No Stranger to Scandal - By Rachel Bailey Page 0,17
as if by magnetic force.
From what felt like miles away, Josh sighed in his sleep and curled his teddy in closer. Hayden stiffened and looked down at his son before jerking his arm away from her. Lucy blinked and blinked again, trying to reorient herself to the world around them. To the park. To the reality that she’d almost fallen under the spell of a man she needed to keep at arm’s length. Of a man who would likely feel betrayed if he knew her real agenda in meeting him today.
Hayden cleared his throat. “Tell me why you’re so good with Josh. You don’t have any brothers or sisters, no young cousins or nieces or nephews. Is it just a natural thing with babies for you?”
She looked down at Josh, still holding his teddy close as he slept. If Hayden didn’t already know her involvement with babies, his research would soon unearth it, especially as he already knew about the lack of children in her family. There was no reason not to tell him—it wasn’t a secret, it was just something she normally didn’t discuss. Yet...something deep inside her wanted him to understand this part of her.
“Before my father died,” she began, still watching Josh, “he used to take me to volunteer at a residential home for people with disabilities that he’d established. He believed strongly that the wealth we’d been born to was a privilege, and it was our responsibility to help others. He also wanted me to stay in touch with how other people live.”
“Sounds like he was a wise man.”
She looked up to see if there was any other meaning behind his words—people occasionally grabbed the opportunity to take a sarcastic swipe about her father and his family, a consequence of their wealth and high profile. But Hayden’s eyes held only interest in the story she was telling, and she was more grateful for that simple acceptance than she would have expected. She stretched her legs out in front of her, relaxing a fraction.
“After he died, my mother wanted to continue his mission with me. But she said I could choose my own charity—the residential home had been my father’s passion.”
“And being a typical ten-year-old girl, you chose babies,” he said, stretching his legs out beside hers.
She bit down on her smile. “It was almost kittens.”
He chuckled. “What did you do?”
“We set up a free clinic in North Carolina for mothers who are having a hard time with their new babies. It’s staffed mainly by professionals—nurses, social workers and consulting doctors—and the moms and babies can stay a few nights, up to a week, to get help with feeding or getting their babies to sleep or whatever the problem is.”
He tilted his head to the side as he regarded her. “That sounds like a great service.”
“It is,” she said, feeling a soft glow of pride filling her chest—those midwives were doing fabulous work. “When we moved to D.C., we set up another one here. I go in and hang around most weekends, just being an extra pair of hands. Sometimes it’s babysitting while the new mom gets some rest, sometimes it’s manning the phones.”
Though helping out in person wasn’t an act of charity—she loved those times. Being part of a team and helping to make a real difference in people’s lives. She’d always thought of journalism as making a difference, too, but since the phone-hacking scandal had broken, she’d started to wonder.
Hayden reached into the picnic basket and offered her a strawberry. “Do you fund it on your own?”
She took the shiny red berry—her fingers practically sparking when they grazed Hayden’s—and twirled it on its small stem. “It started with just me, but I’m working on getting Royall Department Stores involved and building more clinics throughout the country. Aunt Judith is already eager to help—I went to see her in Montana last year to discuss it, and we’ll take the plan to the whole board soon.”
“That’s amazing,” he said with simple but genuine respect in his voice, in his eyes. “You’ve created something that’s made the world a better place.”
A warm flush spread across her skin, and she smiled at him, basking in his approval, letting it soak through her. Then, with a start, she realized she’d let his opinion matter more than it should. She forced herself to look away. A harmless flirtation with Hayden was one thing. Melting inside because he’d approved of her charity work was quite another. This man was still running an