✯✯✯✯✯
When I got out of the bathroom, I quickly put a diaper on Evie and then slipped some clothes on her. Well, I struggled to get clothes on her as she continually pulled her leg out of the pant leg just to see me get frustrated. She did the same thing with her shirt, and her socks were flung around the room so many times that I finally gave up and let her go barefoot.
“What would you like for breakfast, sweetie?”
“Ceweal!” she shouted. I laughed and strapped her into the high chair, but when I turned to get her cereal, I heard a crash. Spinning around, I was shocked to see Evie on the ground, her high chair toppled over behind her. The fat tears rolling down her face caused an ache in my chest. Not because she was crying, but because I was failing so miserably at this.
“Shh. Don’t cry,” I tried to soothe her, but she just kept wailing, so I tried a different tactic. “Well, if you hadn’t wiggled out of your high chair, you wouldn’t have fallen and gotten hurt. So, really, this is all your fault.”
She screamed even louder. I started pacing, jiggling her up and down to try and calm her down, but nothing was working.
“Stop fucking panicking,” Knight’s voice came back over the system. “She’s fine. She’s just screaming because you’re panicking.”
“Well, I almost killed her, so yeah, I’m a little freaked out right now!”
“You didn’t almost kill her. She toppled the chair over, but she’s fine. Now she knows better than to do that.”
“So, what do I do?”
“Strap her back down and get her breakfast.”
I did as he said, and sure enough, as soon as I walked away, she started to calm down. I grabbed a small plastic bowl and poured her cereal and her milk. Putting a spoon in it, I put it in front of her and waited. She picked up the spoon and took it all in her mouth, squealing and letting the milk dribble down her face. I sighed and rested my head in my hand. Geez, I was only a half hour into the day and I was already exhausted. How was I going to last the rest of the day?
My eyes drooped slightly, but then something splattered against my face. My eyes flew open just in time to see another spoonful of Cheerios flying right at me. I squealed and shut my eyes just as it hit my face.
“What the heck!”
Another spoonful hit me and I pushed back away from the table and ran for paper towels. The cereal kept coming as I tried to block all the hits coming my way. Seriously, this kid had really good aim. Was she already in training with the other kids?
“Evie, you need to stop right now!”
Another spoon of cereal went flying across the room. I made a run for it and snatched the spoon and the bowl out of her hands right before she could launch another attack. Why was this so difficult? She never acted like this for Rocco.
I pulled her out of the high chair and started cleaning up the mess. I had only just started when the doorbell rang. I ran to answer it, slipping in spilled milk on the floor, and almost crashed. I caught myself on the counter and quickly straightened, rushing to the door before whoever it was left. Flinging the door open, I saw Claire standing in front of me with a huge grin on her face. I had met her a handful of times, but nothing to warrant a trip over here.
“Hey, it’s so great to see you again,” she said cheerily. “I figured that since you were watching Evie that you would want some company, so here I am! Unless, you don’t actually want company. Then I’ve just come over and ruined your time with Evie. Sorry about that,” she rambled. “But I figured that if I was watching someone else’s kid, I would want company too, just to make sure that I didn’t kill the kid off. Which is saying something about my mothering skills since I’m going to have a child and I don’t know the first thing about it. But Derek wanted kids and apparently he was tired of our sex games, so I agreed to get knocked up, even though I was perfectly happy just pretending he was Superman and I was Lois Lane.”
She stopped her rant, her lips pursed off to the side like she was trying to hold back even more than what she just spewed.
“Um…hi?”
She leapt forward and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me way too tight. I stood stock still with my arms hanging at my sides and tried not to slap her away, even though that’s really what I wanted to do.
“Um…what are you doing?”
“Sorry, but I just figured that since we both have husbands on the same team and all-”
“Rocco’s not my husband,” I said, still wrapped up in her arms.
“Well, sure,” she snorted, “I figured that we should get to know each other better! We could be best friends, and I can show you all the stuff that Maggie showed me when I was new. She can’t really do that right now because of the triplets, but I only have one in the oven, so I can show you all that stuff! It’ll be so much fun.”
I reached up and patted the back of her shoulder. “Can you release me now?”
“Oh, oops!” She pulled back and shrugged, her face a little red. “Sorry. I sometimes screw that stuff up.”
“What stuff?”
“You know, social niceties. What constitutes a good hug? What’s too long and what’s too short? If you hug for too long, it’s awkward and perceived as meaning something more than it really does, but the same could be said about a short hug. Does that mean that you don’t really like the person and don’t really want to touch them, or are you just trying to add a little friendly touch, more personal than just a wave hello?”
I rubbed my forehead and tried to figure out what the hell that all meant. “Um…I wouldn’t really know.”
“Right,” she said, slapping herself on the forehead. “I’m sure you don’t think about that kind of stuff.”
“Not at all,” I admitted.
“I’m sure you just know the answer without having to think about it over and over in your head.”
“Uh…no, I don’t hug at all.”
She stared at me for a moment. “Like…ever?”
“I’m not sure why I would. It’s weird. I mean, I don’t know you, so why would I hug you? And even if I did know you, we’d have to be really close for me to want to go through that again.”
