Читать книгу The Baby Bequest - SUSAN MEIER, Susan Meier - Страница 10

Evan couldn’t stop thinking about Claire Wilson. His anger at Arnie Garrett was so great he felt certain it should have flooded out any other thoughts, but instead, Claire Wilson drowned out judgments of Norm Brewster’s lawyer as if he were only a secondary player instead of the primary culprit.

He kept wondering if it was naïveté that had Claire throwing in her lot with Arnie Garrett, or loyalty to his father, or just plain stupidity.

He couldn’t believe it was stupidity. His father didn’t suffer fools lightly, so he wouldn’t have hired her if she weren’t intelligent. Nor did Evan think it was loyalty, because his father’s will clearly stated that he wanted the triplets raised by his estranged sons. Norm Brewster would insist family be raised by family. If anything, his father would have demanded the boys be found and forced to raise their kin. That was just the Brewster way. So she couldn’t have been helping Arnie out of loyalty to his father, which meant it had to be naïveté.

To a degree, Evan could accept that. Claire was young. And pretty enough that she’d probably been protected from the harsh realities of life by doting parents, idealistic teachers and every man in this county.

He scowled, confused about why that twisted oddly in his gut. The girl was a looker. There was no sense pretending she didn’t have boys knocking down her door….

Furious with himself for thinking about foolish things when he had real trouble to attend to, Evan scowled again and shoved the woman out of his mind as he jogged up the steps of the circular stairway in the foyer of the Brewster mansion.

He and his brothers had accidentally discovered the nursery when they’d gone in search of the birth certificates, the will and its codicil. Eventually they found all three in their father’s safe. Everything Arnie had told them that morning had been verified—including the fact that if the Brewster sons didn’t want custody of the triplets, Arnie and Judy Garrett would be the guardians. As such, Arnie would be the trustee of their holdings in Brewster Lumber, and he would have fifty percent voting power and complete control of the triplets’ money. He’d also be paid a handsome salary. Reason enough, in Evan’s mind, for the man to try to get custody of the children.

When Evan opened the nursery door, a cacophony of crying greeted him like the noise of an off-key symphony. If he hadn’t been so frazzled trying to figure things out—like the kids’ names, how to get them to stop crying, and how to feed them—he would have taken a moment just to absorb everything. Their little faces, the reality that they were his flesh and blood kin, the fact that they were sisters and a brother were almost incomprehensible.

“Give me a damned bottle already,” Grant growled as Evan made his way into the nursery. Fading rays of late-afternoon sunshine poured into the curtainless windows at the back of the room, which was already bright and cheerful with white walls covered with radiant rainbows. Carefully neutral, the nursery had obviously been designed to keep the kids together without insulting Norm Brewster’s sensibilities about little boys being anywhere near pink.

Remembering his father, Evan held back an involuntary smile, which turned into a surge of pain and regret. How he wished he could have these last two years back again. If nothing else, he would at least try to understand why his father had married so soon after his wife’s death…and why he married someone so young…and why he had more children.

“A bottle, Evan,” Chas implored in exasperation, and Evan brought himself out of his reverie, knowing it was pointless to wish for things that couldn’t happen.

Both Grant and Chas sat in rockers, each holding a fussing baby. The third child sat in the crib, clutching the bars, sobbing as she awaited Evan’s return.

“Okay, one bottle for Taylor,” he said, and handed it to Grant. “One for Annie,” he said, using the shortened version of Antoinette. “And one bottle for Cody.”

Taylor almost grabbed the bottle from Grant’s hands and gulped the contents as if she had been on a deserted island without food for the past two days. Little Annie also drank quickly and easily, nearly directing Evan on how to handle the bottle. But Chas had the devil’s time getting Cody to drink. Chas would move one way, Cody would move the other. The nipple bumped his nose. Chas dripped liquid on Cody’s forehead. And all the while the starving baby screamed.

“This isn’t going to work,” Chas growled after he’d finally made contact with Cody’s mouth.

“Yes, it is,” Evan insisted doggedly.

“You can’t raise kids on good intentions,” Chas said as he set his rocker in motion.

“We have more than good intentions,” Evan said, beginning to rock after he was sure Annie was comfortable.

