CHAPTER 36 Liam Bradley
My New Best Friend
I’ve spent the last few days putting together a plan.
Babies sleep a lot, and I’m home all the time with her—for this week, anyway. I need to get back to San Diego.
I’ve done a lot of online searching. I’ve held Zoom calls with potential nannies, all names I’ve gotten from the player operations division of the San Diego Storm.
None of them feels like the right fit yet.
I’ve spoken with young, hot blondes, with older women who are nothing like Dolores, and with everyone in the middle between the two extremes.
No one seems good enough for Liora, who I’m falling more and more in love with every single day.
This is a kind of love I’ve never known. I got close once with two boys who looked like the woman I fell for, but there was never that sense that they were mine since their mother and I were never outwardly together in front of them.
But when Liora’s dark eyes meet mine, there’s a recognition between us. Our eyes are the same. She has my nose, or so says everyone I’ve sent pictures to. My chin, too, which is sharp on a baby, and my dark hair.
She’s already tall for her age, and every ounce of her is pure perfection.
She lets me know when she needs something by crying her cute little head off, and it’s up to me to figure out what the problem is. So far, it’s been pretty easy. She’s either wet, dirty, or hungry.
But I have a feeling it won’t always be this simple. I also have a feeling there will come a time when I don’t get woken up every two hours, and maybe there will even be a day when I miss it.
I doubt it, but one never knows.
I’m sleep-deprived, and I think Dolores senses it because she offers to come stay with me on Wednesday night so I can sleep for a few extra hours while she takes the night shift.
It’s an incredible help, and it’s crazy how sleeping a full seven hours in a row completely recharges me.
I work on setting up deliveries to my new home with the help of someone from that same division helping out as an assistant while I work on making my transition to town.
When I arrive, the house should be completely set up for me and move-in ready.
I’ve shipped boxes of my shit, so it’s all ready to go.
With Dolores’s help, I even order stuff for the bedrooms just in case someday Penny decides she wants to move to San Diego after all.
If she doesn’t, well, I’m all set in the event I ever do meet someone who wants to fill the house with more kids, though I can’t exactly picture life with anyone other than Penelope Wade.
I’m ready for this.
I’m just missing one thing.
Well, three.
Penny, Sammy, and Benji.
I have no idea what’s going on with her, and I want to call, want to ask, want to meet for coffee…but I can’t. I’m waiting out the divorce before I make my move.
I have no idea where she’ll land when it’s final, but I haven’t given up hope of a reconciliation for the two of us.
I need a plan in place when I arrive with Liora, that’s for sure. At the baby’s one-week pediatrician appointment, I ask Dolores if she’ll come with me.
She does.
I swear to God, I don’t know what I’d do without her.
I decide I’ll pay her triple what I usually pay her for all the extra help.
She asks the important questions.
“Liam is moving to San Diego and needs to be there by the middle of next week. Is it safe for him to take the baby on an airplane?”
I never even thought to ask that one.
“It’s best to wait for the two-month immunizations, but if you don’t have a choice, she’s healthy enough that you can take her,” the doctor says. “Just try to limit exposure.”
I blow out a breath. I have no idea what that means, but the search function on my internet browser has recently become my new best friend.
My phone rings later in the evening—or buzzes, actually, since I’ve taken to silencing my notifications so as not to wake a sleeping baby—and I see Everleigh is calling.
“Hey,” I answer. Liora is asleep in her bassinet in my room, and I’m down in the family room catching the highlights on SportsCenter as I spend more time watching the monitor trained on my newborn than on the television.
“How’s my niece?” she says, bypassing standard phone greetings altogether.
“Sleeping peacefully. I’m watching her on the monitor now.”
“And how’s my little brother, the new dad?”
“It’s hard doing this alone,” I admit. “There are, like, no breaks. I’m forever indebted to Dolores, though. She spent last night here, and I have more energy today than I’ve had in a week.”
“I’m sorry, Liam. Have you seen Madden much?”
“He’s come by a few times to visit, but he knows about as much about kids as I knew a week ago.”
She laughs. “Accurate. And Ivy’s still here in Vegas, so she’s no help.”
“I’ve called Dex with questions, but I think it’s a different story when you have two people there to split the weight, you know?”
“Sure. Of course. What can I do?”
“Relinquish your hold on Ivy so she’ll get her ass here and help me out.”
She laughs. “I don’t have a hold on her. She hasn’t made a firm decision yet, but she’s twenty-one, bro. I don’t blame her for wanting to live in Sin City for a while before she decides where she wants to settle in.”
I guess I can’t really blame her for that, either. “Whatever,” I grunt petulantly.
“Listen, I’m calling for a very important reason.”
“What?” I snap.
“I’m flying in a few days early for the trial so I can spend time with you and my niece. Mav is staying here, but I wanted to ask you if I could stay with you so I can help out with night feedings and all the things.”
“Yes, of course, Ev. I would absolutely love that,” I say.
Having my sister here might remind me of her best friend…or maybe I can talk it out with Ev and try to find a way to win Penny back.
And best-case scenario, maybe I can get another night of seven glorious hours of uninterrupted sleep.
I hear Liora start to cry.
So it won’t be tonight, and as I scramble making a bottle and bolting upstairs quickly to tend to my girl, I can’t help but think that’s okay.
Sleeping two hours at a time isn’t for the weak, and I’m grateful when the front desk calls up to let me know my sister is on her way up the next day.
I’m already holding Liora anyway, bouncing gently with her as I walk around my condo and tell her stories about the boys when they lived here.
“And for one week, we all had to stay right here in this condo because we all got the flu! It was right after they moved in, and boy, do I miss having them here,” I say softly as I hear the gentle knock at my door.
I smile as I make my way over to let my sister in, and she gasps from the doorway as her eyes fall onto her niece, who’s awake, clean, and freshly fed.
“Oh my goodness, is this her?” she asks, and she rushes through the door to get a look at her. “Let me hold her!”
“After you wash your hands,” I say, something the nurse told me several times was essential, especially after being out in public.
She follows my instructions, stepping into the small bathroom off the entry, and she’s staring at me with a tilted head as she exits.
“My little brother, already the protective daddy. I wouldn’t have believed it unless I was here to see it with my own two eyes, but it’s about the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. ”
I chuckle as I gently hand Liora over. “Liora, this is your Auntie Ev. Ev, meet your niece.”
“Oh,” she gasps, the sound a bit of a garbled sob. “I love her already.”
“Isn’t she perfect?” I ask as we both stare down at her.
“The most perfect newborn I’ve ever seen.”
I mean…she isn’t wrong. She sits in the new reclining rocking chair Dolores said I had to have, and in truth, it’s my favorite chair in this entire condo, so I ordered the same one for my new house in San Diego.
We make small talk as Everleigh stares down at the baby and rocks her until she’s sleeping, and then I have her set the baby into her family room bassinet rather than taking her all the way upstairs.
“Are you hungry?” I ask, and when she nods, we find a place to order from.
An hour later, we’re sitting at my kitchen table enjoying Chinese food as we talk about what kinds of questions we think we’ll be asked at Dad’s trial on Tuesday.
“Are you going to Penny’s divorce trial on Monday?” she asks.
I glance at her, and I twist my lips.
I’ve put a lot of thought into that, and I’ve come to a decision.
“Yes. But only if you go with me.”
Her brows pinch together, and then I fill her in on my plan.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she says softly, and she reaches over and grabs my hand.
I think maybe, just maybe, I’m going to figure out how to make all of this work.