Chapter Eight
“Savannah!”
Savannah sat straight up in bed with her heart pounding in her chest. It took her a moment to realize what was happening. She noticed it was 2:00 a.m. when she jumped out of bed and raced to the room where Mason was staying with his son. She flung open the door and stopped dead in her tracks.
There stood Mason beside the bed. Wearing only a pair of boxer briefs. His arms were straight out in front of him, handing holding the baby who was red-faced and wailing like a banshee.
Mason’s chest and briefs were liberally splattered with the same smelly stuff that spotted the sheets and coated the baby’s bare butt and legs. It was one big fat mess, and the look on Mason’s face was one she wished she had a picture of.
She burst out laughing and he scowled at her. “This is not funny. I was trying to change his diaper and he peed right in my face, so I picked him up to go to the bathroom for something to wipe my face and his ass exploded.”
That had her nearly doubling over with laughter. “I’m sorry,” she managed to say between guffaws. “I am, but—” She put her hands over her face. “Okay, sorry.” She collected herself. “Don’t panic, just come with me.”
“Where?”
“To get you both cleaned up. Come on.”
She led them to the bathroom and turned on the shower. She kept her hand in the spray as she adjusted the temperature. “It can’t be too hot for him so it might feel cooler than you like. There. That should be perfect.”
Savannah took the sprayer from its holder and stepped into the shower, pointing the spray of water at her feet. “Okay, get in.”
Mason stepped into the shower and Savannah started spraying the baby. “What are you going to call him?” Savannah asked. “Thomas? Morgan?”
“Both of those sound so old for a baby. Maybe Tom? Tommy? What do you think?”
“Tommy?” Savannah cooed at the baby. “I like it. Hey there, Tommy.”
He cried, but she just cooed to him and kept spraying him and Mason both. It wasn’t long before she had them rinsed.
She hung the sprayer in its holder and let it hit her in the back as she picked up the soap and started washing Tommy. He was getting fussy and his cries grew in volume.
“Hold him up against you,” she said and when Mason did, the baby quieted.
“There you go. You just want to feel safe, don’t you, pretty boy. Let Miss Savannah get you all clean. Yes, you like that, don’t you?”
Once he was soaped down, she gently rinsed him again and then held out her hands. “I’ll take him so you can get clean.”
Mason passed the baby to her, grabbed the soap, and then looked down at his stained briefs.
“Oops, sorry.” Savannah tried not to look but failed. Now wet, those white briefs were quite revealing. She avoided looking at Mason’s face as she stepped out of the shower onto the thick rug.
She picked up one of the towels and got the baby dried and wrapped in the towel. It was when she reached for another towel that she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror.
Shit. Mason’s briefs weren’t the only item of clothing that was near transparent. Horrified that he’d pretty much seen her naked, she wrapped a towel around herself, picked up the baby and hightailed it down the hall to her room.
Two minutes later she was dry and wearing a pair of yoga pants and a sleeveless tunic top. She picked up Tommy and headed out of the bedroom to go find him a diaper and fresh clothing.
Just as she stepped into the other bedroom, Mason stepped out of the bathroom with a towel draped around his waist.
Mother of God. She couldn’t move. Could barely breathe. All she could do was stare. And want.
Mason stopped as well, and their gazes locked. Savannah felt something swim through her, melting into her cells, becoming part of her. Desire but more. A wanting. It was a bone-deep need, the kind of feeling a woman is possessed by when she looks upon the face of her mate, that one man she burns for and always will.
It nearly incapacitated her, the feeling was so strong. She marveled that something so foreign and unfamiliar could feel so much like something that had always been inside her. Something that had lain dormant for all this time. Waiting to be awakened.
Now it was, and she knew that nothing about her would ever been the same again. No matter what happened after this moment, there would never be a time that she was not possessed by this yearning.
Tommy let out a sudden cry and the moment shattered. “It’s okay, little man,” she cuddled him close. “Let’s get you dressed and fed.”
With that, she hurried into the room and looked around for the diaper bag. She purposely didn’t look in Mason’s direction when he walked in. She was aware of him going through his luggage as she knelt and looked through the diaper bag. “Tomorrow, you can put your things in the dresser and closet. There’s no point in living out of a suitcase.”
