Angel Baby Page 6

  Claudia took a step back, shocked by the woman’s matter-of-fact statement, wondering if she had all her wits about her. The elderly woman stared at her with intensely intelligent gray eyes. Claudia realized she was entirely serious. “Well, I...I don’t know anything about the house. And you know absolutely nothing about me.”

  “I’ve heard all I need to know,” the woman replied succinctly as she folded her hands neatly over her black purse. “You’re a young widow who’s the newest employee of Paxton Construction, and you’re making a pretty good salary. You have an adorable red-haired child, always smile for the newspaper boy, and you're polite to that old harridan Sylvia. I think you would be a fine tenant.”

  Claudia’s mouth hung agape as she realized the stranger had already investigated her. Catching her breath, she noted the elderly woman’s tasteful jewelry, and the clean lines of her designer dress. She didn’t look like a typical landlady, but she certainly appeared wealthy enough to own property. “You’re serious? You have a house to rent?”

  “I certainly do.” The stranger opened her pocketbook to dig for a pen and paper. She jotted something down, then handed the slip to Claudia. Glancing at it, Claudia saw it was an address.

  “My husband and I built a guest cottage on the back acre of our property, hoping that one day our daughter would choose to live there. That never came to pass. Although it’s not been lived in for a few years, the house is in good repair, with two bedrooms, one bath, a nice sized kitchen, and a living room. Your nearest neighbor would be...me, which I recognize could be a draw-back if you’re one of those new-fangled young women who can’t stand old people.”

  Claudia felt a grin spread across her lips as she noticed the twinkle in the other woman’s eye. The lady was forthright, a little pushy, and entirely charming. “Actually, it sounds wonderful. Can you give me an idea what you’re asking for rent?”

  Claudia felt her hopes rise as the woman quoted a very reasonable figure. How great it would be to have her own house, and stop intruding on Melanie and Ryan. Even though she knew they genuinely loved having her in their home, a big part of her longed to be in her own space, surrounded by her own things. Sarah would hardly know what to do with a separate bedroom; at the apartment in Philadelphia she’d slept in a crib in Claudia’s room.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say you’ll come out to look at the house tomorrow,” the woman replied succinctly. “If you like it, you could move in this weekend.”

  The lady quickly gave her directions and Claudia made a mental note of them. If she left work promptly at five, she should have no problem driving the ten minutes south of town per the woman’s directions. Claudia began to feel a strong sense of excitement in her stomach at the prospect of having her own home. “I’ll be there,” Claudia said, still reeling somewhat from the unusual encounter. “But, I don’t even know your name.”

  “It’s Dorien,” the woman replied as she turned to exit the store, obviously having come in only to make her startling offer. “Dorien Campbell.”

  Bright and early Saturday morning, Claudia and Ryan set out in Ryan’s pickup to retrieve Claudia’s belongings from the storage unit she’d rented in Milltown. She hadn’t had much worth keeping from the Philadelphia apartment, but there were a few pieces of furniture, as well as personal items, dishes, photos and books. Everything fit in the back of the truck on the first trip, and they headed toward Claudia’s new home. Melanie had kept the baby, planning to meet them later.

  “You’re sure you want to move out so soon?” Ryan asked anxiously. “I mean, you and Sarah, you’re family.”

  “You’re closer than family,” Claudia said, smiling slightly. “My own family doesn’t even know I’ve moved back here.”

  Ryan frowned, but didn’t say anything else, for which Claudia was grateful. He’d been her friend long enough to know better than to comment on her relationship with her mother, stepfather and younger half siblings. Though he’d never met them, Claudia imagined he’d heard plenty from Melanie.

  As they rounded a curve in the country road, Claudia pointed anxiously and said, “That’s it. Isn’t it just darling?”

  They turned off into a gravel driveway to park right in front of a small, two-story cottage. The exterior had been recently painted a clean, bright white. Flower beds surrounded the front porch and the small lawn was freshly mown and sweet smelling. Claudia envisioned chasing after Sarah, rolling around in the grass, and making daisy necklaces. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Ryan smile broadly. He was as charmed as she’d been.

