Love & Learn Page 7

  Lizzie had been so excited to get a baby sister. She’d grieved for her baby brother and still missed him every day, blaming herself for the fact that he’d been taken away. But she was a lot older now, and she’d be able to take better care if she ever got a second chance.

  She had done everything she could for that baby girl, even dropping out of school to care for her. Her mother hadn’t wanted anything to do with the screaming child.

  She had done everything she could think of, to make the baby stop crying. But in the end, the social worker had shown up again, and again with two stern police officers in tow.

  Lizzie had pleaded with them, begged them to give her another chance. Promised that her mother had just stepped out and would be back any minute. At the time, her mother had been gone for three or four days, and it would be another couple of days before she returned.

  When she got back, she didn’t even notice that the baby was gone.

  But Lizzie could still hear that baby’s screams in her nightmares, and she was still, to this day, plagued by the guilt of not being able to care for her younger siblings.

  They could have all been together, if she’d only done a better job taking care of them. She could have had a brother and a sister, instead of being all alone in the world.

  All alone with nowhere to go. She had to think of something. What was she supposed to do, now that Henry was back, and she had to leave? How was she supposed to keep up appearances at work, staying at some shelter across town?

  How was she supposed to concentrate and come up with a plan when there was a baby in distress in the next room? The screams tore at her, and she gritted her teeth. Someone had to do something, or that social worker was going to take that baby away as well.

  And apparently, that someone was her.

  She couldn’t let this happen again. She was not just some kid anymore. She was a grown woman now, and she was not going to let them take that baby boy away from his sister. Over her dead body!

  Before she knew what was happening, she had pushed open the door and was moving toward the living room. This was insane, but perhaps the chaos in that room was enough to make Henry not call the police on her? She should have stayed in hiding, trying to come up with a plan, but her brain was not cooperating at the moment.

  She heard the woman’s voice. “The court is not going to award custody of an orphaned baby to a single man with no parenting experience …”

  Lizzie stopped and stared at the stroller. Perhaps that was the solution. She tried to think it all through, but it was impossible to think straight with that crying baby in the next room. Her whole body was trembling, and tears stung at the back of her eyes. She had to do something. She had to take care of that baby, if it was the last thing she did.

  Hopefully, it would not end up with her going to jail.

  She stepped into the living room, straightening her suit jacket. Fake it ‘til you make it, she thought, swallowing the lump of tears that had lodged in her throat. “Good morning,” she said, smiling at the young girl and the woman standing in the middle of the floor. They stared at her. She almost faltered, but kept walking, kept smiling. She did not look at the man, standing over by the sofa. Instead, she walked over to the girl and looked down at the baby. The boy was hollering at the top of his lungs by now, and his little face was all red. “Oh, dear,” she said. “Someone’s not happy. May I?”

  She held out her arms, and to her relief, the girl handed the child over. Lizzie quickly checked the baby over. The diaper seemed dry, but the baby was way too hot. She rid him of the blanket and unzipped his jacket. “Hello, there,” she purred at him. “You’re burning up, you are. Would you like some juice?” The baby just kept screaming. She looked at the girl and then the social worker. “I’ll just get him some juice, shall I? Does anyone else want something?” Finally, she turned toward the man, over by the sofa. He was staring at her as if he’d seen a ghost. “Did you offer our guests something to drink, darling?”

  He nodded but didn’t speak.

  She excused herself, walked into the kitchen, and got some orange juice from the fridge, pouring it into a glass. The baby drank eagerly, and the silence in the apartment when his screams stopped was deafening. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. Lizzie grabbed a banana from the bowl by the refrigerator and peeled it. The boy reached for it, and she broke off a piece for him. Then she leaned against the fridge, staring into space. What had she done?

  Well, it was done now. She just had to make this work, somehow. Now that the baby had stopped screaming, perhaps she’d be able to think of something.

