The Baby Invasion (Destiny Bay-Baby Dreams) (5 page)

“Protection?” Her eyes widened.
 

“Sure,” he murmured. His arm left the back of the couch and his hand dropped to her shoulder. “I could stay here to make sure nothing happened to you.
 
Or the kids.”
 

She blinked, as though she’d just noticed how really close he was. But she didn’t move away. Instead, her gaze dropped to his mouth.
 

This was it.
 
He could feel it. She was just too delightful to resist.
 

This was going to be the kiss that stopped history in its tracks. She looked so good. He felt so tender. The moment was right, and he was going to put their relationship on a whole new footing. He moved in for the kill, sliding toward her across the couch, leaning forward, reaching with his hands, taking the plunge ...
 

And doing a spectacular face plant right in front of her.
 
It wasn’t until his head hit the pillow that he really believed she’d escaped. Somehow she’d managed to wriggle away before he’d trapped her, leaving him grasping at empty air.
 

She was quick, he’d give her that. He straightened slowly, gazing reproachfully at where she stood above him, tapping her foot.
 

“Thank you for dropping by, Mr. Carrington,” she said, turning to stride for the door. “It’s getting late.”
 

“Is it?”
 

She flung open the door and stood back, hands on her hips, waiting for him to leave.
 

Scott came toward her slowly, not sure how they’d swung so quickly from possibilities to flat denial.
 

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he began.
 

“Scare me!” Her eyes blazed. This man had another think coming if he thought she scared so easily.
 

“No, Mr. Carrington. You didn’t scare me. What you did was tempt me. Like that serpent in the Garden of Eden holding out the apple. And what I’m doing is turning it down.” She gestured for him to leave. “So nice to have met you. Thank you for the apricots.”
 

“Cathy...”
 

She smiled as she waved him out the door and closed it behind him. But the smile faded as soon as he was out of sight, and she sank against the cold, hard wood, staring into space.
 

How was it possible that a strange man could affect her like this? He was right. He had scared her a bit. It was irritating to think she had come close to losing perspective so easily. She would have to be more careful in the future.
 

Carelessness was what had always gotten her into trouble. She’d married Joey on the spur of the moment, swept off her feet by the handsome baseball player just on the verge of signing a major league contract. She’d had Beth and Barnaby, right away, so sure that Joey would love them the way she did, that it would cement their marriage with love and happiness.
 

Instead, it had torn them apart, especially when Beanie had come along, a surprise to them both. The children she’d thought of as symbols of their love had been burdens to Joey. As far as he was concerned, they just got in the way.
 

If she’d been more careful, she would have realized the truth. She’d learned her lesson. She was careful now. Every move was thought out. She would never take for granted again that someone she loved would look at the world the way she did.
 

She would never take love for granted, either. Love was supreme carelessness. It was just too dangerous to risk.
 

The annoying buzz of the telephone split the air. She opened her eyes and stared at it, dreading it, letting it ring. But then she began to make her way slowly toward it. After all, April could be at the other end of the line. She couldn’t take the risk of missing her.

CHAPTER THREE:

Super Beanie

Cathy took the receiver in her hand and hesitated before putting it to her ear. “Hello?’
 

A rasping sigh of exasperation was her answer. “It’s you again, isn’t it? Listen, lady, I’m sick of this stupid runaround game you want to play. Where’s April?”
 

He’d sounded from the first like some gangland hood.
 

Cathy had had about enough; she’d told him over and over that April was missing. What good did it do to just say the same things over and over if he never believed her?
 

Okay.
 
This time it would be different.
 
She put on a phony telephone operator voice and said shrilly. “To whom did you wish to speak, sir?”
 

“You know damn well who I want to talk to.”
 

“Sorry. There is no one here by that name. Please try again on some other occasion.”
 

With a flourish, she replaced the phone in its cradle.
 
Staring at it, she willed it not to ring again. Hadn’t he learned by now that he wasn’t going to get anything out of her?
 

She jumped when the phone sounded, and then she sighed. This man was her albatross, it seemed. Resigned, she picked up the phone.
 

“Hello,” she said sadly.
 

His voice was strained and harsh. “Don’t play cute with me, lady. You know what I want. If I don’t get it, right now, I’m going to come over there and terrorize you a little.’”
 

That was exactly what she was most afraid of. Yelling at her over the phone was one thing. Coming over and yelling at her in front of her children was quite another. Her fingers curled more tightly around the plastic receiver.
 

“Listen. I wouldn’t play games with you if you would only listen to me.
 
I don’t know where she is.
 
And if you’d just stop making these phone calls, I would stop acting silly.”
 

“I’m not making these phone calls for my health, lady. I want April.”
 

Cathy closed her eyes and nodded. “So do I, mister. You don’t know how badly I want her back.”
 

“Don’t give me that. You know where she is. She wouldn’t go off and leave those three brats with you not knowing.
 
It doesn’t stand to reason.”
 

Cathy sighed.
 
“No, it doesn’t.
 
But that’s just what she did.
 
So. Tell you what. If you find her, let me know where she is, okay?”
 

Her caller didn’t enjoy her little joke. His voice got softer, but at the same time more menacing. “Lady, I guess I am going to have to pay you a visit.”
 

Cathy’s throat was suddenly dry. Truth be told, she was terrified of coming face to face with this thug.
 
“Who ... who are you ... exactly?”
 

