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“So you just choose not to use your tact with me?”
Will didn’t hear the rest of that exchange because he took off for Beau’s room. She didn’t sound very happy.
When he walked into her room she gave him a watery smile of greeting. Did babies have nightmares? Not for the first time he wondered if she remembered her mother—dreamed about her scent or her voice. From what he’d read, her loss would probably affect Beau for the rest of her life. It didn’t seem fair. To either of them. No matter how hard he tried to be a good father, it would never fix what happened.
“There’s my girl,” he said, picking her up and carrying her to the changing pad. His girl. She wasn’t, technically. But after cleaning up poop and puke, and earning the easy smile she had for him every time he walked into a room, he damn well felt like she was his. It wasn’t like she had anyone else in the world.
After he’d changed her, he brought her down to the kitchen and was pleased to see that their guests had decided to stop being shitheads and enjoy the evening.
He put Beau in her bouncer and went back to helping put the finishing touches on dinner.
Beau immediately started fussing.
“Grant, Dexter? Could one or both of you keep her entertained for the next five minutes while we finish up?”
Dex got up, but Grant heaved a sigh. “Don’t you have Tabitha for this?”
“I gave her the evening off.”
“That’s a shame—both because I don’t want to take care of your baby and because your nanny is easy on the eyes.”
Will glared at him. “Don’t flirt with Beau’s nanny. Good nannies are hard to find.”
“Well, she’s not here, so I guess she’s safe from my hypothetical flirting.” Grant shrugged. “Besides, I never did figure out how to flirt telepathically over long distances.”
“You could just give her your irritated Master glare and she’d swoon at your feet,” Dex muttered wryly.
He glared at Dex. “You have no idea what my irritated Master glare even looks like.”
“Is it the same as your constipated face? I’m getting pretty familiar with that one. It’s the one that happens every time someone mentions the Norwegians, actually.”
Grant ignored her and stalked over to the pile of toys in the basket on the pantry. Juliet had organized a similar basket in every room so they wouldn’t have to run all over the house trying to find something to amuse the baby with. Unfortunately, it didn’t always work. Beau had her favorites, and those couldn’t all be in the same room at the same time, and her favorites kept changing.
Despite their awkward yet valiant attempts to play with her and console her, Beau was not a happy camper. Will was in the middle of mashing potatoes when she started her full-on squall. He and Juliet glanced at each other.
“Keep going. I’ve got her.” Juliet insinuated herself into his brother’s attempt to appease Beau. Dexter had grimaced and retreated and was smiling at Juliet apologetically.
“I’m sorry,” Dex said. “I’m okay with kids up until the crying or pooping starts. I never even thought it would be an issue until now.”
Juliet unbuckled the sitter and picked up Beau. The baby stopped her squawking and snuffled a little before tangling a chubby fist in Juliet’s golden mane.
“Hooo, she’s good!” Grant said, grinning at Will as though this boded well for their relationship. He hadn’t exactly explained to his brother that he already knew things would never work out long-term precisely for that reason.
“I’m the oldest of nine,” Juliet explained. “I didn’t exactly have a choice about being good with babies.” She laughed and kissed Beau on the head. “She’s way smarter than any of my younger siblings were. I can already tell. She’s going to be brilliant, like my nephews.”
“Because she likes you?” Grant asked.
“Smart man!” Juliet grinned, and Will could see the wheels turning in his brother’s mind. He was ready to slot her into the vacant mom position in the house, but that really wasn’t fair for anyone to do to her. Especially not after she’d already given up so much of her life raising other people’s kids. It would suck for her to have to do that all over again.
Unfortunately, a growing part of him wished that maybe—just maybe—she’d have as much trouble walking away from things as he was going to have. Maybe that she’d fall in love with Beau like he had, and realize she wanted to be a part of all this long-term.
Chapter Twenty
The smoothness of the polished concrete bar was almost orgasmic under Juliet’s fingertips. Inlaid with swirls and colored stones, it was slightly darker than the matching floor. Both would be convenient to clean, yet durable, and went surprisingly well with the cyberpunk decor that she hadn’t been able to talk Wi
ll out of. She hadn’t liked his ideas at first, but seeing it all together with the right lighting and the horde of patrons worked a magic she hadn’t been able to envision when they’d first met.
The compromise they’d come to on the overall design was something that Stride could be proud of, even though they weren’t at liberty to use pictures on their website because of the nondisclosure agreement they’d signed. The extra money had been more than worth it. Will had been generous in the first place, so even though her brothers disapproved of the fact that she’d been seeing one of their clients, at least he was a good client.
