Until There Was Us

by Samantha Chase

  “You realize she’s primarily going to eat and sleep, right?”

  “Why are you trying to make this not fun?” he said, but she knew he was teasing.

  “I just don’t want you to be disappointed.”

  “Baby, the thought of spending the night babysitting with you could never be disappointing. It will be like one of those team-building exercises the big companies do. We’ll have each other’s backs and make sure sweet little Amber doesn’t miss her mommy and daddy too much.”

  And just like that, her heart melted. “You really are adorable.”

  He chuckled. “I know, right?”

  She relayed Summer’s schedule of events to him to get his reaction.

  “Sounds easy enough. Any idea what time they’re going to pick her up on Saturday?”

  “You know, that was the one thing she didn’t mention.”

  “No big deal. We’ll play it by ear, and if they want a little extra time alone, we’ll take Amber to the park and go for a nice walk. The weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend. What do you think?”

  “Sounds good to me. But I have a feeling that for all their talk about needing a night alone, they’re going to miss Amber, and we may end up all having an early-morning breakfast together.”

  Alex laughed. “Then I’ll be sure to have all the makings for extra pancakes just in case.”

  “Mmm…you do make really good pancakes.”

  “Don’t tell anyone. I kind of like when it’s just the two of us sharing them in bed.”

  She smiled at the memory of him serving her breakfast in bed last weekend. “That probably won’t happen while Amber’s there. I have a feeling we’ll be totally catering to her.”

  “There’s always Sunday.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “Sweetheart, anytime you want to hold me is fine by me.”

  * * *

  On Friday night, Alex kept Megan company while she babysat Amber.

  “I don’t think she’s happy.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “I don’t think she’s blinked in over a minute.”

  Megan looked closely at her niece’s face and saw what Alex meant. “Or maybe she’s just completely in awe of what a great job we’re doing at babysitting.”

  Alex laughed softly, but he had a feeling that wasn’t it. “All we’ve done is lean over and look at her.”

  “In all fairness, Ethan and Summer have only been gone for, like…ten minutes.”

  “Then it’s been ten minutes since she’s blinked.”

  “Oh stop,” she said, swatting him playfully. “Let’s get her out of her seat and see what she wants to do.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her Amber wasn’t going to have a clue—nor could she tell them—but he sat back and watched as Megan lifted the baby from her seat and snuggled her close as she cooed and talked softly to her.

  “Is this one of the dresses you got her?” he asked. “I heard Summer talking about all this handmade stuff you’ve been getting for her.”

  “Mm-hmm…” she hummed as she kissed Amber on the cheek.

  His heart squeezed hard in his chest. They had talked about Summer’s comments about them picturing this as being them sometime in the future. He just didn’t expect it to happen quite so fast. The sight of Megan holding the baby made him feel like the last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.

  She was it for him.

  It was crazy and maybe a little stupid to be thinking that so soon, but…there it was.

  At first Alex feared he had spent so long building up his time with Megan from two years before that he wasn’t seeing things clearly. But in the past few weeks he had come to the realization that he hadn’t been wrong. He knew from their first meeting—those first few words they spoke to each other at the wedding—she was the one for him.

  It wasn’t something he’d ever thought would happen to him. Sure, he always knew he was going to meet someone, fall in love, get married, and have kids, but he didn’t think that person would come in the form of a weekend hookup who he wouldn’t see again for two years. But really, did it matter? The fact was that she was here now and things were going great.

  Their biggest problem currently was their schedules. Alex accommodated his clients and didn’t keep traditional hours, whereas Megan’s were sometimes untraditional because she would work twice as long as everyone else. So he was up and leaving while she was still warm and sleepy in his bed. Never before had he dreaded getting up for work like he had in the past two weeks. And that was beside the fact that he wasn’t getting much sleep because…well…she was right there beside him in the bed.

  Just the thought of it made him grin.

  So he’d leave for work and then two hours later, she would. He’d come home in the middle of the day or he’d meet her or some of his other friends for lunch and then head out for his evening clients. Megan always arrived home before him, and she’d read or just relax (she claimed). His hours never used to bother him before, but now they did.

  When Megan had texted him about the two of them babysitting for Amber, he had taken out his calendar to reschedule his Friday evening clients. That had prompted him to take a hard look at his entire client list to see when his schedule might change. If his projections were correct, he had about another eight weeks before he had more of his evenings back. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a lot of time, but he was afraid if left to her own devices, Megan would start finding excuses to stay late at work, and then all of the progress she had made would be shot.

  And he didn’t want to see her moving backward this soon after she was finally moving forward with changing her work habits.

  Not that it would change how he felt about her—he doubted anything would. But he knew Megan was trying so hard to make these changes in her life, and he wanted to be supportive of her. Unfortunately, he was the type of person who wanted to help everyone achieve their goals—it was a key element to his job as a physical therapist—but sometimes that meant letting people do it for themselves.

  That was where he had the problem.

