H is for Hawk (Men of ALPHAbet Mountain)

Hawk gave the first smile I’d seen since he got there. “I can handle that. I’ll see you later.”

15

HAWK

The clock struck three, and I looked at my phone. No messages yet. Dee said sometime in the middle of the afternoon she would be able to get to me, likely around now. To say I was anxiously awaiting her arrival would probably be an understatement.

Rose had slept most of the way home, and when she wasn’t asleep, she’d been making happy gurgling noises. She only cried briefly after I got her back but settled into a nap shortly thereafter. I had dragged the crib into my bedroom and crashed while she napped, getting an hour or two of sleep until I heard her wake again.

I realized I didn’t know how often babies ate and was worried I might overfeed her. She was tiny, and it was hard to believe she could go through that much. But at the same time, it seemed to be going right through her as she was running through diapers and spitting up rather often too. Eventually I decided that Dee would help me with frequency of feeding, and until she got there, checking her diaper and offering her a bottle would be steps one and two when the crying started.

It seemed to work pretty well, and after a couple more start-stop naps where I dozed on the bed, I eventually got up and brought the baby into the living room with me. I decided to take the day off work, since I mostly worked on my own anyway and could always make it up whenever I wanted. It was an upside of my job, allowing me to schedule my hours according to what I was tracking, which sometimes meant hours changing wildly.

My laptop was up on a TV tray with Rose laying on her back on the couch when I finally heard the gravel crunching in my driveway. I checked the time. Two minutes after three. Dee knocked on the door a few moments later, and I picked up Rose, carrying her over with me as I opened it.

“Afternoon,” I said. “Do you need any help?”

She had a backpack slung over her shoulder and a box in her hands. She shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I’m here to help you.”

“I appreciate it,” I said awkwardly. “Come on in.”

Dee stepped inside and looked around for a moment. When I shut the door behind me, she turned to the couch, where the car seat sat, and rolled her eyes.

“You’re going to need a place for the baby other than the living room couch,” she said.

“I have one,” I responded. “It’s back here.”

“Oh,” she said, as she followed me back to the half-bedroom, half-nursery.

“I see,” she said. “It’s actually kind of impressive you did that so quickly. This is a decent nursery.”

“Thank you,” I said, taking a small measure of pride. At least I did something right.

“Okay, well, let’s get started, then.”

She took Rose from me and brought her to the changing table, going over the proper way to clean and change her. I felt bad for not knowing to put on baby powder to keep her from getting rashes or to apply a paste if she started to get one. Thankfully, she brought over both things and showed me the way to d apply them.

She went over some other things that I hadn’t thought about or encountered yet and gave me some tips on them. Then she emptied the backpack and showed me the best way of packing a bag so I could just grab it and go. It was much more involved and much more complete than the diaper bag Kim left me, and I started to see where my own personality would kick in there.

There were contingencies and backups that stayed in the bag at all times like an extra onesie, socks, a hat, and a blanket. There were also cleaning supplies A pocket for keeping formula, another for baby wipes. Then the rest of the bag was filled with diapers, and eventually I would stuff toys or books in as she got a little older.

After a brief but extremely informative class on some essential things I needed to know, we took a break to bring Rose into the living room for a bit. Evening was approaching, and I was starting to get hungry. I wondered if I could talk Dee into staying a bit if I offered to make food.

“Hey, I know you probably need to get going,” I said, “but I feel ike there’s other stuff I have questions about, and I’m getting hungry. Would you stay for a little longer if I made something?”

She looked hesitant and glanced at her phone before looking back at me.

“I suppose,” she said. “We need to talk about Desiree anyway.”