Bundle of Joy

“Oh, my God,” she whispers under her breath, her eyes wide. “Tell me you used a c-o-n-d-o-m? Or are you going to get knocked up like I did right away?”

“Sally!” I say out loud again. “Of course I’m not going to get knocked up. We used…”

I trail off and she raises her eyebrows as if to say she told me so.

“You didn’t use one, did you?” she asks.

I shake my head foolishly before I finish my sentence.

“We used the p-u-l-l… maybe there’s a dash in there… out…” I stammer, not sure exactly how to spell the pull-out method.

“I get it,” she says, as she moves her eyes towards the living room. “And I doubt you have to spell it. Six year olds don’t know what that is.”

“I hope not,” I say. “In fact, I hope he doesn’t know what any of this is or he will be very confused.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the only real complicating factor in this. It could mess things up for your job, and for Little Man, if you guys aren’t careful.”

“Gee, thanks, Sally,” I tell her, mostly sarcastically. “Way to fill me with doom and gloom after encouraging me to go for it!”

“Sorry,” she says. “I didn’t mean to be Debbie Downer. I do think you guys sound pretty awesome together, even though I haven’t met him yet. I had to get down the mountain fast after delivering the cake to the party. No one likes to be stuck up there in case of a snowstorm.”

“I’m sure you will,” I tell her.

“Yeah. With all the holiday celebrations coming up, there will be plenty of opportunities. And I really do want it to go well. I was just freaking out for you there for a minute.”

“Tell me about it,” I say. “I oscillate between completely freaking out and hoping for the best.”

“Well, I’ll go ahead and let you and Charlie bond,” she says. “Now that my dishes are washed and my entire baking process is complete. Enjoy the cookies.”

Lowering her voice, she adds, “and the nookie.”

I laugh and shoo her away.

“Okay, thanks again.”

“Bye, Charlie!” she calls out, as she goes to leave.

“Bye, bye, Miss Sally!” he responds, his eyes still glued on Snoopy while he waves goodbye to her.

I’m wondering when Daniel will get home but right then he steps in the door.

“Daddy!” Charlie says, finding the one thing that will break his attention from the movie.

He bounds off the couch and over to the door, jumping into Daniel’s arms.

“Hey, buddy!” Daniel says. “Seems like you’re in a good mood. And how are you?”

He looks at me as he asks this. And then he adds, “Was that the van out front that delivered the cake to Charlie’s birthday party?”

“Yes,” I tell him, hoping he didn’t mind that I had visitors. I had forgotten to ask him. “Charlie wanted to make Christmas cookies and I can’t profess to be any kind of baker. In fact, I’m pretty lacking in the domestic skills department. So I invited my friend Sally, the baker, over, and I hope that’s okay…”

“That’s fine,” he says, as Charlie grabs a cookie from the counter and brings it over to him. “It’s so nice that you guys made Christmas cookies.”

He ruffles a hand through Charlie’s hair as Charlie reaches the cookie up to him and says, “See what we made, Daddy? This one’s for you! Can I have one?”

“Yes,” Daniel says, as Charlie scampers back to the kitchen to get another one. “But let’s sit down and eat in the kitchen so you don’t get crumbs all over the floor.”

We move into the kitchen and Charlie brings me a cookie, too.

“Here you go, Catharine!” he says. “Hope you like it because we made it!”

“Yes we did,” I tell him, as Daniel winks at me.

I’m beginning to like a lot of things around here. Both Charlie and Daniel are chief among them.

Chapter 9

Daniel

It’s good to be home after a long day of work.

Sadly, I can’t say I always feel that way. I love Charlie but sometimes his incessant demands are a bit much to take after dealing with software and employees all day. This evening, though, is perfect. Thanks to Catharine’s help in taking good care of him, he doesn’t seem to be too rowdy or amped up or upset.

As we eat the cookies, Charlie says, “I loved making snow angels and cookies with Catharine. Can she come over all the time?”

“Yes,” I tell him, trying not to laugh at the fact that he clearly doesn’t understand the new arrangement, even though I’d gone over it with him before Catharine arrived. “She’s your new nanny. You remember Miss Natalie, who was here for a while but left?”

“The mean one?” Charlie says, scrunching up his nose.

“Was she mean?” I ask him.

All I knew was that Natalie said he was too much of a handful and that she couldn’t take him anymore.