  Hopefully he would know when to be supportive and when to be there to help. With his clients, his role was easy—he knew what was expected of him and how he had to conduct himself. In a personal relationship? Um, yeah. That one was going to be way harder.

  “Who’s a pretty girl?” she said from beside him as she played with Amber’s toes, and he smiled again.

  In the short time since she’d arrived in Portland, he had seen so many changes in her—she was more relaxed, she smiled more, and there was a softness to her now that wasn’t there before.

  But the woman sitting beside him? She was amazing and strong, and Alex wasn’t so sure if he’d be able to do what she did—picking up and moving to the other side of the country—even if he did have relatives who lived there. She had taken a huge leap of faith, and he wasn’t sure if she even realized it—if she knew how much she had already accomplished just by moving.

  He had to get out of his own head because their focus tonight needed to be on Amber and he’d been looking forward to this all week. Moving closer to the two of them, he immediately tried to make the baby smile, and when she did, Megan looked over at him like he had done the greatest thing in the world.

  “You look surprised,” he said softly. “I told you, I’m good at this.”

  “I’ve been trying for five full minutes to get her to smile. You say two words and tweak her belly, and suddenly she’s got this giant grin on her face.”

  Leaning in, he kissed Megan on the cheek. “What can I say? I’ve got a way with the ladies.”

  Amber seemed a little more at ease, and soon they had her laughing as they all played on the floor. Alex was making goofy faces and sounds to entertain her while Megan held Amber
in her lap. After a few minutes, he kissed the baby’s feet before looking up and suggesting, “How about I get dinner started? Summer said if you fed Amber first, she’d be content to hang out while we eat.”

  “Sounds good. All day I’ve been thinking about the burgers you said you were going to make. Those are my weakness.”

  He stood and kissed her on the top of her head. “I thought I was your weakness,” he teased as he walked to the kitchen.

  Megan stood and followed him, with the baby in her arms. “Oh, you definitely are, which makes this one heck of a double treat—you and burgers? If we weren’t babysitting, you would have gotten very lucky.”

  Right then and there he thought she was adorable—babysitting wasn’t going to hinder a thing.

  “In case you’ve forgotten, Ethan told us Amber will go to bed around eight, and then we shouldn’t expect to hear from her again until around four a.m. If we keep her up until nine, that gives us until five a.m.” Walking over to Megan, he leaned in until his tongue could trace the shell of her ear. Megan shivered at the light caress. “And last I checked, we’ve been functioning on far less than eight hours of sleep.”

  When he stepped away, he was feeling kind of smug—like he had her. She couldn’t argue his logic.

  “But,” Megan said in a singsong voice, “Ethan also said she doesn’t sleep as well when she’s away from home. So we just don’t know, do we?”

  Damn. He had forgotten about that part.

  “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

  While he began making dinner, Megan set up Amber’s baby seat in the kitchen and went about getting her food ready. They talked as they worked, and their conversation ranged from their day at work to where they wanted to explore on Sunday.

  Alex stepped out onto the deck to put the burgers on the grill and looked out at his yard. Everything was starting to bloom, and his landscapers were doing a great job. Maybe he’d ask Megan if she’d like to invite friends and family for a barbecue—not this weekend, but maybe next.

  Looking toward the house and through the glass in the French doors, he could see Megan feeding Amber. It looked like she was singing and making airplane moves with the baby spoon, and the sight made his heart feel lighter. Happier.

  With a sense of contentment, he flipped the burgers and stared up at the sky. The sun was setting, the temperature was mild, and everything was peaceful. Dare he say it was a near-perfect night? He took another glance into the house and knew he was wrong.

  It was the perfect night.

  * * *

  Megan wanted to believe she knew what she was doing, but as her niece looked up at her with huge blue eyes, she wasn’t so sure.

  Bath time.

  Was she really qualified to be giving a baby a bath? Amber was slippery and splashing, and she didn’t seem to be enjoying herself at all. Summer had said bath time was their favorite time of day.

  Clearly not this particular bath time.

  “Everything okay in here?” Alex asked as he walked into the bathroom carrying a towel and a change of clothes for Amber.

  “I think she can sense my fear.”

  Alex laughed softly, knelt beside Megan, instantly began to talk in soothing tones to the baby, and—once again—had her smiling and laughing in no time.

  “No fair,” Megan mumbled and then wanted to splash him when he gave her a smug smile.

  Again.

  “Fine. You’re the king of babysitting,” she said as she stood. “So rather than me traumatizing her any further, you can finish giving her a bath.”

  “I’m not going to argue with that,” he said and then spoke to Amber, “Am I, sweet girl? Who can argue with giving such a pretty girl a bath? We’re going to get you all clean and in your jammies, and you’re going to sleep like you’re at home in your own bed.”

  Amber blew spit bubbles and laughed at him.

  Megan imagined the baby was telling him to dream on.

  It was still a little early—barely seven o’clock. She knew they had at least an hour before they could try to put Amber down for the night. Not that Megan was in a rush—for the most part, the baby had been no trouble at all. She was sweet and quiet and seemed to be fairly content.

