Page 8 of Stealing Home

“Nothing happened,” he said calmly, rubbing gentle circles between her tiny shoulder blades. “She’s a newborn. It’s just what they do.”

“They just…cry? For no reason?”

“Oh, there’s always a reason,” CJ said with a laugh. “The trick is figuring out whether it’s hunger, a diaper, gas, being too hot, too cold, overstimulated, understimulated, or they just want to be held.”

Dom stared at him. “That’s…an insane number of options.”

“Welcome to babies.”

Lucia’s cries softened just enough that Dom could breathe again. “Okay, so how do you know what she needs?”

CJ shrugged gently. “Sometimes you don’t. You start with the obvious stuff and work your way down the list.”

“That doesn’t seem very efficient.”

“It isn’t,” CJ said with another laugh. “Eventually, you’ll figure out what the different cries sound like.”

CJ continued pacing, his steps slow and rhythmic, and Dom watched in amazement as Lucia’s cries gradually dissolved into soft snuffling sounds. He looked over at Evan, still perched on the arm of the couch, arms crossed. Dom followed Evan’s line of sight to where CJ was absentmindedly rocking Lucia as he paced. When he looked back, Evan was smiling to himself.

“What?” Evan asked when he caught Dom staring.

Dom raised an eyebrow.

Evan shrugged without a hint of embarrassment. “He’s fucking hot with a baby.”

Dom rolled his eyes and looked back at the baby. Lucia was still fussing as CJ paced slow circles around the living room, and he wondered if there would be a day when holding her felt natural instead of terrifying. Right now, he couldn’t imagine it.

“I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”

“No,” Evan agreed quietly. “But you’ll figure it out.”

As if on cue, Lucia let out another sharp cry, turning her face toward CJ’s chest. He frowned thoughtfully.

“How long has it been since she ate?”

Dom’s eyes widened. “I…I have no idea.”

CJ nodded once. “Okay.”

“What does ‘okay’ mean?”

“It means she’s probably hungry. Or she needs a diaper change.” CJ’s voice was low and soothing, and he looked over at Evan. “There’s a car seat and a diaper bag by the front door. Can you go see what Talia left in the bag?”

Dom had been so focused on the baby that he’d barely registered that Talia had left anything behind. He watched Evan cross to the entryway and crouch beside the infant carrier and the pink bag leaning against it. He unzipped the main compartment and started digging through it.

“She’s organized,” he observed.

“That sounds like Talia,” Dom murmured. “She always had her shit together.” That version of her didn’t match the woman who’d dropped a bomb on him.

“Okay,” Evan said as he returned to the living room with the bag. “We’ve got diapers, a changing pad, wipes.” He pulled each item out of the bag and placed them on the coffee table.

“And here we go, formula and bottles.” He placed a canister and two bottles on the coffee table and looked at Dom. “Looks like she left you everything you’d need for tonight.”

“A baby starter pack,” Dom joked weakly.

“She knew you wouldn’t have any supplies. She made sure you weren’t starting completely from scratch anyway.” CJ grabbed the formula and a bottle and started toward the kitchen. “I’m going to make her a bottle.”

“She planned it,” Dom said incredulously.