The child ate most of his grilled sandwich and a few more carrots, and drank water from a sippy cup Julie had located in the cabinet. She washed the one bottle they had so it would be ready when Jameson woke up.
Nick’s phone buzzed and he dived for it, a look of relief flooding his face.
“Good news, I hope?” Julie asked.
“Yeah. They’re going to keep her tonight just to be sure, but everything seems to be fine. Brad doesn’t seem to be too worried.” He began tapping out a message in return. “I am telling them you’re here and you got a bottle into Jameson.”
“Could you ask him to be sure Patty is helped to pump? We don’t want her to deal with painful engorgement on top of everything else,” Julie said.
“I feel a little weird about asking that,” Nick said. “Maybe you’d text Brad? I’ll forward you his contact info.” Julie remembered he already had her number from Patty’s list of emergency numbers on her refrigerator door.
Her phone buzzed with the contact info and she quickly sent Brad the message.
Jameson began stirring just as she sent it, and she started another bottle. She then scooped up the baby and began bouncing and speaking softly to him in an effort to soothe him. But he just cried harder and harder.
"It really doesn’t take long to prepare a bottle," Julie said. “It just seems like it takes forever when the baby is hungry.”
“He’s happy when Patty is here. I’ve never seen him cry as much as he has today,” Nick said.
“He knows his mom isn’t here, and he doesn't like it. You may be in for a long night, I’m sorry to say. So prepare yourself for that.”
Jameson took the bottle somewhat better this time. But he still kept turning his head and crying, making sure everyone knew he wasn’t really happy with the current arrangement. Matthew would occasionally try to hug the baby, but then went back to occupying himself with a heap of oversized blocks in a corner of the living room. At least he appeared to be an easy child, Julie thought. That would help Nick cope.
Nick looked alarmed. “Up to now, I've just helped keep Matthew entertained. I’ve mostly just held Jameson for short periods when Patty is trying to get a shower or cook dinner. She’s always been here, though.” And then he did that thing with his hair. It was apparently something he did without thinking about every time he was a little upset or worried.
Julie knew what he was hinting for, and she badly wanted to pretend she didn’t. She wanted to get back home to her own bed. Or her own futon, anyway. It was Friday night so she didn't have any classes to worry about, but she generally grew more and more sleep-deprived during the week and her usual big Friday event was watching a family-friendly movie with Jolene and the kids and then going to bed as soon as the kids did.
Early to bed Friday night and sleeping in on Saturday morning was how she survived. But that was assuming a client didn’t need her. And while she’d officially discharged all the duties she’d agreed to with Patty, she couldn’t see running out on an inexperienced brother who had never cared for a newborn baby alone before, especially when he was still worried about his sister. So there was really only one thing she could say.
“I could stay for awhile. If you want.”
Nick looked grateful. “Oh, could you? You’re a lifesaver. Truly.”
Julie managed a smile. This, she thought to herself, was exactly why the Greek word for “slave” was used.
Chapter 5
After Jameson finished his bottle, he was still a little fussy. She handed him to Nick so she could text Jolene that she’d be gone until late, and perhaps all night. Luckily, she always kept a toothbrush, basic toiletries and a change of clothes in her go-bag for situations like this.
Jolene texted her back:
“Just you, Mr. Shampoo Commercial and two unhappy little ones. Sounds like bliss!”
“Haha,” she texted back.
“Is it bcz he did the hair move?”
“TTYL, Jolene”
Julie laid her phone aside.
“OK, so what’s Matthew’s evening routine?”
“I guess about now Patty would be getting him ready for bed, although he had a late nap, so I’m not sure he's gonna go for that.”
“Can you handle that on your own, and I’ll walk this guy around after I change him? Matthew knows you, so it’s probably better that you bathe him.”
“I can figure it out,” he said. “Changing table is in there,” he said, pointing to one of the bedrooms. “Come on, Matthew. Let’s have a bath.” Matthew didn’t argue as so many children might have. He just took his uncle’s hand and headed down the hallway. Julie changed Jameson’s diaper, but he was no happier once he was clean and dry. She sighed and picked him up again, bouncing and making little soothing noises to Jameson, who wasn’t having it.
