Page 31 of Cooper’s Passion

“That’s convenient,” Wes said with a look at the toddler. “Strange how you always have last-minute meetings when we’re babysitting Jacob.”

Virginia smirked and put her arms around her husband, before she kissed him for more than just a few seconds. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“Well, if you put it that way…”

Virginia turned toward the door. “Nice to meet you, Anita. I’ll see you all later.” Then she left the kitchen.

“She’s got you totally wrapped around her little finger,” Cooper commented.

“Well, there’s something we Montgomery men aren’t immune to: beautiful, hot-blooded women. Get used to it, ‘cause we’re all sitting in the same boat, you, your father, and I.” Then he motioned to the toddler. “And when Jacob is old enough, he’ll be joining us.”

Anita suppressed a laugh. She liked Wesley and his wife. They were easy-going and witty. And they didn’t behave like uncles and aunts were meant to behave. They seemed much younger too.

“So who are this cute boy’s parents?” Anita asked.

She noticed how Cooper was rocking Jacob gently in his arms, the action so natural that she realized that this wasn’t the first time he’d done this.

“Jacob is Katie’s son. I’m just on babysitting duty today,” Wesley said.

“She’s Wes and my father’s younger sister,” Cooper added, before he addressed his uncle. “Where are Katie and Luther today?”

“Fundraiser for the theater.” He grimaced. “They promised to be back before ten to pick up this rascal.”

“He doesn’t seem like a rascal,” Anita said and smiled at the boy. She approached, and he smiled back at her.

“Wanna hold him?” Cooper asked and already transferred him into her arms, before she could protest.

“Hey, Jacob,” Anita cooed, and the boy looked at her with curiosity.

“Is that his dinner?” Cooper asked, just as Wesley pressed the button for the blender, and the sound drowned out everything else.

Jacob jolted in her arms, and stared at her, his eyes suddenly blood-shot, his mouth wide with only two tiny teeth protruding. The loud sound was clearly scaring the child, and she instinctively pressed him closer to her, when he finally leaned his face against her biceps.

“Ouch!” Her involuntary yelp coincided with the blender stopping.

“Anita? Jacob?”

Cooper was at her side in a flash, while she looked at Jacob who was just now pulling back his head. She noticed something red on his tongue, and with horror, Anita looked at her biceps, where two tiny pinpricks marked her skin.

“Jacob bit me.”

“Uh, oh,” Wes said from behind Cooper. “I’d better feed him.”

While Wes reached for the toddler, Cooper rubbed his fingers over the tiny wounds.

“That’s the age,” Cooper said. “Don’t worry, I’ll kiss it and make it better.” He winked at her and dropped his face to her bicep, then kissed her softly. “See, it’s all gone. He just nicked you a little.”

When she looked back at her biceps, she realized that Cooper was right. No more blood seeped from her skin, and she couldn’t even see the pinpricks anymore.

She gave Cooper a grateful smile, hoping he didn’t think that she was hysterical or didn’t like kids, when it was so obvious to her that he loved his little cousin and knew how to handle him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to overreact,” she said, before she looked past Cooper to Wes who was now placing Jacob into a high chair and fastened a bib around his neck. “I hope I didn’t scare him.”

“He’s made of sturdier stuff, right, Jacob?” Wes said and fed him a spoon of the pureed food he’d prepared.

The boy instantly spit it out.

Wes rolled his eyes. “I have the feeling this’ll take a while.”