Free The Christmas Baby by Eve Gaddy Page B

pass.”
    “The pretty blonde is my son’s nanny. I’m not interested in her. Not like that.”
    “Just keep trying to convince yourself of that. The eyes don’t lie.” She got up and smiled at him. “Cheer up, Brian. Like I said, she’s been checking you out, too.”
    He looked at Faith across the room and her eyes met his. She flushed and turned away, back to the man she’d been talking to for the past half hour. Maybe Maggie was right. Was Faith interested in him? And if she was, what was he going to do about it?

CHAPTER NINE
    F AITH WOKE WITH A START , her heart pounding. She sat still for a moment wondering what had awakened her and then she heard it again. A baby crying.
    “Mama, Mama,” Will shrieked.
    She grabbed her robe and threw it on before rushing to Will’s room. Brian was there already, had taken Will out of his crib and was cuddling the sobbing child against his bare chest.
    “You’re okay,” she heard Brian say as Will turned his wet cheek into the curve of his father’s neck. “Don’t worry. Daddy’s here,” he murmured. Will quieted, drawing in a deep shaky breath as Faith reached their side.
    It was the first time she’d heard Brian refer to himself as Daddy and it touched her. She put a soothing hand on the baby’s back and patted him. “Poor little guy. Do you think it was too much excitement today?”
    “No. I think he still misses his mother.” Will hiccuped and nestled closer to his father. Brian’s eyes met hers in the dimly lit room. “And I know exactly how he feels.”
    She started to ask him what he meant but then heard Lily fussing. “Let me see to her. I’ll just be a minute.”
    Lily had fallen back asleep by the time she reached her room. Faith caressed her head, tempted to pick her up, but she knew she’d wake her if she did. Love flooded her as she gazed at her baby. The perfect rosebud mouth, her chubby hand resting by her cheek. It no longer bothered her that Lily’s father had left. He’d given her a precious gift in her baby girl and Lily was the only thing that mattered now.
    She returned to Will’s room and saw Brian putting him in his crib. “No more bad dreams, Will,” he murmured, stroking the baby’s head as she had Lily’s only moments before.
    It was as sweet a scene as she’d ever seen. As endearing as watching Brian comfort his son earlier. “You’re getting to be a pro.”
    He looked at her and smiled. “Hardly. I have a long way to go.”
    She shook her head. “No, you don’t. You’re good with him. He loves you.”
    “Do you really think so?”
    He sounded so uncertain, it broke her heart. “I know he does. And you love him.”
    He was quiet for a long moment, his hands on the crib rail as he watched his son sleep. “I wasn’t sure I could. At first I didn’t know what I felt for him. I was afraid I might be like my father. That bastard never loved anyone in his life. Least of all his children.”
    The words were spoken softly but that only made them more chilling. “You sound very sure of that.”
    “Believe me, I am. He left when I was six. I prayed every night for a year that he’d never come back. Thank God he didn’t.”
    “Did he—” she hesitated but then decided she’d ask him. “Did he abuse you? Is that why you wanted him gone?”
    Brian shrugged. “Not physically. Not me. But Ava…he beat her so badly she ran away and we didn’t see her for more than twenty years. We thought she was dead. That’s on his head.”
    “I’m so sorry. That must have been awful for all of you.” She’d heard bits and pieces of the story and knew that Ava had only recently reunited with her siblings. But she hadn’t imagined anything so horrifying.
    “Yeah, especially for Ava,” he said grimly. “After she left, he didn’t physically abuse the rest of us. No one knows why. But he had other ways of making us miserable. He was a mean, selfish son of a bitch who liked to play mind games with us.”
    “I’m sorry you