  “It looks all right,” he admitted.

  Claudia hopped out of the cab of the truck and ran up the front step onto the porch. She had already pictured the rocking chair she could place near the railing, which would be a perfect spot to sing to Sarah on warm evenings.

  “It’s better than all right,” she exclaimed as Ryan joined her on the porch. “The minute Mrs. Campbell showed it to me yesterday, I knew it was home. It’s fate. She told me she and her husband built the cottage for her daughter and baby grandson, but they never got a chance to live in it. Mrs. Campbell seemed so pleased that a woman and baby would finally be able to make use of it.”

  Ryan and Claudia quickly unloaded the truck and carried everything inside. The cottage was unlocked. That alone gave Claudia a strong sense of peace. It had been a very long time since she’d lived in a place where the doors could be left unlocked.

  Mrs. Campbell had left most of the furnishings in the cottage. She’d also obviously had someone clean last night after Claudia left—the house was immaculate. Claudia took time rinsing her good dishes and putting them in the cabinets, then placing a few favorite pictures in the living room. Ryan helped her remove a twin bed from the smaller bedroom, and then set up Sarah’s crib. The little house soon looked warm and welcoming.

  “Hello, there,” a voice called. Claudia peeked out the window to see Mrs. Campbell walking across the lawn from the main house. Rushing outside, she hurried to meet the woman, taking her arm to help her across the uneven grass.

  “I see you’ve gotten in all right. Now where’s that darling baby?”

  “She’s not here yet,” Claudia said. “She will be shortly, though. Please, won’t you come in for a cup of tea?”

  “I’d love to, dear, but I do need to keep an eye out. I’m expecting my grandson. He lives right next door, and generally stops by on Saturday mornings. I invent chores around the house to make him feel useful. I think I have the best-oiled doors in the county.”

  Claudia laughed as the woman rolled her eyes, then saw Dorien Campbell glance back over her shoulder. A white truck had pulled into the paved front driveway, up to the large two-story main house. Dorien waved both arms over her head to capture the driver’s attention.

  “There’s my grandson,” she said, and Claudia heard the pride in her voice.

  Claudia noticed the smile curving the elderly woman’s lips, and saw her eyes twinkling brightly. She looked very excited about something. Bemused, Claudia followed her gaze to see the man exit the truck and walk toward them across the yard.

  It was Chase Paxton.

  “Your grandson...” Claudia said softly as she watched Chase approach. “Right next door?”

  The woman nodded briskly, “You probably didn’t even notice his house when you came out. It’s set back off the road. Of course, I don’t imagine you’d recognize it anyway. From what Chase told me, you were pretty well incoherent by the time he got you indoors the night your baby was born.”

  Claudia froze, turning slowly to stare down at the little woman. The other’s gray eyes twinkled merrily back at her.

  “Chase told you? When?”

  “Why, right after I came home from Pittsburgh the weekend your little Sarah was born. Oh, he was in a high snit, mind you, because you’d disappeared out from under his nose. Then he mentioned a few weeks ago that not only had he found you, but you were coming to work for him.”

>   “And, this house, me moving in...was that his idea, too?”

  Dorien shook her head firmly. “No. He hasn’t a clue. I had talked about renting it out a few years ago, after he moved out of it.”

  “He lived here? In the cottage?” Claudia gasped

  “Yes, while he was getting the business going, he lived here to be close to me and his grandfather. He also worked every spare moment on the house next door. He finished it, oh, probably two years ago.”

  Claudia breathed deeply for a moment, watching Chase walk across the lawn toward them. That same unsettling sensation she got in her stomach whenever he was in the same room was starting up with a vengeance as she imagined him living in the small house she now shared with Sarah. Had he slept in the same bed? She shivered slightly, in spite of the heat of the day.

  “My, won’t he be surprised that you’ve moved in here.”

  “Surprised,” Claudia said weakly, “I guess you could say that.”

