Chapter 4 #2
“Sure,” I said. “When’s he coming?”
“Now, I think.” She squeezed my bicep. “Thank you.”
I jerked my chin at her as she walked across the room to the locker room and disappeared inside.
Eddie watched her go and said, “Give my niece my love.”
“Sure,” I said to her back as she left.
It wouldn’t be a hardship.
Boone and Nettie had created one of the cutest kids in the world.
I did, however, have a soft spot for another little girl.
That little girl popped her head up the moment that I walked into the room.
She was at a table drawing, as she usually was.
There was no loud music or harsh lighting in the room that the team had created to be the nursery.
It’d taken me zero time after meeting Iris to realize that she was special.
I’d known she was special thanks to my own baby brother.
Lysander had been born different.
At first, we’d thought that it was due to his deafness—a condition that he’d inherited from my father.
But after he’d gotten older, it’d come to everyone’s attention that it wasn’t only his deafness that made him special.
After several doctors’ appointments after Lysander had one too many freakouts, it was discovered that he was autistic.
He couldn’t handle crowds or bright lights. He had a hard time relating to people. He was insanely smart and overcame every single thing that was thrown at him from his deafness to his inability to assimilate into society.
Needless to say, Lysander had made it possible for me to spot special people like him.
Iris was one of those special people.
Since there were only three other children that were needing daycare, it wasn’t too much of a hardship to keep things quiet in her space.
Though Iris could talk, she preferred not to.
Most of her communication came by way of sign, and since I knew sign language better than English at times, it was a no-brainer to talk to her when I saw her.
Over the last eight months, we’d become friends.
Magnolia had been cautious over our friendship at first, but once she saw that I could handle Iris’s idiosyncrasies, she’d allowed me to spend time with her child.
Now, Iris was my little shadow a lot of the time.
When she saw me, she hurried toward me.
She didn’t touch me, but she came to stand by my side as she continued to read her book.
She was three, nearly four, going on forty.
Hell, right then she had a chapter book in her hand about the whales that called planet Earth home.
I knew that she was comprehending what she was reading, too.
The teacher, who was more than used to me borrowing Iris throughout the day, smiled at me.
“I’m here to take Margie out to Boone,” I said. “Iris, do you want to come with me?”
Iris answered by way of going to stand by the door.
I caught her jacket off the hook and helped her slip it on.
She zipped it up herself, then started reading her book again.
“That one,” Bobbie Price, the daycare teacher who had been hired to teach the kids while their mothers were working, clucked. “Gonna read herself to death one day.”
As if that was even a thing.
But I chose not to say anything and said, “Where’s Margie?”
Bobbie pointed toward the corner of the room.
I frowned. “She’s sleeping?”
Wasn’t nap time over two hours ago?
“Never woke up from her nap,” she said. “Never wake a sleeping baby.”
I ignored that and walked to where Margie was asleep and found her wide awake just lying in bed.
She smiled when she saw me.
“Hey, Peanut.” I tickled her belly.
“Oh, she’s awake?” Bobbie asked.
I chose not to say anything and picked Margie up.
She cooed as I curled her into my body.
My hand went to her bottom, and I found that her diaper was full. “You mind changing her before I take her?”
“Boone can’t do that?”
I leveled her with a look. “I hope that you don’t regularly give these kids back to their parents dirty.”
Bobbie blinked. “Of course not.”
She took her from my arms and went to the changing table to get her changed.
When she was given back to me, Margie gurgled again in happiness.
She hadn’t gurgled for the teacher, I’d noticed.
“Do you think it’s okay to go home, boss?”
“No,” I said. “I’m not sure if I can keep Iris all day, nor do I know if she’ll want to stay with me for the rest of the day. And you’ll need to be here, like always, until the players all go home.”
Like you know is in your contract.
“Got it.” She smiled.
Though it looked forced.
I tucked a blanket from Margie’s cubby around her, then called to Iris. “You ready, Worm?”
It was short for bookworm.
I’d started calling Iris Bookworm at first, but it’d slowly morphed into Worm.
Magnolia thought it was hilarious and had even taken up to calling her that.
I liked that I made both mom and daughter smile with the nickname.
Sometimes seeing them both smile made me feel on top of the world.
The walk across the stadium was a long one, but Iris didn’t complain.
I’d hold her if she let me, but usually that didn’t happen.
So I kept my walk slow and measured so that she could keep up.
I made it to the back of the stadium just as my phone started to ring.
I didn’t bother pulling my phone out of my pocket seeing as when I opened the door, Boone was there with his phone pressed to his ear.
“Patience, Grasshopper.”
Boone flipped me off.
Iris shook her finger at him like an affronted elderly lady.
“Whoops.” He laughed. “How’s our girls?”
Iris answered him in sign.
“What’d she say?” he asked. “I caught ‘tired’ and ‘sleep.’”
“She said that Margie had a long nap today,” I translated.
He held out his hands. “Are you going to give her to me?”
“I’m thinking about it.” I buried my nose into Margie’s chubby neck and snorted.
She squealed in delight, slapping her wet-with-slobber hands onto my cheeks to stop the tickle.
I grinned and pulled away. “Bye bye, Margie.”
“Buh.”
“Jesus Christ, man,” Boone grumbled. “Can I have her?”
I reluctantly gave her over to him, missing her warm baby heat almost the moment she left my arms.
“If you like kids so much, you should get one of your own.”
I fucking wished.
Iris’ hands moved, and I looked down just in time to see what she had to say.
“She says that she’ll miss Margie, and that she’ll see her Wednesday.”
Boone got down on his haunches so that Margie and Iris were eye level.
Though Iris didn’t make a move closer, she did sign some more.
“What was that?” he asked. “I saw ‘dog’ and ‘love.’”
“She said that she loves her and that she hopes you save all the dogs tomorrow.”
Boone’s grin made his eyes crinkled. “Yes, ma’am, Worm.”
Boone left, and I said to Iris, “Want to go to my office and get some ice cream?”
She answered by going to the door and waiting for me to put the pass code in to get back inside.
I led her to my office.
We were eating ice cream—our fourth tiny cone—when her mother found us.