The Baby Beneath the Mistletoe Read online

The woman took her error in stride. “My mistake. Hard to tell these days.” With the license that her advanced years gave her, she looked from Mikky to Tony. “How long have you two been married?”

  “Just going on to two years,” Mikky answered before Tony could set the woman straight. She saw the woman look at her in surprise as she unlocked her car. It was obvious she thought it unusual that they had come to the store in two separate vehicles. Mikky inclined her head toward the woman and said in a stage whisper, “That’s the secret to a happy marriage. Separate cars.”

  The woman shuffled off, shaking her head.

  Mikky laughed softly under her breath. When she turned around, she saw Tony looking at her. It was obvious that he hadn’t a clue as to what made her tick and he knew it

  “You’re certifiable, you know that?”

  “If you’re trying to flatter me, you need to brush up on your technique,” she said.

  He put the last of the groceries into his car and then closed the trunk. “And what’s all this garbage about being married?”

  Mikky lifted a shoulder carelessly and let it drop. She was beginning to enjoy riding him. This was far preferable to butting heads over designs and engineering points. “The woman was cooing over the baby. You didn’t want her to think we were living together in sin, did you?”

  “We’re not living together at all.” Tony caught himself before his voice went up, then stopped and looked at her closely. She was doing this to torture him. Obviously she was enjoying herself. “This is a whole other side to you I’ve never seen.”

  “Why should you?” She placed Justin in the back and secured his seat. “You’re always charging at me and biting my head off.”

  He thought of some of the barbs she’d delivered at his expense. If he was “biting her head off,” it certainly didn’t seem to cramp her style any. “Too bad it keeps growing back.”

  Mikky opened her door, then remembered that she had no idea what his address was. “Where is it you live? In case we get separated.”

  He paused, obviously debating the wisdom of having her come to his place. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”

  They’d already been through this. “I have seven brothers and sisters, five of whom are younger than I am. I was the one who helped raise the others. What are your credentials?”

  Tony blew out a breath. He supposed he could use the help. He could always call his aunt, but this might go over better if he thought through what he was going to say. Reluctantly he gave Mikky the address to the apartment complex where he was staying.

  Tony unlocked the door, shouldering his way in first as he juggled three bags. Holding the baby, Mikky walked in behind him. She looked around very slowly. The small living room was crowded with large boxes that bore the stamp of a moving company’s logo on their sides.

  She turned toward Tony as he deposited his load on the small, square kitchen table. “How long ago did you say you’d moved here?”

  “I didn’t say.” But she wanted to know, he thought in resignation, so he told her. “Two months, why?”

  Two months. That meant he’d moved in just as the project had started. Mikky wondered if that was why everything was still in boxes, or if there was another reason. Maybe he hadn’t made up his mind to stay yet. Either that or he hated to unpack.

  She shrugged. Justin began to fuss in earnest against her shoulder. “No reason, I just didn’t think you were a slow mover, that’s all.” There were more boxes in the small hallway. Her guess was that they littered the entire apartment. She couldn’t live like this. Clutter annoyed her. “Don’t you like having things where you can find them?”

  There were things in the boxes Tony wasn’t up to going through yet. They were mingled with other, common, everyday items he’d learned to do without for the time being. But he didn’t feel like explaining any of that to her. “Not particularly.”

  “I have no comeback for that.”

  “Thank God.” He reached for Justin.

  She took a step back. “Why don’t you let me go on holding him while you unpack? Unless you want to leave the food where it is, too?”

  He didn’t particularly like the way she stuck her tongue into her cheek when she teased him. “You have a nasty streak a mile wide, you know that?”

  She wandered into the bedroom. She was right, more boxes. “They tell me I grow on people.”

  He poked his head out of the kitchen. The last thing he wanted to do was to flatter her. “They lie.”

  “I’m not here to grow on anybody.” She walked back into the kitchen. “I’m here to help a guy through the night.”

  He supposed that in her own, offbeat, irritating way, she meant well. “I’m sure the baby appreciates that.”

  “I was talking about you.”

  Chapter Four

  “Where do you want this?”

  Tony looked up from the groceries he was unpacking to see Mikky walking toward him. Emerging from the bedroom with Justin on her arm, she held out the diaper she’d just taken off the boy.

  The aroma preceded it.

  “As far away from here as possible.” Grabbing the bag closest to him, he held it open under the soiled diaper. Mikky dropped it in, and he clamped the bag closed immediately, tying the two ends together tightly to momentarily help seal in the smell. He took it out to where the trash bin was located as quickly as possible.

  Mikky watched him leave, amused. Justin made a noise against her shoulder. “I think he’s just found something about you he isn’t too crazy about,” she whispered, brushing her cheek lightly against the baby’s head. She loved the soft, downy feel of baby-fine hair. Loved, when she came right down to it, the very feel of babies themselves. “Who do you belong to, little man?” she murmured. “And why in heaven’s name would they ever have given you up?”

  Nothing, she knew, would ever have made her give up her own child. No matter what. But then, she had to look no further than in her own family to know that not everyone felt the way she did.

  Tony returned, closing the door behind him. “Mission accomplished?” she teased. He looked so solemn. What did it take to lighten this man up?

