“Camille, I can’t just quit the navy. I’ve already been away from my team for two weeks. I have to go back. I’ll come to see Millie every chance I get. It’s less than two years until my enlistment is up.”
In reality, Mack couldn’t imagine leaving his team. It had been his entire life until he found out about the baby. But his training had taught him to deal with one problem at a time. He’d worry about the rest in two years. Right now, he just needed a place to hide Millie.
He breathed deeply, and finally played his last card. “If you take her in, I’ll start sending you half of my paycheck every month.”
Mack knew Camille needed the money. Her parents, whom he had never met, had been sending her a monthly stipend since Mack was born. He liked to think it was out of the goodness of their hearts, but he later found out it was hush money. They had been paying her to hide Mack in the Outer Banks—far from the prying eyes and ears of their hometown in Raleigh. He heard from Camille’s friend that they had stopped paying when Mack turned eighteen.
Millie started to stir. Her curly red hair was damp from being zipped up in the baby carrier. She rubbed her head back and forth against Mack’s broad chest and then looked up at him—her sparkling green eyes starting to fill with tears. Camille watched as Mack grabbed a bottle out of the backpack and took the cap off with his teeth. He held the bottle to her lips. She shook her head in refusal, and cried harder.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Mack, heat the bottle up first. Give it to me,” Camille said as she grabbed the bottle and stuck it in the microwave. “And, it smells like she needs a change. Do you have any diapers, and do you know how to change one?”
Mack didn’t bother telling her that he had flown almost five thousand miles with Millie in the last week. He needed Camille to feel like she was in charge again. Camille took Millie from Mack’s arms and put her on the day-bed off the kitchen to change her. Mack brought a diaper and baby wipes in to her just in time to see Millie cooing up at Camille, bubbles coming out of her mouth. Although Camille wasn’t smiling, he could tell that she had changed her mind. He wanted to think it was because Millie was winning her over, but he knew it was more about the money.
“What’s her full name?” Camille said as she picked Millie up and took her back into the kitchen to feed her.
“Her full name is Millicent Mackenzie Marsh.” Mack had gotten her a birth certificate when they got back in the country. He had no idea what her mother had named her, if anything.
“I like the name Millicent better than Millie. It sounds more dignified. That’s what I’m going to call her,” Camille said. “And, I’ll take her for two years until you get out of the navy, and then I’m done.”
“I know Millie is not your responsibility, and I really do appreciate you looking after her for me,” Mack said.
Camille was happy that the balance of power had shifted back her way. “Your crib is still up in the attic if you want to set it up for her before you leave.”
Mack spent the rest of the day setting up his old room for Millie, and stocking the house with baby supplies. He got her to sleep in her new crib, and went downstairs to find Camille cooking dinner. Amazingly, it seemed that she was making enough for two.
“I’m leaving you $500 to start with. I’ll send you more next week.” Mack put five crisp one hundred dollar bills on the kitchen table. He saw Camille eyeing them hungrily.
“I’m making dinner if you want some,” she offered in a less snarky tone than usual.
“That would be nice. Thank you.” For all her faults, Camille was a great cook, and the smell of fried chicken had Mack’s stomach doing flip-flops.
Camille placed a large plate of chicken, and a bowl of mashed potatoes right in front of him. “Two years, Mack. And, you need to come down here and give me breaks whenever you can.”
He nodded affirmatively, his mouth already full of food. He wasn’t at all ready for the responsibility of having a baby, but he knew already that he’d spend every second of his downtime here. He had fallen in love with Millie the minute he had seen her lying in the middle of that tiny apartment.