Erin beamed at
him. “You’re welcome.” Eying him fondly, she took in his rumpled state—flushed
cheeks, half-untucked shirt, wrinkled pants, and slightly askew tie. Chuckling,
she reached over and started to push his shirttail back into his trousers. “You’re
a mess. Disgraceful. Opposing counsel will be horribly shocked.”
Seth didn’t
appear to appreciate her trying to tidy him up, but together they managed to
pull his appearance back together—so that he only looked a little less slick
than usual, a little more relaxed, and a little bit warmer.
Patting him on
the chest as Seth buttoned his suit jacket again, Erin said, “I better get
going. My lunch break has lasted way too long. You remember Mackenzie and I are
having dinner with my dad this evening?”
“Yes. I have to
work through dinner anyway. I’ll try to stop by just before you put Mackenzie
to bed though, if that’s all right.”
“Sounds good.” Erin
looked back at the pile of work on Seth’s desk. “Except you shouldn’t work
through dinner. Did you eat lunch?”
Seth shook his
head. “I didn’t think about it.”
“That’s crazy. You
have to eat something. Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have wasted your time
just now if you should have been eat—”
“Erin,” Seth
interrupted curtly. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I miss
lunch all the time.”
She scowled at
him. “And I suppose it’s all right for you to miss dinner too? To go a whole
day without eating?”
Seth was
glaring at her coldly, but she ignored it—trying to think through the best
solution to this problem. She glanced at the closed door of the office. “If I
tell your assistant to order you something to eat, will you eat it after you
get done with your meeting?”
“Erin,” Seth
said in frustration. “I told you—”
“Will you eat
it?”
He still looked
a little grumpy. “I’ll try to get to it. Now, I’m going to be late—”
Crossing her
arms on her chest, Erin blocked the doorway. “Promise me.”
For a moment, Seth
looked like he was going to argue some more. Then he obviously decided it
wasn’t worth the trouble. “Fine. I promise I’ll eat it. Now will you go?’
Erin smiled at
him agreeably. “Yep. I’m late too. Do you want a sandwich or—”
“Erin!” Seth
roared.
Laughing in a
rush of affection, Erin reached up and stroked his cheek tenderly. Kissed his
annoyed face. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Seth’s
impatience subsided quickly. “You too. Have a good afternoon.” He gave her a
quick kiss on the lips and opened the office door to let her out.
Erin headed
immediately for his assistant’s desk and gave the woman an order for Seth’s
lunch from the bistro in the building next door.
As she walked
toward the elevator, Erin realized she was still rather aroused. It was a
little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t the main issue on her mind.
She’d been
right.
Her relationship
with Seth wasn’t anything like the one she’d had with Marcus.
***
Her father left after seven
o’clock, after having dinner with them, and Erin gave Mackenzie a bath in
preparation for bed. She put the baby in a bright red sleeper with hearts on
the collar, so Seth would be satisfied in her being dressed in little
girls
’
pajamas.
Then Erin sat
in the nursery rocker, nursed Mackenzie, and read her a baby book out loud.
When she
finished, it was just about Mackenzie’s bedtime, but Seth hadn’t arrived yet. Glancing
at the clock, Erin decided she could wait a few more minutes before putting her
daughter to bed. Mackenzie was starting to get a little tired, but she wasn’t
too crabby yet.
And Erin was
sure Seth wanted to say goodnight to her.
Grabbing Mackenzie’s
soft blanket and one of her stuffed bunnies—the collection now boasted more
than twenty bunnies and was getting bigger each month—Erin took the baby to the
living room and set her down on the floor.
They played
peek-a-boo for a few minutes with the blanket, which always made Mackenzie
giggle. Then Erin set the bunny a small distance away, making her practice
half-crawling, half-creeping on her belly in order to reach it.
Soon, she heard
a knock on the door. “It’s me,” Seth called out from the hall.
“Come on in,” Erin
called back, watching as Mackenzie squealed in delight as she finally reached
her stuffed bunny.
Seth had a key
to her apartment by now, so he let himself in. Stood watching as Erin once more
set the bunny a short distance from their daughter and Mackenzie responded by
clumsily scooting herself over in order to get it.
