Page 10 of The Complication
Thankfully, as I reached the door, Parker came rushing in and slammed straight into me. He bounced off my chest and stumbled a step. For a heartbeat, he appeared as if he were going to shout at me, but his expression switched to shock and then horror.
“Mr. Foster,” he gasped.
I nearly rolled my eyes. That sounded almost as bad as when he’s called me “sir,” but now wasn’t the time to deal with that.
I stepped out of the doorway and motioned for him to enter. He inched inside, his wide gray eyes locked on my face. It was only as he was a few steps from the baby that he finally turned all his attention to the source of all the noise. He scooped up the crying child with a practiced ease and cuddled her to his chest, rocking her while rubbing her back.
“What’s all this about, Miss Fussbritches? I left you for a couple of seconds.” I could attest that it was longer than that, and I felt aggrieved for myself and the baby. “Did the big, grumpy man scare you?”
“I did no such thing,” I argued, but regretted those words as a small smile flash across Parker’s lips. He was teasing. It was the first hint of his old personality all day, and it gave me hope that the Parker I knew was not lost completely. However, that grin was gone again, falling away to worry and horror.
“Sir, I can explain. I?—”
I held up one hand, stopping his words. “Soon. That is not the most important thing right now.” He didn’t need to explain that he’d felt trapped because he was out of sick days and for whatever reason, his daycare for the child had fallen through. The baby was stuck here with him for the duration of the day.
As I glanced around the room, my eyes fell on the chair with the handle and a large bag stuck in the corner with a cartoon elephant on it. Probably what he was using to carry what the child needed for the day. That couldn’t possibly be adequate for her needs. How could she be comfortable stuck in that chair all day? No, that wouldn’t do at all.
Stepping past Parker, I picked up the chair and grabbed the bag. “Do you have any other things for her?”
“N-no.” Parker stammered.
“Come with me.” I marched out of his office, leading him through our department to my office, stopping only for a second at Mrs. Eleanor Turner’s desk. I’d lucked into finding her as an assistant a few weeks ago, and she was proving to be an excellent fit. She didn’t appear to be put off by my brusque manner. In fact, she was an older woman who’d handled many executives in the past and had adopted the same no-nonsense manner. I hoped that she had children and could understand what I needed.
“Mr. Cain?” She rose to her feet and stared at Parker in shock for a heartbeat before snapping her wide gaze to me. “Mr. Foster!”
“I need your assistance, Mrs. Turner. Could you come into my office?” I gave Parker a nudge to his shoulder, getting him moving. Our little train of flustered and confused people ended in my office. At least the baby had stopped crying, possibly distracted by the walk through the building.
I placed the chair and bag on the floor in the center of the room and turned my attention to my assistant. “Mrs. Turner, I have a request that is outside your usual job description. I hope you can help me.”
The older woman with the short steel-gray hair and sharp brown eyes dragged her attention from the baby to me. “I would be happy to, sir.”
“Do…you have children?”
“Two grown sons and five grandchildren,” she answered readily.
Good. This was going to be easy.
“Mr. Cain will have…” I lost my momentum almost immediately, as I wasn’t sure how to refer to the child.
“My daughter. Joy. This is Joy.”
It was a handy thing that my stiff and gruff assistant melted for the child in that instant because all words left my brain for a moment. He had a daughter. Parker was young,and he always struck me as a very careful, gay man. But he had a child.How?
“Oh, and she is precious. How old is she?” Eleanor cooed.
“Six months.”
“She’s a little thing for six months. My boys were enormous by comparison.”
I cleared my throat, and Parker and Eleanor snapped to attention. Even Joy turned wide blue eyes to me. “Mr. Cain will work in my office for the rest of the day. I’ll take over his office. Right now, he has only a small chair for her to occupy for the duration of the day. Can you find something…more comfortable for her? They make something like that, right? And toys to keep her entertained.”
“Declan! You don’t need to do that,” Parker blurted out, seeming to forget about his efforts to be proper. Hearing my name explode off his tongue made the world settle into its right place again.
“Yes, I think I have an idea in mind,” Eleanor interjected, not allowing Parker to stop me.
“Could you also take Mr. Cain’s jacket to my dry cleaner? Put it under my name. I will pick it up when I get my suits.”
“What?” Parker squawked.
