by Rachel Lee
“Useful,” he agreed. “Mam used an old chest of drawers. After six babies it didn’t look very grand.”
Diane laughed again, quietly. Daphne apparently liked the sound, because she began to coo. Diane shifted the girl into the cradle of her left arm.
“Here, let me hold her,” Blaine said. “It’ll be easier for you to look around.”
Diane turned to him without reluctance and passed Daphne to him. He understood what a compliment that was. He had already noted how closely attached she was becoming to the child, and many mothers were reluctant to put a child so young in a virtual stranger’s arms.
Once Diane made up her mind what she was going to do, Blaine went to find a clerk to help organize it all. Soon the back of his SUV was loaded with boxes containing a crib, a changing table and a playpen. Diane hesitated over the high chair, then decided it could wait a bit.
After that it was several bags of infant clothes, some washcloths and other necessities. A whole layette, basically, something Daphne hadn’t come with.
Watching Diane give herself over wholeheartedly to providing her small cousin’s needs, he smiled. The little one had no idea how fortunate she was. Diane was throwing her heart and soul into this.
The last purchase was a musical mobile, with colorful soft shapes hanging from it. Then Diane passed over her credit card and didn’t even wince when she saw the total.
“Let me move all the boxes inside,” Blaine suggested as they reached her house once again. “I can come over tomorrow and help with the assembly. You’ll be happier once things are set up to your liking.”
Diane made an amused sound. “Next I guess I’ll need to shop for my own furniture. Not much came with the place. Anyway, with Daphne creeping now, I need ways to keep her confined so I can go cook a dinner or something. I can’t watch her every minute.”
“That’s what we have ears for.”
He felt her look at him as he pulled up in front of the house. “Meaning?”
“You’ll discover as she gets older especially that your ears are better nannies than your eyes.”
“Right now,” Diane answered, “my ears are telling me that she’s getting cranky and hungry and probably needs a diaper change.”
For certain, the noises from the back were sounding less like the coos she’d been making at the store and more like Will someone please pay attention?
“You take charge of the baby,” Blaine said as he switched off the ignition. “I’ll bring in the purchases. Just wave me through to where you want them.”
“That’s an awful lot to carry,” she said as she opened her door and put one foot to the ground. “I’ll help as soon as I settle Daphne.”
“Not to worry. I’ve a strong back and I’ve carried more than that in my life. Loads of brick, in fact, when I was studying engineering.”
“That’s a story I want to hear,” she said.
“And leave the car seat. I’ll get that, too.”
For the first time he passed the nearly vacant front room and kitchen. There were two small bedrooms in the back, and Diane told him to take everything to the one on the right. As he carried in the boxes and bags, it seemed to him that this small bedroom was about to become very crowded. Well, he supposed she’d want the playpen up front, but still, it would be a squeeze to fit the crib, the changing table and the small chest she’d bought. And the room didn’t have a closet!
He was used to that at home. That was why armoires had been created, but even if he’d had one, it wouldn’t fit here. He paused, using his skills to envision the best layout so Diane wouldn’t be tripping over herself trying to move in here.
A glance in the other bedroom, the one she occupied, suggested it wasn’t much bigger.
Well, space wasn’t a problem he could solve in this rental house.
Diane had changed Daphne’s nappy on the living room floor atop a blanket, and now she was feeding the babe, who at last appeared content. And alert. That girl seemed like she didn’t want to miss a thing. From time to time, she released the nipple and made little vocalizations that almost sounded as if she were talking. Then she’d go back to her bottle, her eyes fixed on Diane.
“So,” he said as he looked around, “how long are you planning to live as a minimalist?”
Diane shook her head a little, but she wasn’t frowning. “Most of what I had before came from a secondhand shop, and I don’t mean an upscale one. I also relied on boxes to be tables. I never intended to stay forever in Des Moines, so I furnished as little as possible, and hardly any of it was worth bringing with me. Saves a lot on moving costs. This chair is the only piece of furniture I actually brought with me.”
