“Wait!”
Too late. He was already through the swinging door.
She glanced at Joshua with a sigh. “I botched that big-time.”
The baby laughed.
“Right. You won’t thank me if your new daddy doesn’t adjust to his role with you before a permanent nanny gets here and he has all the freedom in the world to stay away from you.”
Dominic went to a noisy nightclub. He found a table full of his friends, ordered a round of drinks, grabbed a partner and began to dance.
And proceeded to have the worst time of his life. As if his world wasn’t complicated enough, he felt guilty about his mini meltdown with Audra. He’d accused her of trying to make him squirm, not because he actually believed she’d done it deliberately, but as a knee-jerk reaction.
He’d spent his life being humiliated by a father who had constantly compared him to his older, smarter brother. On kind days, he and Peter would excuse their dad repeatedly pointing out Dominic’s deficiencies. It was his way of showing everyone why Peter would take the reins of the family business rather than Dominic. On normal days they both knew their father was a mean-spirited jerk.
Dominic tried to lose himself in the noise and the pulsing beat of the music and bodies in motion, but he couldn’t. After a few hours of pretending to have fun, he summoned his driver and on the ride home came to the conclusion that he was as upset about not being capable with Joshua as he was about his meltdown.
He wasn’t an idiot. And holding a kid, manipulating him into a damn high chair, shouldn’t be so hard! It couldn’t be. Ninety percent of the people in the world mastered it as parents.
Surely he could handle one measly baby!
On Sunday morning Dominic arrived in the nursery exactly as Audra had finished bathing Joshua and was walking out of the bathroom. This time, instead of flowers, he had coffee.
“The blue cup is yours.” He set her cup on the dresser near where she would be working.
Audra glanced at her coffee and returned her gaze to his. He had been so frustrated the night before, she was sure he wouldn’t even come in to say good morning. Yet he was back. And he looked about as cute as a man could look in his jeans and T-shirt, holding the mug of coffee he’d brought for himself.
“I’m sorry about last night.”
“That was actually my fault. I should have opened the tray. I’m sorry.”
He smiled hopefully. “So what we’re really saying here is that we’re both at fault. You should have remembered I’m not experienced, and I shouldn’t have gotten frustrated over something I didn’t know.”
“Exactly.”
He pulled in a breath and then pushed it out noisily. “So what are we going to do this morning?”
Wrapped in his baby towel, chewing a blue teething ring, Joshua leaned toward Dominic.
“He wants you to take him.”
Dominic placed his hands around the baby’s ribs and took him into his arms. Joshua cooed up at Dominic, then as naturally as could be set his head on his uncle’s shoulder.
Audra’s heart melted. “Look how he likes you!”
A ripple of unease passed over Dominic’s features before he swallowed hard. “Yeah. But I’ll feel a lot more comfortable when his bottom is covered.” He laid the baby on the changing table. “What do I do?”
“First, get a diaper.”
Happy he was stepping up and asking questions, Audra reached for her coffee. Dominic leaned over to get a diaper from the dresser. Their arms brushed and, nervous, Audra jumped back.
Dominic grinned at her. “Sorry. We don’t want you to spill your first coffee of the day.” At her confused frown, he added, “Joyce told me you refused a cup this morning. She said you seemed to have your hands full with Joshua.”
It gave her a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach that he had asked Joyce about her, but the jumpiness got worse when he glanced significantly at her worn T-shirt and scruffy pajama bottoms. She could have been embarrassed about her sleep attire, but it wouldn’t matter if she were fully dressed. Everything about him gave her a jumpy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Even though she knew he was absolutely wrong for her, she couldn’t seem to help being attracted to him.
Dominic held up the diaper, as if trying to make sense of it, turning it over in his hands, examining the size and shape. Recognizing that he didn’t get the concept of the disposable diaper, Audra set the mug on the dresser again. She took the diaper from him and stepped closer to the table, which put her inordinately close to Dominic.
She’d thought there was room enough for her to step in, but suddenly she and Dominic were elbow to elbow. She could smell his clean scent, almost feel the heat radiating from him.