This Baby Business. Heatherly Bell

      Cute Carly drew in a sharp breath, and sympathy flashed in her eyes right on cue. “I’m so sorry.”

      “Thank you. It’s just the two of us.”

      She shifted from one leg to the other. “Well, okay. I can help you, since I’m a baby expert and all. Plus, I don’t want you to think that I’m not neighborly, because I am. But just today!”

      Levi let his shoulders unkink and carried Grace’s car seat inside. He set it down on the hardwood floor of the entryway and handed her the diaper bag he’d packed.

      “Thanks. I owe you one.”

      “Here.” She handed him a scrap of paper and a pen. “Write down your phone number so I can reach you.”

      He gave her his cell phone number and also the number for Mcallister Charters and Magnum Aviation. And the local hospital. And poison control. He had all of them memorized. He also got Carly’s phone number, then with one last kiss on Grace’s sweet forehead, he headed out the door.

      Levi climbed in his truck, where he studied his neighbor’s house for a moment. Like his rental, it was a small tract home. Unlike his house, she had rows of colorful flowers lining the front yard and several others in pots hanging from the eaves. Fit right in with this older residential neighborhood. He made a mental note that he should probably buy some of them flowers at some point if he was going to stay in the rental. Grace should grow up in a home that reflected some kind of femininity. Not that she wouldn’t play sports with the boys if that was what she wanted, and of course he prayed that she did, because he could help her with that.

      Should he go back and get his baby and rethink this whole thing? He tended to reconsider every one of his decisions thanks to Sandy’s parents. One false move on his part, one mistake, and he might give them ammunition. The last thing he wanted was a long, protracted legal battle he couldn’t afford.

      But the warmth in Carly’s eyes when she’d heard about Grace’s mother told him she was compassionate. Kind. Maybe he’d assumed too much and far too easily, but he had a good sense of people, and it hadn’t failed him yet. No. This was good.

      He started his truck and headed to the airport.

       CHAPTER TWO

      FROM A SHORT DISTANCE, Carly Gilmore had definitely noticed her new neighbor. Once when she’d had the day from hell. But up close and personal, the way he’d been on her doorstep this morning, he was a blend of tall and rugged, with a bad-boy charm that scrambled with her brain. He had deep and dark blue eyes that promised the fun kind of trouble, sun-kissed dark blond hair and a cleft in his chin that made him ridiculously gorgeous. She was grateful for a small scar through his left eyebrow that at least kept him from being prettier than her.

      She’d done a double take on the baby because, really? Some woman had tamed this dude and made him a father. Which proved, as one of her best friends, Zoey, believed, that miracles happened every day. They just didn’t happen for Carly.

      But what kind of a father left his precious baby with a complete stranger?

      Answer: one like her neighbor Levi Lambert, who had probably rarely heard the word no coming out of a woman’s mouth. He’d so easily trusted her on the whole baby-expert thing. An exaggeration on her part, of course, but she was trying. That counted for something. His timing couldn’t be better. She’d say that for him. Today, of all days, she could use his baby.

      “You’re a good sleeper.” Carly carried the car seat and diaper bag into the kitchen.

      The poor, motherless child.

      Normally, hearing of such a sad situation, Carly would shed tears on a dime. But these days, she was all cried out. She bent down to get a better look at Grace. This must be the baby she’d seen Annie pushing last week in the newest Koolbaby stroller on the market. But until now she’d never had a good look at the baby. Her lashes were long and beautifully dark, and she had her father’s dark blonde hair. Did she also have his beautiful dark blue eyes?

      “Your daddy is quite the looker,” Carly said quietly.

      He had one of those rare and one hundred percent real Southern drawls that turned most women into limp noodles. Good thing Carly would not be one of them. She found the formula bottles he’d packed in the diaper bag and put them in the fridge. He owned some of the nicer baby bottles made by Just Like Mommy, the ones with the nipple that was supposed to most correctly resemble a human one. She’d given it a high rating last month on the blog and pretty much guessed at the efficacy. Maybe she’d ask Levi later, if she could ever bring herself to ask a man like him whether his baby liked the nipple. She shook her head. Nope, not going to ask him. She’d see how Grace liked it when she gave her a bottle later.

      This TotLuv diaper bag was also a good choice, one she’d given a five-star rating to, leading her to wonder if someone had chosen these items based on her blog’s recommendations. It gave her a little dash of hope. Maybe, just maybe, her late mother’s dream wasn’t going to go down in flames with Carly at the helm.

      A year ago, after Pearl had passed away, it seemed she would take her company with her. She’d built RockYourBaby.com from the ground up, a labor of love based on raising three children. Pearl had been the true baby expert. Her mother was the one who belonged at the helm of RockYourBaby.com, and Carly was merely the impostor.

      Impostor or not, she now operated the company until they could sell it, because no one else wanted to run the company. Her father, who had retired from PG&E, had broken his hip and now lived in Maine with her oldest brother, Kirk, a civil engineer. The physical therapy bills were through the roof, Daddy wasn’t getting any better, and among the many reasons to sell the company, one was to help pay for his treatment. Her other brother, Allen, was a lawyer in Tempe, Arizona, and since Carly was the only one with double X chromosomes, her brothers left it to her to salvage the business and restore it to what it had been before their mother died so they could sell it for a tidy profit.

      Carly’s laptop rang. “Shh.”

      She picked Grace up by the car seat handle and carried the seat closer to her office—otherwise known as the kitchen table. She settled Grace on the floor near the entrance of the kitchen and flew to the laptop to stop the ringing before it woke her up.

      “Hello? Carly?” Jill, her other best friend, had taken to Skyping Carly from locations on the outskirts of town. The reception wasn’t always the best.

      Carly sat and turned to face the laptop camera. “I’m here.”

      “What’s with your hair today?” Jill looked sideways through the screen.

      Crap, was that what she looked like? And she’d answered the door to Mr. Hunk like this?

      “I’ve had a rough morning.” Carly smoothed her hair down into place and reached for her hair clip.

      She hadn’t even dressed. Last night she’d gone through the closet full of eBay fashion steals she’d accumulated over the years and set out her clothes for the next morning. She’d done that ritual every day for years. Her ribbed sweetheart-neck Urban Outfitters minidress paired with a cropped denim jacket and her Marc Jacobs Chelsea booties had been all ready for her this morning. But she’d taken one look at the supercute outfit and didn’t have the energy. What for, when she would be sitting in front of a laptop most of the day?

      Jill’s face moved away from the screen and scanned her outdoor surroundings. “This could be the perfect location. It’s even got a little boat dock by the lake. Sure, it needs a little work, but the owner is motivated.”

      A little work? Carly squinted. The boat dock seemed to be a wooden plank.

      “Maybe you should keep looking.”

      “I’m meeting with the owner later today. It couldn’t hurt. I hear they’re desperate.”

      Sounded familiar.