Page 75 of Big Island Summer
“Definitely. Would you take him?”
“Of course.” Her hands brushed his as she reached for the baby, and she felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the summer sunshine.
“Thank you.” He stood looking at her for a moment, just inches away – and then he turned and splashed into the water.
“Look at that, Theo,” she said, holding him on one hip. “Daddy’s going for a swim.”
Theo reached his arm out, frowning.
“He’ll be back soon,” she assured him.
“Dadada,” he said, still reaching for Ethan. “Dadadada.”
She was silent for a moment, shocked. Then she turned her face away from Theo’s ear and shouted, “Ethan! He said Dada!”
“What?” He put a hand over his eyes, shielding them against the glare as he turned to look back at them.
“He said Dada!” she shouted again.
Ethan ran back so fast that he tripped over a rock and stumbled. He cursed and kept running.
“Dadada!” Theo reached for him with both arms.
“That’s me!” Ethan put his hands around Theo’s chest and held him up over his face.
“Say it again,” Fern encouraged him, standing at Ethan’s shoulder.
“Dadadada!” he babbled, smiling.
“He’s a genius,” Ethan declared. “Just like his big sister. Juniper talked early too. She was speaking in sentences by the time she was one.”
“You hear that, Theodore? You’re a baby genius.”
He handed Theo back to her like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Do you want to hike back? Or did you want to swim again first?”
“I’m good to head back,” she said.
“Okay.” Ethan sighed and took one last look around the beach. “We’ll have to bring more food next time – for Theoandfor us. Make a day of it.”
“Sounds good to me.”
He smiled and held her eyes again – for one heartbeat, two – and this time she was the one to look away first.
She turned towards the shade and said, “We should get Theo out of the sun.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. He started to walk, then ran until his feet found the cool sand at the upper edge of the beach.
Fern danced across the hot sand, her feet barely making contact with each leap, and Theodore giggled as he bounced in her arms.
As long as the hike back was, it felt like it took them no time at all to get back to the car. And by the time they got home – just a five-minute drive from the trailhead – Theo was sound asleep.
Fern eased him out of his car seat without waking him, and she walked upstairs with his warm, sweaty little body cradled in her arms. She stood for a moment in his room, rocking him, making sure that he was deeply asleep. When she heard Ethan walk through the front door, she reluctantly lowered Theo into his crib.
In that moment she felt a visceral understanding of all the baby-wearing, co-sleeping mamas. If Theo were hers, she would never want to put him down either.
He wasn’t hers, and it still hurt to be away from him.
