Two Men and a Baby - Isla Olsen Page 0,24

“He wasn’t like this during the week. It’s like he’s turned into a demon baby in the last two days! I’m sure his head will start turning all the way around any minute now.”

I let out a soft chuckle at that. “Why don’t we check for some more common things first and then we can move to demon possession?”

I tilt Chase back a little so I can look at his face and it only takes me a moment to figure out the most likely cause of the tears: his face is all red with what looks like a teething rash. “I think it’s just teething,” I tell Connor. “He must have a tooth coming through. Here, can you hold him for a second?” I hand Chase back to his dad before Connor even has a chance to answer me, and then I head over to the kitchen so I can wash my hands. When I get back, I kneel in front of them and gently push my forefinger into Chase’s mouth, feeling around for any inflamation.

It doesn’t take long to find. Right there, on the upper left side of his mouth, his gums are a little swollen and I can tell there’s a tooth that’ll be breaking through any day now. “Ouch, that must hurt, buddy. No wonder you’re crying.”

Connor’s eyes widen, his expression fearful. “He’s in pain? Is he going to be okay?”

I remove my hand and stand up. “He’s going to be fine. It just hurts while the tooth’s coming through. Once that happens it won’t hurt as much.” I pause for a moment before adding, “Well, at least until the next one starts.”

“How do we make the pain stop?”

“We bought some teethers the other day. He can chew on one of those to get a bit of relief. And I can go to the pharmacy down the block to pick up some teething gel. That should help.”

I stride over to the kitchen table and dig through one of the bags that haven’t yet been unpacked; retrieving one of the teethers, I hand it to Chase and he puts it straight to his mouth. He still looks completely miserable, but at least he’s no longer bawling his eyes out.

“It also might be a good idea to check with Laura if it’s okay for him to have baby paracetamol. That can help with teething pain but I wouldn’t want to give it without checking with his mom first.”

Connor nods. “I can text her. But I thought babies weren’t supposed to start teething until seven months?”

I shrug. “All babies are different. Some start early, some start late.”

“Hmm…that’s not what the book said,” Connor mumbles, sounding almost disappointed.

My brows crease in concern. “What book was it?”

“Um…I can’t remember.”

His evasive answer and the faint blush that hits his cheeks prompts my brows to shoot up, but I decide to let it go.

“Okay, well are you going to be okay while I run to the pharmacy?”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.”

As I’m gathering my coat and scarf from the kitchen table, I notice a battered paperback book sitting there and pick it up, flipping it over to read the cover.

“Is this the book you read?” I ask incredulously, holding up the ancient copy of Hello, Mallory. “You’re taking advice from a Baby-Sitters Club book?”

“It’s very informative,” Connor says defensively.

“Connor, you can’t get your parenting info from a group of fictional babysitters who repeated the eighth grade about four times!”

“I thought you’d never read them before?”

I wave a dismissive hand. “I did some googling. I wanted to know what you thougnt was so good about them. Turns out not much.”

Connor offers a playful smirk. “You took an interest in my interest. That’s sweet.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Don’t go reading anything into it.”

“Too late.”

11

Connor

We decide to postpone our Guggenheim outing until Chase is in a better mood; I’m not particularly in love with the idea of being that person who keeps getting glared at by strangers because their baby won’t stop crying in the museum. I figure once I know Chase a little better and am better at getting him settled when he’s upset we can start planning some public outings to places I don’t want to be banned from.

But Josh decides to stay and hang out anyway, which is how we end up spending our Sunday afternoon watching Sesame Street and trying to encourage Chase to eat some of his stewed apples.

“So now he’s getting a tooth, will I be able to take him