“Handsome little dude.” His full bottom lip curved.
As if insulted, Alex’s small face puckered and he began to cry. Cassidy reached inside the crib and lifted him into her arms, thankful that he was not attached to the wires and tubes she’d feared.
He cried louder. She bounced him up and down, feeling as helpless as he did. She was his aunt, not his mother. What did she know about soothing a baby? She’d spent time with him, but Janna had always been nearby, ready to take over when the crying commenced. It had been a standard joke between her and her sister. Cassidy played with Alex. Janna did all the hard stuff.
“It’s probably breakfast time, don’t you think?” the fireman asked.
Oh dear. Breakfast. Cassidy’s stomach fell to her toes. “I don’t know what to do.”
He shot her an odd look, as if everyone knew what to do with a hungry baby. “Give him a bottle, I guess.”
Cassidy bit her bottom lip, both embarrassed and dismayed. “Janna was nursing him. He’s never had a bottle.”
In fact, Janna had never left her son with anyone, not even Cassidy, for more than a few minutes. Alex was her child of joy and promise, the beginning of the big family she and Brad had wanted. If Cassidy was honest, Janna was living the life both sisters had longed for.
“Oh. That does present a problem.” He held up one finger. “Sounds like a job for the nurse.”
He pushed the button and issued the order for formula as though he did this every day. Maybe he had kids of his own.
“Thank you. I hope Alex can deal with the change,” Cassidy said, juggling the fussy child up and down, up and down, praying the nurse would hurry with that bottle.
“It may take some time, but he will.”
He must be a dad, she thought. Nice guy, firefighter, baby expert. Not hard to look at, either. Interesting fellow. “I never did get your name.”
“Carano,” he said. “Nic Carano. Fire Station One.”
Cassidy blinked. He couldn’t be. No way. This firefighter who had rescued her nephew was Nic Carano?
Notorious Nic?
Chapter Two
“I remember you,” she said, trying to reconcile the helpful firefighter with the Notorious Nic she remembered.
He’d dated half the girls in her sorority house. All at once. Nic Carano, the fun-loving life of the party who went through girlfriends faster than frat boys through a keg of beer. She’d been very careful to be sure she wasn’t one of them.
Nic was not her kind of man. If she had a kind. Unfortunately, building her career in graphic design left her little time to date. If she did, it would not be a man like Notorious Nic, no matter how nice-looking and charming he seemed.
The door swished open and a nurse attired in blue scrubs appeared with a bottle, patted Alex’s head and disappeared again. As if she had a clue what she was doing, Cassidy tilted the baby into a cradle hold and slid the nipple into his squalling mouth. Alex shoved back, twisting his head, fighting the strange silicone.
“You look familiar to me, too.” Apparently unperturbed by Alex’s crying, Nic went on talking as he pushed a chair behind Cassidy’s knees. Gratefully, Cassidy slid onto the seat. She hadn’t realized she was still standing. “College maybe?”
Cassidy nodded. “Kappa Kappa.”
“Oh yeah.” He grinned. “My favorite sorority. You lived there?”
He asked as if he were puzzled, as if he hadn’t dated her so how could she have lived in the Kappa Kappa House.
For one thing, she’d been too focused. For another, she’d been too smart to get involved with a man who was all charm and no substance. Though loath to admit it, her social life had been limited to a few shallow, quickly fading relationships, a couple of them regrettable. The Lord had forgiven her, but she was taking no chances on making the same mistakes again. Handsome, charming, shallow men were off-limits.
Alex grew frustrated and thrashed in howling protest. Cassidy jiggled the bottle, trying to calm him. She’d had no idea feeding a hungry baby could be this difficult.
“Come on, sugar. I know it’s different, but you’ll get the hang of it.”
She tried again, sliding the nipple onto his tongue. He jerked away, pushing at her hand.
“Want me to try?” Nic held out his arms. “I’ve got a little experience.”
“You do?” Now that was a shocker.
He winked. “Trust me. I’m amazing.”
Right. Trust him. How many girls had heard that line? Trusting Nic was the last thing on her agenda. In fact, the sooner Fireman Fun and Games disappeared, the better. She had enough to deal with.
“I appreciate all you’ve done, Nic. Really.” She jiggled Alex harder. “But you must be exhausted. I can handle things from here. You look like you could sleep for a week.”
Alex screamed, a cry that would bring police, and fire and rescue in any other setting.
Fire and rescue was already here, holding out his arms, with a funny little quirk at the corner of his mouth.
If Nic comprehended her efforts to get rid of him, he didn’t show it.
“Come on. Let me try. Me and the little dude are buddies. I can sleep when I’m dead.”
The word dead lingered between them, harsh and dark. The night’s tragedy slipped back into the room. As though water flowed through her veins instead of blood, Cassidy’s arms went weak.
What was she going to do without Janna? What was Alex going to do without a mother who knew how to soothe him when he cried?
“Hey,” Nic said, his voice soft and concerned. She raised her eyes to his and he must have seen her helplessness. Without asking again, he took Alex from her.
Cassidy sat, limp and devastated, trying to think of anything except that ugly word—dead. Her head was like an echo chamber bouncing the word back a thousand times. Dead, dead, dead.
Swallowing a cry of anguish, she focused on Nic Carano, cradling her nephew against his chest as if holding a baby was the most natural thing in the world.
Did that mean Nic Carano was now married with children? That the wild and crazy jokester without a care in the world was not only a firefighter, he was a dad?
The image didn’t fit. The party boy she remembered did not have either “responsibility” or “settle down” anywhere in his vocabulary.
Right now, however, he was using his charm to convince Alex to accept the unfamiliar bottle. He pressed a dab of formula onto the infant’s lips and then stroked the corner of his mouth with the nipple. As if by some form of communication known only to the male species, Alex turned his face and latched on.
“Attaboy,” Nic murmured. His gaze flicked up to Cassidy’s. “Look at him go.”
Cassidy should have felt better. Instead, her depression deepened. If she couldn’t even feed Alex, how could she care for him? And if she didn’t, who would? She was no more parent material than Nic Carano. Nor did she possess his natural ease with people.
“How did you do that?”
Nic shrugged. A small smile gleamed white against his dirty face. “Told you,” he said easily. “Uncle Nicky’s got the touch.”
“Are you this good with your own kids?” she asked, not because she cared about his life one way or the other, but to keep from thinking about Janna and Brad.
Nic drew back in feigned alarm. “The Caranos have enough rug rats running around the