  He didn’t bother answering. Instead, he crossed to her and looked at Justin. “I don’t remember them smelling that bad.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to say that if he’d ever changed diapers on a regular basis, he would know just how bad it could get. But something told her that any reference to his past as a father would only be scratching at a scab that hadn’t fully healed.

  So she shrugged nonchalantly, shifting the baby to her other side.

  “You tend to forget that kind of thing, along with labor, they tell me.” Although her sister Lisa could go on for hours about that—longer than she’d actually been in labor. “Nature’s way of ensuring that the species continues. Otherwise the line would have stopped with the first baby that Adam and Eve had—not that they had disposable diapers.”

  A movement caught his eye. Shifting so that he was behind her, Tony looked at the baby. “He’s sucking up your shirt.”

  Gently, he tried to disengage the rooting mouth from Mikky’s shoulder. His fingers skimmed against her, and he felt the same unsettling sensation he’d felt earlier. The closest thing he could liken it to was static electricity, but the night was far from dry enough for that. Tony didn’t dwell on it. Some things were better off dismissed.

  The sudden contact surprised Mikky. As did the edgy feeling that arrived in its wake. A little like discovering an unexpected kick to a harmless drink, she thought, turning so that she could face Tony.

  Justin was back to working on her shirt. The wet spot was getting wider. With a firm grasp, she extracted the material again.

  “That’s because he’s still hungry.” She brushed a kiss to the top of the downy head. “C’mon, Justin, let’s feed you something with a little less fiber in it.”

  Shifting the baby so that he now sat astride her hip, his legs dangling on either
side, Mikky made her way back into the kitchen. It was a path not without its challenges.

  “This is some obstacle course you have here.” She glanced toward Tony. How could he live like this? Didn’t he bump into things when he got up in the middle of the night? “You should at least push the boxes over against the walls.”

  What was it about her voice that instantly got his back up? “I appreciate the input,” Tony informed her tersely. “I’d also appreciate it if you restricted your architectural forays to the high school.”

  Well, they seemed to have danced a full circle, Mikky thought, stopping. “That wasn’t a foray, that was a point of common sense. As are most of our clashes over the design.”

  His eyes narrowed as they met hers. “And you’d be the one on the side of common sense.”

  Her smile was wide and triumphant—and almost adorable, if it hadn’t been on her, Tony thought. “Now you’re getting it.”

  He closed his eyes and sighed. “What I am getting is a headache.”

  “Headache?” Mikky laughed at the suggestion. Was he that delicate? Then for all his noble sentiments he was in for a big surprise. “Mister, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” She shifted so that the hip with Justin on it was higher than her other. “Wait until this little fella decides he wants to hold an all-night jam session and all you want to do is build a closer relationship with your pillow. Then you can talk about having a headache.”

  “Right now,” Tony muttered under his breath, “I feel like I’m with a headache.”

  She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she thought it might be better that way. Finally making it into the kitchen, Mikky saw that the jars were all still on the counter. Tony had them lined up in a single row against the wall beside the sink. They were arranged by type. This was probably as close as he came to putting things away. At least he wasn’t completely organizationally challenged, she mused.

  She selected a jar and turned to look at him. “Should I feed him, or do you want to?”

  Tony was surprised that she actually gave him the option. Maybe the woman did have some sense of decorum beneath that tough hide of hers. Because she’d thought to ask instead of assume, he deferred to her. All things considered, he was a little leery of doing this on his own. Since she was here, he could watch. And remember. “I’ll let you do it since you’re the pro.”

  Mikky wasn’t sure if he was giving her a backhanded compliment or if his sarcasm was so well hidden, it had disappeared. With a grin, she gave him the benefit of the doubt. “You just want to put off getting messy as long as possible.”

  He inclined his head. “Okay, maybe there’s that, too.”

  She looked around and found the baby spoon she’d remembered to get. Shrink-wrapped on a rectangular piece of cardboard with the picture of a baby on it, it was all but hermetically sealed. There was no way she was going to get that off with only one hand.

  “Here,” she held it up to him. “Impress me. Get the wrapper off.”

  He took the spoon from her. “Is that all it takes to impress you?” He gave the wrapper a tug. It remained intact.

  “It’d be a start.” Obviously he hadn’t looked very closely. “You’d be surprised how hard those things are to take off without using a knife.”

  “Thanks for the tip,” he muttered, taking a knife out of the drawer. Prying the edge under the spoon, he cut it loose.

  A thank-you. Wow, there was hope for the man yet. Taking the spoon from him, she looked toward the stove. No kettle. Why didn’t that surprise her? What did surprise her was the absence of anything resembling a coffeemaker.

  “Got any hot water?”

  Tony tried to make sense of the question. “You want tea?”

  “No.” She held the spoon up to underscore her request. “I want to sanitize the spoon.”

  “Right,” he muttered. He took the utensil back. “I knew that.”

  “Of course you did.” Because Justin was fussing again, this time in earnest, she began to sway, hoping to distract him. “But tea does sound nice,” she added.

