Chapter Fifty-One
Jessica
Alan texted me the next morning.
Alan: Good morning, babe. I hope you were able to get some sleep last night. I can’t wait until I’m able to help you in the middle of the night with Ruthie.
But she’ll need to be taking a bottle, so… what time can I come over today to help with that?
I knew he was testing the temperature with that early morning text.
The best way to describe the drive home last night would be… polite. I was embarrassed about how I had come on to him only to have him easily turn me down, and I think he knew I was embarrassed and didn’t know what to say.
I went to bed once again thinking, why is he even interested in me? I bring nothing to the table.
Still, he didn’t deserve to be ignored, so I quickly replied.
Me: Good morning. She slept a little late today, so I don’t think she’ll be ready to eat again until closer to noon.
Alan: I’ll get there a little before then just in case she wakes up earlier.
Me: That’s probably a good idea. She does not like to be kept waiting when she’s hungry.
Alan: I know the feeling.
He included a smiling emoji. While I’d decided I wasn’t going to be rude to him, I also wasn’t in the mood for small talk via text, so I simply replied,
Me: I’ll see you later.
Around eleven o’clock, I heard the gravel crunch in the driveway and glanced out the window.
Parked in front of the house was a grey Toyota Sienna minivan, and I rolled my eyes, thinking someone from church had stopped to “check on us” since we hadn’t attended services that morning.
I have a newborn baby, people—cut me some freaking slack!
But then I saw Alan exit the driver’s door and I automatically stepped onto the porch to ask him what happened to Brian’s Silverado.
“Hey!” he said with a bright smile but not answering my question as he went around to the passenger door and pulled out a bouquet of flowers.
I couldn’t help but return his smile as he came up the steps.
“You didn’t have to do that…”
He leaned down and kissed my cheek but didn’t hand me the flowers.
“These are for your mom to thank her for inviting me and my parents to dinner.”
I felt silly for automatically assuming he brought me flowers.
“Oh, that’s very thoughtful of you.”
“And the minivan is for you.”
“What!?” I couldn’t help it, I shrieked with excitement. “Are you kidding?”
“Not at all. I’m going to be gone until Wednesday night, and I didn’t want you to worry about transportation. Plus, Brian is going to want his truck back at some point and we need a vehicle here. Do you wanna check it out?”
I was down the steps and had opened the passenger sliding door before he even finished asking the question.
In one of the captain’s chairs was a brand-new, top-of-the-line car seat. I spun around to look at him.
“This is an Ina.”
“Yeah, my assistant said it’s the best. You can take the car seat out, but the base stays in the car, so you just snap it in.
No more having to install the car seat every time.
” He went around to the back, waved his foot under the tailgate, and the hatch rose to reveal a stroller.
“And the car seat attaches to the stroller, too. Plus, we can get a base for your mom’s car. ”
Tears welled up in my eyes.
“I can’t believe you did this.”
****
Alan
After I’d gotten off the phone with Sarah yesterday, I’d looked up used car listings for minivans in a thirty-mile radius. I would have preferred a new car, but the nearest dealer was in Charlotte, which was too far for me to get to before they closed, and none of them were open on Sundays.
Since I wanted to make sure Jess had transportation before I flew out on Monday morning, a private party sale was going to have to do.
I’d absolutely lucked out with the Sienna.
It was only a year old with low miles. Apparently the wife decided she didn’t want a “mommy mobile,” so her husband bought her a Suburban instead.
But what the dealer had offered the man to trade-in the minivan was insulting, so he’d put it up for sale himself.
I’d been able to pick it up that morning after Sarah wired him the funds.
She’d also been the one to order the car seat/stroller combination for me and had it overnighted to Brian’s address.
“I expect a stellar bonus on my birthday,” she’d quipped. “And if your next kid’s a girl, you better name her after me. Remember, it’s Sarah, with an ‘H’.”
“I know how to spell your name, smartass. And, I’ll agree with you on the bonus.” Her bonus last year had paid off her car. “But let’s not get crazy about any future children. Ruthie’s barely six weeks old.”
“Puh-lease. You have baby fever—there’s no way you’ll be satisfied with just one.”
Definitely not.
But I didn’t tell her that.
Now I had a weepy Jessica in front of me, and I was trying to figure out if I’d fucked up royally by not involving her in the vehicle purchase, or if those were happy tears.
“I can’t believe you did this.”
Eyeing her cautiously, I asked, “Is that a ‘I’m so happy, I can’t believe you did this,’ or a ‘You’ve got some nerve, I can’t believe you did this’? Because if it’s the latter, we can sell it and get whatever you want.”
“Oh my god, what kind of ungrateful person would say, ‘you’ve got some nerve’ after being given a vehicle?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know… I just didn’t want you to be mad because I picked this out without you, especially since you’re going to be the one to mostly drive it.”
“Alan, I would have been happy with a rusted out, twenty-year-old station wagon as long as it ran.”
“Well, I’m not letting my girls ride around in a dangerous rust bucket, so you get a minivan.”
She wrapped her arms around my waist and looked up at me with an adoring smile. “Thank you.”
I’d give her any damn thing she wanted just to see that smile again.
~~~~
Unfortunately, my attempt at giving Ruthie a bottle did not go as smoothly. After ten minutes of the baby turning her face and refusing to take the silicone nipple while screaming bloody murder, we gave up.
Jess took her from me, and all she had to do was pull her shirt down for Ruthie to find her breast and start suckling.
“We’ll keep trying,” she said with a wry smile.
“I read it can take a while. And it shouldn’t be you giving her the bottle, since if you do it, she may wonder why she’s not getting your breast.” I shook my head. “Fuck, I hate that I’m leaving you right now.”
“It’s only for a few days. And there’s plenty of people who’d be willing to help if I asked.”
“I know. But I should be the one doing it.”
She glanced down at Ruthie and murmured, “You’ve done plenty already. We’ll be fine. Maybe by the time you get back, she’ll be taking a bottle.”
I didn’t like that idea at all.