Smiling up at him,
Erin said, “Hey. You got here just in time. It’s just about her bedtime.”
Seth nodded and
lowered himself until he was sitting on a low ottoman near them. “Hi, Mackenzie.
Has your mommy been teasing you with your rabbit?” Then he added, “She’s
starting to move better on her own.” Although his last remark had been aimed at
Erin, he was still focusing down on the chubby little figure—wearing red, with
red hair and red cheeks—who now stared up at him.
Erin felt a
ridiculous surge of pride. “I know. We’ve been practicing.”
Smiling almost
fondly, Seth murmured, “I can see that.”
She felt
flooded with warm, fluttery sensations—and she wasn’t exactly sure if it was
caused by Seth’s affectionate gaze or by her daughter’s obvious brilliance.
Feeling kind of
embarrassed at her sappy, maternal feelings, Erin looked up at him. “How was
work?”
“It was fine.”
“Did you eat
any dinner?” she asked, thinking he looked a little tired today. He was as
slick and handsome as normal, but his eyes looked a little fuzzy. “Stella made
some—”
Before she
could finish, Seth’s phone rang. Scowling, she watched as he pulled it out of
his jacket pocket and glanced at the screen.
She could tell
from his expression that he was going to take the call.
“Don’t be
long,” she told him as he gave her an explanatory look, “or I’ll put her to bed
without you.”
He nodded and connected
the call. Bit out, “Thomas,” as he paced into the hallway. When she heard a
door shut, she assumed he’d closed himself in her bedroom where he could have
some privacy.
Erin sighed,
her fond flutters entirely dissipated. “Your daddy will be right back,” she
told Mackenzie. “He still has some work to do.”
Mackenzie was
sitting on the floor and leaning on her bunny, her little hands squeezing
around the soft material. She babbled out a few incoherent sounds, as if she
were talking to the stuffed animal.
To kill time, Erin
played some more peek-a-boo, but she could see Mackenzie gradually getting more
and more tired.
After more than
five minutes, Mackenzie’s mouth gaped in a huge yawn.
“I know it’s
bedtime, but we have to wait for your daddy. He'll want to say goodnight.”
Mackenzie
looked up at Erin’s face with wide blue eyes.
Erin nodded and
felt the ridiculous urge to give her daughter a huge squeeze. Instead of doing
so, she said again, “We have to wait for your daddy.”
Mackenzie
blinked at her.
“Your
daddy
,”
Erin repeated, having gotten in the habit of repeating certain words over and
over again.
“Da,” Mackenzie
mumbled.
Erin felt like
she’d been kicked in the gut. In a good way.
In a
very
good way.
After a stunned
moment, she burst into a huge grin. “That’s right,” she exclaimed, her voice
pitched exuberantly as she realized what her daughter had just almost said. “Your
daddy. Daddy!”
“Da,” Mackenzie
said again, smiling vaguely in response to Erin’s obvious excitement.
“That’s right,”
Erin said again, unable to stop grinning. “Good job, pumpkin. Your daddy. Daddy!”
She clapped her hands together softly to emphasize her enthusiasm.
Mackenzie was
obviously infected with Erin’s high spirits. She clenched and unclenched her
fists and started to giggle, breaking her giggles with a repetition of “Da! Da!
Da!” Then she got too ecstatic and started gibbering, “Ga ba ny hee ga!”
“Daddy,” Erin
prompted, crouched down so low she was practically on her stomach. “Daddy.”
“Da!”
“Seth!” Erin
called, almost in tears of excitement and wishing fervently that he was here
too. Clapping her hands lightly again, she said distinctly, “Daddy. Daddy.”
Mackenzie sat
with her legs spread apart, the bunny on the floor just in front of her. Her
round cheeks were bright red now, and she was clearly delighted by whatever
this new development was. She raised her hands up dramatically and started
thrusting her elbows down to her sides in choppy excitement, repeating, “Da!
Da! Da!”
Erin felt a
surge of regret that Seth wasn’t around to witness this, and she turned
unconsciously to look at the hallway.
Seth stood at
the entrance to the living room, staring down at his daughter.
His mouth was
slightly open, his eyes were rather dazed, and his phone dangled forgotten in
his left hand.
