Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Jessie
Ifeel like I’m dreaming. This doesn’t feel like reality. A reality where Walker is a father and he’s asking me for help. I don’t even know how to digest any of this. But that’s for another time. This poor baby in my arms needs to be soothed.
I sit down on his couch. He stands in front of me, holding the bottle.
I look down at the spot next to me, then back up at him. “Sit down, Walker.”
The fear in his eyes is potent. I can feel it in my bones. He has no idea what to do. And he thinks she doesn’t like him. I don’t like this guy, but I know he needs me to be kind at the moment.
“Walker, it’ll be okay.”
With that, he takes a deep breath and takes a seat next to me. Even in this situation, his nearness puts my skin on high alert. I despise that my body still reacts this way to him.
I shift myself so I’m facing him. “Put your arms out. I’m going to help you through this.”
He obeys, and I place his daughter in the crook of his arm. She starts to cry harder, and he sits up like he’s about to freak out.
“Stop!” I say sternly. “We just need to put the bottle nipple in her mouth.”
I place my hand on his then help him lower the bottle to her lips. I move the nipple over her lips so she can taste the food in between her screaming.
Her eyes open immediately, and she begins sucking. I don’t let go of his hand yet, not until I am confident that she is taking the bottle and not going to spit it out. When I’m sure she won’t refuse the bottle, I take my hand off him and lean back in my seat.
He still looks tense, afraid to move a muscle, as he holds the bottle to her mouth. Not gonna lie; my blood pressure was through the roof with the crying. I understand why it’s so stressful. My body finally starts to settle.
“There you go,” I say as she continues to suck down her milk. “She was just hungry.”
“Is she gonna cry again after this?” he asks, terror written all over his face.
“Eventually, she is. She’s a baby. That’s how she tells you she needs or wants something.”
He doesn’t like that answer. But I’m not going to lie to him. I watch him watch her, and the questions begin to come flooding back to me.
I have to ask, “Walker, did you know about her?”
His eyes meet mine. “Of course not. Do I look like someone who wasn’t caught off guard with a baby? I had no idea.”
I glance around at his penthouse. That’s true. Not a trace of evidence that shows he is prepared to take care of a baby.
“Where is her mother?”
“Gone,” he says distractedly, staring down at his daughter with a sense of curiosity.
“Gone? Where did she go?” I ask quickly.
She’d better come back soon. Walker doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. That much is clear.
“Gone, Jessie. She dropped her off an hour ago and told me she couldn’t do this anymore.”
“Are you serious? She just … left her daughter with you? For, like … good?”
His shoulders tense. “Yes. She left her with me, Jessie.”
“What kind of person does that? Where did you meet her?”
He looks at me with contempt. “A bar. She’s a model.”
I roll my eyes so heavily that it gives me a slight headache. But it’s just so typical of him. He’s such a man-whore.
“Go ahead. Spit it out,” he growls at me.
“What?” I question.
“Tell me I had it coming. That it was only a matter of time that my man-whore ways caught up with me.”
I’m slightly taken aback by how well he sniffed me out. Am I that transparent?
It’s his turn to roll his eyes—at me. The nerve. “You call me a man-whore literally every time you see me.”
“Yeah, well, maybe if you didn’t have a different girl on your arm every time I see you, I wouldn’t have to.”
“You don’t have to call me anything. It’s called being a polite person.”
“Oh, please. You are anything but polite to me.”
“That’s because you’re a raging bitch to me.”
I gasp. “How dare you call me a bitch, you egotistical asshole!”
Before he can respond, he abruptly looks down at the baby, who is now finished with the bottle. “Oh my God. Is she gonna cry? What do I do now?”
Seriously, I’ve never seen anyone more incompetent with a baby.
“You need to burp her.”
He tries to hand her off to me again. “You do it.”
“Given the fact that it looks like your daughter is here to stay, I’d say you need to learn these things. Just put her over your shoulder and pat her back until she burps.”
