I came to with my face pressed against her bare belly. At some point, I must have pulled out of her. It was all a blur.
She sighed happily. "That was..."
I lifted my head, meeting her still slightly dazed eyes. "What was it, sweetheart?"
"Definitely eleven."
"Yeah?"
"Oh yeah."
My turn to sigh. All was well. All was positively eleven.
*
"She said my name!" I grinned, beyond fucking delighted. "Did you all hear that?"
Jean had brought her folks back to the Dive Bar the next day. The lunch rush had finished and I was about to have my break and grab something to eat. I had moseyed on over to them all when Ada squealed my name.
Jean frowned. "She said 'ew.' Your name isn't 'ew.'" Her parents also looked pretty skeptical.
"It was an e sound, for Eric," I demanded, undeterred. They were all just jealous. "Obviously, she's trying to say my name."
Jean held Ada's little fist. "Mom-mom-mom-mom."
"Stop trying to brainwash the child," I said. "She knows who she loves best."
"You're full of it." Jean smacked me on the ass of my jeans, making me laugh. We were so on for PDAs. Awesome.
"E for Eric," I said. "That's right, Ada. What a clever baby you are. Total infant genius."
"You wouldn't say smelly old Eric's name first, would you?" Jean kissed her chubby cheek. "Of course not. You're Momma's girl."
All of the carrying on made Ada smile.
"We're off to the airport soon," said Leah.
"Heading home?" I asked, trying to avoid Ada's little fist. The baby was in a feisty mood.
"That's right," said Will. "It's been a good trip."
"Cold time of the year to look around." I nodded. "But the snow is beautiful."
Jean slid out of the booth, giving my forearm a squeeze. "Eric, I'll just visit the bathroom while you've got her."
"Sure thing."
She smiled, her hand trailing across my back, keeping contact until she finally stepped out of reach. The temptation to pull her back at the last was strong. But shenanigans in front of her folks might be a bad idea. Like, a definitely bad idea.
Last night, I hadn't wound up going home. I'd meant to, but Jean had asked me to stay. Happy to report she wasn't too bad of a cover hog though the woman did have a bad habit of pressing her cold feet against my skin. Also, I'd have slept like a baby if only the baby hadn't woken up for a bottle at two in the morning. I normally wasn't too big on sleepovers. Once the fun stuff was finished, why bother?
But the usual rules didn't work with Jean. They never had.
"Won't you join us?" asked Leah.
"Ah, thanks." I perched on the edge of the seat. Just in case an emergency exit was needed. "So..."
"Jean's told us quite a lot about you since we met," said Leah.
"She has?"
Ada let out a wail then attacked my shirt, attempting to sink her baby teeth in. Fortunately, she was easily enough diverted with the trusty old teething ring. I'd been slightly covered in baby spit, but whatever. Biting and whacking things really seemed to be the kid's specialties. Sure as hell, they made her happy.
Will crossed his arms over his lean chest. "It's lucky she has friends like you and Nell to help her."
I gave a halfhearted smile, not sure where this was heading.
"But raising a child is a lot of work," said Leah. "It's lovely to see how well you get along with Ada."
I kept my mouth shut.
"I'm not sure exactly what your relationship is with my daughter, but she's coming to depend on you quite a lot." Leah straightened the coaster her drink sat on. Wine spritzer. About what I would have guessed for her. "We just don't want to see her get hurt again."
Then they both just stared at me.
"Wait a minute," I said. "Are you asking what my intentions are toward your daughter?"
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
"No, no," soothed Jean's mother. "From what I understand your relationship is in its early stages and maybe that's for the best."
For all the talking Jean and I did, I wasn't even sure myself exactly where things were heading. The last damn thing I'd be doing was discussing it with someone else. Pretty sure I'd rather be waterboarded than be sitting here having this awkward chat with her folks.
"What we're trying to say, here," said Will with a sigh, "is that we want Jean back in Florida."
"And Ada," said Leah.
"Of course." Will shrugged. "We want them both back home."
"You asked her to leave, to move back there?" My head emptied. Panic hit me hard. "Christ, I ... you know, Jean hasn't even mentioned any of this to me. I'm not discussing it with you when I haven't even talked to her about it first."
Her mom raised her hand. "We were hoping you could..."
"What? Talk her into it?" I asked, scowling. "Are you kidding me? You want me to talk her into leaving her home? Leaving me?"
"Family is important, Eric. I'm sure you understand that."
I shook my head, bewildered. "It was family that made her want to leave in the first place."
"We've made mistakes," said Leah
. "We accept that. But Ada is ... she's wonderful. I'm sure you know that. We want to be a part of our daughter and granddaughter's life. We want to be there for them."
"Pretty damn sure that going around behind Jean's back talking to me like this isn't the way to earn back her trust."
"We're not going behind her back. It was more that we thought..." She broke off, and her eyes flitted briefly to her husband. "Well, I thought that you seemed like a very decent young man, who cared about doing what's right for Jean and Ada in the long term. Because you might be enjoying being part of their life now, but do you really think that's going to last? There's a lot of years between now and when Ada leaves for college," she said. "They need constants in their life, people who can stick with them for the long haul. Babies are cute, but do you really want to be dealing with toddler tantrums?"
I said nothing.
"We just want what's best for them, Eric." Leah gave me a patient look, making me even more pissed off.
I rose, holding Ada carefully against my chest. "Excuse me."
Their faces fell and I did not give a single shit. Time to get out of here. So I turned my back on them and headed for the front desk where Lydia and oh shit ... Nell. Awesome. This day was the worst. It had gone from the triumph of me being Ada's first word to the ninth layer of hell in about four minutes.
"What's wrong?" asked the ginger monster, holding her hands out for Ada.
I gave her the baby, but not much of an answer. "Nothing."
"Then why do you look like someone just peed in your favorite bottle of single malt?" asked Lydia, blond head cocked.
"God," I said. "What a horrible thought. Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?"
Ada babbled at Nell. Guess it was important girl talk, because I didn't understand a word of it. And I could feel Leah's and Will's gazes burning holes into my back. If I never spoke another word to those people, life would be great. All of their talk about babies growing up and tantrums and shit. Of course I realized Jean and Ada needed people who wouldn't let them down and weren't going anywhere. Like I had plans to hit the road or something and do a runner. But did I really need to decide right here and now if I was starting a college fund for Ada?
Fucking ridiculous.
My experience with actual relationships with women might be minimal. I was, however, pretty sure you didn't just meet someone and start planning your lives together on the same day. This sort of shit took time, getting to know one another, figuring out if you could even live together. I'd spent a total of one whole night in Jean's bed, the other having been spent on the floor. We had time to figure things out. Surely. The last thing either of us needed was her parents pushing their own agenda yet again.