With our baby…
“Hey.” I heard, the voice loud, deep, the sound like a warning that had me jerking my head up to stare out my foggy window. I could only make out the wide-shouldered shape of a man and hear the rap of his knuckles against the glass when he knocked. “You in there?”
The sudden vision of a thousand dark, twisted scenarios started to play in my head. Suddenly, this picturesque, sweet little town didn’t seem all that wholesome. It was too quiet. Too deserted.
Another tap came, this one heavier, the rap like metal on glass, and I eased my hand to the door, hoping the man couldn’t make out my movements through the foggy glass before I engaged the automatic locks. They, at least, still worked.
“You’re testing my fucking patience. I’m asking one more time, and then I’m breaking the glass…” he said, punctuating his threat with another rap against the window.
I realized what the noise was when I wiped the glass clear, and my eyes widened. “Oh my God, please don’t!” I held up my hands, already surrendering, my prayers silently firing off in quick succession. “Please! I’m…I’m unarmed!”
He leaned forward, his face coming into view, and I wondered how it was possible to be so terrified by someone so damn beautiful. The man had chiseled features, as though he stepped right out of an old black-and-white movie. His cheekbones were high, and his mouth was plump, his eyes squinting and searching over what I supposed was my petrified but curious expression.
“The fuck are you doing out here?”
“I…I’m just…” Mateo chose that exact moment to wake up, seeming to remember with a jolt that his little gums ached. “I’m sorry,” I told the man, my hands still up as I slowly turned. “I…have to get my baby. I’m not doing anything bad. Honest!”
The man watched me as I pulled the baby from his car seat and grabbed him and the quilts, shushing him as I turned back to sit behind the wheel.
“It’s okay,mijo,” I told my son, rocking him as best as I could while some strange man stared at me through the window, holding a gun.
“Why are you out here in the snow with a baby?”
I jerked my gaze to him, feeling a sudden rush of insult at the question, forgetting about the gun. “Is that your business?” I snapped. I was doing my best even though I was sure it didn’t look that way.
He cocked an eyebrow, leaning the hand not holding the gun against my car. “Yeah, right now, it is.”
“I…am almost out of gas, and the snow…” I waved at the clouds, then nodded at the street. He didn’t follow my movements. Instead, the handsome man kept his attention on me and Mateo, his focus intensifying as my son’s body stiffened each time he took a breath to gear up for another cry.
“He hungry?”
“Possibly,” I said, positioning the baby at my breast before I stopped. I couldn’t do this here. With an audience, out in the cold.
“Is there a problem?”
“I’m…fine,” I told him, my fear quickly replaced by worry as Mateo’s face heated and he took to pulling on his ear. He probably wouldn’t nurse anyway. His gums were too sore, and he was in pain. What did Vi say? The frozen rag. “I just…” Glancing at the man, then to the crowd milling inside the restaurant, I decided my desperation outweighed any self-preservation I had. If this man were going to hurt me, he’d have done it by now.
“Can you back up a little?” I asked him, nodding toward the door. He hesitated for a second, but he didn’t put up an argument. He watched me, his curious eyes relaxing when I rolled down the window.
It was a rash decision, but my baby was in pain and I was desperate. I pulled the small burp rag from the diaper bag, making sure it at least was clean, and unfolded it before I grabbed a handful of snow that had collected on the windshield. Then, I placed the snow in the rag and twisted it, making a pouch small enough to fit against Mateo’s aching gums.
Several seconds passed before he took to it. I knew it was only a temporary remedy, but at least he would have some relief. Sure enough, after several long seconds, Mateo stopped fighting the intrusion of the frigid rag in his mouth and sucked on it, his small body relaxing.
“Clever woman,” the man said, his voice even and the threat missing completely.
“Resourceful,” I corrected him and exhaled, drying my son’s wet face with the undampened hem of the rag. “If you give me a minute, I can try to get him back to sleep, and we’ll find somewhere else to park.”
“I can’t do that, sorry,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because I was raised better than that.” He opened my door, reaching in to shut the window before he offered me his hand.
“I don’t need your…”
“Yeah, you do. So does your baby.” When I only stared at his offered hand, the man dropped his shoulders, like he was surprised I didn’t hurry to do as he commanded. But he didn’t lose his smile or let the harsh tone he used earlier return. “It’s Christmas Eve. My parents own the best restaurant in this town, your baby is hungry, and you look like you haven’t had a decent meal in months. And…I’m freezing my balls off standing out here talking to you. So, please, for the sake of the holiday…and my manhood, come inside.”
I’d had worse offers. I’d had better, but he wasn’t wrong. No one had asked me to dinner and certainly not with my kid. Ever. Besides, I couldn’t be responsible for damage to this man’s manhood. That would be a crime against all women everywhere.
“Okay,” I told him, grabbing the bag before I moved myself and Mateo out of the car. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
“Why not?” I asked, some of that worry returning.
The man smiled, ushering me across the street. “Because you’re about to witness a Carelli Christmas. You might prefer freezing in your car to my crazy family.”
