Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
“Your dad can get her out of there,” Con said, shooting me a darkly amused look. “Go for it, pal.”
Under the watchful eyes of Con and Emma, I gave it a shot. Harper couldn’t have weighed more than fifteen pounds, but it was hard to get a good grip on her. Con didn’t say anything, but his mouth twitched with amusement while I navigated my hands under her, trying to pick her up without squeezing but also without dropping her.
“That’s it,” Emma said encouragingly when I managed to get her up in the air.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you hold a baby,” Con said when I finally got her up to my shoulder. “Make sure you support her head.”
Frowning, I looked down at Harper to see what he was talking about. She was looking up at me, her ocean blue eyes wide with surprise, and her head was slowly starting to droop back. I slid my hand up, feeling the downy hair against my palm.
“Her head is soft,” I said, surprised. “Is it supposed to be?” I wasn’t talking about her hair, though that was soft, too. Her actual head felt soft.
“Let me feel!” Emma demanded, pushing up on her tiptoes and reaching to pet Harper. “Hi baby,” she crooned.
Con gave up on not laughing at both of us. “Yeah, it’s supposed to be soft.”
“Don’t laugh at him,” Lily scolded, coming back into the dining room with a bottle of red. “I didn’t know anything about babies until three months ago either. Not all of us have done this before.”
Cami followed her in. She smiled at the sight of me holding Harper, but there was a shadow of guilt in her eyes. I didn’t wonder why it was there. It was because she knew she was the reason I’d never held a baby. If she hadn’t run, I would have held Emma when she was this size. I would have asked if her head was supposed to have these weird soft spots where the skull didn’t quite knit together.
I walked over to her, trying to tell her with my eyes that it was okay. That I wasn’t going to hold it against her anymore. “You want to give it a shot?” I asked, offloading the baby before she had a chance to answer.
“Oh,” Cami said, surprised. “It’s been a while since I held a newborn. I forgot how floppy they are.”
“It’s terrifying,” Lily said. She eyed Emma. “Yours looks so sturdy.”
“She’s potty trained, too,” Cami said.
“I am potty trained,” Emma agreed. “Can I watch your TV?”
“Articulate, too,” Con said.
“We’re eating dinner. No TV,” Cami replied.
Emma stuck out her lip and looked at Con, then Lily.
“Sorry kid, what your mom says goes.” Con ruffled her dark hair. He looked from her eyes to mine, then blew out a low whistle. “Man, it’s eerie.”
“What’s eerie?” Emma demanded.
“Your eyes, kid. They’re just like your dad’s.”
Emma looked at me. I widened my eyes at her, making her laugh. “What does eerie mean?” she asked me.
“Uh,” I glanced at Cami.
“It means beautiful,” she stepped in. “You and your dad have the most beautiful green eyes.”
Emma was pleased by this. She made me kneel down so she could examine my eyes up close. After she nearly gouged them out a few times with her fingernails, I stood up. “Okay, time to eat.”
I’d suggested coming over to Con and Lily’s place mostly just to get a change of scenery. I hadn’t even thought about how good it would feel to spend some time with my closest friend. It was the first time since Cami came back into my life that things started to feel normal again. Better than normal. I felt some of the tension that had lived in my muscles for weeks starting to dissolve.
At eight, Lily let Emma help put Harper to bed, and Con got up to do dishes.
“We can go soon if we need to get Emma to bed,” I said to Cami in a low voice.
She shook her head. “Let’s stay. Emma can stay up a little later tonight.”
When Harper was down and the dishes were done, we turned on the TV for Emma and moved out to the patio. Con showed Cami around, pointing out the different plants he had growing.
I heard her talking enthusiastically about the plants she’d had in Hawaii and what she thought she could grow here, if she had enough space. I caught Con’s eye once, silently warning him not to tell her about the house yet. He nodded, getting the message. I didn’t know why exactly I hadn’t told Cami about the house. Things had gotten more complicated since we started sharing a bed again. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea and get scared off.
I was buying the house for her and Emma, but not because I expected us to be some happy family like Daniel Tiger, or like Con and Lily for that matter. I just knew I couldn’t keep them trapped in my bachelor pad forever. They were both too wild for that. Emma needed a place to run, and Cami needed a place for her garden, and the house made sense.