She’d told him it was a knee-jerk reaction to hearing about the accident and then seeing his daughter born, but she had no way of knowing if that was the truth or not. The fact he hadn’t said it again since made her believe maybe she’d been right.
The not knowing left her feeling uncertain and off-balance, so she said nothing about it. And she worked harder at keeping a distance between them, just in case his feelings for her really had been all wrapped up with her having a baby.
Knowing Mary, though, within a few days she’d be getting a beautifully matted and framed photo of Lily and her parents—an almost perfect family smiling for the camera.
“Are they going to do tricks?”
Kevin’s voice jerked her out of her depressing thoughts and she realized she’d been staring at the shelves of diapers for who knew how long.
“Sorry.” She grabbed a package of store-brand diapers in the next size up, because Lily was growing like a weed, and tossed them into the cart.
Kevin took them back out. “Are you sure you want these? One of the magazines I read said these over here are the best. Super absorbent areas specifically placed for baby girls. Soft, stretchy elastic. Good for sensitive skin.”
“And the most expensive.” She grabbed the generic diapers out of his hand.
He grabbed them right back. “We can afford decent diapers.”
We? “The store brand is decent enough. And it’s bad enough I let you talk me into accepting a paid maternity leave. I’m not going to waste your money—or mine—on fancy diapers just because the package is pink instead of generic white.”
“Fine.” He tossed the package back into the cart. “I just want her to have the best.”
“Trust me, she’s not going to be traumatized because her diapers don’t have specially targeted absorbency zones for girls.”
He resumed rolling along behind her in silence until she started picking through packages of boneless chicken breasts. “Why don’t you just call down to the bar and have them make you something. You don’t need to be cooking meals right now.”
She wished, not for the first time, she’d left him in the car with the window cracked an inch. “Jasper’s has a great menu and the food’s delicious, but it’s still a sports bar, Kevin. Sometimes I just want a salad with some sautéed chicken on the side.”
“I’m sure if you asked, they could make that for you.”
Turning around to face him, she put her hands on her hips. “If you think I’m going to interrupt your staff with special-order demands from above, you don’t know me at all.”
“Okay, so that wouldn’t be like you.” He gave her a small smile, not at all like his usual ones. “Maybe I could take you out for dinner one night soon.”
“For God’s sake, Kevin, I’m perfectly capable of making chicken and a salad with a baby in the apartment.”
“That’s not what I meant.” The smile faded as his mouth tightened. “I was asking you for a date. I just timed it badly, I guess.”
Timed it badly? He could say that again. “I have a three-week-old baby, Kevin, and—”
“We. We have a three-week-old baby.”
“Which is why dating should be the last thing on our minds. Besides, I thought you were going to find a woman who’ll let you into your life and not slam doors in your face and blah blah blah. Whatever.”
She tried to turn back to the chicken in case he could see on her face how much his words had bothered her, but he caught her wrist. “You’re jealous.”
“Am not.”
“Are, too. You’re jealous of a woman who doesn’t even exist.”
She jerked her hand out of his and grabbed the first package of chicken her hand fell on. She put it in the cart with the diapers that weren’t good enough and walked away. Maybe if she ignored him, he’d keep himself busy talking to Lily. She was sleeping, but that never seemed to stop him. She was beginning to think the Kowalskis were genetically incapable of being quiet unless they were sleeping, and giving birth to one hadn’t done anything to negate that impression.
Sadly, even pushing the cart, he had no trouble keeping up with her. “If you’re jealous, that must mean you care.”
“Of course I care about you, you idiot. But we’re not going to date and I’ve told you why a million times.”
“So let’s go back to the whole chocolate cake thing.”
Her face felt like it was on fire and she kept walking, right past the salad dressings. Maybe if she kept him in motion, the shoppers around her wouldn’t be able to grasp enough of the conversation to cause her embarrassment. “Let’s not.”
“So you’re on a diet, but you’ve got a nice big slab of chocolate cake sitting in front of you. You won’t eat the cake because you think it’s bad for you even though it’s not, and you won’t let anybody else eat it either.”
“If somebody wanted to eat the chocolate cake, I’d have to let her because I’m not going to eat it. Be sad for it to go to waste.”