In the distance, she could hear happy bath noises. Evidently, Nick wasn't going for the all-business bath; sounded more like a splashy fun-time bath. That was good, she thought. The last thing they needed was two unhappy little ones to soothe. She continued bouncing Jameson around the room.
Finally, she resorted to dancing. She started singing the old song her sister was named for, very softly, as she danced around the living room, looking into Jameson’s eyes and smiling as she sang. Babies picked up on moods, she knew, so she pretended she was having a grand time. He seemed to like it, or maybe he was just puzzled by the weird dancing lady, she thought. Either way, he was settling. She thought she could sit down for a bit, but the moment she did, he began fussing more. So she jumped up and sang the song again and again, not varying her singing or her dancing because, as Jolene had often advised her, when you find out what works, you stick to it.
She suddenly looked up to see Nick and Matthew standing in the doorway. Matthew’s hair was wet and slicked back and he wore pajamas printed with little airplanes on them. Both of them were just quietly watching her and she stopped, embarrassed. Jameson, who had been lulled into a half-sleep, opened his eyes and objected loudly to the sudden end of the dancing and singing.
“Go on,” Nick said. “Don’t let an audience stop you.”
Julie hesitated, but Jameson’s wailing grew louder, so she quietly began singing and dancing again, feeling very self-conscious. But there was no doubt that her routine worked on Jameson, who quieted down immediately. Nick’s eyes met hers and she broke the song briefly to speak.
“Well, this is embarrassing,” she said. Then, as Jameson’s eyes opened again, she stopped talking and concentrated on dancing him around the room.
“I can’t let you be embarrassed alone,” Nick said. He lifted Matthew into his arms and began imitating Julie’s dance. “I don’t know the words,” he said. “I’ll have to improvise.” Matthew laughed in delight as his uncle danced him around the room, making up nonsensical rhyming phrases for most of it.
“Jameson is heavy enough,” Julie said, singing the words in the tune of the song. “Matthew is giving you a real work-out.”
“It’s OK. I’m a muscle man,” he said, again in song. He shifted Matthew to one hip and flexed his bicep of his other arm, laughing all the while. Julie noted that for such a thin, lanky guy, his bicep was a lot more impressive than she’d have expected.
Nick was making the dance sillier, dipping Matthew back, raising him over his head, and sometimes turning him upside down and then pretending he didn’t notice the boy was turned the wrong way until he protested. Matthew loved it, and Julie couldn’t help but see Nick in a whole new light. Anybody looking in the window, she realized, would think she and Nick were the dedicated parents of these two children.
Nick’s eyes met Julie’s and they began dancing more in tune with each other. Nick slowed his dance down to match her movements, and held Matthew against him, probably realizing that if he didn’t settle the boy down a bit, they’d be up with him all night. It was working; despite his late nap, the little boy was growing sleepy as his uncle mimicked the slower, gentler dancing movements Julie had fou
nd worked on the baby.
Matthew’s eyes were closed and Julie motioned to Nick. He nodded in understanding and carried the sleeping child to his bedroom. He returned a few minutes later.
“One down,” he said. “Jameson looks like he’s asleep, too. Do you think we can risk putting him down?”
“Maybe?” He’s woken up every time I’ve tried. But maybe he’s finally out for real now,” she said. She eased him very, very slowly into the bassinet, and held her breath. But he was deeply asleep and let out a little sigh of contentment. She backed away from the bassinet in an exaggerated manner until she reached the sofa.
“Wow. That’s the most dancing I’ve done in … forever,” she said. “And it’s a lot harder with your arms full of baby.”
Nick sat down next to her. “I was really an ass when Patty was at the hospital,” he said.
Julie tried to tell him it was fine, but he cut her off.
“No, really. Let me say this. I had this idea that natural childbirth was some kind of backward thing. You have to remember I haven’t exactly been around a lot of moms and babies besides my sister and Matthew, and she was all about the epidural last time. And I thought she was crazy. It seemed unsafe and unscientific and like something they’d do in a hippie commune or something.”