Erin felt a
rising wash of joy. “There’s your daddy!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands one
more time.
Mackenzie
clapped her hands too, mimicking her mother’s excitement. “Da!”
Erin waited for
Seth to do something, but he just stood motionless and stared.
So she
prompted, “Seth?” She could tell that Seth was moved—whether Mackenzie really
knew what she was saying or not—but he looked like he was momentarily frozen.
Finally,
shaking himself off, Seth came forward into the living room. Knelt down beside Erin.
“Good job,” he murmured softly, reaching out a hand to his daughter. “Did you
decide to take advantage of my absence to show off a little?”
Mackenzie was
still ecstatic and hit at Seth’s hand several times with an overload of
enthusiasm before she grabbed a couple of his fingers and clung to them.
Fortunately,
this interlude allowed Erin to recover her ironic perspective. “I think it was
her way of protesting work phone calls in the middle of her daddy time.”
Seth turned his
head and gave Erin a warm look. “Is that right?”
“Yes. That’s
right. I'm sure she was just proving to you the kinds of things you might
miss.”
He arched his
eyebrows at her and looked like he was going to respond, but then he sniffed
and obviously changed his focus. “It smells like she might have been doing
something else while I was gone as well.”
Erin sniffed
too. Smelled something very familiar. “Well, then, I guess it’s your chance to
have some bonding time with her—while you change her diaper.”
Mackenzie,
obviously resenting the fact that she was no longer the center of attention,
was banging a hard staccato on her innocent bunny’s nose and grunting. One of
the grunts sounded like another, “Da!”
“See,” Erin
said, hiding a pleased grin. “She’s asking for
you
to change her.”
Shaking his
head resignedly, Seth picked his daughter up and carried her into the nursery.
Erin sat on the
floor for a minute, exulting in her daughter’s verbal genius and in the fact
that Seth had been here to share in it too.
Then she jumped
to her feet, picked up the blanket and stuffed bunny, and hurried toward the
nursery herself.
Instead of
announcing her presence, however, she stood in the doorway and listened—even
after all this time, unable to resist trying to overhear what Seth might say to
their daughter.
He was wiping Mackenzie's
little bottom with a baby wipe and telling her softly, “…very impressive
performance. You have every right to be proud of yourself. And you made your
mommy very happy.” He grabbed another wipe and finished cleaning her off. “But
I think it would make her even happier if you would say her name too. Mommy.” He
spoke clearly and calmly—without even a trace of normal baby talk. “Mommy.”
Mackenzie just
giggled up at him and kicked her legs around a little.
Seth shook his
head. “Mommy,” he repeated. “Your mommy.”
“Da!” Mackenzie
burst out.
Chuckling
resignedly, Seth nodded his head. “That’s better than nothing. We’ll keep
working on it.”
He started
putting a new diaper on the baby. Erin couldn’t see his face or the front of
his body, but she assumed Mackenzie must have grabbed for his tie, because he
said, “There are far more effective ways of getting my attention than trying to
strangle me.”
Erin crossed
her arms across her chest and squeezed herself a little, smiling and wondering
if she might melt away from the raw tenderness of it.
“You know,” Seth
continued, snapping up Mackenzie’s sleeper and then holding her up to stand on
the changing table, “Your mommy is a remarkable woman, and she loves you very
much. But she’s really very nosy, and she should know that eavesdropping on
private conversations isn’t socially acceptable.”
Erin’s jaw
dropped open as she realized she’d been caught.
Acknowledging her
guilt, she burst into rippling laughter. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”
Picking Mackenzie
up and holding her against him, Seth turned around and raised his eyebrows at Erin.
“And what exactly about my changing her diaper is so irresistible?”
Erin shrugged,
a little self-consciously. She took a few steps over toward them. Felt so deeply
connected to this articulate man and the squirming red-haired baby he held that
she felt like she could drown in the feeling.
She gave Mackenzie
a kiss on the cheek. Then she gave Seth a kiss on the lips. “I don’t know. I
just feel like I get to see a different side to you when you’re with her
alone.”
The eyebrows
went up even higher. “And why is that so appealing?”
“I guess it’s
just more of you to love.”