I set the infant’s car seat on the floor and reach for the toddler. “Give him here.”
“No,” the man says, horrified, backing away a step with Josephine, only to sway forward, shooting his eyes to the car seat. He wants to run, but can’t leave the baby. At least, not twice in one night.
My blood pressure rises, my temples throbbing with an oncoming headache. It’s not often I get this pissed off, but when I do, it simmers for ages. I’m fantastic at holding grudges, and this guy just made my shit-list.
“Unless you want him to throw up all over you, or stop breathing and pass out from crying so hard, you will let me help.” I’ve had enough practice babysitting my eldest sister,Shayla’s, unruly brood to have seen that consequence firsthand. I love my nieces and nephews to pieces, but I’m all too happy to hand them back to their parents at night, cherishing my peace and quiet.
The toddler suddenly retches.
“See?” I ask, my fingers twitching with the urge to snatch the child away. “What did I tell you?”
The man jumps like he’s been struck by a live wire, jutting the child toward me.
I take the toddler, turning him and tucking his face, wet with tears and snot, into my neck while I rub his back. Rocking him side to side, the short hem of my yellow floral sundress swishes across my thighs. I give the man a victory grin when the toddler immediately settles, looping his arms over my shoulders.
“I’m so sorry your daddy is an idiot,” I coo to the toddler. “Hopefully, your mommy is better at this and rips your daddy a new one when you get home.”
“Their mom is dead,” the man says quietly, his voice breaking, shoving his hair back from his chiseled face. His disgusting lack of hygiene and terrible personality cancel out how handsome he could potentially be beneath his dirty clothes and hair.
My heart squeezes in my chest for the children, remembering the way Josephine had ducked her head, even as my anger amplifies. “So your wife had to do everything, because you couldn’t be bothered to learn how to take care of your own kids, and now she’s passed, you actually have to be a parent?”
“Ex-girlfriend. And I only found out the boys existed a few weeks ago,” he says, pointing to the toddler and the miraculously sleeping infant.
My lip curls. I’m nearly shaking with rage, seconds fromexploding. “Great, so you’re an idiot and a deadbeat? Do better, asshole.” I don’t like cursing in front of the kids, but some situations call for it. Like now, since he is, indeed, an asshole.
“Get bent,” he says with a sneer, grabbing his cart and yanking it away, looming more than a head taller than my five-foot-three frame. Josephine curls in on herself behind him.
No one is going to intimidate me, least of all this smelly piece of garbage. I have a can of bear spray in my brown leather, cross-body purse, and I’m not afraid to use it.
“No thanks, dickcheese.” Oops, did it again. I’ll have to add a few more dollars to Shayla’s already full swear jar. I take an exaggerated sniff of the air while arching my neck all the way back to hold eye contact, showing him I won’t back down. “I don’t bend over for incompetent men who can’t be bothered to shower.”
Of all the insults I’ve hurled at him, that’s the one that makes his thick brows pinch together, dumbfounded. “I take showers.”
“Sure you do.” I sniff again, then make a show of holding my breath.
“Whatever,” he mumbles, rubbing the heels of his large palms into his eyes before lifting the car seat from the floor, intending to latch it onto the front of his cart once more.
“You can’t do that. It’s not safe.” He should know better.
“There’s no room in the cart.”
“That’s no excuse,” I tell him, lifting my chin.
He sighs heavily. “I know,” he repeats more softly, scratching his stubble. Hanging his head, he has to steer the cart with one hand so he can carry the car seat in the other, and he motions his daughter ahead of him, leaving the toddler and me behind.
There you have it, folks. Parent of the Year.
I follow them, since I have no intention of taking arandom toddler home with me, even if he’d be better off with me than some loser who has only just found out he has two whole sons. Although…how did that happen? Pump and dump twice in three years? For fuck’s sake, he’s an even bigger asshole than I thought.
At checkout, the teenage cashier wrinkles her nose as if she can smell the man as well, and he sighs again, unloading his items onto the conveyor belt. Shifting the toddler’s weight to my left arm, I grab two bottles of water from the side refrigerator. Handing one to Josephine, I uncap the second and offer it to the toddler, encouraging him to take small sips. The man gives me a half-hearted, grateful smile that’s gone in a flash when he drops one of the plastic bars onto the belt to separate his items from mine.
I set the separator aside and push my basket up the belt. “If I’m going to get roped into babysitting, then I’m going to be paid for it.”
The man grits his straight white teeth but doesn’t say a word as the cashier scans my late-night cravings of three tubs of ice cream and several bottles of artificial, make-your-teeth-ache toppings, adding the cost to his eye-watering total while the cashier’s eyes ping-pong back and forth.
The parking lot is deserted, given that the store is set to close in a few minutes, and yet, of course, we’re parked side by side. Great, so now this guy knows my license plate number and has the perfect opportunity to throw me into his pearly silver, luxury SUV, if he wants to kidnap me. I reach into my purse, gripping the bear spray, just in case.
We’re silent as he loads his groceries into his SUV, and then, with a huff, my groceries into the trunk of my blue Hyundai. The car was my first major purchase since graduating from the University of Texas and moving back home to work at my dad’s financial planning firm. I’m so proud of myself for having been able to buy it all on my own, even ifdriving it still scares the daylights out of me after having been T-boned by a drunk driver in Austin a few years ago. My middle sister, Bailey, and I have the worst luck when it comes to driving. She’s the only one who doesn’t tease me about my fear.
