Free Baby in Her Arms by Judy Christenberry Page A

clothes, a bath towel and Ginny, she left Josh staring at her and carried the baby to the master bath.
    “I think your daddy has learned a lot this morning,” she confided to the baby.
    Ginny gurgled, happy to have more water to play in, and clapped her hands together.
    By the time Josh appeared with the bottle, she and Ginny were cuddling in the bed. The bed with the pillow back in place.
    Ginny reached out as soon as she saw the bottle. Maggie took advantage of that unusual occurrence. “Ginny wants you,” she said, extending the baby toward her daddy.
    “No, she doesn’t. She just wants the bottle.” He stuck the bottle out.
    Ginny reached for it, but she couldn’t quite touch it. When she puckered up, he put the nipple in her mouth. “She mustn’t cry. Sam is still asleep.”
    “He slept through all that noise?” Maggie asked in surprise.
    “Yeah, so feed Ginny before she cries again.” He pulled the bottle out of the baby’s mouth and tried to hand it to Maggie.
    Ginny was becoming the object of a battle of wills. And Maggie was determined not to lose. She plopped Ginny down on Josh’s side of the bed. “Josh, you’d better feed her.”
    Ginny had no idea what was going on, except that the bottle had been taken away. She climbed on the big pillow next to Maggie, her gaze glued to her objective, the bottle.
    “Maggie, you’re being difficult,” Josh protested.
    “No, I’m not. Even when you find someone to help you, you’ll need to spend time with Ginny. You’re her father.”
    Ginny whined, staring at the bottle.
    “Yeah, but she’ll cry if I pick her up!” Josh protested.
    “Don’t be silly. She wants her bottle. If you give it to her, she’s not going to cry.” She stared back at him, refusing to budge.
    “Okay, I’ll learn to deal with...whatever. But this weekend, with Sam here as my responsibility, it’s not a good time to start. I mean, someone’s trying to kill the guy.”
    Ginny let out a cry of protest at the lack of attention her needs were getting.
    “She’s going to start crying.” Maggie’s hands itched to grab the bottle and cuddle Ginny against her, but she knew she had to hold out—for both their sakes. Josh needed to come to terms with his baby.
    He rounded the bed and sat down, propping the pillow behind him. Ginny, seeing the bottle close, lunged for it.
    “Hey! You didn’t tell me she could jump.” He caught the baby and gave her the bottle. Ginny, halfsitting against him, lowered her mouth to the nipple.
    “She can’t get any milk that way, Josh. You have to hold her and keep the bottle raised.”
    He squared his back to the bed and picked Ginny up, dropping the bottle in the process. Ginny protested, her little baby hands stretching for it.
    “Okay, okay, Gin, I’ll get it,” he said, grabbing the bottle with one hand while he held the little girl with the other. Once the nipple returned to her mouth and she began drinking, she had no interest in anything else.
    “Kind of one-tracked, isn’t she?” he asked, a half grin on his lips that Maggie found enormously attractive. Of course, that attraction could also have something to do with the fact that Josh was only wearing his pajama bottoms. Ginny certainly didn’t have any complaints about being held against his bare skin.
    Maggie leaned back against her own pillow and watched father and daughter.
    “It’s not as hard as I thought,” Josh said, lifting his gaze to her. “Though that earlier stuff was a pain. How do people manage on their own?”
    “They don’t get everything cleaned up as fast. But it’s easier with two people.” And much more enjoyable, she realized. Several times lately, she’d considered becoming a single parent. She still might. But she was learning that when two people shouldered the load, parenting was much sweeter.
    And sexier.
    Josh’s solemn, sincere gaze, with those big blue eyes so like his little girl’s, was more than Maggie could ignore. The time spent with