So much for keeping a low profile.
As soon as they reached cruising altitude and the captain turned off the seat belt sign, Katie lifted Savannah from the car seat, laid her on her chest, and managed to calm her down. A little.
Half of the time in flight was soothing a fussy infant and dodging dirty looks. It took every ounce of decorum for Katie not to tell the people close by to mind their own business. Lashing out at them for their snide looks and not-so-quiet whispers about babies on airplanes would warrant more attention, not less.
With any luck, this flight would be the only commercial one Savannah would have to endure.
Even Grandma had hit her limit by the time they landed. Katie’s nerves sizzled like onions at the county fair. As soon as the diaper bag, handbag, and Savannah in her car seat were shrugged over a shoulder or an arm, and Katie was laboring across the tarmac to baggage claim, Savannah then decided to go to sleep. It was dark, the peanuts on the plane not only didn’t constitute an in-flight meal, they also gave Katie indigestion. She couldn’t even enjoy a glass of wine. The thought of her drinking while a baby screamed in her lap felt irresponsible, even to her.
Monica caught up to her and asked how she was holding up. Katie nearly decked her for talking so loud. “She’s finally asleep! Keep it down.”
The noise of the airport and all the travelers wasn’t bothering Savannah one bit, yet somehow Katie knew that Monica’s inquiry would.
Monica’s jaw drew down as she peered over the edge of the car seat. “We didn’t hear her very much where I was.”
“You’re full of shit.” The whole damn plane scowled at her as she walked off.
“Babies cry. No biggie.”
“She’s too young to be traveling.” Katie repeated the words murmured between the lips of several women on the plane. Women who were obviously mothers. Mothers who obviously knew babies better than her.
“The biggest problem with babies traveling is illness. Lucky for you…” Monica grabbed one of five bags rolling on the conveyer belt in baggage claim. “…I’m a nurse and can clue you in if little Vanna here gets ill.”
Little Vanna, as Monica called her, was now sound asleep. Her hands would twitch when a loud noise sounded inside the huge building, but she didn’t wake. The strong urge to kiss her soft cheeks clutched Katie’s heart but she didn’t dare for fear she’d wake.
“We’re going to have to grab a cab,” Monica said after hoisting every bag to their side. “I wasn’t expecting to come home for a few days and my ride was busy.”
Katelyn sighed. Now this was something she could handle. And a smelly cab wasn’t going to disturb the peace of a sleeping child. She handed the car seat over to Monica. “Wait here. I’ll get us a ride.”
Ten minutes later they were seated in the back of a stretch limousine with Savannah puffing little breaths through her pouty pink lips.
“Where to, Miss Morrison?” the driver, asked.
Monica rambled off her address before closing the clear window between them and the driver.
The limo was from the Ontario Morrison Hotel. Although Katie didn’t know the driver by name, she would by the time she showed up to the hotel, and she’d buy his loyalty one way or the other.
“He thinks the baby is mine, doesn’t he?” Monica asked.
Katie glanced at the back of the driver’s bald head as he pulled away from the curb. “He sees two women with a baby. I’ll say enough to throw him off. Don’t worry.” Laying the groundwork for an affair wasn’t as complicated as it was for hiding a baby. Katelyn’s thoughts traveled the tide to Dean. Now hiding the baby from him took a complicated weave of lies. Hiding Savannah from everyone else would take more time, more effort.
So why was she doing it? Why work so hard to keep a baby that wasn’t hers?
The sun had set and the lights of the suburbs of Los Angeles sped past the windows of the limo. Her entire life had been spent in limos and surrounded by other luxuries her father afforded her. She’d seen the world, twice. She’d dined with the rich and famous, skied the Alps, and sailed in the Grecian Sea. She spoke enough French to buy expensive clothes in Paris and order a decent meal there as well, but she wasn’t happy.
Seeing Dean at the wedding jump-started her emotions and reminded her of better times—times with him. As luck would have it, Savannah arrived and gave her something else to focus on other than her history with Dean. Something other than her failures.
Not a peep emitted from the car carrier. All that silly crying on the airplane wore the poor thing out.
The ride from the airport to Monica’s apartment passed in blissful silence and didn’t take long.
“Thank you, Gerald.” Katelyn sank the driver’s name into her memory by using it. “I’ll be staying with Monica tonight. Can you arrange for the rest of my things to be placed in the family suite?”
The family suite was one of the penthouse apartments at The Morrison. Jack had previously occupied it while he supervised the beginning stages of construction of his hotel. Now that he and Jessie were married, they would be staying primarily in Texas. Jack had bought nearly five hundred acres just west of their father’s ranch and, when he and Jessie returned from their honeymoon, they’d be deep into putting their own touches on the existing home situated on the land.
“Of course, Miss Morrison.” Gerald carried her other bags as well as Monica’s into the apartment.