Читать книгу Their Accidental Baby - Hannah Bernard - Страница 9

IT’S just the cat, just the cat, someone chanted in her ear and she realized it was herself. She forced herself to look at the bed, expecting the white Angel to be sitting there, looking accusatory over the lack of tuna.

But no.

Laura blinked when the shape on the bed took form. It wasn’t a cat. It was bigger than a cat, not as furry, and probably wasn’t obliging enough to lick itself clean.

A baby.

She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to twenty before opening them again. Maybe stress had caught up with her. After all, she’d been working fourteen hours a day for almost two weeks now. Yes, it had to be stress. Stress working with her biological clock to create the illusion of a tiny baby sleeping in her bed. Her biological clock had probably been awakened by the unusual stimulus of a real life male in close proximity. The child had to be an illusion. For one, if it had been a real baby, it would have woken up when she screamed.

Yes. That was it. It had to be an illusion. She opened her eyes, feeling better already.

The illusion was still there.

Still sleeping. Looking very, very real, tiny nose, chubby cheeks, long lashes and all. The soft baby-snore convinced her that the infant was for real.

Illusions didn’t snore.

How could there be a baby lying in the middle of her bed? In her locked apartment? She pinched herself. If it wasn’t an illusion, perhaps it was a dream?

Nope. No such luck.

“Laura?”

Mr. Chocolate Eyes again, his voice also chocolate smooth as it snaked through the small apartment, even raised in urgent inquiry. She groaned. He must have heard her scream, and, ever gallant, come to the rescue.

“Laura?” he called again. “I heard you scream, and the door is open. I’m coming in, okay? I’m calling the police.”

She shot to her feet and out in the hallway, just as Justin barged into the apartment, body tensed for fight, cell phone in one hand, a baseball bat in the other.

“I’m fine,” she said, trying for a smile. “No need for the police. There’s no danger. I was just startled. Sorry if I scared you.”

His eyebrow rose. “The scream turned my blood to ice. What was it?”

Laura tugged at her hair, not sure herself what was going on. “There’s nothing wrong.” Exactly. There was just a strange baby lying in her bed.

“Do we have another cat burglar?”

“Haha,” she said dutifully, grinding her teeth at the reminder. “Yes. I mean, no. Not precisely.”

“Dog burglar?”

“Well, since you ask, it’s actually a baby burglar. Did you see anyone around today?”

“No, I just got home the same time as you did.” Justin slid his cell phone into his pocket. “Baby burglar? What are you talking about?”

“Someone left a baby in my apartment.”

“I see.” He left the baseball bat leaning against the wall. “Guess I won’t be needing that. You mean you’re baby-sitting?”

“Apparently. Only I have no idea whose baby it is. Come see.” Without giving him the chance to decline, she turned toward her bedroom again, relieved to hear him follow. This was too much to handle alone.

“See?” She moved around to the other side of the bed to give him an unobstructed view. She pointed at the evidence. “A baby. He was just lying there when I got home.”

Justin stared down at the sleeping intruder. “I see,” he repeated.

“Well, what do you think?” she asked impatiently, when he didn’t seem about to elaborate.

He looked at her with a crooked smile. “Well, your diagnosis is correct. It is a baby.”

“Are you always this patronizing, or is it something I bring out in you?”

He didn’t answer, but bent over the child for a closer look. “He’s okay, isn’t he?” he asked. “Just sleeping, not unconscious or anything?”

“How should I know? He was just lying there when I got home,” she said. Shock was dissipating and confusion settling in instead. “He looks fine, he’s breathing fine and everything. And he was making some sounds before.” Scaring the wits out of her, just like Angel had.

She slid down to sit on the edge of the bed, not taking her eyes off the child for one second. Despite the way she had screamed, the infant was fast asleep, both hands up above his head, as he nearly vanished into the soft duvet. If he’d been closer to the edge she could have sat down on him, she thought in horror. His hair was coal black and slightly curly. The tiny fists were curled, half inside the sleeves of his sweater.

All in all, a pretty adorable kid, if you were the motherly type. He was dressed in a green and white sweater, green overalls and white socks, a green pacifier hanging from a clip. In one fist he was clutching a green teething ring.

