Baby Love Read Online Free PDF

poking my back. "

    28 CATHERINE ANDERSON
    He relaxed his hold. As he reached a hand inside the coat to slide the silver buckle off to one side, she gave a startled jerk when he grazed his knuckles over her lower back.
    "I'm not making a move on you, honey. I'm just shifting the buckle so it won't jab you. " "There's no need.
    I can just sit straight. " As the train rounded a curve in the tracks, she nearly toppled with the sway. He caught her from falling with the brace of his arm. A faint ray of rosy sunlight came in through the open doorway to illuminate her face. For the first time, Rafe could see her features in detail. What he saw scared the hell out of him. She wasn't just pale. Her skin had a white, bloodless cast to it, and dark smudges underscored her eyes.
    Disturbed by the train's sudden motion, the baby chose that moment to awaken and emit a weak bleating sound. She murmured soft endearments, parting the windbreaker again. The infant's blue eyes blinked open, and small fists flailed the air, terry sleeper sleeves flashing yellow against the navy nylon.
    An unpleasant odor drifted up to Rafe. He nearly groaned. Any man who'd once been a father knew that smell. Why was it that the odor of baby poop always seemed to drift upward and never sideways? But, oh, no. It was one of those smells that shot straight to a man's nose.
    Rafe glanced around the cavernous boxcar, expecting to see a diaper bag. When one didn't appear, he scanned the enclosure again, convinced one would materialize. On a rational level, he realized kids weren't born with a diaper bag attached. But in his estimation, that was a major screwup on God's part. With a baby tossed into any equation, the absence of disposable diapers and Wet Ones equaled a major disaster.
    "Where's the diaper bag?"
    She didn't glance up as she replied. "I dropped it. " "You what?" Surely he couldn't have heard her BABY LOVE 29
    right No diaper bag? "You're kidding. Right?"
    She shook her head.
    Visions of all the absolutely vital baby paraphernalia in a diaper bag went zigzagging through Rafe's head.
    Diapers and wipes were only the half of it. Raising his voice to be heard over the now screeching baby, who was thrashing his little legs and stirring up the odor, Rafe said, "You dropped it? Where at?"
    "Back in Prior. It was an accident. I was trying to get on the train, and I couldn't run fast enough to keep up. I dropped both the bag and Jaimie's quilt. That's why I've got him wrapped in my sweatshirt and jacket. "
    Rafe leaned his head against the wall, racking his brain for a solution. The stink aside, somehow they had to change the kid's britches. Left as he was, Jaimie would get a sore bottom.
    "I'll manage somehow. "
    Rafe couldn't imagine how. Then he felt her wiggling. The movements of her soft posterior against the crotch of his jeans brought about a reaction that brought his eyes wide open. His breath snagged, and he sat there for a full five seconds, staring at the back of her head.
    Wonderful. Just frigging fantastic. He hadn't felt a stir in that region in over two years. Even worse than the piss-poor timing was the fact that Maggie might feel it.
    He shoved a hand between her butt and his jeans, hoping to escape detection as well as protect himself from further stimulation. At the touch of his knuckles on her rump, she jumped again and jerked her head around to fix him with an accusing look.
    "I'm not getting fresh, " he hastened to assure her. "I'm just—"
    His voice trailed off. He was just what? The baby's screams seemed to attain super-baby decibels. He was getting a real bitch of a headache. God, he needed a drink.
    She squirmed to put some distance between his hand and her bottom, then resumed her activities.
    Watching

    30 CATHERINE ANDERSON
    her from the back, it looked to him as if she were unfastening her top. Red alert. "What are you doing?"
    "I'll have to use my blouse and wear the wind-breaker. "
    Was it actually possible for a man's heart to leap