Feel the Heat: A Contemporary Romance Anthology Read Free

stuck it in her mouth and started to go to town on it, drooling happily as she chomped away.
    “Is that better, sweet baby?” Claire leaned over him to wipe their daughter’s face with a soft cloth.
    This close, it was impossible to miss the dark shadows under his wife’s beautiful eyes. Despite the baby nurse’s rigid schedule, Bella rarely slept through the night. He woke up when she did, but it was Claire who got up to feed their daughter. She carried much more of the load. He refused to think of his daughter as a burden, but he couldn’t deny the toll the lack of sleep took on her mother.
    “Is it time to start thinking about weaning her?” he asked, realizing too late the landmine he’d stepped on.
    Claire went still. “Why would you ask that?”
    “She’s started on solid food.” He hoped if he stuck to the facts, he could avoid the bigger confrontation he felt just below the surface. “And if she’s getting her teeth, it might make sense.”
    “She doesn’t have them yet,” snapped Claire. “And it’s not like she’s going to be ready for take-out from Comme Ci.”
    It was his friend Eric’s flagship restaurant and the first place he’d taken Claire the day they met. The tone of her voice and the fact that she was so willing to throw the name out made it clear how close he was to starting a fight.
    “I know that, sweetheart,” he said patiently. “I thought it might be time to start thinking about it, for you as well as her.”
    Claire slumped in her seat beside him, and his heart ached for her. She put so much pressure on herself. She always had. It’s what made English Electric the best contracting firm on the East Coast and her such a powerhouse. But unlike when she handled work-related matters, the challenges of being a mother seemed to beat her down instead of encourage her to reach for more.
    “I said I was going to nurse for a year,” she said, and he could see her steeling herself.
    “I said I was never going to get married.” He reached up to cup her face, letting all the love he felt shine through his eyes. “Thankfully, plans change. What used to make sense sometimes doesn’t any more. Listen.” He shifted the drowsy baby in his arms. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I just want you to be happy, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to hold on to an idea because of some ideal you think you need to meet. Promise me you’ll think about it.”
    After a long moment, she nodded. “I’ll think about it.”

Two
    C LAIRE SHUT OFF HER LAPTOP and made her way down the hall from the home office she shared with Luke to the living room. Bella was scooting around on her blanket on the floor while Hailey, the twenty-something-year-old babysitter, watched her. It wasn’t a perfect situation, but Hailey was a thousand times better than the baby nurse had been and Claire had actually been able to get through most of the estimate without losing her mind.
    It was actually Mike, the guy she’d promoted to her new foreman, who’d recommended Hailey. The guys still acted as if she was breakable when she showed up on the job site, but while Mike was cooing over Bella, he’d mentioned his niece was looking for a job as a nanny.
    He’d come through for her in more ways than one. He’d worked his way up through the company from journeyman to master electrician and finally to foreman. Before Luke and the baby, she’d worked alongside him, and she knew he understood how she wanted her jobs handled. Having him on a site was almost as good as being there herself. Something she was itching to get back to.
    Although every time she had the thought, Bella would do something amazing, like scoot across the floor, giggling because she’d learned something new, and Claire would realize how much she’d miss if she wasn’t home every day. She wanted both worlds and felt ripped in two. At the same time, she realized how many women didn’t have the choice—either they couldn’t go