We have our first clue, Laura’s hysterical side interjected quite cheerfully, as she reached out and tentatively touched a green garment. This baby must be Irish.

Okay. She had to stop panicking and start thinking. What was this baby doing here? Thank God he was asleep. She didn’t have a clue about babies. Her experience was more or less limited to having been one, once upon a long ago, and she didn’t think that would be much help.

Think. Whose baby could this be? Why was he there? She did not know this baby. She didn’t know a lot of babies, and none of them had keys to her apartment.

“Who is he?”

Laura started. She’d almost forgotten Justin was here. “I told you, I have no idea who he is. I don’t know anyone with an infant. Heck, I don’t even know any heavily pregnant women. Do you suppose he’s a newborn?”

“I have no idea. It’s been a while since I’ve been around babies.”

She cocked her head to the side as she checked the child’s size. “I’d guess he was a few months old. He looks far too big to give birth to. Of course, they always do.”

“Yeah, well, nature knows what she’s doing.”

“Easy for you to say. Nature didn’t give you a uterus and forget to include the zipper.”

He looked at her across the bed, frowning. “Do you have some sort of a childbirth phobia?”

Laura brought her fingers to her temples, trying to keep her voice a whisper in the hope that the child would stay asleep until this nightmare ended. “Listen to us, we’re both babbling. What do I do about the kid? I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

Justin shrugged. “I’m sure the kid won’t be any more happy about it than you are, when he wakes up. Are you sure you don’t know his parents? Why would someone leave him here of all places? And how did they get in? Does someone have a key?”

“I don’t know his parents! And I don’t know how they got in. It’s possible that I left the window open.”

Justin straightened up and crossed to the window. He leaned out to examine the frame. “No, you didn’t. It’s been forced open.”

“I told you, a baby burglar,” Laura said. She felt hysterics emerge from within and head for the surface. No. Not again. She’d be calm and efficient, and do what needed to be done—call the police.

And she would not wrap herself around Justin like a princess who’d finally located her knight in shining armor, never mind how good he looked in his leather jacket. “I thought this was a safe neighborhood.”

“It is.”

“Right. I feel so safe now, knowing that anyone can just climb the fire escape and use a crowbar to force their way into my bedroom.”

“There’s something out here,” Justin muttered, still at the window, but she was too preoccupied to pay much attention.

She reached for the phone on the bedside table. “I’ll call the police.”

Justin was beside her in a flash, and the weight of his hand descended on hers, stopping her from grabbing the phone. “Wait. Don’t call the police yet.”

“Why not?”

“We don’t know what’s going on here. If you call the police, that kid will be in foster care before you know it. If this is a friend’s child, or some sort of a misunderstanding or a mistake, it will be hell for the parents to get him back. They might not get him back at all.”

“Well, if they leave their child like this, they damn well deserve to go a few rounds with the authorities! Anything could have happened to him while he was alone here.”

“He wasn’t alone.” Justin was looking toward the window. “See?” He pointed.

Out on the fire escape there was a small green tote bag.

“His mother or father probably waited out there for you to come home, making sure he would be safe.”

“Maybe there’s some explanation in that bag.”

Justin crossed the room to the window and leaned out for the bag. Laura jumped to her feet just as Justin picked it up. “Don’t! There might be fingerprints!”

He wasn’t listening, but unzipped the bag, and rummaged inside. “There’s a note.”

“Wait!” Laura dashed to the bathroom and fetched tweezers. Law school did have its uses. She ran back and picked up the note from where it was wedged in between baby clothing. It was lined paper, ripped out of a notebook. Empty on one side, six words scrawled in green ink on the other side: Good luck, will be in touch.

“What sort of a note is that?” Disappointed, Laura let the note drop to the nightstand-crate.

“Sounds like a note from someone who knows you and is trusting you with her baby.”

“I don’t know this baby,” Laura repeated for what seemed like the millionth time.

Justin upended the bag on an empty spot on her bed. There wasn’t much in it, just clothes and mainly undergarments. He went through the pile, meticulously looking at each item before putting it back into the bag.

“Well, we know two things about the mother. The clothes are good quality, so she’s not lacking in money. And she’s a tree hugger.”

“How do you know?”

