Synopsis
He Wants Kids. She Doesn’t.
Julie Simmons is exhausted. Between studying to become a certified midwife and attending births, she’s constantly on the go. Add to that, she’s helping her jilted sister care for four children.
Nick Hoffman is the brother of one of Julie’s clients. She writes him off as a jerk after he questions her professionalism during his sister’s delivery. But a few days later, he calls her in a panic. His sister has been rushed back to the hospital, and he’s left caring for her newborn and toddler, when he doesn’t have a clue how to do so. Julie comes to help and they bond over a night of caring for two sleepless little ones.
Nick loves kids and can’t wait to settle down and have some of his own. Julie has decided she’d rather stick to helping other women have babies than have any of her own. What happens when you want each other, but you don’t want the same future?
Excerpt
Julie is a doula, working toward becoming a certified nurse-midwife. She meets Nick at his sister’s birth. He’s an ass. But when he needs help after his sister has to go back to the hospital. Julie comes to help care for the newborn.
After Jameson finished his bottle, he was still a little fussy. She handed him to Nick so she could text Jolene (NOTE: Jolene is Julie’s sister and she lives with her) that she’d be gone until late, and perhaps all night. Luckily, she always kept a toothbrush, basic toiletries and a change of clothes in her go-bag for situations like this.
Jolene texted her back:
“Just you, Mr. Shampoo Commercial and two unhappy little ones. Sounds like bliss!”
“Haha,” she texted back.
“Is it bcz he did the hair move?”
“TTYL, Jolene”
Julie laid her phone aside. “OK, so what’s Matthew’s evening routine?”
“I guess about now Patty would be getting him ready for bed, although he had a late nap, so I’m not sure he’s gonna go for that.”
“Can you handle that on your own, and I’ll walk this guy around after I change him? Matthew knows you, so it’s probably better that you bathe him.”
“I can figure it out,” he said. “Changing table is in there,” he said, pointing to one of the bedrooms. “Come on, Matthew. Let’s have a bath.” Matthew didn’t argue as so many children might have. He just took his uncle’s hand and headed down the hallway. Julie changed Jameson’s diaper, but he was no happier once he was clean and dry. She sighed and picked him up again, bouncing and making little soothing noises to Jameson, who wasn’t having it.
In the distance, she could hear happy bath noises. Evidently, Nick wasn’t going for the all-business bath; sounded more like a splashy fun-time bath. That was good, she thought. The last thing they needed was two unhappy little ones to soothe. She continued bouncing Jameson around the room. Finally, she resorted to dancing. She started singing the old song her sister was named for, very softly, as she danced around the living room, looking into Jameson’s eyes and smiling as she sang. Babies picked up on moods, she knew, so she pretended she was having a grand time. He seemed to like it, or maybe he was just puzzled by the weird dancing lady, she thought. Either way, he was settling. She thought she could sit down for a bit, but the moment she did, he began fussing more. So she jumped up and sang the song again and again, not varying her singing or her dancing because, as Jolene had often advised her, when you find out what works, you stick to it.
She suddenly looked up to see Nick and Matthew standing in the doorway. Matthew’s hair was wet and slicked back and he wore pajamas printed with little airplanes on them. Both of them were just quietly watching her and she stopped, embarrassed. Jameson, who had been lulled into a half-sleep, opened his eyes and objected loudly to the sudden end of the dancing and singing.
“Go on,” Nick said. “Don’t let an audience stop you.”
Julie hesitated, but Jameson’s wailing grew louder, so she quietly began singing and dancing again, feeling very self-conscious. But there was no doubt that her routine worked on Jameson, who quieted down immediately. Nick’s eyes met hers and she broke the song briefly to speak.
“Well, this is embarrassing,” she said. Then, as Jameson’s eyes opened again, she stopped talking and concentrated on dancing him around the room.
“I can’t let you be embarrassed alone,” Nick said. He lifted Jameson into his arms and began imitating Julie’s dance. “I don’t know the words,” he said. “I’ll have to improvise.” Matthew laughed in delight as his uncle danced him around the room, making up nonsensical rhyming phrases for most of it.
“Jameson is heavy enough,” Julie said, singing the words in the tune of the song. “Matthew is giving you a real work-out.”
