The Baby Invasion (Destiny Bay-Baby Dreams) (4 page)

“I’ll go, too,” Beth said, running to catch up with her mother. In a moment, they were both gone.
 

Scott was all alone again. All alone, except for the toddler who sat at his feet and watched every move he made, completely absorbed. Scott stared down into the huge baby-blue eyes. Beanie stared back.
 

“Hi, kid,” Scott said at last.
 

Beanie stared.
 

“You need your diaper changed,” Scott noted reluctantly. “Don’t you?”
 

A beatific smile appeared on the chubby little face. “Aga doo,” he agreed, bouncing his arms.
 

Scott’s sigh was deep and heartfelt. He raised his eyes to the heavens.
 

“Why me?” he muttered. “Didn’t I do enough of this? Haven’t I served my time?”
 

Nobody answered and he rose, looking around for fresh diapers. There was a stack of white, fluffy ones on a side chair. He grabbed a cotton blanket from the floor and laid it out on the couch, then scooped Beanie up and gently put him down on his back on the blanket.
 

“Hold on, partner,” he murmured to the child. “This will only take a minute.”
 

He pulled out the pins and took Beanie by the feet, easily lifting him out of the diaper and using the cloth to clean the little bottom at the same time.
 

“Just like riding a bicycle,” he said caustically as he worked. “It’s a talent you never lose.”

Still holding Beanie up, he flicked in the clean diaper, using one hand to press in the folds. In no time, the child was changed and the dirty diaper was stowed away in the diaper pail in the hallway.

Scott found a bathroom and rinsed off his hands, and then he was back in the living room again, sitting on the couch, with Beanie at his feet, now watching him with even stronger adoration.
 

“Aga,” the tot murmured.
 

“Aga yourself,” Scott said back. “Why don’t you go find some nice dirt to play in?”
 

Beanie merely gurgled and took hold of Scott’s pant leg with his wet hand. Scott watched, his face squinting in distaste.
 

The crying upstairs had stopped and in a moment, Cathy reappeared. She took in the two of them and reached down to pull her baby up into her arms.
 

“Now to change you,” she began, but then she frowned and patted his bottom with a practiced touch.
 

“I thought ...”
 
She held him out and looked at him, then shrugged, obviously deciding she’d been wrong. His diaper was clean and it looked expertly pinned.
 
She must have been mistaken.

Scott sat watching, not saying a word. After all, two could play the teasing game.
 

Cathy looked at him suspiciously. There was something about that twinkle in his eyes ...
 

“Everything okay upstairs?” he asked, all innocence.
 

She sat down, Beanie in her lap. “Yes. Beth is singing to them.”
 

He nodded, watching her. “How many of ‘them’ are there, exactly?”
 

She stared at him. “You don’t know?” she asked at last.
 

He was confused.
 
“Know what?”
 

Beth had appeared on the landing. Cathy looked up, then set Beanie on his little bowed legs and called, “Beth, would you please take Beanie with you? You two can watch TV in my bedroom; okay?”
 

Scott could tell she wanted to get the children out of the way so that they could talk frankly, so he waited with her while Beanie negotiated the stairs and disappeared from sight with Beth.
 

As soon as they were gone, Cathy rose from her chair and came over to sit beside him on the couch.
 

He smiled.
 
Things were looking up.
 

She brought a scent with her, a mixture of orange blossoms and soap. It washed over him as she sat down, turning her head so that her hair whipped past his face. He almost reached out and touched it.
 

She was close now and looking at him conspiratorially, but all he could think of was how pink and full her lips were, how smooth and creamy her skin was. Her arms were bare like her legs. He wanted to touch her, make sure she was real. But when his gaze finally rose to meet hers, he had all the proof he needed.
 

The blue eyes chilled the air between them in a hurry. “Finished?” she snapped.
 

“Are you serious?” he responded without missing a beat, his dark eyes laughing at her. He put an arm across the back of the couch and she very deliberately turned to keep herself well away from it.
 

She sighed, looking at his handsome face. She couldn’t deny to herself that his scrutiny was exciting, that she had felt a seductive shiver as his gaze had lingered here and there. But she wasn’t about to admit it to him.
 

“I didn’t get rid of the children so that we could fool around,” she told him evenly. “If I’ve given you the wrong impression, I’m sorry. I didn’t want them to hear some of the things I’m going to ask you. And believe me, those things have nothing to do with your love life.”
 

“Darn,” he said faintly, but he waited for her to go on.
 

“How much,” she said, watching his reaction intently, “do you know about April Meadows?”

The name didn’t ring a bell. “Who?”
 

Her shoulders sagged. “You mean you don’t know her at all? She’s your neighbor. She lives in this house.” She frowned. “I can’t believe you didn’t know her. After all, you got to know me quickly enough.”
 

Scott was becoming more and more confused. “Wait a minute. Who is this April Meadows? There’s been a brunette living here for about a year.”
 

Cathy nodded. “That’s her.”
 

“But we never did more than nod and say hello.”
 

Cathy made a face of disbelief, putting Scott on the defensive.
 

“She wasn’t my type,” he protested.
 

Their eyes met and the question hung between them almost involuntarily.
 

Am I your type
?
 

Scott grinned and answered it, though it had not been stated aloud.
 

“Absolutely,” he said.
 

Cathy flushed and tried to hold back the smile that was rising in her.
 

“We’re getting off the subject,” she said tartly, as much to hold herself in check as to hold him. “The fact is, this is April Meadows’s house, and those three babies upstairs are hers, too.
 
