“They wouldn’t exactly be watching us eat, Cami.” I didn’t bother explaining what they actually would be doing because I didn’t want to freak her out, talking about the various dangers a protection officer had to be on guard for. I held her close for another minute, thinking. She was clearly tired of this apartment, and I couldn’t blame her. Even I was getting a little sick of being in it all the time, and I went out more than she did. I knew that if we went to a restaurant though, I wouldn’t relax without a few guys on the place, and she wouldn’t relaxwitha few guys on the place.
“I have an idea.” Reluctantly, I unwound my arms from around her supple curves to pull out my phone. “Let’s go to Con’s place for dinner.”
Cami’s eyes lit up with interest. “Con who just had a baby?”
“Yeah, I think you’ll like his fiancé Lily. She’s close to your age.” I called him to make sure, but as I expected, he and Lily were ordering in. They hardly went out anymore since they’d had Harper.
When we told Emma we were going to visit friends of mine who had a baby, she ran back to her room and grabbed a fuzzy purse and a stuffed blue dog. “For the baby,” she explained.
I wasn’t sure whether she meant the purse or the dog, so I just nodded. “That’s nice of you, Em.”
“I know.”
On the way to Con’s, I reminded Cami who he was.
She didn’t need much reminding though. “The one with the teenager, right?”
“Halley,” I confirmed. “She’s not a teenager anymore, though. She just graduated college.”
When we got to Con’s, he had the Chinese food they’d ordered set out family style down the center of the dining room table. He’d remembered to order a few vegetarian things for Cami, but he sent her over to his wine collection to see if any fit the vegan criteria. Lily went with her, curious as I had been about what made wine vegan. Emma went over to the pack n play where Con’s youngest, three-month-old Harper, was laying.
“Can you get her out of there?” she asked Con. “I don’t think she likes it.”
“Your dad can get her out of there,” Con said, shooting me a darkly amused look. “Go for it, pal.”
Under the watchful eyes of Con and Emma, I gave it a shot. Harper couldn’t have weighed more than fifteen pounds, but it was hard to get a good grip on her. Con didn’t say anything, but his mouth twitched with amusement while I navigated my hands under her, trying to pick her up without squeezing but also without dropping her.
“That’s it,” Emma said encouragingly when I managed to get her up in the air.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you hold a baby,” Con said when I finally got her up to my shoulder. “Make sure you support her head.”
Frowning, I looked down at Harper to see what he was talking about. She was looking up at me, her ocean blue eyes wide with surprise, and her head was slowly starting to droop back. I slid my hand up, feeling the downy hair against my palm.
“Her head is soft,” I said, surprised. “Is it supposed to be?” I wasn’t talking about her hair, though that was soft, too. Her actualheadfelt soft.
“Let me feel!” Emma demanded, pushing up on her tiptoes and reaching to pet Harper. “Hi baby,” she crooned.
Con gave up on not laughing at both of us. “Yeah, it’s supposed to be soft.”
“Don’t laugh at him,” Lily scolded, coming back into the dining room with a bottle of red. “I didn’t know anything about babies until three months ago either. Not all of us have done this before.”
Cami followed her in. She smiled at the sight of me holding Harper, but there was a shadow of guilt in her eyes. I didn’t wonder why it was there. It was because she knew she was the reason I’d never held a baby. If she hadn’t run, I would have held Emma when she was this size. I would have asked ifherhead was supposed to have these weird soft spots where the skull didn’t quite knit together.
I walked over to her, trying to tell her with my eyes that it was okay. That I wasn’t going to hold it against her anymore. “You want to give it a shot?” I asked, offloading the baby before she had a chance to answer.
“Oh,” Cami said, surprised. “It’s been a while since I held a newborn. I forgot how floppy they are.”
“It’s terrifying,” Lily said. She eyed Emma. “Yours looks so sturdy.”
“She’s potty trained, too,” Cami said.
“I am potty trained,” Emma agreed. “Can I watch your TV?”
“Articulate, too,” Con said.
“We’re eating dinner. No TV,” Cami replied.
Emma stuck out her lip and looked at Con, then Lily.