Justin lifted a pile of white things. “Environmentally friendly diapers. She doesn’t use disposables for her son.”

Not only a baby, but a baby with old-fashioned diapers. Suddenly the problem had multiplied. Laura backed away. “You mean the kind you wash instead of stuffing in a bag and throwing away?”

“Yep.”

Yuck. “That’s it. I’m calling the police.”

“Because of washable diapers?”

“That was the last straw, yes.”

Justin let the diapers fall back to the bed. “You can’t do that, Laura. Someone trusts you to look after her baby. Someone who may be in trouble. You can’t betray their trust and give their baby to Social Services.”

“Why do you talk about Social Services as if I’m delivering the baby to total doom? They are there to protect children.”

“I know. And they do, the best they can, when there is no one else there for the child. But now there is someone else.”

“There is? Who?”

Justin rolled his eyes. “You. The person the parents trusted with their baby.”

“I don’t know this baby.”

Justin shrugged. “His mother or father could be an old friend perhaps? You must have some friends you haven’t seen in a few months, maybe even a year or two?”

“Well, yes…” She slid down to sit on the bed. A small fist waved in the air as the baby’s dream was disturbed, but he settled down again and Laura allowed herself to breathe. A few more minutes of peace, that was all they had. He had to wake up any minute now. “Of course. I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve almost lost touch with even my closest friends. Then there are friends from college, from my summer jobs. High school friends. But I can’t believe any of them would dump their infant baby on me without a word.” She stood, careful not to disturb the baby again. “Let’s talk in the living room, where we don’t disturb him.”

Justin followed her, bumping into her back when she stopped short at the sight of her living room.

“Oh, damn.”

Justin put his hand on his shoulder and pushed her to the side. “Wait here, I’ll go first. Looks like it was a burglar after all.”

How embarrassing. “No…this is how it usually looks these days.”

His look was incredulous, and embarrassment made her lash out at him.

“Well, maybe you’re the perfect housewife, Justin, but I’m not. I’m swamped with work. I was so exhausted that I didn’t think I’d make it up the stairs! I don’t know how this happened…but things just pile up and then all of a sudden it’s Messville. Ordinarily I’m not a slob. So don’t judge me.”

“Hey, what did I say?”

“Nothing. But you’ve got expressive eyes.”

Eyes she’d made the mistake of looking into from close up. Hypnotizing. A woman would throw away her map and happily get lost in there for days.

Justin gestured to the sofa. “Can we move the…stuff away and sit down?”

“Sure.” She grabbed an armful of papers and books and dumped it on top of the diminishing mountain of clean laundry on the coffee table. At least she knew for a fact there wasn’t any underwear there. “There. Have a seat.”

He did. “Do you know any tree huggers?”

Laura dropped down by his side, fatigue seeping into her bones again now that the adrenaline was getting the picture: no one to fight or flee, just diapers to change. Probably not an event worthy of a full-scale hormonal attack. “I know a lot of environmentally conscious people, yes. People who are into recycling and conserving the rain forests.”

“Good. That narrows it down.”

“Are you suggesting I take my phone book and call all the recyclers in there and ask if they’d happened to drop a baby off in my apartment today?”

“We could also just wait for the mother to call.”

“Or the father. Or both. We don’t know who left him here.”

“That’s true.”

Her head fell back against the sofa. “The right thing to do is to call the police. We don’t know the story. He might have been mistreated for all we know.”

“He seems to be well cared for. Even his clothes are color-coordinated.”

Laura shook her head. “I can’t, Justin. Even if I wanted to…” She shook her head again. “It’s illegal. If the parents don’t come for the child and we have to bring in the police I could be disbarred.”

“I’ll take responsibility.”

“What?”

He made an impatient gesture. “The baby was found in my apartment. It was my decision to wait for the parents to contact me.”

“Lying to the police?”

“Adjusting the truth microscopically.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you a lawyer, too?”

He chuckled. “No.”

“What is it you do, by the way? Mrs. Carlson upstairs talks about you as ‘our resident teacher.’ Any truth in that, or is it just her nerve pills speaking?”

“She’s right. I have a teaching diploma, but I mostly work as a speech therapist.”