  With the silenced child on her arm, Lizzie walked back into the living room. Three pairs of eyes stared back at her and the baby.

  “I’m sorry,” she social worker said. “Who are you?”

  Lizzie walked over to her, holding out her hand. “I’m Lizzie,” she said. “Henry’s fiancée.”

  19

  Henry

  The woman appeared out of nowhere. Henry couldn’t understand how that happened. She looked familiar, but he couldn’t place her. Not quite. His whole body was tingling from her presence, though, and that was weird. Women didn’t usually have that much of an effect on him. Once burned, and all that.

  The baby had stopped crying as soon as she’d taken charge of the situation, and for that, he was eternally grateful. Under her calming influence, the tension in the room had been at least somewhat diffused. The social worker was sitting in an armchair with a cup of tea, and his daughter—his daughter—was curled up at one end of his Chesterfield couch with a sandwich and a cup of cocoa. The baby had eaten his banana, drank some more juice, and was now snuggled up on the stranger’s lap, playing contentedly with a rattle that Julia had fetched from the stroller.

  “I apologize if I came across a bit brusque earlier,” the social worker said, smiling at him. “The information we had on your social status is apparently not up-to-date.”

  Henry didn’t know what to say. On the one hand, he wanted nothing more than to throw all these people out of his apartment and get back to his normal life. This was too much; he was not equipped for any of this.

  But on the other hand …

  If he had written this scene in one of his books, the reviews would have been scathing. This was way too implausible for fiction. And he had no idea how he would have described what was going through his head at the moment. There were so many thoughts and emotions that he’d never experienced before.

  And on top of it all, lay a thick blanket of confusion.

  He smiled at the social worker and then turned to the woman. “Could I speak to you in private for a moment … honey?”

  She kept smiling, but there was a glint of worry in those large, beautiful eyes. “Sure,” she said, getting up, adjusting the baby on her arm. His big, nearly bald head was leaning against her large, round breast, hidden away behind a prim, elegant suit, as if she’d just been heading to the office.

  And just like that, he recognized her. Or rather, he recognized her scent. As soon as it hit his olfactory nerve, he was back in that ridiculous four-poster bed, burying his face between those incredible breasts. Oh, my god, those breasts! That suit did not do them justice! The memories that flashed through his mind almost knocked him off his feet, but he kept walking toward the kitchen.

  “We’ll be right back,” he said to the social worker. “Just be a sec.”

  She smiled back and sipped her tea. As they left the room, he could hear her saying something to Julia, but he was too frazzled to make out the words.

  In the kitchen, he turned and stared at the woman as she entered behind him, the baby casually slung on her hip, as if it were her own. How did she do that? She’d never laid eyes on that baby before, and now here they were, all bonded and cozy?

  He didn’t know what to say, so he just made a helpless gesture, raising his eyebrows in a general query.

  “I’m sorry,” she said sotto-voce. “I promise I will explain
, but for now … could you please just play along?”

  Suddenly, all sorts of nightmare scenarios flashed before his eyes, of how she’d used his apartment as a bordello to cater to more upmarket clients while he was away. He pushed past her and went to see what damage had been done in his absence.

  There was nothing in the hallway that indicated that the apartment had been broken into, and the bedroom looked—as far as he could remember—exactly as it had done when he left six weeks ago. He made a quick perusal of the other rooms, but there was nothing anywhere that revealed what she’d been up to. And she didn’t look like a druggie or a hooker. She looked sleek. Professional. A professional burglar? Was she running some kind of scam? He’d have to check his bank account, as soon as he’d dealt with the situation in his living room.

  He turned toward her and raised an imposing index finger.

  “We will talk later,” he said, his voice low so that the words wouldn’t carry into the living room. “And as for playing along …” He shrugged helplessly. “I honestly have no idea what is going on here.”

  She leaned closer, one hand rubbing the baby’s back. “I just had to get the baby to stop screaming,” she said. “I couldn’t stand it.”

