He felt the powerful bond of their eternal connection. Was this what his mom felt when she first held him?
It took a few minutes to deconstruct the blanket wrapping. The dad from the YouTube video called it swaddling.
She was wearing a girly baby dress with footed leggings. He fumbled a lot and was crazy nervous, but he managed to get them off. Beneath the dress and leggings was a bodysuit called a onesie.
Finally arriving at the diaper, he crossed his fingers again. There were different procedures for poop and pee—one was simple, and the other was not.
The heavens smiled on him, and all he had to do was a basic cleanup and dry diaper. He found a cute one-piece pink outfit covered in white snowflakes and put it on her over the onesie garment. It was January, there was a winter chill in the air, and she was but a tiny baby human. Keeping her warm overshadowed fashion. Those were the exact words he planned to use if Summer questioned his choice of baby outfits.
Another video tutorial was necessary to do the swaddle correctly. Ari thought his fumbling struggles were funny. He had to give it three attempts with the final wrap being the best.
He waved to the imaginary throngs cheering his accomplishment and cradled her in his arms the way Summer showed him.
“Kiddo, you’re S-O-L, shit out of luck, if you’re hungry. Daddy doesn’t have the right equipment, and I wouldn’t know what to do with the bags of breast milk in the fridge. Looks like we better go find Mommy.”
34
Summer’s anxiety shot through the roof as she, Bud, and Lynda walked through their house, and she explained the unexplainable.
Mariah made a brief appearance and then sauntered away.
Two business cards sat on the kitchen counter—one from the guys who cleaned up and the other from the team responsible for fixing the broken window and doors.
When they stepped outside to view what Todd and his mother did to the landscaping, they ran into Stan and Ned.
“We can get someone out here within the hour to fix this and even put up a permanent barrier if you want,” Stan told Bud in a reasonable, calm voice.
While the men discussed what needed to be done, she and Lynda stared mutely at the damage wrought to the established hedge.
Even though the couple’s anger was directed at Todd and his mother for what they did, it still felt like an indictment to Summer. None of this would have darkened their doorstep if not for her.
She squirmed a little. Ned took responsibility for bringing Giselle into the picture. Arnie blamed himself for exposing her to his stepmother. She blamed Arnie for everything except the weather and fully expected Bud and Lynda to blame her for last night’s police activity.
Lynda’s heavy sighs and wringing hands came close to undoing Summer’s fraying confidence and shaky emotions.
Gesturing at the mangled landscaping, Lynda grumbled and groused up a storm. “Was it necessary to yank out half the greenery? Couldn’t they have squeezed through a smaller opening?”
Her throat closed. She tried nose breathing, but gathering tears made keeping her shit together impossible.
“Oh god, Lynda, I’m so sorry.” She sobbed the words with real anguish.
In the next instant, Lynda had her in a warm hug. “You have nothing to be sorry about. Here, come on. Let’s sit. I have questions.”
She led Summer to the wicker loveseat on the little private patio. Nobody could see or hear them without their presence being known.
“So. Your man is back? And he’s who?”
The direct question gave her an opportunity to concentrate and push past her emotions.
“Stan’s brother. He’s Stan’s older brother.”
Lynda frowned. “Oh, dear. I know you said this man was older than you, but sweetie—Stan’s brother is a beer-bellied boomer with bushy eyebrows and a lousy social game.” Her friend made a face. “Yikes.”
“Wait, what? No, Lynda. I mean, yeah.” She shook her head at the nonsense word salad. “Arnie is Stan’s older brother, yes. But only by a year. The man you met was Arnie in disguise.”
“Uh, okay but why a disguise? Why the playacting?”
“Long story short. I’m working on a headache.”
Lynda nodded. She patted Summer’s knee, and said, “Keep it simple.”
“He didn’t know about the baby and thought I’d run away for unknown reasons. The fatherhood revelation took him by surprise. The information came from his evil, cartoon character stepmother’s lawyer. He defected when the woman hatched a scheme to kidnap Arianne and hand her to traffickers in a harebrained