Healed by Their Unexpected Family

by Karin Baine

  ‘Kayla, Kayla, Kayla. What am I going to do with you?’

  It was a rhetorical question but, when he was still touching her, her mind went to some interesting places regarding what she wanted him to do with her.

  A quiver of desire shook her body and for a split second she thought she saw a flicker of interest cross his face too. Then Luke squawked a reminder that he was there, and reality hit home. How could anyone be interested in a woman with unwashed hair wearing yesterday’s dirty clothes?

  She pulled away, suddenly self-conscious and feeling foolish. Hormones. They could be blamed for everything. Along with the amount of time she was spending with him. He was right. They did need to get out of the house.

  ‘Ignore me. That’s what you should do.’ She lifted the baby carrier with an Oof. Her tiny son was heavier than he appeared.

  ‘That’s not something easily done,’ he muttered under his breath as he reached out and took the weight from her. ‘You shouldn’t be straining yourself. No arguments.’

  She didn’t dare when he swung the baby so easily with one muscular arm. They needed a crowded-room intervention before she started having fantasies about all his other body parts too. Her permanent state of exhaustion lately had curtailed her less than platonic thoughts about him. When she was awake, at least. Her dreams, on the other hand, had become so X-rated it was difficult to separate them from reality. More so when he was parading around her house half naked in the mornings.

  ‘I guess it’s time for master Luke to make his introduction into the big wide world. Baby massage, here we come.’

  This was about her son, their bond and doing whatever she could to make him happy. It was not a turning point in her relationship with Jamie simply because it was his idea. Or because her body was reminding her there was more to her than being a mum. She was a hot-blooded woman too.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘WELCOME, EVERYONE. AS you may or may not be aware, baby massage is an ancient tradition. It’s not simply a new trend the hipsters have latched onto.’ As the instructor, Jocelyn, addressed the class, Kayla gave Jamie the side-eye. She knew he’d only done this for her, not because he believed it would be of any use to them.

  He kept his gaze straight ahead, but the corner of his mouth tilted up in amusement.

  ‘We’re here to promote health and security in our babies. Massage has been known to aid sleep, circulate and alleviate digestive conditions. Best of all, it provides a relaxing experience for baby and parent, reducing stress. So, if you’d like to get started you can lay baby down and lay them on the towels you’ve hopefully brought with you.’

  ‘Here goes nothing.’ Jamie took a couple of towels from the changing bag and spread them out on the wooden floor, leaving Kayla to remove Luke’s bumblebee-embellished sleep suit. The room was sufficiently warm she didn’t have concerns he’d be too cold.

  ‘Please don’t worry if baby needs to be fed or changed during the class. They’re our priority here so do what you have to to make them comfortable without judgement.’ The woman taking the class did her best to calm the fears of any anxious parents and Kayla was glad she wasn’t the only one who might be out of her depth here.

  ‘He’s been fed, winded and changed but I can’t guarantee he’ll enjoy this.’ She was surprised to find she was the more sceptical one about what this was going to do other than stress her out if she wasn’t doing it right.

  ‘We’ve got nothing to lose.’ Jamie shrugged, and she prayed he was right.

  ‘Okay, mums and dads, we’re going to start with the legs. Using a little of the oil you have, I want you to wrap your hands around baby’s thigh and, with one hand at a time, pull down in a “milking” motion.’ Now that did sound weird even to Kayla’s ears.

  Her raised eyebrow was mirrored by Jamie’s, with added smirk. Nevertheless, she performed the massage on both of Luke’s legs.

  ‘Good. Now moving on to the feet, gently rotate each one this way and that. With your thumb I want you to stroke the top of the foot right down to the toes. Then, trace circles over the soles of the feet. Finally, we’re going to take each toe between our finger and thumb and stroke those too.’

  Luke was slippery beneath Kayla’s fingers, but he seemed content lying there as she caressed him. She could hear some babies complaining and the instructor encouraged the mums to cuddle them until they settled back down again. There was a small burgeon of pride that they were doing okay compared to a few of the others present.

