Plunking her hands on her hips, Dalia glared at both of them. “Claire is asleep. If either one of you makes a single sound that wakes her up and sets her off again, I swear, I’ll kill you myself! I’vechangedmy mind! I don’t want either damn one of you!”
When she returned from the land office the following day, the room was spotless. The broken furniture had been removed and replaced or repaired. Reuel and Pierce were sitting in chairs on either side of the room, glaring at each other, but the moment she stopped in the doorway they assumed carefully neutral expressions.
Reuel cleared his throat. “I apologize for last night. This is—I would like for this to beourhome.”
He seemed sincere enough, and the truth was Dalia didn’t want to have to choose anyone else, but she wasn’t about to contract with anyone who wasn’t willing to treat her as a full partner. “You have a real problem with ownership, Reuel,” she said quietly. “That’s the main reason I didn’t agree to a contract between us before. I think I understand why. And I know it’s something you probably can’t change, but you’ll have to at least make an effort to restrain your possessiveness or find another partner because I will be a full partner in any contract I agree to.”
He frowned, but thoughtfully, and finally nodded.
“We’d like to hear the house rules,” Pierce said coolly.
Dalia glanced at him. “Good. Up until now I’m the only person here who has done any of the work in taking care of baby Claire. I love her and I don’t mind. What I do mind is not being treated as an equal around here. So, the new house rule is that everybody takes a turn tending to baby Claire for however long it takes until she can take care of herself. Before, I didn’t know any more about nurturing than either of you. If I can learn, both of you can learn. So, from now on, we rotate, bedtime to bedtime. She goes to sleep at seven.”
Reuel flushed. “That is the house rule?”
Dalia gave him a look. “That’s the house rule I intended to talk about last night. There’s another one tonight. No fighting in the house, period. If you two just have to slug it out, take it outside. It scares Claire.”
Pierce and Reuel exchanged a sheepish glance. Pierce cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I hope you didn’t mean what you said--about the contract, I mean. I’d considered asking you about it after the president made the announcement, but you didn’t seem to want to talk about it.”
Dalia blushed. “I made the assumption that you wanted to. I shouldn’t have, but I was angry. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I can’t when Claire’s been screaming in my ear for an hour.”
“You weren’t wrong and I wasn’t criticizing. I’m just asking if you’ll reconsider.”
Dalia turned to look at Reuel. He looked almost as angry as he had the night of the announcement, but he swallowed his spleen with an effort. “I would just as soon not share you with Pierce or anyone, but the alternative does not appeal to me. I suppose if the only choice is being one of two partners, I mean to be one of them--if you will have me,” he added uncomfortably.
Relief flooded her. Dalia smiled tremulously. “I was afraid the two of you would behave so badly I’d have to contract with someone else.”
Moving quickly across the room, she leaned over the baby’s head and kissed Reuel lightly on the lips. “Yes! I love you!” Before he could grab her, she plopped the baby down in his lap. “It’s your night.”
He was still gaping at her in dismay when she cut off Pierce’s retreat by grabbing hold back of his tunic. “No you don’t!”
He turned to look at her, both hurt and anger in his eyes.
Dismay filled her. Ordinarily, even if he’d been hurt he would’ve tried to pass it off with a joke. “Sit on the porch with me?”
She thought for several moments that he would refuse. Finally, reluctantly, he nodded. She knew Reuel was probably no happier than Pierce, but she could only handle one problem at the time so she ignored the look she knew he’d bent upon her. Unfortunately, possibly because she saw that Dalia was leaving without her and she’d become accustomed to being only with Dalia, Claire chose that moment to object, loudly.
“Dalia?” Reuel exclaimed, jumping to his feet.
Sighing, Dalia glanced at Pierce. “I’ll meet you on the porch in a few minutes?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
When he’d left, she went back to Reuel, took the baby and then sat down in Reuel’s lap. “You’re going to have to learn to handle this,” she said.
He knew she wasn’t referring only to the baby. “I do not honestly know if I can.”
She studied his face lovingly. “Nothing is going to change the way I feel about you. Not even you.” Turning the baby, she settled her against Reuel’s shoulder. “She’s not used to you and it’ll take time. Walk her and pat her back. Sing to her if you know a song. If that doesn’t work, try bouncing her and if that doesn’t work try shaking something sparkly in front of her face. I have a bottle all ready for her, and when she’s eaten, she’ll go right to sleep. But you can’t give it to her while she’s upset. She’ll choke or she just won’t take it.”
Reuel nodded. When she got up, he stood and started walking the baby. Dalia watched the two of them until she saw the baby had stopped crying and was staring at Reuel in blank-faced amazement and then slipped downstairs.
To her relief, Pierce was standing on the porch, leaning against one of the columns. When he saw her, he pushed away from the column and started pacing the porch. Sighing, she glanced around the porch and finally chose the rocking chair and sat down, rocking as she gazed out at the stars in the sky.
When Pierce finally stopped pacing and halted by her chair, she got up and gestured for him to take it. As soon as he’d settled himself, she climbed onto his lap. “I’m used to Reuel being quiet and not talkative when he’s angry. I don’t like it, but I’ve learned how to deal with it. You’re not usually like this, though.”
Pierce let out a gusty sigh, as if he’d been holding his breath. “It tears me up, Dally. I don’t know if I can handle this. I thought I could if you’d just give me a chance. Hell, I guess if it wasn’t for the law I wouldn’t have any chance at all. I knew there was something going on between the two of you from the first. I figured he’d probably fathered the baby, but I still, thought, maybe, there was a chance you felt something for me.
“I’ve been crazy in love with you, Dally, since the first time I saw you. First it was the damn company’s laws that kept me away from you, and now this.”
