the transfer. Inundated with the love she’d felt for months, Hannah smoothed a tuft of wispy black hair from her little girl’s cheek and held her close.
In response, wariness gleamed in her daughter’s dark eyes, resistance tautened her body. Her baby wasn’t struggling to get away, but she wasn’t melting into her embrace, either, Hannah noted in disappointment. Rather, she regarded her with a world-weary resignation that went far beyond her age.
It’s going to take time for her to adjust and to trust that you won’t leave her, too, Hannah had been warned.
Intellectually, she’d braced herself for just this situation, many times over. Still, she felt momentarily shaken by her child’s stoic resistance.
The nanny handed over a diaper bag containing formula, rice cereal and half a dozen diapers. “We return at nine in morning, escort you to local court, finalize adoption.” The nanny touched Isabella’s cheek. “Zaijian, Zhu Ming.”
Isabella’s lower lip trembled at the nanny’s soft goodbye. She looked even more frightened and uncertain as the woman walked away and the door shut gently behind her.
Hannah caught a glimpse of Joe’s expression—he seemed as transfixed and in awe as she—then turned her full attention back to the child of her dreams.
“It’s all right, sweetheart,” she soothed, walking slowly toward the windows overlooking the city. She’d hoped the view would soothe the little girl. Instead, the view of the tall, elegant buildings made Isabella Zhu Ming all the more anxious. Tears eked out of the corners of her infant’s eyes. She wasn’t making a sound, but she was clearly very distressed.
And no wonder, she thought, her heart going out to her sweet little baby girl. Isabella Zhu Ming probably hadn’t been out of the orphanage since she was abandoned in a marketplace, the previous autumn. To be dressed in clothes that were way too warm, driven several hours on a bus and then to be promptly handed over to a stranger who didn’t even speak her own language had to be very frightening indeed.
Resolved to make this transition as easy as possible, Hannah continued walking her baby about the hotel room, gently rubbing her back and speaking softly. “We’ve got all the time in the world, my sweet baby girl. Your momma’s here, and I promise from here on out I’ll do everything in my power to protect you so you never feel abandoned ever again.”
JOE’D THOUGHT EVERY OUNCE of overwrought sentimentality had been wrung out of him in the year after his parents’ death. He didn’t cry, period. So it was a shock to feel his throat tightening as he watched Hannah interact with her baby for the very first time.
There was something so tender in the way she held the child.
Something equally moving in the way the child was responding to her.
Which went to show how much a mother’s love could mean.
And Hannah did love this child she had barely met. That was apparent. The two were already bonding, albeit slowly and cautiously on Isabella Zhu Ming’s part.
Noting the way the baby had started chewing and sucking on her tiny fist, Hannah retrieved the bag of essential items the nanny had left. With her free hand, Hannah perused what was inside the canvas knapsack. Still cuddling the baby close to her breasts, she paused to read a typewritten set of instructions.
Wordlessly, Hannah hazarded a glance at Joe, who was trying without much success to get back to work, then frowned as she walked back over to the bed to put the baby down.
As soon as the baby hit the feather comforter, she began to cry.
“Oh, dear.” Hannah immediately picked the infant back up again.
Isabella stopped crying and held on to her for dear life.
Hannah looked at Joe. “I know I promised I wouldn’t ask…”
Uh-oh.
“…but according to the schedule, Isabella is supposed to have a bottle of soy formula at 4 p.m. I need to get the bottle ready and check her diaper and see if it’s wet, and since this is all so new to her…”
Hannah looked so tortured about having to make the request, he let her off the hook with a casual offer of assistance. “You want me to hold her?” he said as if it were no big deal, when it felt like it was going to be a very big deal.
Hannah nodded, looking emotional again. “Would you, please? Just for a moment?” she asked in a low, quavering tone.
He held out his arms.
Isabella went into them with a suspicious look. When Hannah eased away, Isabella continued to glare at him. Surprised at the tenderness welling up inside of him, Joe offered his little finger. Still scowling, the baby stared at it for a long minute, then thrust out her lower lip petulantly and latched on to it with one tiny fist.
Joe looked into eyes that held far too much cynicism for someone so young. He tried—and failed—to coax even a hint of a smile from her. “I don’t think she likes me as much as she likes you,” he teased.
Hannah lifted her brows accepting the lighthearted comment with the sentiment with which it had been made. Turning back to her task, she prepared the bottle with powdered soy formula and boiled water from the thermos that was standard in all Taiwanese hotel rooms. “She probably just hasn’t been around many men. I think all the workers in the orphanages are women.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Joe regretted his pass on the razor that morning. He lifted Isabella’s tiny hand to his stubble and saw her frown as if perplexed. “You probably think I should have shaved prior to our introduction, huh?”
Isabella stared at Joe, wide-eyed.
At least for the moment, Joe thought, she was distracted from her hunger…
Hannah fastened the nipple onto the mouth of the plastic baby bottle and twisted tight. As she approached them, she grinned and tilted her head a little to one side to survey him better. “You do look a little like a pirate,” she said thoughtfully.
Aware the dramatic repartee was working to entertain the solemn child, Joe pretended to be incensed. “You hear that, Isabella Zhu Ming? I think I’ve just been insulted!”
Isabella turned to Hannah, as if waiting to see her reaction to Joe’s assertion.
Hannah did not disappoint. She made a face that was just as comical—and just as interesting to little Isabella.
“No, you weren’t!” Hannah scoffed, peering at Joe and then Isabella. “Pirates are sexy!”
“Are we talking about me now—or the actors in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?” He glided closer.
Hannah shook the bottle vigorously, blushing all the while. “Orlando Bloom, of course. I’ve always had a bit of a crush on him and he made an incredible swashbuckler.”
Good to know Hannah hadn’t been hitting on him just now, Joe thought wryly. No sense in setting either of them up for disappointment. Not that he had ever expected anything to come of his association with Hannah, anyway. She was putting down roots in her hometown. He had nowhere to go back to and didn’t really want a home base. Traveling was easier. Roaming around the way he did, there was no expectation of belonging. All that was required was that he fit in temporarily, and then move on, without looking back. He was an ace at that.
Hannah tested the formula on her wrist. “Whoa. They told us to use the boiled water in the hotel thermoses for making formula, but this is going to have to cool off for a minute.”
Too late, Isabella had seen the bottle. Making no bones about how hungry she was, she reached out her hands and when it didn’t come right away, began to cry.
“Hang on, little one, it’s coming,” Hannah soothed, wincing at the sound of the baby’s high-pitched, heartbreaking sobs. She rushed to put the bottle under cool running water. After a minute or so beneath the tap, the formula had cooled enough for her to give