“Do you need any help bringing stuff in?” Maddy asked.
“If you want to grab my overnight bag, I can get the baby and her diaper bag.”
Within a few minutes we had everything in the house. Greta was ecstatic to see me, her tail wagging harder than I had ever seen it.
“Thanks for bringing me home, Maddy.”
“No problem. I’m glad I got to see your beautiful baby.”
After she left, I checked Greta’s food and water bowls to make sure she had what she needed. Then, with Natalie in my arms, I sat on the couch and called Greta over.
“This is my new baby,” I said to her, letting her sniff Natalie. “We need to take good care of her. Okay?”
Greta responded by wagging her tail again. I pet her with my free hand and praised her for being such a good dog.
Natalie began fussing and Greta looked at her, apparently wondering what this new creature was. I took Natalie upstairs and changed her diaper on the new changing table, then sat in the rocking chair and nursed her. When she had finished eating and had been burped, I held her against my shoulder and rocked her. She soon fell asleep.
After placing her in the crib, I went into my room and unpacked the things I had taken to the hospital. I could hardly believe my baby was here and that I was no longer pregnant. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw that my belly was still large. I knew it would take several weeks for my uterus to shrink back to normal, but I was impatient to get back into shape.
Once things were organized, I made sure the burglar alarm was set, then lay on my bed and took a nap. It felt good to be in my own bed again after being in the hospital. I slept soundly, but woke abruptly when I heard Natalie crying. Pushing myself off of my bed, I went into her room and stood next to the crib, gazing at her. She was so perfect. Her tiny fists waved in the air as she cried and I laughed as her perfect little mouth occasionally turned down into a frown. I scooped her up, then held her against me. Though her cries weren’t as loud, she still fussed and I assumed she was hungry.
I sat on the rocking chair and began nursing her. She ate hungrily. Powerful waves of love cascaded over me as I watched her. I stroked her head with my free hand and was amazed by her soft hair. When she was satisfied, I changed her diaper and brought her downstairs.
I had bought a baby seat and had set it on the dining room table. After placing her in it, I fixed myself something to eat, then sat near her and ate my meal. I had only been a mother for a very short period of time, but already I loved it.
I was extremely grateful for the money I had from Dad’s life insurance policy as well as the sale of his house, which allowed me to be home with Natalie. I knew I would need to continue with my classes as soon as possible, perhaps some Online classes, but for the time being I would enjoy taking care of her full-time.
Before Natalie was born I had made the time to finalize the website for Billi’s boutique. Two of the other business owners had also wanted me to create websites for them, which I had done. So now I just needed to maintain the websites until I was ready to look for additional clients. Running my own business, even though it was so small, was very exciting and bolstered my self-confidence. The extra income I earned helped me to feel secure as I cared for Natalie and adjusted to being a mom.
Over the next few days I was able to get into a loose routine. Natalie had her own schedule, but things were coming together. Though I didn’t have any visitors, I didn’t feel quite as lonely with Natalie and Greta always there. But when Natalie was about a week old, Trevor stopped by. In a way I was glad to see him. It had been so quiet with just Natalie, Greta and me, I didn’t mind that he had come over.
As soon as I invited him in, he wanted to see Natalie.
“She’s sleeping, but I guess I can get her,” I said.
“I’d appreciate that.”
I went into her room and picked her up from her crib, then brought her down and handed her to Trevor.
“She’s so tiny,” he said as he held her.
I watched him with her and again felt impressed with his confidence. Some men were scared to hold newborns, afraid they might hurt them, but Trevor obviously knew what he was doing.
With his hands held out in front of him so he could watch her, he gently bounced her in his arms. After a moment her eyes cracked open and she yawned so big that it made her cry. Trevor laughed and she quickly settled back down.
He looked at her open eyes. “I think she has my eyes.” He looked at me. “What do you think, Lily?”
I nodded, a feeling of warmth for him settling in my heart. “Yes, she does. I hope they stay that color.”
“Me too,” he said, gazing at her once again. After a moment he put her against his shoulder and looked at me. “How are you doing, Lily? Do you need anything?”
I was touched by his concern. No one else had checked on me or asked about my needs. “I’m doing okay. She sleeps pretty well at night, about four hours at a time, so I’m able to get enough sleep.”
“What about groceries? Have you been able to get to the store?”
“Not yet. In fact I was thinking about going later today.”
“Do you want me to stay here and take care of her while you go?” He seemed eager to have time alone with his baby.
I wasn’t ready to give him that kind of access to Natalie or my home. “No, that’s okay,” I quickly said, then felt bad at the look of rejection on his face. “It’s just that I’m not ready to be away from her yet.”
He stared at me, apparently trying to decide what to say. “I’ve hardly spent any time with her. You’ve never been away from her.”
“I understand that, Trevor. But in some ways it’s different for the mother. I carried her inside me for nine months and went through an agonizing birth to get her here. I nurse her at my breast every few hours.” I shook my head. “It’s not the same.”