“It’s OK. I’m a muscle man,” he said, again in song. He shifted Matthew to one hip and flexed his bicep of his other arm, laughing all the while. Julie noted that for such a thin, lanky guy, his bicep was a lot more impressive than she’d have expected.
Nick was making the dance sillier, dipping Matthew back, raising him over his head, and sometimes turning him upside down and then pretending he didn’t notice the boy was turned the wrong way until he protested. Matthew loved it, and Julie couldn’t help but see Nick in a whole new light. Anybody looking in the window, she realized, would think she and Nick were the dedicated parents of these two children.
Nick’s eyes met Julie’s and they began dancing more in tune with each other. Nick slowed his dance down to match her movements, and held Matthew against him, probably realizing that if he didn’t settle the boy down a bit, they’d be up with him all night. It was working; despite his late nap, the little boy was growing sleepy as his uncle mimicked the slower, gentler dancing movements Julie had found worked on the baby.
Matthew’s eyes were closed and Julie motioned to Nick. He nodded in understanding and carried the sleeping child to his bedroom. He returned a few minutes later.
“One down,” he said. “Jameson looks like he’s asleep, too. Do you think we can risk putting him down?”
“Maybe?” He’s woken up every time I’ve tried. But maybe he’s finally out for real now,” she said. She eased him very, very slowly into the bassinet, and held her breath. But he was deeply asleep and let out a little sigh of contentment. She backed away from the bassinet in an exaggerated manner until she reached the sofa.
“Wow. That’s the most dancing I’ve done in … forever,” she said. “And it’s a lot harder with your arms full of baby.”
Nick sat down next to her. “I was really an ass when Patty was at the hospital,” he said.
Julie tried to tell him it was fine, but he cut her off.
“No, really. Let me say this. I had this idea that natural childbirth was some kind of backward thing. You have to remember I haven’t exactly been around a lot of moms and babies besides my sister and Matthew, and she was all about the epidural last time. And I thought she was crazy. It seemed unsafe and unscientific and like something they’d do in a hippie commune or something.”
Julie resisted the urge to whip out all her statistics about the risks and benefits of different types of childbirth.
“Patty read me the riot act and made me read a couple of studies after the hospital scene. The stats seem solid. I got the message. I was a jerk to someone who was actually really helping my sister. But I have to admit I didn’t really, truly get it until tonight. When you volunteered to help, just because you cared about Patty’s kids. Even though you had to have been thinking I was a rude asshole, you offered to stay and help me. And if you hadn’t, I can’t even imagine what a shit-storm I’d be in the middle of right now. Instead, Matthew had a good evening, ate his veggies, got a bath and went to bed only a little late. And as for Jameson, you were willing to do whatever it took to get him fed and soothed. Even if you were embarrassed, you still did it, because you knew a baby needed you.” And then he did his shampoo commercial move.
Julie was touched and felt tears threaten to fall. She blinked them back.
“Thank you,” she said. “Seriously, that means a lot.”
“Exactly how big of a jerk did you think I was at first?”
“Don’t make me answer that,” she said.
“That bad, huh?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Have I redeemed myself at all?”
“Watching you do a silly dance with a toddler helped a lot,” she said, smiling.
“Maybe we could go dancing some night,” he said. “Without children.” His eyes locked with Julie’s. She remembered her decision that she was done with men. Then she pushed that thought out of her head.
“Maybe we could,” she agreed.
Nick leaned toward her, and his lips brushed softly and questioningly against hers. She hesitated, and then she kissed him back. He didn’t push for more, just leaned back and smiled. And then did the shampoo commercial thing. She giggled, and the smile disappeared from his face. She quickly realized she’d offended him.
“Oh, no, I wasn’t giggling about the kiss,” she said. “You do this cute thing with your hair sometimes, and that’s what made me laugh.” She ran her fingers through her hair.
“I do?” he asked. Then he did it again, catching himself right in the middle of it. He laughed. “I guess I do. I don’t even think about it.”
“I think you do it whenever you’re a little nervous. It was the first thing I noticed about you, in the hospital, before I even knew who you were.”
“When was that?”
“You and your mother were asking the nurses some questions. I dubbed you Mr. Shampoo Commercial because you have great hair and you kept running your hands through it. I couldn’t decide whether your look was natural or if you spent a lot of time messing with your hair to make it look that way.”
