Page 299 of As The Shifter World Turns

He backed out of my embrace and reached for the car door. “Well? Are you coming? We have things to do. Doctor’s orders.” He opened his door at warp speed and climbed inside.

I ran around to the driver’s side. Who was I to argue with doctor’s orders?

137

A VERY LONG DAY

Daire

“What about this one?” Archer leaned over Micah’s shoulder and pointed to an image on the screen of a motel that was for sale.

“It’s too close to the highway,” I noted. “I prefer this one though it’s over our budget.”

We were looking at motels for our next project. Now we’d done a few and got the reality show format down to what we hoped was a fine art, we were confident we could follow much the same format until the viewing public got sick of reality shows—or at least renovation ones such as ours.

Archer’s phone pinged and he stared at it. “Poor Neil, he’s really having a hard time of it with all day sickness.” He shot me a glance even though I’d told everyone I was cool with my best buddy being pregnant. I refused to allow my and Nate’s situation to overshadow the joy that Neil and Martin were entitled to. That wasn’t fair to them.

Archer received another text. “Oh no. Neil’s message got cut off.” Turned out Martin had come down with a bad case of the flu and was in bed. “He’s asked me to take Toby to school for his play rehearsal.”

“I’ll do it if you can manage without me, Micah.”

He nodded and I headed next door. Neil met me at the door, dark shadows under his eyes and his cheekbones more prominent than before. A hacking cough coming from the bedroom told me that was Martin.

Neil sunk onto the sofa and hugged a cushion. “Thanks.” There was an empty barf bowl beside him along with water, crackers, and hard candy. He was sucking a candy right now.

Charlie scampered out wearing only a saggydiaper. A nasty whiff accompanied him. Neil groaned and heaved himself up but I told him to stay put. I’d changed plenty of the little guy’s diapers.

“But I’ll be late,” Toby complained as he stood by the door tapping his foot.

“I’ll be quick and a diaper change will be better than a car ride with poop, right?” Toby’s face matched my own. Yeah, ewww we’d have had to drive with the windows down.

But Charlie was in a playful mood and ran off when I tried to pick him up. He saw this as a game and squealed as I raced after him. The diaper was getting lower and lower and there’d be poop everywhere if I didn’t get him changed.

I pretended I’d lost interest and picked up one of the little guy’s books and flipped the pages while he hid under the bed. “Oh well, guess you’re too clever for me, Charlie.” I walked to the door and waited. Moments later the little guy charged out of his room and I scooped him up. It wasn't the easiest diaper change with him kicking his legs and singing loudly but I managed and got a shirt on him. I didn’t bother with his pants.

There was no way Neil should be looking after Charlie so I decided to take him with us. After washing my hands we were out the door but I had to make a stop at my apartment downstairs to grab the keys.

“Hurry, Daire,” Toby begged.

By the time I manhandled Charlie into his car seat, Toby was tapping out a message on his phone telling the teacher he was on his way. “It’s not Charlie’s fault,” he grumbled, “but he’s always making me late.”

“I suspect you did the same when you were his age,” I told him as we waited at the lights.

“But I didn’t have an older brother. And with the new baby, there’ll be two of them in diapers.”

Toby was a responsible kid and a loving big brother to Charlie. He’d help out when the new baby arrived, but he also needed time to himself. “Maybe you and I can go to the lake house for a time out when you need a break from babies and diapers.”

“Really? Thanks, Daire.”

Toby had to be picked up in two hours and after dropping him off, I headed to the grocery store as I wanted to fill Neil’s fridge, and Archer had messaged saying he would make Martin chicken soup. Nate and I always had a stroller in the car for Charlie and he was asleep by the time I reached the store.

Managing a stroller and a shopping cart was harder than I imagined and I gave up and got a basket instead. A basket that became almost too heavy to handle, so I put extra items in the basket under the stroller. Yikes, this was something I’d never considered when wanting to have a child. No wonder many parents preferred to go grocery shopping without their kids, if possible.

Charlie woke up and couldn’t be consoled, especially after he spied a toy he wanted. As I was searching for something yummy that might entice Neil to eat, Charlie reached out and pulled a handful of chocolate bars on the floor. That resulted in more screaming—from him, not me though I was tempted—and theshopping trip was cut short. I got the essentials but had more items on the list in my head.

We made it home but I had to make three trips, taking Charlie and a couple of bags up first. But Neil was asleep and I didn’t want to leave Charlie in his crib, so he came with me on each trip.

“I love you little boy but this would have been much faster without you.”

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