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.”“I’m not sure I thought it would be a piece of cake,” he denied.“But I certainly didn’t expect it to be this hard.”“She’s teething,” she reminded him.“She’s crankier than a constipated general,” he grumbled.Paige broke a Popsicle in two, gave one half to Emma and put the other half back in the freezer for later.Emma immediately began gnawing on the icy treat.“How is it that you instinctively know what she wants?”“It’s not instinctive,” she denied.“Or not entirely.Mostly it’s practice.Five-and-a-half-months ago I was as ill-equipped as you are now.”“I find that hard to believe.”She lifted a brow.“Because I’m female, you assume I was more automatically prepared to deal with a child?”“No, because you’re obviously so good with her.”She was somewhat mollified by his response.“As I said, it’s practice.I’ve been around her since Emma was born, so I learned to read her signals.You’ll figure it out, too, if you stick around long enough.”He leaned back against the counter, folded his arms over his chest.“You do that a lot, you know.”“Do what?”“Take those not-so-subtle digs at me.”“I’m not trying to be subtle,” she told him.“I want to make sure that you realize what kind of commitment parenthood requires.”“I’m getting a pretty good picture,” he assured her.“And how do you think child care is going to fit in with your career?”He ignored her question to ask his own.“What branch of the military was your father in?”“Army,” she answered automatically, then glared at him as if it was his fault she’d revealed information she obviously hadn’t intended to share.“But we’re not talking about me, we’re talking about Emma.”“Except if your concerns about her future stem from your personal history,” he guessed.“They don’t,” she said, but he knew it was a lie.When Zach suggested that he wanted to try to put Emma down for another nap, Paige willingly went back outside to her book and the sunshine.She’d only read a few pages when she realized she’d forgotten her drink, so she set the paperback on the table and traipsed back into the house again.She didn’t return to the house intending to spy on him.But when she went into the kitchen to retrieve her glass, she heard his deep voice through the baby monitor on the counter.“Do you think I can’t handle a challenge?” he was saying, apparently to Emma, who, of course, didn’t respond.“Do you think I can’t manage to change one poopy diaper just because you’re pumping your legs and flailing your fists?“I know Paige thinks I can’t handle it.In fact, she’s probably counting on me giving up on the whole fatherhood thing.But I’ve got news for both of you,” he continued, still speaking in the same even tone.“I am a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and there’s no way I’m going to let a fourteen-month-old baby see me crumble, no matter—“OhmyLord, child, what did you eat that turned into that?”Paige smiled, picturing the look of complete horror on his face that she heard in his voice.For a few minutes, she heard only background noises.The whisper of wipes being tugged out of their container, some muted gagging, the click of the latch on the diaper disposal, the crinkle of a new diaper being unfolded, a quiet gurgle of appreciation, the snap of buttons being refastened.Then Zach spoke again.“We’ve already made progress, haven’t we?” he was murmuring softly to her now.“Only a few days ago, you would have rather screamed than smiled at me, and although we might have had a little setback at the park, now you’re snuggled in my arms and your eyes are drifting shut.”He was right, Paige realized.He had made a lot of progress with Emma in a short time, so much so that the little girl looked around for him when she heard his voice and smiled when he came into the room.And she wondered, not for the first time, if she’d made a mistake in inviting Zach to stay with them.Because Paige was beginning to realize that not only had he made progress with the little girl he was currently rocking to sleep, he was making progress with her, too.She was actually starting to like him, and that wasn’t just foolish, it was potentially dangerous.“I said ‘your eyes are drifting shut,’” Zach repeated, and Paige smiled, easily picturing Emma’s big blue eyes stubbornly wide open, staring up at him as he tried to coax her to sleep.She wondered what his air force buddies would think if they could see him now, attempting baby hypnosis.But the silence from the baby monitor told her that he’d not only attempted but succeeded, forcing her to accept that there probably wasn’t anything the man couldn’t do.Considering that he might seek custody of the little girl, the realization was hardly reassuring.With a sigh, she picked up her glass and went back outside.Four chapters later, Paige realized that Zach hadn’t made an appearance since he’d gone upstairs to put Emma down for her nap.Curious, she went back into the house and made her way up the stairs.She found him when she peeked into Emma’s room.The baby was finally asleep in his arms and Zach looked as if he was sleeping, too.She hesitated in the doorway, tempted to leave them undisturbed.But she knew that Emma would sleep better and longer if she was settled in her crib, and Zach would likely end up with a stiff neck if she left him as he was with his head tilted back in the chair.She slid one hand beneath Emma’s head and the other under her legs, but as she started to lift the sleeping child, Zach’s grip instinctively tightened.Paige had no intention of playing tug-of-war with the baby, but now her hands were trapped.She could feel the heat emanating from his body, and her own started to tingle.She swallowed and tried to ease away, but his hold on the baby held her just as fast.She drew in a breath and inhaled his warm masculine scent.Oh, he smelled good.And looked even better.His T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders and molded to his pecs, and his jeans hugged his long, lean legs.Had he shown up at her door dressed as casually as he was now, she likely would have melted in a puddle at his feet [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]