“We don’t know the first thing about babies.”

“Gentlemen,” Grant interjected. “In case you didn’t notice this morning, we had a volunteer to assist us. Unfortunately, somebody insisted we didn’t need her.”

“I don’t think we do.”

“Well, I think we do,” Grant said simply.

“And I think we do,” Chas agreed, then he bounced off his chair. “Aw, damn. He spit up on me.” Turning his head slowly, Chas speared Evan with a withering look. “I know we need help.”

“Then go ahead and call her,” Evan said, refusing to use Claire’s name because he got a fluttery sensation in the pit of his stomach when he realized he’d get to see her again. Which was insane. She was ten years younger than he was. And potentially up to her ears in Arnie Garrett’s scheme to take the triplets.

He couldn’t possibly be attracted to her.

It wasn’t right.

“Uh-uh.” Chas shook head. “You yelled at her, you call her.”

“I agree with Chas,” Grant said, rocking Taylor, who sucked noisily. “You yelled at her, you call her.”

“You boys forget, I don’t think we need her.”

“And you forget, Evan, that Arnie Garrett has a lot to gain if he becomes guardian for these kids,” Chas reminded his brother. “Having a will or even having the law on our side won’t mean anything if Arnie can prove we’re incompetent. I say we call her.”

Evan looked down and saw that little Annie had finished her bottle and was peacefully sleeping in his arms. Taylor was nearly asleep in Grant’s arms, and even Cody had settled down and was drinking heartily.

They didn’t need help from anyone.

This baby thing was a piece of cake….

As she unlocked the door of her apartment that night, Claire could hear her phone ringing. She juggled two bags of groceries and quickly pushed her way into her kitchen, catching the phone on the fourth ring.

“Hello,” she said breathlessly.

“Hello, this is Evan Brewster.”

Claire felt an incomprehensible torrent of pleasure just hearing his voice. Which was ridiculous. He might be a handsome man, but he was a stubborn man, an angry man and one of her new bosses.

Still, her traitorous, disobedient heart skipped a beat. Claire ignored it in favor of more important concerns like why was Evan calling her? Was it to fire her for slamming a car door in his face earlier? Or was it to ask for help? She prayed he was calling for help.

“What’s up?” she asked, trying to sound casual as she angled the phone between her ear and shoulder.

There was a pause. A long one. Finally, Evan said, “We could really use some guidance with the kids.”

Claire released a silent sigh of relief. Thanks to the triplets, it appeared she was keeping her job. Norm had always said they were an unexpected blessing. She was beginning to understand what he meant. “Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll tell you how to fix it.”

“We figured out how to use the disposable diapers, but the same system that works for the girls doesn’t seem to work for Cody. All the things Judy gave us are gone. We don’t know if we’re allowed to feed them anything besides what was in the bottles, and we can’t get them to stop crying.”

Claire grimaced. “This isn’t something we can handle over the phone.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“I’ll be right over.”

By the time Claire drove up in front of the Brewster mansion, it was already nine o’clock. Loyalty to Norm had Claire feeling guilty for visiting her parents and doing her grocery shopping rather than staying home waiting for a call just like this one. But, to be honest, Evan and his brothers had seemed so determined that Claire genuinely believed they’d rather sign a pact with the devil than call someone for help.

Swallowing their pride and admitting their shortcomings in favor of the babies’ needs had quickly, easily raised her opinion of them. But the Brewsters had actually elevated their reputations in her eyes by how protective they were of their new brother and sisters. Regardless of the fact that the babies were the product of a marriage they didn’t condone, the Brewster brothers had accepted the triplets without question or qualm.

Even if they didn’t have a clue how to care for them.

She stepped out of her car and pulled out the box of disposable diapers she’d picked up at the discount store on her way to the Brewster estate. Studying the two-story Tudor-style home, she walked to the front door. Graceful touches of carved wood and stained glass made the mansion the most lush, sophisticated home Claire had ever seen.

Before she rang the bell, the door opened.

“Thank God! Come in! Come in!”

Taking the disposable diapers from her hands, Evan dragged her into the elegant marble-and-cherry-wood foyer. The chandelier sparkled radiantly, giving the entry an unnaturally bright glow.

“Where are they?” she asked simply.

