There was a shrug. “She was a preemie. Three weeks early and she was the tiniest thing I’ve ever seen, but so strong. She met all her milestones and started talking early and skipped the crawling part, but she’s the smallest in her age group at nursery.”
“Tiny but fierce.”
That got me a smile and I felt like I’d won every stuffed toy at the fair.
“She is fierce. She also loves books and for the next couple of days she’s going to have to rest and not read or watch anything. That’s going to be painful for all involved.” She started to shuffle along the car seat, Rose in her arms.
“Let me take her. It’ll be easier.”
I expected some sort of argument with her telling me she was perfectly capable of managing on her own, but it didn’t come.
“Thank you.”
That was it; a straight-forward thanks. She trusted me with her child, which meant more than she could know.
I knew Claire and Jackson had no problem with me looking after their children. I was the babysitter of choice, mainly because I was available at short notice and was practiced at surviving on little sleep, but I also knew it was because kids liked me. There had been countless jokes made about how that was because I was still a kid myself, and I’d laughed along, used to it and knowing it wasn’t meant to be hurtful. It wasn’t because I was still a kid; it was because I was good with them. I smiled, I was relaxed, when I looked after my nieces and nephews I didn’t think about work or what else I could be doing, I wanted my time to be about them. When Eliza or Teddy smiled at me, or laughed, everything in the world was right. I didn’t count Niamh; her smiles meant she had wind at the moment, something I knew Shay would identify with.
I carried Rose to the front door, wondering whether I should tell Georgia that hey – I was her landlord, and decided against it right now. She’d be exhausted; I’d seen and heard Claire after Eliza had taken a bad tumble off the sofa and banged her head, and this wasn’t about me. None of it was.
I was just the help right now.
“I can never find my keys in this bag.” She rummaged round for them in a bag that was bigger than some small countries. It was Mulberry, a designer that my sisters loved and at some point, I’d treated Payton to one for her birthday, mainly because I’d ran out of time to think of anything else. The world’s best present giver, I wasn’t.
She eventually found them and opened the door into a house where I’d already slept. It looked the same as I peered down the hallway. Ava had lived there before me – it was the same place where she’d snuck Eli in when they were pretending not to see each other – and she’d decorated it pretty spectacularly, or so I thought. Now there was just different furniture in there and a few pictures resting against the wall, waiting to be hung.
“Where shall I take her?” Rose was sleeping soundly. It was obvious that she would sleep anywhere, a bit like Shay.
“The lounge, please. It’s the second door on your right. I’ve got a sofa in there which she can sleep on and I can work in there too. Shit!” She paused, spinning round to look at me. “I’ve left my laptop at work. Fuck.” Her eyes landed on her daughter.
I raised my brows. I didn’t have the genetic skill of my brothers where they could raise just one; both went up, no matter what I tried.
“That’s a good thing, because you’re not doing any more work today anyway. I’ll drop your laptop off in the morning and any files you need.” Most stuff was online, but solicitors generally liked to be a little old-fashioned and still have some stuff on paper as well.
She groaned, taking off her coat. My eyes somehow stayed on her face, not drifting down to the top that had been revealed which clung to tits that were more than a handful.
Obvious point: I liked tits.
Some men would go for legs or arse, I liked it all, but especially boobs.
Right now, I was holding Georgia’s daughter and I wasn’t going to think about what was under that top.
“I have a ton of work to do.”
“It can wait.” I pushed the door open into the lounge and spotted the sofa, which was difficult to miss being a four-seater that looked like a cloud. I lay Rose down, her head on a conveniently located cushion and pulled a blanket off the back of the sofa to cover her with.
Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at me, sleep hovering. “Where am I?”
“You’re home.”
She smiled and curled up into a ball.
Georgia lingered by the doorway. “Shay said it was fine for her to sleep.”
“He did. Why don’t you sit with her and I’ll make us both a drink?” There was no way she was doing any work today. I knew from experience, that after a worry, anyone would be distracted, and work done wouldn’t be up to the usual standard. Hell, I was distracted, and Rose wasn’t my daughter.
She shook her head. “I’ll do it. I know where everything is and I’d really prefer you didn’t judge me by the state of my kitchen. Will you be okay with her?”
“She’s fast asleep. I think I can cope.”
