Assignment: Baby. Lynne Marshall
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head to help soothe her. “There, there. We’ll get you fixed up in no time so you can go back to sleep.”
The craziest thought occurred to him: he was thankful the baby didn’t have a diaper rash—as though it would reflect badly on his parenting skills. All three and a half days of them.
He couldn’t believe he still cared what Mandy thought, or that he was having such a mundane moment with the woman he’d never been able to get completely out of his system. Be careful, he warned himself. She can’t be trusted.
He’d stood still too long, and let things grow too quiet. She glanced up at him with questioning aqua eyes.
“So you’re working toward your PhD, I’m told.”
“Who told you?”
“Dr. Hersh. He seems very impressed with this study of yours.” Maybe she’d thrown herself back into her career and had given up on her baby fantasy?
She smiled. Sophie fussed again.
“I think she’s hungry,” she said. “Did you bring a bottle?”
He finished wiping his hands and removed his soiled jacket, wishing he could strip off his shirt, too. Mandy had always been so organized. Even now, when it was none of her concern, she seemed to know exactly what needed to be done. “Uh, yes. There’s a can of powdered formula and a bottle of water to mix it with somewhere in there.”
“You take care of the meal and I’ll change her diaper. Did you bring her jammies?”
“Jammies?” He paused. “Oh, pajamas. Yes.”
“Let me guess. Pink ones?” She smiled briefly and he thought daylight had broken through the night. Her finely pointed features had never ceased to amaze him, and right now the slant of her eyes and the turn of her nose captivated him. Through his eyes, Mandy had always been beautiful, and it appeared she’d only gotten better with time. But what was the point of entertaining those thoughts?
He glanced at his niece on the changing pad. How ironic. Mandy’s sudden desire to have a baby had driven them apart. Now a helpless baby was forcing them to drop the past and focus on the “right now.”
He needed to say something. Anything. Now. “Jade has this thing for pink…for such a staunch feminist it’s strange…” he mumbled, and fumbled with the can.
“Pink is just a color, not a political statement.” She looked up, a tentative look in her eyes. “She’s really a beautiful baby.”
“You think?” Truth was he didn’t have a clue how babies were supposed to look.
“How old is she?”
“Uh…nine months.”
Mandy kept staring at him, and he felt compelled to fill the silence. “Who’d have thought in a million years we’d be working together again?”
“If I can finagle it, we won’t be working together.”
He finally popped open the powdered formula can. “I told you—it’s a done deal,” he said. “Baby and all.”
Amanda pondered the incongruity of their current situation. When they’d married, they’d agreed to put their careers first and forever. And because she’d worked so hard the stress had caused her to miss a period. The fleeting possibility of being pregnant had changed her outlook on babies so drastically she’d known she could no longer agree to a life without children. Even though she hadn’t turned out to be pregnant, she’d already made that choice. She wanted a family, not just a degree. But Hunter hadn’t budged. “You promised you never wanted children,” he had repeated, over and over.
“Life is certainly full of surprises,” she said under her breath now, as she removed the soiled disposable diaper, thinking she couldn’t have made up a wilder story if she’d tried. She and Hunter working together while he took care of his niece? She shook her head. “Speaking of surprises, you’ll need to actually read my syllabus if you insist on being my mentor.”
He nodded. “I know. And I will.”
“I’ve got everything broken down day by day,” she said, trying her hardest not to think about how wonderful it felt to hold a real live baby in her arms. “Like I said, we’ll start with physical examinations tomorrow. I’ve arranged for two exam rooms on the first floor. You can do the men and I’ll do the women.” She concentrated on Sophie, cleaning her porcelain fine skin with a moist baby wipe, trying not to succumb to her charm. “We need to get labs drawn and EKGs.”
Back then all she’d wanted was Hunter and a baby…and an advanced degree. Wast hat too much to ask? And here they were.
“We’ll do stress tests on Thursday, and by Friday we should have our group divided for the physical training portion.” If only things could have been different. This could be their baby and they could be working as husband and wife… Where was she now? She didn’t dare look into his eyes.
“Oh, and you’ll have to follow the diet while you’re involved. I know how you like your double-double cheeseburgers, but that’s out of the question for now.”
He nodded while fiddling with the formula can and half- heartedly measuring out a scoop for the bottle. “As far as my eating is concerned, you’ve got me all wrong. Since Dad died from a stroke I’ve opted to change the one thing I have control over. My diet.”
“I’m so sorry to hear about your father, Hunter. Did you ever have a chance to work things out?”
He somberly shook his head.
Amanda had finished the diaper change and now sat yoga- style. Hunter attempted to join her and almost spilled the formula. His knees were high off the floor and his back was hunched awkwardly. Completely unnatural, and obviously in pain, there he sat. She tried not to think how silly he looked, and almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
Without being asked, Amanda took the scoop from his hands and read the label. Sophie, tired of playing with her toes, rolled over and crawled across the floor.
Amanda mixed the powdered formula into the water and studied Hunter. Why not state the obvious? “It’ll be tough working together.” She sighed. “But we’re adults, Hunter. And if you insist on staying, I’ll just have to get used to it.”
Shaking the bottle, Amanda tried to get Sophie’s attention. When the baby noticed, she immediately crawled over and sat. She grabbed the bottle with both hands and stuck it into her mouth. Amanda tried not to react to how cute that was. Glancing at Hunter, she noticed an apathetic glaze in his eyes. Obviously his mind was elsewhere, and he was no more interested in babies today than he’d been when they were married.
It being tough to work together was the understatement of the century. Mandy watched him with her sea-blue eyes and he remembered how he’d never gotten tired of looking at her when they were a couple. Being around her day after day would be torture.
He wished that things hadn’t gone so sour between them. But, like she’d said earlier, life was full of surprises. Like when she’d had a sudden change of heart about wanting babies. Both being young and stubborn to a fault, and compromise being a foreign word, they had foolishly lost everything.
And here they were.
She stood up and dusted her hands on her workout pants. His knees cracked when he joined her. Her pants seemed baggy. She clapped her hands together and stared him smack in the face.
“Have you lost weight?”
“Did you break your nose?”
They asked the questions in unison.
“Yes.”
They shared an awkward moment at having spoken at the same time twice. Eyeing each other suspiciously, they let their respective questions lie for another time.
Sophie dropped her bottle, crawled between them and