  Chase recognized Claudia’s beautiful hair as soon as he pulled into the driveway of his grandmother’s house. “What on earth is she doing here?” he muttered aloud as he parked the truck. He’d been planning to do a great deal of physical labor today, figuring with a hammer and a few ten pound nails he’d be able to get the attractive widow out of his head. And here she was, in the flesh. A great deal of flesh, he conceded, noting she again wore a pair of shorts that were probably considered modest, but with those long, sexy legs, looked almost wicked instead.

  Chase saw his grandmother gesture wildly to get his attention. Squaring his shoulders, he began to walk across the lawn toward the two women, wondering, with every step, what his irrepressible grandmother was cooking up this time.

  “Hello, Dorien. Claudia,” Chase said warily when he reached them.

  His grandmother held her arms up imperiously, so he bent to give her a quick hug and a kiss on her lightly powdered cheek. Then he straightened glancing toward Claudia. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Why, Claudia’s moving in, of course.”

  Chase felt his heart begin hammering in his chest, but maintained a completely relaxed expression as he asked, “Moving in?”

  “Into the cottage. It’s working out just beautifully. I’ve wanted to rent it out for the longest time, but I had to find the perfect tenant. And I have.”

  “Perfect,” Chase conceded as Claudia finally stopped staring down and lifted her head to stare back at him.

  “I had no idea,” Claudia said. “I mean, I didn’t realize....”

  The widow was going to be his next door neighbor. The thought elicited a mix of feelings in him. He recognized them as initial excitement segued into anticipation, then concern and finally acceptance. Maybe it was meant to be. Maybe fate kept thrusting Claudia Warren in his path for some divine purpose, as on that October day last year when he’d found her in that graveyard. Or maybe, he conceded, his grandmother was a meddlesome old matchmaker.

  That was probably more likely.

  “I’m sure you didn’t,” Chase said, taking pity on her. It was obvious by her high color and the way Claudia kicked at the gravel with the toe of her sneaker that she’d had no idea that Dorien was his grandmother, or that he lived next door.

  “If I know my grandmother, that’s exactly how she planned it,” he said dryly, casting an accusing glance toward Dorien.

  She widened her eyes innocently, raising a fluttering hand to her heart. He’d seen the gesture too many times to believe it wasn’t completely calculated to soften him up by reminding him of her age and frailty.

  “Why, Chase, how could you possibly think...”

  “Save it, Dorien. You've found a reliable tenant. From my few encounters with Mrs. Warren, I’ve discovered she has an incredible amount of pride, and is extremely honest, if a little lacking in common sense.”

  Claudia, who had begun to smile under his initial compliments, gasped at his last statement and said heatedly, “No common sense?”

  “Well, would you call it really sensible to drive out in the middle of nowhere, alone, without even realizing you were in labor?”

  Claudia didn’t respond. She had to know she’d taken a terrible risk that day. He’d often wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t come along, and suspected she did, too.

  “You leave her alone, young man. There will be no bullying of my new tenant,” Dorien said as she shook her finger in Chase’s face.

  “Who’s bullying?” a voice asked, and Chase glanced over to see Ryan strolling toward them from the cottage. “Oh, it’s you, boss. Now I know who’s bullying.”

  Dorien and Claudia laughed out loud as Chase frowned. “She still has you carrying her luggage around?” Chase asked Ryan.

  “This is my first time,” the younger man responded. “Seems to me, you were the one hauling her stuff around the last time.”

  Chase reluctantly smiled at Ryan’s reminder. Gently taking Dorien’s arm, he asked, “So, have you met Sarah yet?”

  “No, but I’m very anxious to. From the way you were raving about the child, Chase, she sounds adorable.”

  Chase shifted uncomfortably, catching Claudia’s pointed glance. He shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes, as if to imply Dorien was exaggerating.

  “Of course,” his grandmother continued, “your description of Claudia was perfectly accurate. I had no trouble finding her. I looked for the tall, willowy, auburn-haired beauty with eyes as green as springtime.”

