‘Renegotiating?’ Blair asked. ‘What kind of renegotiating?’
She lunged upward from her chair and followed Chuck to the sink. Behind her, Eloise used her spoon on bang on the bar, but Blair couldn’t concentrate on the exuberant rhythm. Instead, her mind was filled with thoughts of Chuck – and what he could possibly have meant দ্বারা that ominous, Scrooge-like renegotiating remark.
‘Well, for starters,’ he told her offhandedly, ‘I think আপনি should stop with the paper snow flakes.’
Blair gaped at him.
‘That is what you’ve been doing, isn’t it?’ she nodded. How could she be falling (all over again) for a Scrooge? She, a women who loved বড়দিন trees and ক্যান্ডি চকোলেট canes and stockings দ্বারা the chimney and দুধ and বিস্কুট for Santa-
She nodded. Then folded her arms defiantly over her middle as she trailed him back around the bar. ‘Yes paper snowflakes to go on those big windows of yours.’
His lips quirked. She frowned and straightened her spine.
‘It’s the best I can do until I can get to a store. And if আপনি don’t like it – ‘
Suddenly, Chuck rotated to face her. Blair all but skidded to a stop, nearly nose to nose with him. Wearing an expression somewhere between amused and affectionate, he shook his head.
‘I didn’t mean I wanted আপনি to stop all together,’ he said. ‘I meant I want আপনি to wait until আপনি can প্রদর্শনী me how to make them, too.’
‘Me? প্রদর্শনী you? Paper snowfla…’
‘Mmm- hmm.’
‘But I thought –‘
‘I know আপনি did.’ And at that, he actually burst into song.
‘You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch,’ Chuck sang in a deep cartoon-y voice. He pointed to himself, eyes shining with humor, as he went on. ‘You really are a heel…’
‘Oooh!’ Blair walloped him over the head with a snowflake in progress. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop his গান গাওয়া
Eloise clapped her hands and bounced in her infant seat, excited দ্বারা her cousin’s antics. Waggling his eyebrows at Blair, Chuck sang as he finished cleaning up the baby, comically exaggerating every verse. When he’d finished, Eloise was free to crawl across her blanket to await a bath, and Blair was আরো certain than ever she’d gotten in over her head.
She actually thought Chuck looked charming as he sang.
‘That was my পছন্দ বড়দিন song as a kid.’
‘I remember.’
‘I can’t believe I remembered all the words.’ He shook his head. ‘Its been years since I sang at Christmas. Don’t know why I did now…’
For an instant, he hesitated. He frowned, troubled.
‘Eloise seemed to enjoy it.’ Blair couldn’t help but smile over the memory of big, tough Chuck খাদ গান গাওয়া to his baby cousin. ‘So did I,’ she added under her breath.
‘What’s that?’ he leaned nearer. Grinning now, he cupped one hand over his ear. ‘Didn’t quite hear you.’
‘I ব্যক্ত I enjoyed your singing!’
‘That’s what I thought.’
Just like that he was back – the same sure, sexy, satisfied man she was accustomed to. For a moment there, Blair had wondered if he really was troubled দ্বারা Christmastime. His hesitation, his frown… But then she’d realized no one could possible make it through an entire holiday season without at least humming a বড়দিন song. Chuck had to have been teasing.
She hoped. Otherwise, he needed some serious de-Scrooge-ifying. And he needed it fast.
‘So will you? প্রদর্শনী me how to make these?’ he asked, nodding toward the paper snowflakes on the table. ‘I know I’ve done it before, but আপনি obviously remember better then I do. And it looks like fun.’
He looked like fun. আরো lightheaded than Blair could remember. Less businesslike, আরো open. And that, আরো than anything else, was the reason she agreed.
‘After Eloise’s bath,’ she said. It was time to roll up their sleeves… and get wet.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Thirty মিনিট later, Blair and Chuck were both drenched. They knelt beside the bathtub, Blair in she sodden red dress and Chuck in his drippy shirtsleeves staring in amazement at the tint charge.
Eloise splashed. They ducked, each retaining a now-practiced hold on the baby’s slippery body. As the bathwater slid across the vintage white মউচাক tiles behind them, they straightened.
‘What was in that dinner?’ Blair asked, wide-eyed.