Speech therapist. Of all the occupations in the world, she wouldn’t have guessed that one in a million years. It didn’t go with the motorbike. She made a mental note to pry further later. “Why is this so important to you?”

“I know what foster care can be like. I don’t wish it on an infant.”

There was obviously a story behind that statement, delivered in a clipped tone devoid of emotion.

“I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but foster care is often excellent, handled by caring, loving people.”

“Yes. And sometimes it’s not.”

“Be reasonable, Justin. You don’t know who left him here and why. His parents may be searching for him. If we don’t turn him in, that’s kidnapping. He’ll be well looked after by the authorities.”

“This is a tiny baby, just a few months old. He needs care. He needs bonding. Do you know what happens to infants who don’t bond with a caretaker in the first few months? They may never recover.”

“He’ll get good care. He’ll get better care, better bonding, with someone who knows what they’re doing.” She gestured at the two of them. “And neither of us does. Neither of us has even the time to look after a baby.”

“We’re capable. I’ve got the time, and I want to help.”

“So you just want to take this baby?”

Justin’s sigh suggested she was being extremely difficult. “I’m not suggesting we steal him, Laura. Just that we look after him while we try to track down his parents. There has to be a reason he was left here. We’ll figure it out and find his parents.”

“And then what? We give him back to people who left him alone on a strange doorstep?”

“I don’t know. We don’t know the circumstances. We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

She shook her head. “Justin, you’re not thinking clearly. The only logical thing to do is to turn this over to the police and Social Services. They know what to do.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. There are good people there, of course there are. Probably the majority. But there are no guarantees. He might also be neglected. He might be shuffled between places. He won’t know the security of one caretaker, one home, while he’s away from his folks. He’ll be much better off with us until we can find his mother.”

“I don’t know. I could really get in trouble. We could get in a lot of trouble.” Laura groaned. Calling the police, Social Services, anyone who would deal with the situation was suddenly imperative.

“Obviously this is someone you know, Laura. Probably an old friend. And she said she’d be in touch. She’ll probably call in a day or two, explain everything. Or come by and pick up the baby.”

“A day or two?” Frustrated, Laura bit her lip hard. “Do you have any idea how many diapers I’d have to change in a day or two?”

“No.”

“Me neither! I don’t know anything about babies. It’s for the best if we call the police. He’ll be safe then.”

“Look.” Justin looked grim and determined. “I’ll help, okay? Between the two of us we should be fine.”

“But what if this baby has been kidnapped? We’d be accomplices to a felony. His mother could be searching for him right this minute.”

“We’d have heard on the news if there was a baby missing.”

“Not necessarily. Maybe he was kidnapped and the parents warned not to call the police.”

“And the kidnappers just randomly choose an apartment, one apartment in this complex, to keep him safe meanwhile? So in a few days they’ll be knocking on your door asking you to return him so they can claim their ransom?”

She gritted her teeth. “Or, they are counting on us to return him through the police. So they won’t get caught when returning him.”

“Isn’t that a rather far-fetched idea?”

Why did he have to sound so reasonable and she so hysterical? Those were stereotypical roles she did not approve of, and besides, she was making sense and he wasn’t.

“It’s not a big deal, Laura. If nobody is in touch in a day or two, then we’ll go to the police, okay?”

There was a noise from the bedroom. Laura and Justin were at the door instantly. In the bed, the baby stirred. Laura held her breath and noticed Justin did the same, as the baby’s eyes fluttered open, revealing dark blue eyes. The child looked at them, surprise widening his eyes. Any time now, Laura thought in resignation. He would open that rosebud mouth and start screaming for his mother.

The baby opened his mouth and laughed. He had two tiny teeth in his lower gum and used both of them to hack at Laura’s heart.

Maybe he would be better off here with them after all. Just while they sorted out this mess with his parents.

“Looks like he’s quite happy to be here,” Justin said.

“We need diapers for him,” Laura said, giving in, just for the time being. “That first diaper change will not be the old-fashioned way, rain forests or not.”

“No argument from me.”

“And then once we have some diapers, we actually have to change his diaper.”

“We?” Justin stepped back. “Oh, no. I have to help with the diapers, too?”

