Claiming Emma (5 page)

Looking down at the small bundle in his arms Noah had to wonder how he’d got himself into this situation.  It had started out well enough, Emma had not just made bacon and eggs but she had also rolled out the fixings for biscuits, and peeled and cut up potatoes to fry.  With all of that going on like a well-oiled machine before his eyes, Noah sat at the kitchen island where she had directed him to sit back and relax.

After watching Emma move around her white farmhouse kitchen for a while he felt himself doing exactly that.  Relaxing.  Something that did not come easy for him and rarely happened.  Then it all went out the window when they heard a baby cry over the monitor.

Lucy had woken up and made her presence known.  Emma looked at the baby monitor and then at him.  Noah looked from her face to the crying monitor and back again.

"I'm not sure what you expect me to do here," he said, hopefully without a hint of the panic creeping up his spine at the thought of doing
whatever
with a tiny baby.

Emma laughed, and then took pity on him by washing off her hands and going after the baby herself.  "Watch the bacon," she said the laughter still in her voice, a smile on her face.

That he could do.

But when she returned to the kitchen she pushed him away from the stove with one hand while the other cradled an impossibly small baby.  She shoved him into his seat, and since he couldn't exactly fight her when she had a baby he allowed it.  Then she shoved the baby in his arms, and he had to fight the knee jerk reaction to toss her back.   Something of his panic must have telegraphed itself because Emma laughed again.

"Just hold her while I make up the bottle."

That he could probably do, especially since the baby was no longer crying but staring up at him with navy blue eyes impossibly wide for her little face.  Noah stilled completely lest he drop the tiny thing.  Hannah had brown eyes, like his, somehow he had expected the same with her child.  But the big wide eyes were definitely blue.

Emma came back finally, and he was ready to wilt with fucking relief, when all she did was adjust the baby closer to his chest in the crook of one arm and plop a bottle into the small cupid bow mouth.  The baby immediately lost interest in his face and commenced to sucking on the bottle like she hadn't eaten in a week.  Emma pulled his free hand to the bottle and he automatically clutched it.  Then she went back to her cooking.

What the fuck?

"I don't know shit about babies," he said harshly in case she had somehow missed it.

"I gathered that," was her humor filled reply.  She found him funny.  Which he could live with if she came and took the baby off his hands while she laughed her ass off at his panic. That she did not do.  Oh, she was laughing, but she left the baby where it was.  "Don't worry she does most of the work, and if you're going to be around helping me with Lucy you might as well get started."

"Helping you with Lucy?"

Emma gave him a pointed look.  "Isn't that what you said you wanted to do?"

He had actually been thinking more along the lines of financial help.  He knew fuck all about taking care of a baby.

The contrary female didn't wait for his answer.  "I know it seems daunting now, but the more time you spend with a baby the less it scares you.  Trust me, it took me a bit of time to get over being scared to touch her, but now it feels like I've been handling babies all my life."

She looked like she was born to have a baby in her arms.  He looked like he should be staging a coup in war torn countries. He looked down at the small female in the crook of his arms, sucking away at the bottle he held gingerly to her mouth.  Whatever Emma said, there was no way he would get used to this.

When the baby finished sucking down the formula, the evil female showed him the proper way to burp her.  He caught hold of himself before he let the grimace show when Lucy spit up on the towel Emma had thrown across his shoulders.  Something must have shown on his face because she laughed at him again before she wiped the baby's face and exchanged the towel for a blanket that she swaddled the baby with before she instructed him to support Lucy's head and to walk around with "a bounce."

She went back to cooking breakfast.

He attempted to walk with a bounce, feeling ridiculous the whole time and glaring at the woman bustling around the kitchen and smiling, barely making an effort to hide that it was at his expense.  Then Lucy made a gurgling sound that had his panicked eyes going to the baby on his shoulder.  She was looking at him, trying to hold her head up while she did it, he assisted her with his hand behind her neck, and had to stop and stare at the size of his hand compared to the baby's tiny head. She was such a fragile little thing, so easily broken, he felt his breath hitching at the thought.

Then she smiled up at him, baby drool soaking into his shoulder that he did his best to ignore.  She made the gurgling sound again and he realized it sounded almost like a laugh.

"Should she be making that noise?"

Emma snorted drawing his eyes to her soft expression. "She's happy.  I would say that means you got the hang of it."

This time it was Noah's turn to snort in doubt.  "Bullshit," he muttered.  Giving Emma a good glare but keeping up the bounce walk since Lucy did seem to like it.  Then he asked the question praying on his mind.  "Should she be this tiny?"

"She was born a little over four pounds and early.  She's now almost ten pounds and healthy.  Trust me, if you had seen her when she was born you wouldn't think this was small."

It boggled the mind.  He had a hard time imagining Lucy smaller than she was right now, let alone more than half the size.  He bounced a little softer when he saw her head was bobbing against his hand as he reacted to the frightening thought of a smaller child.  This one was bad enough. "But she's alright now?"

"Her immune system is compromised like I told you, so we have to watch out and keep her away from anyone sick, but other than that all systems are normal.  Doc gave her the clean bill of health.  When her momma finally comes home all will be right in Lucy's world."

Then she held up two plates and directed his eyes to the table laden with food.  "You ready to eat?"

"You ready to take this baby back?"

She laughed.  "Yes."

"Then fuck yes," Noah stated, already pulling the baby carefully off his shoulder to pass her back to Emma.

"Hey, Noah," Emma said after a wince.  "Probably a good idea to get out of the habit of cursing in front of the baby now, as opposed to later when she speaks her first words and it’s the f bomb."

Noah huffed.  "I see your point."