  “But …” he said. “My fiancée?!?”

  She glanced at the living room. “I heard the social worker say that you couldn’t get custody of the children if you were single.” She leaned back. “I assumed you’d want your daughter to stay with you?”

  He nodded numbly. Yes. The girl had to stay here. He couldn’t lose her, not before he’d had a chance to get to know her. Find out everything about her. The baby could go and live with his Aunt Heather, that would be the best solution for everyone. He was only Julia’s half-brother, after all. And with a fifteen-year age difference, how close could they be? The girl was just overreacting because of the shock of losing her mother. Once she’d calmed down, she would understand that the baby would be better off with his aunt, who probably lived in some suburban paradise with a garden and cousins to play with. Yes. It was only a matter of time before Julia would be fine with the separation. She was a teenager, after all, and as soon as she’d settled in here in New York, she wouldn’t have time for a screaming baby brother.

  Lizzie nodded decisively. “Well, then. If you want the social services to let you take those kids, you need a fiancée.” She tilted her head to one side. “And I need a place to stay for another couple of weeks.” He opened his mouth to protest, but she spoke first. “You weren’t supposed to be back yet. You weren’t supposed to know that I’d been here.”

  “Wow,” he muttered to himself. “So, this is my fault, is it? That you’re breaking and entering?” He crossed his arms. “You’ve got a lot of nerve.”

  She frowned. “I didn’t break anything. Entering, sure. But not breaking.” She shifted the baby to her other hip. “And I may have a lot of nerve. But you don’t have a lot of options. If you want the kids, you need me.”

  He couldn’t think straight. This was all too much, and he couldn’t tell what would be the right thing to do at this moment. The only thing he knew was that there was a girl in his living room that he had to get to know better. And that he wouldn’t be able to get that girl to stop hating him if he didn’t offer to care for her brother as well. Something told him that the way to his daughter’s heart was through that rosy-cheeked cherub, gnawing on his knuckles with his large head resting calmly on that stripper’s unbelievable breast.

  God, this was going to be the death of him. How was he ever going to be able to sort this out?

  There was no way he could take care of a baby. He didn’t know the first thing about babies.

  But she did.

  She had appeared out of nowhere, like some sort of stripper version of Mary Poppins, and at first glance, she seemed to be exactly what he needed right now.

  A place to stay, that’s what she’d asked for. Just for a couple of weeks. That should be plenty of time to get the custody arrangements sorted. And once Julia had calmed down and settled in, they could revisit the decision on where little Danny should live.

  The obvious answer to that question was with Aunt Heather. But he wasn’t going to say anything to Julia about that. Not right now. Not until he’d had a chance to get to know her. Forge a connection.

  He would offer to care for both children.

  For now.

  20

  Lizzie

  She couldn’t believe it when he agreed. Well, he didn’t so much agree as sigh resignedly and walked back toward the living room. With the baby on her arm, she followed him.

  He walked over to the couch and sat down on the near end, as far away from his daughter as he could get, but still sitting next to her. He looked at Julia and then turned toward the social worker.

  “I have to admit that this has all been very sudden. And completely unexpected.” He turned toward his daughter. “I’m sorry if I seem a bit … taken aback, but I honestly had no idea that you even existed. Your mother never told me that she was pregnant.”

  The girl only glanced at his face for a moment before staring down into her cocoa.

  Henry continued, this time looking at the social worker. “And I apologize for my disheveled appearance and the confusion earlier. I just got back from Europe a couple of hours ago, I haven’t slept and have not had any time to process this. At all. That said …” He paused and turned back to his daughter. “I’ve discussed the matter with my fiancée, and we have agreed that we would like to ask you to please consider staying with us. And if there is any way that you and your baby brother could stay together, I’m …” He glanced over his shoulder at Lizzie, who was standing by the door. “We are prepared to do everything we can to make that happen.”

