Baby Before Business. SUSAN MEIER

further, Madelyn Gentry began striding to the door. Almost simultaneously, Sabrina peered up at him and stiffened in his arms. Ty felt the storm brewing even before the baby spit the bottle out of her mouth and screamed.

      He panicked. He might be able to hire a nanny eventually, but he didn’t have one now and the only help within a hundred yards was walking out the door.

      “Wait!”

      Madelyn laughed. “No. You don’t want me here. Call a relative or a girlfriend.”

      “Shhh-shhh-shhh,” Ty whispered, patting Sabrina’s back as he inexpertly cuddled her to him. Apparently unimpressed that he let her slobber on his thousand-dollar suit, Sabrina cried all the louder. “With Scotty gone, my brothers are the only blood relatives I have aside from this baby.” Sadness rippled through him at the realization that his only cousin was now gone, but he didn’t let that show on his face or in his voice as he continued. “And you heard my secretary say she was leaving for the day. She’s not even going home. She’s taking her kids to the dentist. I couldn’t find her if I wanted to.”

      Madelyn stopped walking and faced him. “No girlfriend?”

      He wanted to tell her that was none of her business, but with Sabrina screaming on his shoulder, he only shook his head.

      Madelyn sighed, then strode over to Ty. “I should have known no woman would have you.” She took the sobbing baby and bottle from Ty.

      “I’m single by choice.”

      “Whatever.”

      Madelyn arranged Sabrina across her arm, slid the bottle into her mouth again, and resumed her position of leaning against Ty’s desk. “Poor baby,” she murmured, soothing the child, but irritating the hell out of Ty.

      “Poor baby? This kid will have her own personal nanny, whose full-time job will be to cater to her every wish and whim.”

      “Maybe. But you don’t have a nanny now and Sabrina is stuck with you tonight.”

      Ty scowled. Damn it! She was right. A competent nanny couldn’t be brought in on a moment’s notice, not without investigating his or her background. Which meant he was going to be alone with this baby tonight. And he didn’t have a clue of how to keep Sabrina from crying, let alone how to care for her.

      But Madelyn Gentry really seemed to know what she was doing.

      “So what makes you such an expert about kids?”

      “I have three brothers and sisters and eight nieces and nephews,” Madelyn said, aware that her ex-boss was up to something because his voice had shifted from rude to curious. “I’ve fed a bottle or two in my day.”

      “Yeah, well, I raised two brothers, but Cooper was eighteen and Seth was fifteen when I took over. Until just now, I’d never even held a baby.” He paused and glanced at Madelyn. Sounding uncharacteristically vulnerable, he said, “I don’t think they like me.”

      Madelyn couldn’t argue that. She knew firsthand that most adults didn’t like him. Why should a baby be any different? Still, she didn’t trust the sudden spurt of honesty. His vulnerable act could very well be a trick to get her sympathy. She cautiously said, “I take it you haven’t had much contact with this child before.”

      “No. And even if Seth wasn’t out of town for the weekend, he wouldn’t be any better with her than I am. He’s only cooed at her when Scotty brought her to visit.”

      “Great.”

      Ty drew a quick breath. “Do you think it’s going to be hard to find a nanny?”

      Oh, so that was it. He was making himself look vulnerable because he needed assistance finding a nanny. Well, sorry. He was out of luck.

      “I don’t know. I lived in Atlanta for two of the past three years. Any contacts I made there are too far away.” Madelyn snuggled the baby closer and Sabrina’s sucking slowed, an indication that she was drifting off to sleep. “So I’m afraid I’m not much help.”

      “Actually, you look like lots of help.”

      Their eyes met and Madelyn read Ty Bryant’s intentions as clearly as if he had spoken the words. He didn’t want assistance finding a nanny. He wanted her to be the nanny!

      Though careful not to jar the baby, she bounced away from his desk. “Oh, no. No. No. No. I am not a nanny.”

      “You might not be a nanny, but you’re certainly better with a baby than I am. And Seth’s already investigated you. Nobody gets the kind of authorization you got to interview staff and look at our five-year plan unless Seth has human resources run background checks. So you’re cleared.”

      “No.”

      “I’m not asking you to take the job permanently,” Ty angrily retorted as if she were the one being unreasonable. “I only need you for a few days, maybe a week. Just until I have time to properly interview and investigate a few candidates.”

      “It will take more than a week to interview and investigate candidates!” Madelyn gaped at him. “Do you know what you’re asking?”

      “Yes.”

      “No, you don’t!” Madelyn emphatically disagreed as she leaned against the desk again to finish feeding Sabrina. “Babies get up in the middle of the night! I’d have to stay at your house!”

      “I’d pay you well….”

      “It’s not a question of money!”

      “Okay, then. How about this? I won’t simply rehire you to do the PR job, I’ll do absolutely everything you want me to do to prepare for the Wall Street Journal interview.”

      That stopped her. And she knew he’d done it on purpose. A sharp negotiator, he’d let her get out all of her objections before he went in for the kill and offered the only things she wanted. The job and his cooperation. “Are you kidding me?”

      “No. Do this favor for me and I will do whatever you feel needs doing to make myself look nicer to the reporter,” he said, back to sounding like the in-control executive who had fired her, and Madelyn’s business instincts shot to red alert. Sure, he made it appear that they were on even terms, but this was the kind of guy who always kept the upper hand. There was a catch here somewhere.

      So handsome he could have posed for GQ, Ty Bryant strolled closer and didn’t stop until he was mere inches in front of Madelyn and Sabrina. “Can I take her?”

      Madelyn nodded and eased the nearly sleeping baby into his arms. He nestled the little girl against his chest as she sleepily suckled her bottle, but he didn’t move away from Madelyn.

      Holding her gaze with his hypnotic brown eyes, he said, “I have something you want. A job. You have something I want. The ability to care for a baby. I’m offering you a simple deal. Take it or leave it.”

      Feeling mesmerized by his magnetic gaze, Madelyn blinked, but it didn’t help. His nearness had caused her heart rate to triple. Her breathing had become feathery and light. She desperately wanted to swallow, but couldn’t because she knew he would see and take it as a sign of weakness.

      Forcing herself to think his proposition through, she tried to come up with a downside and knew there wasn’t one. He might believe he could bully her out of his agreement once he had her commitment, but that wasn’t true. His inability to care for Sabrina gave Madelyn a weapon that she wouldn’t hesitate to use. Until he hired a nanny, any time he refused to do anything she asked, she would simply leave him alone with the child that he clearly couldn’t care for. Then he would either adhere to the terms of their deal, or be miserable. Of course, once he hired a nanny that leverage would be gone, but by then her advance work for the Wall Street Journal reporter would be done.

      She still didn’t trust him.

      “Even give away thirty thousand dollars worth of playground equipment and deliver a sappy speech?”

      He