Have My Baby (Crescent Cove 1)

“Grumpy is a boy.”

She looked up at me with a knitted brow so much like her father’s. A blond version, but all the rest was the same. “Grumpy is a bear,” she said as if that made all the difference.

I supposed for an almost four-year-old, it really did. I shrugged. “All righty then.”

I turned on the taps to add to the water to bubbles ratio. From the looks of the bottle on the side of the tub, Laurie had been using a heavy hand.

When she lifted the bottle and started to pour more on the puff, I made a grab for it.

She stuck out her lower lip. “I need that.”

I swooped up a froth of bubbles and settled it on top of her puff. “There you go.” When she still frowned, I took another dollop and settled it on her nose.

She giggled.

Now we were in business. By the time Seth came back, I had her hair washed and was chaperoning her hygiene rituals. I’d already made the mistake of trying to help there.

I’d been an independent kid too, but I didn’t remember a lot about my childhood. Just moving a lot. And I’d learned to shower far earlier than a lot of my friends. Sitting in bathtubs in some of the places we’d lived wasn’t the best idea.

Seth knocked on the door.

“No! No boys.”

A clunking sound made me frown and then Seth’s lacrosse stick came through the door with a bottle of bubbles in the netting. I laughed and stood.

Laurie giggled. “Thank you, Daddy!”

I took the bubbles. “You’re a dork.”

“Daddy’s a dork.”

“Great. Thanks. She’ll be saying that for days.”

“Fitting.”

“Har-har. Everything okay in there, girls? It’s way past bedtime.”

“Almost done.” Laurie slapped her hand on the water. “Go away.”

“I’m going.”

I snaked a finger through the crack in the door and flicked a nail over the back of his hand. “We’re fine.”

He let out a slow breath. “Thanks.”

“Of course.” I rubbed my hand over my breastbone and went back to his daughter with the bubbles. I unscrewed the cap. “Okay, you get one blast of bubbles for each friend you finish washing.”

“Deal.” She dunked her dolphin into the water and it came out gleaming. She set it on the shelf along the back of the tub. “Go.”

I pulled the double wand out and blew out a stream of rainbow bubbles.

“Me. I want to do it.”

“Two more of your buddies and you got it.”

The big whale and baby whale got dunked and deposited on the shelf. I dunked the wand and handed it to her.

“No, I want to do it.”