It was the ultimate mindfuck.
Aside from him, only Hannah stayed quiet, seeming somewhat dazed by his siblings’ loud and brass nature. She really was pretty, even with a wide-eyed gaze that reminded him of a kid experiencing a circus for the first time.
With a sigh, JP walked Kayla over to what he assumed was the so-called highchair, a plastic monstrosity with a large white tray and smiling ducks all over a padded seat. As he stared down at it, the panic he’d been battling the past few days began to creep up his spine once again. For a million bucks, he wouldn’t have thought to purchase this ridiculous contraption.
How the hell was he supposed to get Kayla in this torture device?
He grabbed the tray to pull it out so he could fit the baby in the seat, but the thing didn’t budge. “What the hell?” he muttered as he gave the tray another tug. On the third pass, he added a jiggle.
Maybe just was supposed to shove her in the small space between the tray and the seat? He frowned as Kayla grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked.
“Ow, fuck!”
Christ, what the hell was he doing?
He wasn’t cut out to be a father. It felt as though all eyes in the room were fixed on him, waiting for him to fail at one of his very first fatherly tasks.
A throat cleared softly beside him. “Need a hand?” Hannah stood next to him with a sweet smile.
“Oh, uh, yeah. You know how to work this thing?” he asked as he gently pried surprisingly strong baby fingers from his scalp.
Hannah nodded. “I do. I can get her settled for you.”
“That’d be great. Thanks.” Anything to keep him from looking like even more of an idiot.
With a high-pitched squeal, Kayla wrenched her body and practically launched herself toward Hannah.
“Shit!” he cried as he lost his grip on the squirming sack of potatoes.
“Yikes, cutie,” Hannah said with a laugh, catching Kayla as though she’d anticipated the daredevil move. “You’re a little young for cliff diving. How about you try not to give your d-daddy a heart attack tonight, huh?” She spun away from him, bouncing Kayla on her hip as she cooed at the baby. She appeared so comfortable, as though she handled babies every day, while JP felt like a wooden statue whenever he picked her up. Afraid to hold her too tight and crush her but terrified of not having a solid grip and dropping her.
“Okay, let’s get you settled in here, pretty girl. You must be hungry.” Within seconds, she had the tray pulled out, Kayla strapped in the seat, then the tray back in front of his daughter. “There you go,” she said, bopping Kayla on her teeny nose. “Bon appetit.”
JP blinked. “Wow, I’m gonna need a tutorial on that before you leave. Maybe a PowerPoint with videos and shit.”
A soft chuckle left Hannah. “I’ll see if I can schedule you in, but I’m pretty booked up with other clueless dads, so you may have to wait.”
The moment the words left her mouth, a horrified expression crossed her face. “Oh, my God. I’m sorry. I can’t believe I said that. I didn’t mean to imply you’re clue—”
For the first time in days, he laughed. “Trust me, sweetheart, you may not have meant it, but you hit the nail on the head. You’re a natural, though. You got kids?” He took the seat next to Kayla’s highchair then gestured for Hannah to settle into the chair on Kayla’s opposite side.
A pretty blush formed over her cheeks.
Okay, his sisters were right. She was his type. Sue him, he loved shy girls. That little nugget of information surprised most people since his personality was extroverted and over the top. Often irreverent. But he loved a girl who blushed. One who seemed all reserved and timid but turned into a wildcat once the lights went out. There was something about taking a sweet girl and making her all dirty that cranked his gears.
“Ah, no. No husband, no kids.” She set a napkin over her lap as though in an upscale restaurant instead of a friend’s house. “I, uh, have a niece though. She and her mom lived with me when she was a newborn, so I gained a lot of baby experience. There’s a pretty steep learning curve.”
He grunted. “You ain’t kidding.” He grabbed a bottle of wine from the center of the table, then froze as he caught sight of all his siblings quiet and gawking at him. “The fuck? I can have some. I’m not breastfeeding.”
Mickie blinked and pressed her lips together as Ronnie let out her patented inelegant snort. That girl would need to find herself a special kind of man who could handle her brash energy. His three brothers just stared at him.