He dropped onto the floor and sat cross-legged, elbows on his knees. “Might make entertaining a few friends difficult.” He was glad that she chuckled quietly.
“It might,” she admitted. “I realize I have to get at least a few things.” She paused. “I can’t stop thinking about how the judge charged into that meeting the other morning.”
Blaine tilted his head. “I can’t say I expected it. However, Wyatt Carter is a straight arrow, and it probably chapped him a bit to hear about some of the commissioners meeting without public notice. I think I mentioned that to you. And then there’s the whole thing about a nursing room for the mothers who work in the courthouse. That’s been hemmed and hawed about for a year. Maybe more,” he said after a moment. “Be that as it may, you wouldn’t think the politicians would find it all that difficult. A small room, a chair or two. Oh, and a lightbulb.”
She giggled softly. “You make it sound so easy, but it turns the patriarchy upside down.”
“Now how could that be?” he said. “None of the patriarchy would exist without a mother who nursed them.”
“Maybe that’s what gets to them.”
“Hmm.” He rubbed his chin. “Well, whatever made them stubborn, I know it was irritating more than the clerks. Wyatt was getting irritated by the way it was dragging on, but it was wholly under the purview of the powers that be. Namely commissioners and councilmen who sometimes can be too stubborn for no discernible reason. And why it should all fall to them anyway, beats me. Seriously? The janitor could have just made them the room, and who would have argued about it then?”
Diane was now grinning. Daphne appeared to be done with her bottle, so Diane laid her tummy down across her knees and rubbed gently while the child reached for invisible objects, stretching her arms and opening and closing her tiny hands. The soft coos and trills had returned. Soon they’d be followed by sleepiness.
“You want me to put that playpen together for you tonight?” Blaine asked.
“I don’t think there’s a rush. But thank you. In fact, thank you for everything you’ve done tonight.”
He waved his hand, indicating it was of no importance.
“How is the culvert going?” she asked as she placed Daphne on her receiving blanket to inch her way around until sleep found her. A small soft toy was there for her to grab, but Blaine, without answering her question, stretched out near the blanket’s edge and dangled a key ring, causing it to make a quiet ringing sound.
At once Daphne arched her back to look.
“I won’t let her grab them,” Blaine said. “I hate to think of how much grime they have on them.”
“I’m not worried,” Diane answered. She’d had Daphne long enough now to realize that sterility was an impossible ideal. The girl would put anything in her mouth, including a dead fly a few days ago. She was still healthy.
And she was fascinated by the keys. With great effort and focus, she pushed herself toward them.
All of a sudden Blaine stood up. “I have a better idea.”
Diane watched him stride toward the back of the house and returned her attention to Daphne. A better idea?
A few minutes later, she had her answer as Blaine
set up the playpen, an easy task since basically it just needed to be folded open and locked. Then he clamped the mobile on and started it playing.
Daphne was scooped up with her blanket and settled in the playpen on her back, where she became instantly fascinated by the mobile and its slowly turning brightly colored shapes of stars, fishes and cats. An eclectic assortment, Diane thought with amusement.
Then Blaine disappeared again and returned with one of the paper bags she’d brought home. This one contained not clothing but toys. Cute little toys she hadn’t been able to resist, items for Daphne to gnaw on, grasp and eventually throw, she guessed.
Satisfied at last, Blaine returned to his cross-legged position on the floor. “Now,” he said, “you can run to the loo or take a shower without having to straitjacket her in her car seat.”
Diane laughed. “How did you know what I was doing?”
“I told you, I was the eldest of six. I had to practice all kinds of devious methods to get a moment or two to myself.”
She looked at him there, sitting on her floor with his arm draped over one upraised knee, and began to feel like a very bad hostess. “You’ve helped me so much and I haven’t even offered you coffee or tea.”
