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With one of his big hands behind the baby's tiny, bald head—red right now from all the screaming—Sky lays him or her down, unwraps the blanket, and exposes two small, wrinkly legs—I'm talking elephant-level wrinkly—and a plain white jumpsuit thing.
"So there's some buttons under here," Sky tells me, "and you just unsnap them." I watch as he does that. "And" —his eyes widen— "yeah. I'd say this baby definitely needs a fresh diaper. This one being puffed up like this isn't how it should be. You were right about that. The puffed up means the diaper’s too old and wet."
He pulls up the white fabric, exposing a Pampers diaper with a 1 on it. "I'd say this baby is about a month or so old," Luke says. “Maybe a few weeks?” Then he unfastens the diaper, sort of unfolds the front piece, and lifts his brows.
"And also a girl baby" he adds, giving her a funny little crooked smile.
I can barely swallow looking at him looking at her.
"Someone left her, Sky." It's a whisper, as if I’ll be able to keep her from hearing.
He's changing her diaper, but his gaze moves up to hold mine. "You'd be surprised at the reasons. Doesn't mean they didn't want her. Isn't that right, baby? Who knows what's going on? After we get you to eat, we'll make some calls and find someone who can help figure it out. Maybe it's just a bump in the road and they'll be able to take her in again. Most all of these people have good intentions."
I watch in surprise and fascination as Luke reaches into the changing tower's second level and pulls out a tube of something, squeezes some onto his finger, and smooths is quickly over the inside of the baby's fresh diaper.
"Diaper cream," he tells me. "Figure it's a good thing just to put it on the diaper," he adds.
It makes me smile. "What, so you don't violate the baby?"
Luke shrugs. "Never know, right?"
I grin. "Right. I guess so."
I watch as Sky picks her up again and cradles her like he knows what he's doing.
"Damn, I didn't realize you were such an expert, McD. If we have babies, they're gonna be in the hands of a pro."
"Don't you mean ‘when’?" he asks.
My face burns. "Yeah," I manage.
"You got second thoughts, Rayne?"
"No. As long as you don't.”
"No way,” Luke says. “I want plenty of these tiny sultans." He smiles. "That's what Pearl calls babies. She says they all look like tiny sultans, and I can't disagree."
I notice that Sky’s holding her with his hand behind her head and wonder if I thought to do that when I was holding her. I hope I did. I think so?
He walks over to the chair and sits down, and I feel briefly disappointed, like maybe he thinks I wasn’t doing a good job with her. Which, honestly, is probably true. I've never really been around babies.
I watch as he puts the bottle’s tip gently against her lower lip, and she starts screaming again. Okay, so at least it’s not just me.
I crouch down beside the rocking chair, leaning over her. "What's the matter, cupcake? What can we do for you?"
"She's sucking her hand, so she's gotta be hungry,” Sky says, looking puzzled.
"Maybe like...tease her mouth more with the bottle's tip? That seemed like a smart move. Could she not know what it is? What if the mom didn't use a bottle?"
"That's a good point." Sky starts to rub the baby's cheek with the tip of the bottle, but baby flails and nearly slaps it out of his hand. He lets out a long breath, and I notice he looks tired.
"You want me to try again? I know I'm not an expert but—"
"Sure. You want to?" He smiles down at the baby, and she stops flailing.
"Try the bottle again," I murmur, and her eyes move to me.
"Why don't you,” he whispers, “and I'll talk to her."
I grin, and he smiles up at me. He hands me the bottle and I decide to go all out. Why the fuck not? I take the thing and bring it near my mouth and make some "mm-mm good" type noises. Then I fly it around over her.
"You know what we want you to do, mm? I want you to eat this thing. Just open up your mouth and take this bottle and drink all the milk.” I squeeze the bottle's tip near its base, until there's something on the tip, and then I rub it on the baby's lip.
Sky and I are both still as we watch her lick it off. And then she opens her mouth, juts her chin up, and closes her mouth around it like a little baby gator. Her eyes close, and she starts snarfing it down.
Luke
I'm watching Vance. I was watching him the whole time, but especially after he said "if we have kids." In the past, he's seemed so interested in children. I didn't worry that he wouldn't want them. If I only listened to him, maybe I would worry now. But watching his face as he interacts with our mysterious stork delivery, seeing how he smiles and how happy he seems when she latches onto the bottle—I can see he'd be a natural father. Will be. Because we're going to have children. Lots and lots, just like we talked about.