But the moron literally puts her hips on his shoulder.
I grab the baby and scoot her down his chest until her head rests near his shoulder. “Like this. Now pat her back.”
“I’m gonna wind up hurting her, aren’t I? You can already tell how screwed I am. And what about my job? I can’t take care of a baby and be a partner at my firm. I have the potential to score one of the biggest cases of my life. I should be working right now.”
There he is. The corporate attorney who only cares about money and prestige.
Not the guy I remember growing up with. The one who would tell me all about law school, talking about how he was going to change the world while I hung on every word.
Use his powers for good. Fight for the ones who couldn’t fight for themselves.
I don’t know when it all changed.
“There are more important things than money and cases. Like your innocent daughter lying in your arms right now. Why don’t you think about something other than yourself for a second?” I snap.
He continues to pat her back, then she lets out a loud, wet burp. Before I see the evidence, I can tell she spit up by the horrified look on his face.
I can’t help it. It makes me smile. I like seeing him suffer.
He tries to look over his shoulder. “What the hell is that? Why am I wet?”
I let out a laugh. “She spit up on you. Serves you right for being a dick.”
“Jessie, this is my career. I was just given a newborn baby on a Thursday night with no information or plan set in motion. Have a little sympathy.”
I snort. “You’re barking up the wrong tree if you’re looking for sympathy. Why did you even call me in the first place?”
His eyes, which normally hold so much confidence, meet mine with sheer desperation. “I can’t bother Roman and Eva right now. You know if I told Eva, she would drop everything. But she has her own one of these at home that’s causing her to lose sleep.”
“True. I’d prefer you didn’t put this on her right now. But what about any of your other friends?”
“They’re probably just as clueless as me.”
“You guys are all a bunch of duds.”
He looks less than amused.
I smile. “Sorry.”
She’s been quiet for a couple of minutes in his arms. He seems to notice the same thing, with a slightly different reaction.
“She isn’t crying. Why isn’t she moving? Is she dead?” He sits up straight, panic flooding his body again.
I lean back to see that her eyes are closed and she’s breathing softly. “Oh my gosh. You need to chill. She’s sleeping.”
He really doesn’t know a damn thing about babies. I don’t know what the hell he is going to do, but I think my job here is done.
“Well”—I clap my hands and stand—“I guess we’re done here. Good luck with that, Walker. I wish you the best.”
“You’re leaving?” He stands quickly. “You can’t leave. I need you.”
“What exactly do you want me to do? You now know how to feed and burp her.”
He moves in front of me so I can’t take another step. “What about everything else? If you leave, I’ll have to call Eva. I don’t want to, but I can’t do this alone.”
Of course I don’t want him bothering Eva, but I’m not sure what he’s asking of me.
“What about your parents?” I ask, wondering now why they weren’t his first phone call.
“I can’t.” His words come out on a choke of emotion. “They would lose their minds and tell me to do something crazy, like drop her off at the fire station. A doorstep baby isn’t good for our family image.”
Shit, he’s right. His parents aren’t exactly the warm and fuzzy type. And there’s an odd part of me that’s proud of him for stepping up and trying to figure this out. I just can’t believe I’m the only one he feels he can rely on.
But I watch him, standing in front of me, begging me for help, his daughter cuddled underneath his chin, and I know I’m going to say yes. I’ve always been powerless to my pull to him, no matter how much I hate it—and him.
“Fine.” I sag my shoulders in defeat. “What is it you need?”
He swallows hard. “Stay the night. Please. Help me get set up with some kind of … I don’t know … routine.”
“So, you’re keeping her?” I question.
“I mean … what else am I supposed to do? She’s my daughter. Her mother just abandoned her. I don’t see any other choice.”
His dark blue eyes have always been like ocean waves that could take me down with just one look.
I’ve managed to keep my distance from him for years. Spending the night in his place, with his daughter, feels dangerous. I shouldn’t do it.
But I’ve never done what I should do where Walker is concerned.