Baby Before Business (Silhouette Romance) by Susan Meier Read Free Book Online Page B

make breakfast, but though he burned the toast, he had made it.
    And at one point the night before, didn’t she have the feeling that he was deliberately baiting her, aggravating her, trying to make her mad?
    Yes, she had. She knew she had.
    Could it be that his scrooge, ogre, tyrant personality was an act? After all, he’d said he’d worked fifteen years to get his reputation.
    “You’re welcome,” Ron said cheerfully, bringing Madelyn out of her thoughts.
    She turned her parents around and directed them toward the kitchen. “You guys better go now.”
    “I could help,” Ron said one more time, as the kitchen door swung closed behind them.
    “He doesn’t really want help,” Madelyn reminded her dad as she guided him and her mother to the back door. “He wants to put the baby’s things together.”
    “Well, good,” Penney said. She stopped at the table to retrieve her sweater. “One of the most important things Mr. Bryant needs to understand is that he’s that baby’s family now. Even when he gets a nanny he has to be involved with Sabrina. It’s good to see he’s not passing off her care.”
    “Right,” Madelyn agreed, seeing her own image of Ty altering. Though he hadn’t yet changed a diaper, he was putting together the much-needed baby equipment.He wasn’t shirking his responsibility with the baby. He was simply doing the things he knew how to do and also fitting them into an already busy schedule. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, she said, “He isn’t passing off the baby’s care completely.”
    Her mother beamed. “That’s so good to hear.”
    Her parents stepped out into the early-afternoon sunshine and Madelyn closed the door behind them, feeling victorious. Maybe mending Ty’s image wouldn’t be so bad after all? Merely seeing him with a screwdriver had sold her dad. And all her mom had to do was hear that Ty was involved with the baby, and her disposition shifted, too. Of course, Madelyn had sort of lied about Ty being involved with the baby. But she would fix that this afternoon.
    Reminded that she needed to awaken the baby, Madelyn ran up the back stairs and into the temporary nursery.
    “Sabrina,” she called, gently lifting the little girl from her crib. “Sabrina, honey, you’ve got to wake up.”
    Sabrina rubbed her nose on Madelyn’s shoulder, found a comfortable spot and went back to sleep and Madelyn didn’t have the heart to wake her.
    “Okay. All right,” Madelyn said, laying her down again. Sabrina had lost both of her parents the week before. She’d had enough traumas to last her a while.
    “We’ll let you sleep now, but tonight your Uncle Ty is playing with you so you can’t fall asleep until you’re good and darned tired.”
    Having Ty directly care for Sabrina that night would solve both the baby sleeping problem and the little white lie she’d told her mother.
    She returned to the computer at the kitchen table and began detailing the new ideas she had gotten for makingTy seem more like a normal guy from her father’s reaction to seeing him put together a high chair. When she ran out of steam, she considered going into the foyer to check on Ty’s progress with the baby things, but decided against it. He had accused her of flirting, and though she hadn’t flirted, she probably had been staring at him, so it was best for her to keep her distance. Besides, having formula ready when the baby woke was a better use of her time.
    A half hour later when she heard the baby cry, she got Sabrina out of bed, fed her a little of the cereal from the box Pete had sent in the diaper bag, and then went in search of Ty. Though he wasn’t in the foyer, the high chair was assembled. So was the swing. But all the other boxes were intact.
    Not sure where he was, but knowing he had probably given her all the free time he could spare for one day, Madelyn headed down the hall to his den.
    “There’s your Uncle Ty,” Madelyn said talking to the baby as she entered the