Baby Before Business

Ty quit talking when he realized he was on the verge of telling a woman he hardly knew some incredibly personal information about himself. But before Madelyn could demand he continue, a sixtysomething man rounded the corner of the house. His crew cut was gray. So was the five o’clock shadow on his chin and jaw. He was also short. But beneath his T-shirt were broad shoulders and a flat stomach.

“W…ho’s that?”

“My dad.”

Dad?

Oh great! Ty had been on his own for so long he forgot other people had parents. And this guy was a piece of work. He looked like a marine who hadn’t yet gotten the message that he was retired. Someone who, if provoked, didn’t yell or scream or argue, he punched.

Ty realized another bad thing about his arrangement with his PR gal. Porter’s most successful businessman, avowed bachelor and reputed scrooge, had coerced this G.I. dad’s obviously young, probably innocent—if only in her father’s eyes—daughter into living with him. For money.

Great.

“Hey, little Miss Maddy! Who have you got there?”

Ty stole a peek at the reddening face of his temporary nanny. Not only was her dad not going to like their arrangement, but also Ty was just about certain little Miss Maddy probably already knew that. “Little Miss Maddy?”

“Just shut up.” Madelyn mumbled to Ty before she faced her dad. “Ty, this is my dad, Ron Gentry. Dad, this is Ty Bryant.”

“I know who Mr. Bryant is. Everybody in town knows Mr. Bryant.” He walked over and extended his hand. “The question is, why is he here?”

Oh, just here to get some things for your daughter so she can live with me for a while.

Silencing the voice in his head as he balanced Sabrina on one arm, Ty shook hands with Ron Gentry. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Miss Maddy’s dad eyed Ty speculatively. “You here for dinner? Because Maddy’s mom had some big church thing this afternoon. Supper’s not going to be for a while.”

Before Ty could answer, Madelyn did. “That’s okay, Dad. We’re not here for dinner. Ty just got custody of this baby—”

“Cute little thing,” her dad interrupted, glancing at Sabrina, but his gaze quickly jumped back to Ty because he was definitely more interested in Ty than the baby.

Once again Madelyn came to the rescue. “Yes, she is cute. Her name’s Sabrina. But Ty doesn’t have a nanny, so I’m going to help him care for the baby this weekend.”

Score another point for Miss Maddy. She wasn’t one to let anybody intimidate her. Not even her dad.

Liking her direct approach, Ty met Ron’s gaze, as Ron said, “All weekend?”

“Maybe longer,” Madelyn said, while Ty continued to hold Ron’s gaze, taking his cue from Madelyn to face this head-on. “I’ve helped with Arlene and Jeff’s kids. I can certainly care for one baby.”

Good one! Ty broke his stare-down with Ron to bestow a look of respect on the big guy’s daughter. She had deliberately misinterpreted her dad’s concern to steer him off track. Point three. And confirmation that Ty hadn’t misjudged her. She could handle this. She could probably handle his PR, too. Even though just thinking about having to go out in public and make nice with a bunch of people who hated him made Ty want to sigh with disgust, at least he knew Madelyn could do the job.

Ron sounded like he was growling when he said, “I wasn’t talking about the baby. I was—”

Worried about his daughter sleeping with the town tyrant, Ty thought, just barely holding back a grimace. But Madelyn didn’t let her dad go there.

“You know what, Dad? We’ll discuss this later. Right now, I’ve got to get some things from my room.”

With that she turned and jogged up the steps to the porch. Ty took one look at her dad and decided he wasn’t hanging around. Explaining this situation was Madelyn’s job. And he did mean job. He had hired her to work for him, not…not…

An odd feeling tightened his chest when he tried to think of Madelyn and himself together, and he couldn’t form the words or the images in his mind. Madelyn was younger than he was. Way too young for him to even entertain a casual fling. She was as safe with him as Sabrina was.

Madelyn didn’t feel a qualm of conscience about leaving Ty with her dad. Though she’d staved off her father’s questions long enough that she would have time to gather her things, Ty should have been the one doing the talking. After all, this was his plan. Let him justify it to her dad.

But when she turned to grab a few T-shirts from a drawer, Ty Bryant was right behind her. She gasped and clutched her chest. “What!”

“Your dad thinks we’re going to sleep together tonight.”

She sighed. “Don’t worry. If I tell him we won’t, he’ll believe me.”

“You’re not my type,” Ty continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Too young.” She saw him look around at the wedding ring quilt on her bed, her white Priscilla tie-back curtains. “And too nice.”

“What? You only date nasty women?”

“Sophisticates,” Ty corrected.

Madelyn tossed two pair of shorts in her duffel bag. Right. She knew that. Just as she knew it was wrong to be attracted to him because holding a baby did not change a man’s personality, she also knew that the CEO of Bryant Development would have absolutely no interest in her. But that was okay. She didn’t want him to be interested in her.

So why the hell did having him in her bedroom make her pulse jump?

Three reasons immediately popped into Madelyn’s head. First, with his shiny black hair and obsidian eyes, the man was absolutely delicious-looking. Second, holding the baby softened the hard edge of his personality. And, third, he was two feet away from her underwear drawer. All he had to do was look down to see her collection of lacy panties. Any one of those accounted for why her pulse was jumping. But the third was the best bet.

“Do you want to wait for me in the car?”

“No. I’m fine,” Ty assured her as if his comfort were the only thing to be considered.

“I’m not. I have to get a toothbrush, underwear and girlie things most guys don’t want to see.” She drew a long-suffering breath. “Could you just leave?”

For a second it appeared that he would tell her it didn’t bother him to see her undies. Not because he wanted a peek at her panties, but because he was trying to prove that sophistication of his. Luckily, he thought the better of it.

He glanced at Sabrina who was happily occupied with a rattle toy, and apparently decided it was safe to be alone with her for a few minutes. “I’ll see you in the car.”

“Wonderful,” Madelyn said, not meaning one syllable of the word.

She packed quickly, and scurried down the steps, but when she rounded the corner to rush to the front door she ran into her mom. A flour-covered apron covered Penney Gentry’s cropped jeans and T-shirt. A streak of flour decorated her graying brown hair.

Yet another great. Her dad thought she was moving in with the man who controlled the town and he wasn’t happy. But he wasn’t a match with Madelyn in a battle of wits because there were certain things he wouldn’t talk about in mixed company. Sex being the big one. Which meant he had called her mom home from baking pies for the upcoming church social to talk some sense into his daughter.

Another magic moment in the scrapbook of her life.

“You’re spending the weekend with a man?”

“In Atlanta, I could have spent hundreds of weekends with men and you wouldn’t have had a clue. But you knew I didn’t because you trusted me. Don’t spaz on me now, Mom.”

“I trusted you because we taught you better.”

“So, if you trusted me not to lie to you about Atlanta, that’s got to mean I’m not lying now. I really am spending the weekend with Ty Bryant to help him with his baby.”

Her mother smiled, making her green eyes twinkle. “You’re bad.”