Section 9
Paige yelped loudly as she stubbed her toe. She'd actually been attempting to make it to her phone without making much noise, since Natalia had just gone down for a nap upstairs. Apparently she'd failed. Running through the house in bear feet was definitely not a smart thing to do.
"D*mn table," she cursed the table leg that had brought her so much pain and reached for the phone, realizing a little too late how out of breath she was. "Hello?"
A gentle laugh filtered through the earpiece and Paige knew immediately who it belonged to. And she scolded her stomach for fluttering and her heart for missing a few beats. She couldn't help it... he was amazing... and oh-so-handsome.
"Having difficulty getting to the phone?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" she quipped sarcastically, a grin quickly spreading across her face.
"Well, either that or you have company and I really shouldn't be interrupting."
"Yeah," Paige growled and put on her best seductive voice, "you know me and the kinky situations I like to indulge myself in with my many boyfriends, with my daughter right upstairs."
Nick laughed regardless of the fact that he felt his face and neck growing warm. He hadn't realized her voice could sound so incredibly sexy. He'd just decided he was going to have to call her a little more often when Paige started laughing at her own silliness.
"Okay, Carter, what can I do for you?"
Oh, if only she'd meant it the way he was taking it. He cleared his throat in an attempt to clear his mind. "Well, I talked to Emma and asked her if she would watch Nat while watching Zack for the Awards... if you decide to bring her."
"And?" Paige smiled. This guy was so considerate.
"And she said she would love to. I described the cuteness that is Natalia and she actually sounds excited about it." Nick laughed. "She loves kids."
"Well, I'm glad, and that's so sweet of her... but I still don't know."
"I understand. Just think about it."
"Okay."
But there was really nothing much to think about. She had nobody else to give Nat to, since her family lived on the other side of the country. Whether she wanted to keep her daughter out of the limelight or not, it inevitably wasn't going to happen.
~ * ~
"Got everything?" Nick smiled as he took Natalia's diaper bag from Paige's shoulder. He adjusted Zack in his arms as he started to fuss and leaned over to give Nat an early morning "hello" kiss.
Paige bit her lip to keep from grinning too widely and nodded, "Yeah, I think so. I hope so at least."
"Well, it's not like we're going to the Amish country. Hollywood has stores. You forget something, you buy something." He led the way to his car and opened the backdoor for Paige so she could buckle Natalia into the car-seat. Once he'd made sure she didn't need him, he moved to the other side of the car to do the same with Zack.
"This plane ride should be really fun with these two," Paige sighed on the way to the airport. She really wasn't looking forward to flying with Natalia for the first time. She had a feeling there was going to be a constant stream of baby-screams. The real piercing kind.
"Eh," Nick shrugged and waved his hand in the air, "it'll be fine. At least we have each other to keep one another sane."
Paige looked over at him and smiled. Nick was right. And for the first time since Natalia had been born, she didn't feel quite so alone in the world.