Julie resisted the urge to whip out all her statistics about the risks and benefits of different types of childbirth.
“Patty read me the riot act and made me read a couple of studies after the hospital scene. The stats seem solid. I got the message. I was a jerk to someone who was actually really helping my sister. But I have to admit I didn’t really, truly get it until tonight. When you volunteered to help, just because you cared about Patty’s kids. Even though you had to have been thinking I was a rude asshole, you offered to stay and help me. And if you hadn’t, I can’t even imagine what a shit-storm I’d be in the middle of right now. Instead, Matthew had a good evening, ate his veggies, got a bath and went to bed only a little late. And as for Jameson, you were willing to do whatever it took to get him fed and soothed. Even if you were embarrassed, you still did it, because you knew a baby needed you.” And then he did his shampoo commercial move.
Julie was touched and felt tears threaten to fall. She blinked them back.
“Thank you,” she said. “Seriously, that means a lot.”
“Exactly how big of a jerk did you think I was at first?”
“Don’t make me answer that,” she said.
“That bad, huh?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Have I redeemed myself at all?”
“Watching you do a silly dance with a toddler helped a lot,” she said, smiling.
“Maybe we could go dancing some night,” he said. “Without children.” His eyes locked with Julie’s. She remembered her decision that she was done with men. Then she pushed that thought out of her head.
“Maybe we could,” she agreed.
Nick leaned toward her, and his lips brushed softly and questioningly against hers. She hesitated, and then she kissed him back. He didn’t push for more, just leaned back and smiled. And then did the shampoo commercial thing. She giggled, and the smile disappeared from his face. She quickly realized she’d offended him.
“Oh, no, I wasn’t giggling about the kiss,” she said. “You do this cute thing with your hair sometimes, and that’s what made me laugh.” She ran her fingers through her hair.
“I do?” he asked. Then he did it again, catching himself right in the middle of it. He laughed. “I guess I do. I don’t even think about it.”
“I think you do it whenever you’re a little nervous. It was the first thing I noticed about you, in the hospital, before I even knew who you were.”
“When was that?”
“You and your mother were asking the nurses some questions. I dubbed you Mr. Shampoo Commercial because you have great hair and you kept running your hands through it. I couldn’t decide whether your look was natural or if you spent a lot of time messing with your hair to make it look that way.”
“My hair? I just wash it with whatever shampoo is around and comb it. I don’t do anything to it, really.”
“No special conditioners, hair masks, volumizers, mousse, gel, sculpting wax or shine enhancers? Nothing?”
“Nothing. I have to say, I don’t really give it a thought.”
“Huh. Just when I was starting to think you weren’t so bad. Now I hate you again, because your hair is better than mine.”
He tossed his head. “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful,” he joked. He reached out and touched Julie’s hair, hesitantly. “You have beautiful hair, actually,” he said. “I’m guessing by your sister’s name that red hair runs in your family?”
“It does. Every single one of Jolene’s children has it. She and her husband are both redheads. The kids didn’t have a chance.”
Nick’s phone buzzed and he picked it up, flashed a smile at Julie, and quickly tapped back a reply.
“News from Patty?” Julie asked.
“Yes. They are going to send her home first thing in the morning. So that’s a huge relief.”
“Just don’t let her do any lifting or any heavy exertion,” Julie said. “I hope they’ve put the fear of God into her to listen to her recovery instructions. Just because she feels great doesn’t mean her body has finished healing.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be watching her like a hawk. And so will Brad. She’s not going to be allowed out of our sight for a while.” He paused. “I don’t mind telling you, I was scared to death. Brad was going to drive her to the ER, but his hands were shaking so bad I insisted on calling 911 instead.”
“You did right. Postpartum hemorrhaging can kill a woman fast. It sounds like her bleeding wasn’t as severe as that, but there’s no way you or Brad could have known how bad it was. Heavy bleeding afterward used to be one of the main dangers of childbirth. We can usually stop it now, of course. I’m just really glad she’s going to get to come home in the morning.”
