Brittany sat on the couch with the contented baby on her lap, and Ethan and Nate stood, all three staring after the retreating figure in utter amazement.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Nate gasped. “Don’t that beat all! I never did like that woman, son, but I figured that since she was the one you chose to marry it wasn’t up to me to criticize, but now…”
He let the sentence trail off and grabbed the back of the couch Brittany was sitting on with both hands. Brittany caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and instinctively called out “Catch him” as Nate wavered back and forth.
The sharpness of her tone set little Danny off again, but Ethan understood the warning and wrapped his arms around his dad’s shoulders.
“It’s okay, Dad,” he said soothingly as he steadied Nate and walked him around to the front of the couch.
Brittany stood up with the crying baby in her arms, and Ethan stretched his father out in a reclining position on the sofa. “You all right now, Dad?” he asked anxiously.
“I’ll get his candy,” Brittany said, and hurried to the kitchen, still carrying the squalling child, to get a roll of fruit-flavored Life Savers. It was a quick way to bring her patient’s blood-sugar level back up to normal and avoid diabetic shock.
When she got back to the family room Ethan stood up and took Danny from her while she sat on the edge of the couch and handed Nate the proper number of candies. While he chewed she kept her hand on the pulse in his wrist and her eyes on the slightly uneven rise and fall of his chest.
“Is he going to be okay?” Ethan asked above the clamor of Danny’s sobs.
“Oh, yeah,” she assured him. “His blood sugar apparently took a dramatic fall due to the stress of all the upsetting things going on around here, plus he missed his afternoon snack. I was fixing him something to eat when your wife arrived and got everything in an uproar.”
“Ex-wife,” Ethan corrected her.
Brittany got a perverse pleasure out of Ethan’s hurry to deny any close relationship with Hannah. How could that woman just abandon their baby like this? It’s true her company hadn’t given her much time to make a choice between her career and her child, but she could have at least shown a little remorse. Instead she didn’t seem to be able to get away fast enough.
“Yes, well whatever,” she said, “Nate needs to eat. I noticed you have an assortment of TV dinners in the freezer. Is it okay if I heat some of those in the microwave?”
“I’d appreciate it very much,” Ethan answered. “I like roast beef. What will you have, Nate?”
“Fried chicken,” Nate said, but before Brittany could protest that deep-fried chicken was filled with fat, Nate continued. “It’s a brand especially made for people with dietary restrictions. My doctor has approved it.”
She was happy to hear that. “Okay, then, and what does Danny eat?”
“I’ll feed him,” Ethan said, “while you fix dinner and take care of Dad. There’s plenty in the freezer. Take whatever you want for yourself.”
“Fine,” she said, and looked at Nate. “You stay right there and don’t try to get up. It won’t take but a few minutes to microwave your frozen chicken. Do you still have black spots in front of your eyes?
He shook his head. “No, that candy did the trick. My hands aren’t shaking, either.”
For the next few hours Ethan and Brittany worked unceasingly. Ethan fed Danny, then put away the baby furnishings he needed and carried all the things he had duplicates of, such as high chairs and cribs, down to the basement. Brittany fixed the TV dinners for the three adults and kept an eye on both Nate and his little grandson.
At seven-thirty she caught up with Danny and gave him a bath. He splashed happily in the tub, getting her almost as wet as he was. She rummaged through the chest of drawers in the nursery upstairs and found a pair of pajamas with cartoon characters printed on them. She put them on him and sat down with him in the handmade chair that Ethan told her had rocked several generations of Thorpe babies to sleep.
For a few moments Danny tried to get away from her and play on the floor, but she held on to him firmly and started to sing lullabies as she rocked. In no time he relaxed, put his thumb in his mouth and nestled against her.
Brittany hadn’t had much experience with infants and toddlers. She’d done a fair amount of baby-sitting in high school, but her charges had been mostly older children. This little one was pure joy. His skin was so soft, his hair still tousled, and he smelled of soap and baby powder.
She was still humming when she heard a soft sound somewhere between a gasp and a sigh and looked up. There, leaning against the doorjamb, stood Ethan. There were lines of fatigue at the corners of his eyes and mouth and he looked exhausted.
Their gazes locked and clung and wouldn’t be torn apart, but it wasn’t the magnetism that held her entranced. It was the raw hunger that seemed to look out of his very soul as he watched her cuddle his child.
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