Page 14 of Finding Home

My heart is pounding. “No, they’re tattoos. Body art that never goes away.”

“Never?” Aubrey whispers. “Did you hear that, Pooh Bear?”

“Never?” Raine whispers, looking up at Aubrey with astonishment.

“Ask him.”

Raine shakes her head, so Aubrey presses forward.

“Only adults are allowed to get tattoos, right, Coobie?”

I look at Aubrey like,You’re not seriously going to adopt that nickname for me, are you?And Aubrey smirks her reply. Clearly, yes, she is.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I say to Raine. “Tattoos are only for adults, since they never go away.”

“Can you say tattoos, Pooh Bear?”

“Tatta.”

“That’s right,” Aubrey says, giggling. “How about body art?”

“Bobba art.”

Aubrey chuckles again, as I bite back a smile.

“Perfect,” Aubrey coos with a kiss to Raine’s head. “Good job.”

Feeling emboldened, I hold up my arms and interject, “Yup. No bubble bath in the world will take any of these bad boys off. That’s why I had to be sure I loved every single one.” It suddenly occurs to me I’ll need to find room on my body for Raine’s name somewhere, once I get back to LA and get with my usual guy. I’m pretty much out of real estate on my skin at this point, but I’m sure he’ll figure something out.

“Guess what?” Aubrey says, drawing me out of my thoughts. “Caleb doesn’t know how to color in a coloring book!”

“I know how!” Raine blurts, like it’s a crazy coincidence.

“Maybe you can be a good friend to Coobie and teach him how.”

Damn, she’s good. I was already hell-bent on hiringAubrey as Raine’s nanny, out of convenience and continuity. But now that I’ve seen Aubrey in action with my daughter, I bet I would have hired her, regardless, even if she were a total stranger applying for the job and using this interaction as her interview.

“I teach?” Raine asks Aubrey.

“I bet Caleb would really like that. Why don’t you ask him to find out.”

“I’d love to be your student, Raine,” I say eagerly. Too eagerly, probably, given the scowl on Aubrey’s face.

“Let her ask you,” Aubrey scolds quietly.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Go on, Pooh Bear. Ask him.”

Raine levels me with the two most beautiful eyes ever created in the history of eyeballs. “I teach?”

“Yes, please. I’d love that. Very much. Thank you.”

With a determined little nod, Raine slides off Aubrey’s lap and sprints out of the room, presumably to get the tools of her trade.

“She’s so predictable,” Aubrey says with a soft chuckle. “Teaching and coloring: the two best ways to her heart. Pancakes, too. That’s the trifecta.” She makes a face that plainly says,All of which you’d have known if you’d bothered to meet your child before today.

I exhale. “Can we please just turn the page and—" I stop talking and slap a smile on my face when Raine returns to the room, excitedly carrying a box of crayons and a coloring book.

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