AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The video came to an end, and Quint pressed replay. The adorable sounds of the rattle-shaking baby restarted.
Amara watched Quint watch Hampton for a while. If there’d ever been any doubt about Quint wanting a child, it was gone now.
“We’ll work something out,” she said. “I can’t simply pretend our arrangement didn’t happen. I entered into that contract thinking I knew exactly what it meant. I didn’t have a clue, didn’t understand the first thing about what it meant to hold my child in my arms.”
“I look forward to knowing what it means myself,” Quint said, glancing up from the phone. “I expect it to be the finest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“You won’t be disappointed.”
Quint watched the video to the end, and then handed the phone back to Amara. “You’d best take this. I suspect I’d be watching it all night if you don’t.”
“I’ll forward it to you.”
“Thank you.” He held up the photo. “Can I keep this?”
“Yes. I printed that copy for you.”
He carefully set it to one side, away from the wine and water glasses. “How has it been for you, taking care of him all alone?”
“He’s a very easy-going baby. I’ve been lucky, also, because of my friend Kari and my mother. They’ve given me so much help.” She laughed lightly. “Sometimes they give me more help than I want, and I have to tell them to back off because I want to spend more time with my son.”
“That’s likely to be the case even more, now, with me back in the picture.”
Amara didn’t want to talk about that, not yet. “Hampton’s so curious about everything. You should see how he looks at things. It’s like he’s already analyzing, trying to figure out what it does.”
“He would have gotten that from both of us, I imagine,” Quint said.
“Momma says I was the same way when I was a baby. Did I tell you he’s already sleeping through the night? Well, mostly through the night.”
He shook his head, his manner gently but raptly engaged with her tales.
She burbled on about Hampton, finding the joy in having someone who equaled her endless fascination with her child, not having to worry that she was boring him to death. She ate only a few bites of the exquisite appetizer course when it was delivered, though she supposed it was delicious. Food was little more than a distraction from her storytelling.
She paid more attention to the main course, however, which turned out to be a crispy duck affair with a sauce that must have been made by a team of magical sous chefs. She closed her eyes in bliss as she savored each bite, and couldn’t help but notice the fond way Quint watched her
.
That fondness was dangerous, no doubt about it. Probably. Wasn’t it? She couldn’t remember why all of a sudden.
Quint asked questions about the birth and any doctor visits they’d had since then. She was pleased to report Hampton’s perfect bill of health. He also asked about her, and how she was doing. He even went so far as to compliment her on her figure, which she loved hearing since she knew she still had quite a few pounds to knock off before she’d be back to her pre-pregnancy weight. She’d been working on it, though.
The only bad news she had to give was that she’d had to stop nursing earlier than she’d planned, not that she’d actually made plans ahead of time, the situation being what it had been. Still, she was a quick study and had read dozens of books in the first few weeks of Hampton’s life.
It had only been a little more than a week since she’d had to stop breastfeeding and put him exclusively on formula. The loss was still fresh, and it didn’t help that she felt like a failure for being unable to produce enough, frequently enough. The doctor assured her it just sometimes happened that way, and that she hadn’t done anything to cause it. But still, she blamed herself.
Quint listened carefully as she told him everything. “I wish I’d been here. I could have brought in the best specialists in the field.”
“Oh great, now you’re blaming yourself.”
“I should have been here.”
“If you had, I never would have been breastfeeding to begin with.”
The truth of the statement settled between them, reminding them why they were there, and how much they still had to figure out.
Quint held up his glass briefly before drinking it down in a few quick gulps. “God, I’ve missed wine. The other things, I could leave behind tomorrow, but, mmm. This wine is absolutely heavenly. What do you think of it?”
Amara gave a little smile as she raised her own glass to her lips. “It’s delicious.”
