The Introvert's Guide to Online Dating - Emma Hart Page 0,47
call, but I kind of want to settle Tegan into bed first.”
“When does she go to bed?”
“Ivy’s handy little fridge chart says she has a bottle in about twenty minutes and should settle down then. Then she’ll wake up about twelve-thirty for another, and she should sleep through to six-thirty before she wakes up.”
“Will you be offended if I leave before then?”
“Yes.”
He laughed and wrapped an arm around me. “Good thing I have a bag in the truck.”
“A bag? A bag of what? Drugs? Food? Clothing?”
“Why did you instantly go to drugs?”
“I don’t know, it seemed like the most suspicious thing, so I went for it.”
“It’s nice to know you hold me in such high esteem.”
I tilted my head back and grinned up at him. “If you think this is bad, you should hear what I’ve been saying about you for years.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
“Very smart.” I bopped him on the nose with my finger at the sound of Tegan getting unsettled. “Do you baby duty or bottle duty?”
He narrowed his eyes. “That feels like a trick question.”
“It is. Pick an option.”
“Bottle. Wait, what’s bottle duty?”
“You have to heat it up.”
“How do you do that?”
“Take the baby.” I sighed, picking her up and handing her to him.
He took her, holding her a little like a football.
“What are you doing? She’s a baby. Cuddle her.” I left the room before I could see him follow through, and I was honestly a little worried about that.
I turned on the bottle heater and set about fixing Tegan’s bottle. When Ivy had said the bottles were made, she’d only been half telling the truth. The water and formula powder was ready, but they needed to be mixed, so I did that and set the bottle in the heater.
“Oh, that’s my shirt. No, you can’t—oh, you’re eating it. Okay. That’s fine. Yummy.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and giggled into it.
It’d stopped her crying, at least.
I tested the temperature of the bottle. It needed another minute, so I put it back in and turned my attention to the noise in the living room.
“That’s my thumb. I wouldn’t do that. Probably tastes like construction site… Oh, okay, no, you keep it. Fine. That’s fine. Just don’t tell your mom.”
I stifled another laugh and checked the milk again. It was the right temperature now, so I put the lid back on the bottle as I went back to the living room.
Tegan was lying in Colton’s arms with her tiny fingers gripping onto his hand to keep his thumb plastered firmly in her mouth as she sucked on it.
“I sure hope there isn’t construction dust in there. I don’t want to be the one explaining that to Ivy.”
He looked over at me. “She wouldn’t let me go. She tried sucking my shirt but stopped when she realized there was no milk there.”
“I would have been alarmed if there were.”
“How do I make her let go of my thumb?”
“Here.” I walked over and uncapped the bottle, positioning the teat right next to his thumb. I gently rubbed it against the corner of her mouth, and Tegan instinctively turned her head toward it and latched on, thus releasing Colton’s thumb.
“Thank God. She has a very sharp tooth for someone so small.”
Grinning, I tilted the bottle toward him. “There you go.”
“I can’t feed her.”
“Doesn’t look like you have a choice.”
Her eyes were closing as she suckled, and even he softened when he saw her happily drinking with him. Quietly, he took the bottle from me and continued to feed her.
Wasn’t well acquainted with babies my ass.
If I didn’t leave, I was going to become well acquainted with them, because the sight of Colton Lane snuggling this tiny baby and feeding her was making my ovaries sing like fucking canaries.
And I was not ready for one of those poop demons.
I disappeared back into the kitchen under the guise of cleaning. I didn’t actually have anything to clean but the bottle warmer, but if I stayed there watching him with her…
Oy.
Bad decisions would be made.
I cleaned out the bottle warmer and wiped down the counters for a lack of better things to do. Unfortunately, that really was all I could do, so I had to go back into the living room where it was suspiciously quiet.
Tegan was fast asleep in Colton’s arms, and he was sitting there, staring at her. Gazing down at her like she was the most wonderful thing in the world, and I had to close my legs to