Have My Baby (Crescent Cove 1)

I laughed and took her hand as we went down the stairs. “Sounds like a plan.”

When we got downstairs, I pulled out the ingredients for pancakes. I’d been with Seth when he picked out all the things for his kitchen. I knew where almost everything was.

Well, except the cinnamon evidently.

I opened doors and backtracked to the pantry.

“What are you looking for?”

“Cinnamon.”

“Oh.” Laurie zoomed out of the kitchen into the hallwa

y. She came back with a white bag full of supplies. She couldn’t quite lift it, so she dragged it along the floor. “Daddy went to the store for cookies stuff.”

“Thank goodness for Daddy,” I murmured as I reached for the bag.

“I got it.”

I held up my hands. “All right.” I watched her as I pulled down the cast iron skillet and started the bacon.

She huffed and I prayed the bag wouldn’t explode as she dragged it over the threshold and over every grout line of tile. When she stopped in front of me with the biggest smile ever, I decided right then and there I’d have cleaned up five pounds of flour and sugar for her without complaint.

“When did you get to be such a big girl?”

“I’m four, silly.”

“You sure are.”

She looked up at me with the bag straining from her fingers. “Okay, you can have it now.”

I lifted the bag onto the island counter. “In fact, you’re such a big girl, I’m going to make you help me with the mixer.”

“You are?”

“Yep. Where’s your stool?”

She zipped away again and pushed the stool Seth had bought so she could help him cook. How many times had we both cooked dinner with her? A dozen. More?

Had to be more.

And yet Laurie seemed even taller now. She was growing out of her baby face and chubby legs and arms. My eyes misted. She wasn’t even mine, but I was mourning the loss of the baby I’d…well, I’d helped raise.

The nights when Seth was beside himself with worry, the triumphs, and even the meltdowns. I’d been here with him more than not.

Until my mom had taken a turn for the worse. There had been little room for anything other than her at the end and I’d missed out on a lot with Laurie. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed this little girl until now.

She climbed up on her chair, then held up her hand. “Oh. Forgots.”

She clambered down and I had to stop myself from helping her as her feet dangled before she dropped to the floor. Instead, I busied myself with flipping the bacon and pulling off more strips from the package.

I tightened my hold on the tongs when she skimmed too close to the counter. She was so very independent. Allowing her to do things for herself was one of the hardest things I’d had to learn. She made a beeline for the far wall. There were two adult height hooks with a black and white apron on each, then a shorter one adorned with fairy wings that held a smock and two child-sized aprons. One purple with yellow flowers and a hot pink one with white butterflies.

Laurie went right for the pink.

I grinned and followed her. “Think your Daddy would mind if I borrowed his?”

“No. Just don’t touch Unca Ollie’s black ones. He no like people touching his stuff.”