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breasts pumps—which definitely made
    him uncomfortable looking at―cloth diapers, and so many toys he didn’t
    know where to start first. He stood at the beginning of the first aisle and
    looked around. He could take apart his service weapon, clean and have it
    back in working condition in less than thirty minutes. He was trained in
    hand-to-hand combat and knew how to evade capture in a hostile
    situation. Rafe didn’t think any of that compared to the task at hand.
    “Where do we start?” Rafe asked.
    Ivy looked around. “Let’s go with the basics first—food, diapers and
    milk.”
    He looked at row after row of diapers. “How do we pick? What size
    does she wear? Oh, God, I don’t know if I’m cut out for this.”
    There was a look of pity on her face. “You’ll figure it out. Most new

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    Baby On Board Dahlia Rose

    dads feel the same way you do. You are just getting started a few months
    late.”
    “I wish her mother had contacted me,” he murmured and shook his
    head. “I honestly don’t remember her and it’s not like I’ve been with a
    slew of women.” She raised her eyebrow at him but didn’t say a word.
    Rafe shrugged. “I know you have this warped perception of who I am, but
    I’m not kidding.”
    “Hey, it’s not my concern. I’m just being neighborly in helping you.
    Having to figure out who you were bumping with sixteen months ago is
    something I can’t help you with,” Ivy said and held up her hand when he
    was about to speak. “I don’t want to hear the sordid details. Bonnie’s six
    months old, so I think she would do fine in a size three. Wouldn’t you,
    sweetie?” Ivy said as she rubbed Bonnie’s tummy.
    “Sixteen months… Wouldn’t it be fifteen? Nine months pregnant, and
    Bonnie is six months old,” he pointed out.
    Ivy sighed. “A little medical information for you. When you have sex
    with a woman, it takes two weeks for the fertilized egg to travel to the
    womb and implant. Women are not pregnant for just nine months, which
    is thirty-six weeks. A full term baby is usually born at thirty-eight to forty
    weeks. So you add two weeks for implantation and two more if she was
    born at thirty-eight weeks. You have sixteen months.”
    His mind reeled at the numbers. “Okay, I’ll take your word for it.”
    Ivy grinned. “You should. I’m a professional.”
    Bonnie gurgled and waved her chubby arms and legs. Rafe trailed
    along behind as Ivy showed him things he then put in the cart, though his
    mind was elsewhere, thinking back to the last woman he had been with. It
    had to have been Vegas and the showgirl party that Brody had put
    together before they deployed. He had spent that entire weekend in a
    drunken haze, but he did recall that he and one of the girls had hit it off.
    She was high maintenance and wanted to live the high life. Even between
    the drinking and the weekend-long party, she never stopped asking about
    his military pay and his house. Growing up in a socialite setting, he knew

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    Baby On Board Dahlia Rose

    when a woman was gauging his worth. For them to be together, as a
    couple, was not in the cards. His instincts never lead him wrong, and after
    the weekend fling, he was off to fight in the war.
    He turned his attention back to the process at hand. They were in the
    clothes aisle now and she was choosing Onesies and little girl outfits. He
    spied a pink and black tutu and steered toward it. It came with its own top
    and tiny ballerina slippers.
    “What size should I get her?” he called out and held it up for Ivy to
    see.
    She actually grinned and he felt his heart catch. “Six to nine months,
    and look at you, making Ms. Bonnie into a ballerina.”
    Rafe grinned. “She gets the best in all things from now on.”
    At the end of their shopping spree, Rafe pushed three carts one at a
    time out to the car and loaded up the back of his luxury SUV. That
    included a massive mahogany crib that he would have to put together. She
    helped him get