Chapter Eight
Owen
I never would have picked up the baby if Willa hadn’t looked panic-stricken at the noises she was making while she, clearly, tried to handle some important work call.
My stomach had been in knots and my pulse going triple its normal speed as I lifted the tiny body off her mother’s legs and pressed her to my shoulder the way I’d seen Willa holding her.
I’d held babies in the past. But bigger ones. Sturdier. Less breakable. Never one so delicate.
It was terrifying how light she was. How was it possible for a whole (small) human to weigh so little?
But when her little head wiggled its way into my neck, I couldn’t help but rest my head down on her head with its downy-soft hair.
There was a warm, swelling sensation in my chest. Something like that feeling of rightness I’d felt several times in this house now.
I was almost hesitant to let Adelaide go back to Willa, even though I knew I had no right to ask to hold her for any longer. I also had no business agreeing to having dinner with Willa, even if I hadn’t had time for dinner. I had a job to do. Sharing a meal with her would only delay that.
I couldn’t seem to bring myself to care, though.
I worked until I heard the bell, making me drop everything to rush downstairs.
“Let me get it,” I said as Willa slowly got off the couch with the baby in her arms.
“I can—” she started, but I was already at the door.
She’d already paid, but I tipped before closing and locking the door.
“You really shouldn’t be answering the door,” I said as she put down the baby and joined me in the kitchen.
“I usually don’t. But this place didn’t have an option for no-contact delivery. I try not to take any chances with Adelaide in the house now. My name is Will on all my delivery apps,” she admitted with a smile.
“Good. I’ve heard some horror stories about delivery drivers and single women.”
“So have I. But you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve been trained in mixed martial arts since I was a toddler.”
I paused in pulling cartons out of the brown bag. “Really? You don’t strike me as the mixed martial arts type.”
“More a yoga and Pilates vibe,” she agreed.
“My parents, aunts, and uncles all insisted on it. A lot of them have been in really scary situations back before they had skills, so it was important to them that all the girls in the family learned how to protect themselves. I’m decent. Gracie is a killer.”
“Little Gracie?” I asked, waving a hand down by my chest.
“I know, right? But she’s fierce. Not that she needs that now. She’s dating a biker that is roughly twice your size. He’s a brick wall.”
“A biker, huh? How’d she meet him?” She didn’t seem the type to frequent biker bars.
“He is a member of her father’s biker club.”
“That must have been awkward.”
“Her father isn’t an active member of the club anymore. And I think he knew how right they were for each other. Not on the surface, but underneath it. She’s so happy. I mean, she’s always a ray of sunshine, but he’s made her smile even wider.”
There was a trace of longing in Willa’s voice.
I knew I couldn’t ask, but I couldn’t help but want to know what had happened with Adelaide’s father. How could things have gone so sideways that he didn’t want to even be a small part of his daughter’s life? Who could just walk away from their child like that?
But that thought was quickly followed with: my own father.
I’d been three when my old man walked out on me and my siblings, making my mother move home with her parents for help raising us.
I guess the world was full of men who were capable of walking away. Even if I couldn’t wrap my own head around the idea.
Maybe that was why I’d noticed the absence of Adelaide’s father more than I should have.
I’d spent most of my life telling myself that I didn’t care about my old man walking out. What was the point in wasting energy on someone who’d made his choice?
But I’d also spent most of my life making sure I was the exact opposite kind of man.
If I said I would be somewhere, I showed up. If someone needed me, I answered. If something broke, I fixed it.
Easy as that.
Maybe that was why seeing Willa with Adelaide had hit me so strangely. Because there was no question in my mind that this little girl was worth showing up for. And somehow, without meaning to, I’d started wondering who else I wanted to show up for.
Willa shook off the mood that caused the look.
“Can I get you something to drink? Water, coffee, beer, soda, seltzer?” she asked, waving at her own drink.
“How do you drink those?” I asked, shaking my head. “They taste like someone whispered ‘lemon lime’ in the general vicinity of the can…”
That got a laugh out of her.
“They’re kind of like red wine, I guess. I had to train myself to like them. Which I did to get myself off a pretty bad soda addiction I developed in college.”
“I’ll take the actual soda,” I said, accepting the can she passed me. “How is it you have no food in there but a shit-ton of drinks?”
“Most of the drinks are from when my family came to stay right after the baby. I try mostly to drink water and tea these days. So they’re just sitting there waiting for guests.” She clicked her can to mine. “Let me grab plates.”
“I’m fine eating out of a carton if you are.”
She looked relieved at that as she fetched forks instead.
We both dug in, but she froze when Adelaide made a grumbling sound. But she quickly settled back down.
“Do you have a plan for after your maternity leave?” I asked.
“I plan to do two in-office days a week. That would let me meet with clients in a professional setting. And attend any work meetings. The rest I plan to do from home. My boss isn’t thrilled about it, but seeing as he works from home most days, he can’t really say much about it.
My mom has called dibs on one of those workdays.
My cousins and aunts want to rotate the other one. ”
“Are you nervous about that?”
“I mean, it’s hard to imagine leaving her for longer than twenty minutes.
But I know it would probably be good for both of us.
She would get the benefit of all the knowledge from the women of my family.
And I’m assuming it would be good for me, from a mental health standpoint, to be around some adults here and there.
I think most moms get that from their spouses, but there have been whole days where I don’t talk to other adults. ”
“Yeah, that’s probably not the healthiest.”
“I mean, for the most part, I don’t have the energy to socialize. Anytime I can, I’m trying to sleep. But Adelaide does seem to be giving me a whole three hours in a row now that we have that giant fan of yours. Which is nice.”