“My hair? I just wash it with whatever shampoo is around and comb it. I don’t do anything to it, really.”
“No special conditioners, hair masks, volumizers, mousse, gel, sculpting wax or shine enhancers? Nothing?”
“Nothing. I have to say, I don’t really give it a thought.”
“Huh. Just when I was starting to think you weren’t so bad. Now I hate you again, because your hair is better than mine.”
He tossed his head. “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful,” he joked. He reached out and touched Julie’s hair, hesitantly. “You have beautiful hair, actually,” he said. “I’m guessing by your sister’s name that red hair runs in your family?”
“It does. Every single one of Jolene’s children has it. She and her husband are both redheads. The kids didn’t have a chance.”
…
Jameson chose that moment to stir, and Julie suggested that Nick try his hand at making the bottle. She scooped up Jameson and began cuddling and murmuring to him, trying to head off a major crying spell. It worked, with Nick triumphantly waving the warm bottle of milk over his head just as the baby began to work up a head of steam. Julie handed him the baby, deciding it would be a good idea for him to get some practice in before she left.
If she did leave. It was past midnight, and she had been beyond exhausted for days.
“I’m just going to let you handle this one on your own, for practice,” she explained. And then she leaned her head back on the sofa and fell asleep.
When she woke up, the living room was dark other than some light that came in from the kitchen. Nick had also fallen asleep at the other end of the sofa. She carefully stood up to check on the baby, but he was sleeping peacefully in his bassinet. She very quietly crept to the door, where she’d left her go-bag, and tiptoed down the hallway to the bathroom, where she washed her face, brushed her teeth, and smoothed her hair into a fresh ponytail. Then she crept back to her corner of the sofa, and fell back asleep almost instantly.
When she next awoke, it wasn’t because of Jameson. It was because of Nick, who had shifted in his sleep and was now lying with his head touching her leg. She was still sitting mostly upright; there wasn’t room for both of them to lie down on the sofa unless they were to get extremely cozy. She was suddenly completely awake and hyper-aware of him. That beautiful hair of his was shiny even in the dim light, and she allowed herself the luxury of drinking in the look of him.
He really did have the most amazing hair, and his face was finely boned as well. He was tall and thin and had what looked like a runner’s body but his arms looked more muscular than she’d have thought. He must lift weights, she decided, and wondered what the rest of his body looked like. Then she felt embarrassed for basically undressing him with her eyes.
About the Author
Sophia Sinclair grew up in a town so small (pop. 170!) that the little town of Fairview where this series is set seems like the big city to her. For many years, she was the editor of a small town’s daily newspaper, so she understands the rhythms of small-town life. When she started writing romances, she decided to set them all in a small town called Fairview. If you’re from a small town, you’ll feel like you’ve been there. If you’re from a larger city, don’t be surprised if you start yearning for small-town life. It’s often said that in a small town, everybody knows everyone else’s business, but the truth is, there are still a lot of secrets in small towns!
She is married to a European man, has two grown children and two lovely grandbabies she spoils to death. There’s a little bit of Sophia in every one of her books. Molly is a librarian who wears plain dark dresses and looks very conservative but often wears racy underwear under that plain black dress. Sophia dresses the same. Lori likes to have a good time and always has lots of boyfriends before meeting the love of her life. Sophia will take the Fifth on that one. Catarina has a German poem on her bedroom wall; Sophia has the first two lines of that same poem tattooed on her upper thigh, in German. (It’s Rilke, and the first two lines translate to: “You see, I want a lot. Perhaps I want everything.” As for Julie in Perfect Fit, Sophia is mad about all aspects of pregnancy, breastfeeding, childbirth, and babies. She attended many of her friend’s births, taught breastfeeding to WIC moms as a volunteer, started a business that handled pumps, bras, slings etc., and gave very serious thought to working as a lactation consultant, doula or midwife once the newspaper industry died. Instead, she started writing these romance novels, and she very, very much hopes you’ll enjoy them.
She also writes for Curvicality.com, an online women’s lifestyle magazine aimed at plus-size women. That’s why Julie in Perfect Fit is plus-sized. She wanted to show that love is for everyone; not just the thinner ladies. Here is an example of the fun stuff she writes there.
