When She's Bad by Leanne Banks Read Free Book Online

inside your condo,” he said, picking up the stroller and overstuffed diaper bag.
    Delilah looked at him as if she were in a daze. “In my condo? Do I have to?”
    “I don’t think you want to stay out here the rest of the night,” he said over the sound of the baby’s cries as he nudged her inside her condo.
    Still in shock, she jiggled the baby and paced, muttering to herself. She looked at the squalling red-faced infant in disbelief.
    Her jiggling and pacing failed to comfort the baby, and she emanated enough nervous energy to power the space shuttle. He impulsively pulled the baby from her arms. “Get a drink. Let me try.”
    She looked at him blankly for a moment then moved her head in a circle and headed for the kitchen. He heard the tinkling of ice cubes in a glass as he turned out the lights and spoke to the child in a low voice. “She’s only partly crazy. She’ll calm down and you’ll be okay. Are you a boy or a girl? Blue,” he said, looking at the infant’s blue sweater. “Boy. I bet you’ve had an eventful day, so you just need to relax and go to sleep. Don’t try to understand women. That will just upset you more. Trust me, if you learn this lesson now, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of grief.”
    The baby hiccupped and shuddered and stared wide-eyed at Benjamin. Quiet. He kept up the low-voiced monologue, switching to the subject of corporate law. Within minutes, the baby’s eyes started to droop. Another few minutes passed and the baby was asleep.
    He felt Delilah’s curious gaze as she came to his side. “How did you do it?” she whispered.
    “I turned out the lights and bored him to sleep. Pull the cushions off the couch and I’ll put him down.”
    “Down?” she echoed.
    “To sleep,” he said. “Hopefully for the night.”
    Still feeling as if someone had hit her with a baseball bat, Delilah pulled the cushions off the couch and arranged them in the corner of the room. Her mind whirled. Howard. Nicky. Baby Willy. Viagra . Delilah shook her head. If Howard weren’t dead, she’d kill him.
    She glanced at Benjamin, surprised at how easily he’d calmed the baby. It was almost as if he had the magic touch.
    Which she clearly did not possess. “Thank you.”
    He shrugged and set Willy down on the cushions. She darted for the diaper bag and pulled out a blanket. A bunch of papers came out with it. She winced at the sound, hoping it wouldn’t wake the baby. Benjamin nabbed the blanket and put it over Willy while Delilah looked through the papers.
    “Oh my God,” she murmured, her blood turning to ice. The papers granted her custody of the little banshee. “This can’t—”
    “Want me to look at those?” Benjamin offered.
    “No,” she said, stuffing the ones with legal mumbo jumbo back into the bag and skimming a letter that contained instructions for Willy’s care. Her stomach sank. … allergic to disposable diapers … delicate stomach, prone to digestive problems … “When am I going to wake up?”
    “Delilah, are you okay?” Benjamin asked.
    She met his searching gaze and forced herself to nod.
    “Who’s the baby?”
    “Willy,” she said with a smile that felt brittle as she stuffed the instructions back into the diaper bag. She turned off the lamp closest to the baby in hopes that he would remain asleep until she could figure out how to handle this situation. “It’s Willy.”
    “Who’s the mother?”
    “Um, Nicky.”
    “Who is Nicky?”
    Hell if I know . She couldn’t confide in Benjamin. She couldn’t confide in anyone. “Um, my cousin,” she invented, telling herself it wasn’t a bold-faced lie. Her mother had always said that in some way everyone in the whole world was related.
    “How long is she leaving Willy with you?”
    Forever . Delilah felt as if someone had taken away her future, locked her in a cell and thrown away the key. She opened her mouth, closed it and tried to concoct a reasonable, believable explanation. “Nicky’s having