Baby on Board (2 page)

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Baby On Board Dahlia Rose

looks like a healthy six month old.”

He sighed. “Good.”

“Here. You can take her now.” She held the baby out to him.

Rafe felt panic rise in his chest. “Huh?”

“She’s your daughter. Did you think I was going to take her off your

hands while you continued doing the playboy thing?” Ivy said and rolled

her eyes.

He shook his head. “No. I mean, what if she cries again?”

“Then you figure out what’s wrong with her,” Ivy explained. “She’s

either hungry, dirty, gassy or just wants to be cuddled.”

“I don’t have anything in my house for her to sleep in, no baby food,

or…” He ran his fingers over his short hair. “I don’t have anything.”

“Let me ask you, Major, what are you going to do with her?” Ivy

asked gently and placed Bonnie in his arms.

The baby looked up at him, and for the first time he noticed she had

blue-green eyes. He’d seen those same eyes every time he looked into a

mirror. He didn’t need a test to tell him this was his baby, and even

though he had no clue what to do, Rafe didn’t intend for her to be just

tossed aside. Her mother might not want the job but he did. This was his

little girl.

“I’m going to keep her,” he said simply. “I’m her dad.”

“Well, then you need to get the playboy mansion in order,” Ivy said.

“She needs a room, a crib, a changing table, clothes, milk, diapers, baby

wipes, toys, gas drops, baby Tylenol if she gets a fever, teething cookies

since she is drooling like a faucet…”

As she listed items, Rafe’s head began to swim and he lifted his hand

to stop her. “Um…can I ask you to go with me and help me get all the

things I need?”

“I just came off a twelve-hour shift and it’s my first weekend off in

like three months…” Ivy began.

Rafe pleaded with his eyes. “Please, you know this stuff, I don’t, and I

want to be a good dad to my kid. Come on, be a sport. I’ll owe you big

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time. I’ll grill you the most amazing steak you’ve ever had.”

She laughed. “Okay. Just let me get changed real quick and then we

can go. We’ll need that big behemoth of a vehicle you drive.” She walked

away to head upstairs. “Luckily, she came with the car seat with the base

attached, so we can install it in your back seat.”

Rafe watched her go and then looked down at the baby who was busy

gnawing on her fist. She was amazing, with fair skin and the little soft

curls on her head that were dark like his.

“Hi, baby girl,” he said gently.

Bonnie smiled and babbled, waving her drool-covered fist in the air.

Rafe grinned and for the first time in his life, fell in love. He would call

his lawyer in the morning and make sure he had sole custody of his

daughter. Juno, whoever she is, could’ve called him, said something,

anything. She didn’t have to do it this way. She left his daughter on a

doorstep and didn’t even wait to see if she would be safe. Bonnie would

never have anything like that happen in her life again and he would make

sure of it.

His mind turned to Ivy. This was the first time he’d actually seen her

up close, and she was a beauty. She had a petite body that held a whole lot

of fire yet had fragile features; brown eyes that looked like warm, melted

chocolate when she smiled, and ample lips full of sass. Her hair was long

and dark as midnight and even though it was pulled into a ponytail, it

shimmered in the light. When they shared that look, he felt the spark of

desire in the pit of his belly. It seemed not only was he a new dad but he

found himself attracted to his neighbor as well. Bonnie grabbed his finger

and tried to stick it in her mouth.

“No, sweetie, Daddy’s hands aren’t clean enough for chewing,” he

said.

“You’re right. Who knows where those fingers have been,” Ivy said

casually as she descended the stairs.

“You really think I’m some kind of player with a cache of women,

don’t you?” Rafe said.

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“I was thinking man whore, but your way of saying it is much nicer,”

she replied, slipping her feet in a pair of sandals by the door.

“I’ll have to prove you wrong then,” he said firmly.

Ivy nodded. “Sure thing, Major.”

They gathered up Bonnie and walked outside, and together they

figured out how to secure Bonnie’s car seat into the back of the Escalade.

“Where to for baby stuff?” he asked as he turned the key in the

ignition and Ivy slid into the passenger seat.

“This is going to cost a lot,” Ivy hedged. “I don’t know how much you

make in the military, but maybe we should get what she needs in bits and

pieces. She doesn’t need everything right now.”

“We’re getting it all,” he said with a wink. “My bank account won’t

suffer.”

Ivy shrugged. “All righty, let’s hit a Target.”

It was a twenty-minute drive to the super store and then another two

hours of buying baby supplies. When they got there, he managed to get

Bonnie’s car seat situated in the seat of the shopping cart. In the store,

they walked back to the baby section and Rafe felt like a fish out of water.

He’d never seen so much pink and blue and bright colorful baby items.

There were bottles and pacifiers, breasts pumps—which definitely made

him uncomfortable looking at―cloth diapers, and so many toys he didn’t

know where to start first. He stood at the beginning of the first aisle and

looked around. He could take apart his service weapon, clean and have it

back in working condition in less than thirty minutes. He was trained in

hand-to-hand combat and knew how to evade capture in a hostile

situation. Rafe didn’t think any of that compared to the task at hand.

“Where do we start?” Rafe asked.

Ivy looked around. “Let’s go with the basics first—food, diapers and

milk.”

He looked at row after row of diapers. “How do we pick? What size

does she wear? Oh, God, I don’t know if I’m cut out for this.”

There was a look of pity on her face. “You’ll figure it out. Most new

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dads feel the same way you do. You are just getting started a few months

late.”

