One Man and a Baby

He crossed his arms on his chest. “So, I guess we’ll just call it even?”

She smiled and strolled over to the floral sofa. “I don’t think so,” she said, pulling the baby seat from behind it. “What’s this?”

He didn’t say anything.

She held it up to inspect it. “I’m not a genius. I’m not even a woman who’s particularly familiar with babies, but I’m guessing this belongs to a baby.”

He still said nothing.

“And if you didn’t have a baby around here somewhere, right now you’d be saying something. Anything. Like maybe, yeah, it’s a baby seat. I bought it for my sister Tia for when her baby is born.”

“It’s a baby carrier. I bought it for my sister Tia.”

She smiled. “Too late. Too, too, late.” She took a breath, glanced at the seat again. “So where is she?”

“She?”

“I know it’s a girl.” She pulled a tiny hair clip from a fold in the plastic padding of seat. “There’s no way in hell you’d put one of these on a boy.”

“She’s upstairs.”

Ashley’s aching muscles all but cheered with relief. “So, you and I are about to start a little bargaining session.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh, I do. The very fact that you slid this chair behind the sofa like I was some sort of ninny who would forget she saw it if you got it out of my sight, proves that you’re hiding your child.” She paused, tilted her head. “It is your child, right?”

He said nothing.

“You know,” she said, walking around Rick as if he were a thoroughbred at an auction. “I’m not that good at ferreting out information, but I bet if I called Rayne Fegan and I told her you had a baby in here, she could figure it all out.”

“Don’t.”

“So we are bargaining.”

“What do you want?”

“I don’t want to have to muck out stalls.”

“Your job can’t be on the table.”

“My job is the only thing I want on the table!”

“Forget it. If you really do get to be manager of Seven Hills, the people who work for you have to see you don’t think you’re above them.”

“Nice try, but one day of sweating and making friends with the staff got that point across. If you keep me mucking any longer I’ll know you’re just doing it so you don’t have to teach me the things I need to know.”

He shook his head in disgust. “Your dad told me he wanted you trained. Putting you through the paces is my first responsibility, whether you like what I do or not. If you really want to lead, you have to understand the people who work for you, how tired they get so you can balance their workloads.”

“So you weren’t avoiding training me?”

“No. What I was really doing was throwing you into the fire. If anything I expected you to accuse me of trying to get you to quit.”

Her eyes narrowed. That had crossed her mind. “Were you trying to get me to quit?”

“I don’t think there’s any trying about it. If you’re not cut out for the job, the work will force you out on its own.”

“If I hadn’t found this bargaining chip it might have.”

He said nothing and Ashley laughed. “I’ve got you and it’s really fun.” She tilted her head, thinking, then added, “The only thing I can’t figure out is why you need to hide a baby.”

“Because my dad’s election is in two weeks and Ruthie’s mother abandoned her. I don’t want my mistake to hurt my dad’s campaign.”

“Not buying it. Even if your baby’s illegitimate, single parent babies aren’t really big news anymore. Your having a baby wouldn’t hurt your dad’s election.”

Rick said nothing and Ashley sighed. “Okay. Here’s the deal. I don’t want you gone. I need you to teach me. But I can’t have you hiding at Seven Hills if you kidnapped that baby or something. You have to come clean with me.”

When Rick again didn’t answer, Ashley shook her head in disgust. “I guess this means you’re leaving.”

“I’m not leaving. Your dad hired me to do a job and I intend to do it.”

“Then I’m back to asking Rayne Fegan to look for the truth.”

“Can’t you just let this alone?”

“No, for all I know you’ve got Britney Spears’s baby in my guest house. I cannot let this alone. If you won’t leave, or tell me the truth, I’ll have no choice but to call Rayne.”

He drew in a ragged breath. “Ruthie’s mother is Senator Paul Martin’s daughter.”

“Oh!” Ashley said, picturing the gorgeous young woman who loved to get her face in the paper, flaunting her lifestyle to embarrass her popular, well-loved, conservative dad. “You and Jen Martin were…” She stopped and stared at Rick.

His face hardened. “Can’t see her with somebody like me?”

Quite the contrary. Ashley could easily see what Jen Martin saw in Rick. He was sexy. No. He wasn’t just sexy. He dripped sex appeal. Piercing blue eyes. Rippling muscles from real work, not hours at a gym. An attitude that all but screamed trouble. Yeah. She knew exactly what Jen saw in Rick. She just couldn’t quite see what Rick had seen in Jen.

“You tell Rayne I have a baby and it will take her about ten minutes to discover that Senator Martin’s daughter not only had a baby that she kept secret, but she also abandoned her. Then it won’t be me or Jen who suffers, it will be my daughter whose face will be splattered on front pages all over the country by people trying to unseat Senator Martin.”

Knowing he was right, and that this situation was more complicated than just a bargaining chip in their fight for a job, Ashley paced away from him. But before she could say anything, a cry issued from upstairs.

She turned in time to see Rick pivot and vault up the steps, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He took the stairs two at a time and disappeared around a corner, crooning, “It’s okay, Ruthie, Daddy’s here.”

The affection in his voice was like a shot to Ashley’s heart. A man couldn’t fake the kind of emotion she’d heard in that one short sentence. Curious beyond words, she tiptoed up to the second floor but stopped short of the door. Peeking around the door frame, she saw Rick cradling a small bundle in pink pajamas.

The little girl sobbed pitifully, not comforted by being cradled. Rick shifted her to his shoulder, putting her tiny face in Ashley’s view. Pretty blue eyes, just like Rick’s, blinked back at Ashley, then the baby quit crying.

At the same time Rick turned. When he saw Ashley, he sighed. “It’s you.”

“I’m not leaving until we straighten this out.”