Found: One Secret Baby by Nancy Holland Page B

you?”
    “I have no interest in raising a child as a single parent.”
    Her heart stopped. Never in her life had she heard the words “no interest” say so clearly that the man was very interested, indeed. Why else would he think that was the question she meant to ask him? She took a deep breath and her heart chugged back to life.
    “Well, I do,” she told him. “I love Joey and he loves me. I’ll fight Charlie’s mother every step of the way on this.”
    “That’s understood.”
    She rolled her eyes at the cold formality of his tone. And she’d nearly let this high-class, heartless robot kiss her!
    She stood, a now-drowsy Joey on one hip. “If that’s everything, Mr. Danby, it’s Joey’s naptime.”
    “Nep,” Joey echoed.
    Morgan stood too, his face slightly red again. “What about the gift Lillian sent?”
    “The monstrosity?” Rosalie had forgotten. “Why did you leave it in the SUV?”
    “I didn’t want the child over-excited before I was able to get the DNA sample.”
    “Well, by all means, let’s get him over-excited now, right before his nap.”
    Morgan straightened. “How was I supposed to know his schedule?”
    At least he sounded like a human being now, even if a stuffy and slightly angry one.
    “Why don’t you bring it in?”
    Whatever she might have expected Morgan to bring in from the SUV a few minutes later, it wasn’t a four-foot-high purple stuffed elephant with a raised, two-foot-long trunk and huge protruding eyes. Joey took one look at the purple giant Morgan set by his playpen, screamed with fright, and burst into tears.
    The glare Rosalie gave Morgan over the ugly stuffed animal’s back said more than any words could have about Lillian’s common sense as a grandparent, much less a parent.
    Not that he didn’t agree.
    He made no protest as Rosalie hustled Joey out of the room. The closing of a door cut off the last of Joey’s sobs, then music drifted down the hall. Mozart.
    Morgan stood and wandered around the room. The cats were back. They sat side by side, watching him from the entry with wide yellow eyes.
    He paused by the bookcases on each side of the front window. They held novels popular twenty years ago and stacks of art books, all of which obviously had belonged to Rosalie’s mother.
    The whole house still belonged to Rosalie’s mother. He could see that now. She’d been the one to decorate it with floral patterns, and no doubt planted the array of flowers outside. Rosalie had left it untouched so that nothing in this room, this house told him anything about Rosalie herself. Perhaps her bedroom …
    He refused to let his mind wander there. What more did he need to know about the woman, anyway? She and Lillian would be at legal loggerheads for months, maybe years. The more he stayed out of it, the better it would be for his mental health—and the bottom line of Danby Holding Company.
    Unless he decided to join in the legal free-for-all and try to get custody of Joey himself.
    He stopped pacing and sat on the couch to mentally count the pros and cons again. He was about to reach for his cell to text himself a list when Rosalie reappeared.
    “You still here?” She stood in the entry, hands on hips. “I’d think you’d be half-way back to wherever you usually lurk after you released that purple nightmare on an unsuspecting world.”
    He shrugged. “Lillian …”
    “Is more an idiot than an evil stepmother. I get it now. The question is, why are you on her side?”
    Before he could think better of it, he told her the truth. “I’m all she has. My father died within weeks of Charlie’s arrest. So she’s all the family I have too, I guess.”
    Besides, someone needed to protect Joey from Charlie’s father, but raising that specter would only complicate the conversation.
    “I will not feel sorry for the woman. Nice try.”
    He threw back his head in exasperation and stood up to leave.
    “Please take the psychedelic pachyderm with you when you go,” she