Blackout After Dark (Gansett Island #21) - Marie Force Page 0,88
this little princess is our Hailey.”
“So nice to meet you all,” Dara said.
“What’s for lunch, Grammy?” Thomas asked as he ran off to play with his trucks without waiting for an answer.
“Francine, you’re off duty. Dara and I are on the job.”
“Praise the Lord. These little people have run me ragged this morning.”
“What’re we gonna do when there’re two more of them?” Linda asked, kissing Hailey’s neck until she giggled.
“We’re going to need to hire some additional grandmothers,” Francine said in her typical blunt style. She went upstairs to check on Maddie and came back downstairs to report that she was asleep. After kissing her grandchildren, Francine told Linda she’d check in with her tomorrow to see what was needed and then headed out the slider to the deck.
Linda put Hailey down and got busy making lunch for the kids, which she served on paper plates at the kitchen table just as Mac began crying for his bottle.
“I can do it,” Dara said after Linda had changed his diaper.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Dara took the baby and settled into a chair.
He looked up at her with inquisitive blue eyes. From the photos she’d seen at Linda and Mac’s, he looked just like his father.
Linda brought her the bottle. “If it’s too much for you, please just say so.”
“I’m okay, but thank you.”
“No, thank you. This granny only has two hands.”
“I’m happy to help.” A million memories overwhelmed her as she fed the baby. How many times had she done this with her own son? He’d stubbornly refused to breastfeed, having had a mind of his own from the very beginning.
While Linda colored with the other kids at the table, Dara tended to the baby, entertaining him until he began to rub his eyes and whimper, signs she recognized as a baby who needed a nap.
“I’ll take him up,” Linda said, “and check on Maddie. Will you keep an eye on the monkeys?”
“Sure thing.” Dara sat with Thomas and Hailey at the table and got to work on the picture Linda had been working on.
“What’s your favorite color?” Thomas asked.
“Orange. How about you?”
“I like orange, too. Hailey likes black. She colors everything black. Who does that?”
Sure enough, Hailey was going to town on a picture of a flower with a black crayon. Her concentration level was admirable.
“Everyone likes different things,” Dara told him. His inquisitiveness reminded her of Lewis, whom they had called the question factory. The memory made her smile rather than cry, which was a welcome relief, since she couldn’t allow herself to break down in front of these precious children. “Are you excited about your baby sisters?”
“Ugh, no,” Thomas said, wrinkling his cute little sunburned nose. “One sister is more than enough.”
Hailey stuck out her tongue at him.
“See what I mean?”
“I see, but at least you’ll have Mac.”
“He’s just a baby. He can’t do nothing.”
“That’s temporary. You’ll be chasing him around in no time.”
“But there will still be three of them and two of us. Mommy says no more babies.”
Dara had to force herself not to crack up laughing.
“Daddy says it’s my job as the big brother to take care of them all.”
“He’s right about that.”
“Do you have babies?”
Dara held back a gasp at the shot to the heart. “No, I don’t.” There was no way she could explain Lewis or what’d happened to him to this child, so she didn’t try.
“You’d be a nice mommy.”
“You think so?”
He smiled and nodded.
“That’s nice of you to say.”
“When can we watch TV again?” Thomas asked, bored with the coloring.
“As soon as the electricity comes back on.”
“It’s lame without TV.”
“Sure is.”
Linda came back downstairs. “Thomas, are you talking Dara’s ear off?”
“How can I talk her ear off? Ears don’t come off.”
“He’s in a literal stage,” Linda said to Dara. “It’s an expression, sweetheart. A figure of speech.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means it’s something people say, but it can’t really happen,” Dara said. “When your Grammy asks if you’re talking my ears off, she means are you talking a lot.”
“He talks a lot,” Hailey said.
“Be quiet,” Thomas said.
“You be quiet.”
“None of that,” Linda said, “or we’ll all have quiet time in our rooms.”
Thomas shot Hailey a foul look, full of sibling disgust.
“Business as usual around here,” Linda said. “Feel free to take my car if you want to escape. I wouldn’t blame you.”
“Nah, I’m fine. It’s good to have something fun to do. Maybe you guys can come over to play at my lighthouse sometime.”
“You have your own lighthouse?” Thomas asked, eyes gone