The Introvert's Guide to Online Dating - Emma Hart Page 0,46

and have fun!”

“But I—”

“You’ve said goodbye six times, Ivy!” Kai laughed and I caught a glimpse of him shoving her out of the front door. “Just call the pizza place when you’re ready. It’s paid for!”

“You’re my favorite person!”

“I left my phone!” Ivy shouted. “Hang on!” She came running back into the house and into the living room. Tegan was lying on her mat happily batting at the butterflies hanging above her, and Ivy dropped to her knees. “Bye, baby. I’ll miss you.” She kissed each of her baby’s cheeks about sixty times.

“Ivy!” Kai growled, marching back in.

“I’m starting to think you don’t trust me with your baby.” I raised my eyebrows.

“Oh, my God!” Ivy clapped her hands against her cheeks. “No! I trust you more than anyone.”

“Thank you,” Kai added.

“You know what I mean.”

“Then go!” I helped Kai haul her up to the sound of Tegan’s giggles, and together, we managed to manhandle her to the front door where he dragged her out and I promptly locked it from the inside so she couldn’t get in.

Then I leaned to the side and stuck my tongue out at her through the little window.

She flipped me the bird, and Kai bundled her into his truck where all their things for their romantic night away was waiting.

I happened to know that Ivy’s suitcase contained a very nice set of lingerie, but I had the sneaking suspicion that they’d be having room service in bed and would be crashed by nine-thirty.

“It’s just you and me, Teegs!” I sat down next to her on the floor.

She looked over at me with big blue eyes and her little bow lips parted in a very interested way, and she kicked her legs and burst into peals of tiny baby giggles that quite literally pinged my ovaries into next week and back again.

“Are you laughing at Auntie Tori? Am I funny?” I tickled my fingers on her belly, and she giggled even more. “Do you like that?”

More and more giggles.

Ugh. This baby. She had my heart.

She was just the sweetest.

But I’d also only had a matter of minutes with her, so there was that.

Right on cue, she spit up a little, and it dribbled down the side of her face and onto the mat below her.

Lovely.

I grabbed the wipes that were on the shelf under the coffee table and cleaned her up, just as there was a knock on the door. I scooped her up off the floor and cradled her against me so I could answer it.

I peered through the window.

It was Colton.

I unlocked the door and opened it. “Um, hello?”

“Hi.” He shifted a little. “I know you told me not to bother, but…”

“You had a change of heart about being acquainted with babies?”

“No. I just didn’t want to leave you here alone, so I thought I’d come and help you. Even if I just keep you company.” He dropped his gaze to Tegan. “She’s cute, though.”

“She is. Come in.” I walked back into the house and into the living room. Ivy had left me a feeding schedule for Tegan, and she was due a bottle in half an hour.

Not that she got that memo.

She started crying at an eardrum-bursting pitch, and Colton’s panicked expression from yesterday returned.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“She doesn’t like you,” I snarked. “I don’t blame her.”

“Jesus, Tori.”

I laughed, but quickly stopped. “I think I just found the reason why she’s crying.”

“You did?”

I held her out in his direction, and he recoiled.

“Holy shit!”

Laughing, I brought her back into me. “Would you get me a diaper and the wipes from under the coffee table?”

“You’re changing her?”

“I can’t leave her sitting in her own poop, Colton. She’s not a dung beetle.” I took Tegan to the change mat Ivy kept under the sofa for times just like this and got to work.

I only just managed to not wretch at the bright yellow mess she’d left in her diaper and, oh joy, halfway up her back. After Colton retrieved me another onesie from her bedroom, I got her dressed and asked him to put the dirty one in the washer.

He did it straight away.

Just like that, Tegan was happy again.

I set her back down on her playmat. She happily gurgled away, stretching her legs out and batting her hands at the butterflies.

Thank God she wasn’t crawling yet.

I was not doing that babysitting.

“I thought you said there was pizza.”

I laughed and sat next to Colton on the sofa. “I did. It’s paid for, I just need to