  Jamie was kneeling beside them on the wooden floor, observing and whispering encouragement to her and Luke. It didn’t seem fair to leave him on the periphery when he was the father, and this had been his idea.

  ‘Why don’t you do his arms?’ she suggested as they were asked to repeat the process.

  ‘Are you sure?’ He confirmed she was happy in him participating before he shuffled over on his knees and squeezed a few drops of oil onto his hands. As he massaged their son’s dainty arms Kayla was aware of the size of him in comparison. Those large hands enveloping the tiny limbs, capable of doing so much damage, were nothing but tender and loving. Her stress levels were reducing by the second watching him soothe their baby.

  So much so, she let him carry on with the chest massage they were given instructions for too.

  ‘Stroke your hands out over baby’s chest. With a flat palm at the top of his chest, stroke gently downwards.’

  Kayla was mesmerised by Jamie’s rhythmic actions and his concentration. This wasn’t a demonstration to impress her, or a bid to fool her into thinking he was someone he wasn’t. This was a father caring for his baby. She’d seen much of it these last weeks, as well as his kindness towards her. The issue of their baby’s surname and his father’s details on the birth certificate had yet to be addressed but every day she spent with him earned him a more permanent place in his son’s life.

  ‘Jamie, I think—’ Her attempt to broach the subject was interrupted as their baby took direct aim at Jamie’s chest with a forceful stream of urine.

  ‘Luke! Really?’ There wasn’t much Jamie could do other than stem the flow with a hastily positioned towel, but his once white T-shirt was already stained with baby pee.

  ‘It proves he’s definitely relaxed,’ she pointed out in between peals of laughter.

  ‘Glad to see you two are enjoying it.’ His wide smile said he was being genuine, and the incident hadn’t bothered him at all.

  Although, Kayla wouldn’t have minded if he’d felt the need to strip off too. Living together had provided numerous opportunities for her to view him sans shirt. The sight of a toned male torso wasn’t something she’d thought she needed in her life until it had become the highlight of her morning. Such a contrast to the barely-made-it-out-of-bed-today look she offered in return.

  She tossed him a pack of baby wipes and a clean towel. ‘Dry yourself off and I’ll take over with our little piddler.’

  ‘I swear you two planned this behind my back.’ He dabbed at the stain on his shirt, giving them a mock scolding. It was clear Jamie was going to be a pushover when it came to their son for real. She wasn’t sure she’d be any better when she adored him so much.

  ‘We wouldn’t do anything to embarrass Daddy, would we, Luke?’ It was the first time she’d assigned him the title out loud and the world hadn’t ended. Accepting Jamie as Luke’s father was the right thing to do. More than that, it was good to know she had someone to share all this with. She wasn’t alone after all.

  As she turned Luke over to massage his back, there was a gentle pressure on hers as Jamie rested his hand on her. ‘You don’t know how much it means to hear you say that.’

  That delicious tingle of awareness that accompanied his touch reached up to tickle the back of her neck.

  ‘I’ve been thinking about making it official. It’s about time we registered Luke’s birth, don’t you think?’ She sc
ooped up the now sleepy source of their amusement and love and faced his father.

  ‘I would absolutely love that.’ Jamie’s eyes were sparkling with bright tears, the move as significant to him as it was to her.

  There was no going back now. Once he was named on the birth certificate Jamie would be part of Luke’s life for ever. And hers.

  * * *

  Jamie was on cloud nine as they left the class. Despite his son christening his new T-shirt. The class had gone better than he’d ever expected when it had prompted Kayla into a conversation about the birth certificate. When she’d first called him ‘Daddy’ when talking to Luke, he’d have sworn his heart stopped momentarily at the shock. This was getting real. He’d achieved what he’d set out to do and ensured his place in Luke’s upbringing. With that came a lifetime duty to take care of his son.

