Rock-A-Bye Rescue. Karen Whiddon

blood.

      She had to get rid of him. A bad boy, and former crush, was not the kind of man she needed to get involved with, even peripherally. She would loan him the saw—heck, give him the saw—if it meant getting him out of her house and out of her life. She rubbed Eve’s back, and the girl’s shrieks calmed to whimpers. Holding the baby on her shoulder, she headed out to deal with Dean.

      “Are you remodeling?” he asked as soon as she reappeared in the hallway.

      “No. The cabin still belongs to my parents. I haven’t changed anything.” She tipped her head to the side. “Why?”

      “I smell paint.”

      She flashed a quick half grin. “That’s from my canvas. The landscape I’m doing.”

      Lila carried Eve into the living room and directed his attention to the back window, where her easel was set up. She was so used to the scent of paint, she didn’t notice it anymore.

      Dean stepped into the living room from her kitchen and peered at her work space, a corner of the living room by the window that provided the best natural light. His gaze narrowed on her work in progress, and after studying it a moment, his brow lifted. “You did this?”

      She pulled a face. “No. Eve did.”

      He shot her a withering glance and added, “I just mean...this is good.”

      She chuckled wryly. “You sound surprised.”

      Dean lifted a shoulder as he faced her painting again. “I am. I didn’t know you were an artist.”

      With a grunt, she carried Eve into the kitchen and started opening cabinet drawers. His heavy footsteps on her hardwood floor told her he’d followed, confirming her inner prickle of awareness. She shot a look over her shoulder. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me. Eleven years’ worth.”

      “Likewise.”

      She inclined her head in a silent touché.

      Patting Eve’s back, she continued searching the kitchen. Where was that damn key? “Look, you can borrow the saw or...whatever you need. Just...” Go.

      When she cut a quick glance toward him, his expression said the unspoken dismissal was understood well enough. Guilt pinched her. She was being terribly unneighborly, as he’d accused, and he had said he’d served in the military. For his service to the country alone, he deserved the benefit of the doubt. A chance to prove he’d changed. He’d—

      “Ow!” she yelped in surprise when she felt a dull pain at her shoulder. She glanced down at Eve and laughed. “Did you just bite me?”

      “That’s how I saw it,” Dean volunteered as he strode closer. “How old is she? Six, seven months?”

      Lila rubbed the damp sore spot near her neck and eyed Dean as he approached. “Yes. Almost six months.”

      “I’m guessing her mood and her biting means she’s cutting a tooth or two?” He moved all the way up to her, and for the first time, she smelled the clean aroma of soap and a hint of wood smoke on him. Such ordinary scents, and yet he made them...sexy.

      Lila swallowed hard and mentally shoved aside her hyperawareness of him. Forget the inky beard shading the sharp angles of his face and his bister-colored eyes. She’d only noticed these details about him because she was an artist, not because his face had a manly beauty that enthralled her and begged to be captured in paint.

      She shrank back a step when he raised a hand toward her.

      Undeterred, Dean closed the distance and reached for Eve. With a gentleness she wouldn’t have imagined his large calloused hand could have, he cradled Eve’s chin in his hand and poked his thumb in the girl’s mouth to feel her gums. His expression softened as he looked into Eve’s eyes. “Your mouth hurts, doesn’t it? I feel that tooth coming in,” he said to the infant in an adult tone.

      Eve chomped down on his finger in response, earning a lopsided grin from the man who’d been as gruff as a bear with a sore paw to Lila earlier. Maybe because you pointed a gun at him and were snarly yourself?

      His dark brown eyes shifted to hers, and Lila experienced another prickling in her veins like an electric current.

      “Get this kid a cold rag to gnaw on or something.”

      Lila shook herself from her daze and glanced around for the diaper bag of supplies Miriam had left. “She probably has a teething toy.”

      “You don’t know?”

      “She’s only been here a couple of hours. I’m fostering her over the weekend until her extended biological family is contacted.” She craned her neck to look past Dean. “Do you see her bag on the stool over there?”

      Eve tuned up again when Dean moved away. Clearly the little girl was as intrigued by him as the big girl was. Lila kissed Eve’s head and swayed in a way intended to soothe the baby. “It’s okay, sweetie. We’ll get something for those sore gums.” Then to Dean, who had located the diaper bag, she said, “I’ll take it.” She held out her hand, while propping the baby on her hip.

      He only cast her a dismissive look as he pawed through the bag and dug out a well-chewed toy.

      “Is there any teething gel in there? If not, I think I have some in the nursery.” While Dean searched the bag again, she asked, “How do you know about teething babies?”

      “Men can’t know about babies?” His eyes narrowed. “Or just men who should have been in prison the last eleven years?”

      Her mouth tightened. “Look, I made a presumption based on the last information I knew about you. I’m sorry. I was wrong to assume the worst.”

      Pulling out a tube of ointment, he uncapped it and passed it to her. “I spent a lot of time in Iraq with a family that had a baby. You pick things up.”

      She took the teething gel, but had her hands full with the baby. Mothers must have to practice juggling to manage a baby while doing all the tasks involved in child care.

      Dean noticed her conundrum and stepped forward, taking back the gel and squeezing a dab on his finger.

      “I—” she began, then said, “Thank you.”

      As he rubbed the medicine on the baby’s gums, Eve focused her baby blues on the man with the unshaven jaw and intense brown eyes, and her fretful expression lightened. The baby made a gurgling sound that Lila would have sworn was a flirtatious coo. And why wouldn’t Eve be dazzled by Dean’s handsome face and tender touch? Lila had been intrigued by him since she was fourteen and first received one of his rakish grins.

      He gave the baby’s cheek a quick stroke with a crooked finger and recapped the teething gel. After tossing the tube on the counter, he wiped his fingers on a kitchen towel. “Now...the key to the shed? This storm isn’t easing up, and I’d like to get back to my cabin before the path gets too icy.”

      She swallowed her retort about his impatience and ingratitude and took Eve into the living room, where her baby seat was. She settled Eve in the infant carrier and almost had her settled with a teething toy when her phone rang.

      The harsh ring of the landline her parents had put in the cabin thirty years earlier startled Eve, and she gave a piercing shriek of displeasure.

      Lila gritted her teeth, wanting to howl her own frustration as she strode over to the kitchen counter to answer the call. She held a finger up to Dean, asking for one more minute. “Hello?”

      “Lila, it’s Miriam Webber.” Even over Eve’s plaintive whining, Lila could hear the tension in Miriam’s voice.

      “Yes, hi. Did I forget something?”

      “Oh, no. It’s...is Eve all right?”

      Lila grimaced. Having her charge crying in the background didn’t make a good impression on the foster program caseworker. “She’s fine.