Page 103 of Baby, Be Mine

I scooped her up and put her against my chest. Immediately, some of the panic inside me started to calm.

He handed me a thin blanket. “If you can get her to eat, that would be great too.”

I nodded and sat in the corner. Or whatever the corner equivalent was of a curtain. Her little face was all screwed up as she bowed up.

“We can do this, bean,” I whispered. “Just have a little snack, okay?”

The dress had a deep enough vee that I could shove material aside and finally, she naturally turned into me. It took a minute for her to settle enough to latch on, but then she was sniveling for a second before easing into a feeding.

“There we go.” I stroked her cheek as she got greedy as usual.

The doctor smiled as he crouched in front of me. Now that Adriana wasn’t trying to shout loud enough to be heard from space, he was able to do his job.

An hour later, we were sent on our way with colic drops and orders to take bean to her regular pediatrician to get a thorough look-over.

Lucky for me, he didn’t find anything else wrong with her. Even luckier, at the three-week mark, a baby could start to get colic. She might grow out of it in a few months, but if not, I might be in for a lot of sleepless nights.

Which meant I needed to choose her over my job right now.

Maybe for a good long time.

“I’m sorry we scared you,” Kitty said quietly as we were walking back to the parking lot.

“You did everything right. I’m just sorry your first outing as babysitters probably scared you two right back.”

Adriana was buckled into her carrier. My first instinct had been to bundle her up in her wrap against me, but I knew she needed her rest.

She’d cried herself into exhaustion, and we’d take the win to get her back to my apartment.

“Not going to lie, that was intense.” Clint sighed. “But I’m glad it wasn’t worse. I just wish you’d told me she’s been fussing at night.”

“What could you do?”

“I don’t know. Stay with you?”

“You have your own life and a crazy schedule. It was bad enough that I asked you to watch her tonight.”

“You’re allowed to go out too, you know.” Clint stopped beside my station wagon.

“Maybe after a few months. I really thought I could do this, but it wasn’t fair to bean or to you.”

“It was one night.”

I opened the back door and clicked her carrier into the carseat. Bean gave a little hiccup before she settled back into slumber. I cupped her head where her dark hair swirled at her crown. Her downy soft hair was a reassuring comfort.

Quietly, I closed the door. “Yes, but that job isn’t going to get any less intense. Mason has a whole slate of parties for this summer. It’s not fair to him either.”

“You were doing it though.”

“Was I?” I peered down at her in the backseat. “I could have gotten her sick by having her around a ton of people. No, this was a wakeup call.”

“We can help—”

“I appreciate it. I really do. But I think I’m going to take Mom up on her offer. She wants me to come home.”

“Clintondale?”

I nodded. “At least for a little while. Until she’s older and I can do daycare easier.”

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