“No, but I can get it for you,” I offered, but he put a hand on my shoulder to keep me in place. A wry smile crossed his face when I glared at him.
A few of his little second cousins were infatuated with my hair and putting small braids throughout it. There was no way Kash was going to let me get out of this easily.
“I have to go potty,” announced one of the little girls, sitting on my lap.
My eyes about bulged out of my head, and Kash burst out laughing as he turned toward the kitchen. “Uh, well then you should go to the bathroom.”
“Will you take me?” She started squirming, and I thought I was going to die.
A little kid is about to pee on me! I looked around wildly as the little girl kept doing the potty dance on my leg, and I tried to figure out what I would have to do if I took her to the bathroom. “Um, okay. Just . . . don’t go before we get in there.”
Just as I started to stand, Ava—the mom—came to my rescue. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go to the potty.” Looking up at me, she mouthed I’m so sorry, and turned to look around. “Rachel, I hate to do this to you—but can you hold Shea for me?”
I looked at the chubby infant in her arms, and my mouth popped open but nothing came out. I’d never held a baby before. But Ava had been sweet to me all afternoon, and right now she was saving me from bathroom duty, and I honestly didn’t know how I was supposed to say no to her. No, Ava, I will not hold your baby. Yeah, I could see that going over so well. I would forever be known as the girl that refused to help out.
“Sh-sure,” I spit out, and kind of just put my arms straight in front of me.
“She’s tired, just let her lay on your chest.”
I sat there frozen as Ava put Shea on my chest so her chubby cheeks were resting on my collarbone, and automatically put my arms around her to keep her there.
“Okay, I’ll be right back! Come on, sweetheart, let’s go!”
Blowing out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, I looked down at the baby in my arms and smiled when she kept fisting the collar of my shirt in her little hand. When she caught me looking at her, she lifted her head shakily and smacked her hand against my chin before dropping her head back onto my collarbone. The two girls that had been braiding my hair cooed over the baby for a minute before taking off after some appetizers that were brought into the house . . . and then it was just little Shea and me. I had just been thinking about how much easier this was than I’d thought it would be, when she grabbed a chunk of my hair and pulled as hard as possible.
“What is it with my hair today?” I whispered to her as I went through the painful process of getting every strand out of her little fist and making sure they stayed attached to my head.
She reached again, but I put my index finger out and she immediately wrapped her tiny fingers around it, her little eyes widening as she stared at it.
As soon as Ava was back in the living room, the potty-dance daughter started crying, and Ava turned them right back around and disappeared down the hall. But I didn’t mind, I was enjoying having little Shea with me. Her eyes were growing heavy as she continued to watch her fingers wrapped around mine, and by the time Ava was walking back toward us, she was out. Her little lips were slightly open, and my chest and neck were warm from the heat she was emanating.
“She’s asleep?”
“Yeah, just happened,” I whispered and was getting ready to sit up to hand her back off when I noticed the relieved look on Ava’s face. “I can keep holding her . . .”
“Oh my God, would you? I know as soon as she’s up I won’t be able to eat, I need to grab something now while she’s asleep.”
“Yeah, go for it.” Smiling at her softly, I leaned back into the couch and looked down at the tiny baby sleeping on me. It couldn’t be that hard. She was sleeping, and I was just sitting here anyway . . . right?
Looking up, my eyes locked on Kash’s expression, and everything in me locked up. His eyebrows were scrunched together and drawn down, like he was trying to figure out the answer to a difficult question, and he was pulling his lip ring into his mouth the way he did when he was mad. Though he was looking directly at me, his eyes were unfocused and I had to wave my free hand to get his attention.
His stormy eyes snapped back to life, and from across the room I watched as he raised one eyebrow and jerked his head up once in question.
I mouthed an are you okay? to him and felt my body relax when his smirk transformed his face back to the Kash I knew.
“Don’t you just look perfect with a baby.”
My head turned to look at Kash’s grandma who had just sat down on my left. She was a short woman that, from my limited interaction with her, looked like she lived to feed her family and give hugs. She was absolutely adorable. My eyes automatically dropped to the sleeping baby, and I gave her a small smile as I laughed awkwardly. “Um . . .” How do you respond to that?
“That was a compliment, dear. You look very comfortable like that, like you were made to hold a baby.”
“Oh, well thank you.” That so didn’t sound like a compliment. It felt like it should be followed up with Kash telling me I should be barefoot in the kitchen.
“So beautiful,” she murmured as she touched my engagement ring and looked happily back up at me. “Do you plan to give me more great-grandchildren soon? I’ll be here for only so long . . .” she trailed off and laughed heartily.
“I don’t know about that, we haven’t really talked about it. We’re still young,” I cut off quickly when I realized Ava was barely older than me and already had two kids. But for shit’s sake I had barely turned twenty-two a couple months ago. I was still getting used to taking care of Trip, I didn’t even want to think about having a baby.
“Of course you are, darling girl! You have all the time in the world. This is just an old woman greedy for more babies to spoil rotten. Though I’m sure with you and Logan being the only children in your families, both of your parents will be spoiling your children senseless.”