in his truck and brought the stroller, blanket and supplies into the house. By that time Berry was in a towel, still sniffing from what had seemed an endless meltdown while Nora was drying Fay. “How can I help?” he asked.
“If you could get a bottle for Fay, that would help.”
While he did that, Nora got them into pajamas. Since he was just standing around looking kind of useless with a bottle in his hand, she passed him the baby and asked, “Do you mind? I need to see if I can get this girl settled down so she can sleep. She’s had way too much picnic.”
“Course not,” he said, hanging his jacket over a kitchen chair. And he sat in the little living room with Fay while Nora fixed Berry a glass of milk, then disappeared into the bedroom with Berry, where there was a little more crying going on. Berry fought and cried, Nora murmured.
So this was what life would be like with children, he thought. Every hand would be needed at some points. And what if there were more children? A man might get to feeling pretty neglected.
Fay took about twenty minutes with the bottle, but her eyes were drifting closed. When her eyes were open and she looked up at him, she smiled sleepily. God, she was beautiful. He wasn’t that crazy about children in general, but this one and her crabby older sister, they were certainly growing on him.
He kicked off his boots to get comfortable. When she had finally fallen asleep in his arms he noticed there was quiet from the bedroom. He assumed Nora would join him in the little living room soon, but there was no hurry. Holding the baby while she slept felt surprisingly good; it made him somehow feel bigger and stronger. It was an odd feeling, as if all his resources were being called on to keep them safe.
Finally, too much time had passed without Nora joining him, so he quietly poked his head into the bedroom. Well, that explained it. Nora and Berry were cuddled on the mattress, asleep. He meant to put the baby down in the port-a-crib and gently wake Nora to say good-night.
Instead he put the baby down and lay down on the other side of Berry, who was framed by Nora and Tom. He pulled the quilt from the bottom of the mattress over all three of them and thought, I’ll just lie here for a little while…
The bed was too small, too low, the mattress too thin, and he’d never felt better in his life. He just couldn’t bring himself to move. The baby snuffled in her bed while Berry curled against him and softly snored; he could smell her sweet breath; Nora hummed in her sleep and sometimes talked, but it was in an indecipherable language. His sleep was not deep or constant—he was acutely aware of the children, of Nora.
And then he heard birds just as he felt something in his hair. He opened his eyes to predawn light breaking through the slats in the blinds and Nora was running fingers through his hair.
“I didn’t think you had enough hair for bedhead,” she teased in a whisper.
“I think maybe you had too much picnic, too,” he whispered back. “You were going to quiet Berry and instead Berry put you to sleep.”
“Children can show you a kind of tired you just didn’t think possible. Did you mean to spend the night?”
“Not at first. I woke up a lot. Sometime in the night I decided I just wasn’t going anywhere. I have to go now, however.”
“Is Maxie going to be upset? Worried?”
He shook his head. “It’s rare, but I have been known to get in at dawn. Whatever she feels about that, she doesn’t let it show.”
“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” she asked.
“Will she be all right without us here?”
Nora nodded. “When she wakes up, she’ll come right into the other room. I’ll make coffee.”
A half hour later Tom was saying goodbye at the front door. “The neighbors will all have seen my truck in front of your house all night.”
“You’re admired around here, Tom. I don’t think my neighbors will worry that I’m getting mixed up with a bad person. And we’re just friends… .”
His lips curved in a lazy smile. “There are friends and there are friends,” he said. Then he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her