Free The Baby's Bodyguard by Stephanie Newton Page B

She went through the sitting room to drop off the computer before opening the door to the blue-and-brown bedroom, an inexplicable joy filling her at the thought ofthe blue-eyed, towheaded tot on the other side. She peeked around the corner.
    “Peep-eye, Janie.”
    Janie whipped her head around, a smile breaking on her face. She laughed.
    Kelsey lifted the toddler out of the porta-crib. “You need a clean diaper ASAP, young lady.”
    She quickly changed Janie into a dry diaper and clean clothes, then lifted her into her arms. “There you go, munchkin, all done.”
    Janie moved her hands, almost like a referee signaling “safe,” and repeated the gesture again.
All done.
    A few years back, Kelsey had taken a workshop on baby signing for continuing ed hours. She recognized the sign. How would this baby, who had been abandoned and barely spoke, know the sign? It didn’t fit.
    It was possible that it was a fluke and she didn’t mean to do it. She put Janie on the bed again and touched her arm. “Janie, more milk?”
    As she spoke she made the signs with her hands, putting the fingers of both hands together for
more
and making a squeezing motion with one hand for
milk.
    Janie immediately brought her hands together.
More.
    Wow. Definitely not a fluke. Kelsey blew out a breath and held her arms out to the toddler. “Come on, we’ll go get you some milk and a snack.”
    Even young babies learn rudimentary communication. She’d been so sad that Janie had been separated from the people who could communicate in her language, even though she knew it wouldn’t be long before she learned to compensate.
    Janie rarely cried like a normal baby, and she didn’t talk. But she signed, something that had been proven to help babies communicate their needs. It was so interesting to Kelsey. What was more interesting was that it pointed to a mother who loved Janie enough to teach her.
    A perplexing mystery.
    “Hey, I figured your feet would be hurting. You hungry?” Gracie came in balancing a plate of cheese, crackers and grapes and two bottles of water. She had a sippy cup under her other arm. “Nolan told me the baby woke up.”
    “So you’re through with your gig as the hostage negotiator?” Kelsey handed Janie a set of plastic car keys, one of the toys she carried in her big tapestry bag.
    Gracie walked through the open door into the sitting room and dropped easily to the floor, crossing her legs underneath her. “This time I was playing the hostage. Unfortunately, the hothead team leader decided to go for the tactical solution too early and the ‘hostage’ and the ‘hostage taker’ were both killed.” She rolled her eyes. “Since I’m officially dead, I decided they could spend the afternoon alone.”
    “Well, we’re glad to see you.” Kelsey spoke through the open door to Gracie then turned to the baby. “Want some milk?”
    Janie lunged into Kelsey’s arms, making the sign for
milk
as Kelsey carried her into the sitting room. Kelsey looked at Gracie, raising an eyebrow. “Did you see that?”
    “She made a sign. How in the world did you figurethat out?” Gracie held the milk cup for Janie to grasp in her little hands.
    “Complete accident.” Kelsey dropped to the floor, where the toys still remained from the morning’s play session. “It’s not extremely unusual for a baby to sign, but she’s so quiet.”
    “Maybe Ethan will come back with information that can help us.” Gracie handed Janie a cracker as she crawled toward the plate. “I know this isn’t much lunch for a toddler. I’ll have the cook make something for her.”
    “By ‘the cook,’ you mean Tyler?”
    “Of course.” Gracie smiled. “I sure didn’t marry him for his good looks. It was the fluffy pancakes that did me in. That and the studly sense of honor the Clark men have.”
    “Ethan definitely has it.” Kelsey made the sign for
more
to Janie, who repeated it back to her.
More.
“This case, the fact that he didn’t know about