  It was good.

  Almost too good.

  Off in the distance, she heard a phone ring and could only guess it would be Summer calling to check in. She ran to answer it and smiled when she saw her cousin’s name flashing on the screen.

  “Your daughter is fine. She ate all her dinner, gave several healthy burps, pooped more than a child that small should, and is currently enjoying a bath. All is well, so stop worrying and enjoy your night,” Megan said before Summer could even utter a word.

  “Well, you certainly told me,” Summer said with a laugh.

  “When we hang up, I’ll go take a picture of her in the tub and send it to you to put your mind at ease, okay?”

  “Thank you.”

  Two minutes later, she was sending a picture of Amber with a crown of bubbles on her head as well as a bubble beard.

  “I don’t think Summer’s going to find that as amusing as you do,” Megan softly chided Alex.

  “Then tell her to show it to Ethan. He will,” he said with a laugh as he rinsed Amber off. When she was bubble-free, he turned off the water and pulled the plug before reaching for her towel, his gaze never leaving Amber. He spoke to her the entire time, and Megan watched in awe. It was one thing to hear him talk about how much he loved kids; it was quite another to witness it for herself.

  Alex cradled Amber in his arms and talked softly to her as he walked to the vanity, grabbed her diaper and pajamas, and then walked to his bedroom where he gently put her down on the bed. The entire time Amber’s blue eyes studied him. Almost as if she understood everything he was saying to her. It was beyond sweet, and as much as Megan wanted to go over and join them, she didn’t want to do anything to ruin the moment the two of them were having.

  Quietly, Megan pulled out her phone and snapped a couple of pictures. If Alex heard her or noticed, he didn’t say anything. His attention stayed on Amber. When he had the baby fully dressed in her pink footy pajamas, he picked her up and placed a small kiss on her nose.

  “What should we do now, Aunt Megan?” he asked in a playful tone. “Should we go downstairs and read or maybe play with Mister Bunny and Lamby?”

  Unable to help herself, Megan laughed. “I think a little playtime first and then a story. How does that sound?”

  “Perfect,” he said with a smile.

  For the next hour, they played and acted silly and pretty much put on an entire theatrical production starring all of Amber’s toys. Amber yawned widely but didn’t seem like she was quite ready for bed. Megan picked her up and rocked her as she talked to her about how much fun they’d had and how now it was time for sweet dreams.

  “I’m going to take her up and try to put her down,” she said quietly.

  Alex stood and handed her another one of Amber’s books. “Just in case,” he said and leaned in to kiss the baby on the cheek.

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m going to straighten up while you put her to bed,” he said. “If she won’t settle, call out to me, and I’ll see if I can help.”

  Megan frowned at him. “Seriously?”

  “What?”

  “I couldn’t get her to smile, but you did. We were having a total bath fail until you swooped in. And your rabbit voice was perfect,” she grumbled. “So far I have totally sucked at this.”

  Pulling them in close, Alex hugged them both and kissed Megan soundly. “You have not sucked at this. It takes teamwork. I told you that. Hell, even Summer said she and Ethan do all of this nighttime stuff together. Personally, I think the night was a complete success. And if we can get her to go to sleep and stay asleep, even better.”

&nb
sp; There was no way she was going to voice her concerns where that last part was concerned. Instead she smiled and walked up the stairs to the guest room where they’d set up Amber’s Pack ’n Play. There was only one small light on in the room, and Megan sat in the upholstered chair in the corner and got herself comfortable.

  For fifteen minutes, she read some of Winnie the Pooh’s many adventures and watched as Amber’s eyes began to drift shut. Then she waited another few minutes to make sure she was asleep before slowly standing and moving across the room to place her in her bed. Never in Megan’s life had she ever moved so slowly and cautiously, but she was genuinely afraid of waking the baby up.

  After she straightened, she stood there in wonder and held her breath until she was certain Amber was going to stay asleep. Then, ever so slowly, she tiptoed backward toward the door, and all of those stealth moves were almost for nothing when she turned and found Alex standing in the doorway. She jumped and almost screamed, but luckily she caught herself before she did.

  Alex placed a finger over her lips, motioned to the baby monitor he had in his hands, and gently led Megan out of the room and across the hall to his bedroom. He quietly closed the door and put the monitor down on the bedside table.

  With her hand still in his, he pulled her close and then kissed her slowly—as if he just wanted to savor the feel of her, the taste of her. When he lifted his head, he rested his forehead against hers and smiled. “Good job.”

  “With the kiss?” she teased.

  He shook his head. “With Amber. The monitor was on, and I heard you reading to her and talking to her, and…it was amazing,” he said softly.

  It was possibly the greatest compliment she had ever received.

  “Then I came up and saw you putting her down, and I could tell you were afraid to wake her, but I think not only did we exhaust her, but you totally relaxed her and made her feel secure.”

  High praise coming from the babysitting king, she thought, and she was flattered.

  “That was scarier than the bath.”