Laura stared at him and sputtered. “This was your idea! You’re expecting me to handle the dirty stuff? Are you nuts? If I had my way, that kid would already be in the hands of professional diaper changers. Either you’re in, or I turn the kid in.”

Justin’s eyes narrowed at her tone. “Is this a joke to you?”

“Not even close. And we still have that diaper to change.”

“I don’t think I know how to.”

“Well, not to worry. We’re two fully competent professional adults. We can change a diaper. First things first: we need to buy some diapers.”

“That’s right.” Justin looked relieved. “We need some diapers.”

They were both at the front door when they noticed the other one was there, too.

“I’m going to buy the diapers,” Laura stated firmly.

“No, I am. You’re exhausted. Even if you make it to the store, you’re in no shape to make it back up the stairs. You can stay here and rest with the baby.”

Hah! Nice try. She could see the panic in his eyes. It wasn’t concern for her that made him want to be the one to escape for half an hour. No. He was just as terrified at the thought of being left alone with the child as she was.

“I’m not staying here alone with him. I don’t have a clue when it comes to infants. That wasn’t covered in law school.”

“How hard can it be? Just watch him, make sure he doesn’t…do whatever it is babies can do to harm themselves.”

Laura took a step forward, but he did, too, wedging them stuck in the open doorway.

Stalemate.

Laura gave up. “We’ll both go and take him with us, okay?”

Laura had never before realized what a huge section of the supermarket was dedicated to babies and all their paraphernalia. Just the diaper racks seemed to stretch for miles. The selection was daunting. She’d never imagined all the factors that needed to be taken into account.

“How much does he weigh?” She peered at a diaper package. “More or less than six pounds, do you think?”

“More. Definitely more,” Justin said darkly, adjusting the baby on his shoulder. He was still behaving, gurgling and smiling, and hadn’t screamed once. It couldn’t last. It was just a matter of time before he realized that there was something very wrong with the world. If he didn’t realize it sooner, he most definitely would in a while, when he had two novices trying to change his diaper.

“Okay. More or less than fifteen pounds?”

Justin lifted the child up and hefted him experimentally. “Hmm…fifteen pounds sounds about right.”

“That doesn’t help. One package is for babies who weigh ten to fifteen pounds, the other for babies weighing fifteen to twenty pounds. So which is it?”

Without looking at the markings, Justin grabbed one of the packages out of her arms and tossed it in the cart. “This one.”

Laura shrugged. “Fine.”

“What more? We need bottles, don’t we? And formula?”

“Definitely,” Laura chirped. “Unless you’re planning on breastfeeding him.”

Three kinds of formula landed in the cart and he didn’t even pretend to smile at her brilliant wit.

“What about baby food?” Justin asked, pointing at the opposite shelves. “That stuff in the jars? Do we need that?”

“I don’t know when they start eating baby food. And we don’t know how old he is.”

“We’ll just buy a few different jars, and see if he wants any of it, okay?” He didn’t wait for an answer before moving the cart to the baby food section.

“Diapers, food. What else do babies need?”

She gnawed her lip. “Wet-wipes? Pacifiers? Special soap perhaps?”

“Sounds reasonable. A few toys, perhaps. And a teddy bear. There is a toy department around here somewhere.”

“A teddy bear?”

He looked at her defensively. “Every kid needs a teddy bear. Especially when all on his own without his folks around.”

“You’re right.” She grinned. “I still have mine, sitting on top of the bookshelf in the bedroom. He even has both his eyes, but his front paw is bandaged. Do you still have yours?”

“I didn’t have one. We’ll have to find a sturdy one for the baby.”

“Yes.” She held her arms out for the baby, and pointed to a shelf too high for her to reach. “Get that lotion, please. Also the big box of wet-wipes over there. And you’re right, Patrick looks like an active boy. He’ll need a strong and sturdy teddy.”

“Patrick? Why are you calling him Patrick?”

“Well, we have to call him something, don’t we?”

Justin stopped in the middle of the aisle, wet-wipes in one hand, lotion in the other. He stared at her with a look of warning. “Laura, don’t get attached to this baby.”

“You’re warning me not to get attached? You’re the one who wants to risk imprisonment and a criminal record just to keep him with us.”

