She hitched Storm onto her other hip. “If you’re saying it because you want to make her happy, then it must be true.”
He paused in zipping the bag, tilted his head to accept the statement, but his feelings toward his mother had to be very complex.
“How is she?” Emma asked.
“Fine.”
Another habitual response, Emma suspected, and didn’t press.
“I bought a few things for dinner. They’re in the pram downstairs.”
He locked his office door, shouldered his bag, and came over to take Storm from her. “I have to walk through Ocean View on the way home, to see if they finished the flooring.”
“Can I come? I haven’t been inside since they put the windows and doors in. It’s just spaghetti and a salad tonight. No hurry to get home and start it.”
“Sure.” He reached for the door that led to the stairs.
“Wait.” Emma touched his hand, then yanked hers away, feeling self-conscious on several counts but she was committed now.
“What’s up?” He drew back half a step. The air between them grew thin and charged.
“I know your mind was somewhere else when Storm and I came in, but, um…” Boy did she feel stupid. “You should say ‘hi’ to her.”
He lifted his brows.
“With a smile,” she tacked on, inwardly quailing at the look he leveled at her. “I’ve noticed that sometimes when you guys hand her off, you do it like she’s a dirty plate or a spare tire.”
“She told you herself that she doesn’t like it?”
Emma rubbed at a speckle of paint on her wrist, earned while she had pitched in this morning freshening up the dining room walls.
“You teach her that she’s entitled to be treated like a human being by treating her like one. With anyone else you would look them in the eye and say hello, right? She’s a person, too.” It was time he saw that.
At least he’d lost his defensive aloofness, but she wasn’t sure his half-lidded stare of condescension was any better. He turned the baby in his arms, tone brimming with patronizing irony as he said, “Hello, Storm. How was your day with Logan?”
Her little head wobbled, but she looked straight at him and opened her mouth. A string of noises came out, pure nonsense, but her expression was so serious and the sounds so varied, it was as if she answered him in a foreign language.
His demeanor shifted slightly, relaxing with amusement. “So you’re the one drinking all the beer? It’s coming out of your allowance.”
She continued making noise, but muffled it with her fist and lost interest in him, studying the aerial photograph of Raven’s Cove on the wall behind him.
Reid reached for the door again, glancing a light challenge at Emma.
“You said you wanted to learn how to care for her,” she reminded him. “You talk and listen to your mom because you care for her.”
He paused in locking that pair of doors, then sent her a look of mild annoyance. “Sometimes you’re a pain in my butt. That’s me talking to you so you know I care.”
She smirked at his back as she followed him down the stairs.
“Did I hear you say you’re going to see your mom?”
“Yeah, I’ll see if I can get out for my next two days off, spend the night with her.” He locked the door to the stairwell as they left it.
“Can I give you a list of things to pick up while you’re gone?” Emma pushed the empty pram while Reid continued to carry Storm.
“She has not gone through all those diapers.”
“No, but she’ll need the next size up soon. She’s outgrowing most of her clothes, too. Also, we need more of the good formula and the baby body wash. I can buy nappies here, but they’re dear as.”