Babies in the Bargain

“I know. But…”

And that was when, completely out of the blue, the mess in the room caught her attention again and an idea popped into her head.

“What if I took the place of that woman you were talking to on the phone a few minutes ago?” she said before the notion had even had a chance to ferment.

“Betty? What if you took Betty’s place?” He sounded confused and leery at the same time.

“You said she took care of the twins and helped around the house, and without her—and with you needing to stay off your ankle—you’re obviously in a bind. So what if I did it? I’d like to help and that way I could get to know the babies. Bond with them.”

The more Kira considered this, the better it sounded to her.

But from the look on Cutty’s face it wasn’t having the same effect on him.

“Don’t you have a job or a husband or a boyfriend or something you need to get back to?”

“No, I don’t. In May I finished my Ph.D. in microbiology. I’m going to start teaching at the University of Colorado for the fall semester, but that doesn’t begin until the last week in August. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with myself until then but that means I’m free.”

“No husband or boyfriend, either?” he asked, and Kira couldn’t tell if he was looking for an out for himself or satisfying his own curiosity.

“No, no husband or boyfriend. I have one really close friend—Kit—but she can get along without me. Plus she’ll bring in my mail and water my plants for me, so it won’t be any problem for me to stay.”

“You really want to spend your summer vacation picking up after us? Changing diapers?” Cutty asked skeptically.

“I really do,” she said, hating that she sounded as desperate as she felt. “I admit that I don’t have any experience with kids,” she confessed because it seemed only fair to let him know what he was getting into. “But when it comes to cleaning—”

“You’re Tom Wentworth’s daughter,” Cutty supplied. “I don’t know, I like things casual.”

“Casual is good. I can be casual.” Although she wasn’t quite sure what casual housekeeping and child care meant.

But still he didn’t look convinced. In fact, he looked downright dubious and as if he was on the verge of saying thanks, but no thanks.

Why would he, though? It was clear he needed help and she was offering it.

Unless maybe he still harbored resentment toward her family for the way things had played out that night thirteen years ago when he’d come with Marla to tell their parents that he’d gotten their seventeen-year-old daughter pregnant.

“You know,” Kira ventured, “I didn’t have anything to do with what went on between you and my father. I know how ugly it got. He sent me to my room but I was hiding on the stairs, listening to what went on. He was a difficult man—”

“That’s an understatement. He was a tyrant.”

Kira didn’t dispute that. “But nobody can change the past and now he’s gone and so is Marla. But there are your twins. And me. I lost all these years that I could have had with Marla, with Anthony, and I can’t get them back. But I could have a future with the twins. If you’ll just let me.”

She hated the note of pleading that had somehow slipped into her tone.

And Cutty Grant must not have liked it much, either, because she saw his jaw clench suddenly and his voice turned tight. “I’m really not the bastard your father thought I was. The kind of bastard who would keep you from knowing your nieces.”

“I didn’t—I don’t—think you’re that. I just know there have to be hard feelings—”

“Harder than you’ll ever know. But I’m well aware of the fact that you were only a kid, that you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Then will you let me stay?”

Again he didn’t answer readily, and she knew he wasn’t eager to agree even if he did need the help.

But in the end she thought that he might have wanted to prove he wasn’t a bad guy, that he wasn’t punishing her for something she’d had nothing to do with, because he said, “I suppose we can give it a try.”

Kira was so happy to hear his decision that she couldn’t help grinning. “Shall I start right now?” she asked with a glance at the clutter all around them.

“It’ll all wait for tomorrow.”

In that case Kira thought it was probably better to get out of there before he changed his mind.

“Then if you’ll tell me where I can find a hotel or a motel I’ll get a room and be back first thing in the morning.”

Again he let silence reign as he seemed to consider something before he answered.

“If you aren’t particular about the ambience you can stay out back. Where Marla and I lived when we first got here.”

“No, I don’t care about the ambience. And it’s probably better if I’m close by.”

He didn’t look convinced of that but he didn’t rescind the offer.

“Do you have a suitcase somewhere?” he asked instead.

“Out in the rental car.”

“Why don’t you go get it and I’ll show you the accommodations?”

Kira didn’t waste any time complying. She hurried out to the car, retrieved her bag from the trunk and went back inside.

Cutty didn’t get to his feet until she was there. Then he did, leading the way from the living room through an open archway into a kitchen that was a disaster all its own.

He held the back door open for her, and she stepped into the small yard ahead of him, coming face-to-face with what looked to have been a garage once upon a time.

“This whole place belonged to my uncle Paulie. He converted the garage into an apartment for Marla and me, and added another garage to the side of the house later on.”

“So this is where you lived after you eloped?” Kira asked as they crossed the few feet of lawn and Cutty opened that door for her, too.

“Until my uncle died and left it all to us. Then we moved into the house. It’s been fixed up and refurnished. Ordinarily I rent it to students from the college. But since it’s summer vacation it’s empty.”

Cutty reached in and flipped a switch. Three lamps went on at once, illuminating an open space arranged as a studio apartment.

There were no walls, so only the furnishings determined what each area was used for. A double bed and an armoire delineated the bedroom. A small sofa and matching armchair, a coffee table and a television designated the living room. And some kitchen cupboards, a sink, a two-burner stove with a tiny oven, a refrigerator and a small table with two chairs made up the kitchen.

“That door alongside the armoire will put you into the bathroom,” Cutty explained without going farther than the doorway. “There’s a tub with a shower in it but the water heater is pretty small so if you do a lot of dishes you’ll want to wait half an hour before you take a bath.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

What she wasn’t sure of was why he had that dubious look on his face again, as if he was having second thoughts about this whole arrangement.