  He’d been so hell-bent on getting Kayla to accept him as Luke’s father and cement a place in his life, he wondered if he’d really considered the implications. Once his name was on the birth certificate it was official. He was a dad. The consequences of not being a good enough parent were something he’d lived with his entire life because of the selfish actions of his father. He wouldn’t intentionally do anything to hurt Luke but the onus on him to be a better father than his own weighed heavily on his heart.

  That carefree existence he’d anticipated once Tom had become independent was now a thing of the past. He hadn’t thought much about his own future beyond making up for his lost youth. Now the only one available to him was here with Kayla and Luke. He hoped it was enough for him. That he was enough for them.

  ‘What’s all the noise?’ Kayla drew his attention away from self-pity back to the cacophony of sound out in the hallway liable to undo their hard work in getting Luke to sleep.

  ‘It’s probably the next class. Baby yoga. I looked into that too, but we’ll have to wait until Luke’s older and you’ve had your six-week check-up.’ He’d researched lots of classes before he’d settled on baby massage. It had been hard work finding something to suit them that was also something he was willing to participate in. When Kayla was up to it she might join some of those singing classes where they all sat in a circle singing nursery rhymes to oblivious infants, but he wasn’t that much of a happy-clappy chappie. At least not in public.

  ‘You’d be willing to do yoga with us?’ Her incredulity at the prospect after he’d demonstrated he was prepared to do almost anything for them hurt feelings he wasn’t aware he had. Here he was committing the rest of his life to looking after his son, yet Kayla clearly still didn’t trust him to stick around. After a month of her getting to know him, seeing him doing his best for this family, he expected her to think better of him. Otherwise what was the point of him being here?

  ‘Sure. I’ll order up some yoga pants specially,’ he said, with a lot less enthusiasm than he’d had when he’d started this quest for a family-bonding activity.

  ‘Now that I’d like to see.’ Her interest in seeing him in the unforgiving tight fabric stopped him from wallowing too much.

  ‘You would?’ His spirits lifted further as she blushed ferociously, realising what she’d said. Perhaps she had been paying him more attention than she’d led him to believe.

  ‘I’m joking. Is it getting hot in here? Maybe we should get out of this stuffy room.’ The more she bustled around Luke, collecting his belongings and pretending she hadn’t encouraged Jamie to parade around in skintight pants, the funnier he found it.

  ‘Maybe we should stay. I could strip down to my boxers and you could watch me do the downward dog, if that’s what you’re into.’ It seemed so long ago when he’d teased her at the wedding, but now he remembered why he’d enjoyed it so much. He made her flustered and to him that suggested she wasn’t impervious to that attraction he’d felt towards her since day one. Perhaps, subconsciously, that was part of the reason he’d agreed to participate in the surrogacy when it cemented a connection between them they might have otherwise avoided.

  She tutted but didn’t outright dismiss the idea.

  By the time they were ready to leave, the rest of their class had already gone, and the new attendees were filing in. It was a much more animated and vocal group who replaced their sedate gathering. Mostly down to the age of the younger participants, who were mobile and giving their parents the runaround.

  ‘I think the object of this class might be to tire the kids out, along with all that well-being and inner-calmness stuff.’ The chaos of temper tantrums and crawling, falling little ones was a scary insight into what the future held for them. He could see the same realisation in Kayla’s wide eyes as she watched it unfold around them too.

  ‘Fingers crossed it works, for the sake of their poor mothers.’ It was obvious her focus was on the harassed parents chasing their offspring and trying to get them to sit on the mats provided for the session.

  Jamie noticed there were several using reins, with one end tethered to the child and the other around the mother’s wrist so they didn’t wander too far. He thought they’d be better using one of those retractable dog leads instead. Then the rug rats could be reeled in at the touch of a button. He didn’t share that thought with Kayla in case she deemed it inappropriate and saw the joke as a gauge of his parenting skills.

  ‘At least we only have one to contend with.’ His eye had been drawn to the twins in the corner who had hared off in different directions as soon as they’d come through the double doors. Little blond heads bobbed up and down as one jumped on the yoga mats whilst the other picked something up off the floor.

