She continues yelling, and I have no choice but to just get in there and ass-ess the situation.
I lean down and carefully unlatch her from the car seat, avoiding touching her. “Okay. Step one is done. See. I got this.” I slap my hands together and rub my palms, warming them up for the next big step. “Here goes.” I go in for the tiny howling demonic creature, gently lifting her from the seat. I support her tiny head like Marli’s letter said.
Oh wow. I give her a little bounce in my hands. She’s lighter than a football. So tiny. I’ve never held a baby, but I must be doing something right because Fia immediately stops crying. But now I’m the one screaming. Something squishy, warm, and wet smudged on my arm. And the smell. Nasty!
“Don’t pass out, Dean. Don’t pass out.” I suddenly notice the baby staring with her big gray eyes. She has the tiniest little lips and the smallest little brown eyelashes. Her nose is the size of a button. I don’t see myself in any of her features other than she’s damned cute.
“How could your mama leave you, little girl?” I just don’t get it. But I’ll do what I can to keep her safe. It’s just one week. How hard could it be, right?
CHAPTER FOUR
“Choo out of your mind, Dean,” says Igor, emerging from his room at three in the morning. “She no stay here. Igor needs sleep.”
Igor’s nickname is the Yellow Squash. Mostly because his hair is light blond, and he loves to squash things. Luckily for him, though, his body is shaped like the Hulk.
I continue pacing across the beige carpet of our living room with the hysterical, crying baby in my arms. “I don’t know what’s wrong. I gave her a bottle, just like the instructions said. I changed her and almost died doing it. Now she won’t sleep—and I’ve tried rocking her, singing, and—”
Igor walks over and holds out his arms. “Baby, please.”
“Thanks, man. I need a few hours of sleep before work.” I hand Fia over.
“I no take. I show you seester’s way, like she do with my niece.” Igor takes Fia and gently presses her to his shoulder. He gives her a few pats, and suddenly she burps. A glob of white stuff dribbles from her mouth onto his shirt.
Yikes. “Are babies supposed to leak milk like that?”
Igor hands her back. “No leak. You forgeet to burp her. And you owe me new sheert.” He disappears into his room.
I look down at a sleepy-eyed little Fia, who seems just fine now. And I thought grown women were difficult. “You’re lucky you’re so cute.”
I take her to my room and tuck her into her car seat. Marli left a small portable bassinet, but I couldn’t figure out how to put it together. There were no instructions.
I’ll deal with it in the morning. I plop facedown on my bed and feel my mind crashing from exhaustion. Morning?
My eyes fly open. Shit. I have to be at work in three hours, and I didn’t find someone to watch Fia. I’d been too wrapped up in reading all the instructions Marli wrote out. Of course, half the things didn’t make sense, so I had to look up a bunch of stuff on the internet or in the baby book. I thought I had it all figured out—feed baby, put baby down to sleep, keep baby clean. Piece of cake! Until baby started to cry for no damned reason.
Except that I forgot to burp her.
I roll over onto my back and stare at the ceiling. I’m going to have to call in sick and come up with a plan for the week.
I’ll ask Nina to help, of course. Maybe she has some friends who have babysitting experience.
Wait. A thought hits me. I can’t go around telling everyone this is my kid. (A) I don’t actually know that she is. (B) Either way, I’m not keeping Fia. Marli will either return, or I’ll hand Fia to Child Services. Either way, I’ll have to explain to my friends where she came from.
I need to come up with a story.
“Oh no. You’re sick?” says Lara, the admin at the Grape Ranch, over the phone.
“Yeah, can you give Hector the message?” I cough for effect. “I have a real bad headache.”
“Hopefully it’s nothing serious.”
“No,” I say, “it’s not. But let the boss man know I’ll look at my schedule and see if I can make up the missed day later this week.” Hector has been working hard, getting the vineyard into shape after the harvest. I keep wondering if he might be planning to sell it, considering all the upgrades and cleanup he’s been doing. Kind of worries me because I might need that job after graduation. On the other hand, Hector is a really different kind of guy—used to be a monk—and he believes in taking care of people. If he did sell, I know he’d make his employees part of the deal.