Hannah's Baby

Hannah looked so tortured about having to make the request, he let her off the hook with a casual offer of assistance. “You want me to hold her?” he said as if it were no big deal, when it felt like it was going to be a very big deal.

Hannah nodded, looking emotional again. “Would you, please? Just for a moment?” she asked in a low, quavering tone.

He held out his arms.

Isabella went into them with a suspicious look. When Hannah eased away, Isabella continued to glare at him. Surprised at the tenderness welling up inside of him, Joe offered his little finger. Still scowling, the baby stared at it for a long minute, then thrust out her lower lip petulantly and latched on to it with one tiny fist.

Joe looked into eyes that held far too much cynicism for someone so young. He tried—and failed—to coax even a hint of a smile from her. “I don’t think she likes me as much as she likes you,” he teased.

Hannah lifted her brows accepting the lighthearted comment with the sentiment with which it had been made. Turning back to her task, she prepared the bottle with powdered soy formula and boiled water from the thermos that was standard in all Taiwanese hotel rooms. “She probably just hasn’t been around many men. I think all the workers in the orphanages are women.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Joe regretted his pass on the razor that morning. He lifted Isabella’s tiny hand to his stubble and saw her frown as if perplexed. “You probably think I should have shaved prior to our introduction, huh?”

Isabella stared at Joe, wide-eyed.

At least for the moment, Joe thought, she was distracted from her hunger…

Hannah fastened the nipple onto the mouth of the plastic baby bottle and twisted tight. As she approached them, she grinned and tilted her head a little to one side to survey him better. “You do look a little like a pirate,” she said thoughtfully.

Aware the dramatic repartee was working to entertain the solemn child, Joe pretended to be incensed. “You hear that, Isabella Zhu Ming? I think I’ve just been insulted!”

Isabella turned to Hannah, as if waiting to see her reaction to Joe’s assertion.

Hannah did not disappoint. She made a face that was just as comical—and just as interesting to little Isabella.

“No, you weren’t!” Hannah scoffed, peering at Joe and then Isabella. “Pirates are sexy!”

“Are we talking about me now—or the actors in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?” He glided closer.

Hannah shook the bottle vigorously, blushing all the while. “Orlando Bloom, of course. I’ve always had a bit of a crush on him and he made an incredible swashbuckler.”

Good to know Hannah hadn’t been hitting on him just now, Joe thought wryly. No sense in setting either of them up for disappointment. Not that he had ever expected anything to come of his association with Hannah, anyway. She was putting down roots in her hometown. He had nowhere to go back to and didn’t really want a home base. Traveling was easier. Roaming around the way he did, there was no expectation of belonging. All that was required was that he fit in temporarily, and then move on, without looking back. He was an ace at that.

Hannah tested the formula on her wrist. “Whoa. They told us to use the boiled water in the hotel thermoses for making formula, but this is going to have to cool off for a minute.”

Too late, Isabella had seen the bottle. Making no bones about how hungry she was, she reached out her hands and when it didn’t come right away, began to cry.

“Hang on, little one, it’s coming,” Hannah soothed, wincing at the sound of the baby’s high-pitched, heartbreaking sobs. She rushed to put the bottle under cool running water. After a minute or so beneath the tap, the formula had cooled enough for her to give Isabella the bottle. Once Joe handed the baby back to her, Isabella took the bottle between her little hands and sucked greedily.

In two minutes flat, the bottle was empty.

Isabella looked back at Hannah, clearly wanting more. Hannah seemed nonplussed. “Should we fix her another bottle?”

She was asking him? What did he know about babies, except how to hold one in an emergency? “Sounds fine to me,” he said, returning the decision to her.

HANNAH DIDN’T KNOW WHAT HAD gotten into her. She had been preparing for this day for months now, yet she was suddenly all flustered. Worse, she knew why. From the moment they’d first met, she’d always been a little too aware of Joe.

And it was more than just his appearance—which was very appealing in itself. But, ultimately it was the sophistication that came from seeing so much of the world. The way he knew when to come a little closer, and when to back off. It was the kindness in his eyes, the gentleness in his touch, and the way Isabella looked up at him, completely spellbound after just a few minutes in his strong arms.

He would have been the perfect father to her baby.

If only he’d been interested in having a family…which he wasn’t.

She needed to remember that. And she needed to stop leaning on him, asking him to help her get Isabella settled in.

“Want me to hold her while you fix another bottle?” Joe asked.

It was now or never. She had told everyone she could do this as a single mother. It was time to prove it. Hannah drew a bolstering breath. “Actually, I think we’re fine. So if you want to do anything else…see the sights, go out to dinner…it’d be fine. We’ll be fine.”

For a second, Joe’s expression didn’t change. Then, ever so subtly, a veil came over his emotions. Once again, he became the Joe who had picked her up two days ago. The Joe who had taken her to the airport and sat in a different section of the airplane. The Joe who was there to escort her to and from Taiwan and nothing more.

“Good idea.” He flashed her a handsome grin that filled her senses. “You two probably want time to settle in.”

Oblivious to her disappointment, he pocketed his electronic room key and gave her a wink. “Don’t wait up.”

IN THE HOURS THAT FOLLOWED, Hannah had plenty of time to regret her decision to send Joe off into the nightlife of Taipei. The first moment came when she realized she only had enough powder for one more bottle, and Isabella didn’t like the taste of the American-made soy formula she had brought with her. Fortunately, one of the other adoptive families on the floor had anticipated this and made a run to the closest grocery for more. They shared their extra with Hannah.

The next problem was not so easily solved.

She was still contemplating what to do about it when Joe returned four hours later. He walked in, saw her sitting in a chair, Isabella cradled in her arms.

He lifted one blond brow. “Still awake?”

Fatigue fighting with the contentment deep inside her, Hannah nodded. “Oh, yeah.”

Joe set his room key, wallet and BlackBerry on top of the bureau. He toed off his loafers, then came over to sit on the side of the bed, opposite her. He braced his elbows on his thighs. Leaning closer, his expression softened as his gaze moved over the fully alert baby snuggled contentedly in her arms. “That’s not a good thing?”

Hannah didn’t have a lot of experience with infants. But…“In the orphanage she would have been asleep two hours ago, or so the schedule says.”

Joe shifted his gaze from Isabella Zhu Ming to Hannah. “Then what happened?”

Hannah flushed at his scrutiny. “I’m not sure.”

He returned his attention to the baby. “What do you know?”

Hannah made a face that mirrored her inner frustration at having apparently failed as a mother so soon. A good mother, she felt, would have been able to take charge immediately, rather than be at the mercy of emotions in her baby she couldn’t quite soothe. She inclined her head at Isabella. “I can’t get her to sleep and I can’t put her down.”

Joe took a moment to consider that. “If you can’t put her down, how do you change her diaper?” he asked eventually.

Despite her efforts to play it cool, ruefulness crept into her tone. “With great difficulty.”

Joe eyed the telltale stains on her white dress. “I see what you mean,” he remarked dryly, knowing as well as Hannah she couldn’t sit there forever. “So what’s the plan?” he asked.

“I was going to try and bathe her in the hopes that the warm water would relax her.”

Joe seemed to concur that it was a good plan. “But…?”

Hannah swallowed, aware she was beginning to feel overwhelmed by all she didn’t know and had yet to experience. “Isabella’s never had an actual bath in a tub or sink. The caretakers wipe them down with washcloths in the orphanage.”