One Night With You by Candace Schuler Read Free Book Online Page A

through the half-open window. The "that" she was wearing was a clean diaper and a tiny neon-yellow T-shirt with the words, Born to Boogie splashed across the front. It was a gift from her seventeen-year-old Uncle Court.
    "The fresh air is good for her," Desi said, suppressing a smile as Teddie tenderly and somewhat peevishly rearranged the T-shirt, smoothing it down over Stephanie's little round belly.
    "She ought to have a sweater on at least."
    "Sweaters are something babies wear when mommies—or in this case—Uncle Teddies are cold," Desi informed him as she continued to put away the groceries.
    It wasn't really the lack of clothes that Teddie was objecting to. It was the clothes themselves. His baby gift to her had been a very beautiful and far-too-expensive ivory lace christening dress, the sort that only royalty used now. Left to him, Stephanie would have spent these first six weeks of her life lovingly smothered in more of the same. To Teddie's way of thinking, baby girls should be dressed exclusively in pink lace dresses and ruffled bonnets.
    "Well, I still think—"
    "Teddie." Desi turned from the counter to face him. His concern was appreciated, and she was grateful for everything he had done for her and Stephanie, but sometimes all this unsolicited advice did tend to grate on her nerves a little. "Stop being such a worrywart, will you? She's fine."
    "Well, you're her mother," he said, making it clear that he thought that particular circumstance to be an unfortunate state of affairs for the child involved.
    Lord, now she had hurt his feelings! "Here," she offered, by way of apology, handing him the bottle of formula that had been warming in a pan of hot water. "Feed her for me, will you? I have to check my messages."
    There was nothing Teddie seemed to like better than a chance to hold the baby, and Desi left them cooing and gurgling at each other while she went down the hall to her bedroom to check the telephone answering machine.
    The phone must have been ringing incessantly all morning, she thought. Her mother with a "just checking" message, the pediatrician's nurse with a reminder about Stephanie's six-week checkup tomorrow, a couple of calls from Joanne at the agency about some possible free-lance assignments and, lastly, one from Eldin Prince.
    "Hello, luv. Got a job to discuss with you. Big one," his voice with its distinctly upper-class English accent boomed into the room. "Call me," he ordered, and reeled off a number with a 212 area code. That meant New York. She hadn't known Eldin was in New York.
    Desi switched off the recorder and flung herself back onto the blue-and-white patchwork quilt covering her modern brass four-poster. A job, he'd said, a big one. She stared up at the white plaster ceiling, her eyes absently following the detailed dips and swirls that had been so painstakingly restored.
    A big one .
    The words echoed through her mind again, and a little thrill of anticipation snaked its way down her spine. She was itching to get back to work. Stephanie was already six weeks old, and because of a sudden case of toxemia, Desi had quit working full-time much earlier than she'd planned, taking on only the occasional free-lance job through Joanne's agency when she was feeling up to it. Part-time work was okay; giving makeup lessons or doing up society ladies before big charity "dos" paid pretty well, and it was interesting—for a while. But it wasn't like working on a movie, especially a movie with Eldin.
    A big one , he'd said.
    And if Eldin, who had once referred to an invitation to the White House as a dreary social obligation, was excited enough about a new project to call it big, then it must be very big.
    Her head began to whirl with possibilities. He meant big names, probably big money. She searched her mind for any bits of gossip or conversation she had heard in the last few weeks before she had quit working to have Stephanie, but could recall nothing out of the ordinary. There had been the