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Of course. How silly of me to think I had a choice in this.
He spends the rest of the day with the girls. I wonder if he even remembers I’m here. When they get bored with coloring, they all watch videos on how to fold origami. When they get bored with that, Lia shows him over and over again how she can count to eleven. Specifically, eleven. Well, sixteen, according to her, but she also insists that sixteen comes after eleven. Then they each show him how they can spell their own name now, or whatever the weird shapes are meant to be.
I make them dinner, and he helps both of them eat. He clears the table, washes the dishes, runs around the living room with them until they finally tire out. For the whole day, he looks like a completely normal person. And even I forget there’s something with him that’s different from us.
But as Lia starts to cry her heart out when I tell them to go to bed because she can’t find Mr. Superbear, I watch Nate’s face go blank.
“Sleep without it,” he says calmly.
“Doesn’t work like that, Nate,” I huff as I look under the girls’ beds. “Lia, when did you last see it?”
“It’s an inanimate object,” Nate insists to me.
“Mommy!” she cries out. Panic rips through her voice.
Nate is holding Livie, and when Lia starts pulling at my jeans to get me from under the bed, sobbing like someone just died, I hear him shift.
“What is happening?”
“Mommy! Mommy, no! Come back!”
“Celia, it’s fine!” I call back as I push some toys around under the bed.
“The monsters!”
“Lia, why are you screaming?” Nate asks, as if he’s talking to an adult.
“She’s scared,” I send back, my voice barely audible over Lia’s scream.
“Mommy!” She pulls so hard on my jeans I hit my head under the bed. I reverse back out and turn to her.
“Lia, I’m fine,” I sigh. She jumps into my arms, holding me so tightly I can barely breathe. I stay on the floor while she hugs me, catching my breath.
“I don’t want Mr. Superbear,” she cries against my neck. “I want Mommy.”
“Okay, honey. I’m here.”
Livie looks down at us, putting her thumb in her mouth, and turns back to hugging Nate.
“Welcome to parenthood,” I huff.
“I’m confused,” he admits blankly.
“Okay. Awesome, I will just have to run you past my emotions, and theirs too. I’m really looking forward to it.”
“Can you name it?” The way he asks, it’s impossible to feel irritated. He’s trying so hard to understand us.
“She was panicking, Nate. Because she thinks there are monsters under the bed, and she thought I was going to get hurt. She was scared for me.”
He nods, and I watch his jaw tighten, his eyes focused like he’s taking a mental note. “Okay. I can remember that.”
“This is going to be hard,” I admit, renewed nerves swirling in my stomach.
The second Lia calms down, she gets off me and runs to grab a book. “Mommy, story.”
My head falls back against the mattress. This is the worst part of my day. I love spending time with my girls, but reading to them is a task I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy.
“You make Mommy read every night?” Nate asks Lia as he takes the book from her. He puts Livie to bed, and I use the occasion to stand up and do the same with Lia while she nods purposefully at Nate.
