Have a seat. An audience will prevent me from having a temper tantrum."
Put that way, he didn't have much choice, but Axell raised his eyebrows at the idea of Maya having a temper tantrum. "You're both doing well?" He sounded cold even to himself.
"Thanks to you, healthy as pigs, except for this small problem." Now that she had the baby sucking happily on the bottle, she lifted the pink bundle in his direction. "Want to hold her? You've earned the right."
Startled, Axell almost pulled back, but his hands had a mind of their own. Carefully, terrified, he took the infant and bottle in both hands. She was no bigger than his outspread fingers, softer and more limp than a kitten. He could feel her heart beating.
"They don't break. Just hold her head up with your arm. Surely you've had experience at this," Maya instructed briskly.
Axell threw her a suspicious glance but did as she said. Alexa scarcely noticed the transfer. "My wife always fed Constance. Whenever I picked her up, Constance would cry." Amazed, he stared at the tiny fingers now wrapped around his big ones as the baby tugged hungrily at the bottle. She hadn't cried at all.
"She probably wasn't used to having you around. Babies bond with the sound of the parents' voices while they're still in the womb. If you'd kept talking to her, she would have eventually recognized yours."
Maya had pinned her unruly hair in a barrette, and her face was scrubbed clean of any hint of cosmetic. Her rosy smile and kaleidoscope eyes added all the color required. She was watching the baby and not him, but he could deal with that. He adjusted the infant so she could see Alexa better.
"So while I'm sitting here talking to you, Alexa is absorbing my voice, and she won't scream the next time I pick her up?"
Maya shrugged. "I can't promise that. Babies scream for lots of reasons. They're still screaming when they're teenagers." She rolled her eyes. "I did some student teaching in high school once. I'm not looking forward to adolescence."
Adolescence. My God, in a few years, Constance would be entering puberty. What the devil would he do with her then? Send her to girls' school somewhere?
"Then the theory isn't much different: give them what they want, and they're happy," Axell said.
Maya beamed in approval. "But what they want isn't always what's good for them. So screaming is just part of the territory. Get used to it."
He didn't have to be afraid if the child cried. Another revelation. Angela had jerked Constance out of his hands the instant she whimpered, as if he'd been doing something wrong. He'd always felt inadequate. It had been far easier to go to the bar every day and earn money to keep his family happy than to stay home and try to figure out what made them tick. But he was older now and had more endurance.
"How's Matty? Did Selene find a baby-sitter for him?" Maya asked.
"I had her pick him up and take him over to the house. Dorothy was already over there looking after Constance, so it just made sense. They play well together."
She didn't comment on his ignoring her instructions. "I think she's asleep. Put that pad over your shoulder before you lift her. She spit up earlier."
Little fists lay in complete relaxation even though the rosebud mouth still worked dreamily. The tiny mite may as well have reached through his chest and plucked his heartstrings. He was playing with fire here. Reluctantly, Axell lifted Baby Alexa to his shoulder and cautiously rubbed her skinny back.
Perhaps now was the time to get back to business. He could control financial affairs a lot easier than he could control squalling infants and suspicious women. "You want to tell me why the devil you sent the cleaning crew home and decided to move into the school? That's what you were doing, weren't you? You took your teacups."
Baby Alexa squirmed at his tone of voice, and Axell nearly bit his tongue. A gassy burp scented his shirt collar, and he stared at her in amazement. Recovering, he lifted the small bundle from his shoulder and handed her back to her mother. It wouldn't do to get any more involved than he was.
Who was he kidding? He was already in up to his neck, and unless he cut line soon, he'd be in over his head and going down for the third time.
He didn't want to cut line.
Astounded, Axell watched numbly