28. Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mac had taken Janie to get her car soon after he got back from the grocery store. Mixed feelings had flooded her. She was happy to have the independence back but at the same time, she was feeling off that Mac wouldn’t be taking her everywhere. Not that she went many places, but she liked it when he drove her places.
She thought it would be the opposite in the beginning. That she would hate him driving her everywhere, but the few times he had she was relaxed and content. He had been taking care of her and taking all of the worries she had. Well, most of them and then he added to some. Or maybe that was her just adding to them.
Janie had no clue and she didn’t really have the time to dwell on it right now. She needed to go out and run some errands that were important. She just hoped Mac would be home today to watch over Eleanor. It was such short notice. If he couldn’t, she could run them with Eleanor but it would be quicker if she didn’t have her while running them.
“Are you ready to go and see if Mac can watch you?” Janie asked as she picked up Eleanor.
“Macie!” Eleanor yelled.
Janie chuckled and nodded her head. She had given up on correcting Eleanor that it was Mac and not Macie. It was catchy.
“Let’s go to Mac.” They walked out of the house and toward his. She brought her hand up and knocked on the door. He was home since his car was outside but would he have time to watch over her. That was the question.
“Pinky,” he said as he opened the door. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until later today. I’m currently cooking the last couple of meals for you.”
She blushed and looked down at her feet. Janie didn’t know why she let that nickname get to her. Maybe it was because no one else called her that. It was special between them. Intimate.
“What can I do for you? Do you need help?” he asked. “Is everything alright?”
“Would you,” she took a deep breath in and looked at him. It was hard for her to ask if he could watch Eleanor. What if he said no?
“Yes?”
“Would you be able to watch Eleanor for an hour or two? I need to run a couple errands and it would be faster if someone was watching her,” Janie rushed out. “But if you can’t, then that’s perfectly fine. My errands can totally be done with her.”
His warm hand landed on her shoulder and she relaxed. She didn’t know why she was getting so wound up about this. People asked for help all the time. She asked her babysitter if she could watch Eleanor.
What was so different about this time? Janie closed her eyes. It was different because it was Mac. He wouldn’t be asking for payments. She was also worried that Eleanor would start to see Mac as a father figure and then it would not work out.
That was one of her biggest worries. She didn’t want Eleanor to suffer because of her. Janie knew she wouldn’t be able to protect Eleanor from everything, but she wanted to try to protect her from the things she could.
“I will gladly look after Ellie while you go run some errands,” Mac said. “Is there anything specific you want me to do with her? Snackies? Drinks?”
“Just not a lot of sugar, please. I don’t need her running around on a sugar high and crashing several hours before bed time. I want her to sleep through the night.”
“I promise I won’t feed her a lot of sugar. We may make chocolate chip cookies, but I’ll make sure she doesnt have a lot.”
Janie’s mouth started to water at the mention of chocolate chip cookies. She absolutely loved cookies and was jealous that Eleanor would get to have some.
“Could,” she started to talk, but stopped herself.
“I’ll save you some. And I’ll make sure to have some coming right out of the oven when you come and pick up Ellie.”
She blushed. “Thank you.”
“And if you crave chocolate chip cookies at any time, you let me know and I’ll make you some.”
Janie didn’t know how to respond. He was offering a lot of that recently. “I’ll be back in an hour or two. Thank you again.”
Mac grabbed Eleanor out of her arms and she waved bye. “I’ll see you later, baby.”
“What are we going to do while your mama is out?” Mac asked as he walked back into the kitchen. “Do you want to help me make chocolate chip cookies?”
A squeal of delight came out of Eleanor’s mouth. “Yes!”
Mac chuckled and sat her down on the counter. “I want you to stay sitting on the counter. Can you do that for me?”
She nodded her head.
“If you don’t, you could fall and hurt yourself. I don’t want that to happen to you. If you need to get down, you let me know.”
“Cookies!”
“Let me go put this out so it can start cooling. Then we’ll make cookies.”
Mac pulled the lasagna out of the oven and placed it on a cooling rack. He wanted the air to slowly start to cool it on every spot.
“Macie!” Eleanor yelled. “Uppies!”
He turned around and grabbed Ellie. She immediately put her head on his shoulder and snuggled into him.
“Such a precious girl,” he whispered. “I’ll hold you as long as you want me to.”
And that was what he did. He held her and rocked slowly back and forth. Mac cherished this moment, loving every second of it. He hadn’t watched over his sisters kids in a while which meant he didn’t have anyone to hug. Maybe he should just give Janie a hug when she comes back.
“Are you okay, Ellie?” he asked as she tightened her grip around his neck.
She peaked her head up and poked his cheek. “Mama.”
“Your mama will be back soon.”
He didn’t know how she was going to react to Janie being gone. He figured it would be okay since she came to the club once or twice a week, but he was a different person than Eleanor’s babysitter.
“Crying,” she poked at his cheek again.
“Mama was crying?” he asked.
Ellie nodded her head before placing it back on his shoulder. He just held her as he was left alone to his thoughts. Was Janie crying? Was something wrong? He wanted to ask her when she got back, but he didn’t want to overstep. Maybe it was just her time of the month or a really sad part in a book she was editing.
Mac didn’t want to jump to conclusions but at the same time he wanted to ask in case something was wrong. Maybe it was the person that was outside her driveway the other day. They weren’t there when he left, but he didn’t get a good feeling about that.
He had looked through the camera feed to see if they had arrived any other time but they hadn’t. It was the first time and they were there for a good thirty minutes. Janie was sure it wasn’t her husband in the car, but he wasn’t so sure. He had met him a handful of times and Mac didn’t like Donald.
“Everything is going to be okay,” Mac said. “I’ll take care of you both.”