This Baby Business. Heatherly Bell

      A few hours and flights later, Levi headed home to Grace. This had already become his routine, and it had become comfortable. On some mornings, he smelled garlic wafting from the closest town, the garlic capital of the world. He drove down Monterey Road toward his residential development on the other end of Fortune. When he’d landed here weeks ago, he’d discovered a three-stoplight town. A bedroom community just south of San Jose. Even so, here in Fortune, Levi had immediately noticed a strong sense of community, reminiscent of a small town.

      It was no Lubbock, even though there were still a few small mushroom farms hanging on for dear life. This was the mushroom capital of the world, after all. The smell of fertilizer didn’t faze him at all. Instead, it was the high cost of living. The price of gasoline. The heart attack–inducing price tag on ownership of a single family home. He could go on, but why depress himself?

      He definitely felt squeezed like an orange, but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t familiar with sacrifice. One way or another, he’d find a way to make it work.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      A THOUSAND OR so years later, Carly had changed Grace’s diaper about five hundred times, give or take, and fed her all three bottles. Levi had better get his cute ass here on time, or someone was going to blow a gasket. At this point she really couldn’t say whether it would be her or Grace. Possibly both.

      Oh, yes, because Carly had cried at times right along with Grace. Turned out to be kind of cathartic. It had been a while since Carly had had a good cry. She’d always been guided and driven by her emotions, despite her attempts to think with her head and not her heart. She was a full-grown, twenty-six-year-old woman who’d always struggled in school, seen her career go up in flames, lost her mother from a sudden heart attack and had her father nearly confined to a wheelchair due to a hip injury. Carly considered herself a survivor. But today she’d been reduced to sobs because of a helpless baby.

      As it turned out, Grace did sleep. Occasionally, that was, and only when the spirit moved her. It seemed to move her every half hour for about forty-five minutes, give or take. Carly had tried to get work done during that time, but she was so tense and exhausted that all she could do was sit and stare at the blank screen. Where to begin? Practice safe sex. Don’t have a baby until you’re ready to be tortured by a fifteen-pound human with a set of lungs that should belong to a six-foot-three male. But probably her audience wouldn’t appreciate that. All of her readers were already stuck—correction, blessed—with babies.

      Regardless, Carly had made it through the day, and she couldn’t help believing she deserved an award for that. A badge or a trophy. Something. She’d certainly received an education. This baby business was so much harder than it appeared from a distance. Right now her living room looked as if someone had stood in the middle of the room and thrown everything she owned up in the air. She hadn’t had a shower yet. She’d barely eaten any breakfast, much less lunch. In fact, she hadn’t even managed to change out of the clothes she had on since this morning.

      “When your daddy gets here, if he so much as thinks about judging me...I’ll—I don’t know what, but it won’t be nice.”

      The good news was she’d narrowed down her favorite brand of diaper with Grace’s help. The bad news? She still had to write the blog post, because they didn’t write themselves. The fact that she’d struggled all her life with the written word, fighting and working around her dyslexia, meant that it would take her twice as long as it had ever taken her mom to write a simple blog post.

      Interesting. Carly had dared to set Grace down on the activity blanket that a brand-new baby start-up had sent her for a review. She hadn’t made a noise in about five seconds. Might be a record. She kept blinking as if she couldn’t quite trust her eyes. She seemed fascinated by the plastic mirrors sewn to the blanket, as if she’d just found a friend she wasn’t sure she liked or hated.

      “I guess that makes two of us.”

      Carly wasn’t sure that she liked Grace. She was way too loud, for one thing, and had the manners of a chimpanzee. Once today, she’d looked Carly straight in the eye and spit up all over her shirt. Carly thought for sure Grace had been aiming for her eye and missed. She’d been changed twice and now wore a red velvet dress that a new baby fashion company had sent Carly.

      But Carly had learned something significant today when she’d pulled out Mom’s baby bible during one of Grace’s power naps and tried to get through some of the entries in it. Crying wouldn’t hurt a baby. Grace would still be in one piece when her daddy came to pick her up.

      And because Carly wasn’t actually Grace’s mother, just the babysitter, in a few minutes, her clueless dad would pick her up. Carly would be able to give her back. She’d take a shower, clean up her house, write her blog post and go to bed, where she would sleep without interruptions. She had an end in sight.

      Maybe, just maybe, Grace could help her a little bit longer. Just until she got Mom’s company in the black. Because Grace could go a long way toward solving her authenticity issue. She could turn Carly into a serious baby expert.

      She wasn’t sure Levi would be interested in her proposition, but why couldn’t Carly just fill in until he found a new babysitter? She was right next door. Easy. And good grief, if Levi even went through half of what she’d been through today, he needed her help. She would suggest—no, demand—that he allow her, a bona fide baby expert (in training), to help him.

      Incredible. It had to have been four whole minutes and Grace was still on her belly, blinking into the mirrors. She gurgled, reached out with her chubby hand and tried to grab it.

      “You like that, don’t you? It’s something new. I think I’ll give it a five-star review, since it’s kept you quiet.”

      The doorbell rang.

      Levi. Right on time. Great. Carly shot up from her chair, but she didn’t know if she should take Grace with her to answer the door. What if something happened to her in the two seconds Carly would be out of the room? And what would Levi think? But if she picked Grace up now, she risked opening the door with her crying again. That also wouldn’t look too good.

      The doorbell rang again. Impatient man!

      Carly picked Grace up off the blanket again like a delicate china plate, taking the blanket along.

      “Please don’t cry, baby. I need to make a good impression. You don’t know this, but you and I could be partners. I know you don’t like me, but to be fair, the feeling is mutual. You threw up on me and I know you were aiming for my eye. Don’t even try to deny it.”

      So far not a peep from Grace, who had a piece of the blanket in her mouth and seemed to be gumming it. She was going to write a glowing review for this blanket and title it Lifesaver.

      Carly opened the door to Levi, as suspected, and watched as his gaze went immediately to Grace. The way those blue eyes lit up gave Carly a little smackdown right in the chest, but then he noticed the dress.

      “You changed her?”

      “Do you like it?” When he didn’t answer, she waved him inside. “It’s a new dress and my gift to you both. And also, she spit up on two other outfits.”

      “Uh, thanks. And sorry. Welcome to my world.”

      Grace’s little legs kicked and pumped double time with some serious action at seeing Levi, and Carly handed her over.

      “Hey, baby girl.” His love-struck smile was quite a sight.

      Carly cleared her throat and got ready to tell a big fat lie. “She was perfect today.”

      “Yeah?” Levi checked Grace out from head to toe as if to make sure she wasn’t missing any parts.

      Carly tried not to feel insulted. “Do you like the dress?”

      “Sure, it’s...nice.”

      “But?”