Sealing the Deal (3 page)

After killing the engine, Beth raked her fingers through her mop of curly hair, which was longer than it had been in years, now brushing her shoulders. Why everyone told her how much they’d love to have her hair, she’d never understand. She considered it unruly and a darn nuisance.

Would Emma feel the same about hers one day?

Coming around to the passenger door, Beth opened it, flipped the front seat forward, and reached into the back to unbuckle the car seat. At least it wasn’t nearly as difficult getting Emma out as it had been getting her in.
That
had been pure slapstick.

First, Beth had to fit the contraption in the backseat of her tiny car. Then the seat belt had to be threaded through the base, but it wasn’t long enough. So she’d added the extender her mother used in her own car. Then the rest of the seat was supposed to pop in.

It didn’t. She hadn’t realized she needed an engineering degree simply to operate a child’s car seat.

How long would Emma even need one? This one fit her perfectly now, but what happened as she continued to grow? While her teaching job made her somewhat of an expert on handling teenagers, Beth was nothing but a rookie when it came to babies.

After several minutes of fumbling with latches and hooks—and worrying about Emma’s increasing agitation—Beth finally got the baby out. She grabbed the overstuffed diaper bag, slung it over her shoulder, and then stared at the rest of Emma’s stuff piled next to the car seat base and on the floor of the passenger side.

How was she going to get it all inside? She couldn’t leave Emma alone while she hauled it all in. Could she? Wouldn’t that make her negligent?

Emma was the first baby she’d ever been around, and although she’d planned to take care of her this summer, she sure wasn’t experienced. While she might’ve held Jules’s twins from time to time, she’d never babysat. They employed a nanny, Aubrey Stanton. She was a sophomore in college, and she earned money to pay her tuition by taking care of the twins. Since Juliana and Connor were Realtors, their hours were flexible, and they easily worked around Aubrey’s class schedule.
A match made in heaven
.

Beth would have to look into day care just as soon as she could. She’d already missed eight school days, the limit the school offered for bereavement, plus all three of the personal days she received each year. Since she still had things to do for Tiffany’s estate and to acclimate Emma to her new home, any time away would come from her accumulated sick leave—if the school corporation allowed it.

When she’d explained the changes in her life to her boss, he’d been sympathetic yet stern. She needed to get back to work as soon as possible.

No wonder. The first round of annual testing to evaluate the students’ progress was approaching. Add to that Beth’s Service Learning class, a hands-on course where the students earned credit by doing projects for the community. A substitute teacher simply couldn’t do what she could.

She dropped her keys twice before she was able to get the apartment door open while simultaneously holding Emma’s carrier. Once inside, Beth set the carrier down and finally got Emma out of it.

A look around the apartment revealed a disaster area. After the call had come about Tiffany’s death, Beth had gone on autopilot. The arrangements were handled by phone, made easier since Tiffany had filled out a directive about what would happen if she died on her tour of duty. There were instructions on everything from where to have her funeral to which cemetery to bury her in.

Beth sighed, resigned to the fact that she wouldn’t be able to do much about the mess or about the two of them living in a studio apartment that was one enormous room with an attached bathroom. She hadn’t picked the place out for any reason other than it was inexpensive. The low rent allowed her to save money to buy a house one day. She hadn’t expected to be sharing it, especially with a child.

“We’ll just have to look on the bright side, Emma. It’s cozy. It’s cheap. And we’ve got each other.”

Emma chose that moment to arch her back and let out a wail that could wake the dead.

“What do you want, sweetie?” She’d been fed. She’d been changed. She’d been given time to play. “Tell me what you want.”

The wail continued, and Beth had her hands full trying not to drop the baby. Figuring the best thing she could do was let Emma stretch after the long trip, she set her on the floor. Then she grabbed an afghan and spread it out before moving Emma onto it. “Here you go. Sit there while I get the rest of your stuff.”

All Emma did was roll to her stomach and scream some more.

Dropping to her knees, Beth patted her niece’s back. “What? What can I do for you?”

“No, no, no,” Emma snapped at Beth. “No!”

