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“Oh, hell no. Fine. We’ll take it all.” He started to walk away, but Sadie stopped him.
“She needs clothes, too, Ethan.”
He goggled at her. “This is incredible. How do people do this?”
“Well, most people don’t have to do an entire stock-up run all in one day...”
“Right.” He looked over the aisles they had just been picking clean and said, “You know, the chocolate business makes billions, but turns out, that’s just peanuts. The real money is in baby junk. How can someone who can’t even talk possibly need so much stuff?”
She almost felt sorry for him. Almost. This was a huge disruption in the placid lake that was his life. But hey, sink or swim. “It’s a mystery. Come on. Baby clothes.”
He followed after her, grumbling under his breath, and Sadie looked into Emma’s eyes and grinned. In the five years she’d worked for the man, Sadie had never seen Ethan completely out of his element. And it was sort of endearing. She didn’t need another reason to be drawn to him, though, so she really tried to dismiss what she was feeling.
Then he did it to her again when he picked up baby pajamas and discarded the penguins in favor of the ones covered in teddy bears. When he caught her looking at him quizzically, he shrugged and tossed the jammies into the cart. Then, pointing at the baby now chewing fiercely on the stuffed bear’s ear, he said simply, “She likes bears.”
Sadie took a deep breath to still the jolt of her heartbeat. He didn’t want the baby, but he was doing everything he could to make sure she was cared for. He didn’t like change, but he was so far accepting a huge one in his life. He didn’t belong in Target, but here he stood. And God knew he shouldn’t look so damn sexy, but there it was. Even as she thought it, she spotted a woman staring at Ethan with open admiration.
Sadie told herself to get past it. Get over it. She was going to leave Ethan behind so she could find the right man for her. No matter how she felt about Ethan, no matter how her blood burned when she looked at him, going after him was a catastrophe waiting to happen.
He wasn’t the man for her and trying to pretend otherwise was just setting herself up for a crash. So she busied herself by concentrating on the shopping and promising herself that one day, she’d be doing this for her own family.
The sad part of that dream was Ethan wouldn’t be a part of it.
Three
By the time they were finished and checked out, Sadie was stunned by just how much Ethan had bought—and that wasn’t even counting the baby furniture ordered and hopefully already delivered to his house. Sadie took Emma in her car while Ethan loaded all the bags and boxes into his. They’d taken both cars so Sadie could leave once he was settled in with his new charge.
With Emma in her car seat, Sadie headed for Dana Point, barely keeping up with Ethan as he hurtled down Pacific Coast Highway. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought he was trying to lose her. But that couldn’t be true, because she already knew where he lived.
Sadie had been to Ethan’s house before, bringing him papers or running one of the parties he threw for distributors, but today felt different. They weren’t there for business and it sort of colored how she looked at the house itself.
It was Spanish-style and gigantic, even by mansion standards. The red tiled roof made the white walls seem even brighter than they normally would have. The grounds, from the sweeping lawns to the flower beds and climbing roses over the pergola in the backyard, were lovingly tended by a team of gardeners and the floor-to-ceiling windows glinted in the winter sunlight. Behind the house, she knew, was a sloping yard that ran down to the cliffs where waves beat a constant rhythm against the rocks.
The view was majestic and the house itself was breathtaking. Every room was huge, open and appealing in an earthy, masculine way. Brown leather furniture and burnished wood decorated every room and the dark red ceramic tiles in the halls were a dramatic statement. Sadie’s favorite spot was the Spanish-style, enclosed courtyard. Three sides of the house surrounded an outdoor living area, complete with comfortable furniture, a bar and kitchen. Terra-cotta pots held a wide variety of plants and the area provided a wonderful view of the ocean.
