Читать книгу The Baby Bequest - SUSAN MEIER, Susan Meier - Страница 11

After work, Claire followed Evan to the Brewster mansion. Because she had been quiet all afternoon, Evan suspected she was probably still annoyed with him for suggesting she might have been in league with Arnie Garrett. For Evan that was good news and bad news. On the one hand, her irritation was a sort of proof that she hadn’t thrown in her lot with Arnie and Evan could trust her. On the other, being able to trust her nullified the argument he continually used to pull himself away from noticing she was a woman. If she wasn’t in partnership with Arnie to take the triplets, then there was no reason not to find her attractive. None, except that he had nothing to offer a wife, so he wasn’t in the market.

And he wasn’t. He had even begun to seriously doubt his attraction to her, in spite of the way it seemed to get worse as the day went on. Huddled together in two rooms, cocooned from the rest of the lumber mill, they were in their own private world. He was sure most of what he was feeling was nothing more than a response to being so close all the time.

As he pulled into the driveway, Evan wasn’t concerned about having to spend extra hours with Claire, since nobody would have time to be attracted to anyone while trying to feed, bathe and put to bed three children. If anything, these next few hours would probably nip the attraction in the bud.

He waited for her by the front door while she parked her car. When she met him at the entryway, he smiled. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

She laughed. It was the first time she’d laughed all day, and though Evan wished the sound hadn’t pleased him so much, he took it as a sign that she’d forgiven him for mistrusting her.

“I said I didn’t mind helping you guys get adjusted to parenting, and I don’t,” she said cheerily.

“You’re sure?”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

Wondering if that wasn’t exactly what he was trying to do, Evan opened the door. “Welcome to paradise.”

Crying was the music that greeted them. Evan could see Grant running back and forth in the kitchen. A glance to the right showed Chas had all three sobbing kids corralled in the living room…on the white rug, white sofa and white wing chair.

“What are you doing?” he asked with a gasp, then strode in and scooped Cody off the rug. “Are you blind? Everything in here is white.”

“The kids are clean,” Chas argued in exasperation.

“Maybe now, but…”

Evan stopped when Claire tapped him on the shoulder. “I think I should go in the kitchen and help.”

“Good thinking.”

The minute Claire left the room, some of Evan’s tension eased. He lowered himself to the sofa and settled Cody on his lap. “Sorry,” he said to Chas. “I know you guys probably had a hell of a day.”

“That’s okay,” Chas said, easily accepting his apology. “I imagine your day couldn’t have been any easier than ours.”

“Actually, my day wasn’t too bad,” Evan admitted, pressing his cheek against the top of Cody’s head, not just because it was one of the little gestures of affection Claire had taught them the night before but because it felt right, good. Holding the baby was like getting grounded. Even amid the noise and confusion, everything they were going through made sense when Evan held one of the babies.

“Claire is very much on top of things,” he continued. “She seems to have the entire sequence of events down. When a contract comes in, she knows how to schedule inventory, labor and delivery, and then how to put each contract into the accounting system so it gets billed.”

“That’s a relief,” Chas said as he successfully caught Taylor, who was crawling away as if drag racing with Annie. Unfortunately, he just missed Annie, who eluded him by scrambling around the leg of the coffee table.

Today the girls wore ruffly yellow dresses with a row of very happy daisies across the front hem. Annie, who was now playing peekaboo with Chas around the leg of the table, was so cute Evan was momentarily taken aback. Sometimes when he looked at the kids and realized they were his to raise, he felt the overwhelming sensation that he was in the middle of a miracle.