“Has it been harder than you expected?”
“Um, yes and no. I’m an almost compulsive researcher. So I read all the good stories about motherhood along with all the horror stories. So I think I was mentally prepared to fall somewhere in the middle. Middle because I was a little… spoiled before all this.”
“Spoiled how?”
“Well, I never really had any responsibilities outside of work. I was used to getting nine hours of sleep a night. Lazy weekend mornings. Being able to book hair, nail, or massage appointments anytime I wanted a little pampering.”
“I wouldn’t say you were spoiled. You were living the life you had at the time.”
“I guess. But I knew that the lack of sleep was going to hit me hard. And all the other little things: the house getting messy, having no predictability of a schedule, not being able to pick up and leave the house at the drop of a hat… all those things.”
“From an outsider, it looks like you’re doing well.”
“Thanks. I’m… getting the hang of it. Trying to really soak it up. I know this is just a short period of time. I don’t want to miss all the sweet moments just because I haven’t been able to hit a Pilates class.”
“Are you even supposed to work out yet?”
“I can now, yeah. But getting to the gym would be impossible.”
“I have a home gym in my basement. Makes life easier.”
“Don’t get me started on the basement,” Willa said, wincing.
The first time I came to the house and needed to access the basement, she’d stood at the top of the stairs and shouted directions toward the breaker box because she claimed, “The spiders own the lower level.”
To be fair, there were a lot more webs than you’d typically see. But that was likely because she was never down there to disturb them.
“I think I need to start taking Adelaide on some walks, though. It would be good for both of us.”
“Can she be out in the heat?”
“Not in the afternoon sun, no. Babies can’t regulate their body temperature. But in the mornings or evenings, sure.”
“If you ever want to walk when I’m here, you can borrow Tuna. He’s great on a walk. No pulling. And he has basically no prey drive, so he doesn’t try to take off after squirrels or anything like that.”
“I’m absolutely going to take you up on that. I’d love a walking buddy. Plus, I’m sure being here is cutting into the time you usually spend one-on-one with him. So I’d be happy to replace some of it.”
“Whatever you do, don’t let him in your backyard,” I warned. “Unless you want a wet dog in your house. He will not miss a chance to hop in a pool. Or lake. Stream. Large puddle…”
“Good to know. I mean, I don’t mind if he wants to get some energy out with a swim. You’re the one who would have to load him all wet into your car.”
“I know. You heard the magic word,” I said when Tuna came walking over, tail swishing. At Willa’s pinched brows, I said, “S-w-i-m.”
“Oh, right. Okay. I won’t tease you with that one. But between you and me,” she said, holding out a small piece of chicken to him, “maybe we can have a s-w-i-m tomorrow. If your dad is okay with that.”
I wasn’t prepared for the way my heart skipped at that word. At how right it felt.
One day, I reminded myself.
“Totally fine by me.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“What made you get into your line of work?”
“When my old man split on us, we moved in with my grandparents. And my grandfather was of that older generation, y’know?
Never throw anything out, always fix it.
Don’t hire someone if you can figure it out yourself.
He taught me to do everything from fixing a lawnmower to rebuilding a car engine before middle school.
Then we got into the more complicated stuff in high school: plumbing, electrical, HVAC.
I broke my arm right before graduation when I fell off the roof when we were redoing it. ”
“Was that what he did for work?”
“Yeah, he was in contracting. I worked my summers with him. Then I eventually took over when he retired.”
“Because it was what you knew, or because you genuinely liked it?”
“Both, I guess. I wasn’t meant for college. I did my fair share of partying in high school. And I wasn’t someone who was going to be happy in a suit and tie and office building all day. I like working with my hands. I lucked out that I’m good at it as well.”
“But you left being a contractor behind?”
“I wanted a little more freedom. That kind of work means you’re usually on-site day in and day out for months. It just wasn’t what I liked. I’d rather do a bunch of smaller jobs. Be able to move around more, schedule my days based on the season or my mood.”
“Do you miss working with a team?”
“Maybe sometimes. I like working on my own. I can go at whatever speed I want. No one slowing me down or trying to rush me. And I do bring some guys on here and there for bigger jobs.”
“Do you ever plan to expand or step away and let someone else do the hard work?”
“Worried you won’t have access to me for the next catastrophe?” I teased, making her smile. “Yeah, it’s something I think about. I’m going to want a family—one I can be home with for dinner and on weekends. I’d have to have someone else picking up the slack.”
“That makes… oh, I guess grown-up time is over,” she said when Adelaide let out a shrill cry. “Thanks for the save earlier. Really,” she said, then rushed off to scoop up the baby.
Alone, as she took the baby upstairs to feed and change, I put the food in the fridge, cleaned up, then went upstairs to get back to work.
All the while, I was glad that we’d wasted time eating dinner. Because it gave me another day coming back to Willa’s house to work on the bathroom.
I never imagined I’d be someone who would dream of a project stretching out longer than it needed to. Especially a job that cut into my free time.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d deliberately wanted a job to take longer.
Usually, it was the opposite. I wanted to finish a project, get paid, and move on to the next one. My business worked because I was efficient. The faster I worked, the more jobs I could take. The more jobs I could take, the more money I made.
There was no logical reason for me to want to slow down now, when I was busier than ever.
Except there was nothing particularly logical about the way I’d been feeling since I’d walked through Willa’s front door.
I liked being there.
I liked hearing her talk.
I liked watching her with Adelaide.
I liked Tuna getting spoiled by both of us.
And, apparently, I liked the idea of having a reason to come back tomorrow.
That last part probably should have concerned me more than it did.