Page 25 of Sweet Thing

It sure as hell wasn’t calmingme. Mabel’s impression of a banshee continued to assault my eardrums.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.”No it’s not …

“We’re going to be alright.”Liar, liar.

“I’ve got you …”But who’s got me?

I considered my options while the baby’s wail dialed up several octaves. Call Elle and Theo was top of the list. I knew they’d be over here in 0.4 seconds if I put out the Rebel signal, but they’d already helped so much. They had their own family to take care of and didn’t need to add me to their very full plate.

There were probably other teammates who could offer an assist, or their wives, which was likely sexist of me. But in this game, the wives took on most of the child-rearing duties. What did I expect? The WAGs to set up some sort of rotation-for-sad-sacks to make sure this poor kid and her doofus hockey player dad survived the night? Not exactly realistic. Nor did I have that kind of relationship with any of them.

The only person I could imagine giving me the help I needed was Adeline. She had set up the baby’s crib and showed me around the supplies—not that a single word went in beyond “formula”—and had given me a look of such pity when she left. She didn’t fake it and tell me I’d get through this … because she knew I was up shit creek without a nanny.

As I did laps of my house with a distressed baby, I took in how much my environment had already changed. I was used to neatness, order, everything in its place. Organizing my existence with a military precision had helped me manage the chaos of my upbringing, and those tenets had stayed with me. Tidy life, tidy mind.

Now everything around me was fraying at the edges. Bits and bobs and baby stuff strewn haphazardly. Onesies and bibs in piles on the sofa, the foyer stuffed with a stroller, bassinet, and equipment my brain had yet to label. The kitchen, previously neat as a pin and my haven in times of stress, was now a bombsite filled with baby rubble.

“Shush, sweetheart. Let’s stop with all this fuss.”

The wails continued, and I was thankful my neighbors lived several hundred feet away, so they weren’t likely to contact social services to report my terrible parenting.

At least, that’s what I thought until I heard the doorbell ring. Someone must have called about the noise, and to be honest, I was at the point where I needed to surrender to the authorities and accept that I was not cut out for this line of work.

“Let’s see who that is. Maybe it’s the police to arrest you for disturbing the peace.”

I opened the door to find a vision on my threshold: Adeline.

“Hey!”

“Hi, how are things?”

“Absolutely fantastic.” Mabel’s shrieks branded me a liar, but I was foolishly electing to brazen it out. “Did you forget something?”

“Uh, no, it’s just—is she okay?”

“No idea. I’ve fed her and walked around with her and tried talking like some supposed guru on YouTube suggested. I thought she’d have cried herself out by now.”

“Babies can pretty much cry forever if they have a mind to do so.” She held out her hands. “Could I?”

Please.“Sure.” I had no idea why she’d returned except that she probably heard Mabel from miles away.

Adeline took the baby into her arms with a deftness I envied. “I think I know what’s up. This little mite needs to be changed.”

“Into a baby that doesn’t scream?”

“Into a new diaper.”

Jesus, I was a complete idiot. I’d fed her and that food had to go somewhere. How did babies survive at all? Now that I thought of it, she did stink a bit, but I’d assumed that was just how my house was supposed to smell from this day forward.

“You told me that before. About the diapers and I watched Elle do it—it kind of went out of my head.”

Adeline smiled, and I suddenly felt hope bloom in my chest. Not that I expected her to stick around but when this woman was here, things were simply better. Seeing her hold Mabel with such care and consideration left a lump in my throat … well, I was probably just feeling overwhelmed with the emotion of it all.

“Let’s get her taken care of and hopefully, she’ll be less cranky.”

I nodded in awe, silently thanking the universe for sending thisenkeliniback to me.My angel. I watched closely as Adeline lay out the mat (canvas, really, that could be seriously Jackson Pollocked if we weren’t careful). But shewascareful, absolutely assured in her movements. She unwrapped the baby from the diaper—and yeah, sorry, kid, for leaving you like that—and moved through the steps quickly and efficiently. Dirty diaper popped in the pail, baby cleaned up and repackaged like a little gift, then back in a clean onesie which I passed off like the nurse assisting a surgeon. As soon as she was clean and dry, a beatific peace came over her.

That’s all she wanted: food, comfort, and a dry booty.

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