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Arabella paused as the two women looked at each other. “Uh, yeah. Sure.

She doesn’t seem to hate me, so why not?”

“Okay.” Beth was all smiles. “That would be great. Shannon should be

back in an hour. She called me when I was in the bathroom working on my

blouse. The meeting will probably take about that long. I can leave

instructions at the front to have Shelly call you when she’s here.”

“For sure.” Arabella stood, tucked Sky on her hip like it was natural, and

received the diaper bag from Beth with her other hand. She blew another

raspberry at Sky, who giggled and cooed happily before nearly tugging an

entire chunk of hair from Arabella’s scalp.

She walked to her office, letting Sky bounce on her hip, tugging away at

her hair the whole time. She didn’t mind one bit. Sky was a great

distraction. It was far, far easier to think about her lovely blue eyes and her

adorable face than a set of deep brown eyes and the extraordinary woman

they belonged to.

“Well, how about we try to find your sister a good school?” Arabella

asked Sky as she sat down with her in her office chair.

Sky let out a burbling coo that sounded like full agreement. She reached

for the keyboard, but Arabella was prepared with one of the toys from the

diaper bag and tucked that into Sky’s hand. She kept one arm wrapped

around the baby to keep her safely on her knee while she used the other

hand to type and use the mouse. Sky was enraptured by the whole thing.

Within the hour, Arabella had worked out a bus route that seemed easy

and found what appeared to be a great school. She did have two other

schools that weren’t as highly rated for their programming, but also looked

like okay options. She printed everything and stuck it in a file folder. She

was about to get some of the baby food out of the diaper bag when her

phone rang. It was Shelly, letting her know that Shannon was in the

reception area to get Sky.

Arabella was almost sad to hand over the baby, who smiled so wide to