“I don’t want to be an imposition.”
She rose with a diaper and a fresh one-piece suit for the baby in her hand. “I invited you, remember?”
“Thanks, Savannah.” He took his clothes into the bathroom and she turned her attention to the baby. The bed was a mess so she put him on the floor to dress him.
When Mason emerged wearing a pair of cotton drawstring pants, she almost swallowed her tongue. God, couldn’t he have chosen something that made him look awful?
Right. Like that was possible.
“Oh wow, this is a mess,” he said as he looked at the bed.
“Easy to fix.” She got up and together they stripped down the bed.
“What do you want me to do with them?” he asked.
“Here.” She took the bed linens. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurried to the laundry room, stuffed the sheets into the washer, added detergent, and turned it on. Then she backtracked to the linen closet, got clean sheets, and returned to the bedroom. Mason was sitting on the floor beside Tommy but stood when she entered.
In two minutes, the bed was made. Mason picked up his son and placed him on the bed. When Tommy started to whimper, Mason looked at Savannah. “What did I do wrong?”
“Nothing. He’s probably hungry. I’ll fix him a bottle.”
With that, she got what she needed from the diaper bag and hurried to the kitchen. The time it took to measure the mix, add water, and heat the bottle gave her a couple of minutes to get a grip.
Not only was being around Mason making her half-crazy with desire, but being around the baby was taking more of a toll that she wanted to admit. You can do this. Just one foot in front of the other, Savannah. You can do this.
Or could she? Savannah didn’t have a clue, but she knew she needed to try. For the baby’s sake if for nothing else. That poor child had just been dumped into the lap of a father he didn’t know, was in unfamiliar surroundings, and his mother had walked away.
It broke Savannah’s heart. If Tommy were hers, she would cherish every moment with him.
But he wasn’t hers, and she couldn’t let herself get attached to him. Mason was his father and needed to learn to take care of him. She would help him learn to do that and when he had, he and Tommy could move into his family’s place.
Their time here was just temporary, she reminded herself as she took the bottle and returned to the bedroom. What she saw when she walked in darn near made her cry.
Mason was lying on his side on the bed, smiling down at his son who lay beside him. Tommy was cooing and waving his arms as Mason whispered to him. “Work with me here, buddy. I’m new to this, but I promise I’ll get it and I promise I won’t let you down. Not ever.”
Savannah blinked back tears. “Okay, here we go.” She gave the bottle to Mason. “Remember to burp him, okay. And it’s best if he sleeps on his back.” He took the bottle and put it in the baby’s mouth; he latched hold and started sucking away. “Will he want another bottle tonight?” Mason looked around. “What time is it anyway?”
“Nearly three. He’ll probably be awake in three to four hours so get some sleep while you can.”
“Three hours?” He looked down at Morgan. “How long does that last?”
“I don’t know. Some babies sleep through the night by the time they’re a couple of months old. He might, too, but right now his schedule is upset. He’s away from his mother and in a strange place and—and his life has been turned topsy-turvy. He needs some time to settle in and bond with you.”
“Do you think he will? Bond with me, I mean?”
“Sure, he will. You’re his dad.”
“His dad.” Mason looked at the baby again. “God, his dad.” He looked at Savannah again. “I don’t know how to do this.”
“You’ll learn, and you’ll be fine. Just don’t overthink it. And get some rest. Goodnight, Mason.”
“Goodnight. Thank you, again, Savannah. I don’t think I could do this alone.”
She nodded and left the room. Every step she took down the hall was an effort to keep upright, to hold her breath and not give in to the pressure building inside her. It wasn’t until she was in her own room with the door closed and her head buried in her pillow that she released the restraints and let the tears come.
She cried until there were no more tears inside her and then she rolled over and stared at the ceiling. How was she going to function in this situation? Deal with being around a man she wanted so much she ached and his son, a baby so precious and sweet, who was a living reminder of what she’d never have?
Suddenly she realized she’d made a huge mistake. She should never have come to Cotton Creek because sure as sunrise, she was going to not just lose her heart here, but also have it shattered into a million pieces.