He nodded, seeming reluctant to agree. “Yeah, I guess I see what you mean. But I would like to spend more time with her. How is she going to know me unless I see her more often?”
“She’s so little now—I don’t know how much she notices who is with her yet.”
“Still, it needs to start at the beginning.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“I was thinking of coming by two or three days a week.”
The thought of him coming so often was unnerving, but it didn’t seem right to refuse. There was no court order and I really didn’t want to get the courts involved at this point. If we could keep our relationship civil, it would be so much better. “How about on Mondays and Thursdays?”
“Okay. Let’s try that and see how it works out.”
I smiled, relieved he wasn’t going to push for three days a week.
“Maybe you can use that time to run errands or something,” he said. “You know, have some time to yourself.”
“I’ll have to think about that.”
He nodded, apparently pleased with my response.
After an hour, Natalie began fussing. Trevor handed her back to me. With her in my arms, I stood and gently bounced her, but she was making it clear she was hungry.
“I think I’m going to have to feed her. Maybe this is a good time for you to go.” I didn’t want to be rude or mean, but I wasn’t about to have him watch me nurse her again. I hadn’t liked it in the hospital and there was no reason for him to stay and watch me now.
“Sure, okay.” He stood and walked to the door. “I’ll be back on Thursday. Probably in the late afternoon. Is that okay?”
I nodded, happy he was asking me and not just telling me. “Sounds good.”
After he left I was able to feed Natalie and put her back down for a nap. As I watched her sleep in her crib, I thought about Trevor and found I was actually glad he wanted to be part of her life. It would be good for her to have both of us loving her and caring for her. We just needed to try to get along and it would all work out.
Chapter Forty-Two
Ch
ristmas came and went. Beyond putting up the tree, I didn’t have the energy or the interest to do the whole Christmas celebration. Thankfully, Trevor’s day to visit didn’t fall on Christmas, so I was able to focus on my new little family on that day and just relax and enjoy being with Natalie.
Over the next few weeks Trevor stuck to our prearranged schedule and it was working out well. I hadn’t taken him up on his offer for me to run errands while he stayed with Natalie, but I was beginning to feel more comfortable with having him around. A few times he’d brought up the subject of us getting back together, but when I asked him to stop asking me, he’d respected my request.
When Natalie was six weeks old, he came over at the appointed time and we sat on the couch like usual. I had tried to feed her before he came so that she wouldn’t get hungry while he was playing with her, but she hadn’t been hungry yet. When Trevor had been there for forty-five minutes, she began to get fussy.
“Sorry, Trevor. I tried to feed her earlier, but she wasn’t hungry.”
“It sure would be nice if I could feed her,” he said, trying to get her to take a pacifier.
I laughed. “Well, you don’t exactly have the right equipment.”
He smiled. “I know. But I could always give her formula.”
“No.” I spoke quickly, and maybe a bit too emphatically. “I mean, that would mess up my milk production if she had formula instead of nursing.”
“Okay. It was just a thought.”
I watched the two of them interact. At first the pacifier had satisfied her, but pretty soon it wasn’t enough and she began to cry.
Trevor handed her back to me. “Since I can’t do anything about feeding her, and you don’t want to feed her in front of me, maybe you should let me know when she’s eaten and I can come over earlier or later so that she doesn’t get hungry while I’m here.”
I could tell he was irritated with me—like he thought I had done this on purpose. Controlling my annoyance, I nodded. “That’s fine.”
He stood abruptly and grabbed his coat off the chair. “I guess I’ll see you Monday.” He jammed his arms through the sleeves of his coat.
I didn’t respond as he stomped out the door, nearly slamming it as he left. As soon as I heard him drive away, I locked the door and turned on the burglar alarm, then I settled onto the couch and nursed Natalie.
An hour later I heard a knock on the door. As I imagined Trevor returning, my heart began to pound. Natalie was sleeping in her crib and I didn’t want to have to take a chance on waking her up to let Trevor hold her. I peeked through the blinds, but didn’t see Trevor’s car.
“Who could that be?” I asked Greta as she barked a few times at the door.
I peered through the peephole and was surprised to see Marcus standing on my porch. Opening the door, I smiled tentatively, wondering why he had come over.
“Hi, Marcus.”
“Hey. How are you?”
“I’m doing okay.”
“You look good,” he said, glancing at my stomach, which was nearly back to its pre-pregnancy flatness.
“Thanks,” I smiled at his compliment. “Do you want to come in?”
“If you’re not busy.”
“No, I was just reading.”
He followed me to the couch and we sat on opposite sides.
“How’s the baby?” he asked.
My smile widened. “She’s great. She’s asleep right now, but if you want, you can go look at her.”
“Okay.”
We walked up the stairs and entered Natalie’s room. He went to the crib and stared down at her.
“She’s as beautiful as I remember,” he whispered.
I nodded. “She’s getting bigger too.”
He looked at me. “It was really cool being there when she was born. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”
I smiled. “I was really glad you were there.”
