Baby, Be Mine (Life, Love And Babies Book 3) Read online

  “You are in construction, Jake. You do massive renovations. How do you plan to do that from home?”

  “I have a crew.”

  She nodded and took another sip of her beverage. “Right. And you’re fine with never going on a job site ever again?”

  He paled. “Well, I wouldn’t say never…I’d just have to find a way to…”

  “To what?” she interrupted. “You’re clearly against hiring a nanny – even though it’s the best thing for all of you – and you think that you can still do your job. Babies can’t be on construction sites, Jake. You have to admit that you’ll need help.”

  He stood abruptly and began to pace in the kitchen. “I’ll figure it out, Olivia. I don’t have to have all of the answers right now. For the time being I can work from home. I’ve been on the phone for days with my foremen, and they are all okay with taking the reins for a while.”

  His tone was defensive, and she was smart enough to let the topic drop for now. “Well then, that’s a good thing, right?” He nodded and Olivia stood. “What time do you think they’ll be up?”

  Looking over at the clock on the wall, Jake tried to remember when they had finally fallen back to sleep that morning. “Some time after lunch,” was all he said.

  “Okay, then. How about you show me to my room, and I’ll get settled in and start making a list of what we’ll need.” Wordlessly, Jake led her from the room and toward the master bedroom on the main floor. The one he’d come out of earlier. “Um…” she began when she crossed the threshold.

  “Before they arrived, I was renovating the second floor. This is the only functioning bedroom.”

  Her mind swirled as she looked at the rumpled sheets on the bed and found that it wasn’t difficult to imagine Jake sleeping there. Shaking that thought aside, she chewed nervously on her bottom lip. “Oh…I guess I’ll take the couch. That’s where Mike was sleeping, right?”

  Jake nodded even as he verbally disagreed with her. “You’re the one doing me a favor, Olivia. You take the bed, and I’ll take the couch.”

  Could there be any more torture for her? Not only was she resigned to staying with him for several weeks, but now she had to sleep in his bed. True, she’d be sleeping there alone, but the fact still remained that it was his, and the sheets probably smelled like him. She almost groaned out loud. “If you’re sure…”

  “Absolutely.”

  She looked around the room. It was spacious and had a king-size bed, and there was an entire wall of windows as well as French doors leading out to a private patio. She could see the en suite and figured that she’d have enough privacy. “What about the babies?”

  Jake frowned. “What about them?”

  “Well, if the entire second floor is being worked on, where are you thinking of putting the cribs?”

  “Cribs?”

  “Yes, you know, the beds that babies sleep in.” She almost smiled at his panicked expression. “You were planning on buying them, weren’t you?”

  “They’re so small, Olivia. Do they really need cribs right now?”

  “I suppose you could get by with a couple of bassinets. They’re smaller, and they’ll easily fit in here; but you are going to have to buy the cribs eventually. I was just trying to get all of the basics out of the way for you.”

  He nodded. “I appreciate that, but until the upstairs is done, let’s just get what is absolutely necessary.”

  “You’re the boss,” she said lightly and made a quick inventory of the room. It wouldn’t be a big deal to have the babies in here with her for now, but the sooner they had their own space and started getting used to it, the better. “How long until the upstairs is done?”

  “I had another week or so to go if I kept at it like I had been, but I haven’t been able to do anything since they arrived. I’m afraid to hammer anything or to make too much noise.” He raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “Now I don’t know when it’s going to get done.”

  She wished she had an answer. “Let’s deal with one thing at a time. We’ll shop today and get what we need, and then we can think about you having time to go upstairs and work.”

  “Olivia, you can’t take care of two babies by yourself.”

  Well that sounded like a dare, she thought. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy,” she said smoothly, “but it’s not like you’re not going to be nearby. If things get hairy, I’ll call out for you. We’ll see how they do with the noise level and take it from there.”

  Jake considered her words. “Most of the loud stuff is over,” he said as he ran a mental checklist in his head. “I may have a few pieces of trim to hang; maybe some pictures. It’s mostly paint and carpeting.”

  “I don’t think that will be a problem. If the weather cooperates, I’ll take them out for a walk while you’re doing the loud stuff. How does that sound?”

  Unable to do anything but stare at her, Jake couldn’t believe his luck. When Marilyn had shown up here and dropped her bombshell on him, he was certain that he wouldn’t survive it. He had fumbled through for two days with Mike, but now standing here and talking to Olivia, he finally felt a sense of hope.

  It was too much; his emotions were running high and he had to do something to show her how grateful he was. Without thinking, Jake stepped forward and wrapped Olivia in his arms and lifted her off her feet as he hugged her. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for being willing to help me and for giving me the first glimmer of hope I’ve had in days.”

  Olivia was too stunned to speak. Jake’s large frame completely enveloped her, and her immediate reaction was to stiffen in his arms. When he whispered his soft words against her ear, she felt her body begin to relax.

  When she was back on her feet, Jake took a step back. “I’m serious, Olivia; I wasn’t sure I could do this, but listening to you talk about how we can get things done is exactly what I needed. I’m so glad that you’re here.”

