“Shit,” she whined, doing the same on the other side now. “I’ve got to go back to school for three hours looking like this.”
Just then, Rissa and Hogan Beauregard walked through the door to the kitchen, with Ellis, Rose, Raoul, and Dave following behind them. “Jose!” Rissa greeted, coming forward to sweep me up in a hug, Hogan doing the same thing the second she let go of me. I’d met them a few times before this, but I was convinced they’d never met a stranger in their lives because they never treated anyone like one. Moving around the back of her husband, she reached for Tabby, too, “Tabby, how are y… what the hell’s wrong with your eyes?”
Leaning across to see what his wife was looking at, Hogan saw the black bits in Tabby’s eyes and jumped back. “Guac on a cracker, Tabby. The hell did you do to your eyes, girl?”
Always the worrier, Dave came closer and frowned. “Have you been crying? Your mascara… Jesus Christ, fireball.”
Still dabbing with the paper towel, she smiled at all of them and waved her hand. “Oh, it’s nothing, just my mascara running a little.”
“Uh huh?” Hogan mumbled and took a step away from her, giving her another look before turning back to me. “Uh,” he gave Tabby another quick look, and then shook his head. “Where’s the princess?”
I loved that Liv had this, that everyone treasured her enough to think of her as a princess, and I knew it wasn’t just a nickname because they truly loved her, and she was just that precious to them all. So, hearing this, I smiled wide and nodded my head toward the direction they’d just come from.
“She’s having a nap. She has a bit of a cold, so she’s been extra sleepy today. Plus, this one has her doing exercises when he’s at home,” I pointed at Ellis who shrugged like it wasn’t unusual. “She only lasted about three minutes today and then fell asleep when he was teaching her to do push-ups.”
Spinning around so she was facing her son, Rissa gasped, “Are you out of your ever-loving mind? She’s only thirty-one weeks old, Ellis Johnathon Beauregard, and you’ve got her doing push-ups?”
His eyes moved to where I was, and then he looked back at his mom and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I saw it on a baby program, and it’s not like adults do, they’re a modified infant exercise. If you help them do it, it builds the muscles in their body so that they can crawl and walk with more stability. They said that four out of ten babies end up having hospital treatment for crawling and walking accidents, and I didn’t want that to happen to Olivia.”
Walking over to him, I tucked myself in under his arm, and wrapped mine around his back letting him know I supported him on this. Watching the move, his mom’s eyes softened. “Well, if it’s good for the princess, then it’s just as well you’re doing it.”
And that was that. She knew he had a good reason for it, one that benefitted Liv, and that’s all it took for her to be ok regardless of the fact a thirty-one week old infant was doing the baby version of laps and push-ups. Just then, the sound of Liv making her hangry noises came through the monitor in the kitchen. As soon as he heard it, Hogan gave his wife a hip bump knocking her off balance, and started walking quickly toward where Liv was in Ellis’s spare room. Raoul and Rose chose that moment to join us, both looking flushed and pissed off. Those two would have to either battle it out or just give in one day. I don’t think anyone was blind to what was really going on between them, apart from them that was. “Gotcha did he?” Rose snorted, walking past her mom and looking in the pot. When she saw there were chunks of carrots, she made the same mistake as my sister had and picked one out blindly. Popping it in her mouth, she glared over at Raoul, who was leaning against the kitchen table watching her with a scowl on his face, and then froze. “Wha fa uck s fis?” she mumbled, looking around her for the trash can. Seeing it beside where her arch nemesis was standing, she rushed over and spat it all out. “What the hell? What happened to those carrots?”
“What’s the matter, rose petal?” Raoul asked sweetly – too sweetly. “Do you need me to make you a cup of coffee to rinse your mouth out with?” The only response he got was her middle finger, so I guess that was a no.
“That was sweet potato,” Tabby explained. “I made the same mistake.”
That’s when Rose saw the state of Tabby’s eyes and burst out laughing. “Oh, shit. What did you do?”