Dylan frowned. ‘Isn’t he a bit young for books?’
‘No. Pete used to read to him,’ she said softly. ‘Ally read up about it and she wanted Tyler to have a good male role model. So Pete always did the bedtime story.’
OK. Reading to a baby couldn’t be that hard. Talking, too. But playing...where did you start? He didn’t know any baby games. Any nursery rhymes.
As if the panic showed on his face, she smiled at him. ‘Come and give him a cuddle.’
And this was where Dylan got nervous. Where things could go terribly wrong. Because he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. And he hated the fact that he had to take advice from someone as flaky as Emmy, because she clearly knew more about babies than he did. ‘Do I have to hold his head or something?’
‘No. He’s four months old, not a newborn, so he can support his head just fine. He can’t sit up on his own yet, but that’ll happen in a few weeks.’ She looked at him. ‘OK. You might want to change.’
‘Why?’
‘Unless you don’t mind your suit getting creased and needing to go to the cleaner’s more often.’
The question must’ve been written all over his face, because she added, ‘You’re going to be on the floor with him a lot.’
She had a point. ‘I’ll be down in a minute.’ Dylan took the stairs two at a time to his room, then changed into jeans and T-shirt.
When he came downstairs, she gave him an approving look. ‘Righty. He’s all yours.’
Panic seeped through Dylan. What was he meant to do now?
She kissed the baby. ‘See you later, sweetie. Have fun with Uncle Dylan.’ And then she went to hand the baby to him.
He could muddle through this.
But it was important to get it right.
‘Uh—Emmy.’ He really hated this, but what choice did he have? It was ask, or mess it up. ‘I don’t know what to do.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘We’ve already discussed this. Play with him. It’s not rocket science.’
She wasn’t going to make this easy for him, was she? ‘I haven’t had anything to do with babies before.’
She scoffed. ‘He’s four months old and he’s your godson. Of course you’ve spent time with him.’
‘He’s always been asleep or Ally was feeding him. Pete and I didn’t do baby stuff together, not like you and Ally.’
She looked at him and nodded. ‘It must really stick in your craw to have to ask me for help. And if I was a different kind of woman, I’d just walk away and let you get on with it. But Tyler’s needs come first, so I’ll help you.’
‘For his sake, not mine. I get it. But thank you anyway.’
‘So how come you’re so clueless? Pete always said you were the brightest person he knew—Ally, too. And you’re the same age as the rest of us. I don’t understand how, at thirty-five years old, you can know absolutely nothing about babies.’
Although he knew there was a compliment in there, of sorts, at the same time her words were damning. And he was surprised to find himself explaining. ‘I’m an only child. No cousins, no close family.’ At least, not since his grandmother died. His mother had never been close to him. ‘Pete and Ally were the first of my friends to have children, and I...’ He sighed. ‘I guess I’ve been a bit preoccupied, the last few months.’
‘Relationship break-ups tend to do that to you.’ She looked rueful. ‘And yes, I know that from way too much experience. OK. I never thought I’d need to show you any of this, but these are the kinds of things he likes to do with me.’ She sat on the floor and balanced Tyler on her knees. ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great...’ She paused, and the baby clearly knew what was coming because he was beaming his head off. ‘Fall,’ she said, lowering her knees as she straightened her legs, and managing to keep the baby upright at the same time.
Her reward was a rich chuckle from the baby.
Something else that made him feel odd. ‘And you always do the pause?’ he asked, to take his focus off his feelings. This was about learning to care for a baby, not how he felt.
‘I do. He’s learned to anticipate it. He loved doing this with Ally. She used to string it out for ages.’ She blew a raspberry on the baby’s tummy, making him laugh, and handed him to Dylan. ‘Your turn.’
‘Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,’ Dylan intoned, feeling absolutely ridiculous and wishing he were a hundred miles away. Or, better still, back at his desk—where at least he knew what he was doing. ‘Humpty Dumpty had a great...’ He glanced at Emmy, who nodded. ‘Fall,’ he finished, and straightened his legs, letting the baby whoosh downwards but supporting him so he didn’t fall.
Tyler laughed.
And something around Dylan’s heart felt as if it had cracked.
* * *
There was a look of sheer wonder on Dylan’s face as Tyler laughed up at him. He really hadn’t been exaggerating about being a hands-off godfather, and this was obviously the first time he’d actually sat down with the baby and played with him. Emmy had the feeling that Dylan Harper, the stuffiest man in the world, kept everyone at arm’s length. Well, you couldn’t do that when you lived with a baby. So this was really going to change Dylan. It might make him human, instead of being a judgemental, formal machine.
When he did the Humpty Dumpty game for the third time, and laughed at the same time as the baby, she knew he was definitely changing. Tyler was about to turn Dylan Harper’s life upside down again—but this time, in a good way.
‘OK for me to go to work?’ she asked.
‘Sure. And, um, thanks for the lesson.’ He still looked awkward and embarrassed, but at least they’d managed to be civil to each other.
Hopefully they could keep it up.
‘No problem,’ she said. ‘I’ll be in Pete’s study if you get stuck with anything.’
DYLAN WAS SURPRISED to discover how much he enjoyed playing with the baby. How good it was to hear that rich chuckle and know that he’d given Tyler a moment of pure happiness. If anyone had told him three weeks ago that he’d be having fun waving a toy duck around and quacking loudly, he would’ve dismissed it as utter insanity. But, this afternoon, it was a revelation.
He was actually disappointed when Tyler fell asleep.
Though it wasn’t for long. The baby woke again and started crying, and Dylan picked him up almost on instinct. Then he wrinkled his nose. Revolting. It looked as if he needed another lesson from Emmy. He went to find her in Pete’s study.
‘Problem?’ she asked.
‘He needs a nappy change. Can you show me how to do it?’
‘Ah, no. You’re the one who said, “I do and I understand” is the best. I’ll talk you through it.’
When they went upstairs to the nursery, Emmy did at least help Dylan get the baby out of his little all-in-one suit, for which he was grateful. But then she stood back and talked him through the actual process of nappy-changing.
How could someone so small produce something so—so stinky? he wondered.
He used wipe after wipe to clean the baby.
And