“Hmmm,” she hummed, walking toward the table. “Does she have a blanket?”
“Here.” Sterling pulled the pink blanket out of the car seat.
“Excellent.” Fiona spread out the blanket on the table, then laid Skye in the middle of it, watching her for a minute as she continued to cry.
I was about a half-a-second from taking her back.
“Does anyone have scissors?” Fiona asked, already unsnapping the pink pajama-looking-thing.
“I’m sorry?” I moved forward. “Why the hell would you want scissors?” The woman might have some pretty eyes—fine, stellar eyes, but she wasn’t cutting my kid up into little pieces.
“They’re for her jammies,” Fiona responded, pulling Skye’s little, chubby legs out of the outfit. Fine, baby legs were cute, and her tiny toes weren’t awful, either.
Asher appeared with the scissors, placing them in Fiona’s hand.
Fiona snipped off the pajamas at the ankles, then buttoned Skye into them again. “She might not like to have her feet bound up,” she said absent-mindedly.
That made two of us, since I couldn’t stand anything confining my feet besides my Nikes and skates. My aunt called it sensory issues. I called it common fucking sense.
“Did she come with a pacifier?” Fiona asked.
“I’ll check.” Langley dug into one of the suitcases and popped out a teal green piece of plastic, handing it to Fiona.
“Thanks.” Fiona wrapped Skye into the blanket with some kind of sorcery that turned her into a burrito, then popped the pacifier in her mouth and held her tight against her chest, rocking while she shushed her loudly, her mouth close to her ears.
Skye stopped crying.
Fucking. Magic.
Everything in my chest eased up a little, like a vise slowly loosening, and I took my first full breath since I’d found the baby on my doorstep. My brain cleared, too, as if it had been too preoccupied with Skye’s cries to function properly.
I stared in wonder at Fiona, and I wasn’t the only one. Every head in the room had turned to watch her rock and shush the now-silent Skye, who gave a delicate little hiccup as her eyes shut.
“She was just overstimulated,” Fiona said softly, continuing to rock. “There’s a lot of nervous energy in the room and she picked up on that.”
My mouth opened, but I couldn’t find a single word. Not one. The woman was a fucking enchantress when it came to my baby, and I was here for it.
My baby. Mine. All ten fingers, ten toes, and hellacious lungs—she was all mine, and I was damned if I was going to send her into foster care where it would take only God-knew-how-long to get her back out of it just because of some legal tape. Paternity test first, because I wasn’t stupid, but I was already certain. Skye was mine, and whatever I had to pay the magical nanny in front of me to keep her content just like that, she was worth it.
“What?” Fiona asked, looking up at me as her dark brows furrowed. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you’re hired.”
2
Fiona
I stared at my open drawers and scanned the contents inside, curious as to what exactly I needed to pack.
“Knock knock!” Madeline—one of my best friends—called from the front door of my apartment.
“We brought coffee!” Daisy—my other best friend—followed up as they both found me in my room.
“You’re a lifesaver,” I said, grabbing the coffee from Daisy’s outstretched hand. Her brown curls hung to her shoulders, and she looked fresh off a writing session in her crop top and book-themed joggers.
“I know,” she said, winking at me.
I took a glorious sip of the double Americano and breathed out a contented sigh. Yesterday had thrown me for a serious loop, and I needed the caffeine boost if I was ever going to get my head on straight and finish packing.
“Going somewhere?” Madeline asked, eying my opened suitcases. Her eyes suddenly lit up as she turned to face me, her long, blonde hair flying in the perfect flip behind her. “You said you accepted a job,” she said. “Does that mean you’re finally putting your doctorate to use? Somewhere that requires you to move?”
“Oh?” Daisy chimed in, then frowned. “Not out of state, right?”
I shook my head, waving both of them off. “No,” I said to Maddie. “And no,” I said to Daisy. I took another sip of the coffee before setting it on my chest of drawers.
“But you called us over here to talk about your new job,” Maddie said, sinking onto my bed next to my suitcase.
“I did,” I said, grabbing a pile of my soft cotton T-shirts and loose pants.
Taking care of a three-month-old full-time would require an insane amount of clothes. I had ten brothers and sisters, all younger than me, and I’d pretty much been their live-in nanny too. I knew exactly how much newborns throw up, just as I knew you could never have too many backup-outfit options. I tossed them in the suitcase before grabbing another handful.
“Spill the deets,” Daisy urged.
I put the next armful of clothes in my suitcase, then barely suppressed a laugh. Daisy would go nuclear in three, two…
“I’ve taken a full-time, live-in nanny position for Brogan Grant.”
“What?” Daisy shrieked, nearly bursting my eardrum. She hopped up and down, staring at me in shock. “Are you serious?”
“You’re not serious,” Maddie said before I could answer.
I laughed. Daisy was a die-hard hockey fan, the only one in our little friend group, and when the Reapers had come to town a few years ago? She’d hopped on that fan train without a second thought.
“Brogan. Freaking. Grant!” she said, still giddy. “He’s like the fastest left wing in the league. He had thirty-six goals last season, and rumors are flying about how amazing we’re going to do when the season starts!”
Maddie and I blinked at her for a second, just like we always did when she started spouting off hockey stats. We weren’t opposed to the game, we just hadn’t grown up loving the sport like she had.
“Okay,” I said, returning to packing.
“I didn’t know he had a baby,” Daisy said, furrowing her brow before sipping her own coffee.
“He didn’t know he did either,” I said, then glanced at them both with my serious face. “This info doesn’t leave this room.” I eyed them both, and they nodded. They’d been my best friends since our freshman year in college, and I trusted them both with my life, so I knew I could give them the details without worrying. “Someone left a three-month-old baby on his doorstep early yesterday morning.”
They gasped in unison, and I nodded. Anger simmered in my chest, but I took a deep breath.
“Did he order a paternity test? Is the baby healthy?” Maddie asked, switching to full Doctor Madeline Ross in the span of a blink.
“He ordered the test,” I answered. “And she looked healthy to me, but I’m no doctor. She was just overtired. I got her to sleep, though.”
Daisy shook her head. “What kind of mother would do such a thing?”
I sighed. “A bad one,” I answered honestly. Whoever she was, she’s lucky it wasn’t sweltering that early in the morning. She was lucky Brogan returned from his run instead of catching a ride with Maxim to the arena for practice. She was lucky—