Chapter 40 Mason - Upper-Level Coursework
MASON Upper-Level Coursework
The UNC coach was coming to meet about Drew, and I didn’t want to phone it in for him.
But no way around it, I was going to be exhausted.
How was Daisy going to do this all alone?
I guessed a person could handle anything for a few weeks.
I had a whole new respect for Parker and Amelia. They had done this with double babies.
“No one sleeps ever,” Daisy said into her pillow.
That was when I made a command decision: I was going to get up with the baby. I half rolled myself out of bed.
“What are you doing?” Daisy asked.
“I’ll go get her,” I said. “But I have no idea how to make a bottle.”
Daisy gave me a thumbs-up. So, not exactly the hero’s thank-you I was expecting, but I figured she was too tired to be appropriately grateful.
I stumbled across the hall, where Maisy was wailing. “Mais, girlfriend,” I said, “this is really dramatic.”
She stopped crying and looked at me as I lifted her out of the crib. I raised her to my shoulder so her face was close to mine, holding her head. Was I mastering baby holding? I felt like maybe I was.
“I get it,” I said. “I get hangry too. But, like, people have to sleep around here. So maybe after you eat this time you could snooze a little?”
Maisy started crying louder, and I walked her around the small space. These town houses weren’t super well-built, and I bet the neighbors were having a lot of fun with the new baby situation.
Daisy gestured for me to give her the baby, but she looked so tired. And, yeah, I had a big meeting today, but she was about to start a twelve-hour shift where people depended on her to save their lives. Baseball was important in Cape Carolina, but not that important.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You go back to sleep. I’ll feed her.”
Daisy shook her head. “No, no. I signed up for this. You didn’t. You go back to sleep.”
It was tempting.
“Plus, you’re scared of burping.”
I laughed. “Nah. Now that I’ve mastered the shoulder hold, I’m good.”
Daisy studied me. “All right then. If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
She looked at me like I was her hero. And, sure, I didn’t really want to sign up for this forever, but I felt like I was getting some good credit lined up for when things went back to normal.
I took the bottle and the baby, who was wailing her head off, back into the nursery. I sat in the rocking chair and readjusted her. As soon as she saw the bottle coming for her, she quit crying.
I rocked a little and leaned my head back.
It was totally dark besides the night-light.
The world was quiet. The baby was content, a little stream of milk that I dabbed with a towel coming out of her mouth.
She looked up at me like I had saved her life.
Well, I mean, I had saved her life. But that I had saved her life again just by feeding her. It was a pretty cool feeling.
“So, how do you feel about baseball, Maisy? Want to come to my game tonight? I think the boys would think you were pretty cool. Or, maybe they’ll ignore you, but our newly minted baseball cheerleading squad will want you to be their mascot.”
She continued sucking, putting her hand on mine, her eyes never leaving my face. “We could get you a little baby Marlins uniform and they could carry you around, give Daisy a break.” I smiled. “They stay up all night anyway. Maybe we could get one of them over here for that two a.m. feeding.”
I knew she didn’t know what I was saying, but it was kind of fun anyway.
I burped her, finished her feeding, and burped her again.
When I tried to put her in the crib, she started crying again.
I didn’t want Daisy to wake up, so I held her and rocked her, the thing Daisy expressly told me not to do.
But she snuggled into me and fell back asleep, and I just stared at her, marveling that this was the same goo-covered infant I had found in that dumpster.
And now she was beautiful and bigger and oh-so clean.
And loved. By Daisy. Maybe even by me, which was kind of weird.
I thought about Drew, about how he’d probably never know that this was his baby, how he’d never get to feel this thing for this child that was half his.
But would he feel this for her? Or would he only feel panic?
He was just a kid, after all. He could pitch.
But could he stay up all night with a baby? I wasn’t so sure.
I must have drifted off because, at some point, Daisy’s voice woke me, and I startled, panicked because I was supposed to be watching the baby. But she was asleep, cradled in my arms.
Daisy leaned down and kissed me. She was clean and showered and made-up, her hair in loose waves, wearing a pair of pink scrubs. She was beautiful. She said, “You are really something. Did you know that?”
I kissed her again and whispered, “You are.” I looked down. “I don’t want to wake the baby.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s a little after six. I have to wake her up to get her to day care.”
Wake her up. That meant that she hadn’t woken up on her own, that she was so cozy with me that she had slept.
“Do you want me to take her to day care?” I asked sleepily. “So you can get to work?”
She laughed. “You nailed the feeding, but I’m not sure you’re ready for the car-seat-and-diaper-bag portion of the program.”
I nodded, realizing that I had no idea how to get a baby in a car seat, and I was too tired to learn at this particular moment.
“Yeah. That seems like upper-level coursework. I’m still at 101.”
She smiled as the baby began to stir. Maisy raised her little arms above her head and stretched.
It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. And I found myself—despite my exhaustion, despite my middle-of-the-night thoughts that this was a nearly impossible job—not wanting to leave her.
I wanted to feed her and change her and carry her around and show her off at work and…
I knew I was getting ahead of myself. She was not mine.
Not even one percent. So then why did it feel like she was?
She opened one eye and looked at me warily. Then at Daisy. We both laughed at her facial expression.
Daisy reached down to take her, and I was a little sad but also realized that my arm had fallen asleep. I shook it. I needed to get going. We had a meeting today. And a game we needed to win.
“I know you’ll have a long day, but can you guys come to my game tonight?” I asked. I felt kind of desperate.
“I can’t make any promises, but as long as Maisy is cool with it, we’ll be there.” Daisy smiled and Maisy yawned, and I needed to get in the shower.
“I think we are supposed to be having serious conversations, but I’m too tired,” I said.
Daisy nodded. “I am also too tired.”
“Okay. So, we’ll reschedule our serious conversations?”
She nodded.
“Oh!” I said. “But we want you and Maisy to come to Easter at Dogwood.”
“Really?”
“Of course. My family loves you more than me, and I hate to tell you, I think they’re going to love Maisy more than either of us.”
Daisy nodded seriously. “I will mentally prepare for that.
“Hey, Mason. I know no serious conversations… but what Tilley said…” She trailed off.
“I don’t know, Daisy. Maybe it was just another one of those Aunt Tilley spells.” After my conversation with my mom, I was still conflicted. But I did feel surer that she was probably right that I should let it be.
“So you don’t think we should tell Robbie.”
I laughed incredulously. “Daisy, seriously? Do I think we should explode Robbie’s world over something that is probably nothing? Definitely not. We don’t have any kind of proof that she is telling the truth.” Of course I had wanted to do the same thing. But she didn’t need to know that.
“Yeah,” she said. “You’re probably right.” She didn’t look certain, but I didn’t have time to convince her. I had to get to the biggest day of Drew Christianson’s life so far. Or, well, the biggest besides the day he became a father, but since he didn’t know about that, the biggest.
I stood up and kissed her again, and kissed Maisy’s head as she started to cry. As I headed off to shower, I realized I didn’t want to leave either of them. And I wondered what that meant.