“Oh,” she said, her shoulders slumping in relief. “So, we don’t have to do that again?”
“I would prefer that we never do that again.”
“Thank God! That really takes the pressure off.” She shoved past me into the house and flung her coat across the back of the chair, staring at Evie for just a moment. “So, what do you do with her?”
“Well, so far, I’ve done nothing but screw up. I’ve had poo on my face and cereal flung at me, and that was all before the day really got started.”
“Wow, do you think that’s what it’s like for all parents?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure some people have it together. Do you want to take a crack at watching her?”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Knight’s voice came over the system.
Claire looked at me strangely. “Is that Knight?”
“Yes, he’s been popping in all morning to tell me what a shit job I’m doing.”
“Somebody’s gotta do it,” Knight rumbled.
I raised an eyebrow at Claire. “See what I mean?”
“He doesn’t do this in all the houses, does he?”
“I’m pretty sure this is just special to me. He doesn’t trust me,” I smirked.
“Because you suck with kids,” Knight said.
“You know, for someone that doesn’t give a shit about anyone, you sure are shoving your nose pretty far into my business,” I snapped.
I didn’t get a response and I hoped that meant that he had stopped eavesdropping on me.
“Where’s Evie?” Claire asked.
I looked over to where she had been sitting, but she was gone. “Evie?” She wasn’t around, but then I heard a rustling noise coming from the kitchen and promptly freaked out. The refrigerator door was open and Evie was sitting in the opening, a leftover conta
iner in her hands, sans lid. She was digging into the leftover spaghetti and had sauce all over.
“Shit!” I ran forward and snatched the container out of her hands as she looked up at me with a saucy grin. Literally, her face was covered in sauce. “This is ridiculous. It’s like she’s trying to push my buttons today. She’s never like this for anyone else!”
“Okay, we can handle this. I’ll get the bathwater going and you take her out of her clothes,” Claire said with a nod.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Baby training.”
Who was I to judge why she wanted to help out? I took advantage though, and did as she said, quickly getting Evie out of her clothes and into the bathroom. Claire and I washed her up in no time and wrapped her up in a towel.
“Okay, I’ll grab some clothes. You dry her off,” I told Claire.
I went into the baby cocoon after pressing all the numbers and scanning my hand, which was just so ridiculous, and grabbed some clothes for Evie. When I came out, Claire was sitting in the living room, texting something, but Evie was nowhere near her.
“Where’s Evie?”
Claire looked up at me wide eyed. “She was just right here! I swear. Derek texted me and I was responding, but she was just right here. Where the fuck did she go?”
We ran around the house looking for her, but no matter where we looked, she wasn’t there.
“How could she have just disappeared?”
“Do you think she got outside?” Claire asked.
“No, she can’t reach the handle.” I mentally went back through the house and tried to think of any hiding spots that she could have gotten into, but there was no place that we hadn’t checked. Except…”Oh shit!”
I ran for Evie’s room and entered the code wrong once before finally shoving the door open and racing over to the cocoon. I entered the code and then entered it again, but I was freaking out too much and couldn’t get anything straight. A female voice came over the speaker.
“Invalid code. Doors sealed for the next thirty minutes.”
“No!” I screamed, banging on the door as I tried to bust in, but it was no use. I was locked out. I slid down to my butt and leaned against the door. Claire came to sit beside me and patted my knee. We heard Evie laughing on the other side.
“Well, it could be worse,” Claire chuckled.
“In what way could this be worse? I told Rocco I would watch his daughter, whom he loves more than anything in this world, and I ended up locking her in a room filled with weapons.”
“Well, she could be locked in with grenades.”
“Aren’t you going to open the door, Knight?” I shouted, but he didn’t answer. “Sure, now he decides to leave me alone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Rocco
It was a two day drive out to Montana and we were part way through the second day. I was riding in the SUV with Derek and Hunter, trying to ignore them as they argued over the stupidest shit. I was still stuck in my head, thinking about saying goodbye to Brooke and how she had reacted. It wasn’t at all what I expected. I thought it would be different between us now, but something was still standing between us. I just had to figure out what that was.
My phone rang and my eyebrows shot up. Knight was calling me, and he never fucking called me. “Hello?”
“You need someone else to watch your kid. Brooke sucks at it.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“She’s incompetent when it comes to kids, that’s what.”
“Okay, but is Evie okay?”
He huffed in irritation. “Yes, she’s fine. I’ve been keeping an eye on them.”
I was stunned into silence. Knight was watching out for my kid? I had no idea that he even cared one way or the other about anyone that wasn’t his family. “Uh, not that I’m not grateful, but why are you watching out for my kid?”
“Because Brooke’s watching her. I thought it was pretty obvious that someone had to keep an eye on her.”
“Yeah, but…you’re not exactly the guy that gives a shit about anyone but his own family.”
“Hey, it’s not like I’m sitting over there and hanging out. I just check in from time to time on the cameras.”
Somehow, I doubted that’s what was happening. “Right, so what’s going on over there that has you concerned?”
