Page 10 of Daddy's Unexpected Gift

“Are you hungry again? You just ate, what? Four hours ago?” With a resigned sigh, I shifted her so I could carry her and picked up the laptop. The furniture and the clothes weren’t going to order themselves.

“Did you manage to get a grocery delivery with baby food yet?” I asked Wayne as I changed my location from the living room to the kitchen table.

“I did. Not knowing what she would like, I got a variety. Is she hungry?”

I shrugged the best I could while still holding on to her. “I think so. Cecelia said Georgie should be able to feed herself some things,” I said.

“Yes, but I believe that’s something that maybe should wait until Miss Georgie has a highchair she can be secured into.”

He had a point. “Fine, what have you got that I can feed her?”

“I’ll have warmed up rice and chicken nuggets in about five minutes.” Wayne continued to mutter under his breath, and I know I heard him complain about having chicken nuggets in his kitchen.

I didn’t even know where to start. I pulled up another tab on my web browser and typed in nanny services in Dallas. The list that came back was extensive. Finding a nanny was going to be a challenge. I was going to have to reach out to Child Services to help me locate a nanny.

Nannies, clothes, food, furniture. This little girl required a lot of attention and money. How had Argene managed? She had plenty of money, but my sister had never been one to focus on long-term projects. Maybe that had changed once she had Georgie.

I watched the little girl on my lap as she grew fussy. I had loved my sister even though I didn’t really know her. I never would now. Another missed opportunity.

Would I ever get to know the person this little girl would become? Would her father arrive and sweep her away, leaving me to wonder what she was really like? Would she grow up feeling like a caged bird like her mother had?

Wayne set a small plate in front of us. There was a pile of plain white rice and small cubes of…

“What is this?” I asked.

“Chicken nuggets and rice,” he answered.

“I thought chicken nuggets were deep-fried blobs of formed meat.”

“They are, Mr. Sterling. I cut these down to not be a choking hazard so Miss Georgie could feed herself.”

As if she had been waiting for Wayne to let her know that was her food, Georgie lurched forward and grabbed at the food with both hands. Fortunately, I had a hand around her middle holding her on my lap. I was able to tighten my grip and prevent her from launching herself onto the floor.

Bits of food scattered. Her finer motor skills were not yet fully developed. But she did manage to get some of the food from her hands into her mouth. She reached for more of the cut-up chicken.

“She definitely likes chicken nuggets.”

She also seemed to like the rice, though it made an even bigger mess.

“Wayne, I think we need to get a highchair in here immediately. I don’t think Georgie can wait for one to be delivered.”

“Yes, Mr. Sterling. I will take care of that.”

6

CECELIA

“Greta?” I knocked on my supervisor’s open door as I stepped into her office.

The space was small, lined with bookshelves along one wall and filing cabinets along the other two. Everything was piled high with stacks of files that needed to be put away, but as I understood it, all the space we currently had was used up.

“Come on in, Cecelia. How was your first day?” Greta didn’t look up from the papers in front of her.

“Uh, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said. I picked up a smallish pile on the other office chair and set everything aside as neatly as I could before parking my butt in the chair. “My case is a bit of a mess.”

“How so?”

“From all appearances, Mr. Alexander had no warning that he was going to be responsible for a baby. Isn’t it customary to alert the guardian so they can prepare?”

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