“Yeah, they're my friends. I got lots of bears – big bears, small bears, medium bears, daddy bears, and daughter bears.”
“No mommy bears?”
“No. Just daddy bears and daughter bears.”
I nodded. I guessed she didn't see her mother all that much. It was unusual, of course, and I had to admit I wanted to find out more, but it wasn't my place.
“What do you wanna do now, Jane?”
She yawned and stretched her tiny little limbs.
“I'm tired. Can I go sleepy time?”
I smiled. “You sure can. Come, I've got a nice little bed you can lay down on.”
I took her by the hand and lead her to one of my guest rooms, which had two twin-sized beds in it for when my friend Kerry visited from out of town with her son, who was four years old. It hadn’t been long since their last visit, and so I still had a few things in the room I’d brought home from the daycare and hadn’t taken back yet.
“Here you go; isn't this nice?” I said as I lead her over to the bed, picked her up, and set her down on it.
“It's so blue in here,” she said. “I like pink! My old room was pink, and my bed was pink. And my bears like pink. And daddy's gonna make my new room pink.”
I laughed. “Well, it's nice to try something different for a change, isn't it? Life's boring if it's always the same.”
“I guess,” she said, and let out another big yawn.
“And I have a little feeling,” I said as I helped her get comfortable. “That because you're so tired, you don't really mind that this room is blue.”
She smiled. “Yeah, blue isn’t so bad. Can you read me a story? Daddy always reads me a story before I go to sleep.”
“Sure,” I said as I went over to the bookshelf, which had a few children's books on it. “I have Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears—”
“Ooh, ooh, Goldilocks and the Three Bears! I like bears!”
“Alright,” I said and sat down next to her and began reading the story.
She was so tired; she fell asleep within minutes. I checked the time and found that it was only nine. There was still an hour to go before Everett would be back to pick her up. I switched on the baby monitor in the room to make sure I could keep an eye on Jane while she was sleeping, and then went over to my study to fiddle around on the internet to pass the time. I saw the Skype icon on my laptop and decided to take a chance and see if my best friend Kerry was online. She and I had grown up together, and she was one of the very few people from my past I still kept in touch with. By chance, she happened to be available, so I shot her a message to see if she had time to chat.
“Hey, Ker, how's everything in San Francisco?” I asked when she popped up on the screen in front of me.
“It's all good. Ethan looooves kindergarten, thank God, and Carl is handling some tough cases at work but swears he enjoys the stress. Things are busy with the catering business, but that's a good thing, right? So, I guess you could say life is busy all round. How are things with you? How’s it going being a business owner these days?”
“It's a whole different set of challenges to just working at the daycare,” I replied. “But I'm really glad I went ahead and bought it. It's been hard, but very rewarding. I'm actually turning a good profit these days, even though things can be stressful and unlike your hubs, I can’t say I enjoy the stress,” I joked.
“Yeah, well, I never claimed he was normal. So, what else is new?”
“Well,” I said. “This new guy just moved into the house across the road from me.”
“The one that's been empty for months?”
“Yeah, that one.”
A mischievous grin spread across her face.
“And is he hot? Is he rich? No, wait, he lives in your neighborhood, so probably not rich. So, is he gainfully employed? And most importantly... is he single?”
I chuckled. “Actually, he is hot. Like holy hell hot. Like those guys you see on calendars hot. The first time I saw him, which was earlier today, he was mowing his lawn shirtless – all muscled and ripped.”
Kerry laughed. “No way! And did you speak to him?”