“Upstairs. Follow me.”

Having changed from his suit into jeans and a T-shirt, Evan looked even more attractive than he had that morning at Arnie’s office. His informal clothes defined muscles hidden by his conservative black suit. Once again, Claire had to remind herself that this gorgeous man was her boss. She occupied her mind by studying the dark wood paneling as he led her up the winding stairway to the landing and down the hall, then opened the door to a huge, airy, colorful nursery.

“Oh,” she breathed, first in sympathy for the kids, who had cried so hard and so long they looked exhausted, then in appreciation of the beautiful room with hardwood floors and wood trim and walls decorated in a rainbow motif.

Also dressed in jeans and T-shirts, Grant and Chas sat in two of the three rockers, clumsily holding the girls. Behind them were three identical cribs and behind the cribs were three uncurtained windows trimmed in the same oak as the rockers.

“Where’s Cody?”

“Cody’s in a round thing,” Evan said as if that explained everything.

“A round thing?” Claire echoed, confused.

“I found some round thing with wheels that’s got a seat in the middle. When I first put him in, he stopped crying and started sort of walking around, but that only lasted about twenty minutes, then he was howling with the girls again.”

“Okay,” Claire said, recognizing Evan had put Cody in a walker.

“You get Cody,” she said. “And sit in the third rocker. For now, we’ll just run through some of the basics.”

Nodding obediently, Evan slipped around Chas’s rocker and lifted Cody from the walker. Claire noticed all three kids wore pajamas and decided that was a step in the right direction—as long as they’d figured out how to tighten Cody’s diaper.

“The first thing you need to know is that babies like to feel secure. So check the way you’re holding your child. Make sure the baby can tell that you’re not going to drop him or her.”

Evan tossed her a completely exasperated look. “These kids need sleep.”

“And they also need love, attention and affection,” Claire said angrily, marching over and arranging Evan’s arms around Cody in such a way that the baby would feel both protected and loved. The second her hand made contact with his forearm, though, he started as if she’d given him an electrical shock. Their eyes met briefly, then both quickly looked away.

“Whether you guys understand this or not, you’re complete strangers to these babies,” she continued as she moved to Chas and manipulated his arms around the baby he was holding. “They have to get to know you or they won’t sleep. They probably won’t even stop crying,” she said, jerking Grant’s arms until she had them folded properly around the little girl. “In fact, I’m going to suggest that each of you take a child, one child, and be responsible for that child’s care, so that baby gets a sense of being special, being important and feeling secure.”

When all three kids were properly positioned, she stepped back. “Now, keeping your hands and arms around the baby just like I fixed them, bring the baby up to your chest and cuddle her or him.”

All three of the Brewster brothers did as they were instructed.

“When you cuddle a baby,” Claire continued, “rub your cheek against the baby’s cheek and whisper soft things. Just tell her that you love her.”

“This is weird…” Grant began, but Claire silenced him with a look.

“These kids have been with strangers for the past two days, and,” she added softly, “they lost their daddy, too. And their mom. What each one of them needs right now more than anything else is a little bit of love.”

Crossing her arms on her chest as if daring them to disagree, Claire watched all three shrewdly as—after casting surreptitious glances at one another—each Brewster cuddled his child. As she’d instructed, they rubbed their cheeks on the babies’ cheeks, they whispered endearments.

“Pat their backs,” Claire encouraged quietly, because the sleepy children were calmer now.

“When was the last time you fed them?”

“We gave Taylor the final bottle right before Evan called you,” Chas whispered. Though the little girl he held still sniffed and hiccuped, her crying had stopped and her swollen eyes were closed.

Claire swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. She could feel every iota of these babies’ pain. She missed Norm, too. But on top of that, these kids were lonely and afraid, with strange people for the second time in only two days. “Have the other two eaten?” she asked, her voice soft and tender.

Evan nodded. “Everybody has had a bottle in the past hour.”

“Then they’re ready for bed,” Claire whispered, motioning to indicate that all three children were breathing deeply and evenly. “But putting them into a crib is a very tricky thing, so we’re going to do this one baby at a time.”

The brothers nodded.

