Janice Maynard - Baby for Keeps

Even if his bookkeeper hadn’t quit, he would have found some way to help Mia. He had lots of friends in town. But serendipity meant that not only did he really need Mia’s help, but he was able to provide a place for her and Cora to stay rent-free. This arrangement was going to go a long way toward easing his conscience.

He turned over in the bed and sprawled on his stomach, feeling sleep struggle to claim him. At times like this, he envied his brother Liam. What would it be like to have the woman you loved tucked up in bed beside you every night? Zoe’s effervescence was the perfect foil for Liam’s serious side.

Dylan had heard his brother laugh more in the past few months than he had since they were kids. Liam was happier, less stressed, infinitely mellower. Even when it came to Liam, Dylan had guilt. When their father disappeared two decades ago, Liam, a mere lad of sixteen, had manned up to help their mother run the Silver Beeches Lodge, the extremely high-end hotel that had built their family finances.

While the rest of them were exploring options and making mistakes and generally learning what life was all about, Liam had stepped forward in a course already mapped out. He claimed not to resent his lot. He’d told Dylan more than once that running the hotel with Maeve Kavanagh was something he enjoyed.

Even so, Dylan hoped that Zoe would help Liam take care of a few items on his bucket list. His older brother was a hell of a guy, and he deserved the best.

Dylan sighed deeply, his body boneless as it succumbed to sleep. He’d have to paint the apartment before Mia came, and rearrange furniture to make space for the baby bed...and maybe even...

* * *

Fortunately for Mia, she wasn’t a pack rat. Most of her belongings consisted of books and bookcases, kitchen items and clothes. With Janette’s help, she spent one weekend boxing up most of the contents of her condo and ferrying it a bit at a time to a storage unit. She paid for three months in advance, knowing that surely by that time she would be back on her feet.

She still had her suspicions that Dylan was inventing work for her. His need to say thank-you, or do penance, was not something she took seriously. Anything she had done for him in the past had been freely offered. But she wasn’t going to turn down the chance to have a safety net while she looked for a new job and to spend time with Cora. Eight weeks...twelve at the most. That seemed reasonable.

Having a shot at becoming one of Dylan’s flings was merely a bonus. He was a man. She was a woman. All she had to do was get him to concentrate less on her IQ and more on her curves.

Cora, bless her, had been in a sunny mood most of the time, snoozing in her crib until it had to be dismantled. Janette’s boyfriend offered to pick up the small U-Haul trailer Mia had rented. He insisted on hooking it to her SUV and helping her load everything that was going to Silver Glen.

By the time Mia pulled away from her building, waving at Janette in the rearview mirror, she was exhausted, but the sense of turning a new page in her life was infinitely preferable to the miasma of panic and failure that had dogged her the last month. All of her misgivings had dissipated. Returning to Silver Glen was going to be wonderful.

* * *

Five hours later, she turned onto the street where the Silver Dollar was located and hit her brakes to avoid crashing into a fire engine. In front of her, two white-and-orange barricades made it clear that she had reached the end of the road.

She rolled down her window and leaned out to speak to a uniformed cop. “What’s going on?” She couldn’t see far enough ahead to tell what had caused the commotion.

The cop shrugged. “Fire at the Silver Dollar, but they’ve got it under control now.”

All the breath left her lungs. “Dylan?”

Her pale-faced distress must have registered, because he backpedalled rapidly. “No one hurt, ma’am. It happened early this morning. The building was empty.”

She leaned back in her seat and tried to catch her breath. “I’m supposed to meet someone there.”

The officer glanced in the backseat where Cora was sucking enthusiastically on a pacifier. “At the bar?” His skepticism made her feel unaccountably guilty.

“Mr. Kavanagh has hired me to be his new bookkeeper. I’m moving into the upstairs apartment.”

The man shook his head, sympathy on his weathered face. “Not today, you’re not. I hope you have a plan B. The second floor is a total loss.”

* * *

Dylan leaned against a lamppost, grimly studying what was left of his saloon. Thankfully, the main floor had sustained mostly smoke and water damage. But it would be quite a while before the Silver Dollar could reopen for business. He would pay his staff full wages, of course. But that still left the problem of his newest employee. And her child.

As he pondered his next steps, someone tapped him on the arm. When he turned, Mia stood looking at him, Cora clutched to her chest. “What happened, Dylan?” Her eyes were round.

“My own damn fault, apparently. It’s been hot as Hades this last week, so I left the window AC units in the apartment running on high all night. I didn’t want you or the baby to be uncomfortable today while you were getting settled. From what the fire marshal tells me, it looks like one of them shorted out and started the fire.”

Mia turned to stare at the building, her expression hard to read. The scene still crawled with firefighters and investigators. No one wanted to take a chance that nearby structures might get involved.

Her shoulders lifted and fell. “Well, I guess that’s that.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means Cora and I will be driving back to Raleigh.”

He heard the resignation in her voice. “Don’t be ridiculous. Nothing has changed except where you and Cora will be sleeping. My house is huge, with more than enough room for guests.”

Her chin lifted. “I’m not a charity case. It’s out of the question.”

For a moment he saw a spark of the temper he hadn’t known existed. Perhaps Mia wasn’t so meek after all. “I hired you in good faith. I’ll sue for breach of contract if you leave.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t be absurd.”

“The building may be a mess at the moment, but I still have a business to run on paper.”

“I’ll have to find a place to rent until the repairs are finished.”

“First of all, rental property in Silver Glen is slim pickings. And even if you found something, they’d want you to sign a twelve-month lease. You and Cora won’t be here that long.”

“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

He had ruffled her feathers for sure. “It won’t be so bad, I swear. My place is plenty big. I won’t bother you at all.”

“And what if the baby bothers you? What if she cries in the middle of the night?”

He grinned, feeling his mood lift despite the day’s events. “I think I can handle it. C’mon, Mia. Think outside the box. We were friends once upon a time.”

“I’ve changed. I don’t let people push me around anymore.”

“From what I remember, that was never the case with us.” He shrugged. “If anything, you were the one ordering me to do this and that.”

“I wouldn’t have had to get tough if you hadn’t been so stubborn.”

“I’ve changed,” he said, echoing her assertion and giving her his most angelic smile.

“I’ll have to see it to believe it.”

“Then that settles it. Let me get my car and you can follow me home.”

“I never agreed to this nonsensical plan.”

“But you know you’re going to in the end. From what I can tell, you’re stuck with me for a few weeks. Chin up, Mia. It won’t be so bad.”