Standing, he says, “She ate about two hours ago, so she will be hungry soon.”
“Okay, I promise to wake you if we need anything. Now go get some rest. We’ll be right here when you wake up.”
Evan nods and heads upstairs.
Not twenty minutes later, Lexi begins to stir. Closing my Kindle, I change her diaper and make her a bottle. She drinks greedily and gets mad when I make her stop so I can burp her. She sucks the rest down and her eyes are once again closed. I rub her back and gently pat until she burps again and sighs, making me smile. She’s got a full belly and is sound asleep. Placing her in the pack-n-play, I pick up the bottles Evan left sitting on the table from last night and quietly load the dishwasher. After wiping off the counters, I decide to go ahead and sweep the kitchen floor. After that’s all done, I slip outside and grab my camera and props. Little Miss Lexi doesn’t need to sleep all day. Maybe if I keep her up, Evan will get some rest tonight.
Another hour passes and I decide its time to wake her. When I pick her up, she stretches her little arms and legs. I swear she’s the cutest kid ever, but then again, look who her daddy is. I strip her out of her clothes, place the diaper cover on her, and secure the elephant ear hat to her head. She sleeps through it all; it doesn’t even faze her.
I take way too many pictures. It’s going to be hard to choose my favorite. I can’t wait to surprise Evan. I slip the outfit back into my bag and put her back into her sleeper, and just like that, Daddy has no idea. After making sure she’s settled back in the pack-n-play, I take a few pictures of her sleeping and then run my equipment back out to the truck.
Chapter 23
Evan
I wake with a startle. I hear Lexi downstairs and I panic. Jumping from my bed, I rush down the hall. It’s not until I hear Kinley’s voice that I stop to take a breath and proceed down the steps at a normal pace.
Kinley has Lexi on the couch changing her diaper. My little angel is not impressed with this. “I know, sweet girl. It’s almost over,” Kinley coos to her. “It’s okay, Lex, as soon as we get you in some dry clothes, we’ll get you a bottle.”
“She giving you trouble?” I ask.
Kinley jumps. “You scared the crap out of me.” She finishes changing Lexi and as soon as she picks her up, her cries turn to a low whimper. “Nah, she’s just not happy with the fact that we had to change her clothes and diaper before bottle. She soaked through.” She stands with Lexi in one arm, dirty diaper and clothes in the other.
“I can take her,” I say, walking toward her.
“I got it. Just relax,” she says, carrying a now pacified Lexi into the kitchen. I look around and see she cleaned up.
“Kinley, you didn’t have to clean,” I tell her as I follow her into the kitchen. It too is spotless.
“I know I didn’t have to. I wanted to. How you feeling?” she asks.
“Better. I feel human again.”
“Good. You only slept about three hours.”
“Three hours of sleep, after what I’ve had total the last two days makes it feel more like twelve,” I laugh. Kinley is completely comfortable in my home, making a bottle for my daughter. She doesn’t mention the kiss, and I don’t either. I can’t. If I ignore it, I can pretend I did it because I was exhausted and thankful for her. That was only part of it. The other part? I blame those sweet lips of hers.
Okay. I need to stop thinking about it. “So, I was thinking. I really need to go get a truck. I was wondering if you would want to come with me. I don’t know that I can handle a newborn in a car lot for hours.”
“Sure, but you can go and I can stay with her if you want. I don’t mind at all, or Mom would be happy to watch her.”
“Yeah, Aaron said the same thing. At first, I wasn’t really thrilled with the idea of leaving her just yet….” I stop there and wait for her reply.
“I’m good either way. I don’t have anything in the studio for the next three days. So, anytime you want to go, I’m your girl.” She smiles.
‘I’m your girl?’ I wish like hell she was.
“Great, thank you. I just would feel better to have someone else with me. I know I need to get over leaving her; hell, I need to find childcare.”
“I think you should talk to Mom. She would love to do it. I’m happy to help too on days I don’t have a shoot. Right now, that’s about two to three days a week. I can book them on the same days. The only time that wouldn’t work is when I have to go to them. More often than not, that’s on weekends for birthday parties and events, so it could work.”
“You really think she would be willing?” I ask.
“Hell yes, she would. She’s always telling Aaron to settle down and give her grandbabies, you know this. Besides, it wouldn’t be every day with me helping out. I’ll talk to her and see what she thinks,” she tells me.
“That would be…perfect! I don’t like the thought of people I don’t know keeping her. She’s so tiny.”
“Well, I know I would love to spend a few days a week with her.” I watch as she kisses Lexi’s cheek. “All right, little one, let’s get you fed.” She passes by me to go back into the living room.
“You sure you don’t want me to take her?”
“No way. This is my Lexi time.” She grins. “Is there anything you need to do? Go check in at the stables? We’re good here.”
Yeah, I need to kiss the hell out of you. “That’s all taken care of. The stables are in good hands.”
“Well, just kick back and relax, Dad. We got this.”
“In that case, I’m going to go shower. Maybe we can go to the car lot after she eats? Is it okay to take her out this young?” I have no clue what the rules are for this kind of thing, or even if there are any.
“We’ll keep her bundled up and no one gets to touch her. They need to keep their germy hands off. Other than that, yeah, we can take her.”
Just like with everything else this girl has said and done, her protectiveness for Lexi causes these…feelings I have for her to grow. I’m in deep trouble with this one. Even knowing that, it’s impossible for me to keep my distance.
I rush up the stairs to shower and change. By the time I make it back downstairs, Kinley has Lexi in her car seat and is shoving items into the diaper bag. “Better safe than sorry,” she says.
“I agree. This is a first venturing out with a newborn baby; hell, we can take half the house if you think we might need it.”
This causes her to throw her head back and laugh. I’m not trying to be funny; I’m being serious. “Let’s go, funnyman.” Kinley grabs the diaper bag, leaving Lexi for me.
“Two hours, not bad,” I say to Kinley as we load Lexi up in my new truck.
“Nope, not bad. I had the same experience when I bought my Durango from Todd. He doesn’t push and makes the process so much less painful.”
“So, how about we grab something to eat?” I ask her.
“Yeah, or if you want to get this one home, I can stop and pick us up something,” she offers.