Free Baby Before Business (Silhouette Romance) by Susan Meier Page B

pull into the driveway close to the kitchen door.
    She almost rose to glance out the window to be sure it was him, but he was in the kitchen before she got off her chair.
    His penetrating onyx eyes pinned her and she felt a chill of foreboding run down her spine. She was in trouble. Deep trouble.
    “I think you’re going to need to teach me a few things about the baby.”
    Fearing a reprimand, or the prospect of being fired again, Madelyn wasn’t expecting that request. “Really?”
    “Yeah.” He ran his finger along the bridge of his nose trying to appear casual, but Madelyn knew there was nothing casual about this guy. He did nothing without a reason. That was why she had had to trick him into looking like a good dad and a nice person. He would never choose to be either because both eroded his reputation as a scrooge, bully and tyrant.
    “Did you call a nanny service and discover you were going to have to do night duty or something?”
    “Nope. Didn’t call yet. Not going to call until I can take care of Sabrina myself.”
    Terror skittered through Madelyn as she envisioned herself teaching him—and living here—until Sabrina graduated from college. “Are you kidding me?”
    Obviously seeing her fear, he smiled. “No. I simply want to learn how to care for the baby.”
    “Great.” Yeah, great. It didn’t make a whit of sense that he’d changed his mind. She knew that undeniably meant he was up to something. She almost swallowed, but refused to show him any weakness. In fact, the best thing to do would be to meet his challenge head-on.
    “Why don’t we start with your feeding her the rest of her cereal?”
    The baby pounded on the high chair as if signaling her approval.
    He shrugged off his jacket. “Okay.”
    “You might want to change out of more than your coat.”
    “I’m already burning a pair of Armani pants. Another suit won’t make any difference. I need to learn this.”
    The determination in his voice again confused Madelyn until she realized that was the deal. He’d figured out that the baby always threw him off balance and that using his confusion was how she guided him to do the things that would come naturally to him if he wasn’t so busy being aloof, trying to convince everyone he didn’t have a nice side. And having seen her strategy, he had resolved to take away her advantage.
    Well, she’d see about that.
    “Feeding a baby is a very simple thing.”
    Sabrina contradicted that by screeching and pounding her fist against the high chair tray, almost toppling the bowl.
    Ty nodded. “First, I’d probably set the bowl on thetable,” he observed, sounding as if he was approaching this the way he did a business problem and already coming up with better ways to do things.
    “You could do that,” Madelyn agreed calmly, not letting him gloat. “But having to turn back to the table to get bites will add time to the process and Sabrina’s not going to like it.”
    “Really?”
    “When she’s hungry, she wants to eat. So leave the bowl on the tray, but watch it, and her.” Madelyn smiled as if she’d told him something easy, when they both knew that watching Sabrina and the bowl would be far from simple. “Just get a little bite of cereal on the baby spoon and slide it into her mouth.”
    With the bowl on the tray, Ty did as instructed and Sabrina eagerly opened her mouth. Madelyn saw the determined expression in his eyes soften. But not with love for the baby. Nope. The expression in his eyes softened with relief. He was beating Madelyn and he was doing it deliberately.
    Or so he thought.
    “I’m glad you didn’t call about the nanny,” Madelyn said, going back to the strategy that had already worked so nicely for her. Confuse, disorient and conquer. “Because I realized something while you were gone.”
    “Really.” He slid another spoonful of cereal into hungry Sabrina’s mouth. This time his eyes sharpened. He’d gone from relief to victory in two spoonfuls.
    “Yes.