He tried to make light of it, even though he was in a cold sweat. ‘Help me out here, Ty,’ he muttered. ‘I’m new at all this.’
But finally the baby had a clean nappy and clean clothes. Dylan put him in the cot and made sure the covers were tucked in properly; within seconds Tyler had fallen back to sleep in his usual position with his arms up over his head, looking like a little frog.
Dylan went back to his room feeling almost hung-over. It was way too late to have a shower; the noise from the water tank would wake Emmy. So he simply sponged off the worst of the milk at the sink in his en-suite, and fell into bed. How did parents of newborns cope with even less sleep than this? he wondered as he sank back into sleep. How had Pete not been a total zombie?
The next morning, his alarm shrilled at the usual time. Normally Dylan woke before his alarm, whereas today he felt groggy from lack of sleep. He staggered out of bed and showered; he didn’t feel much better afterwards, though at least he didn’t smell of burped-up milk anymore.
He went to the nursery to look in on Tyler. The baby was asleep in his cot, looking angelic. ‘It’s all right for some,’ Dylan said wryly. ‘I could do with a nap. So have an extra one for me.’
He dragged himself downstairs. Was it his imagination, or could he smell coffee?
Emmy was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with a mug of coffee. She raised an eyebrow when she saw him. ‘Rough night?’ she asked.
‘Apart from Ty throwing up half the milk over me and then peeing over me...’
She burst out laughing and he glared at her. ‘It’s not funny.’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘You could’ve warned me he’d do that.’
She spread her hands. ‘To be fair, he hasn’t actually done that to me. But Ally told me he once did it to Pete.’
‘Just don’t tell me it’s a male bonding thing,’ he grumbled.
‘And I thought you were supposed to be a morning person.’ She laughed, and poured him a mug of coffee. ‘Here. This might help.’
‘Thanks. I think.’ He took a sip. ‘I was useless last night. I nearly let him fall off the changing station.’
She flapped a dismissive hand. ‘I’m sure you didn’t.’
‘I jumped back from him when he peed on me.’
‘Which is a natural reaction, and you would’ve been there to stop him if he’d started to roll.’
It still made him go cold, how close it had been. ‘Can he roll over?’
‘Yes.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Stop panicking, Dylan. You know what to expect now. You won’t let him fall.’
How could she have so much confidence in him, when he had absolutely none in himself? And what had happened to her, anyway? The Emmy Jacobs he knew would’ve sniped about him not being good enough. This Emmy was surprisingly supportive. Which made him feel even more adrift. He was used to being in charge and knowing exactly what he was doing. Right now, he was winging it, and he hated feeling so useless.
He covered up his feelings by saying, ‘I could do with some toast. Do we have bread?’
‘Not much. But it’s my turn for the supermarket run today, so I’ll get some.’
‘Right.’
‘Any food allergies, or anything you hate eating?’
‘No to the first, offal to the second.’
She smiled. ‘That makes two of us. I’ll pick up dinner while I’m out.’
He thought about it. Really, this was much like sharing a student house. Except it wasn’t with his friends, it was with a near stranger. And he had the added responsibility of a baby. ‘We need to sort out a kitty.’
‘Sure. We can do that later.’
‘And we need a rota for doing the shopping. Or maybe we could get the shopping delivered.’ He frowned. ‘Do you have a car?’
‘Yes. And I know how to fit Ty’s baby seat in it.’ She paused. ‘What about you?’
‘Yes to having a car. I don’t have a clue about a baby seat.’
‘We only have one baby seat between us. I think we’re going to need one for your car as well as mine.’
He frowned. ‘So I need to take another afternoon off?’
She shrugged. ‘Or we could go at the weekend.’
Her weekend on, his weekend off—and he was going to have to spend it doing baby stuff instead of catching up with work. Great. Yet more disruption. And then the guilt surged through him again. It wasn’t Tyler’s fault that he needed to be looked after—or that Dylan had agreed to do it. ‘OK. We’ll go at the weekend,’ he said.
* * *
Saturday morning saw them in the nursery department of a department store in the city.
‘Your baby’s gorgeous,’ the assistant said, cooing over Tyler.
Dylan was about to correct her when Emmy said, ‘Yes, we think so.’ She shot him a look, daring him to contradict her.
He thought about it. Strictly speaking, Tyler was their baby. Just not a baby they’d actually made together.
Then he wished he hadn’t thought about making babies with Emmy. How soft her skin would be against his. How she smelled of some spicy, floral scent he couldn’t quite place. How it made him want to touch her, taste her...
Oh, hell. He really couldn’t have the hots for Emmy. He hadn’t even looked at another woman since he’d split up with Nadine. Abstinence: that had to be what was wrong with him. That, or the fact that he’d done the night shift, the previous night, and Tyler had woken three times, so lack of sleep had fried his brain.
He shut up and let Emmy do the talking.
And then Emmy spied a cot toy, something that apparently beamed pictures of stars and a moon on the ceiling and played a soft tinkling lullaby.
‘Can we get this as well? I think he’d love it.’
‘You mean, you love it.’ Emmy seemed to like simple, childlike things. And Dylan hadn’t quite worked out yet whether he found that more endearing or annoying. He certainly didn’t loathe her as much as he once had. She was good with the baby, too.
Her eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘OK, then, let’s ask him.’ She picked up the cot toy, crouched down beside the pram, switched it on and let Tyler see the lights and hear the lullaby.
Tyler’s eyes went wide, then he laughed and held his hands out towards it.
Emmy looked up at him and smiled. ‘I think that’s a yes.’
Again a surge of attraction hit him. Was he crazy? This was Emmy Jacobs, who sparred with him and sniped at him and was his co-guardian. She was the last person he wanted to get involved with. But at the same time he had to acknowledge that there was something about her that really got under his skin. Something that made him want to know more about her. Get closer.
And that in itself was weird. He didn’t do close. Never had. He didn’t trust anyone to let them near enough—even, if he was honest with himself, Nadine.
The rest of the weekend turned out to be Dylan’s first weekend of being a dad. Although it was officially Emmy’s weekend on duty, he somehow ended up going to the park with her to take Tyler out for some fresh air. He noticed that she talked to Tyler all the time, even though there