  Claudia heard Ryan chuckle audibly. She quickly glanced at Chase, wondering if he’d actually used those words, or if his grandmother had exaggerated. The way he sighed and rolled his eyes told him he might actually have described her in such a way.

  She shivered a little, despite the heat of the day, studying him covertly. She almost wished she hadn’t. For the first time she noticed he wore another one of those sleeveless white t-shirts, and his thickly muscled arms flexed with his every movement. A pair of long, khaki shorts allowed her to examine his bare calves. She wasn’t surprised to find they were every bit as finely toned as the rest of him, tanned, and thickly muscled, with a covering of dark hair.

  Her mouth went dry as a sudden image of his limbs entangled with hers—sweat-tinged skin sliding together in heat and want—flashed across her mind.

  Realizing what she’d just pictured, Claudia jerked her gaze back up to Chase’s face and caught him watching her. She didn’t look away, and they exchanged a long, silent stare. In spite of the other people standing nearby, it felt as if they were completely alone. For an instant, she wondered if he could read her mind because she knew, without a doubt, that he’d been having thoughts just as dangerous and exciting as hers. She felt his gaze on her, saw it linger on her lips, then slide down over the scooped neck yellow shirt she wore. Her body tingled in reaction, as if he touched her with his glance.

  She had no idea how long they stood that way, but wasn’t able to break the electric contact until Ryan broke in.

  “Here they are, finally,” he said as Claudia heard Melanie’s car pull into the driveway. Pasting on a bright smile, she ignored her pounding pulse and the tingling sensation coursing through her body, and turned to greet Melanie and Sarah.

  Claudia sensed Chase’s eyes on her as she walked toward the car, but she resisted the strong urge to look back. And by the time Melanie and the baby got out of the car, and everyone headed toward the house, Chase had already turned away and begun walking across the lawn toward his truck.

  As if he, too, couldn’t bear for them to be together with all these other people around.

  As if he, too, was shocked by the intensity of the attraction that danced between them like a live wire.

  As if he, too, had no idea what to do about it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Sarah seemed to love her new home, exploring it thoroughly for the first week. Her brightly colored plastic toys filled a carton in the corner of the living room, and she l
oved to crawl over and pull out every single thing. Claudia had to laugh when she realized the baby was playing a game with her. Sarah didn’t want to play with the toys, she just wanted to pull them all out and watch Mommy put them all back.

  One morning while fixing breakfast, Claudia became distracted for no more than sixty seconds then found Sarah trying to climb the stairs. Though the baby had only reached the second step from the bottom and was completely unharmed, Claudia still felt terribly guilty. She bought a baby gate that very day. Claudia suppressed a smile at Sarah’s angry pout when she saw her path was permanently blocked. "Heaven help me when you start walking, kiddo," Claudia said with a grin. "I'll really be in trouble then, won't I?"

  Claudia fell into a comforting sense of home in the little house. Leaving the windows open while she slept was utter heaven, a luxury she’d never been able to indulge in Philadelphia. And Claudia loved lounging on the grassy lawn with Sarah every afternoon when they arrived home.

  Then there was Dorien. She was not only a terrific landlady, but also a very good neighbor, never intruding, but occasionally stopping by to say hello. As for her other closest neighbor...Claudia hadn’t seen him, except at work, since the day she moved in.

  “Now, you’ve got to promise to be a good girl for Mrs. Campbell, all right sweetie? She can’t be chasing you all over the place,” Claudia said as she carried the baby, and the gate, across the lawn to the main house on Saturday morning. “She’s just going to watch you for a little while. Mommy will be right next door.”

  Claudia was still unsure about leaving the baby with the elderly woman for a few hours, but Dorien had been so excited at the prospect of babysitting. And Claudia couldn’t very well bring the baby with her. She had to work for a little while. At Chase’s house.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered as she walked up the steps and rang Dorien’s doorbell.

  The past week at work had gone smoothly, and Claudia had managed to remain calm and distant with her new boss. Neither of them mentioned the sparks that had passed between them, and Claudia sensed he was as glad about that as she.