He looked at Natalie again, then back at me. “Can we talk?”
My smile diminished. “Sure. Let’s go downstairs.”
He nodded and followed me down. Once we were on the couch, I waited for him to begin. Certain this was about the lies I’d told him, I could feel the tension in the room growing.
“I’m sorry I reacted like I did in your hospital room,” he said.
“It’s not your fault,” I quickly assured him.
“Yes, it is. You had just had a baby and I got mad at you and wouldn’t listen to you when you were at your most vulnerable. I was just thinking about myself and how I felt.” He paused and I waited to see what else he wanted to say. “Ever since that day I’ve been thinking about you and what you said. You said something about hiding from your husband and then I thought about the self-defense lessons you wanted me to teach you and I started putting it together and realized you were telling the truth.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before. I just didn’t want to take the chance on Trevor finding me.”
“But he did find you.”
“Yes, he did. Despite my best efforts.”
“So are you going to get back together with him?”
“Oh no,” I said without hesitation. “Not a chance.”
“Do you mind my asking how he feels about that?”
“No, that’s okay. I haven’t had anyone to talk to about this, so I’m glad to talk to you.”
His forehead creased. “So you’ve been doing this all on your own?”
“Well, yeah. I thought you knew that.”
A blush rose on his face. “I guess I assumed you had other people to turn to. I feel even worse now.”
“Don’t, Marcus. It’s not your fault. And I’ve discovered I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was.”
“Can I ask why you left this guy?”
Even though Marcus was my friend, I didn’t want to get in to all the details. “I’ll put it this way. He wasn’t the man I thought I had married.”
“Okay. Based on the fact that you got Greta and took self-defense classes, I can only assume you were afraid of him.”
I nodded, willing to confirm the obvious.
“What about now? Has he been bothering you?”
“Not exactly. I mean, he wants to see Natalie and I’ve been letting him come over two days a week and play with her. It’s been going fine.” I thought to earlier that evening and how he had stomped off like a toddler throwing a tantrum, and wondered how much longer he’d be happy with me constantly supervising his visits. But I wasn’t ready to leave Natalie with him.
Maybe next time I can leave him alone in the room while I do some cleaning.
“I guess I can see why he was so mad when he saw me here that night.”
I raised my eyebrows briefly in a gesture of That’s what I expected of him. “Jealousy is one of his problems.”
“Oh.” He paused. “I should probably get going, but I just wanted to come over and say I’m sorry for how I reacted.”
“I appreciate that, Marcus.”
He seemed to hesitate.
“What?” I asked.
“Do you want me to call you Kate or Lily?”
I laughed a little, embarrassed that he would have to ask such a question. “Lily, I guess. That’s my real name. Now that Trevor’s found me, there’s really no reason to use Kate.”
He smiled. “Lily. I like the sound of it.”
He stood and I walked him to the door. “Feel free to stop by anytime.” I paused. “Unless there’s a blue Camaro here, that is.”
“Okay.”
“He usually comes over on Monday and Thursday evenings.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll see you later. Lily.”
I liked the way my name sounded coming from him. “Bye, Marcus.”
Chapter Forty-Three
The next time Trevor came over I asked if it would be okay if I did some cleaning while he took care of Natalie.
“Yeah, go right ahead.” He held Natalie close to his face. “We’ll be fine.”
When I was done with the bathrooms, I scrubbed the kitchen sink, then got some dust rags and cleaned all the dusty surfaces in the house. Then I used the special broom/mop I had gotten for wood floors and cleaned all the floors.
By the time I was done it was the end of Trevor’s visit. I went back into the living room to see how they were doing. Trevor was rocking Natalie in his arms and she was drifting off to sleep. He smiled at me as I came in the room.
“Did you ever know you could love someone so much?” he asked.
I smiled back. “No. It’s a special kind of love, isn’t it?” I walked toward the two of them, ready to take Natalie. When I stopped next to them, Trevor used his free arm to pull me close to him.
“We need to be a family, Lily.” His voice was filled with intensity. “How can you deny it?”
With him holding Natalie, I didn’t want to push him away. His grip was strong and I couldn’t easily get any distance without risking him dropping the baby.
“Trevor, you’re hurting me. Let go.”
His grip only became tighter. “I can’t let you go. Don’t you see? I need you.”
“Trevor, stop it.” I used my most commanding voice.
Our conversation woke Natalie and she started crying.
“See what you’ve done?” he said. “You’ve woken my baby.”
The way he said it made alarm bells ring in my head. “Let me have her.”
“It’s all about you, isn’t it, Lily? It’s always all about you. Well, I’m tired of always having to go along with what you want. Now it’s time for me to have things my way.”
He still had his right arm wrapped tightly around me and Natalie held in his left. I knew I could get free if I used the self-defense moves I’d practiced, but there was a risk he would drop Natalie and I didn’t want to take that chance.
Lily's Story: The Complete Saga Page 43