LITMIR.BIZ

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it are on the can. I’ll give you a supply of diapers and bottles— the hospital has plenty to send home with new mothers. And I guess you’re as new a mother as anyone could be.”

      “She can’t just drink milk from the fridge?” David asked, holding up a can of formula and reading the instructions.

      “No, she can’t drink milk from the fridge,” Justin replied patiently. “And there are other things. Tomorrow, you’re going to need to get the little girl some clothes, unless there are some things buried in the bag with all that money Alex was talking about.”

      “Great balls of fire! How could a little tiny person require so much stuff and so much attention?” David exclaimed, shocked by all that was going to be required and wondering what he had gotten himself into.

      “My friend, if you have her more than three days, you’re never going to want to tell her goodbye.”

      “I don’t think so,” David said, eyeing the baby, whose eyes had closed. “Is she all right?”

      “She’s asleep. I’ve fed her, and you wore her out with your diaper practice. Now, let’s pack you up and let me get home to my own family.”

      “Justin, thanks for this. And can I call you if I have questions?”

      “Yes, but just relax. She’s a sweetheart.” Justin slanted him a quizzical look. “You don’t have a baby carrier, do you?”

      “A what?”

      “I don’t know why I even asked. You can’t just set her in the car seat beside you. You need something to hold her safely. I’ll bet I can find a nurse with one that you can borrow. Just stay put until I get back.” David was handed the sleeping infant. He took her, cradling her with his arm and marveling at how tiny she was.

      “How can she possibly be so complicated when she’s small enough to hold in my hands?” David asked, but his friend had already gone through the door. David stared at the infant.

      “I’ll do my best, and I’m sorry you’ve got someone who doesn’t know one thing about a baby,” he said softly. Her tiny hands were folded over her middle and David was awed by her. So tiny, yet so perfect and so pretty. He touched her cheek lightly with his finger. “So soft and sweet,” he whispered.

      In minutes Justin was back to give David final instructions. “Stop worrying,” Justin said, smiling. “You’ll get along fine.”

      “Right. See you, Justin.” David went to find Alex and get whatever in the diaper bag belonged to the baby. And then he told his friends goodbye and left the hospital, stepping out into the chilly Texas night. He looked at the sleeping infant.

      “What am I going to do with you?” he asked her softly.

      He drove through the dark night, thankful she slept, but with his nerves on edge. He dreaded when she would wake because he had zero experience in baby care.

      His sprawling ranch house had motion lights that came on as he approached the back of the property. At the back gate David parked and got out, taking baby, carrier and supplies with him. He crossed the wraparound porch and unlocked the back door, dropping supplies on a credenza in the back entryway while he turned off the alarm and switched on lights.

      In minutes he was in his big bedroom with the baby carrier in the middle of his king-size bed.

      Baby and carrier looked out of place, he reflected, in this masculine room with its hunter-green-and-brown decor. He scratched his head, wondering what to do when she wakened and began to cry. As he thought about it, the tiny girl stirred and in seconds was crying.

      David unbuckled her and picked her up, changing her with a little more ease this time in spite of her crying and kicking.

      He got her a bottle, fed her and placed her in his big bed, climbing in beside her. Exhausted, he fell asleep for what seemed like ten minutes and then the infant was crying again.

      By three in the morning, the kitchen was a shambles of half-full bottles, cartons the bottles came in, baby clothes that she had spit up on. While she screamed and cried, he paced the floor, and in minutes warmed another bottle to try again to get her to quiet down.

      “Oh, little baby, what do you want?” he asked wildly, knowing if he called Justin, he would just get laughed at.

      At four he placed her in his bed again. She had fallen asleep and David eased down on the bed beside her, scared he would either wake her or roll over on her, but totally exhausted. Once more, he felt he’d only slept a few minutes, but it was an hour later that her cries woke him.

      The night seemed three hundred hours long and by morning, David knew he had to find a nanny.

      Through the sleepless night he had racked his brain for any woman he had dated whom he could call for help, but he couldn’t come up with one likely candidate who would want to deal with a baby.

      He turned in an ad to the paper for a nanny, knowing that it would take days before the ad would produce inquiries. His full-time cook and housekeeper arrived and tried to help, but at sixty, Gertie Jones was still single and knew almost as little about babies as David.

      As soon as possible, he drove into Royal, heading to a local baby store to get supplies.

      Since getting out of the military and returning home, David usually took pleasure in driving through his hometown of Royal, Texas. Main Street was a bustling place in the exclusively rich West Texas town, which was surrounded by oil fields and ranches. Today, under bright skies and sunshine, he passed the Royalty Public Library, a one-story, Georgian-style brick building in the center of town, and the Royalton Hotel on Main Street, a fancy old hotel that dated back to 1910, but he didn’t see any of his surroundings. He was a man with a mission, as dead set on getting help as he had ever been on accomplishing any assignment in his life.

      David waited in his car until the baby store unlocked and opened its doors, then he and other customers rushed inside. Feeling lost, he hurried down aisles past tiny dresses and small suits until he reached a section with diapers, little shirts and rattles. While he was searching for a clerk, Autumn began to cry.

      “Oh, please don’t cry,” David said. Frantically, he hunted for a clerk, turning a corner and starting up another aisle, jiggling Autumn in his arms as she refused the bottle and continued crying.

      “Little baby, don’t cry!” David was desperate. He hadn’t shaved this morning and was barely dressed; he’d thrown on whatever shirt he could grab and old jeans. He suspected his hair was sticking straight up in the air, but that was of small consequence at the moment.

      “Aw, Autumn, baby, don’t cry,” he pleaded. He heard someone moving and saw a clerk bending down behind a counter. He rushed for her as if he were drowning at sea and had spotted a raft.

      “Can you help me?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound too alarmed.

      The clerk straightened, and David stared at her in shock while she gazed back wide-eyed at him.

      Two

      The woman was wearing a pink sunbonnet the likes of which he had seen only in movies or in pictures of his great-great-grandmother. She had on a flowered, frilly dress covered with lace and pink velvet bows. Her dark blond hair was tied in long pigtails with pink bows and each cheek had bright rose circles. Her lashes looked too thick for her to be able to open her eyes, black feathery lashes that framed lively chocolate-brown eyes that gazed at him with a curious intensity. She had a luscious, deep red rosebud mouth.

      In turn, Marissa Wilder gaped at David Sorrenson, taking in all six feet two inches of the ruggedly handsome man. Her heart thumped faster, and her temperature rose. How old had she been when he’d first had this effect on her? She was probably eleven years old. At eighteen, he had barely known she was alive. As a matter of fact, she suspected that right now he didn’t have a clue who she was. But was he a sight for female eyes! More handsome than ever with his thick, wavy raven hair and sexy sea-green eyes.

      Then

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