Chapter 34 Blake
BLAKE
Six months later…
“Usually, you have the baby shower before the baby is born,” I whispered to Parker.
“Just be glad they all stayed away as long as they did,” he said just as Derek approached, holding out a small package.
Plopping down in the seat beside me, he grinned wide, bouncing around like a kid on Christmas morning. “I can’t wait for you to see what it is. I made it myself.”
“You…made this?” I asked, worried that I was going to get some sort of homemade explosive device.
“Yep! Trust me, you’re gonna love it.”
I had to see this now. Tearing into the wrapping paper, I pulled out a very colorful blanket with the most intricate pattern on it. Derek was smiling the whole time, and I swore I saw a tear in his eyes as I unfolded it to see the whole thing.
“Umm…this is amazing. You actually made this?”
“Well, I learned how to do it a long time ago. See, this is a blanket for swaddling. Have you learned to swaddle? You gotta swaddle.”
“Umm…”
“Come on,” he stood, walking over to the bassinet where our little girl was sleeping. “I’ll give you a lesson. It’s all about the tuck. See, they like to feel like little burritos, all snug and warm.”
Glancing down at Rosie, I knew this was a bad idea. “I don’t think we should wake her.”
“Nonsense,” he said, picking her up and gently cradling her in his arms. He was an old pro at this.
Until she started screaming.
“She just needs to be swaddled,” he shouted above the incessant wailing.
“Well, hurry it up! She’s really upset!”
Laying her down on the couch, he quickly wrapped her up in the blanket, pulling it extra tight, but all that did was cause her to scream louder.
“See, now you just pick her up and rub her back!”
He stared at me expectantly, waiting for me to do as he said. I snatched her up and tucked her against my shoulder, patting her gently as I swayed from side to side.
“Huh,” he frowned. “Maybe try the bouncing strategy.”
“The what?” I asked, barely able to hear him over her crying.
“The bouncing! You know, bounce from side to side.” He bent his knees, then rose up, moving from side to side.
What the hell did I know? So, I started bouncing, sure this would be the magic cure. But it didn’t help. Nothing helped. Not swinging, walking, or even singing to her. She just screamed louder and louder.
“Huh. Swaddling usually does the trick,” Derek frowned. “Well, good luck with that.”
“But—”
He took off, leaving me with a very grouchy baby, and as I turned to find Parker, I noticed he’d vanished as well. Typical men.
“Hey, baby girl,” I cooed, continuing to walk around the living room. The screaming was getting to be too much for me. Nothing seemed to calm this child down. It had been only two days, and I was already failing as a new mother.
By the time half an hour rolled around, I was losing my mind. She wouldn’t stop screaming, and everyone else was avoiding me like the plague. Tears pricked at my eyes. I was going to lose it, and I hadn’t even been a mother for very long.
“Need some help?”
Spinning around, I nearly burst into tears when Wes held out his hands for his little sister.
“Really?”
“Why not? Go get something to eat. I’ll take a turn with her.”
I felt horrible handing her off, but I was starving, and the thought of escaping her screaming for just a few minutes was very tempting.
“If you’re sure.”
He practically grabbed her out of my hands. “I’ve got this.” He cradled her head gently, holding her against his chest. Her cries didn’t die down, but they didn’t get worse either.
Slipping away, I grabbed a glass of water and chugged it before snatching a piece of bread. It was the closest thing I could find, and I was desperate for a quick snack.
“Hey, where’s Rosie?”
Spinning around, I glared at my husband. “With Wes. Why did you abandon me?”
“Uh…abandon?” he chuckled nervously. “No, see what I did was leave so I didn’t stress her out. You know, studies show that too many people in a room can have disastrous effects on a baby’s psyche.”
“What a load of bullshit,” I hissed. “You couldn’t stand the crying, so you left me to deal with it.”
“Now, Blake, let’s be honest here. If anyone could get her to stop crying, it’s the woman with the milk supply. I have tit-like substances, but they will never be able to feed another human being. Unless I attach one of those weird boob contraptions, which I will never do.”
“Well, thank God for—”
I stopped talking the moment I realized it was quiet. “Oh God. He’s killed her.”
“What?”
I rushed past him into the living room, coming to a screeching halt when I saw Wes laying down on the couch with his shirt off, and his baby sister naked on him with a blanket covering her.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Skin to skin,” he said as if I was stupid.
“Where did you learn that?”
He picked up his phone and waved it at me. “Google is an amazing thing.”
I had been outsmarted by a search engine and a teenager. I was officially old, and yet, I wasn’t even that old.
“Can you believe this?” I hissed at Parker. “I’ve been outsmarted by a teenager.”
“Are you really that surprised? You should have seen what he taught me to do with my phone the other day.”
Curious, I looked at him. “What was it?”
Parker ducked his head, turning away from me, striding into the kitchen.
“What was it?”
“Nothing.”
“It had to be something. You aren’t blushing like a schoolgirl because of some really hard fix.”
Spinning around, he hardened his jaw. “It was a filter, okay?”
“A filter? Like a coffee filter. A —”
“A duckface filter.”
I stared at him.
“It was for work.”
I nodded, not smiling even though the muscles in my face were aching to be set free.
“Purely informational.”
Again, I nodded.
“Everyone else knew what it was. I figured it was some kind of thing I needed to know in case it came up. For a report or something.”
That was the lamest excuse ever, but still, I said nothing.
And it was bugging the hell out of him.
“Okay.”
“I’m serious,” he scowled. “It was purely for the sake of knowledge.”
“Knowledge that you very well needed,” I added, trying my damndest not to smile. I even pulled my lips between my teeth, hoping to stop my lips from spreading wide. He would not appreciate me laughing at him, but a duck face? Come on!
But when he rolled his eyes and spun away, I lost it and burst out laughing.
“Are you serious? Those things are for girls!”
“I didn’t mean to, okay?” he scowled.
“You came home and asked about it!” I said, chasing him around the island as he ran away.
“I was trying to figure out what they were talking about!”
“Do you have pictures? Please tell me you have pictures!”
He spun and glared at me. “I deleted them.”
Which meant they were still on his phone, and I was going to retrieve them.
“Yo! Parker!” Hunter shouted as he walked in the back door.
I snatched the phone out of Parker’s hand and took off at a sprint. By the time I was done, I’d have those photos posted all over the town.