Page 19 of Daddy's Unexpected Gift

“Katherine, don’t call a car,” Sterling said. He sounded exhausted.

“I don’t think you can say anything to me that will change my mind about leaving.”

Sterling shook his head slowly. “I’m not trying to change your mind. Don’t call for a car. Take the limo.”

“Wha—” Her voice was shrill at first before she lowered it to a whisper. “What do you think is going to happen here, Sterling? This evening has been ruined.”

He nodded. “Yes, I know. Take the limo. I’ll get a car. You shouldn’t be put out anymore.”

“Don’t think this means you can call me after this,” she said before she turned with a dramatic flip of her hair and stormed off.

“What a darling little girl,” the older woman said as if the drama of the moment before hadn’t happened right in front of her. She held her hands out to take the baby. “May I?”

I handed Georgie over.

“I haven’t held a baby since my grandchildren were little. She is so precious,” she cooed over Georgie. “What’s her name?”

“Her name is Georgie,” I answered before Sterling had a chance to.

“I didn’t know you had a baby,” she continued to coo in the same tone of voice. People always talked crazily around babies. I wasn’t any different.

Sterling cleared his throat. “She’s not mine.”

The older woman stopped her bouncing from side to side and leveled a neutral stare at Sterling. I recognized a disapproving glare when I saw one.

“She’s my late sister’s child. I only have temporary custody. Robin, I do apologize for what happened,” Sterling started.

“I think the two of you need to talk without any additional interruptions. I will take Georgie here, and you go dance and talk.”

Robin swirled away with Georgie in her arms.

“Fine,” I said as Sterling grabbed my arm again.

He placed his arm around my back and began a slow, turning dance. It took me a moment to realize he was waltzing with me. Once I realized what we were doing, I stopped fumbling over my feet and began to dance.

“You ruined my date,” he said with a stern tone.

Being this close to him, even with him upset like this and my being angry at him, it still confused my body. I shouldn’t have felt butterflies in my middle, and my pulse shouldn’t have been racing.

“While I had no intentions of ruining your date, I needed to get my point across. It’s not my fault you dropped Georgie off unannounced or that your date wasn’t understanding.”

“What was I supposed to do with her?” Sterling asked.

“I don’t know, she was your date.”

“I mean the baby,” he grumbled.

“Come on, Sterling, you are a smart man. You wouldn’t be where you are today if you weren’t. And I’m sure your butler, assistant, Wayne, is also a smart man. Somehow, I think if the two of you had put any thought into the situation, you could have figured something out.”

“I called the agency,” Sterling said.

He was a good dancer. I kind of hated it. Moving so smoothly across the floor in his arms should not have felt this nice. But it did, and I liked it entirely too much. We were so close together, it was hard to keep eye contact. I kept staring at his mouth.

“I don’t work for some kind of staffing agency.”

“They told me that you would help me out. That I should ask you,” he said.

I sighed. He didn’t want to do the hard work, so he took that to mean that I would babysit. “They didn’t mean I would watch Georgie. They meant, ask me how to find childcare. How did you find out where I live, anyway? Did the office tell you?”

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