"Oooh, great idea."
"And," Anna said coyly, turning her head to look at Tula, "it would be good practice for the nursery Sam and I are setting up."
A second ticked past. Then two. "You're-"
"I am."
"How long?"
"About three months."
"Oh my God, that's huge!" Tula dropped to her knees and swept Anna into a tight hug, then released her. "You're gonna have a baby! How'd Sam take it?"
"Like he's the first man to introduce sperm to egg!" Anna laughed again and the shine in her eyes defined just how happy she really was. "He's really excited. He called Garret in Switzerland to tell him he's going to be an uncle."
"Weird, considering you actually dated Garret for like five minutes."
"Ew." Anna grimaced and shook her head. "I don't like to think about that part," she said, laughing again. "Besides, three dates with Garret or a lifetime with his brother … no contest."
Tula had never seen her friend so happy. So content. As if everything in her world were exactly the way it was supposed to be. For one really awful moment, Tula actually felt envious of that happiness. Of the certainty in Anna's life. Of the love Sam surrounded her with. Then she deliberately put aside her own niggling twist of jealousy and focused on the important thing here. Supporting Anna as she'd always been there for Tula.
"I'm really happy for you, Anna."
"Thanks, sweetie. I know you are." She glanced at the baby boy who was watching them both through interested eyes. "And believe me, I'm glad you're getting so much hands-on experience, Aunt Tula. I don't have a clue how to take care of a baby."
"It's really simple," Tula said, following her friend's gaze to smile at the baby that had so quickly become the center of her world. "All you have to do is love them."
Her heart simply turned over in her chest. Two weeks she'd been a surrogate mom and she could hardly remember a time without Nathan. What on earth had she done with herself before having that little boy to snuggle and care for? How had she gotten through her day without the scent of baby shampoo and the soft warmth of a tiny body to hold?
And how would she ever live without it?
Simon knew how to get things done.
With Mick's assistant taking care of most of the details, within a week, Simon's house had been readied for Tula and Nathan's arrival.
He had rooms prepared, food delivered and had already lined up several interviews with a popular nanny employment agency. Tula and the baby had been in town only three days and already he had arranged for a paternity test and had pulled a few important strings so that he'd have the results a lot sooner than he normally would have.
Not that he needed legal confirmation. He had known from his first glance at the child that Nathan was his. Had felt it the moment he'd held him. Now he had to deal with the very real fact of parenthood. Though he was definitely going to go slowly in that regard until he had proof.
He'd never planned on being a father. Hell, he didn't know the first thing about parenting. And his own parent had hardly been a sterling role model.
Simon knew he could do it, though. He always found a way.
He opened his front door and accidentally kicked a toy truck. The bright yellow Dumpster was sent zooming across the parquet floor to crash into the opposite wall. He shook his head, walked to the truck and, after picking it up, headed into the living room.
Normally, he got home at five-thirty, had a quiet drink while reading the paper. The silence of the big house was a blessing after a long day filled with clients, board meetings and ringing telephones. His house had been a sanctuary, he thought wryly. But not anymore. He glanced around the once orderly living room and blew out an exasperated breath. How could one baby have so much … stuff?
"They've only been here three days," he muttered, amazed at what the two of them had done to the dignified old Victorian.
There were diapers, bottles, toys, fresh laundry that had been folded and stacked on the coffee table. There was a walker of some sort in one corner and a discarded bunny with one droopy ear sitting in Simon's favorite chair. He stepped over a baby blanket spread across a hand-stitched throw rug and set his briefcase down beside the chair.
Picking up the bunny, he ran his fingers over the soft, slightly soggy fur. Nathan was teething, Tula had informed him only that morning. Apparently, the bunny was taking the brunt of the punishment. Shaking his head, he laughed a little, amazed anew at just how quickly a man's routine could be completely shattered.
"Simon? Is that you?"
He turned toward the sound of her voice and looked at the hall as if he could see through the walls to the kitchen at the back of the house. Something inside him tightened in expectation at the sound of Tula's voice. His body instantly went on alert, a feeling he was getting used to. In the three days she and the baby had been here, Simon had been in a near-constant state of aching need.
She was really getting to him, and the worst of it was, she wasn't even trying.
Tula was only here as Nathan's guardian. To stay until she felt Simon was ready to be his son's father. There was nothing more between them and there couldn't be.
So why then, he asked himself, did he spend so damn much time thinking about her? She wasn't the kind of woman who usually caught his eye. But there was something about her. Something alive. Electric.
She smiled and that dimple teased him. She sang to the baby and her voice caressed him. She was here, in his house when he came home from work, and he didn't even miss the normal quiet.
He was in serious trouble.
"Simon?"
Now her voice almost sounded worried because he hadn't answered her. "Yes, it's me."
"That's good. We're in the kitchen!"
He held on to the lop-eared bunny and walked down the long hallway. The rooms were big, the wood gleaming from polish and care and the walls were painted in a warm palate of blues and greens. He knew every creak of the floor, every sigh of the wind against the windows. He'd grown up in this house and had taken it over when his father died a few years ago.
Of course, Simon had put his own stamp on the place. He'd ripped up carpeting that had hidden the tongue-and-groove flooring. He'd had wallpaper removed and had restored crown moldings and the natural wood in the built-in china cabinets and bookcases.
He'd made it his own, determined to wipe out old memories and build new ones.
Now he was sharing it with the son he still could hardly believe was his.
Stepping into the kitchen, he was surrounded by the scented steam lifting off a pot of chili on the stove. At the table, Tula sat cross-legged on a chair while spooning something green and mushy into Nathan's mouth.
"What is that?" he asked.
"Hi! What? Oh, green beans. We went shopping today, didn't we, Nathan?" She gave the boy another spoonful. "We bought a blender and some fresh vegetables and then we came home and cooked them up for dinner, didn't we?"
Simon could have sworn the infant was listening to everything Tula had to say. Maybe it was her way of practically singing her words to him. Or maybe it was the warmth of her tone and the smile on her face that caught the baby's attention.
Much as it had done for the boy's father.
"It's so cold outside, I made chili for us," she said, tossing him a quick grin over her shoulder.
The impact of that smile shook him right down to the bone.
Mick had been right, he thought. Tula was nothing like the cool, controlled beauties he was used to dating.
And he had to wonder if she was as warm in bed as she was out of it.
"Smells good," he managed to say.
"Tastes even better," she promised. "Why don't you come over here and finish feeding Nathan? I'll get dinner for us."
"Okay." He approached her and the baby cautiously and wanted to kick himself for it. Simon Bradley had a reputation for storming into a situation and taking charge. He could feed a baby for God's sake. How difficult could it be?
He took Tula's chair, picked up the bowl of green bean mush and filled a spoon. Behind him, he could sense Tula's gaze on him, watching. Well, he'd prove not only to himself, but to her, that he was perfectly capable of feeding a baby.