I don’t really live here. But she’s gone. And I’m trying to find her.” She waited a moment to let that sink in.
 

“You mean those three little babies were abandoned by their mother?” Despite the way he felt about children, that shocked him.
 

Cathy hesitated. “Well, I’d hate to go that far just yet,” she said. “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for her disappearance. If I could only figure out what it is. Now tell me everything you know about her.”
 

His mind search took all of three seconds.
 
He shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t really know her. Maybe one of the other neighbors ...” .

Cathy shook her head. “I’ve asked all up and down the street. I can’t believe how people can live within breathing distance of one another and not know one thing about each other’s lives! It’s amazing. Everyone’s noticed her, but no one knows anything about her.”
 

 
Scott nodded slowly, but his mind was on other things she’d said earlier. “Could we backtrack a little? If you don’t live here, what exactly are you doing here? What is your connection to this woman?”
 

She took a deep breath and nodded, trying to calm the rising sense of panic that threatened to surface.
 
“Okay. I’ve known April slightly for about six months, ever since the triplets were born. I had a temporary job at the hospital at the time and we got to know each other.”

“Triplets.” The word stuck in his throat. “Three little mirror images?”
 

Cathy nodded. “Almost. They’re beauties.
 
I can’t believe you’ve never seen them, living right next door.”
 

He swallowed hard. The concept of triplets boggled his mind. “I’m gone a lot.”
 

“So I’ve heard. Anyway, I do babysitting to help make ends meet and April hires me now and then to watch her little ones. This time she was going out of town so she asked if I could stay with them all weekend. I arrived Friday night, waved goodbye to April, and haven’t seen or heard from her since.”
 

“It’s Wednesday.”

“I know. She was supposed to be back Sunday night.”
 

Cathy sighed. Just having him notice how long it had been made it the more real—and unreal at the same time.

“I have no idea where she is. She was very mysterious about it. She was going to call me Friday night to give me the number of where she was staying.”
 
She shrugged.
 
“No call. Nothing.”
 

“You don’t have her cell number?”

“I do.
 
There’s no answer.
 
And believe me, I’ve tried a dozen times.”
 
She sighed.
 
“Until I realized that the phone was here in the house.
 
I found it in the back of her closet.
 
She must have left it here on purpose.
 
Strange, isn’t it?”

His dark gaze became thoughtful. “You think something happened to her?”
 

She hesitated. “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “That’s what I thought at first. I called hospitals in the area to check on accidents.
 
But I don’t really know where she was headed, so that was pretty useless.’”
 

Scott shrugged. “There must be someone you can call. A grandmother. An employer.”
 

Cathy shook her head. “I’ve searched the house from top to bottom. There are no names, no addresses anywhere. As I said, I’ve gone up and down the street asking neighbors. No one knows a thing about this woman.”
 

“Where does she work?”

“You got me. She never told me.”
 

Scott leaned back and thought for a moment, then shrugged again.
 
“I guess you’ll have to call the police,” he said.
 

Cathy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t want to do that,” she said, looking at Scott and wondering why she felt safe telling him things she was telling no one else.
 

“There’s something about April. I’ve always had the feeling she was… well…”
 
She made a face.
 
“Not doing anything illegal necessarily, but skating close to the edge. Do you know what I mean?”
 

He nodded slowly, searching her eyes. “But so what? That’s not your problem. And neither are her kids.”
 

 
She twisted her hands together, wondering how she was going to explain this to him. “I don’t quite feel that way.
 
These little babies are so adorable. I can’t bear to think of them being tossed around by some government agency, put in God-knows-what kind of institutional environment. I can take better care of them than any agency can. Until April shows up again.”
 

 
He had to admire her commitment, even if it sounded foolhardy to him.
 

“I think you’re crazy. But if you’re willing to do it, stay.”
 

His gaze took in her frown and he thought to himself that her staying was the best thing that could happen for him.
 

“Okay,” she said haltingly, her eyes wide as she stared into his. “There’s one more thing that makes that a bit risky.”
 

Her eyes really knocked him out. He’d never seen such vivid blue before. He’d seen diamonds with less sparkle. A lock of silver-blond hair tumbled down over one eye and he wanted to brush it aside, to keep, it from obstructing his view of all that blue. A man could drown in those eyes, take a plunge into eternity.
 

What a way to go.
 

“What’s that?” he asked, trying to keep his mind on what she was saying, but feeling a bit breathless. “What’s the problem?”
 

“I’ve been getting these telephone calls. Some man keeps insisting I know where April is and he claims he’ll to show up in person if I don’t tell him where she can be found.”
 

It sounded like a spurned lover to Scott. But then, what did he know? He was having a hard time thinking logically at the moment. Cathy’s scent was going to his head like the rush of strong brandy. He moved closer to her on the couch, almost involuntarily drawn, as though she cast a spell on him that he couldn’t shake.
 

“Do you feel threatened by him?”

She made a face.
 
“In a way.
 
I’d feel a lot better if he would just fade into the woodwork and leave us alone.”

“I.,.. I could stay here with you,” he proposed. “Would that help?”
 

She made a move as though to get back the distance between them, but somehow she never quite finished it.
 

“Stay here?” she repeated, blankly. “What for?”
 

“l don’t know. Protection.” He leaned closer. The thought of protecting her was making him feel strong and manly. There was a vague sense of the ridiculous flitting in the back of his mind, trying to tell him he was sinking into absurdity here, but he ignored it.
 

Enjoying her was feeling so very good.