“Grant, you first. Stand up slowly,” Claire said, walking over to the first crib. When Grant joined her, she said, “Bend at the waist so that your baby doesn’t leave the warmth of your body until she’s almost at the mattress.”

Though his moves were awkward, Grant did exactly as he was told.

“Gently place the baby on the mattress and slide your hand out from under her carefully…and slowly, so you don’t disturb her.”

As if disarming a homemade bomb, Grant slowly, cautiously slid his hands out from under Annie. Claire motioned for him to take a few steps back, and he did. The baby continued to sleep. Grant sagged with relief.

Next, Claire motioned for Chas to do the same thing. She quietly repeated the instructions, and, as Grant had, Chas also went limp with relief.

Before Claire could motion to Evan, he was already on his way to the last crib. Without any direction from her, he laid Cody on the soft mattress, eased his hands and arms from under the child, stepped away, and then breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Claire had an odd intuition about the way Evan didn’t wait for her help, almost as if he didn’t want to risk her touching him again. Deciding she was putting too much meaning on things that probably had none, she clicked on the baby monitor and motioned for all three men to come out of the nursery. One by one they filed out into the hall. Claire gently closed the door behind them. Placing one finger on her lips, she cautioned them not to say anything and then directed them downstairs.

All four tiptoed down the circular stairway, through the foyer and into the all-white kitchen at the rear of the house. Collapsing on the stools in front of the counter, the brothers groaned.

“Parenting’s not exactly as easy as it looks,” Claire said with a laugh.

“How the hell do you know so much about kids?” Grant asked incredulously.

“She’s got six brothers and sisters,” Evan replied before Claire could. Though she realized he knew the answer because she’d told him as much that afternoon, she felt a strange jolt of joy that he not only remembered but took the liberty of answering for her as if they were longtime friends.

“You’re kidding,” Grant gasped.

“Nope,”

Claire said, then walked to the counter to inspect the empty bottles. Again, she told herself not to make a mountain out of a molehill. She knew what was happening. She found Evan attractive and she wanted to think he found her attractive, too, so she was grasping for straws. “My youngest brother is six. Started first grade this year. Cute as a bug.”

“But you don’t live at home. Your phone number is listed under your name, not your parents’, and I recognize that address as being part of a house converted into apartments,” Evan observed, getting comfortable on his chair.

“I’ve been on my own since college,” Claire informed him casually as she inspected the contents of the cupboards. Her heart had speeded up when she realized he not only remembered everything she told him but now knew where she lived.

But she stilled her thumping heart by reminding herself that he’d called her because he’d needed to get care for the babies. Then she told herself that even if he was attracted to her and she was to him, neither one of them could act on that attraction. First, he was her boss. Second, they had a ten-year age difference. Third, he was rich and she was poor. Dirt poor. Talk about nothing in common…

As she had hoped, she found baby food, formula and vitamins. She pulled out all three and set them on the counter. “It would have been hard for me to move back in with my family after college, but, also, my being home would have disrupted them. David was only about a year old when I left for school. He doesn’t remember me being home. Kelly doesn’t want to give up half her bedroom.” She shrugged carelessly. “Having my own apartment suits everyone.”

“You didn’t move out because you hate kids?” Evan asked watchfully.

Claire laughed. “Heavens, no. I love kids.”

All three men visibly relaxed.

“And I’ll help you,” she said with another lilting laugh. “Look here. These are prescription vitamins. Do you know what they tell you?”

“Yeah, that the kids don’t eat right,” Chas said, frowning.

“No, that the kids go to a pediatrician,” Claire contradicted. “And see,” she added, showing the men the label. “Right here is their pediatrician’s name.”

“Ah,” Chas said happily. “That’s good.”

“That is good,” Claire agreed. “Just by reading this label you’ll know the dosage to give them, and the doctor to call to find out where they are with their immunizations.”

“Immunizations?” Evan echoed, narrowing his eyes at Claire. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Remember I told you that I was going to hit the basics with you?” Claire asked sweetly.

They nodded.

“Well, somebody get a notebook, because I think you’re going to want to be writing some of this down.”

“Okay,” Grant said, rising from his seat. “I’ll take charge of that.”