  The girl nodded a little, as if it was no big deal, but Lizzie could tell that she was just trying to put up a brave face. The poor child was obviously both tired and devastated. Lizzie knew exactly how she felt, and she desperately wanted to comfort her, but that was going to be trickier with a teenager. You couldn’t just offer them a banana and a snuggle, and everything would be fine.

  Babies were better that way.

  She hugged the little boy to her, feeling his feverishly warm body snuggled against her chest. He was a lovely child, and the thought that he’d lost both of his parents pierced her heart. Poor little thing. Of course, he should stay with his sister, and not that bitch Heather. But Henry was not the dad type, that much was apparent.

  The social worker stood up and hoisted her heavy bag onto her shoulder. “I am going to have to discuss the matter with my boss, as soon as she wakes up,” she glanced at her phone. “I’m going to check into a hotel and sleep for a few hours, but if you are all fine with the situation, I am happy to leave the children here with you while I do that.” She smiled at Julia. “Give you a chance to get to know each other. And once I’ve spoken to my boss, I’ll be in touch.”

  The girl looked a little worried, but seeing her little brother carefree in Julia’s arms seemed to calm her. She nodded at the social worker who shook hands with Henry and walked toward the door. She patted the baby boy on the back and smiled at Lizzie. “See you later today, then.”

  Lizzie followed Ms. Fish to the door and closed it behind her. Turning around, she could see straight into the living room, where Henry had sat down again, stealing glances at his daughter.

  The girl was staring at her phone, scrolling mechanically down some feed or other, but she didn’t seem to register anything on her screen.

  Lizzie shook her head. What had she gotten herself into?

  21

  Henry

  Henry had no idea how to deal with the situation, but Lizzie was amazing. She changed the baby’s diaper and put him down for a nap in his stroller, asking Henry to please rock it back and forth a bit. The baby lay back, staring up at him, one thumb in his mouth, but stayed quiet and eventually dozed off. Henry kept rocking the stroller, though. Just to be on the safe side. If tha
t baby started screaming again, he wouldn’t be able to keep up the pretense of wanting a baby in the house. Every now and then, he stole a glance at his daughter, who was staring at her phone, seemingly oblivious to what was going on around her.

  Lizzie had been bustling around in his guest bedroom, and after a while, she showed up in the doorway.

  “Julia?” she said. “I’ve made up the bed in the spare room for you if you’d like to lie down for a bit. Ms. Fish said that neither of you had gotten much sleep on the plane.”

  Julia got up from the couch and followed Lizzie without looking at him. After checking that the baby was sound asleep, Henry followed them both.

  His guest room was a guest room in name only. Henry never actually had any guests. It was an ignored space in his apartment that he used for storage and for working out when he didn’t want to go to the gym. In less than twenty minutes, the room had been completely transformed. The bed was made up, and the lamp on the bedside table gave off a soft pink glow. A closer look revealed that she’d put one of his handkerchiefs over the lampshade. Clever.

  The window was open, and he could hear birds chirping outside. On this side of the building, you couldn’t even hear the traffic. Somewhere nearby, someone was listening to music with the window open. All his boxes of books and stuff were stacked away behind the door, out of sight. His treadmill and exercise bike were lined up on one side of the room, so that they could be used, but left plenty of floor space.

  Julia stood in the middle of the room, looking around. He tried to read the look on her face, but her features were a rigid mask of something that bordered on indifference.

  “This room would be yours if you decided to stay,” he said. “Sorry that it’s a mess, but … obviously, I didn’t know you were coming. I’ll get rid of all this stuff, and we’ll get you some more furniture and stuff. A desk for your homework.” God, he’d have to find a school for her. How did you even go about finding a school? He had no idea. “You can pick out whatever furniture you want.” He paused for a while. Could he bribe her to want to stay with him? Should he? “Just let me know whatever you need,” he said and tried not to sound too pleading. “And I’ll make sure that you get it.”