  That made one of them.

  “I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but I’m good at task-management. I used to babysit a lot when I was a teenager, and all I can say with any certainty is that babies are unpredictable. We can plot and plan all day long, but it won’t mean a thing if they don’t cooperate.”

  “Don’t I know it,” he said with a chuckle. “Who knew that such tiny people could turn lives upside down so fast?”

  “I’m sure you’ll get used to it.” They stood in companionable silence for several moments until Olivia heard the first stirrings coming from the next room. She smiled at the sound. “There’s just one last thing I need before I go out there and get started.”

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Their names. In all of the craziness, you never told me their names.”

  “Madison and Ben.”

  Olivia thought of the two babies in the next room and sighed. The names were perfect for them, and she couldn’t wait to go out there and start talking with them. She said the words out loud and Jake laughed. “You know they can’t understand you, right? I mean, I don’t know a lot about babies, but even I know that they’re too small to really understand what you’re saying, let alone their names.”

  “That may be so, but there’s no time like the present to start getting them used to hearing them.” She stopped and thought for a moment. “Madison is an awfully long name; would you be opposed to my calling her Maddie?”

  Jake smiled at the thought. “Liv, as long as you’re here, you can call them whatever variation of their names that you’d like.”

  Olivia couldn’t help the wayward thoughts that suddenly filled her mind – like staying forever. She knew this was a temporary situation – at least on her part – and she shouldn’t let herself get too attached to any of this. Not the babies, and certainly not Jake.

  Chapter Three

  Organization was something that Olivia excelled at, and after her first experience of feeding and changing the twins with Jake, she was able to figure out what it was that the
y were going to need in order to make their lives easier.

  She had just placed Ben back in his carrier when she turned to face Jake. “Okay, that was a little bit wild.” She said it with a light laugh, but the look on Jake’s face made her realize that he was clearly overwhelmed. In a flash she was seated beside him on the sofa and placing a hand over his. “Jake?”

  When he turned to her his expression was a bit wild-eyed. “What am I doing here, Liv? I mean, I know nothing about kids – zero, zilch, nada. How am I supposed to take care of two infants?”

  The first thing that wanted to pop out of her mouth was that he needed to hire someone, but she knew that now wasn’t the time to bring that up. Instead she tightened her hand over his and gave him a serene smile. “No one is good with newborns. It’s always chaotic and wild and scary. The good thing is that they aren’t going to remember this. As long as you love them and feed them and change them, you’re doing all right.”

  He jumped up and began to pace. “But I’m not,” he said with a hint of panic in his voice. “When I hear one of them start to cry, I get a little freaked out. When I have to pick one of them up? I’m scared that I’m going to hurt them or drop them. And changing them?” He held up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t think that something so small could smell quite like that.”

  Okay, so basically Jake was feeling like every new-dad she had ever met. Which is exactly what she said to him as she stood and walked over to where he had finally stopped pacing. “There is nothing wrong with you or what you’re feeling. This is all brand new, and once we get them on a schedule and you get the house all set up, it’s going to get easier. I promise.”

  “How can you promise that?” he demanded with a little more force than either of them expected.

  Olivia simply arched a brow at him at his tone. “Because you love them, and you want to give them a good life. And because I know you, I know that you are going to do everything humanly possible to make that happen.”

  He seemed to consider her words and relaxed a little. Jake hated to look weak to anyone – he was always the leader, the one in charge, and to now to stand here and practically have a panic attack in front of someone was humbling to say the least. Forcing himself to smile, he looked first at where his children were sitting and then to Olivia. “Okay, what’s next?”

  She knew this wasn’t the last time she was going to have to reassure Jake that things were going to be okay, but for the time being, she would let it go. “Well, if you’re up to it, let’s load them up in the car and hit the baby superstore.”

  He paled. “Superstore? There’s a baby superstore?” He swallowed the panic that went with that question.

  Olivia nodded. “Brace yourself, big guy. It’s going to be an adventure.” She walked over and grabbed her purse. “Oh, and be prepared to possibly max out a card or two.” Walking over, she picked up Maddie’s carrier. She didn’t look back, but she was certain that Jake had turned an even paler shade.

  ****

  Back in the day, Olivia could shop with the best of them. The weekends of her teenage years were primarily spent at the mall. But this kind of shopping? This had been an entirely new kind of experience, and when they finally pulled back up in front of Jake’s home, she could say with great certainty that she had shopped till she dropped.

  Thank God for the superstore. Olivia wasn’t sure how they would have fared without it. While she was certain that there were dozens of other places they could have stopped and comparison shopped, for someone in Jake’s situation, this had clearly been the way to go. It had taken four hours, three salespeople and a lot of finagling to convince them to deliver most of the stuff to the house on such short notice. Jake’s full-size pickup truck carried a good amount of their purchases, but the larger pieces were being delivered tomorrow.

  They sat in silence in the driveway and Olivia saw that Jake’s hands were clenched on the steering wheel. “Are you okay?” she finally asked.

  “I think my head is still spinning.”

  She nodded in agreement. “Mine too.”