“Splitting up everything is a good idea,” Claire said, while Grant rummaged for a pencil and paper. “I meant what I said upstairs about each of you taking a child. More than anything else, a baby needs a sense of security. If each of you more or less adopts one child as his own, each baby will get that sense of security.”

Or things could actually fall apart, Evan thought, studying her carefully. He knew he didn’t trust her because he suspected she was involved in Arnie’s scheme to take the kids. He also believed that by bringing her into their home, he and his brothers had opened the door for her to continue aiding Arnie.

He knew his brothers didn’t agree with him and thought he was being paranoid. But he also realized that he had more to lose than his brothers did. They might love these children in a generic way that mixed responsibility and a sense of family, but if something happened and they lost custody, Grant and Chas would get on with the rest of their lives. For Evan much, much more was at stake, because raising these children was his only chance at being a father.

“How did it go after I left last night?”

Though the question was perfectly innocent, Evan turned and glared at Claire. The insides of his eyelids felt like sandpaper, he was so tired he could have dropped where he stood, and his head hurt.

Between the cuddling and crooning, feeding and changing, Evan figured he’d gotten about two and a half hours’ sleep. And since all three brothers awakened for every baby incident, he knew Chas and Grant hadn’t fared any better than he had. But because the triplets couldn’t be left alone, Chas and Grant got to stay home while Evan set off to handle the second half of their responsibility, running the local lumber mill.

“Kids wake up much?”

Another innocent question. Another narrowing of Evan’s eyes.

“My head hurts. I desperately need sleep. I never realized how difficult it is to care for babies.”

“Oh, come on,” Claire said, following Evan into his father’s old office. “Babies are great. And believe it or not, this is a wonderful stage in their lives…except for the teething, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Evan fell into his father’s chair. “Teething. How delightful.”

“Trust me,” Claire insisted, sitting on the corner of the desk as if it was an old habit. “You’re going to love this.”

Evan’s gaze trailed from the curve of her buttocks on the corner of the mahogany desk, down the line of her thighs to the length of leg that currently dangled over the side of his father’s desk. She wore a chaste navy-blue suit, the skirt loose and sufficiently long, the blazer buttoned. She obviously wasn’t trying to draw attention to herself, but because he wasn’t at his professional best from lack of sleep, Evan found himself staring. Claire was a stunning woman, a naturally beautiful woman with glossy black hair, eyes as wide and as blue as the summer sky, and absolutely perfect legs.

When she saw him looking at her legs, she quickly jumped down and maneuvered herself into the chair across from the desk. As if her movements finally brought him completely awake, he realized he wanted the truth about her and he wanted it now. He refused to work with someone he couldn’t or didn’t trust.

“I think you and I need to have a little talk.”

In an unpretentious way she smiled at him, and Evan got a jolt of something that felt very much like attraction again, only this time laced with rightness. He wasn’t merely attracted to this woman. He felt drawn to her. He sensed a sudden, overwhelming appropriateness about her being in his life, and he knew damned well that was foolish. Even if she wasn’t a part of the Arnie Garrett scheme, he couldn’t be involved with her. He couldn’t be involved with anyone. He wouldn’t tie a woman to a life without her own children, so there was no “right” woman for him.

“Three things happened yesterday,” he said, steepling his fingers at his chin. “We buried my father and stepmother, my siblings and I inherited almost half of everything in this county, and I became a parent.”

This time Claire raised her eyebrows. Without as much as a word from her, he knew she wanted to contradict him about “who” had become parents. He also knew that when the time was right, she wouldn’t hesitate to correct him.

Evan swallowed—and not because she’d caught that inadvertent slip. The very fact that she had caught him, and wouldn’t be afraid to tell him so, and the way she was absolutely comfortable in the chair across from him once again made it seem more than fitting that she was not only here in this office, but here in his life. And that bothered him. He could understand being attracted to her—any man over the age of twelve would be attracted to her—but the little jolts of rightness had to be a mistake of some sort.

Determined to ignore them, he cleared his throat. “Do you realize you were there for all three things?”

“Yes. I worked very closely with your father.”

“Very closely,” he agreed with a nod, glad she’d given him an opening to get to the topic that kept getting blotted out by chemistry or sexual awareness or some other damned male-female thing Evan didn’t have time to deal with. “So close that I’d wager you know this business inside and out. And you know how to care for kids. Logically, Ms. Wilson, my brothers and I can’t survive without you.”