He shook his head, one corner of his mouth lifting. “I don’t recall asking for anything. Besides, I’m enjoying myself. I miss my family. This is kind of making up for it.”
A tingle of unease settled in her stomach, but she couldn’t have said why. “Are you thinking about moving back home?”
“In the foreseeable future? Nah. The youngest is grown-up, me mam has found a new man and there’s not much need for me at home. My visiting is enough. Besides, I believe I told you I like it here.”
So he wasn’t leaving. Why that should matter to her...well, she didn’t want to think about that. She’d known the man less than a week. Bad enough that she thought about him at odd moments and felt her feminine side weakening with desire. Nothing worse, she reminded herself, than getting involved with a coworker.
“What about you?” he asked. “You told me your cousin is sick, but is there no one else?”
Diane focused her gaze on Daphne, who seemed to have fallen asleep despite all the new distractions. Or maybe because of them. A trip to the store that had kept her wide-awake with fascination, and now the new toys and mobile. She reminded herself that she needed to keep the girl stimulated. Dang, she had missed the mother genes, evidently. Come to the game unprepared. Daphne wasn’t a doll who could be tucked into a corner. She needed a whole lot to keep her thriving.
“Diane? Bad question?”
She sighed. “I don’t want to advertise this.”
“I’m not given to gossip, if that’s what you’re meaning. I may listen, but I seldom repeat unless it’s something casual and harmless.”
She hesitated a little longer, then decided life would probably be easier if she had a confidant. Lately life had been overwhelming her, and even with her old girlfriends she’d felt it wisest to just put a bright face on everything. She hadn’t even told them what was wrong with MaryJo.
“I’ll be honest, Blaine. There are some things in society that are considered...” How could she even explain it? “Shameful?” She tried that on, then left it. “It’s unfair, but that’s the way people react.”
He nodded slowly. “And that would be?”
“My cousin is a paranoid schizophrenic, and she was hospitalized because she doesn’t respond to drug therapy.”
“She’s out of her blazing mind, then.”
Diane compressed her lips, feeling a spark of anger but unable to deny what he said. “You could put it that way.”
He shook his head and stood up. “I don’t mean that in a bad sense. Sometimes I’m too blunt for my own good.” He paced a couple of steps then came back. “You have a teapot? And a box of loose tea?”
“Teapot yes, loose tea, no.”
“Then I suggest we repair to the kitchen where there are two chairs and have a bit of tea, the inevitable cure for everything in my homeland.”
“Britain, too, I guess,” she said, smiling wanly.
“We don’t mention them. Too many bad memories still in the air.” But he spoke pleasantly, not at all critically.
She checked Daphne again, but the child was happily sleeping, so she followed Blaine into the kitchen.
“Tell me where to find everything?” he asked.
So she pointed out what little she had, then settled down to let him make the tea as he chose.
“Your cousin is that ill, then. Not much hope, I expect?”
“They weren’t offering any.”
“No other family?”
Another question she hated to answer. “Her father disappeared before she was born, and her mother was an alcoholic.”
“Was?” He set the kettle on to boil and opened the box of tea bags. From the overhead cupboard, he pulled down her Japanese teapot with the wicker handle. “I like these,” he said, indicating the pot. “Was?” he repeated.
“MaryJo’s parents—well, that’s a strange story. They split when MaryJo was little. She never saw her father again. Her mother became an alcoholic, which didn’t help anything. Anyway, a couple of years ago, the two of them got together briefly in Texas. No one knows why they met up and probably never will, but while they were there, the two of them drowned in a flash flood.”
“Good God,” he said. “That must have been devastating for your cousin. And how strange they got together!” He shook his head a bit as he moved around the kitchen. “Will I ever understand people?”
“I don’t know. It’s sad, but my family had little contact with hers. I’m not sure why. I guess the situation turned them off. Anyway, my parents moved a lot and seldom went back to Gillette—my dad was in the oil business and...any ties just evaporated. I sent MaryJo Christmas cards. Does that make me awful?”
