brightly colored plastic cups that Jessie had used to amuse the baby, covered every flat surface.

Just the fallout from her wild night with Daisy, but she hadn’t had a chance to tidy up.

He turned to her, his expression dark, his gaze pinning her like a butterfly on a specimen tray.

“What the hell happened in there?”

“It…uh, got a little out of control last night with the baby, I guess,” Jessie stammered. “She wasn’t…um, quite as easy as I thought to take care of.”

“You told me you knew all about taking care of a baby,” he reminded her in a stern, quiet tone.

Jessie’s mind raced. She could lie her way out of this. She could tell him that Daisy was a particularly difficult baby. The roughest, toughest, most stubborn little critter she’d ever come across. Though the baby’s present calm disposition certainly belied that explanation.

“Well? Do you or don’t you?” he demanded.

“It’s just—” Jessie cleared her throat and started over. “It’s just that it’s been a while since I watched a baby alone and those darn disposable diapers must have been factory rejects because—”

Daisy reached up and swatted Jessie’s mouth. The baby had obviously been entranced by the movement of her lips, but the gesture made Jessie think she was trying to say, “Cut the bull, Jessie. This guy isn’t buying.”

Jessie paused and looked down at Daisy. She took her little hand and pressed a soft kiss on the baby’s palm. Daisy gurgled and smiled.

“You don’t really have much experience caring for kids, do you?” he asked again, in a softer tone.

“Uh, no.” Jessie glanced up him, then down at Daisy again. “No, I don’t,” she admitted with a sigh. “But I must say I got a crash course last night.”

“It sure as hell looks like somethin, crashed in there,” Clint said, glancing into the living room again. “Crashed and burned.”

Jessie studied his expression. The elation she’d felt hearing that Daisy was staying for the next two days instantly drained away.

She walked past him into the living room and sat down in the rocker. She sat Daisy on her lap and rocked. The baby’s eyes widened and she smiled as the chair dipped to and fro.

“I guess that means you don’t want to leave her with me after all,” Jessie said with her gaze still fixed on Daisy.

Clint was standing near the chair, looking down at the two of them. He pulled off his gloves, then removed his jacket and placed it on a chair. He sighed and rubbed his face with his hand.

“I don’t know that I have much of a choice,” he finally replied.

Jessie looked up at him. She could feel her gaze getting misty, her eyes filling with tears. This was so silly. She knew the baby had to go sooner or later. Today or the day after next. What did it matter? And she had lied to him. She could no longer deny it.

She sniffed and looked down at Daisy again. She didn’t want to cry. At least not in front of him.

Daisy was happily amusing herself with Jessie’s fingers. She let out a happy, high-pitched shriek that shattered the tense silence.

“What now?” Jessie asked him in a thick voice.

He ran a hand absently through his thick hair. A muscle twitched in his lean cheek, yet his expression showed nothing. Not anger or even annoyance. Certainly not sympathy.

“I guess I’ll have to take her back,” he said.

And the look on her face just about broke his heart. Those huge brown eyes, glistening with unshed tears. Her head bowed again as she stared down at the baby who sat so contentedly in her lap. She looked as if she’d run herself ragged last night, he noted. Without a word of complaint, either. He had the craziest urge to lean over and wrap his arms around her, to feel her head rest on his shoulder as some of that wild, wonderful hair brushed against his cheek.

You are ten kinds of a fool, Clint silently cussed himself. He should have known better than to get involved with this woman—he should have known a hell of lot better by now.

Jessie cleared her throat and looked up at him. “You seem to know a lot about babies,” she remarked in a quiet voice. “What to do for them and everything.”

His eyes narrowed. His expression hardened. “I’m not able to care for Daisy, if that’s what you’re driving at. For one thing, there’s no one to stay with her when I’m on my shift, or called out for an emergency.”

All he’d said was true and certainly logical. But there was something under his words, some other, more personal reason why caring for Daisy by himself was not an option—though he clearly knew how. Something in his past, Jessie guessed. She had the urge to probe further, yet something in the way Clint looked at her at that very moment warned her off. His look told her that she was treading on very sensitive ground and would do best to back off.

“Oh, I understand,” Jessie said. “I wasn’t suggesting that you could look after her. It’s just that, I was thinking, since you do seem to know how to care for her so much better than I do, that you could stay awhile and show me what to do. You know, sort of give me some baby lessons?”

“You want me to give you baby lessons?” He stared at her; his thick dark brows rose and his blue eyes widened. “Are you this crazy all the time? Or is it just because of the baby?”

“Well, why not?” Jessie argued. She stood up, holding Daisy against her shoulder. “You could run through the basics with me for an hour or two. If you still don’t think I can handle her after that, then you can take her to Whitewood and I promise I won’t say a word.”

Clint shook his head and tossed his hands up in the air. “I can take her right now, you know. I don’t exactly need your permission,” he reminded her. “And besides, you lied to me last night, Jessie.”

Jessie stared at him and bit down on her lower lip. The way he’d said her name, as if they’d know each other for years, instead of hours, momentarily distracted her, his deep voice like rough velvet sweeping across her senses.

“Yes, that’s true,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I did that. I apologize. It’s not normally, well, something I do. But I thought I could handle her.” Jessie looked down at Daisy, who was contentedly fingering a strand of her hair. “And I guess I just couldn’t resist trying.”

Clint drew in a deep breath. He was standing quite close to her, so close that she had to tip her head back to see his face. She was distracted by his nearness, yet didn’t feel she wanted to—or was even able to—step away. His expression was unreadable; his well-formed mouth pursed in a frown.

“All right,” he said finally. His voice was so low and deep, she’d hardly heard him. “I’ll show you what to do. But if it doesn’t work out, no arguments. Promise?”

“I promise,” Jessie agreed eagerly. She could feel herself smiling so widely, it practically hurt. “I’ll be good at this. You’ll see.”

The only thing he could see at that moment was a beautiful, warmhearted woman whose dejected expression had suddenly turned to pure joy. And now all that radiant loveliness was aimed right at him, shining just for him, and he felt as if he’d been hit by a zillion watts of sunshine. And appropriately enough, he thought wryly, he was melting at her feet, like a lump of something soft and sticky.

“Let’s get started,” he said gruffly. “I don’t have a lot of time for this today.” Although in truth, his shift didn’t start until the evening.