  The sparkle that came into her eyes a moment before she turned away sent another warm, undulating sensation snaking its way through him. Mentally shaking himself loose, Tony began rummaging through a box just off the kitchen.

  “I’m going to have to go down to the convenience store for some tea,” he told her.

  Finding what he was looking for, he took the small saucepan out and filled it with water. Irritating or not, Mikky was going out of her way to help him. He hadn’t figured out her motives yet, but he supposed getting her some tea was the least he could do to repay her. He placed the pan on the burner and set it on high.

  Without losing a beat, she covered the pan. “It’ll boil faster,” she assured him. “If you don’t have any tea, that’s all right. I’m easy. I’ll just take coffee.”

  He had his sincere doubts about her ever being easy. He shrugged indifferently at her change in selection. “Same trip.”

  Moving closer to him, Mikky looked at Tony quizzically. “You don’t have any coffee, either?” Maybe he didn’t believe in stimulants. Which meant he undoubtedly avoided the mirror, she decided. When he wasn’t scowling like Zeus on Olympus, ready to fling down thunderbolts, the man was certainly stimulating to look at. He had a face one of her sisters might have referred to as knock-down, drop-dead gorgeous. “What do you drink in the morning?”

  “Coffee. From the deli truck,” he added, sensing her confusion. A wisp of steam curled up, squeezing out from beneath the rim of the lid. Taking the lid off, he passed the spoon through the water, then rinsed it to cool it off.

  She shook her head. “I couldn’t wait that long. If I don’t get coffee into me first thing in the morning, my motor won’t go.”

  Tony had a feeling she was sorely underestimating her motor. From what he’d observed, especially in the last hour, her so-called “motor” probably ran nonstop night and day. “I thought you said you liked tea.”

  “I do.” Mikky selected ajar proclaiming itself to be a chicken-noodle dinner. “To relax with.” She took the spoon from him. “But just holding this little darling is relaxing enough.” Sitting down at the table, she settled Justin on her lap and started feeding him.

  He couldn’t help noticing that she looked as if she were right at home, holding the baby. There were other things he could be doing instead of watching her slip a small, sliver spoon into a rosebud mouth. But for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what one of them was. So he stood, like some damn wooden statue, he thought, and watched her while bittersweet memories tried to break through and overwhelm him.

  She raised her eyes to his. This time, her teasing smile seemed far less offensive and annoying. He was probably giving her too much credit, he thought.

  “Taking notes?”

  He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets because he didn’t know what else to do with them. She had an uncanny knack of making him feel like a gangly teenager. “Just amazed that you can stay quiet for any length of time.”

  Mikky dipped the spoon into the jar. “You don’t make it easy to like you, you know.”

  He frowned. He wasn’t after her friendship. Just a little cooperation in the workplace. “I wasn’t aware that you felt the need to try.”

  Mikky wondered if he’d always been like this, or if the death of his family had turned him into this malcontent.

  “I try to like everyone I work with. Makes life easier.” She slipped in another spoonful and watched half of it come oozing out again as Justin closed his mouth a little too enthusiastically. Tiny noodles threatened to slide down his chin to accent the smiles on the barnyard animals dancing on his newly purchased bib. “You know what your problem is?”

  “You?” he guessed.

  “No,” she answered evenly. “You’ve got this huge knot in your stomach, and you can’t seem to get past it.”

  Yes, there was a knot in his stomach, Tony admitted. An unwieldy, overwhelming knot.
There bad been ever since he’d lost his world. And he didn’t need her to tell him that. Smile vanishing, his face darkened. “Where do you get off, analyzing me?”

  Mikky refused to acknowledge the anger she heard. If he didn’t stop being angry, it was going to wind up poisoning him eventually. And that, she thought, would be a terrible waste.

  “Not analyzing, just noticing. Given your present state, I don’t see how anyone would have thought that you could do a good job raising this baby.”

  Suspicion crowded his brow as his eyes darkened. “What are you saying?”

  Offhand, she could think of only one reason why the baby was left for him. One reason why a man who had no particular skills or aptitude for babies would eschew the traditional path and try to hang on to that baby. “Are you sure that there’s no chance at all that Justin might be yours?”

  Tony didn’t answer right away. Instead, he crouched in front of her and looked directly at Justin. Using the edge of the bib, he wiped off both cheeks. Justin smacked his lips impatiently, looking at the jar of baby food Mikky held in her hand.

  “My guess is that he’s maybe nine months old. Nine months before that, I was living with my wife and son in Denver.” He rose to his feet, his eyes still on hers. He set his mouth hard “Not that it’s any business of yours, but I loved my wife. I didn’t have anyone on the side—or the front or the back,” he added, anticipating the kind of questions that might run through her mind. “Just her. I’m old-fashioned that way.”

  She smiled at the description. “Nice trait. Don’t get annoyed, I was just trying to figure out why someone would single you out to leave a baby with.”

  This time the shrug was born of frustration. He’d already asked himself that several times. He had no answer. “Angelo and Shad seem like more likely candidates,” he admitted. They both still had their children. And their wives.

  “But they’re not really on the site much,” she pointed out. “And maybe whoever left the baby saw something in you that made them feel you were a better choice than simply abandoning Justin in a vacant lot.”