Scrambled Babies by Babe Hayes Read Free Book Online Page B

had made some kind of weird vow.  Now he was breaking the vow and lowering his resistance to attractive women.  How long had it been?  Eight months since he’d had a woman in bed?
    Yvonne had finished ringing up the sale.  She was putting the blanket in a bag.  The childseat came in the manufacturer’s box.  Yvonne!  She was the first female to stir Steve since Crystal. Does this mean I—?
    “Here is your blanket, Mr. Kaselman.  Thank you for shopping Bloomingdale’s.”
    Steve took the package slowly.  “Yes.  Yes.  And thank you for the help,” and he said her name again, “Yvonne.”
    “It will be a pleasure anytime I can help you, Mr. Kaselman.  Please visit me again.”
    “Yes.  I will.  I definitely will.  Thank you.”  Steve took his packages, gave Yvonne a covert, wistful glance, and walked out of Bloomingdale’s with the latest in children’s travelseats.
    As he pushed through the revolving door, the image of Yvonne tarried foremost in his mind.  Yet he doubted if he could ever find a woman he would seriously consider marrying.
     
    #
     
    Steve emerged from the restroom, balancing the girl baby on his left forearm.  Long-Island-accent flustered in as soon as there was enough space for his broad behind.   The man mumbled something unintelligible about not knowing a baby was in there and closed and locked the door behind him.
    Steve looked down the aisle.  Did he have guilt written all over his face?  He got that awful feeling people have when they do something wrong and are sure everyone knows, although, in this case, that knowledge would be impossible for anyone but Steve to have.  Guilty feeling or not, he wasn’t about to cause an uproar on the plane.  He was going to keep the baby screw-up a secret as long as possible.  He was hoping that the woman who had his baby was thinking the same thing.  But the chances of that happening were slim to nil.  His—their—screw-up was probably splashed all over the national news by now.  Bewitching-mouth would report having his kid and would be calling the police to reclaim hers.  After all, she was the woman in the situation.  She had nothing to worry about.
    Damn!  What a time to be up in an airplane and not be able to hear the news!   For all he knew, the “kidnapping” story was on every wire in the country!  Steve!  Get a grip!  You didn’t do anything wrong—just stupid!  Hell, maybe you didn’t do anything at all!  Maybe the network will understand.   He exhaled through pursed lips.  Fat chance!   This kind of thing made the media big-time, and careers went right down the tubes!
    Steve’s mind raced.  He would like to call Maury, his agent.  But how could he talk with any privacy on an airplane full of people even in first class?  Why hadn’t he thought to call Maury when he was in the restroom? But, then, how can you think of anything at all when you discover you have someone else’s kid! 
    He checked his watch.  He figured they’d be in the air for another twenty minutes before landing at Logan International.  Then he had to race to the newspaper to make his article deadline, do his five o’clock network sportscast on remote, and make it to the stadium by six to do the color portion of the game. 
    Suddenly, his cell phone went off. Everyone in first class turned to look at him. I thought I silenced that thing! Oh my god, this is it!  This is Maury telling me I am in big trouble.  
    “Hi, lover!”  Steve was surprised to hear a woman’s voice at the other end.
    “Pony?”  So he was going to get the news from Pony.  He could think of people he’d rather hear it from.  Well, actually, he wasn’t really ready to hear it from anyone.
    “Who else, baby boy?  How are things at thirty thousand feet?  Not as exciting as on cloud nine with me, right, Stevo?”
    “Pony, for crissake, what the hell are you calling me for?”
     “Oh, Stevie, do I have to have a reason to call the most