Silent Fall

answers, but there was something about Caitlyn -- an innocence, maybe -- that made him instinctively want to shield her. Hell, it probably had something to do with all the white lace in the room.
    Before he could reply, Caitlyn walked up to him and pushed the baby against his chest. "Hold her for a second. I want to look through that bag and see if I can find a bottle or instructions or something."
    Before Matt could protest, he found himself wrapping his arms around a tiny baby who felt so small, so fragile in his arms, he thought he might break her. And when the baby began to squirm and whimper, Matt awkwardly shifted his feet and patted her back. He looked to Caitlyn for relief, but she was still digging through the diaper bag.
    "Hey, I could use some help here," he said.
    "I found some formula... and a bottle," she added triumphantly, holding it up like a trophy. "A little water, and I think we can make her a lot happier."
    Matt followed her into the adjacent kitchen. No way was she leaving him alone with the baby. He found her kitchen to be as chaotic as the living room -- cookie jars with faces on them, pasta noodles in colorful glass containers, magnets of every shape imaginable on the refrigerator, and a couple of potted plants on the windowsill, some looking half dead despite the freshly watered soil. Apparently, Caitlyn didn't like to throw anything away.
    With the clashing bursts of color, the room felt warm and cozy, inviting. Probably too inviting, Matt decided. Definitely too inviting, he added silently as Caitlyn came over to him. As she put the bottle into the baby's mouth, her blond hair drifted against his chest and arm. She was so close he could smell flowers in her hair and mint in her breath, then her breasts grazed against his arm as she maneuvered the bottle in the baby's mouth, and his heart skipped a beat. Her femininity called out to him like a siren, and he felt his body harden, a completely unwelcome reaction considering the fact that he was holding a baby and Caitlyn was a perfect stranger. Perfect being a big part of the problem.
    "Here you go, sweetie," Caitlyn cooed. 'Take a sip. There's a good girl."
    "Don't you want to hold her?" Matt asked, feeling more uncomfortable by the second.
    Caitlyn hesitated, then said, "I don't think so."
    "Are you sure you don't know who this baby is?" he asked her again as they returned to the living room.
    "Of course I don't. Why would you ask that?"
    "She seems to like you."
    "Well, I'm a nice person. Babies can sense goodness."
    "Then I must be a nice person, too. She's not crying anymore."
    "We'll have to see how she feels about you when she's done sucking on her bottle," she said with a wry smile. She knelt down on the floor next to the diaper bag and began searching through it, much the way he had done a few minutes before.
    "There's no note in the bag. I already looked," he told her.
    After a minute, Caitlyn sat back on her heels and frowned. "What mother leaves her baby without even a note?"
    Matt pulled the bottle out of the baby's mouth as she stopped sucking and appeared to be done. "What do I do with her now?"
    "Put her over your shoulder and pat her back until she burps."
    "I think you ought to do that."
    "Fine. Let me grab her blanket. She might be getting cold." As Caitlyn pulled the baby blanket from the straps of the car seat, something fluttered to the ground.
    "Oh!" She reached for the piece of paper, then looked into Matt's eyes. "There is a note."
    Matt felt his body tense. "What does it say?" he asked shortly, having trouble getting the words out of his mouth. He had a bad feeling about this -- a very bad feeling.
    Caitlyn read silently, the tension growing with each passing second.
    "What the hell does it say?" he demanded.
    She looked up at him through troubled eyes. "Someone named Sarah wants you to take care of her baby."
    "Sarah." He breathed her name like a long-forgotten scent.
    "Who is Sarah?"
    He stared at Caitlyn, knowing she'd asked him something, but he couldn't concentrate, couldn't focus. Sarah? How could it be? He remembered the eerie sensation he'd felt walking up to the apartment building, as if someone was watching him. And the phone call, the woman's voice... had it been Sarah? My God! Had she actually been standing outside his apartment?
    Matt strode across the room, thrust the baby into Caitlyn's arms, then dashed out the door.
    "Hey, where are you going?" Caitlyn cried. "You can't leave me with your