Umm, mush. It shouldn’t have had this’ – he dodged a flying rubber ducky – ‘effect on her.’
‘The Grinch song, then?’
‘Hey!’
‘Maybe the mini shampoo Mohawk we made in her hair?’
Chuck shook his head. ‘She liked it. Besides, we rinsed it out right away –‘
‘After taking that cute snapshot.’ Blair hadn’t been able to resist. Eloise had looked adorable with her wispy hair sticking straight up.
‘- and I can’t imagine a simple hairstyle affecting someone that strongly.’
Blair could. Obviously he’d never gone for a desperate postbreakup shearing and emerged looking like Howdy Doody.
‘Well, something’s happened,’ she told him. ‘She hasn’t been this wiggly all day.’
Eloise giggled and lunged অগ্রবর্তী like an Olympic diver going for a perfect ten in the Mr. Bubble meter. Chuck, who had one arm across her shoulders caught her just in time.
‘This baby,’ he said, ‘has no concept of her own inabilities.’
‘Neither did we, when we agreed to baby-sit.’
But they were doing pretty well, Blair figured. They’d tag-team on the bathing, one of them holding Eloise steady while the other washed, then switching. Now the whole bathroom smelled pleasantly of baby shampoo, and Eloise was squeaky clean.
Whenever they tried to take her out of the tub, though, she cried. The baby’s scrunched-up, disappointed face as she was lifted from the bubbles was the saddest thing Blair had ever seen.
‘We’ll have to distract her,’ Chuck said. ‘I’ll sing while আপনি let out the water. Once it’s gone…’
‘Uh-uh. She’ll be scared. When I was a little girl, watching the water go down the drain terrified me. I was sure it was going to suck me right down with it.’
‘Maybe Eloise has a better grasp of physics than আপনি did.’
‘Har, har.’
‘Well, she’s obviously to big to…oh, hell. Never mind. I can tell দ্বারা looking at you. You’d sooner hammer nails with those stilettos of yours then risk scaring the baby.’
Blair nodded. ‘So would you, and আপনি know it.’
‘I generally hire someone for my hammering needs, but..’
‘Be serious. She’s getting pruney.’
They thought about it for a minute, while Eloise splashed happily with the bath toys Milly had left. Just when Blair had begun to think they’d have to risk another bout of loud baby misery, an idea occurred to her.
‘I’ve got it,’ she said, snapping her fingers. Then she left Eloise in Chuck’s care and headed for the living room.
Left alone with Eloise, Chuck observed his baby cousin carefully. Then, experimentally, he grasped beneath her slick little arms and raised her a few inches from the water.
Her shriek reverberated from the walls with all the force of a jet screaming overhead.
Immediately, he lowered her back into the bathwater.
‘It’s all right, Eloise, I didn’t mean it.’
She cooed and went back to playing. Hoilding her, Chuck eyeballed the towels on the bar to his right. They looked wonderful. Fluffy, dry, thick, dry. And dry. Grezz, what wouldn’t he give to shuck off his soggy clothes and retreat to his office for a few minutes, fortifying, productive work.
He tried sharing his মতামত with the baby. ‘But wouldn’t it feel nice to be dry? All cozy and warm and…’
‘No dice.’ Blair ব্যক্ত from the doorway, flipping her cell phone closed. Again. ‘if looking অগ্রবর্তী to future rewards really worked, nobody would need a Platinum card. We’d all have enough savings to buy everything we wanted.’
She looked momentarily dreamy, as though new shoes equaled nirvana.
‘Interesting economic theory. So we’re all just one pair of shoes away from financial solvency?’
‘In a sense. It depends on the shoes.’ She grinned, rising up on her bare tiptoes. She must have abandoned her heels in the other room. ‘Now, back to the baby.’
Smiling at the baby, Blair drew something from behind her back. Instantly, Eloise quit splashing. Her infant gaze locked on the thing in Blair’s hand, and she held out both arms.
‘Agoo!’ she squealed ‘Agoo!’
Chuck glanced backward to see what it was. Because without a doubt, ‘Agoo’ had to be the coolest thing ever to have elicited such a reaction.
‘It’s a book.’
