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He didn’t bother waiting for her to drive off.
“So that’s that,” Roberta said. “Your pop is already on the phone with the attorney. This is abandonment. Miss Tina Marlin won’t be getting her baby back without a fight.”
Chapter 2
Leon let his mother take over without question. He had no interest in the baby.Violet. He took a peek at her, and she was cute as far as babies go, with white feathers for hair and a perfectly round little face that appeared to house all the features in the lower half. She had two expressions, screaming with her eyes squished closed and her cheeks flaming red, or sleeping peacefully, nursing the air.
The only problem arose when Roberta directed the boys to put the portacrib in Leon’s room.
“I don’t want her in there,” he said. “On Sunday, I have to get up at five for work.”
“When you play, you pay,” Big Mike said. “You’d better find a babysitter fast, buddy boy. We raised our kids already.”
“He’s right,” Roberta said. “I’ll help you out when I can, but I’m not your babysitter.”
“I don’t know how to find a babysitter! Give me a break!”
“Get on the phone and start asking around,” Roberta said. “Your sisters-in-law might know of someone. But in the meantime, you’d better learn how to be a father. Come here and I’ll show you how to change her diaper.”
“I can’t do that,” he cried. “I’ll barf.”
“We all do the first time,” Big Mike said. “Do you think you smelled like a rose?”
“Just get over here,” she demanded.
So Leon learned how to change a diaper, how to fold up the dirty one, and clean the baby off from front to back with wipes. “At this rate, we’d better buy stock in the wipe company,” Big Mike said, watching his son go through a quarter of a package to clean up after one poop.
“It’s like toilet paper, Pop,” Leon said. “You can’t skimp.”
After securing the diaper nice and snug, he re-dressed her and picked her up. She wasn’t crying, and she wasn’t sleeping for the first time.
“She’s kind of cute,” he said, looking at her carefully. “I can’t tell if she looks like me.”
“She’s got that white blond hair like you had as a kid,” Big Mike said. “I didn’t think you were mine.”
“Mike, would you knock it off?” Roberta growled. “He’s just kidding, boys.”
“No, I really am not kidding. No one in my family has blond hair. The other boys, the older three, all were born with bushels of black hair, and then you came along.”
“You’ve got my hair when it’s not shaved off,” Roberta said, smiling. “And it looks like baby Violet got it, too.”
“Pop, maybeyoushould do a paternity test,” Leon replied.
“Aw, look, Lenny, the baby smiled at you,” Roberta whispered. “Say something to her again.”
“How about I don’t want to be a daddy?” he asked, looking down at her.
“Shut up, Lenny,” Big Mike said. “She’ll pick up on your attitude.”
“Now that you can change the diaper, let’s learn about the feeding. She’s on demand, so whenever she fusses and you know she has a dry diaper and doesn’t need to burp, you can feed her. Stick her in her bed for a sec, kiddo. I’ll teach you how to fix all her bottles in advance. Then they’ll always be ready. This device is a bottle warmer. You won’t risk burning her mouth like you would if you heat it in the microwave.”
That got his attention. “Ouch, I definitely won’t do that.”
She spent the next minutes helping him prepare the formula, a powder mixed with water. When they had all of the available bottles filled and stashed in the fridge, she kissed his cheek.
“Good luck.”
“Come on, Roberta, I’m ready for TV time,” Big Mike said.