So she
did
know a word. “No what, Em?” Good Lord, trying to figure out what a child that age wanted was more frustrating than dealing with a classroom full of the moodiest of teenagers.

Emma flopped over to her back and started kicking, all the while crying as though someone were trying to murder her.

Beth leaned over her and was rewarded with a foot to the face. Her hand shot up, covering her throbbing nose. At least it wasn’t bleeding.

“Knock, knock.”

She whipped her head around to find Robert standing in the open doorway, holding quite a few of Emma’s things. His handsome grin made her stomach flip. “Robert! What are—”

He didn’t even let her finish. “Figured you might need some help when you got home.”

Although she wanted to ask him how he knew she’d returned, she still had her hands full with Emma. The baby was now on all fours, wailing as she crawled toward the door faster than should’ve been possible.

Robert came inside and set the folded playpen, the high chair, and the bag of toys by the couch. When Emma reached him, he picked her up, tossed her in the air, and laughed.

Darn if the baby didn’t start laughing in return as if she hadn’t just spent all that time screaming.

Beth sat there on the carpet, watching Robert handling Emma as though he’d raised a brood of his own. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“Do what?” he asked before he blew a raspberry against Emma’s neck, setting her to squealing in happiness.

“
That.
Get her to be happy. She’s done nothing but cry from the moment Mom handed her to me.”

Settling Emma against his hip, he gave Beth one of his crooked smiles, the kind that always made her smile in return. “Thanks to having four siblings who breed like rabbits, I’ve been around ten different babies. Boys. Girls. Different ages and very different temperaments. All boils down to one thing—don’t ever let them see your fear.”

He’d been to her place only once, and she’d cleaned it extensively before he’d arrived, wanting to show him how she could turn even a small apartment into something homey. The wretched condition of her apartment made her cringe. “Sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?” He strode to her overstuffed chair and plopped onto it. After a few moments of holding and murmuring to Emma, she fell asleep in his arms.

Instead of answering him, Beth sighed. “You’re amazing.” And she meant more than just the way he handled the baby. The man was the whole package. Cute. Talented. Witty. Why he wasn’t already married was beyond her.

“Nothing to it,” he replied, lowering his voice when Emma stirred slightly. “Just takes experience.”

“Something I don’t have.” The urge to start cleaning overwhelmed her, so she snatched up the afghan, folded it, and laid it back on the couch. “I’m sorry this place is such a mess.”

“Like you’ve got anything to apologize for. You’ve seen my house.”

“Yeah, but… you’re a guy—and my boss.”

“Stop it.” He glanced down at the sleeping Emma. “Where are you putting her bed?”

Beth frowned. “She doesn’t really have one. I guess she can sleep with me on the foldout. Why are you frowning at me?”

“It’s dangerous to sleep with a baby in the bed. God, I’m sorry. That sounded preachy.”

“No, no.” A frustrated sigh slipped out. “I don’t know anything about this. I suppose it’s easy for the baby to fall out?”

“That, and you don’t want to roll over on top of her while you sleep.” His gaze wandered the studio. “You’re gonna need a bigger place now. Why are you in such a small apartment anyway?”

“I don’t need much. It’s cheap, clean”—she looked around—“
usually
clean, and easy to take care of. I’m socking everything away to buy a house. Juliana was going to help me search for one this summer. After all, I’m thirty now. It’s… well, it’s time.”

Robert got to his feet and kept Emma cradled against him. With one hand, he popped open the playpen and snapped the sides into place. He looked as though he’d been a father his whole life. What came so naturally to him was an enigma for her.

“What do you mean
time
?” he asked.

How was she supposed to explain it to him of all people? “I… It’s…” She finally just blurted it out. “Since I’m probably not going to have a husband and kids—”

“You’ve got a kid now,” he reminded her with a wink. Then he nodded at the playpen. “Grab that afghan and spread it on the bottom.”

Beth jumped to do as he asked. “Yeah. I suppose I do. Instant mom.”

“And who says you’re not getting married? Thirty isn’t old, for shit’s sake.” His gaze dropped to Emma. “Need to watch my language now.”

