Daddy's Little Darlings

“Do you think so?” She gazed at the contentedly feeding baby. “Her hair does seem to have a little red in it.”

“Yep. Gonna have your green eyes, too.”

“How can you tell?” Right now, all the babies’ eyes seemed about the same color to her, not that she’d really gotten a good look at them.

Danita shrugged, picked Yoda up then set her down cozily in her crib. She returned to grab Alex Junior up and seat herself in the rocker. “I don’t know. She just looks like you when you were born.”

“Well, I’m glad for that.” She held her baby tightly.

“This ‘un looks like Alex.” Danita looked at the baby she held.

“I don’t know,” she replied doubt fully, “I don’t see much of Alex’s, um, good looks in her.” She wasn’t about to mention to her mother that she found her husband very handsome!

“You’ll see.”

Since Danita seemed certain of that, Daphne nodded. “What about that one? Do you see anybody in her?”

They both stared at the crib where Yoda was sleeping.

“Yes. To be honest, I see a lot of Sabrina Caroline in her.”

Tears jumped into Daphne’s eyes. Sabrina had been Alex’s mother. Daphne could only remember meeting her once, at a Christmas party. It had been the only year her family had been invited to the lavish party at the Green Forks ranch, because Mrs. Banning died the next year. And the feud had begun. Her father and Alex’s father had spent years arguing over fence lines and water rights and steers crossing where they shouldn’t… Daphne made herself stop thinking about it. She felt un com fort able enough in this house as it was. “I suppose it will please Alex,” she said wistfully, “to have a child who looks like his mother.”

“Not until he realizes it.” Danita gave her daughter a jaundiced look.

Daphne shook her head. “I’m not going to mention his mother. I don’t even want to talk to Alex.”

“You’re not going about this the right way, Daphne Way,” her mother warned. “You oughta think about how you’d really feel if Alex decided to give you what you say you want.” Danita rocked in the chair. “Don’t think you’d like it as much as you think you would.”

“I don’t think I would like it!” Daphne cried, distressed. “I think it’s the only way. How can I stay married to a man who promised his father he would give him a son?”

“Bah. Alexander doesn’t know girls from boys except for that which dangles tweenst their legs.”

“Mother!”

“Well, it’s true. Reckon if you’d dressed Alex Junior up in a blue onesie and booties and told Alexander it was a boy, he’da not known the difference. Sure as heck never held his own child, I’d be willing to bet.” She stared at the baby in her arms. “Wish I’d thought of dressing you in blue sooner, tyke.”

“Mother!” Daphne repeated, her tone more shocked than before. “I would never dress my daughters up to fool Mr. Banning. Children should be treated equally, no matter their sex.”

“Well, you like to do things the hard way, Daphne, not that I’m suggesting we shoulda done it. I’m just saying I wish I’d thought of it sooner.” Her expression was serious. “Maybe it would have kept the chauvinistic old idiot from calling his lawyer in.”

Daphne’s skin turned chilly. The baby allowed Daphne’s nipple to slide out of her mouth in a satisfied, sleepy movement, but Daphne’s insides were nowhere as content. “Lawyer?”

“Yep.” Danita reached for Miss Magoo and traded her for a quiet, wide-eyed Alex Junior. “Nelly told me he’s got the lawyer in there right now, and she heard him tell Sinclair he’s changing his will.”

“Oh, my,” Daphne breathed. “Wonder what he’s up to?”

“I have no idea.” Danita competently diapered the baby and moved her to a crib. She gazed at the two sleeping babies, making certain their blankets covered them just so. “Don’t think he’s too happy with Alex, though. Shot blanks as far as the old tyrant is concerned.”

“Mother, Mr. Banning is your age,” she protested mildly. But her mind was going at a nervous clip. Surely Alex’s father wouldn’t punish him through his will just because his only son had given him nothing but grand daughters? “This baby never eats,” she murmured, too un settled to stay on one subject. “All she does is gaze around.”

Danita came over to stare at the baby. “I know. She hardly cries, either. Won’t surprise me if she sleeps through the night tonight, while the other two give us a run for our money.”

“You think there’s some thing wrong with her?” Daphne’s heart jumped wildly with worry.

“Nope. Think she’s got her daddy’s mild-mannered constitution.” Danita took the baby from Daphne and changed its diaper. “Maybe you need a clean bottom before you eat, tyke.”

Daphne pulled her night gown together as she considered her mother’s words. Alex didn’t have a mild-mannered constitution, as far as she was concerned. Or maybe it was where she was concerned.

Or maybe it was some thing she brought out in him.

Certainly, she had been drawn to Alex’s rock-solid steadiness from the start. He was so stable, where she tended to float with the planetary alignment of the day. How could a son like Alex not please his father, even one as demanding as Alexander?

By not giving him what he’d re quested on his deathbed, an annoying little voice reminded her. She was Alex’s only failing. But he was like his mother, Sabrina, too kind to allow the poor farming family down the way to be left out of Christmas festivities. It hadn’t been her nature.

It wasn’t Alex’s nature to throw the poor farming family out now just because he’d gotten sold a bill of goods he hadn’t needed.

“What am I going to do?” she moaned, her mind feeling turned inside out.

“I don’t know, Daphne Way. All I do know is you’re in a bit of a pickle this moment.” Her mother bustled about the room, then put the baby in Daphne’s arms. Alex Junior gazed at her with wise, somber eyes.

“What do you think she wants?” Daphne asked her mother helplessly. “She’s waiting for some thing, but I don’t know what.”

Danita scratched her head. “Tell you the truth, I don’t think she knows what to do with those big bosoms of yours. I think that baby’s kinda over whelmed.”

“That’s one way she’s not like her daddy, then.” Daphne’s face flamed.

“Didn’t reckon so.” Danita squinted at the baby. “You know, that ‘un toots constantly. She’s like a little bag of wind letting off a valve. Think it makes her too un com fort able to eat.”

“What am I going to do?”

“Maybe only a bottle is gonna do for that one, Daph.” Danita sat on the bed. “I gave her some soy formula earlier, and she seemed to like it just fine. Those two babies, they appear to prefer the breast, but this one—”

“Mom!” Daphne ex claimed. “I am not feeding this child soy formula. She’s going to need all the extra help she can get. Breast milk is better, especially when she’s so tiny.”

“Yes, but that baby doesn’t want to feed. You want a hungry, colicky baby who for whatever reason can’t tolerate your milk, or one that’ll grow up just fine on soy?” Her mother shot her an impatient look. “Daphne Way, you’re gonna have to learn to com promise one day, and by your daddy’s long johns, at whose knee you learned this stub born-ness, it ain’t gonna be easy. But you’re gonna have to learn to do it or you’re gonna end up one unhappy lady.”

“I just don’t want to put a latex nipple in my baby’s mouth,” Daphne protested. “As small as she is, she needs all the natural protection my breast milk can give her.”

“I agree. I’m just saying maybe it’s not going to work with this one.”

“I find it hard to believe the child that most resembles its father wouldn’t be attracted to my breasts,” Daphne grumbled. “Would you mind bringing me a bottle of the soy, then? I’m determined to prove you wrong.”

“Fine by me.”

Danita exited the room and returned about five minutes later to hand her a warm bottle. Daphne sighed in long-suffering patience, barely touching the nipple to Alex Junior’s lips. The baby continued to stare at her. “See? This baby just doesn’t want to eat anything.”

A nice, long burst of wind erupted from the region of the baby’s diaper. Daphne met Danita’s eyes in amazement. To her astonishment, the baby let out a demanding wail. Daphne lowered the bottle to Alex Junior’s lips, and the baby began suckling with enthusiasm.