you have a dog?”
“No. What about you?”
“We went through three before I left home.”
Reese had the diaper ready. Nick lowered his son in the crib and put it on with no hesitation this time. She handed him the one-piece fitted suit with no legs. After he’d snapped it, he picked him up again.
“Let me brush his hair and then he’s ready for the day.” As she lifted her arm, it brushed against Nick’s. An unconscious thing to be sure, the lightest of touches. But he’d felt her warmth against his skin and the next thing he knew it had swamped his sensitized body.
He hadn’t been intimate with a woman since the last time he’d slept with Erica. That was the reason for this total physical reaction. It had to be.
“First things first,” she declared. “There’s a diaper pail around here somewhere with a scented deodorizer. Ah—” She opened one of the cartons. “Just what we need.” After lining it, in went the diaper. Then she lifted her head, causing her ponytail to swish like quicksilver. “Where do you want the crib to go?”
He struggled to concentrate. “How about the far wall. The sun won’t reach him there when the shutters are open, and it will leave both doorways free.”
“Perfect.” She moved things out of the way so she could roll it into position across the hardwood floor.
Nick settled Jamie back in his swing and they got to work opening all the boxes. While he put the stroller together, she stacked diapers, baby wipes, powder, baby cream, lotion and ear swabs in the changing-table compartments. After watching her bathe the baby with nonallergenic products, he realized there was a reason for everything she’d bought.
“I’m glad you took the Oriental rug away. I can’t wait for you to see the baby furniture,” she said as he reached for one of the bigger cartons.
Curious himself, Nick opened the box and discovered a child’s antique white dresser with olive-green trim and a Winnie the Pooh hand-painted over the drawers. The next box held a child’s chair in the shape of Piglet. A big Eyeore dominated the oval hook rug. In another carton he found a lamp whose base was shaped like a honey pot. The last carton was the biggest. When he opened it, he found an adult rocking chair with Owl as the motif.
“That’s so you can sit in here and feed him while you rock him to sleep.” She’d thought of everything. The set charmed him. She charmed him.
He took all the boxes out of the apartment and piled them in the hall. When he came back, Reese had placed the furniture around and had put a soft, furry Winnie the Pooh in one corner of his crib.
“You’ve turned this room into the Hundred Acre Wood. I like it.”
She whirled around with an anxious look on her face. “Honestly?”
“I doubt there’s another nursery more inviting. Jamie will grow up loving to be in here. Thank you for helping me.” She was an amazing person who had the knack of making everything exciting.
“I haven’t had so much fun in years.”
Neither had he. The ramifications of that admission were beginning to haunt him. “It’s noon. We need a break.”
Reese nodded. “I think your son is ready for another bottle.” She finished putting the outfits she’d bought into the dresser drawers.
“As soon as I wash my hands, I’ll be right back to try out the rocker with him.”
When Nick returned a few minutes later he found her putting more things on top of the dresser. Besides a large, colorfully illustrated edition of Winnie the Pooh, plus a leather-bound book that said Baby’s Memories, she’d added a pacifier, a couple of rattles, some infant painkiller, a baby thermometer, his little brush and a box of tissues.
In an incredibly short period of time she’d written Jamie’s signature on the face of his apartment. Now it was their home, father and son.
At the thought of what would have happened if he hadn’t hired her, he experienced real terror because it had opened up an old window of time. For a moment he’d glimpsed the painful gray emptiness of yesterday. He wanted that window closed forever so he wouldn’t have to know those emotions again.
Needing to feel his son’s wiggly body, he drew him out of the swing and they sat down in the rocker. Reese had put the bottle of formula next to it. While Nick fed him, she placed a burp cloth over his shoulder. He felt her gaze and could tell something was on that fascinating mind of hers. “I’ll be right back.”
Before long she returned with her phone and started snapping pictures of him and Jamie, of the room itself. “I’ll get these photos made into prints and start his scrapbook. My mom kept one for each of us and I still look at mine. When you get time, give me any photos you’d like to add.”
“I’ll do that.” When he’d separated from Erica, he’d instructed the maids to put the wedding album and photos in the dresser drawer of the bedroom at the other end of the hall.
“While you’re at it, if you have his birth certificate and the picture they took of him at the hospital, I could add it,” Reese suggested. “There’s a family tree in his book where I can put in pictures of you and his mother, and his grandparents. After he’s older, he’ll pore over them for hours.”
Nick smiled as the ideas rolled from her. She seemed to really care about Jamie and his future. She was remarkable.
“Later on I’ll see what I can dig up.”
“Good.” She took one more picture of the stuffed animal in the bed. “We’ll call his baby book The Penthouse at Pooh Corner.”
Nick broke into laughter. He couldn’t help it, even though it startled Jamie, who fussed for a minute before settling down again. Her way of putting things was a never-ending source of delight.
In the doorway to the hall she said, “You two deserve some quality time together so I’m going to leave you alone. While you’re feeding him, would you mind if I took a tour of your apartment?”
“This is your home for the next three months. I want you to treat it as such.”
“Thank you.”
Actually Reese’s request was an excuse to go back to her room. She’d have all summer to admire the treasures in Nick’s home and much preferred to do it when she had the apartment to herself.
The important thing here was to give him time alone with Jamie. Tomorrow he’d have to go back to work. Today was a gift he could enjoy with that adorable little boy who was an absolute dream to take care of.
For the moment she needed to acquaint herself with his kitchen. The disposable bottles of formula the nurse had sent in the diaper bag would be gone in another couple of feedings. Reese had bought the same brand of powdered formula and a set of bottles yesterday. She needed to run them through the dishwasher.
When she reached the fantasy kitchen, she wished Julia Child had been with her so she could hear her go into ecstasy. Now there was a chopping block befitting a piece of veal she could slap down and pound the life out of before she turned it into mouthwatering escalope de veau.
While Reese was still in a bemused state, the house phone rang. It sounded so loud, she jumped in surprise and hurried to pick it up for fear it would wake Jamie, who was probably asleep by now.
“Hello?”
“Ms. Chamberlain? This is Albert, the concierge.”
“Oh, yes. Thank you for your help yesterday, Albert.”
“That was quite a collection of things you bought. How’s the nursery coming along?”
“We’ve got it all put together.”
“That sounds like Mr. Wainwright.