  He turned and looked at her. “Really? Because you seemed to be completely calm and in control and knew exactly how to handle those people. I don’t know what I would have done if I had to go in there by myself.”

  She chuckled. “You probably would have spent twice what we did and got half of what we did.”

  He frowned. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

  “Sure it is. They would have fed on your panic and convinced you to buy the most expensive stuff that they had in stock, and you would have believed them.”

  Sad but true. “Well then I’m glad you were with me, but I’m still in shock over the amount of stuff that you think they need.”

  Her eyes rolled as she leaned her head back on the head rest. “Seriously? Again?”

  “What?”

  “Every item that we purchased, I gave you a reason for why you needed it. There was not one frivolous item in the lot. What is it that you don’t think that they need?”

  “There were an awful lot of clothes,” he began.

  “This morning alone, I had to change Ben’s clothes twice.”

  He hadn’t thought of that. “Okay, then blankets. There were a lot of blankets.”

  Her head lolled to the side as she gave him a bland expression. “How many blankets were on Ben when I had to change him?”

  Jake’s mouth flattened into a grim line. “Pacifiers!”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” she huffed as she opened the car door. “I am not going to discuss this with you again. You made me justify everything that went into the damn carts, and I’m not doing it again.” She pulled open the back door to the truck and reached in for a carrier. Doing a quick look she saw that Maddie was still asleep so she carefully pulled the carrier out and walked up to the front door and waited for Jake to get Ben and follow.

  At the front door he fumbled for the key and then stared down at Olivia. He hadn’t realized how different they were in size until this moment. At six feet, he tended to be taller than most women and the top of Olivia’s head barely came to his chin. Her big blue eyes looked up at him as if she were daring him to question her again.

  He knew when to admit defeat. “Fine; they weren’t frivolous, but don’t get mad at me when I need you to remind me as to why something is here.” He stopped and placed Ben’s carrier down in the living room and looked around. “Where are we going to fit everything?”

  Olivia followed suit and placed Maddie down beside her brother, both blissfully asleep. “Well, I think that until the second floor is done, it’s going to be a little cramped down here, but we can make that work. Once you have a room ready to convert into the nursery, it will be easier.”

  Jake ran a hand through his hair. “I hadn’t planned on converting anything. This was supposed to be temporary. I was getting this place ready to sell.” He didn’t really need to expand on that, Olivia was well aware of the fact that Jake hadn’t planned on staying here.

  “Maybe convert was the wrong word,” she said quietly. “You can use one of the upstairs rooms as a nursery – for now.”

  Jake looked over at her with a sad smile. “Who am I kidding? It would be easier to stay here until they’re bigger. I can barely get through a day with them without feeling overwhelmed, I can’t even imagine how hard it would be to try and pack up and move with them.”

  “One thing at a time, Jake; let’s just take care of one thing at a time.” That being said, Olivia tossed her purse on the sofa and went out to the truck to begin bringing in their purchases. After her first trip, Jake stopped her.

  “Tell you what; I’ll carry it in if you find a place to put it.”

  “Deal.” For the next hour, that was exactly what they did. When all of the packages were in the house, Jake began the job of assembling the bassinets. When they were done, he moved the furniture that Olivia asked him to move; and when that was done, he collapsed on the sofa.

  “P
lease tell me that we’re done.”

  Olivia was coming out of the laundry room when she heard him. “There’s actually one thing that we forgot.”

  Jake’s eyes were closed and his head was tilted back against the sofa. “Only one?”

  “Lunch.”

  He opened his eyes and looked at her. “No, we fed them in the store, remember?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Not the babies, our lunch. We never ate.”

  “Oh, sh..,” he cut himself off. “Geez, Liv, I’m sorry. I completely forgot. Here you are helping me out, and then I don’t even have the decency to let you eat.” He jumped up and walked into the kitchen. “I don’t know if there’s anything here that you want, but…”

  “Jake?” she interrupted.

  “Hmm?” he asked distractedly as he scanned the contents of his refrigerator.

  “It’s actually dinner time.”

  His head dropped in defeat. “See?” he asked quietly. “How can I possibly take care of two kids? I can barely take care of myself.”

  Slowly, Olivia walked over to him. She pushed the refrigerator door closed and placed her hands on Jake’s shoulders until he looked at her. “It’s not your job to take care of me. I could have stopped at any time and mentioned lunch.” She shrugged. “We were busy, and that’s okay. I was just making an observation because, well, I’m hungry.” She could feel the tension radiating through him, and her hands gently squeezed his shoulders. “Why don’t you go and grab us a pizza? Get out of here for a little while by yourself and just breathe.”

  Jake looked at his watch. “They’ll be up soon, and it takes two of us to get them changed and fed.”

  Unwilling to accept his response, Olivia turned him and pushed him toward the front door. “Let me worry about that. You go and grab the food. I think that we both really need it.” She continued to push him toward the door and once they were almost there, Jake stopped and spun around.

  “Maybe you should go. I’m sure we’ve made you crazy today and…”

  “Jake?” she interrupted.

  “Hmm?”