“You’ll see who I am when I get there.”
 

She swallowed, her gaze darting about the room, seeking salvation-or at least a good idea.
 

“I think I ought to warn you,” she said quickly. “My next door neighbor is a cop.” She picked up the entire phone and lugged it to the open sliding glass door. Luck was with her. Scott was watering his yard. “There he is now,” she hissed into the receiver.
 

“Hi!” she called, pulling open the screen door and waving merrily. “Hi, Officer Carrington,” she added. “You going to be around today?”
 

Very near the fence that separated their yards, Scott glared across at her. “Where would I go?” he called back. .

“Great,” she responded loudly. “I may need you. Stay in touch.”
 

Ignoring Scott’s startled look, she drew back into the house.
 

“You see?” she hissed into the phone. “I’ve got the police at my beck and call. You’d better keep away from here.”
 

“That cop can’t be with you all the time, lady. That moment will come when he’s looking the other way. And then ... pow!”
 

“Pow?” she squeaked back.
 
“What does that mean?”

“You’ll find out.
 
Better watch out! Better have the paramedics on call, lady!
 
Pow!”

The dial tone buzzed in her ear.
 

“I will watch out for you, you slime ball,” she muttered as she put the telephone back where it belonged.
 

She turned nervously, anxious to do something but unsure of what she could possibly do to remedy this mess that was brewing. One thing was becoming clear. She was either going to have to give up and call in the police or she was going to have to go and find April herself.
 

The woman had to be somewhere. Maybe if she went looking for her, she’d find something out.
 

“I’ll give you until tomorrow morning, April Meadows,” she murmured, clasping her hands together, her blue eyes troubled. “Then I move.”

Scott stared after her long after she’d disappeared into the house again. Water ran through his plants, puddling in all the wrong places, and he barely noticed. He was fully involved in trying to explain to himself what had just happened.
 

The woman had kicked him out of her house not ten minutes before. Now she was yoo-hooing from the place, telling him to “
Stay in touch because she might need him.”
 

Need him? He shook his head.
 

No, this situation was definitely poison. He’d never wanted to get domestic, and that was the word that most perfectly described Cathy Feenstra. Domestic .
 

He made a face. Babies didn’t mix with the Scott Carrington lifestyle.
 

Never had, never would. It was funny how attractive he’d found Cathy, all the same. So attractive, in fact, he’d hardly been able to disguise it.
 
The look of her, the scent of her clean body, was suddenly in his head and he shook it to rid himself of the wave of sensation that accompanied it.
 

Trying to kiss her had been a big mistake. He didn’t need a woman like that. Especially when she didn’t seem to know herself what she wanted. One minute it was “
Never darken my door again
.” The next it was “
Stick around, I may need you
.”
 

No, she had to be a little nuts.
 

A little unbalanced. That did it.
 
He turned off the water and rolled the hose back on the wheel with the air of a man who’d made up his mind.
 

Yes, that did it.
 
She was awfully cute, but she was definitely air conditioned between the ears. And she had too many babies, anyway.
 
Time to get real here.
 

He needed something else to do, something else to get his mind on.
 
Maybe he ought to call one of his Carrington cousins.
 
The town was crawling with them.
 
Funny how he hadn’t seen any of them for ages.

It wasn’t a conscious plan on his part, but somehow, over the last couple of years, he’d drawn away from his family.
 
He blamed it on how hard he’d been working, how much time he had to spend out of town.
 
And maybe there was actually something more to it.
 
But that didn’t matter right now.
 
He had an immediate problem and he needed an immediate answer.
 

He knew what that problem was. It had been too long since he’d had the proper sort of female companionship. All he had to do was get out his little black book, pick a number, and his troubles would be over. He chuckled to himself as he went into the house. Yes, that was all he needed.
 

The first obstacle to initiating his new plan was finding the little black book. It wasn’t next to the telephone, nor in the drawer with his checks and receipts. He looked in the liquor cabinet, beside the breadbox in the kitchen, and in his dresser drawers.
 

No black book.
 

When he sat down and tried to think where he might have left it last, the memories were vague. It had been an awfully long time since he’d used that book.
 

It finally turned up at the back of his gardening cabinet. He got a warm feeling just holding it in his hand, turning it, feeling the soft leather.
 

Ah, his little black book. How many wonderful evenings had started with it?
 

Sitting down by the telephone, he began to thumb through it. Funny, he thought right away, how unfamiliar some-of the names were. There weren’t many that he could even assign faces to.
 

But here was a beauty. Carol Lane. A redhead with a great sense of humor, as he remembered. He dialed her number.
 

“Scott, is that really you? It’s been ages!”
 

She sounded as redheaded as ever and they chatted for a few minutes. This was more like it. This was the way women usually responded.
 

“I know this is short notice,” Scott said at last. “But I was wondering if you would like to join me for dinner tonight. We could try to rekindle some old flames.”
 

“Dinner?” Her voice changed all of a sudden. “Scott, don’t you remember? I got married last summer.”
 

That was just the beginning.
 
Jennifer Garvey’s roommate informed Scott that she was trekking in the Himalayas and had fallen in love with a goatherd. Julie Brown was now Julie Bartok. When he called Florie Manning, a vocabulary-less child answered and he hung up without waiting to find out more.
 

Finally he sat very still and stared sadly at his beloved black book. What was wrong with everyone? And why hadn’t he noticed when this change had come over them all?