Steven (2 page)

He sighed.
  She seemed real.  Maybe all the bitch genes had gone to her sister.  “I have a better idea.  Why don’t the two of you move in here with me?  I’ll pay you to be her nanny.”  What was he saying?
He had no idea how to raise a baby.  Especially a girl.  What would he do with a baby girl?

She stared at him with wide eyes.  “Live here?  I couldn’t do that.”  She shook her head.  “
We’ll find a place.  We can stay in a cheap hotel until we do.  Please, just help me out.
” 
She wouldn’t fit in here.  All she needed was some financial help.  She didn’t need him or anyone else beyond that.  And she was doing nothing wrong by asking for the financial help, she told herself for the umpteenth time.  It was his child, and he had more than enough money to pay for her support.

“If that’s really my baby, I want her living under my roof, getting the full benefit of being my daughter.”
  Why was he saying that?  He knew for a fact the baby wasn’t his, but he couldn’t resist the look in Bailey’s eyes.  What was it about her that was keeping him from throwing her out on her ear?

Bailey
bit her lip staring at him.  It would solve a lot of problems, but Angela said he was an overbearing controlling psychopath.  He seemed normal, and Angela had been more than a little crazy herself.  What should she do?  She looked down at little Faith and nodded.  “Do you want to hold her?”
  Agreeing was the only sensible thing to do.

He stared at her wide-eyed, but took the baby when she held her out to him.  She was so tiny, he was afraid he’d drop her on her head.  Would she get permanent brain damage from that?

Steven
looked down at the innocent child sleeping in his arms.  Whoever’s baby she was, she deserved a good home.  He could provide one.  He’d
let
Bailey
raise her
and ignore her until she turned eighteen.  When you had money, you didn’t need to raise a chi
ld.  You paid to have it done.

He’d go ahead and have a paternity test done just in case
she changed her mind and decided to sue him for paternity.
 
He’d figure out what to do with both of them.  Somehow.

His friends had come up behind him
,
and
the three men stood staring down at the baby in
Steven
’s arms. 
“Is she yours?” 
Cody
looked from his friend to the baby.  “She doesn’t look like you
.
”

Steven
shrugged.  “
I seriously doubt it
. 
Bailey
said she is.  We’ll do a paternity test
.”
   He didn’t tell his friends there was no way she possibly could be his.  He didn’t want to upset Bailey.

Cody
and
Justin
seemed to notice
Bailey
standing there for the first time. 
Cody
let out a low whistle.  “Does she come with the baby?”
  His eyes travelled up and down her body.  Even in her ripped jeans and stained tee shirt, she was worth looking at.

Bailey self-consciously crossed her arms over her chest.  These men were sizing her up as if she were something they were considering purchasing.

“Apparently, she does.  She’s the baby’s aunt and the new nanny.”
  And he’d officially lost his mind taking in a woman and a baby off the street. 
Maybe he’d get that Eagle Scout badge after all.

He walked into the hallway and called for
Connie
.  She appeared immediately as if she’d just been lurking around the corner waiting for her name to be called.  “Yes?”

“Show
Bailey
to
a
room.  The baby needs one too.  Take care of it.”  He turned and walked back into the living room with his friends trailing behind.  He still held Faith in his arms as he waited for the women to deal with the room arrangements. 

Cody
turned the television back on
.  “Let’s watch the highlights from the game.  Do you think the baby likes football?”

Chapter Two

After the men left,
Bailey
looked at
Connie
with wide confused eyes.  “I guess I’m going to be living here.”
  She felt like someone had steamrolled right over her.  She was too tired to care today, but tomorrow she’d try.  She really would.

Connie
reached out and patted her arm.  She hadn’t like
d
Angela
the one time she’d met her
, but this girl, a smaller version of her sister, seemed like
good people
.  “You’re going to be okay now.”

Looking around,
Bailey
felt completely out of her league.  Any minute, someone was going to realize she was there, and they were going to kick her out.  She shouldn’t even be walking into a house like this.  She was just a poor preacher’s girl from Hamlin, Texas.  She didn’t belong in a place like this.

“I’ll show you to
your room and the baby’s room, and then
I need to get dinner on the table before
Steven
is ready for it.”  She turned and led the way up a flight of stairs. 
Bailey
hurried along behind her.

She was shown to a small empty room.
“
Will this work for the baby’s room?
 
You can pick out some furniture and have it delivered.  Unless you brought some?”
  She glanced at Bailey as she asked the question.

Bailey
shook her head.  “I had to sell everything that wouldn’t fit in my car.”  They’d never had much for the baby anyway.  Just a small bassinet and a few clothes and diapers.

“We’ll get everything she needs. 
Steven
doesn’t know
what
to do with half the money he makes.” 
She went back out into the hall and opened another door. 
“
This will be your room.
”
 
Bailey
looked around.  The room was as big as half the house she’d grown up in.  There was a huge bathroom leading off from it. 
Bailey
smiled. 
Was it okay she liked the idea of moving into this beautiful home, and letting the baby’s sexy daddy ha
ndle
everything?

