“Hi.” He shifted a little. “I know you told me not to bother, but…”
“You had a change of heart about being acquainted with babies?”
“No. I just didn’t want to leave you here alone, so I thought I’d come and help you. Even if I just keep you company.” He dropped his gaze to Tegan. “She’s cute, though.”
“She is. Come in.” I walked back into the house and into the living room. Ivy had left me a feeding schedule for Tegan, and she was due a bottle in half an hour.
Not that she got that memo.
She started crying at an eardrum-bursting pitch, and Colton’s panicked expression from yesterday returned.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She doesn’t like you,” I snarked. “I don’t blame her.”
“Jesus, Tori.”
I laughed, but quickly stopped. “I think I just found the reason why she’s crying.”
“You did?”
I held her out in his direction, and he recoiled.
“Holy shit!”
Laughing, I brought her back into me. “Would you get me a diaper and the wipes from under the coffee table?”
“You’re changing her?”
“I can’t leave her sitting in her own poop, Colton. She’s not a dung beetle.” I took Tegan to the change mat Ivy kept under the sofa for times just like this and got to work.
I only just managed to not wretch at the bright yellow mess she’d left in her diaper and, oh joy, halfway up her back. After Colton retrieved me another onesie from her bedroom, I got her dressed and asked him to put the dirty one in the washer.
He did it straight away.
Just like that, Tegan was happy again.
I set her back down on her playmat. She happily gurgled away, stretching her legs out and batting her hands at the butterflies.
Thank God she wasn’t crawling yet.
I was not doing that babysitting.
“I thought you said there was pizza.”
I laughed and sat next to Colton on the sofa. “I did. It’s paid for, I just need to call, but I kind of want to settle Tegan into bed first.”
“When does she go to bed?”
“Ivy’s handy little fridge chart says she has a bottle in about twenty minutes and should settle down then. Then she’ll wake up about twelve-thirty for another, and she should sleep through to six-thirty before she wakes up.”
“Will you be offended if I leave before then?”
“Yes.”
He laughed and wrapped an arm around me. “Good thing I have a bag in the truck.”
“A bag? A bag of what? Drugs? Food? Clothing?”
“Why did you instantly go to drugs?”
“I don’t know, it seemed like the most suspicious thing, so I went for it.”
“It’s nice to know you hold me in such high esteem.”
I tilted my head back and grinned up at him. “If you think this is bad, you should hear what I’ve been saying about you for years.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
“Very smart.” I bopped him on the nose with my finger at the sound of Tegan getting unsettled. “Do you baby duty or bottle duty?”
He narrowed his eyes. “That feels like a trick question.”
“It is. Pick an option.”
“Bottle. Wait, what’s bottle duty?”
“You have to heat it up.”
“How do you do that?”
“Take the baby.” I sighed, picking her up and handing her to him.
He took her, holding her a little like a football.
“What are you doing? She’s a baby. Cuddle her.” I left the room before I could see him follow through, and I was honestly a little worried about that.
I turned on the bottle heater and set about fixing Tegan’s bottle. When Ivy had said the bottles were made, she’d only been half telling the truth. The water and formula powder was ready, but they needed to be mixed, so I did that and set the bottle in the heater.
“Oh, that’s my shirt. No, you can’t—oh, you’re eating it. Okay. That’s fine. Yummy.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and giggled into it.
It’d stopped her crying, at least.
I tested the temperature of the bottle. It needed another minute, so I put it back in and turned my attention to the noise in the living room.
“That’s my thumb. I wouldn’t do that. Probably tastes like construction site… Oh, okay, no, you keep it. Fine. That’s fine. Just don’t tell your mom.”
I stifled another laugh and checked the milk again. It was the right temperature now, so I put the lid back on the bottle as I went back to the living room.
Tegan was lying in Colton’s arms with her tiny fingers gripping onto his hand to keep his thumb plastered firmly in her mouth as she sucked on it.
“I sure hope there isn’t construction dust in there. I don’t want to be the one explaining that to Ivy.”
He looked over at me. “She wouldn’t let me go. She tried sucking my shirt but stopped when she realized there was no milk there.”
“I would have been alarmed if there were.”
“How do I make her let go of my thumb?”