Page 67 of How to Rescue Your Surprise Baby

Telos flipped him off. “You didn’t have to take a video of us!”

“Actually, he does,” Hadley admitted. “Alotis riding on this.”

“Like what?” Telos demanded.

“None of your business,” Ace said brightly, flapping his hands. “Go on, go back to what you were doing.”

“No,” Telos growled. “Actually, I’m going to wash off all this blood that I got onto Estie.”

He stalked into his ensuite bathroom, turning on the shower. Hilly-Billy followed him. “Need some help with Estie, Brother Master? I can get you her bathtub.”

“Fine,” Telos grumbled.

Mav stepped in after Hilly-Billy had dropped off the tub and baby soap. “I can help.”

Telos sat Estie in the tub and turned on the shower, except Estie began making unhappy sounds, scrunching up her face and trying to turn away from the spray. “I don’t think she likes the shower.”

“It’s getting on her face. Of course she doesn’t like it.” Mav came closer, plucking the showerhead off the wall. Then he held it over one corner of Estie’s tub to fill it with water. “Look, Estie. The shower isn’t scary.” Mav turned down the shower volume, giving Estie’s hands and feet a light spray of water. Estie’s frown smoothed, and she reached over to close her fingers around the water. “Can’t catch water unless it’s ice, kiddo.”

Mav sprayed some water on her stomach. Then he blew a loud raspberry, and Estie giggled.

Telos melted. “You’re good at that.”

“Yeah?” Mav straightened his shoulders. His clothes had darkened from the shower spray, but he didn’t seem to care. “Have you bathed a baby before?”

“No,” Telos admitted.

Mav’s eyebrows crawled up. “Don’t you have a million brothers?”

Telos shrugged in embarrassment. “I have a lot of older brothers. They helped care for the younger ones, and I usually ran off to climb trees.”

Mav studied him for a moment, then got Telos to lift Estie out of the tub so he could dump out the dirty water. He filled the tub again, added a squirt of baby soap, and swirled it around.

Estie happily smacked the bubbles floating on the water’s surface. She splashed water onto both Telos and Mav, and Mav grinned.

Telos didn’t think he’d ever tire of Mav’s smile.

Mav dampened a soft washcloth with the shower spray, before handing it over. “Wipe her face gently.”

Telos took the washcloth. Then he stared at Estie and froze. How difficult was it to wipe a baby’s face? But still he couldn’t move.

Mav wrapped his hand around Telos’, sweeping the washcloth from the center of Estie’s face outward. In fact, he held Telos’ hand through wiping Estie’s face, then her ears. He took the washcloth from Telos and rinsed it, then arranged Telos’ hands around Estie so he could wipe down the rest of her.

Estie reached up to grab Mav’s face, a constant stream of babbling falling from her mouth.

“You’re talking a lot, sweetheart,” Telos said fondly. He carefully cleaned Estie, holding his breath because he was afraid of getting it wrong.

Especially with Mav watching.

Mav didn’t criticize him for anything. He waited patiently while Telos washed between Estie’s toes, then rinsed Estie off with a gentle spray when Telos lifted her out of the water. Together, they wrapped her in a large fluffy towel, patting her dry.

“You’re still covered in blood,” Mav pointed out.

“I’ll wash up after she’s done,” Telos said, his heart thumping when Mav helped him with Estie’s diapers and an elephant onesie.

Mav scooped her out of Telos’ arms and left the room.

Except he came back empty-handed.

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