SUSAN MEIER - Bringing Up Babies

“Oh, Chas. Who do you think you’re talking to here? I know firsthand that you’re more susceptible than the rest of us to a pretty girl. But this time you’re not alone. All of us are like putty around someone as gorgeous as Lily.”

Chas pinned him with a look. “Then I guess I don’t have anything to worry about, since you’ve just admitted you find her attractive, too.”

“Of course I do,” Grant acknowledged with a hearty laugh, then he leaned over the mahogany desk and smiled cunningly. “But I’m not going to be the one alone with her tomorrow night.”

After dinner the following evening, Chas understood exactly what Grant meant. His brother didn’t even have to allude to the other mistakes Chas had made in his life. This situation had enough trouble of its own. With the kids fed and happy, the house was unusually quiet. The sun had begun to set, and sporadic lamps made cozy yellow arches of light and cast odd shadows.

All in all the whole place was too intimate.

He paced the living room, knowing he should go up to the nursery and start bathtime, but feeling it was far too dangerous. He convinced himself that Lily could handle the job alone, since Grant had taught her last night to bathe one child at a time while keeping the others entertained in the play yard.

Sighing, Chas sat on the worn office chair and leaned back. In a good many ways he was glad he’d been wrong about Lily. Like Evan’s wife, Claire, she certainly had a way with babies. Though Claire had gotten her experience by helping with her younger siblings, Lily hadn’t volunteered where she’d garnered her information about raising kids except for her one statement about babysitting for her sister. Chas hadn’t asked her to elaborate on the situation, though he supposed he should have since that would have been a normal question to ask on an interview…if his brother had let him interview her. But, now that she was here and working, if he asked for details, his probing could be construed as interest in her personal life, and Chas didn’t want Lily to think he was interested in her personal life.

Because he wasn’t. He really wasn’t in the market for a wife. If anything, a casual relationship was about as high on his agenda as a woman could get until his law practice was established and he had a better handle on being Annie’s guardian. Since Lily worked for him, a relationship with her was completely out of the question.

So that meant everything had to be aboveboard. Nothing personal between them. She was his employee. He was her boss. And that was that.

Oddly enough, Chas suddenly felt better, maybe more in control. Satisfied that he’d resolved this whole issue in his mind, he rose from his seat. He supposed he could help Lily after all.

Exactly as she had been instructed to do, she’d placed Cody and Taylor in the play yard. When Chas walked into the nursery, he immediately pulled Cody out of the colorful pen and stepped into the bathroom where Lily was bathing Annie.

“Hey, pumpkin,” he said, bending to tickle Annie’s chin. “You like the water, don’t you?”

Annie rewarded him with two swift splashes.

“She certainly is a water baby,” Lily agreed, reaching behind her for the towel she’d strategically placed so she wouldn’t have to leave Annie’s side.

Though Lily wasn’t struggling, Chas slid Cody to the floor, pulled Annie from the tub and placed her in the towel Lily held.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Anything I can do to help?”

Lily pointed to Cody with her chin. “How about undressing that one for his bath while I dress this one?”

“Sounds good to me,” Chas agreed, but as if Cody understood what had been said, he crawled around Chas’s legs and out of the room. Chas turned and tried to grab him, but he missed Cody’s T-shirt by a millimeter, and the little boy zipped off, giggling.

“Oh, great! We’ll be lucky to catch him now. He might only be crawling, but he’s a slick one.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I should have known better than to talk so openly about his b-a-t-h in front of him.”

Lily grinned. “Doesn’t like the water?”

Chas thought a second. “Actually, I don’t think that’s it. I think Cody’s just stubborn, like my brother Grant.”

As he dashed out of the bathroom after Cody, a perverse part of Chas knew he’d added the afterthought because he didn’t like the idea of Grant being attracted to Lily. It hit him that he was jealous of his brother being attracted to a woman neither one of them could have, and he almost groaned. No! No! He couldn’t have lost his control this easily…and without warning. For Pete’s sake, he’d hardly looked at the woman!

He found Cody cooing to Taylor through the mesh of the play yard and scooped him up. “You’re a bad boy today.”

Cody giggled, playfully slapped Chas’s cheek and said, “Baboy.”

Though he knew the child didn’t understand what he’d said, Chas sighed. “You won’t get any argument out of me.” He swung Cody up to the changing table and began removing his clothes. When Cody remembered he’d been running because it was bathtime, he let out a high-pitched squeal.

“Shush!” Chas scolded softly. “Do you want the women to think you’re a coward?”

Cody stopped squealing and blinked up at his brother.

“Worse,” Chas said, not sure why his little impromptu heart-to-heart talk had caught his brother’s interest, but mightily glad that it had. “You’re making me look bad. Which means you’re making both of us look bad.”

Cody only peered at him skeptically.

“Trust me, Cody, most of the things you do in life you’ll be doing to please a woman….”

“What are you telling that poor, innocent child?”

Caught, Chas felt all the blood drain from his face, but when he peeked behind him and saw Lily smiling, he concluded she hadn’t heard enough of his conversation to grasp the real meaning, and he shrugged carelessly.

“I decided it’s never too early to start him on the facts of life.”

“Then at least tell him both sides of the story,” Lily said. After lifting naked Cody off the changing table, she nuzzled his cheek with her nose, then in her most earnest voice said, “Women do a hundred more things to please men than men would even think to do for women. We ask for a few basics like cleanliness,” she said, indicating the bathroom to the little boy who looked at her as if he really was trying to understand. “And honesty. Everything else is a matter of personal opinion.”

Chas actually thought about that, wondering if she meant what she’d said. He could be clean. He could certainly be honest. It would be the easiest relationship of his life….

Lord, what was he doing? Daydreaming about a relationship with her again? This was crazy. Sure, the woman was pretty, and she seemed to be easygoing and nice. But for the love of Heaven, he’d only met her yesterday. He didn’t even know her…and, more important, he didn’t want a relationship. He’d already had three that were the absolute pits. Besides, he had things to do…

Like get his sister ready for her bath, Chas thought, pulling himself out of his reverie. Then they could put the kids to bed and get into separate rooms before he drove himself crazy.

Chas saw to it that bathing the kids was accomplished quickly. He said good-night to each of the babies and tiptoed out of the room, leaving Lily to wait for the children to fall asleep.

Glad to be alone, he went to the den and opened a bottle of scotch and a file for a case sent to him by a large Philadelphia firm that had agreed to employ him long-distance for research and document writing. Since he needed sustenance until his own practice took off and since he knew nobody could ever have too much experience, Chas was more than willing to take on the low-level job.