Free Angel Baby by Leslie Kelly Page A

“Seems
to me, you were the one hauling her stuff around the last time.”
    Chase reluctantly smiled at Ryan’s reminder. Gently taking Dorien’s
arm, he asked, “So, have you met Sarah yet?”
    “No, but I’m very anxious to. From the way you were raving
about the child, Chase, she sounds adorable.”
    Chase shifted uncomfortably, catching Claudia’s pointed
glance. He shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes, as if to imply Dorien
was exaggerating.
    “Of course,” his grandmother continued, “your description of
Claudia was perfectly accurate. I had no trouble finding her. I looked for the
tall, willowy, auburn-haired beauty with eyes as green as springtime.”
    Claudia heard Ryan chuckle audibly. She quickly glanced at
Chase, wondering if he’d actually used those words, or if his grandmother had
exaggerated. The way he sighed and rolled his eyes told him he might actually
have described her in such a way. 
    She shivered a little, despite the heat of the day, studying
him covertly. She almost wished she hadn’t. For the first time she noticed he
wore another one of those sleeveless white t-shirts, and his thickly muscled
arms flexed with his every movement. A pair of long, khaki shorts allowed her
to examine his bare calves. She wasn’t surprised to find they were every bit as
finely toned as the rest of him, tanned, and thickly muscled, with a covering
of dark hair.
    Her mouth went dry as a sudden image of his limbs entangled
with hers—sweat-tinged skin sliding together in heat and want—flashed across
her mind.
    Realizing what she’d just pictured, Claudia jerked her gaze
back up to Chase’s face and caught him watching her. She didn’t look away, and
they exchanged a long, silent stare. In spite of the other people standing
nearby, it felt as if they were completely alone. For an instant, she wondered
if he could read her mind because she knew, without a doubt, that he’d been
having thoughts just as dangerous and exciting as hers. She felt his gaze on
her, saw it linger on her lips, then slide down over the scooped neck yellow
shirt she wore. Her body tingled in reaction, as if he touched her with his
glance.
    She had no idea how long they stood that way, but wasn’t
able to break the electric contact until Ryan broke in.
    “Here they are, finally,” he said as Claudia heard Melanie’s
car pull into the driveway. Pasting on a bright smile, she ignored her pounding
pulse and the tingling sensation coursing through her body, and turned to greet
Melanie and Sarah.
    Claudia sensed Chase’s eyes on her as she walked toward the
car, but she resisted the strong urge to look back. And by the time Melanie and
the baby got out of the car, and everyone headed toward the house, Chase had
already turned away and begun walking across the lawn toward his truck.
    As if he, too, couldn’t bear for them to be together with
all these other people around.
    As if he, too, was shocked by the intensity of the
attraction that danced between them like a live wire.
    As if he, too, had no idea what to do about it.
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    Sarah seemed to love her new home, exploring it thoroughly
for the first week. Her brightly colored plastic toys filled a carton in the
corner of the living room, and she loved to crawl over and pull out every
single thing. Claudia had to laugh when she realized the baby was playing a
game with her. Sarah didn’t want to play with the toys, she just wanted to pull
them all out and watch Mommy put them all back.
    One morning while fixing breakfast, Claudia became
distracted for no more than sixty seconds then found Sarah trying to climb the
stairs. Though the baby had only reached the second step from the bottom and
was completely unharmed, Claudia still felt terribly guilty. She bought a baby
gate that very day. Claudia suppressed a smile at Sarah’s angry pout when she
saw her path was permanently blocked. "Heaven help me when you start
walking, kiddo," Claudia said with a