He leaned back against the counter, waiting for the kettle to boil. “No. Families are created by blood. Not by choice. Sometimes they don’t work out. With as little contact as you had with your cousin, she’s a stranger, isn’t she?”
“Unfortunately. Or maybe fortunately. I don’t know.” Diane looked down, feeling a wave of guilt accompanied by some grief. The fact that she didn’t know MaryJo didn’t make her feel a whole lot better.
“So that left you to take care of the daffodil,” he said. He arranged tea bags in the pot, the tags hanging out, and poured boiling water into it. Along with a couple of cups, he set it on the table then sat across from her.
“You’re awfully alone,” he remarked. “At least in terms of people who might help you with the babe.”
“I knew that would be the case when I took this on.” She put her chin in her hand, just looking at him because he was so easy on the eyes, and realized that her ears were tuned toward the living room, listening for Daphne sounds. “You called her daffodil?”
“Better than Daffy.”
That drew a tired laugh from her. “True that.”
“But back to you,” he said. “Taking on a baby is huge. It’s not like you were eagerly awaiting a bundle of joy and taking parenting classes or whatever. It must have been sudden.”
“It was. But I couldn’t do anything else, Blaine. When that social worker started talking about putting Daphne in foster care, it was like everything inside me shriveled. And there wasn’t even a chance she could be adopted into a good home, because my cousin isn’t well enough to give her up, so that would involve all kinds of court hearings that might drag on for years. The only thing I was sure of was that I couldn’t let Daphne be handed over to strangers. They might have been nice strangers, but...at least I know the kind of person I am.”
“A kindhearted one,” he said decisively. He poured tea into their cups then lifted his for a sip. “Ah,” he said.
“The tea bags worke
d?”
“They did. Like I said, I’m not some kind of connoisseur. I’m a man on my own, and when I’m in a hurry, I’m not picky.”
She watched him. He closed his eyes, savoring the tea, the lines of his face relaxing somewhat. All the while she watched, she felt as if her entire being were being pulled toward him.
Gah! she thought and tore her gaze away. A handsome Irishman was not going to turn her into a puddle. She couldn’t allow it. Too much settling in to do on the job. Too much she needed to learn about being a good mother for Daphne.
“How’s the culvert project?” she asked for the second time, seeking safe ground.
“Ah, well.” He set his cup down and refilled it from the pot. “The plans are being drawn up. I’m working with the roads department to see if we can come up with something more durable, but given the climate hereabouts, I doubt it. We’ll try anyway, because the detour already has a half dozen ranchers climbing our backs. It adds quite a few miles for them to get to town. Be that as it may, chances are we’ll use the concrete culverts we already have at the lot, sink another galvanized steel pipe in for extra reinforcement and once again wait for nature to do its work.”
Diane felt a bubble of amusement. “Isn’t that always the way with roads?”
“Aye, but I can hope. I mean, I keep thinking of the Appian Way, two thousand years of foot and cart traffic. And there are roads in Mexico and Peru that are centuries old.”
“Dream big, do you?”
He unleashed a laugh that seem to rise from the depths of his being. “Guilty.”
He’d been likable from the start, but in that instant she knew she liked him above average. A glance at the clock told her Daphne would probably give her an hour before waking again, and Blaine seemed in no hurry to leave.
Not that she wanted him to. His company was pleasant, calming in a way. But exciting, too. It was that exciting part that worried her.
“I told you my mother, otherwise known as Mam, got herself a new man.”
Diane’s interest pricked immediately. “I don’t remember. Is that a problem?”
“Not for her, I gather. I only go home once a year.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “What concerns me is the very strong feeling I get that he’d rather I not show up at all. Now, there’s no reason for him to be jealous of me. I’m hardly there. But I find myself wondering what is it he doesn’t want me to know or find out.”