It didn’t take long to pose the baby in the stroller. The pretty little girl appeared to like being outdoors in the warm spring air. Most of the children she photographed did, especially if their feet were bare. Kim took some close-ups of those feet. The onlookers kept silent, except once when Stuart swore at a bee who dared come within eight feet of the wicker stroller.
Then Brianne screamed, spit up carrots on her eyelet lace collar and proceeded to call an end to the photo session.
“I guess that’s that,” Stuart said with a sigh, lifting her from the stroller. Since he already had carrot stains on his shirt, he didn’t seem to mind the new ones.
“I’m sure I have enough for you and her mother to choose from,” Kim assured him. Was she one of those socialites she’d seen him with on the front page of the Arts section in the Sunday paper? Was she slim and blond and very rich, with her very own lilacs and a car that didn’t need repairs every three months?
“Ooh, I’d like to see those pictures myself,” Mrs. G. said. She piled the sheets in her arms and Patrick moved the stroller out of the garden area and onto the back porch, while Kim led Stuart to the front of the house and the studio door.
“You have a lot of help here,” Stuart said. “Does Kate work here, too?”
“Yes. She specializes in bridal portraits and graduation photos.”
“Not baby toes?”
“No.” Kim smiled, remembering her twin’s disastrous attempts at photographing a set of triplets last year. “Kate’s not exactly the domestic type.”
“And her sister?”
She turned and ushered him into the reception room. “Babies are my business.”
“Hold her for a minute, will you?” Stuart didn’t wait for an answer and Kim found herself cuddling Brianne again while Stuart gathered up the baby’s possessions and haphazardly stuffed them into the diaper bag. When they were ready to leave, Kim tweaked Brianne’s big toe and made her smile. “Take good care of your daddy, sweetheart. I think he could use a break.”
“I’m not her father, if that’s what you mean,” he said. “She’s my niece.”
“Whether she’s your niece or your daughter, you’re still taking care of her, right?” His niece? It made more sense, come to think of it. The brilliant and handsome Dr. Thorpe would certainly practice safe sex and birth control. She rubbed the child’s little feet with gentle motions. The exhausted baby leaned against her and sighed.
“Yeah, I’m the baby-sitter until her aunt arrives.” He looked at his watch and then back to Kim. “Which is any minute now.”
“Your niece?” Pat looked from Stuart to the baby and then back again. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”
“I thought I did,” he said, shrugging. “My sister’s mother-in-law is in intensive care up in Maine. She had to leave before my other sister—the real baby-sitter—got back from vacation.”
“She couldn’t take the baby?” Kim was surprised.
He shook his head. “There’s no other family up there—her husband is on his way home from Sydney—and Payne didn’t want to leave her with strangers while she was at the hospital.”
“Hospitals are no places for babies,” Anna declared. “Too many germs in the waiting rooms, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m sure my sister would agree with you,” Stuart said.
“Stuart’s a doctor, Anna,” she reminded her. “He knows all about germs.”
“Well, then, he can tell me what this is.” Anna pointed to her left arm. “Come here, young man, and see if you know your business and can tell me what this spot is.”
“I’m a surgeon, not a dermatologist, but I can tell you if it’s chicken pox,” Stuart said, but he obeyed the woman and crossed the room to peer at her forearm. “It looks like a wart to me.”
“Not skin cancer?”
“I doubt that very much, Mrs. Gianetto, but I can give you the name of a good dermatologist if you want to have it checked further.”
“Nah,” she said. “I trust you.” She stood and reached for her shopping bag.
“Maybe you should do as he says, Anna,” Patrick said.
She laughed. “I just saved fifty dollars. Come on, Pat. Let’s go back to my house and get these things listed on eBay before we run out of energy.”
“Don’t forget the camera,” Kim said. Patrick picked up the camera and took the shopping bag from Anna’s hand.
“Are you closing up?” he asked, clearly unhappy about leaving her alone with a strange man.
“Absolutely,” she promised as Anna stopped to pat the baby’s head. “Brianne was my last appointment for the day.”
“You come for dinner tonight,” Anna whispered. “I’ll fry up some sausage and peppers just the way you like. And I got some good bread at Zachinini’s this morning, too, when I went down to the post office.”
“I can’t,” Kim said, genuinely sorry to miss eating anything from Zachinini’s bakery or Anna’s kitchen, but the knowing sympathy in her neighbor’s expression was more than she could bear. “I’ve got a lot of work to do. Kate’s behind on three weddings—”
“Oh, that one,” Anna sighed, rolling her eyes. “She’ll be zooming up the street in that fast little car of hers tonight?”
“As far as I know.” Kate had called four times today already, unusual for a Friday night, but typical of her protective twin.
“Thanks again, Kimmy,” Anna said. “You doing the yard sales with us tomorrow?”
“Maybe.” Memorial Day weekend was the unofficial beginning of the yard sale season, which meant an early morning on Saturday looking for “treasures.” She knew her neighbors were simply trying to keep her from remembering what she would have been doing this weekend, if things had turned out differently.
“I’ll bring the truck,” Patrick promised. “We’ll go out to breakfast after.”
“I’ll let you know,” Kim said, watching her friends leave. Patrick gave Stuart one last warning look and then went out the door.
“Watch yourself on the steps, Anna,” she heard the old man say before the door shut. Kim turned toward Stuart, who gave her a devastating smile.
“Thanks for the help calming her down,” he said. “She hasn’t closed her eyes since I’ve had her.”
“She’s very sweet,” Kim said. “I think you’d better take her home and put her to bed.”
“You wouldn’t want to go home with us, would you? She looks pretty comfortable in your arms.”
“I think you can handle it,” she said. It really wasn’t fair for a man to be that good-looking.
“Tell Brianne that,” he said. He stepped closer and, with a gentle motion, lifted the baby and turned her to lean against his food-stained shirt. His fingers grazed Kim’s breasts, something she tried to pretend she hadn’t felt. “Well, it was good seeing you again.”
“You, too. Good luck.”
“Tell your sister I said hello.”
She looked at Brianne drooling on Stuart’s shoulder and smiled. Babies were her favorite clients—and the most challenging.
“Are you sure you won’t come home with me?” He had a decidedly wicked and desperate expression, she noticed. He made her want to smile, but she resisted. She knew when she was out of