“Sure you could,” Claire protested casually. “You could hire a nanny or something.”

“Really? Overnight? On this tiny, sparsely populated piece of the mountain? I don’t think so, and neither do you.”

At the abrupt hardening of the expression in his eyes, Claire shifted uneasily on her seat. She didn’t know what the heck he was driving at, but she had more than a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t going to like it.

“If I were Arnie Garrett and I were trying to coerce custody of the triplets, there is only one person in this world who could help me.”

Claire felt her mouth fall open in surprise. “What?” she said before she could stop herself. “I hope you don’t think that I had something to do with Arnie Garrett trying to get you to sign over custody of the triplets!”

“That’s exactly what I think,” Evan said coolly.

“How dare you!” she gasped, angry in a way she didn’t believe she’d ever been angry before. Most of that outrage came from her loyalty to this man’s father and what she knew Norm would want for his children. “Those babies need to be raised by family. I’d never condone them being raised by anyone but you and your brothers. I’d have gone in search of you and insisted you take them before I’d let Arnie Garrett or anybody else have them, if only because I know that’s what your father wanted.”

“That is what my father wanted,” Evan agreed, waving her back down when Claire sprang from her chair as if to storm out of the room. “I apologize for questioning you, but I had to know whose side you were on.”

“Who says there are sides?” she demanded, furious. “You’re the only person I see making trouble. Everybody else seems perfectly happy with this situation.”

“I don’t agree with you. I don’t think Arnie Garrett is happy with this situation. I don’t think he’s done trying for the kids. And I want the kids. If there’s a war, Ms. Wilson, let me assure you I plan to win it.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Claire agreed quietly. “But you keep talking about those kids as if they are exclusively yours and they’re not. You have two brothers and the triplets need to be raised by all three of you, not just one of you.”

“Grant owns a construction company in Savannah. Chas has an interview with a law firm in Philadelphia in a few weeks. But I could and did leave my job, and my life. Just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “I’m here to stay. In the end, those kids will be raised by me. Probably exclusively. And nobody’s going to keep me from doing that.”

“You saw me as that much of a threat?” she asked.

Cool, dignified, he caught her gaze. “I didn’t know what to think about you. That’s why I decided to confront you. Now that I see how loyal to my father you are, I sincerely doubt you could help Arnie do something my father wouldn’t have wanted.”

Stupefied, Claire stared at him. He wore a gray suit, a white shirt and a moss-green tie that brought out the verdant color of his eyes. Those eyes held a determined spark, but his perfect mouth tipped upward, just a fraction, as if he was relieved and couldn’t quite hide it. He looked innocent and sweet, and positively gorgeous. Not nervous. Not confused. Absolutely normal.

In a wave of understanding, she realized this conversation answered the question about why he behaved so oddly around her. He thought she was in cahoots with Arnie Garrett. He hadn’t been getting the same peculiar sensations she’d been getting for the past two days.

Not only was her body constantly on red alert, but she continually experienced a strange intuition that they were made for each other. That wasn’t just preposterous, it was premature. She didn’t even know the man, for pete’s sake. True, he was gorgeous, beautifully built and had a smile that could charm the angels, but it took much, much more than that to be “made for each other.”

And now she knew he wasn’t attracted to her. But, in fairness, she didn’t want to be attracted to him either. She couldn’t afford to be attracted to him. He was older. He was her boss. And he was way, way out of her social circle.

“It’s been a really difficult two days for all of us,” she said, though she wouldn’t meet his eyes. She couldn’t. Something completely wrong was happening to her, and unless or until she was sure she could manage it, she wasn’t going to take any chances. “I have some things I need to do this morning. If you’re going to pick up where your father left off, those contracts—” she pointed at the corner of his father’s desk “—need to be renegotiated. I’d start there, if I were you.”

Evan nodded. Claire let herself out of his office and closed the door, since her desk was right outside and she didn’t want him watching her every move any more than she wanted to be reminded of him.

She didn’t need privacy or time to think about this. Her mother’s involvement with an older, more sophisticated…richer man had cost Claire her father.

Staying away from Evan Brewster should be a nobrainer.