Read Online Crazy in Chicago by Norah-Jean Perkin - Free Book Online

you I don’t know what I’m doing.”
    With stiff, awkward motions, Cody took the baby from Roberta. After coaching from Allie, he held the infant correctly, supporting her head and back and holding her close to his body.  
    For several moments Cody stood alone in the middle of the room, staring intently at the sleeping bundle in his arms. Finally he looked up and smiled at Roberta and Allie. “This isn’t so bad.” His gaze returned to the baby. “In fact, it’s pretty good. She’s so light. Like holding a doll. And so tiny. Like . . .”
    With a suddenness that Roberta recognized from previous attacks, Cody turned sheet white. Then a startled look that Roberta had never seen before crossed his face. He started to sway. The baby stiffened and screamed.
    Roberta grabbed the child from Cody, and pushed him towards the couch. He collapsed onto it and shut his eyes.
    As suddenly as she’d begun, the baby stopped crying. Roberta looked down into her tiny round face and started. The child’s rosy complexion had turned as white as Cody’s. And the bluish-gray eyes, so like Erik’s, stared at her with the same chilling absence of emotion. Roberta hugged the child closer.
    She glanced at Allie and Erik and was stunned to see fright on Allie’s face. Allie and Erik exchanged another unreadable look, then Erik shook his head.  
    Allie stood up and reached for the child as if nothing had happened. She smiled at Roberta, then hugged the child to her breast.
    Shaken and confused, Roberta sat down. Beside her, Cody seemed to have recovered from his passing attack.
    â€œSorry about that.” Cody shook his head. “Lack of sleep must be catching up with me.”
    â€œNo harm done.” Allie stroked the child’s forehead; Erik said nothing.
    Roberta frowned. On the face of it, everything had returned to normal. But why had Cody suffered that attack of nausea now? And what was that anxious look that had passed between Allie and Erik?
    Could it be simple concern for their daughter? Or was it something more?
    * * *
    Roberta waited until they were outside on the darkening street before she voiced her suspicions.
    â€œThat was more than a nausea attack.”
    Cody avoided her gaze. He fished around in the pocket of his shorts for the car keys.
    â€œSomething else happened.”
    Cody stiffened. He looked at her, but his eyes didn’t quite meet hers. “What do you mean?”
    â€œFor a second, you looked really strange. As if you’d seen something. Something terrifying.”
    Cody paused. He opened his mouth, then shut it and shrugged. “Leave it to an employee of a UFO organization to read something into every little facial expression.”  
    Roberta thought his comment forced, but she let it go. “Have you gone to the doctor yet?”
    â€œNo.” Cody grimaced. “And I’m not going either. I already told you how much time I spent fooling around with doctors after my disappearance, and all for nothing. I’m not about to waste my time again.”
    His eyes clouded and he rubbed his forehead. “I’m tired. I’m not sleeping. That’s all.”
    In the quick fire manner that Roberta found so unsettling, his demeanor changed once more and he smiled. “A problem which you’re not helping me with at all.”
    â€œMe?”  
    â€œYes. If you were at all concerned for my well-being, you would have warmed up my milk and massaged my weary body with warm scented oils last night instead of kicking me out the door.”
    â€œOh, yes.” Sarcasm tinged Roberta’s voice. Cody sounded like the playboy described in last summer’s papers. “I’m sure that’s just what the doctor would have ordered.”
    Cody laughed. He winked at her before turning and striding to the car.
    Roberta followed. Cody was impossible. Impossible and far too likable. It certainly explained his