It was directly across the hall from the baby’s room, so she’d be able to hear her at night when she cried.  The room was perfect.

“It’s beautiful.  Thank you!”
  This place made her feel like Eliza Doolittle.  “Oh, I couldn’t live ‘ere Missus.  It’s too good for the likes of me.  I should be afraid to touch anyfin’.  I ain’t a duchess yet y’now.”

Connie
laughed delightedly.  “
My Fair Lady
!  We’ll have to watch it together sometime.”

Bailey grinned at
Connie
conspiratorially.  “I love that movie.  I’m always up for a good musical.”
  Musicals and old movies were all she’d been allowed to watch on television when she was younger.  Now she chose to watch them, because they were so much fun.

“What’s the baby’s name?” 

“Olivia Faith
, but
I
call her Faith.
”
  Angela had chosen the name, and had been annoyed when Bailey began calling her Faith.  It suited the little girl so much better than Olivia, though.
  She’d ignored Angela’s gripes about the name she used, because Angela barely had time for the baby anyway.  Bailey had been her caregiver since she was born.

“Faith.  I like that
.
”
   She patted Baily on the arm.  “I’m glad you’ve come to us.  I think you’re just what Steven needs.”

Bailey
sat down
on the edge of the bed, worn out from her stressful day.  Getting kicked out of her apartment and driving halfway across Texas with an infant was not a restful way to spend a Sunday.

“I’ll be serving dinner in an hour.  Come down and I’ll introduce you to
all my boys
.”
 

“Your boys, huh?”
  She liked how the housekeeper talked about the three men.  They obviously weren’t her sons, but she seemed to love them as if they were.

“I claim them most of the time.”  She
winked
ready to leave
to go downstairs and
start
dinner and see how the boys were doing with that baby.

Bailey
smiled up at
Connie
.  “
I’m going to unload my car, and I’ll be down in an hour
.”
  She rolled her shoulders.  She was already stiff from the long drive.  The idea of bringing stuff up the stairs made her want to put it off until morning, but she knew she needed to get Faith’s things up right away.  And it would be so nice to change into some clean clothes.

Within the hour,
Bailey
had carried all of her
meager
belongings up the stairs and taken a quick shower. 
She glanced at the clock after dressing.  She had a minute or two
,
and she needed to make sleeping arrangements for the baby before dinner
. 
She looked around her room
trying to figure out what to do
, and smiled as inspiration struck.

She walked to the big chest of drawers and pulled out the bottom drawer, setting it on the floor.  She lined the inside with the comforter from the bed and nodded to herself.  That would be the perfect crib for tonight.
  She could sleep with just one blanket.

She didn’t know where the kitchen was, so she wandered around the downstairs looking for it.  The house was so big, she was sure she’d get lost more times than she wanted to think about. 

She followed the sounds of the men’s voices and walked in on them sitting down to the table.  The baby was nowhere in sight.  “Where’s Faith?”
  She felt a moment of panic when the baby wasn’t where she’d left her.

Steven
gestured to the kitchen and she saw
Connie
standing looking down at the baby with joy on her face.  “They’re so beautiful when they’re asleep.”  She looked at
Bailey
standing beside the table.  “You need to sit down and eat.  I’ll take care of the baby for now.  Where are
you
going to put her tonight?”

“I turned a drawer in my room into a makeshift crib.  It’ll work for one night.”

Connie
nodded.  “I’ll just take her up there now
and
sit with her until you’re done.  You won’t be able to hear her cry from here.”

“Thank you!” 
Bailey
couldn’t protest, because she hadn’t been able to eat all day.  She was starving and the steak on her plate looked too good to pass up.

She slipped into the chair, feeling tiny surrounded by
the
three huge men.  She looked
from
Justin
to
Cody
.  “Hi, I’m
Bailey
.”
  All three of the men had dark hair and eyes.  “Are y’all brothers?”

One of them laughed.  “Not quite.  Although, we’re closer than a lot of brothers.”  He winked at
Bailey
.  “I’m
Cody
.”

The other one grinned.  “I’m
Justin
.”

“Have y’all been friends long?”
  She cut up her steak as she asked.
             
She was so hungry she wanted to just gobble her food too quickly.  She knew by starting a conversation with them, she’d be forced to eat at a slower pace.

Steven
nodded.  “We met our freshman year in college.  They’re my business partners.”
 

“Oh.  What do y’all do?”
  She thought it would be nice to work with people you were closer to than most brothers.  They seemed to have it all.

Steven
’s eyes widened.  “Your sister didn’t tell you much about me, did she?”  What was he thinking inviting a woman who looked that much like Angela to live with him?  Was he insane?
  It had been easy to get rid of Angela, because she had the personality of a violated parking meter.  Bailey seemed to be nothing like her sister.  How many people would throw their lives away to raise a niece?

Bailey
shook her head.  “Nothing nice, anyway.”
 
Her impish look made Steven grin.

Cody
laughed at that.  “Yeah, we never said much nice about Angela either.”
  After a moment, he realized that may not have been the best thing to say.  Cody had always been one to talk before thinking.
  Saying something mean about her recently deceased sister was probably not the best thing to do.