Beth wasn’t one to curse, so at least that was one part of her life that wouldn’t change now that Emma was in it. “Don’t worry about it. Not like you’ll be spending a lot of time with her.”

* * *

Robert gently laid Emma down before gaping at Bethany, completely lost as to what the woman was thinking.

She’d always been so open, so easy to read.

Now he didn’t have a clue what was flying through her head.

Not spend time with her? With Emma?

Even though he’d been around the baby for such a short time, he already felt attached to her, as though she were another niece. He’d figured Beth would be bringing her along whenever they were at one of the homes she was decorating, which meant he’d be seeing them both. A lot. “Why on earth not?”

“I’m not sure I’ll have time to be your decorator anymore,” Beth replied.

His stomach knotted at the words he’d hoped he’d never hear from her. He struggled for what to say. It boiled down to one thing.

Robert needed Beth.

He went with humor, hoping to ratchet down the anxiety clearly flowing through her. “You think I’m letting you off that easy?” He added another wink in an attempt to lighten the discussion—even though to him, it was pretty damned important.

Didn’t she realize how much she meant to him? It wasn’t as if the realization snuck up and clubbed him over the head. He’d been warming to her for quite a while, beginning to see more and more in her that he found utterly appealing.

She was the only true friend he had now, and he depended on her, both personally and professionally. Once teachers left the school, they seldom saw the people they left behind. Building houses meant people came into his life and then went right back out again.

None ever stayed.

He couldn’t help but smile when he remembered her first year at school. God, she’d been so young, so very green. Only twenty-one and right out of college, while he’d been thirty and an eight-year veteran. Like most newbies, Beth had thought she could change the world. Perhaps in some ways she had. She’d changed Douglas High for the better.

Beth had created the Peer Board, a group of students who helped deal with problems in the school. If kids were having trouble with anything, from bullying to being habitually tardy, they often went to the Peer Board for advice and assistance. Not only did the group take a lot of pressure off the administrators by solving problems in the early stages, but the climate of the school had improved dramatically.

Her room was right across the hall from what had been Robert’s engineering classroom. He’d been an industrial technology teacher before his side business of constructing custom homes took off with a population boom in the community. But for six years, she’d been his neighbor. They’d talked, laughed, and shared every school day. When he’d decided to walk away from teaching, leaving her friendship behind had been one of the hardest obstacles.

His color blindness had been what brought Beth into Ashford Homes. The first house he’d built he decorated himself, using neutral colors and relying on his contacts at the paint store and flooring supplier to help him choose. The house had been constructed beautifully, but it didn’t sell. Feedback from potential buyers was unanimous. The inside was dreary and dull. The buyers couldn’t look past the colors and emptiness to see the fantastic amenities.

Beth had gone to an open house. Robert had followed her through the rooms, hoping she’d like what she saw. Instead, she’d shifted from her bubbly, positive personality to dead silence. He’d had to nag her to get her to admit what she thought, and it wasn’t good.

Yet in her typical style, she’d set about helping him. After she chose new colors for the interior walls, changed up some of the floor treatments, and meticulously staged the place, it had sold in a multiple-bid war.

He’d hired her right after, and they’d worked together ever since.

“I… I need you, B.” Robert inwardly kicked himself for sounding as though he was begging, even if he was. “I c-can give you m-more m-money.”

Fuck
.

He hadn’t stuttered in years. After getting counseling when he was in middle school, he’d been able to get a hold of himself and stop his lifelong stutter. The only time it popped up was when he was really upset.

Losing Beth’s friendship would leave him devastated.

“I don’t want more money, Robert.” Beth was still flitting around the place, picking up.

Robert strode over to her and stilled her movements by gently grabbing her wrist. “Stop. Please. I n-need to talk to you.”

Her big brown eyes were full of resignation. She looked overwhelmed and defeated.

Beth was facing a war, and she didn’t even know it. Raising a child wasn’t easy, a lesson he’d learned from watching his siblings struggle, both succeeding and failing, with their families. Worse, she was going to wage that war alone.