The Bachelor, the Baby and the Beauty. Victoria Pade
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Hadley laughed. He hadn’t said that the way a man might have said it to pick her up; he said it more matter-of-factly, in a way that didn’t make it sound like empty flattery. In a way that made her almost believe it.
But still she couldn’t go along with it. “Gorgeous?” she countered, using a tone she would have adopted with Logan if he were exaggerating something. “I’ve been around gorgeous. I think it might be a little over-the-top to put me in that category.”
“The models you worked with in Italy and France—that’s the gorgeous you’ve been around?”
“They make their living being gorgeous,” Hadley confirmed.
“That high-fashion stuff? That might be different than what you are, but you still grew up with your own brand of gorgeous,” he insisted, his sincerity and straightforwardness making her feel better than all the other compliments she’d previously received put together.
“And how brave can you get?” he went on marveling. “Taking off to live in Europe—”
“I didn’t do that alone,” she demurred.
“But you did it. That’s the kind of thing people think about—dream about—but don’t have the courage to actually do.”
“I suppose,” Hadley conceded. “But life is life—here or there,” she pointed out. “There are still ups and downs and things to get through—” Like her divorce …
But she didn’t want to talk about that.
“It was definitely fun,” she continued. “And I admit that I amazed myself a little when I actually pulled it off, but—”
“If you could lose half your body weight you could do anything?”
Hadley laughed. “I guess that’s true.”
“All I know,” Chase concluded, “is that you’ve impressed the hell out of me.”
“Then my work is done,” she joked, making him laugh a throaty laugh that was more sexy than she could stand.
The subject seemed to change naturally when Case said, “So Logan tells me you’ve signed on to help me out with this baby I’m inheriting tomorrow.”
“Unless you think you can do it yourself …” she said, hoping he would say he could.
“Do it myself? Oh, God, no!” he exclaimed. “I’m an idiot when it comes to babies and kids. I went to Connecticut for a while when Logan got divorced—Tia was a baby—but I never did any hands-on. Then Logan and Tia stayed with me in New York just before their move here, and Tia had to talk me through her breakfast one morning when Logan was on the phone with a client.”
“Butter on one half of the slice of toast, peanut butter on the other half, then fold it together—don’t cut it?”
“See what I mean? Who knew kids were that quirky? And at least Tia could tell me what she wanted. I don’t know the first thing about taking care of a baby and I’m guessing that at eleven months he won’t be able to tell me himself.”
“No, he won’t,” Hadley confirmed with a small laugh.
“So it was like being thrown a lifeline when Logan said you’d help out.” He leaned in close and said, “You do know about taking care of babies, right?”
Obviously he hadn’t been too observant during his visits to her house growing up, or he wouldn’t have had to ask that question.
Hadley motioned toward the rest of the room where everyone else was. “I have two younger half brothers and three younger half sisters, remember? My stepmother said the only thing I was good for was to help her with them and babysit so she could have a break. I was changing diapers by the time I was five.”
“I do remember your stepmother …” he said, making a gloomy, sympathetic face. “But like I said, I can’t tell you what a relief it is to know I won’t be on my own with this.”
“Neily said you could back out at any time,” Hadley reminded him. “A child is a huge responsibility. If you’ve changed your mind, Neily is out there on the dance floor—you could tell her tonight and—”
“No, I can’t do that. Not even now that I’ve thought about it. I couldn’t live with myself.”
Again Hadley saw how strongly he felt about this and wondered why. But she didn’t feel free to ask.
Then he said, “Did Logan twist your arm about helping me? Are you dreading it?”
“No,” Hadley was quick to answer because she didn’t want him to know how reluctant she was. “Logan didn’t twist my arm. I was just thinking of you …”
“You jumped in with both feet yesterday. There’s no sin in changing your mind after realizing what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“Nope, can’t do that. But don’t feel as if you have to lend a hand if you don’t want to—I’ll make do, maybe I can hire someone—”
Why did the thought of that suddenly make her feel territorial? Why was she actually chafing at the suggestion of someone else coming in to do what she’d agreed so reluctantly to do herself?
She had no explanation. And no time to dwell on it.
“No, that would be silly. I honestly don’t mind,” she lied. “It will give me something to do until you guys get business up and running again and there’s furniture for me to upholster.”
Which was true enough. The summer had passed with Hadley sewing dresses for this wedding and working with Logan on the showroom itself—cleaning and painting and decorating it in sections as if each were a separate room so the furniture could be arranged and displayed within those settings. But until Logan and Chase got back to actually making new pieces, her only job now was to organize her own workspace.
“So you aren’t dreading teaching me how to take care of an eleven-month-old?”
Well, she was. But she would have to lie.
“Not at all,” she said, watching her brother and new sister-in-law dance with Tia rather than look Chase in the eye.
“I don’t think you mean that, but I’m gonna pretend you do because I really need help,” he confided.
The music ended and someone Hadley didn’t know stepped up to the microphone to make a toast, saving her from having to go overboard to convince Chase that he was wrong when he wasn’t.
Then, after everyone had raised a glass of champagne to wish Meg and Logan well, the quartet began to play again.
And Chase was apparently ready to go on to other things because he said, “How about a dance? You look too good to be hiding behind this table.”
A dance.
With Chase Mackey.
That took Hadley by surprise.
“Really?” she said before she knew she was going to, the question coming from days long gone by when she’d been alone in her room at home, knowing a school dance was going on without her, only imagining herself there with Chase, dancing …
“Sure, why not?” he answered as if it were nothing—which, to him, she knew was the case.
Then he stood and pulled her chair out for her.
In her fantasies, he would take her by the hand and lead her onto the dance floor.
In reality he just barely touched the back of her arm to urge her in that direction.
But it was enough to give her goose bumps that she hoped he didn’t notice.
And then they reached the dance floor.
He stepped in front of her, he took her hand in his, placed his other