Free Forever Fall by Elizabeth Sinclair Page B

excused to play with them. But he was careful not to make friends, because he’d learned at an earlier age that—as his father always told him—nothing is forever, and if he didn’t get too fond of anyone, then it hurt less when they had to move again.
    Shaking off the memories, Luc went to get the box containing robo baby from the car. Seeing the luggage, he decided to bring that in as well to afford himself a little extra time to pull himself together.
    Sufficiently back in control of himself, Luc returned to the Daniels’ family room almost fifteen minutes later carrying a long box. The room went silent. All eyes locked on the box. It seemed to double in weight. He shifted it slightly, wondering if it held the end of his life in Carson.
    “I brought in the luggage, too. It’s in the hall.” He handed the box to Mandy.
    Shannon jumped to her feet, nearly knocking Luc over in her haste, and came to stand beside Mandy. Mandy placed the box on the floor at her feet and then opened the flaps to reveal an anatomically correct, very real looking, naked baby boy.
    “It’s a boy, Gram!” Shannon reached into the box, carefully lifted the baby, and cradled it lovingly in her arms. “I was so hoping it would be a boy. I’m gonna name him Joey. Isn’t he adorable?” She carried the baby to her grandmother and leaned down to show her.
    “Yes, dear, adorable.” Catherine smiled at her granddaughter, but Luc could read the apprehension in the woman’s face.
    Luc chanced a glance at Mandy, doing nothing to suppress the broad, self-satisfied smile on his face. His blatant confidence was met with a silent challenge from Mandy, which he had no trouble reading.
    Enjoy it now, Luc. Things will change.
    We’ll see, he mouthed, still smiling.
    She smiled back at him. His pulse rate jumped a notch. For a moment, he couldn’t focus on anything around him. He took a deep breath and quickly dragged his gaze from her and centered it on the young girl.
    “I’m going to go dress him in the clothes I brought with me.” Shannon turned to leave.
    Mandy stopped her. “Before you can interact with him, I have to explain to you how this works.”
    Shannon retook her seat on the ottoman and held Joey in the crook of her arm, casting loving glances at him from time to time. Mandy extracted a small laptop from the box and what looked like a hospital bracelet with a small key attached.
    “I need to put this on you.” Shannon held out her arm, and Mandy attached the bracelet to the girl’s wrist. “I’ve preprogrammed the baby, the laptop and the bracelet to interact. It will transmit to the laptop what kind of care you give Joey by picking up the wireless signal from the monitor in the baby’s back and recording it. Only you can tend to him. That means if he wakes up in the middle of the night, you must get up and do whatever is necessary to stop his crying. Understand?”
    Shannon nodded.
    “The key can be inserted in his back to stop the crying, but will not necessarily stop it immediately or without the care he’s in need of. It’s up to you to figure out what he needs just as any mother would have to do with an infant.”
    Shannon stood. “Is that all? May I go dress him now?”
    Luc wasn’t sure Shannon had absorbed anything Mandy had said, but she smiled. “Yes, that’s all. If you have any questions, let me know.”
    Shannon hurried from the room, Joey still cradled in her arms. The tattoo of her footsteps on the stairs echoed down the hall and into the family room.
    Catherine stood and walked to the fireplace, then turned toward them, her expression clearly troubled. “She looks terribly excited about all this.”
    “She certainly does,” Luc added. He’d come into this with serious reservations about his success, but Shannon’s reaction to the baby had given him the boost of confidence he needed. “Don’t you agree?” he asked Mandy.
    Mandy ignored him. “It’s the first day. She’ll soon find out that