Baby for Keeps. Janice Maynard

away in the woods. Despite her silly fantasy of seducing him, she knew in her heart that the best course of action would be to keep her distance for however long she chose to stay in Silver Glen.

      It was easy to imagine using him for a sexual fling, but she wasn’t really that kind of woman. No matter how much she told herself she had come out of her shell, she wasn’t in the category of females who took relationships in stride...who used sex as a game.

      Case in point, her love life was so sterile, she’d chosen to conceive a baby with the help of an anonymous donor. That said louder than words she wasn’t good at connecting with the opposite sex.

      Sitting down and propping her feet on an ottoman, she settled Cora at her breast and gazed out over Dylan’s backyard. It was a veritable Garden of Eden, filled with trees perfect for climbing. Why had he built such a house for himself? Did he plan to get married one day? Or had his aborted engagement soured him on the idea of wedded bliss?

      It didn’t really matter. The only thing Mia needed to know was that he was willing to play host to her and her baby until his building was repaired. At the rate of most home improvement projects, that could be well after Mia was gone.

      Cora ate hungrily, her quiet slurping sounds making Mia smile. Even in the darkest moments when she had lost her job and her roommate had moved out and Cora had been wide-awake at three o’clock in the morning, Mia had not regretted getting pregnant, not at all. Being a mom was hard. But she had done a lot of difficult things in her life. Starting school at age four. Skipping two grades. Entering college at sixteen. Tutoring a moody boy with enough anger and testosterone to make a girl feel faint.

      He had tried so hard to pretend that he didn’t care. But Mia had known. Dylan hated feeling stupid. He resented needing her help as much as he’d been relieved to have it.

      Maybe this arrangement would give him some kind of closure. Seeing Mia’s predicament should reassure him that intelligence was no buffer against the difficulties of life. No matter his challenges as a youth, he had far surpassed what many people had thought him capable of accomplishing. Even without the backing of his wealthy family, Mia was convinced that Dylan would have been just as successful. It might have taken him longer, but he would have gotten there eventually.

      He had drive and determination and the kind of creativity that saw ideas and possibilities. Mia envied his fearlessness. It had taken her years to escape the prison of feeling socially inept and painfully shy.

      Cora pulled away and looked up at her with bright eyes. Carefully balancing the baby on her knees, Mia buttoned her shirt and wondered whether to stay put or to seek out her host. “We’re in uncharted waters, my little beauty.”

      Cora gurgled what might have been agreement. Mia put the baby on her shoulder and patted her back until a definite burp emanated from the tiny body. “Let’s go find Dylan.”

      Five

      Dylan gave the bed a shake to make sure it was steady. No squeaks. No wobbles. He plopped the mattress into place and stepped back to admire his handiwork. Printed instructions were often useless to him. Fortunately, he had a knack for three-dimensional reasoning that allowed him to construct almost anything that required wood and screws and nails.

      “Wow, that was fast.”

      He turned and saw Mia and Cora staring at him with identical wide-eyed expressions. “It’s not too complicated. But I didn’t know where you’d packed the crib sheet. I put your three suitcases in the next room. I’m assuming the boxes can wait until morning?” He glanced at his watch. “I hate to be a poor host, but the fire marshal called to say I can come downtown now and go inside to assess the damage. And I promised some friends of mine we’d play pool at a buddy’s house tonight. I can cancel, though....”

      Mia straightened her spine, her arms wrapped protectively around Cora. “We don’t need you to look after us. We’ll be fine. Go. Do whatever you have to do.”

      As he drove away from the house a few minutes later, he told himself that the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach wasn’t disappointment. Of course Mia didn’t need him. This whole setup was for his benefit...so he could assuage some lingering guilt from high school. He was giving her a place to stay, sure. But she would more than earn her keep when she combed through the mess that was his bookkeeping system.

      Dylan had tried to make sense of the various computer files. But in the end, he’d been nothing but frustrated. He suspected that he’d done more harm than good when he’d tried to enter recent debits and credits. Though he had learned to read for pleasure, it was a slow process. Numbers were a nightmare.

      When he pulled up in front of the bar, the fire marshal waved him forward. “The upstairs is not safe to access, but you’re welcome to take anything you need from the main level.”

      Dylan wrinkled his nose at the acrid odor of burnt wood. “My insurance company is in Asheville. They’re sending someone out tomorrow.”

      “The numbers will add up. You’d be amazed at how much it costs to recover from water damage alone, much less the smoke.”

      “Yeah. But I’m more worried about the time. I’d like to reopen in a month. You think that’s possible?”