Finally, Emma took the baby, and Noah almost sagged his relief when she did it and the baby was none the worse for wear.  He shook his head but followed Emma and Lucy to the breakfast table.

"You do know handing a child off to a man like me, who has no clue what he is doing, could be viewed as neglect."

"Please," she answered with another laugh.  "You're a natural."

"Bullshit," he muttered again, moving to take a seat, knowing as he did so the woman wasn't taking him seriously when she joined him at the kitchen table laughing.

Noah didn't realize his face had lightened of his perpetual scowl and his eyes had lost the cold look he saw in the mirror every morning.

Emma noticed all of it.  And liked it. A lot.

***

Emma was in trouble.  She knew it.  She had known it as soon as Noah Hale stepped out of his big black truck and she got her first look at him.  Not just the him that was all that six feet plus warrior body, but the him that had eyes that pierced.  Something she had never seen before in a man’s eyes.  Not that she was looking, because let’s face it, she was usually oblivious to the interest coming her way until someone made it obvious, then she just felt uncomfortable and usually deflected.  She had a feeling that was not going to work in this case.  Not that she was all fired sure she would be able to do anything but say
yes please
when he finally made a move, but if she was smart she would definitely steer clear.  Like Nicki said, while she did not see death in his eyes when she looked at him, she saw trouble just the same; No ifs, ands, or buts there.

The smart thing to do would be to keep him at a distance.  The question was, did she want to be smart?

After packing Lucy's formula, bottles, diaper bag and miscellaneous other things, Emma and Noah headed over to the Retail area of Lavender Farms to drop the baby off with Paige and check out the sales floor before they opened.  Looking the place over as they walked through the black iron gate that circled both her farmhouse and personal space, and the retail gardens, Emma could not help being proud of the look of both her home and the farm.  Mainly because there were flowers and herbs everywhere, mostly lavender, but with some roses, lemon thyme, and jasmine almost as prominent.

This was because she loved lemon and lavender and her grandmother had loved jasmine and roses (and especially lavender).  Together and in abundance the scents and colors transported one from every day cares and straight into beauty.

Walking along the stone path and through the wrought iron gate beneath the trellises and arbors, it felt like you were entering some fairy wonderland, full of sweet scented flowers, a black iron gate and more iron in the elaborate benches here and there scattered among the flower paths.

Any moment she expected wood nymphs and garden sprites to flit out among the abundant blooms.   She loved it.  It was exactly what she wanted and never failed to make her smile, and it was worth every bit of the work she put into it.  That walk between her home and her business was her special place.

Walking it now with Noah Hale at her back carrying the diaper bag while she walked with Lucy in her arms felt strange, as if there was suddenly something dangerous prowling in her personal secret places.  Since many people had walked through her gardens and down her paths and she had never felt invaded, she had to figure it was the giant man who glided at her back despite his size.  He prowled with very little sound.  It was disconcerting how he could move with no wasted motions and very little noise. 

Shouldn't a man with feet that size clomp about in his army boots?

She shook off the need to check behind her to see he was still prowling along in her wake.  She could feel him there even when she couldn’t hear him, so she could stop turning to look.  Well, she could stop after the third time she checked and found the man staring at her ass. 
Eek.

Emma turned back to her path so fast it was a wonder she didn't give herself whiplash, and she just knew her cheeks were burning bright red.  Hard not to be self-conscious about the sway of her hips when she walked but she tried not to think about it.  Tried and failed.

What's worse, he gave a warm manly chuckle that was as unexpected as it was embarrassing.   She was tempted to turn back around to see what he looked like when he laughed, but as much as she wanted to know, she just as much did not want him to see the embarrassment flooding her cheeks.  She needed to get a grip and stop acting like a schoolgirl with a crush on the quarterback.  At 36 she had left her awkward youth behind her some time ago.  And let’s face it, by the time she was old enough to notice boys she had long since learned she had no interest in going down the same path her mother had trod so flagrantly, and steered clear.

Reminded of her mother, Emma lost a bit of her Noah glow and straightened her shoulders, patting Lucy on the back and moved faster down the path toward the old barn she had renovated into the garden center at Lavender Farms.  They passed over her personal paths and through another, sturdier black iron gate that was both more modern and taller.

Around the retail area the gates were black iron slats that came to five feet, as opposed to the antique black iron of her home that was three feet and more decorative.

On the business side of the gate there was a metal sign that read ‘no trespassing’ that the public would run into if they wandered this far.  She held the gate open for Noah and then closed it securely, making sure the latch caught.  Noah observed this quietly.

"Before I had the fence built," Emma said by way of explanation.  "I used to get people wandering right up to the house.  You would be amazed how brazen some people can be about it."  She started down the path still speaking, as he once again followed at her back.  "After we started to get a lot of word of mouth business and city folk started to stop by on their way through to Tahoe or Reno, or Sacramento, we would get offers to buy the iron fences or the benches, grandmothers swing, or some of the iron work that was obviously not part of the retail space."  She flashed him a smile.  "My grandfather worked in iron.  Most of what you saw around the house garden and all the decorative fencing was his work.  I would never sell it. It's as much a part of my home as my grandmother’s roses."

She motioned to the garden planted around them that was well established, but nowhere near the age and abundance of her grandmothers.  Here she had tried to recreate the cottage garden feel, while keeping it buyer friendly.  The same flowers planted at the foot of the arbors and along the paths were available in pots inside the building.  The names of the blooms displayed on miniature wooden posts so people would know what to ask for.  Iron work in varying shades of metal and aged patinas were here and there and displaying price tags.  Bird houses and wind chimes flitted through the trees adding color and sound to the beauty and sweet scents already there.