“No, she should be fine. Just uncomfortable for a while and it means she can eat new kinds of food.” The worry and lost look was gone from Claire’s face. She was back to being calm and in control. “Hold on for a second. I think I’ve got something that might help.”
Luke watched his daughter happily gnawing on his knuckle, the drool running down his hand and over her tiny chin. If anyone told him a year ago that this was how he’d be spending his time, he’d have told them they were crazy. He’d gone from arrogant bastard and playboy billionaire so fast, the people he used to know wouldn’t recognize him. From the moment he met Claire, he’d wanted her and from the first time he’d had her, he knew he’d never get enough.
That hadn’t changed. Becoming his wife and the mother of his child only made him want her more. He just had to figure out a way to take some of the pressure off her so they could find some time for each other. He tried to help out as much as he could, but with Claire nursing, she’d insisted on doing almost everything herself. He missed their time alone together, but there was no way he’d add even more pressure to his already over-scheduled wife.
Claire passed them both on her way to the kitchen and Bella followed her with her eyes, never slacking up on his finger. These two females owned him as surely as if they’d bought and paid for him. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Here, give her this.” Claire handed him what looked like a mesh-covered Popsicle.
“What is it?” he asked, gently extricating his soggy finger from his daughter’s mouth.
“Cantaloupe. The mesh keeps her from getting pieces that are too big and the cold is supposed to help soothe her gums.”
Eyeing the lumpy thing warily, he handed it to his daughter, who immediately stuck it in her mouth and started to go to town on it, drooling happily as she chomped away.
“Is that better, sweet baby?” Claire leaned over him to wipe their daughter’s face with a soft cloth.
This close, it was impossible to miss the dark shadows under his wife’s beautiful eyes. Despite the baby nurse’s rigid schedule, Bella rarely slept through the night. He woke up when she did, but it was Claire who got up to feed their daughter. She carried much more of the load. He refused to think of his daughter as a burden, but he couldn’t deny the toll the lack of sleep took on her mother.
“Is it time to start thinking about weaning her?” he asked, realizing too late the landmine he’d stepped on.
Claire went still. “Why would you ask that?”
“She’s started on solid food.” He hoped if he stuck to the facts, he could avoid the bigger confrontation he felt just below the surface. “And if she’s getting her teeth, it might make sense.”
“She doesn’t have them yet,” snapped Claire. “And it’s not like she’s going to be ready for take-out from Comme Ci.”
It was his friend Eric’s flagship restaurant and the first place he’d taken Claire the day they met. The tone of her voice and the fact that she was so willing to throw the name out made it clear how close he was to starting a fight.
“I know that, sweetheart,” he said patiently. “I thought it might be time to start thinking about it, for you as well as her.”
Claire slumped in her seat beside him, and his heart ached for her. She put so much pressure on herself. She always had. It’s what made English Electric the best contracting firm on the East Coast and her such a powerhouse. But unlike when she handled work-related matters, the challenges of being a mother seemed to beat her down instead of encourage her to reach for more.
“I said I was going to nurse for a year,” she said, and he could see her steeling herself.
“I said I was never going to get married.” He reached up to cup her face, letting all the love he felt shine through his eyes. “Thankfully, plans change. What used to make sense sometimes doesn’t any more. Listen.” He shifted the drowsy baby in his arms. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I just want you to be happy, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to hold on to an idea because of some ideal you think you need to meet. Promise me you’ll think about it.”
After a long moment, she nodded. “I’ll think about it.”
Two
CLAIRE SHUT OFF HER LAPTOP and made her way down the hall from the home office she shared with Luke to the living room. Bella was scooting around on her blanket on the floor while Hailey, the twenty-something-year-old babysitter, watched her. It wasn’t a perfect situation, but Hailey was a thousand times better than the baby nurse had been and Claire had actually been able to get through most of the estimate without losing her mind.