Blair nodded. ‘Pat the Bunny. It was the rattiest looking thing in her bag. That means it’s the most loved.’
Aww, Chuck thought. Obviously, despite what Blair had ব্যক্ত earlier, he wasn’t the only ‘big mushball at heart’ around here.
‘Agoo! Agoo!’ Eloise insisted.
Blair held it enticingly out of reach. ‘After you’re all dried off, little Eloise. Then we’ll read a story.’
It worked. Effortlessly… and without the waterworks this time… Chuck pulled the baby from the bath. Blair helped him bundle her into a towel to dry off, then took over with a miniature soft brush to style Eloise’s hair. Within minutes, his tiny cousin was diapered and dressed in her candy-cane print pajamas with her পছন্দ blanket in hand.
‘I can’t believe that worked,’ he said.
Sitting on the sofa now with Eloise in her lap and the Bunny book in hand, Blair shrugged.
‘Bait and switch. It always seems to work with Bass’s. I think it’s goof to go, completely classic,’ she smirked.
‘All আপনি did was bribe Eloise into getting out of the tub.’
Blair made a dismissive sound. ‘Exactly what do আপনি call a miniskirt and a bottle of 5 বছর old scotch? Hummm?’
He scrunched his forehead, thinking. ‘A leg man’s lucky day?’
She rolled her eyes and opened the book.
He stopped. Looked over his shoulder. Raised his brows. All of a sudden he couldn’t wait for the পরবর্তি time she needed something from him.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Chuck emerged after his ঝরনা with damp, finger-combed dark hair, a fresh shave, and killer abs that teased Blair for the briefest moment while he pulled on his silk pajarma shirt. Wearing it along with matching silk pants that rode low on his hips, he came toward the sofa. Upon spotting Eloise on Blair’s lap, though, he stopped.
‘Is she asleep?’ he asked, look hopeful.
Blair nodded. ‘I think so. I’m afraid to সরানো and risk waking her up.’
The baby felt sweetly heavy in her arms, trusting and relaxed. The pat the Bunny book lay on the sofa beside them, abandoned after much patting and giggling.
‘Also,’ Blair added, ‘my left arm is asleep. It feels like it belongs to someone else. Someone in another time zone.’
Chuck grinned. At the sight, she felt her middle turn an excited somersault. In the dim room, with Eloise peacefully settled, Blair suddenly felt all-too aware of her impending alones with him…and of her complete lack of a strategy to deal with it. She needed one, too.
But before she could formulate anything to bolster her হৃদয় against the lure of his caring, his intelligence, his good humor, Chuck went and did something that endeared him to her even more. He set up the portable ডাবা , set up the baby monitor, arranged everything in his bedroom, and then returned to gently retrieve Eloise from her arms. With an obvious tenderness, he carried the baby to bed.
Moments later, he returned. ‘She wiggled when I put her down, so I waited to make sure she was still asleep. If she wakes up later’ he raised the monitors receiver ‘we’ll have this.’
‘Good.’ Think of something besides his naked chest, Blair ordered herself. Something besides his tight abs. Something besides the way he’s looking at আপনি right now, as though…as though he’s thinking of আপনি naked, too! She jerked upright.
‘We’d better get busy,’ she said, getting to her feet.
‘I was thinking exactly the same thing,’ Chuck replied, stepping closer. ‘I’ve been looking অগ্রবর্তী to this all night. Our time. You. Me. Together. Alone at last.’
Blair gulped. He looked so good. Sounded so good. Felt so right, as he drew nearer and nearer. If Chuck decided to চুম্বন her again, she didn’t think she’d have the necessary bravado to pretend it wouldn’t affect her. In the office earlier, her knees had nearly buckled when he’d accepted her dare, and they hadn’t even gotten to finish their kiss!
She’d spent years trying to get over him. Years trying to convince herself they were better off apart.
Now after only a single evening together, her tough mental discipline had disintegrated to…to this. Faced with him, Blair felt like a dieter staring down the বড়দিন deserts. When it came to her, Chuck খাদ was the original glazed yams of temptation.
‘Come on.’ He held out his hand. ‘We have unfinished business to attend to.’
AN/ Thank আপনি to those who reviewed. Hope আপনি enjoyed the speedy update. Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!
Xoxo B
