“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
Claire looked up, her hair pulled back in a utilitarian ponytail and her breast still hanging out of the ugly bra. Blinking her puffy, tear-filled eyes, she saw Luke striding toward them, concern etched on his handsome chiseled face. He wore a suit that cost more than her first car and his crisp white dress shirt looked as fresh as if he’d just put it on. With a body more suited to an athlete than a man who spent his time in the boardroom, he was walking sex. Claire glanced over her rumpled clothes and the yoga pants that had seen too many days and swallowed a sob as the tears streamed down her face.
LUKE’S LIFE HAD turned into a roller coaster, and he wouldn’t change it for anything. He loved Claire and their daughter with every fiber of his being. Loving Claire had been a completely new experience for him. He thanked a God he’d never had much faith in every day for her and the way she loved him. Loving Bella hit him like a lightning bolt to the chest. It wasn’t a choice. When he held his daughter for the first time, loving her became a tangible, indisputable fact—like gravity. He was happier than he’d ever imagined possible. He wished his wife felt the same way. He couldn’t wait to get home to his family; he just wasn’t always sure what he’d find when he opened the door.
The day before, he’d walked in on Claire snuggled in the corner of the sofa, nursing their daughter. Watching his wife feed their child slayed him, laying his heart bare for the woman who’d given him the world. Every primal protective instinct he had roared to the surface and nothing mattered to him but taking care of them—keeping them safe. He’d watched his wife stroke his daughter’s downy head as their baby nursed, and he’d fallen deeper in love with them, something that seemed impossible but happened over and over again every damn day. Claire’s face looked so serene, like something out of one of those paintings of the Madonna he’d grown up with before everything with his own family went to shit. It was completely at odds with the expression she wore today.
“What’s getting my girls?” Two pairs of tear-filled eyes met his as he closed the distance between them. “Are you giving your momma a hard time?” He pressed a kiss to Claire’s head before he scooped the fussy baby into his arms. As if sensing a fresh audience, his daughter started crying again in earnest. “I know, Bella. It’s just terrible, isn’t it? Tell Daddy all about it, and I’ll fix it.”
He tucked his baby girl under his chin, rubbing circles over her back while he paced. By halfway through the second lap, she’d quieted and was busy trying to eat his shoulder.
“Rough day, sweetheart?” he asked, turning his attention to his gorgeous wife.
Streaks from her tears marked her beautiful face, and she looked so forlorn. The urge to fix whatever was making her unhappy muscled its way to the top of his to-do list. Still gently bouncing the baby in his arms, he stopped beside Claire and stroked a finger over her cheek, catching the remnants of her tears.
“I don’t know what she wants.” She peered up at him with beautiful green eyes that seemed so lost, they tore at his heart.
“Where’s the baby nurse?” He’d hired the woman to take some of the pressure off Claire while she was still nursing and to make it easier for her to keep up with work. He’d happily support them all. He had more than enough money, but there was no way he’d expect Claire to give up English Electric.
“I got rid of her.” Some of the fire he loved flashed in his wife’s eyes, and he decided to take it as a good sign.
“Why?” he asked, careful to couch his tone in a way that elicited answers without challenging her.
“She was awful. I was in the office trying to catch up on the estimates for the new conference center. I could hear Bella screaming from down the hall. When I came out to check on her, the woman who was supposed to be taking care of our daughter said she was letting her cry it out.”
Luke had no trouble imagining the rest of the scene. He’d put Claire up against any lioness if she felt as though her baby was threatened, and she had no patience with the idea of letting their child cry when she could do something about it. The baby nurse had probably been a mistake. The woman came with a stack of references but Claire never felt comfortable with her. And truth be told, neither had he.
“Okay, so we’ll find someone else.” He ran through the steps in his head. His assistant would be better equipped to find a Serbian translator than someone to watch his daughter, but he could figure something out. Surely there was some kind of database or something.
“Nobody is going to love her the way I do,” said Claire as fresh tears flooded her eyes.
Luke cleared his throat and she had the decency to look sheepish.