Page 13 of The CEO

“I will. I’ll just put this stuff away and then meet you in the kitchen…after checking on Lilly, of course. We should probably put her to sleep where we are rather than alone in your room, at least when we’re not up here. We’ll get a baby monitor and won’t have to worry about that, but we’ll still need the playpen downstairs so she can be safe while she’s down there. We don’twant to hold her all the time. I should have thought of that when we were at the boutique.”

“Regardless, I’ll work some from home. Emily can handle any of the day-to-day stuff and I won’t have to go in except for meetings, but I do have a lot of those. I want to be as hands on with Lilly as possible.”

Bree nodded and clasped her hands behind her. “I understand. I feel the same way. I don’t want her to be raised by babysitters and nannies. I normally work from home anyway, so she can be with one of us all the time.”

“Those are my thoughts exactly. After Lilly wakes up, I’ll take the playpen downstairs. We can turn the library into your office. Would you mind sharing mine until that happens?”

“Not at all. I can write anywhere, really. But I would like to bring my desktop over. I can use the laptop, but I prefer the big computer.”

Adam nodded. “Understood. Well, I’ll see you in a short while.” He made his way to the door and went out.

Bree placed the suitcase on the bed. She wanted to unpack it as soon as possible so the clothes didn’t get too wrinkled.

She’d packed a couple pairs of jeans, t-shirts, black dress pants, two silk blouses, and a swimsuit, one of her more modest one-piece suits. The garment was single shouldered and showed off her figure, which wasn’t too bad. She also brought a bikini and a floral print skirt coverup that went with either suit.

She brought a nice pink silk sheath with matching shoes she could get married in. Nothing too fancy. She didn’t want that, but still not jeans, either.

When she was finished unpacking, she walked across the hall to check on Lilly.

Bree found the baby awake, chewing her right fist and playing with her left foot. “Well, hello, sweetheart. How long have you been awake? I bet you need a fresh diaper, huh?”She walked into the bathroom and got a bath towel. When she returned to the bedroom, she laid the towel on Adam’s bed, folded in half for extra protection. She picked up the diaper bag off the floor by the bed. Then she bent and swept the baby into her arms and headed down to the kitchen.

She didn’t immediately find Adam, so she put a baby blanket on the floor. From the diaper bag, she pulled out a diaper, the wipes and the A&D Ointment. She placed all of them to the side of the blanket. Then she laid Lilly on the blanket while she prepared a bottle. By the time she was finished, she saw that the baby had rolled over and was doing a turtle walk across the Moroccan tile floor.

“Well, aren’t you so smart? I’ve not had a baby belly crawling at six months before. Usually, my brothers and sisters waited at least another month. Yes.” She tickled Lilly’s stomach. “You are just so smart. We definitely can’t just leave you on the bed alone, you’ll roll right off.”

“Who’ll roll right off what?” Adam strolled in from the garage.

Bree looked up as Adam entered. “Lilly can’t be left alone on a bed. She’s rolling and trying to crawl. She’ll roll off the bed if we don’t watch her. So, if you have to put her down for any reason, lay her on the floor on her back and preferably not near the bed. She’s liable to roll right under it.”

Adam raised his eyebrows. “Good to know.” He walked over and squatted next to Lilly. “So, little bit, you’ve been giving your mommy something new to worry about. Taking care of you will be quite the experience for your old dad. But I’ll learn. Nothing will stop me from being the best dad ever.”

Bree chuckled. “You are going to be the best dad. I have no doubt about that because you love her so much. However, now she needs changing and she’s probably hungry. Do you want to change her while I finish getting a bottle ready…just in case?”

He looked up, eyes wide. Then he swallowed hard. “Well, I need to get good at this, so yeah, I’ll change her. You have everything ready, so here goes.” Adam took off the used diaper, cleaned her gently and put the new diaper on…backwards.

Laughing, Bree set the bottle on the table and pointed at the diaper. “That wasn’t bad except you need to put it on the other way around.” She opened the tapes, turned the diaper around and snugged it up around her belly with the tapes..

Adam took notes on his phone. “Ah, that would make it easier.”

“Immensely, now let’s see if she’s hungry.””

“Okay.” He picked up the baby and walked to the sofa in the family room off the kitchen. The room held two sofas, one on the long side of the room. A gas fireplace on the third wall and a large screen TV above the fireplace. Two recliners faced the TV with their backs to the kitchen.

A large round table was between the kitchen and the family room. The three spaces were open to each other, making one big room.

Bree handed him the bottle, then bent and adjusted Lilly in his arms by bringing her head up a bit.

When Adam put the nipple up to Lilly’s mouth, she turned her head. He tried again with the same result. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“Nope, she’s just not hungry. Since it’s nice outside, how about we get changed and get her into her swim pants and get her used to the water. That will make it easier when she actually takes lessons.”

“Sounds good. I have to call the office first, but I’ll be out in about twenty minutes.”

He didn’t sound thrilled at the prospect, so she took pity on him and nodded. “I’ll change her after I get on my suit. Let me have her.”

Adam passed the baby to Bree. “Thanks. I think I can only learn so much in one day.”

Bree chuckled.We’ll see how much you can learn. I bet. it’s more than you believe it is.