“Shh!” Justin hissed, looking around to see if anyone had heard her. “Are you trying to get us arrested? At least I’m not giving him a name.”

Laura’s arms tightened around Patrick. “I refuse to call him ‘baby.’ It dehumanizes him.”

Justin shrugged, tossing the boxes into the cart. “Okay. We’ll call him Patrick. Why Patrick, anyway?”

“He looks Irish. All this clothes are green.”

“Irrefutable logic,” he remarked dryly.

Patrick finally started crying on the way home. It wasn’t surprising, after all, the poor little guy hadn’t been changed, and hadn’t gotten anything to eat or drink since he’d woken up.

“Maybe we should go to my apartment,” Justin suggested, turning to the right without waiting for her to agree. “It’s not as…There’s more…room there.”

Laura rolled her eyes. “You mean less mess.”

“That, too.”

“I know, I live in a pigsty,” Laura sighed. “I’ve been working fourteen-hour days. I need a wife. I even had to go without underwear this morning.”

Justin looked back at her and she blushed. “I’m wearing underwear now!” she stated. “I already told you, I bought some during my lunch break.”

“Right.”

Great. Now she had her hunky, baby-loving neighbor imagining her naked under her prim working suit. She disguised her mortification by looking around Justin’s apartment. It was a mirror of her own, but a lot neater than her own place had been in months. Yes, he had definite potential as a housekeeper.

There was large microwave container sitting on a small stool by the front door. She raised an eyebrow. “Takeout?”

Justin followed her gaze and shrugged. She even thought he looked a bit embarrassed. “I was going to take it to you, when you screamed. You looked hungry.”

“You were going to bring me food?” Laura was touched. Something tearlike even made it to her eyes and she blinked, blaming it on exhaustion. “Justin, that’s so nice of you.”

“Yeah, well, you still haven’t eaten, have you? It’s cold by now, but if you still want it, we can reheat it.” He grabbed the container and made his way into the kitchen. “It’s not like it’s anything fancy,” he warned over his shoulder. “Just leftover pizza.”

“Homemade?” she breathed.

“Well, yes. How did you know?”

She dodged the question, not wanting to explain to him the way her nose had been picking up the wonderful scents from his kitchen for months now. “First things first, a bottle for the little one.” She looked at the child, squirming on Justin’s shoulder. “He’s really hungry. I’ll get the bottle, if you take care of him in the meantime. Where do you keep your kettle?”

“It’s right there on the countertop. We’ll be in the living room.”

She measured the formula carefully and before too long had a full bottle of warm white liquid. She tested the temperature and erred on the side of too cold, then hurried into the living room where Justin was busy being unsuccessful at calming baby Patrick down. “Here.”

Justin passed her the baby. “Feed him. I’ll go warm up the pizza for you.”

Patrick gulped down the milk, making Laura feel terribly guilty. The poor baby must have been starving.

“Here. Eat this.” Justin put a plate on the table, filled with the most delicious pizza Laura had ever seen, topped with enough cheese to fulfill her calcium requirements for a month. He’d brought a huge glass of milk, too. She raised an eyebrow. “Milk? With pizza?”

“It’s good for you. Give me the kid, and feed yourself.”

Smiling at his gruff tone, Laura handed him the child and started work on the pizza. Ravenous, she managed to finish before Patrick finished his bottle. But as soon as the bottle was empty he was crying again, and showed no interest in a second helping.

“Okay, diaper time. He’s probably wet, too. Or worse.” Laura felt more awake after her meal, and a lot stronger. Taking charge, she grabbed the baby out of Justin’s arms. Women had been handling babies since the beginning of mankind. She had to have some kind of instincts on how to do this. “Can you get some towels to lay him on?”

Before long, the baby was lying on the floor on top of two thick towels and they were getting ready to take that diaper off. It was a cloth diaper, wet and heavy. With a grimace Laura removed it from the baby’s sticky bottom and dumped it in the bag that Justin held ready. That was one diaper that wouldn’t be washed.

She was reaching for the wet wipes when she noticed Justin staring down with a funny look on his face.

“What? What’s wrong?” she asked, even as she followed his gaze and gasped at what she didn’t see.

“Isn’t there a little something missing?” Justin asked dryly.