Jameson chose that moment to stir, and Julie suggested that Nick try his hand at making the bottle. She scooped up Jameson and began cuddling and murmuring to him, trying to head off a major crying spell.
It worked, with Nick triumphantly waving the warm bottle of milk over his head just as the baby began to work up a head of steam. Julie handed him the baby, deciding it would be a good idea for him to get some practice in before she left.
If she did leave. It was getting late, and she had been beyond exhausted for days.
“I’m just going to let you handle this one on your own, for practice,” she explained. And then she leaned her head back on the sofa and fell asleep.
When she woke up, the living room was dark other than some light that came in from the kitchen. Nick had also fallen asleep at the other end of the sofa. She quietly stood up to check on the baby, but he was sleeping peacefully in his bassinet.
She very quietly crept to the door, where she’d left her go-bag, and tiptoed down the hallway to the bathroom, where she washed her face, brushed her teeth, and smoothed her hair into a fresh ponytail. Then she crept back to her corner of the sofa, and fell back asleep almost instantly.
When she next awoke, it wasn’t because of Jameson. It was because of Nick, who had shifted in his sleep and was now lying with his head touching her leg. She was still sitting mostly upright; there wasn’t room for both of them to lie down on the sofa unless they were to get extremely cozy. She was suddenly completely awake and hyper-aware of him. That beautiful hair of his was shiny even in the dim light, and she allowed herself the luxury of drinking in the look of him.
He really did have the most amazing hair, and his face was finely chiseled as well. He was tall and thin and had what looked like a runner’s body but his arms looked more muscular than she’d have thought. He must lift weights, she decided, and wondered what the rest of his body looked like. Then she felt embarrassed for basically undressing him with her eyes. She forced her
self to close her eyes. The baby would probably wake up soon, so if she wanted to get any more sleep, she better do it now.
As if Jameson had read her mind, he began moving around. She might as well let Nick sleep if he could, she decided, and reluctantly got up and prepared another bottle. Then she quietly scooped up the baby, changed his diaper and washed her hands. The milk was warm and ready, and he took it quietly, still half asleep by the look of him. She walked around the room as the baby silently drank his milk. She didn’t dare sit down, fearing she’d nod off. The last thing she wanted to do was fall asleep on the sofa while holding the baby. It was too risky. So she slowly and quietly walked up and down the hall until the bottle was empty. She burped Jameson and laid him back down in his bassinet and headed back to the sofa, but at some point Nick had stretched out and was heavily slumbering, taking up the whole sofa. She glanced around the living room, but there wasn’t another sleep-friendly piece of furniture, so she reluctantly decided to wake him up.
“Hey,” she said quietly, and pressed gently on his shoulder. He came awake at once.
“I’m sorry, but could I have a little room to rest?” she asked.
“Sorry, sorry. Hey, should we give the baby another bottle?”
“I just fed and changed him. He’s probably good for at least a couple of hours. You could actually go to bed if you want. I’ve got it.”
“No, that’s not fair,” Nick said. “I want to be here to help. I’ll just move over.” He scooted to his own corner of the sofa and immediately fell back asleep, even though he was sitting nearly upright. Julie did the same.
The next thing she knew, she woke from a deep, delicious slumber. She wasn’t sitting upright anymore. At some point in her sleep, she’d shifted around and now her head was lying right on Nick’s lap. What’s more, his hand was resting lightly on the nape of her neck. In fact, his fingers were very tentatively stroking her hair, some of which had come loose. Was he also acting in his sleep? She wasn’t sure, but kept her eyes closed.
The gentle stroking of her hair was so relaxing. It reminded her of the way she often stroked Tori’s soft red curls to help the child sleep. If Nick knew she was awake, he’d be embarrassed. So she resisted the urge to open her eyes and instead pretended she was still asleep. She’d wait until a more opportune time to wake up. Until then, she just enjoyed the relaxing feel of his fingers stroking her hair.
Perfect Fit (Small-Town Secrets-Fairview Series Book 4) Page 4