A Bachelor, A Boss And A Baby

Yet a stranger had just diapered Daphne with practiced ease and was now pacing slowly with the sleeping girl on his shoulder. Daphne was still tiny at three months, but Blaine Harrigan made her look minuscule.

He was dressed casually in a short-sleeved khaki work shirt and jeans. The last place she had worked, a polo shirt and slacks was as informal as it got. Apparently things were different here. He certainly looked like a man ready to work hard, a sharp contrast to the way he handled Daphne: easily, gently, yet confidently. She envied that confidence. She wished she could siphon off a gallon of it and put it in her veins.

Well, she’d get there eventually. She’d learned everything else she’d needed to in life. Usually. God, she hoped she wasn’t kidding herself and running headlong into a big failure.

“Are you looking forward to this job?” he asked her.

For the first time, she realized that his voice seemed to resonate from deep within his chest, below baritone but maybe not quite bass? An interesting, slightly rough sound. “I think so, yes. I know I was before life got out of hand.”

He smiled faintly. “This little one, you mean? Ah, she won’t be any trouble now. I was wondering, you worked in a larger city before. Why come to a small town?”

“The challenge,” she said. “An outdated comprehensive plan that needs to be rewritten, and that covers an entire county. I’ll have a lot of input. I’ve always wanted that.”

He hesitated as if he wanted to say something, but then resumed his gentle pacing, rubbing Daphne’s back all the while. “Did you visit first?”

“Of course. I came out for the interview. I’m surprised I didn’t meet you then.” And she was. They’d have to work closely together. She began to wonder how this place functioned.

“I was on vacation. I didn’t hear a thing about you until I got back.”

Okay, that was strange, she thought. Given his position, he should have had some say in her hiring. For the first time, she felt uneasiness about the job itself. Was there something going on here? But she couldn’t ask Harrigan, because he worked here, too. Until she had a read on everyone involved, asking questions could be dangerous. Wisdom dictated that she keep everything on a professional level.

Although that was already a limit she had broken, considering her infant cousin was riding on the shoulder of the county engineer. Very professional. Under other circumstances, she might have been amused. Starting a new job, not so much.

Then, for the first time, she really saw his face. Looked at it and took it in, and felt her stomach flutter. Dark, nearly black hair with blue eyes so bright the color was arresting. The rest of that face was great, too, squarish, a good chin, with fair, unblemished skin. His last name suggested he was Irish, as did a few hints in his pronunciation. He couldn’t have left the isle very long ago, she thought. Western sun and wind hadn’t kissed him for long.

Fortunately, Daphne made a small sound, drawing Diane’s attention before she stared at Blaine too long. Somebody should have warned her that a man holding an infant was more irresistible than one standing solo. She never would have dreamed. She watched as he pulled a visitor’s chair back from her desk and slowly lowered himself into it. The chair was springy, and he rocked gently.

Then she felt embarrassed. “Would you like me to take her back?”

He smiled over the baby’s head. “It’s been a while since I held a baby. I’m liking it.”

She felt her mouth frame a smile in return. She had to admit that this early into her new role as a mother, she was glad of a brief break. She’d had no idea that her patience wasn’t infinite, that she’d be losing a lot of sleep and that she could get frazzled by a baby’s persistent crying.

The new character insights didn’t exactly make her feel proud. Now she not only needed to deal with a job and the baby, but she needed to deal with herself, as well.

“So what brought you here, Blaine? I’m assuming you didn’t grow up here.” An assumption based on those faint traces of an accent.

“No, I grew up in Ireland, I did. Galway. I’m liking it quite a bit here, but missing my family.”

“You said a big family?”

“I’m one of six. The eldest.”

“That’s a big family,” she agreed.

He leaned back a little farther and crossed his legs loosely. Tight denim left no doubt that his lower half was built as well as his top half. Diane swallowed and dragged her gaze away.

After a bit, he spoke again. “You look tired. Not sleeping well?”

Finally she felt a bubble of real amusement, for the first time in days. She’d begun to wonder if she still had a sense of humor. “What do you think?” An attempted joke that might have sounded like a challenge, but his demeanor didn’t change. God, was she going to have to watch her tongue now, as well? Somehow she needed to get more sleep.

He nodded. “Babies are hard at first. It does get better, though. Just snatch your sleep whenever you can. So has anyone primed you for how things run around here?”

