Free Baby Bonanza by Maureen Child Page A

day’s laundry loads.”
    “You leave them alone in a playpen?”
    Instantly defensive, Jenna shot him a glare. “They’re safe and happy and it’s not as if I just toss them into a cage and go off to party. I’m right there with them. But I have to be able to get things done and I can’t exactly leave them on the floor unattended, now, can I?”
    “Hey, hey,” he said, tightening his grip around her waist a little. “That wasn’t a criticism…”
    She gave him a hard look.
    “Okay,” he acknowledged, “maybe it was. But I didn’t mean it to be. Can’t be easy. A single mother with two babies.”
    “No, it’s not,” she admitted and her hackles slowly lowered. “But we manage. We have playtime and the two of them are so bright and so interested in everything….” She shook her head. “It’s amazing, really, watching them wake up to the world a little more each day.”
    “Must be.”
    He was saying the right things, but his tone carried a diffidence she didn’t much like. But then how could she blame him? He didn’t believe yet that the boys were his sons. Of course, he would hold himself back, refusing to be drawn in until it had been proven to him that he was their father.
    “When they take their naps, I work.”
    “Yeah,” he said, guiding her around a pothole big enough to swallow them both, “you said you had your own business. What do you do?”
    “Gift baskets,” she said, lifting her chin a little. “I design and make specialty gift baskets. I have a few corporate clients, and I get a lot of business over the Internet.”
    “How’d you get into that?” he asked, and Jenna was almost sure he really was interested.
    “I started out by making them up for friends. Birthdays, baby showers, housewarming, that sort of thing,” she said. “It sort of took off from there. People started asking me to make them baskets, and after a while I realized I was running a business. It’s great, though, because it lets me be home with the boys.”
    “And you like that.”
    Not a question, a statement. She stopped walking, looked up at him and said, “Yes, I like it. I couldn’t bear the thought of the boys being in day care. I want to be the one to see all of their firsts. Crawling, walking, speaking. I want to hear their giggles and dry their tears. I want to be at the heart of their lives.”
    He studied her for a long minute or two, his gaze moving over her face as if he were trying to imprint her image on his mind. Or trying to read her thoughts to see if she had really meant everything she just said.
    “Most women wouldn’t want to be trapped in a house with two screaming babies all day,” he finally said.
    Instantly Jenna bristled. “ A, the women you know aren’t exactly the maternal type, now, are they? B, the boys don’t scream all day and C, spending time with my kids isn’t a trap. It’s a gift. One I’m thankful for every single day. You don’t know me, Nick. So don’t pretend you do.”
    One dark eyebrow lifted, and an amused glint shone in those pale eyes of his. “I wasn’t trying to insult you,” he said softly. “I…admire what you’re doing. What you feel for your sons. All I meant was, that what you said was nice to hear.”
    “Oh.” Well, didn’t she feel like an idiot? “I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little quick on the trigger.”
    “A little?” He laughed shortly, and started walking again, keeping his arm locked about her waist as if concerned she might wander off. “The words Mother Grizzly come to mind.”
    Even Jenna had to chuckle. “You’re right, you know. I learned the moment the boys were born. I was so electrified just by looking at them…to know they’d come from me. It’s an amazing feeling. Two tiny boys—one minute they’re not there, and the next, they’re breathing and crying and completely capturing my heart. I fell in love so completely, so desperately, that I knew instantly I would never allow anyone or anything to hurt