Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“All done!” Diana yelled.
“I’ll get her plate,” Titus said quickly.
We’d made it into the living room and the girls were playing with stuffed animals, lining them up across the floor, when the front door opened.
“We’re home,” Esther called.
Flora raced for the door.
“We brought you a surprise,” Esther said, kneeling down in front of her daughter as Flora realized what Otto was carrying.
“Is that my brother?” Flora asked, dumbfounded.
“Ansel,” Esther confirmed. “He’s very little, so you have to be really quiet and gentle, okay?”
“You got a baby?” Ariel asked, running toward them. I reached out to grab her, but Titus was the one who stopped her from intruding on their moment.
“Give Flora a second to say hello,” he murmured, lifting Ariel to sit on his forearm.
“They got a baby?” Ariel asked, craning her neck to see.
Diana was completely oblivious, still playing with the stuffed animals.
“Yep,” Titus said, slanting his eyes toward me. “That’s the baby that was in Auntie Esther’s belly.”
“She got him out,” Ariel replied, leaning toward them. She was so excited that she was practically vibrating with it.
“How’d it go?” Esther asked, walking toward us.
I was off the couch and in front of her before she could blink. “How are you? Did everything go okay? Sit down.”
“I’m fine,” she said with a laugh, leaning in to hug me tight. “I’m tired and sore, but fine.”
“I got a brother,” Flora announced as she led Otto and the baby into the living room.
Esther scooted past me to sit on the couch and I moved out of the way so Otto could set the baby’s car seat on the coffee table.
“Can I go look now?” Ariel asked Titus, squirming.
I nodded and he set her back on her feet.
“Not too close,” I warned, slowing her down as she tried to race past me.
“He’s so small,” Titus murmured over my shoulder as Esther pulled Ansel out of his seat.
“He’ll grow,” she said happily, laying him on her thighs so the girls could look at him.
“He’s wearin’ blue ’cause he’s a boy,” Ariel said knowingly, pushing in next to Flora.
“Girls can wear blue,” Flora countered. “He’s wearing blue because that’s the outfit that Gran got him to come home in.”
Diana chose that moment to grow interested in the proceedings and walked around the other side of the coffee table to get an unobstructed view of the newcomer.
“Baby,” she announced, poking his cheek.
Titus laughed.
“Don’t,” I yelped at Diana, a million terrible scenarios rushing through my head in an instant.
Esther was far more calm as she wrapped her hand gently around Diana’s and moved it away from Ansel’s face.
“He’s really small,” she explained, her voice soft and patient. “So, we don’t touch his face or his head, okay? If you want to touch him, you can touch his arm right here.”
She guided Diana’s hand to Ansel’s arm and each of the bigger girls reached out, carefully touching Ansel’s other arm.
“Or his legs,” Esther continued. The girls’ hands moved, touching his tiny knees and thighs through his little pants.
“Or his feet,” Esther said with a smile, pulling off his socks so we could see his miniature toes splayed wide.
The girls giggled as they poked at his toes.
“He’s really lucky,” Esther said, her voice still smooth and calm. “Because he’s got a big sister and big cousins that love him so much and will be really careful to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”
“She’s good,” Titus murmured to me as the girls started talking about all of the ways they were going to protect Ansel from threats both real and of the monster variety. Diana was even in on it, repeating random scenarios that Ariel and Flora came up with.
“I almost pooped my pants when Diana poked him,” I muttered back.
Titus laughed.
“Everything went okay here?” Otto asked us, carrying the car seat toward the front door. He set it on the floor and turned to look at us, his eyebrows high.
“Pretty uneventful,” I replied with a shrug.
“It’s been quiet,” Titus added.
“Good.” Otto sighed. “I’m so fuckin’ tired I could sleep standin’ up.”
“Long night?” Titus asked.
“They have one of those chairs that turns into a bed,” Otto replied flatly. “My feet were hangin’ six inches off the end. Even if I’d wanted to sleep, the baby was wakin’ up every half an hour and when he slept I was still wakin’ up because my damn feet were goin’ dead.”
I tried and failed to hold back a smile.
“It’s good to be home,” he finished with a tired grin.
“My bed was very comfortable,” Esther announced as she got up from the couch. The girls had moved on already and were back with their stuffed animal army. “Which is good, since I was the one who did all the work last night. Here—” She handed me the baby. “Since I know you won’t ask and you’re dying to hold him.”