“Evie is testing her. She ran from her and smeared shit all over the place, she threw her cereal all over, and right now, she’s playing hide and seek with Brooke in the baby closet.”
My eyes bugged out. “How the fuck did she get in there?”
“Brooke and Claire were attempting to try the whole child rearing thing together and neither of them know what the fuck they’re doing,” he said, as if that answered my fucking question.
“So, go fucking help her!”
“Eh, she’ll be fine.”
“Then what the fuck are you calling me for?”
I hung up before I could get an answer and grumbled in the back seat as Hunter and Derek kept shooting me dirty looks.
“Trouble in paradise?”
“Knight said that Brooke’s screwing up watching Evie.”
Derek snorted. “Well, Knight thinks everyone’s a screw up.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t put too much stock in what he says,” Hunter agreed. “You know he’s just testing you.”
“Testing me with what? I’m on the road. It’s not like I can do anything about it.”
“He’s trying to see if you’ll call Brooke or trust her with your kid.”
“And what would that prove?” I asked Hunter.
“Look, he can tell that you have a thing for Brooke-”
“Everyone can,” I snapped.
“Right, so he wants to know how much you trust her with your most prized possession. If you trust her, then he might trust her.”
I rolled my eyes and stared out the window.
“Do you trust her?” Derek asked.
“Of course I do. I wouldn’t have left Evie with her if I didn’t trust her.”
“So, what’s the problem? You’ve been moping in the back the whole fucking drive,” Hunter grumbled.
“I…I told her that I loved her and she didn’t say it back.”
“Whoa,” Derek said. “Was this on the way out the door?”
“Yeah.”
“You dumbass, you don’t say that shit when you’re leaving unless you’ve already said it before.”
“Why? I thought you said that I had to make my goodbye memorable!”
Hunter turned around in his seat and stared me down. “You should have said that shit when she was trapped with nowhere to go. You can’t say that when you’re on a schedule and you have to leave. You have to make it so she can’t run and hide from you.”
“And make it awkward when she doesn’t say it back,” I retorted. “Yeah, then I could sit around the house with her for days on end and be miserable, knowing that she doesn’t feel the same way I do.”
“The point is,” Derek said, “that you have to say it when she can’t run from you. You’re there, she’s there, and there’s nothing to do but convince her that she really does love you. But you’ve gone and fucked that up. Now she’s on her own, watching your kid and trying to decide if she really does love you. You’ve given her space to think. And nothing good ever comes from a woman having time to think.”
“Look, I basically already told her that I loved her. This time, it was just more official sounding. And it doesn’t matter anyway. I mean, she’s there with my kid and she wouldn’t have volunteered if she wasn’t willing to really try with me, right?”
“Sure,” Derek said, not so convincingly.
I sighed and continued staring out the window. “You know, this didn’t go at all how I thought it would.”
“And how did you think it was going to go?” Hunter asked, a touch of humor in his voice.
“I thought I would fall in love with a woman that would want the same things as me. I t
hought that it would all be easy going. I never thought I would have to use the word ‘try’ when it came to our relationship.”
“Dude,” Derek huffed. “You’ve got this all wrong. Relationships are nothing but a bunch of trying. None of us just magically find the woman we’re going to spend our lives with and then walk into the sunset with her. That just doesn’t happen. And you can’t help who you fall in love with. Sometimes it’s going to be the exact person you think, and other times, it’ll be someone who fucks with your head and makes you question your sanity.”
“I get that, but nothing about my life is going like I planned. I mean, I wasn’t supposed to have a child with a woman that I didn’t give a shit about. That was reserved for the woman I married. And don’t get me wrong, I love Evie so much, but that’s one fucked up way to start out in life. And then Brooke brought up something that I didn’t even think of. What if her mom comes back and wants her?”
“Then you fight for her,” Hunter said.
“Yeah, but…none of this was in the plan. None of it was supposed to happen this way. It feels like one bad nightmare after another.”
“Is there a good kind of nightmare?” Hunter asked. “Because as far as I know, nightmares pretty much always suck.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I really don’t. All I hear is a bunch of fucking whining.”
I shot a death glare at Hunter, but before I could say anything, Derek was getting on my ass too.
“Seriously, what’s up with you? You’re not the type of guy to throw a pity party.”
“It’s just not-”
“Don’t even say it’s not what you planned,” Derek cut me off. “So, your daughter didn’t come into your life the way you planned. Yeah, it sucks, but it’s not life-threatening. So, you go and take any measures necessary to make sure that the bitch can’t come back into your life and take Evie. Again, not a huge problem. A pain in the ass for sure, but doable. And all this shit about Brooke not being what you planned? Suck it up, buttercup. She obviously wants you, despite the fact that you have a kid and she doesn’t want them. You should be down on your knees and thanking your lucky stars that she’s giving this a shot. She could have just walked out of your life. But she stuck around, and yeah, she’s using that word you despise so much. She’s trying. For you. All of this is for you, because she wants you and she’s willing to do whatever it is that she has to do to keep you. Including watching your kid while you’re out of town on work. And she’s never fucking watched a kid for a day in her life. Yeah, man. It really sucks to be you.”
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