  ‘Lena, sweetheart, what have you got in your mouth? Let Mummy see.’ Lena’s mother edged cautiously towards her daughter as though approaching a skittish fawn, then launched herself like a lioness to wrestle the unidentified object from her cub’s mouth.

  ‘Goodness. You’d need eyes in the back of your head to manage those two.’ Kayla followed their escapades, her head turning left and right as though she were at a tennis match.

  ‘Yeah. Maybe I should go and see if she needs a hand.’ If he and Kayla were finding aspects of parenthood hard to handle, he could only imagine what it was like to have two toddlers and apparently no one to help out. He was sure the rewards outweighed the parenting trials, as he was finding out for himself, but that didn’t mean a person couldn’t use a hand sometimes.

  He set the baby carrier beside Kayla and headed towards the mother to offer his assistance, hoping she wouldn’t be as offended as the mother of his son tended to be when he wanted to help.

  It was on his mind whether or not to introduce himself as a GP or a parent when there was a loud thud from the far side of the room.

  ‘Billy!’

  ‘Jamie!’

  Both mum and Kayla drew his attention to the hurdling tot who’d been temporarily left unsupervised.

  They all ran towards the child, who was lying motionless on the floor. Jamie winced as he realised that thud had been his head hitting the hard wood. It had been loud enough to stop all the other chatter in the room as everyone else looked on in horror.

  ‘Billy? Someone help me. He’s not breathing.’ The distraught mother was kneeling over her unconscious child, with the other one caught under her arm. She attempted to lift him up and Jamie was quick to step in.

  ‘Stop! Don’t move him. Let me assess him first.’ He could see the fear flicker in the mother’s eyes and she was frozen, unsure of what to do.

  ‘Jamie’s a doctor. He knows what he’s doing.’ Kayla gently encouraged the mother to come away and let him get on with examining her son.

  ‘Billy? Can you hear me? My name’s Jamie. I’m a doctor. I need you to open your eyes for me.’ There was no response. He was careful in tilting the child’s head back and lifting his chin in case there was a neck injury but opening his airways took priority. There was no chest movement and no sign, or sound, of him breathing. He turn
ed to the women standing close by. ‘I’m going to have to perform CPR.’

  He didn’t have time to react to the anguished cries of the mother, but Kayla had that in hand as she reassured her everything would be okay.

  ‘Everyone, I think it would be best if you all go outside. We don’t want to upset the other children.’ She addressed the room too whilst Jamie started rescue breaths.

  Jamie pinched Billy’s nose closed between his finger and thumb and opened his mouth a fraction. With a deep breath, he placed his lips around the child’s, making a tight seal. He blew and watched the little chest rise. When he broke the seal, he watched the chest fall again as it would if the child were breathing normally. Jamie took another breath and repeated the process.

  He heard Jocelyn, the instructor, shoo everyone out of the door and footsteps as she walked over to the scene.

  ‘I’ve phoned for an ambulance. Let me take these little ones out of your way so you can focus on Billy.’ There was no objection from Kayla or the other mother as she walked away carrying Luke and holding Lena’s hand.

  ‘This isn’t working.’ The five rescue breaths hadn’t done anything to get him breathing on his own again.

  Unprompted, Kayla knelt down beside him and began chest compressions. Positioning herself above the baby, and with her arm straight, she placed the heel of her hand on the lower part of the breastbone. Making sure the pressure wasn’t applied over the ribs, she pushed down.

  They exchanged glances. No words were needed for him to know she was thinking the same thing as him. They needed to save this child’s life. It could easily have been their own baby. Would they be so calm then and able to provide the same medical assistance?

  Jamie had known from the second he’d become a father it wasn’t only his personal life that would be affected, it was going to influence his work too. He would relate better to every overwrought parent who came to him worried about their own health or that of their children. Each child he treated now he was going to compare to his own son and what he would do in the same circumstances. Being a father would make him a better man and a better doctor all because of Luke. A child he wouldn’t have if not for Kayla and their brothers.