Page 12 of The Baby Plan

“You don’t have a plan at all, do you?”

“I’ve only been her guardian for a couple of weeks — I think I’m doing pretty well actually!”

“Well she can’t go into full-time daycare, she’s tiny and has just lost her mother,” stated Samson, adamantly.

Sophie’s hackles rose. She agreed completely, it was too soon after Natasha’s death for Alana to be away from her for long hours — as young as she was she’d be distressed by the change, the upset — but she resented Samson saying it. It was she who’d been looking after Alana, her life which had been turned upside down.

“I know, that’s why I’m having the meeting today so I can work out how to arrange things,” Sophie said, struggling to keep her temper in check, desperately not wanting another acrimonious parting between them.

“Who’s going to have Alana for you while you’re in your meeting?” Samson asked, pleasantly enough, but Sophie took his questioning as checking up on how she was managing things with Alana.

“She’s coming with me,” Sophie answered shortly.

“That’s not very professional,” Samson pointed out. Annoyingly, he was right, and she’d been worrying about it. Her office wasn’t exactly baby-friendly and she wanted to appear as competent as ever, simply needing to adjust her working hours and be home-based as much as possible. What would she do if Alana had a meltdown because she wasn’t allowed to grab at some computer wires or something?

“Well, there’s not a lot I can do. I don’t have anyone to babysit,” she retorted, but regretted it instantly.

“I’ll do it,” Samson said, with an easy shrug.

“Oh... um... thank you,” Sophie managed to stutter, frantically searching her mind for a good excuse to get out of leaving Alana in a campervan with a huge dog and a lay-about beach bum. “But, well, Alana doesn’t know you and...”

Her argument might have been somewhat more convincing if Alana didn’t seem so completely content being held by her father. She blushed and tried a different tack, “And there’s your dog...”

Alana had to choose this moment to grab hold of Mutt’s ear. Sophie jumped up to save her niece from being savaged. Mutt was completely unperturbed by the baby’s attention and gave her a friendly lick in return before calmly slipping under the van to lie in the shade.

“Mutt will be fine, but I promise I won’t leave them alone together,” Samson conceded. Sensing Sophie still wasn’t convinced, he said, “I am her father.”

There was nothing Sophie could say to counter that. She knew it would be helpful not to have Alana in the office, and Samson was good with her and certainly seemed far more competent than she’d previously thought. It wasn’t like she could stop Alana’s father from having her for a few hours.

“All right then, thank you,” she said as graciously as she could manage. “I should be back by three at the latest.”

“That’s fine, take your time — there’s no hurry. We’ll be fine,” Samson said, bouncing a giggling and delighted Alana on his knee.

“Her next bottle is due at eleven, and then she’ll need a nap. She’ll sleep in her buggy, which is in my car, as long as you push her around a bit to get her off,” Sophie fussed. “And you mustn’t let her take off her hat in the sun, in fact, keep her out of the sun, especially in the middle of the day. Her sunblock needs to be applied every hour.”

“Why does she need sunblock?” interrupted Samson, trying to hide his grin. “She’s not supposed to go in the sun.”

Sophie glared at him.

“Fine,” he agreed, “I’ll remember the sunblock.”

“There’s a jar of food in her bag for her lunch, but make her take it slowly or she’ll be sick...”

“We’ll be fine,” Samson said reassuringly. “I have your mobile number. If there’s any problem, I’ll call straight away.”

Sophie had to concede it made much more sense for Alana to stay with Samson rather than be strapped in her seat to and from London and somehow entertained during her meeting.

They walked back to Sophie’s car, Sophie carrying Alana, so Samson could retrieve the buggy and Alana’s bag full of supplies from the boot. She gave Alana a kiss and cuddle goodbye and was only a little put out that her niece was clearly more interested in Mutt than she was in her aunt. She didn’t want the baby to be upset of course, but a little recognition that she was being left with someone who was almost a stranger would have been nice.

Once Sophie began driving, and Samson and Alana were well out of sight, she resolved to concentrate on work. She would spend the journey going over in her mind what she wanted to say and what she felt the different options were, and hope that her boss decided she was worth making exceptions for.

* * *

Sophie returned to the beach five hours later. It hadn’t taken long for her boss to tell her, in roundabout terms, that if she wanted to stay with the company, she’d have to continue her full-time hours working from their offices.

As Sophie drove back, she contemplated going to HR, making a fuss, fighting her case and quickly ruled it out — she couldn’t give it the headspace right now. She thought she’d be more upset than she was at the realisation she couldn’t continue working for them. Her job had been everything to her; she loved being an accountant. The meticulous nature of her profession suited her, and she’d spent several years painstakingly working her way up through the ranks. Sometimes she’d worked twelve- or fourteen-hour days, had conference calls with international clients at all manner of strange times. She simply wasn’t prepared to do that to Alana, not after she’d only just lost her mother. Sophie’s priorities had changed dramatically in the last couple of weeks.

But she wasn’t under any illusions that the path ahead would be trouble-free. The most immediate problem was how could she afford to live without her job? She could work freelance part-time from home, but it would take a while to set up. She wouldn’t be able to afford her mortgage for long without any income coming in.

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