The baby had finished his bottle and lay against Nick’s shoulder with his little eyelids fluttering. Reese hated to disturb them, but she had no choice. She walked around in front of him. He raised those dark eyes to her face in question.
“Albert is on the phone. He says your in-laws are downstairs and want to come up,” she mouthed the words.
Nick brushed his lips against the baby’s head before getting to his feet in one lithe male move. “I’ll talk to him from the phone in my bedroom.”
After he left with Jamie, she walked back to the kitchen. The second she heard Nick’s deep voice, she hung up the phone.
The bottles were still waiting. She removed the packaging before loading them in the dishwasher. The lids and nipples fit inside the little basket.
Beneath the kitchen sink she found a box of dishwasher detergent that hadn’t been used yet. She undid the seal and poured some in the dispenser. Pretty soon she had the machine going on the wash/dry cycle.
While she waited, she opened the canister of powdered formula and read the directions. Once the items were dry and sterilized, she measured enough instant formula into each, before adding the required amount of water.
Nick chose that moment to bring an attractive, well-dressed older couple into the kitchen. “Sorry. I was just making up Jamie’s formula.” She wiped her hands with a clean cloth.
Nick’s eyes glimmered with some emotion she couldn’t put a name to. “No problem. Reese Chamberlain? I’d like you to meet Jamie’s grandparents, Anne and Walter Hirst. They wanted to be introduced.”
“Of course.” She walked over to shake their hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
REESE had once seen the original oil painting of Grant Wood’s American Gothic in Chicago. It depicted a farmer and a woman with stern faces standing in front of a white farmhouse. In the man’s hand was an upturned pitchfork.
Though Nick’s in-laws were good-looking people, they could have been the models for the painting. Mr. Hirst wore an expression of dislike in his eyes as he said hello. She could imagine him coming to life to poke her with his farm implement. His wife remained stiff and mute. Reese felt for the brunette woman who’d lost her daughter so recently. Lines of grief were still visible on both their faces. Pain, pain, pain.
This had to be brutal on Nick, who was still trying to deal with the loss of his wife, too. He shifted Jamie to his other shoulder. Looking at Reese he said, “I explained that the three of us are still getting acquainted. Leave what you’re doing and come with us while I show them the nursery.”
There was enough authority underlining his words for Reese to know he expected her to join them. Why, she didn’t know, but she did his bidding without question. When they reached the nursery she heard a sudden gasp from Jamie’s grandmother.
“What a surprise!” his grandfather said. “Where did your office go?”
“It’s dismantled in another bedroom. As you can see, we’re coming along thanks to Ms. Chamberlain, so you don’t need to be concerned about the baby’s welfare. Sit down in the rocking chair and hold Jamie. He just had his bath and a bottle. I doubt he’ll be hungry for another couple of hours.”
Nick handed her the baby. Reese held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t start to cry having to leave Nick’s arms. To her relief he just looked up quietly at his grandmother. It was a sweet moment. Jamie had a wonderful nature.
“I’ll get a chair from my room for you, Walter.” Nick was back in a second. “Now you can enjoy him together.” With wooden movements, he sat down next to his wife.
By tacit agreement Reese left the nursery with Nick and they headed for the kitchen. “What can I do to help?”
Aware of his body close to hers, she was all thumbs. “I just need to finish off making up these bottles.” Nick found the lids and tops and before long the task was done and eight fresh bottles had been put in the fridge.
“I had a feeling they’d make a surprise visit,” he murmured, “but not before tomorrow.”
What he meant was, he knew they’d show up when Reese was alone to see how she was handling their grandson. But by their appearance today, it was clear they hadn’t been able to wait that long.
“They’re missing Jamie,” she said. “Who wouldn’t? He’s as good as gold. Not one tear yet.”
Nick nodded. “I know. I’ve been waiting.”
“Not all babies have his wonderful disposition. It should ease your mother-in-law’s mind that he’s adapting so well to the change in surroundings.”
He trapped her gaze. “That’s because you haven’t given him a chance to get upset. When I put in for a nanny, I never thought Mary Poppins would actually pop inside the limo.”
Reese’s mouth curved upward. His comment took the chill off the remembered moment when his in-laws had first looked at her as if she was an alien. “I’m afraid there’s only one of those.”
Better that Nick saw Reese as a fictional character.
Unfortunately she couldn’t say the same thing about him. Meeting him had caused her to view him as someone very real and charismatic in spite of his deep sorrow, or maybe even because of it. Not for a second could she afford to forget this was a man who’d just lost his wife. It hadn’t even been three months. Reese needed to focus on Jamie and nothing else.
“To be honest, I was afraid I’d pop in that limo and find Captain Von Trapp surrounded by seven precocious children all needing individual attention at the same time.”
His low laughter rang in the spacious confines of the modern kitchen. No matter how hard she fought against it, the pleasing masculine sound connected to every atom in her body. She caught Nick’s gaze and something intense passed between them, stealing Reese’s breath.
“Nick?” Both of them turned in the direction of his mother-in-law’s voice. The interruption had spoiled a conversation she’d been enjoying, and something else had passed between them, too, that Reese wasn’t prepared to think about just yet. “We’d like to talk to you for a minute please.”
Her brittle words expressed in that demanding tone meant she’d heard them laughing together. Reese feared it had been like an affront to her sensibilities. This was awful. Nick shouldn’t have come into the kitchen with her.
“Of course, Anne.” He glanced back at Reese. “Excuse me. Why don’t you call down and order sandwiches and salad for us. Have them set up our lunch on the terrace. Cesar knows what I like.”
“All right.” Reaching for the phone, she gave Nick’s order to the kitchen and asked them to add a pot of coffee. The waiter was to bring their lunch up to the patio table.
Relieved to be alone at last, Reese tidied away the things she’d used in the kitchen until it was once again spotless, then she walked out to the terrace, the only safe place in the apartment at the moment. While she waited for the food to come, she looked through the telescope. Once she’d made some adjustments, she had a bird’s-eye view of one part of the Big Apple. Starting tomorrow she’d take Jamie out exploring in the stroller. Central Park was only two blocks away.
Last year she and Pam had come to New York for a few days on the train, but they’d been short on time and money. They’d ended up seeing one Broadway show and spent two days visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was it. The equivalent of a grain of sand in the middle of the Sahara.
“Ms.