The Baby Deal. Kat Cantrell

her office? How had not one of them denounced her as a fraud?

      Yet she arrogantly presumed to write a book about this.

      He nodded. “Been there many a time, my friend.”

      “Well, it’s not advisable. We can’t keep up this middle-of-the-night marathon. Today, we need to figure out the nanny plan.”

      With a nanny in place, Juliana would have distance from day-to-day care and regain her professional perspective. Then maybe she’d figure out how best to care for him. He was depending on her.

      “I have a better idea. You need a break. I have a few things to take care of in Fort Worth this morning. Come with me. You can go shopping and I’ll take you to lunch. Maria will watch Mikey and we’ll be back by two or three at the latest.”

      A break? If he’d said Godiva chocolate dipped in twenty-four-karat gold it couldn’t have sounded better. “Really?”

      In response, he scooped Mikey from her lap with one hand and pulled her to her feet with the other. “Really. Go get ready and meet me downstairs in an hour.”

      She showered in record time and slipped into a halter dress. A break was precisely what she needed to get on terra firma again. Then things with Mikey would start clicking.

      Poor baby. He probably couldn’t figure out why he suddenly lived in a new place with new people. Everything familiar had been ripped away from Mikey and all she wanted to do was provide stability. Give him a sense of connection and of being cared for.

      Maybe she should cancel Fort Worth.

      No, she needed time away to recharge and it was the perfect opportunity to move forward with giving Shay parenting lessons.

      She’d taken a seat in the sunroom when Shay strolled in and set off a new round of hot flushes.

      She was tired. If she could get some decent sleep, Shay walking into a room wouldn’t affect her at all. She’d never noticed when Eric came into a room. When she was absorbed in research or a case study, he’d shake her shoulder to get her attention. Eric possessed a fine list of qualities—he was unassuming, quiet and easy to ignore when she needed to concentrate. Everything she wanted in a man, and not a frustrating, stubborn, vibrating-with-masculinity boy wonder.

      Eric and Shay were barely from the same planet and comparing them had grown into an unproductive habit. The two men she’d once cared for were nothing alike. Intentionally.

      “Ready?” he asked.

      She nodded and it wasn’t until they arrived at Shay’s airport that she thought to ask a really, really late question. “How are we getting there?”

      “Helicopter. It’s only a couple hours there and back, depending on the wind.”

      And how many hours if the pilot didn’t fly like a kamikaze bat out of hell? She bit her lip. He understood the importance of Mikey’s welfare and wouldn’t take unnecessary risks. Not anymore.

      “Can’t we fly in a plane?”

      “Sure, but then I have to land at a municipal airport. I can put the bird down on the roof of GGS. Saves me a lot of time and trouble. I fly planes to relax, not for work.”

      Relax. Really?

      The helicopter sat on the runway like a giant black-and-glass insect. Its blades threw huge shadows on the ground and she swallowed. People rode in helicopters all the time. Nothing to worry about. Helicopter crashes were rare. Except in combat, but those crashes were due to being shot down. Weren’t they?

      This one had doors. Thankfully. She sat in the passenger seat and shut her eyes as Shay did whatever pilot checks were necessary and talked to people through the radio in his headset. His voice settled her and she peeked out from under her lashes.

      She could do this. He’d had a license to fly everything under the sun since before she’d met him ten years ago. Surely he was even more practiced now.

      Thwack, thwack, thwack.

      The blades spun and, as if by magic, the helicopter lifted into the air, guided expertly by the magician at the controls. Shay’s fingers wrapped firmly around the lever between their seats and he performed innumerable other sleight-of-hand tricks in rapid succession. The ground rushed away and the sky opened in a burst of blue.

      The ground was so far below the flimsy metal cage between her and a free fall. The ground was completely unreachable, except through Shay’s wizardry.

      Her stomach did the tango and her eyes slammed shut again. Had he said two hours?

      Miraculously, they did not crash, her eyelids eventually opened and about a kajillion white-knuckle deep breaths later, Shay touched down with a light bounce on a giant X. He helped her down from the high seat and she sucked oxygen into her lungs in a cleansing sigh as her shoes flattened against the roof of GGS.

      “Not so bad, right?” Shay’s hand settled into the small of her back and she leaned into the support gratefully. Illogically so, since it was his fault she needed steadying.

      “Not so bad in comparison to jumping out of it with a parachute, perhaps.”

      Shay laughed and no, it wasn’t so bad. Downtown Fort Worth spread out beyond the lip of the roof, twinkling in the morning light, and a much-needed break was in her future. She’d try to forget about the looming second helicopter ride, sure to come right after lunch.

      Juliana took her time exploring the shops in Sundance Square and tried to enjoy a couple of hours without responsibilities, but Mikey wasn’t far from her thoughts. She sent a cowboy hat to her dad and a pair of lovely turquoise earrings to her assistant. Her mom hated everything so Juliana had given up buying her gifts a long time ago.

      A push-button toy decorated with music notes caught her eye. She pressed one of the squares and smiled as Mozart floated from the hidden speaker. Mozart had been her favorite to play and she suddenly missed feeling the music flow through her. Shay’s casual mention of the violin the other night had shaken loose forgotten memories and since then, with greater and greater frequency, she recalled how much she’d loved to play.

      She purchased the toy. Her throat tightened with a twinge of sadness because it would probably be the only gift she’d ever give Mikey. If she did her job, Mikey would have an amazing parent in Shay. She had no business dissolving into melancholy over the end of her consulting job.

      Near noon, she walked the four or five blocks to the steak house Shay had suggested for lunch. Before the words “reservation for Michael Shaylen” completely left her mouth, the maître d’ whisked her to a cozy corner table with multiple apologies for the apparent crime of being forced to seat her alone. Poor man. She’d adjusted to Shay-Standard-Time long ago.

      He blew in fifteen minutes later and she experienced yet another difficult-to-reconcile change. Oh, he was still Shay in his T-shirt sporting a graphic of the Milky Way galaxy and an arrow pointing to the center, with the words You Are Here printed above it.

      But he was also Michael Shaylen, the billionaire entrepreneur.

      Every waiter in the place snapped to attention. Other diners whispered behind their hands or stared at him as he sauntered across the room. He’d always turned heads but this was different, as if the balance of his bank account also bestowed a particular mystique.

      To her, he was Shay and always would be. At least his fortune would ensure Mikey would never have to make new friends in a town where his parents’ creditors hadn’t located them yet. Mikey would have the stability so critical for his well-being, and by the time Juliana finished with Shay’s lessons, Mikey would have a good father, too.

      Shay followed the maître d’, oblivious to everything in the room except Juliana.

      The flush hit higher in her chest this time. He could be doing a lot of other things with his day but he wasn’t. His intense gaze could be fixated on a million issues surely competing for his attention. But it wasn’t.