“I wish her mother had contacted me,” he murmured and shook his

head. “I honestly don’t remember her and it’s not like I’ve been with a

slew of women.” She raised her eyebrow at him but didn’t say a word.

Rafe shrugged. “I know you have this warped perception of who I am, but

I’m not kidding.”

“Hey, it’s not my concern. I’m just being neighborly in helping you.

Having to figure out who you were bumping with sixteen months ago is

something I can’t help you with,” Ivy said and held up her hand when he

was about to speak. “I don’t want to hear the sordid details. Bonnie’s six

months old, so I think she would do fine in a size three. Wouldn’t you,

sweetie?” Ivy said as she rubbed Bonnie’s tummy.

“Sixteen months… Wouldn’t it be fifteen? Nine months pregnant, and

Bonnie is six months old,” he pointed out.

Ivy sighed. “A little medical information for you. When you have sex

with a woman, it takes two weeks for the fertilized egg to travel to the

womb and implant. Women are not pregnant for just nine months, which

is thirty-six weeks. A full term baby is usually born at thirty-eight to forty

weeks. So you add two weeks for implantation and two more if she was

born at thirty-eight weeks. You have sixteen months.”

His mind reeled at the numbers. “Okay, I’ll take your word for it.”

Ivy grinned. “You should. I’m a professional.”

Bonnie gurgled and waved her chubby arms and legs. Rafe trailed

along behind as Ivy showed him things he then put in the cart, though his

mind was elsewhere, thinking back to the last woman he had been with. It

had to have been Vegas and the showgirl party that Brody had put

together before they deployed. He had spent that entire weekend in a

drunken haze, but he did recall that he and one of the girls had hit it off.

She was high maintenance and wanted to live the high life. Even between

the drinking and the weekend-long party, she never stopped asking about

his military pay and his house. Growing up in a socialite setting, he knew

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when a woman was gauging his worth. For them to be together, as a

couple, was not in the cards. His instincts never lead him wrong, and after

the weekend fling, he was off to fight in the war.

He turned his attention back to the process at hand. They were in the

clothes aisle now and she was choosing Onesies and little girl outfits. He

spied a pink and black tutu and steered toward it. It came with its own top

and tiny ballerina slippers.

“What size should I get her?” he called out and held it up for Ivy to

see.

She actually grinned and he felt his heart catch. “Six to nine months,

and look at you, making Ms. Bonnie into a ballerina.”

Rafe grinned. “She gets the best in all things from now on.”

At the end of their shopping spree, Rafe pushed three carts one at a

time out to the car and loaded up the back of his luxury SUV. That

included a massive mahogany crib that he would have to put together. She

helped him get everything in the house, showed him how to change

diapers and how to make formula.

“Okay, I have to get going,” Ivy yawned. “I’m dead on my feet.”

Rafe felt a sliver of terror slide into his heart.
Alone with Bonnie?

He’d just found her on his doorstep a few hours ago.

“Um, can’t you stay? There’s plenty of room,” he said. “What if

something happens?”

“Then you’ll handle it, Dad. Just like women, men have the instinct to

protect and nurture their young, so you’ll be fine.” She pulled out a pen

and a small notebook from her purse and scribbled on it quickly. “Here’s

my number and my cell. If you need anything, give me a ring-a-ding.”

Rafe sighed in defeat. He honestly couldn’t expect her to give up her

sleep and stay at his place to help with a child she barely knew...hell, he

barely knew.

“Thanks for all you did today.” He smiled at her as he took Bonnie out

of the car seat and held her against him. She patted his face with her little

chubby hands and he felt his heart melt. “You can check in on us anytime

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you want. I’m going to spend the weekend getting to know my daughter.”

Again, Rafe swore he saw something spark in her eyes at his words—

respect and something else.

She cleared her throat and went to the door. “Well, goodnight.”

It closed quietly behind her and he was left alone with Bonnie. She

began to babble and drool, and then fuss.

“You’re probably hungry, huh, baby girl? Let’s make you a bottle and

then we’ll figure out the rest of this stuff,” he said.

He went into the kitchen and while holding the baby in his arms,

followed the direction’s Ivy had given him on how to make her formula.

He put a scoop of baby cereal in the milk to make it a bit thicker just like

Bonnie had showed him. She told him it was a trick mothers used to help

babies stay fuller longer. He sat in his leather recliner and held her in his

arms. Bonnie fixed her mouth over the nipple hungrily and began to drink

the milk down. She stared up at him with beautiful, clear eyes and smiled

around the bottle. Rafe couldn’t help but grin. He’d heard fathers on base

talk about their children with pride. In the hardest of situations, living on a

FOB far away from home, Rafe saw the love shine on faces of hardened

soldiers when they looked at pictures of their children. He never thought

he would experience it. Yet here he was holding Bonnie and those same

sensations coursed through him. Was this what his life had been missing?

“You’ve got grandparents who will be thrilled to meet you, baby girl,”

he murmured.

He could picture his mother’s face when he showed up at their house.

Granted, she would have a bunch of questions about everything, but even

so she would welcome Bonnie with open arms. He made a mental note to

take Bonnie to a pediatrician to make sure she was okay and to request a

paternity test. On Tuesday, he would drive to the base and get her added

to his medical benefits and everything else the military gave the children

of soldiers. Her mother might not have wanted her, but he did. After he

got the baby settled he would get on his computer and research who Juno