“Oh, um…it was around eight, but then he was up at 9:30 and was really fussy until eleven.” He tied his sneakers. “Then he went down for two hours and I gave him a bottle but he didn’t seem to want it and we hung out in the living room for a while until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Then we went into my room and I tried to feed him the rest of the bottle he wouldn’t finish, but he wasn’t having any of it.”
Now she did turn and look at him. “Did you read to him before you put him down at eight?”
“No, but…”
“Did you dim the lights like we talked about?”
“No, but…”
“Did you rock him while he had his pacifier?”
“I couldn’t find it at that point, but…”
“Jamie!” she cried. “You have got to start taking his routine seriously. You’re torturing both of you out of sheer stubbornness!”
“Yeah, but…that last feeding when he went down, he slept for four hours! And I did all the stuff you said!”
“Exactly! And it worked! Imagine if you listened to all the other stuff I suggested!”
Getting to his feet, he gave her a lopsided grin. “I promise I’ll try it tonight. I’ve just been so tired and it’s hard to remember all the instructions. Cut me some slack.”
Rolling her eyes, she went back to wiping down the counters. Asher let out a small cry and Jamie walked over and lifted him out of the stroller.
“Hey, buddy,” he said softly, cradling him to his chest. “I’ve got to go to work, but Aunt Fallon’s here to take care of you today. Make sure she sticks to her schedule and if she doesn’t, I want you to tell me, okay?”
He caught her second eye roll and smiled.
“You’re ridiculous,” she told him, taking Asher from his arms. “Go. We’ll see you later.”
He leaned in to kiss Asher and he saw Fallon flinch away. “Relax,” he told her. “I’m just kissing him goodbye. Like I always do.”
“Yeah, well…”
There was no way he wanted to get into that whole thing now. “I’ll see you later,” he said and quickly made his way out the door.
Fifteen minutes later, his uncle was giving him a knowing smirk.
“You know you can’t keep lighting the candle at both ends, Jamie. Maybe save your…um…extracurricular activities for the weekend, huh?”
This was his opening…
“Is anyone else in yet?” he asked.
“Nah. Bobby won’t get for another hour. How come?”
Motioning to one of the booths, he walked over and sat. Ronan joined him cautiously.
“Everything okay?”
Letting out a long breath, he clasped his hands on the table and just blurted out everything that had been going on. When he was done, he finally found the courage to look up. Ronan was like a second father to him and he feared seeing the disappointment there.
“So…all this week, you’ve been dragging your ass in here after not sleeping all night? Because of the baby?”
He nodded.
“And…and…Fallon’s staying with him all day?”
Another nod.
Leaning back in his seat, Ronan swiped a hand through his graying hair and let out a loud sigh of his own. “Jeez, Jamie…why didn’t you say anything? We could have covered for you so you could take a few days. My God…every new parent needs some time to sort of settle in. And a single parent definitely needs that.”
“I didn’t want to say anything because of…well…because of what I think Jenn’s planning.”
“You’re not going to allow her to put that baby up for adoption, are you? Jamie, think about it!”
“I won’t allow that to happen. I don’t care if I only get two hours of sleep a night for the next ten years; I’m keeping my son,” he said fiercely. “I just…everyone’s gonna look at me like I’m irresponsible. If I took time off—especially now when Mom and Dad are away—it was gonna look bad. The timing just sucked.”
“Now you listen to me,” his uncle said sternly. “Even married couples find themselves pregnant when they weren’t planning on it. These things happen. The important thing here is that you’re doing the right thing by your son. And that means taking care of yourself too. Have you talked to your siblings? Maybe one of them can sleep over and you can take turns getting up with the little guy.”
He shook his head. “They were all there on Sunday and helped me so much that I didn’t want to impose. They all have jobs and lives of their own. Asher is my responsibility. As it is, I’m paying Fallon what feels like a small fortune to be there during the day. I had no idea childcare was so expensive.”
“Are you sure she wasn’t just needling you a bit and asking for more money that she should have?” he asked with a laugh. “Because with the way the two of you are with each other…”
His mind instantly flashed to kissing her this morning and how he wanted to know what would have happened if she had kissed him back.
“Jamie?”
“Um…no. She was right on the nose with it. Ryleigh looked it up online to prove it to me.”
“Speaking of Ryleigh, she’s coming in today to help in the kitchen. I think you should ask her if maybe she can help out for a night or two. Her schedule’s the most flexible and I’d trust her before I’d ask Patrick. His schedule’s fairly flexible too, but I can’t imagine him caring for a newborn.”
“That makes two of us,” he agreed.
“Do your parents know?”
He shook his head. “Like I said, with what Jenn was proposing and them being on their first real vacation ever, I didn’t want to ruin it. I’ve been kind of paranoid about anyone finding out and telling them.”
With a nod, Ronan hauled himself out of the booth. “I have to agree with you on that one. Let them have their vacation and then break it to them gently when they get back. If anything, your schedule will ease up at that point.”
“Maybe. I had hoped they’d both start cutting back their hours because I was doing such a great job running the place. Now that’s not going to happen and it’s all my fault.”
Reaching out, Ronan put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “No one’s going to blame you for anything. Your father isn’t going to let this place go yet. He’s too young. The two of you are going to have to work out a way to run it together and so you both have the time away that you need. You know if he was home right now, he would tell you to go home and be with your son.”
That made him chuckle. “I don’t agree with that. I think he’d tell me my hours could be flexible, but that I needed to honor my commitment to both my job and my son.”
“Yeah. That does sound a little more like him.”
“And Mom would either insist that I bring Asher in to work with me or she’d go over and babysit.”
Laughing, Ronan said, “And she’d do it for free, so…you have something to look forward to. You’d cut your childcare expenses almost 100%.”
It was true and Jamie already considered that option, but he wasn’t nearly as excited about it as he thought he’d be.