She sat up a little, fatigue forgotten. “What do I need to know?”

“Only that members of the city council and the county commission make up the county planning board. Two hats, you might say.”

She wanted to drop her head into her hands. In an instant she began to envision a skein of tangled relationships all knotted up with ego and personal aims. No real control on them at all, except for when they might get angry at one another. Why had they even wanted a planning manager?

Oh, yeah. They needed an updated comprehensive plan in order to apply for government grants. She was the path to get there. To be fair, however, her job always became political at some point. Money carried a lot of weight, and developers had enough of it to be persuasive.

She had hoped, however, that she might be little less boxed in here. Small population, for one thing, and no rapid growth for a while. Most of what was needed was bringing the plan up-to-date on new regulations from the state and federal government. Environmental regulations had increased dramatically...and there was seldom a way around them. She had that on her side, at least. Also, she needed to create a plan that would display a good future for the county and city, a good environment for the people as well as one that encouraged careful growth.

Still, it was bound to be tough, and even tougher when the cabal running matters was very small.

She kept her face smooth, however. She didn’t know Blaine Harrigan and didn’t dare express anything untoward. Now that she was here with her cousin’s baby in her care, she couldn’t afford to lose her job. To protect herself, she had to stay here at least a year, so she wouldn’t put a problem smack at the top of her résumé. Wonderful. She couldn’t afford a catastrophe.

“You get used to it,” he rumbled, gently patting Daphne’s back. “When are you supposed to meet with the gentlemen and lady?”

“Tomorrow evening. I hope by then I can find childcare. Do you know of anyone good?” she asked hopefully. If she had to choose someone, she’d rather they came with a recommendation.

A quiet laugh escaped him. The baby stirred a little and settled quickly. “I’m not in the way of having a family. But I have friends I can ask. I’ll call around today.” He rose slowly, taking care not to jar the baby. “I need to be off. I’ve got a meeting at ten a few miles out of town about a road repair. Might require some work on the culvert. I’d invite you but for the wee bit, here.”

“Oh.” A truncated pointless response, but she was holding her breath anyway as he slowly bent and placed Daphne in her car seat. To her relief, the child didn’t wake.

“I’ll see you later,” Blaine said as he straightened. He winked at her. “We’ll be together a lot. In fact, you and me might need to become a damn army of two.” A nod, then he let himself out.

An army of two? Diane bit her lip wondering what he meant. Had it been some kind of warning? Then she wondered at the ease with which he’d taken over with Daphne. Too bad he wasn’t looking for childcare work.

Resting her chin on her hand, she looked down at the baby and wondered how all this had happened. Well, the job, at least, was her fault. It might turn out to be a very good job, too, despite what she’d heard from Blaine.

But Daphne? While she was having trouble facing it herself, it remained that Daphne’s presence in her life was probably going to be long term. As in permanent.

MaryJo had been growing sicker for years, but it had been a slow process. A lot of it had been brushed away as quirks. Then, last year, MaryJo’s parents had died in a flash flood in Texas, and that seemed to have pushed MaryJo past her tipping point.

First had come the social workers, then had come a pregnancy during which she couldn’t take any meds, and the next thing Diane had known, her cousin had a full-blown psychotic break. After the baby was born, the meds didn’t help much.

MaryJo heard voices that told her to do terrible things. She even hallucinated. In short, MaryJo had vanished into an alternate universe, and nobody believed it was safe to leave Daphne in her care, or even nearby. To this day, Diane was ashamed of how little time she’d spared for thinking of her cousin on the far side of the state. She’d gotten the wrap-up from a social worker after MaryJo was hospitalized.

Then, a little less than three months after Daphne’s birth, the baby had come to live with Diane.

Inevitably, though, Diane looked down at the sleeping child and smiled. Except when Daphne was fussing and inconsolable, Diane always felt happy looking at her. Something about a baby.

Then she turned back to her desk and opened the folder containing all the notes for her new job that someone had left.

* * *

Around noon, a quiet knock sounded on her office door. She glanced at the still sleeping Daphne and decided she’d better answer it rather than call out. Rising, she rounded her desk and opened the door to find two women of about her own age, early thirties, standing there with big smiles. One had silky chestnut hair to her shoulders and wore a Western shirt with a denim skirt and cowboy boots. The other was a redhead who wore a flaming red slacks suit that she carried off with panache.