AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The bottle was warm. As nervous as I was, I sat down at the table with the baby in my arms for feeding time. “I’ll take that biscuit and sausage if you don’t want it.”
“I bought two of everything. I even brought fruit salad.”
After I fed her, it was time to feed myself, but the clock ticked away, and CPS was going to be there in fifteen minutes. I didn’t want my picture taken in my current condition because I was afraid it would look like a mugshot.
“I’ll be right back. Time to get dressed for CPS.”
“You look fine,” he said, a serious look on his face.
“Well, whatever. Thank you.”
I quickly escaped to my bedroom with the baby in my arms. At that moment, the enormity of what I had committed to hit me. The baby was wearing one of two pajama sets she had. I felt myself obsessing about all the things she needed that I didn’t have. Crib and clothes and a bottle warmer; I needed to make a list.
After dressing, I took the little pile of dirty baby clothes to the laundry room to wash. Aware that Detective Spinoza was waiting, I returned to the kitchen instead of making that list, trying to calm down.
“Did you want me to hold her so you can eat?” he asked.
I handed her over, but nerves grew as I waited for CPS, and I ended up getting one bite before the buzzer rang again.
“Oh, boy,” he said.
“I’ll eat later. It’s okay. Let’s get this over with so you can get on your way.”
“I’m free for the day,” he said, being pushy.
I didn’t know what to say to that. He was so nice and so handsome. I needed to chill. The detective wasn’t asking me to get married. He’d just hinted that he was free. Maybe I could get him to shop with me.
The CPS worker took pictures of me and the baby, fingerprinted me, and scanned the baby’s footprints. “Just in case hers were scanned at birth,” he explained. “It’s the latest technology, and not every hospital is doing this yet. They are adding the footprints to a national database.”
“When will you find out if she’s in the database?” I asked. I had never heard of such a thing.
“I’ll enter her prints right away. Someone will be in touch if they are able to identify her.”
After he left, I got nervous, needing to get some baby supplies. “I’m going to run out to Target,” I told the detective. “I don’t have a stroller or even a car seat, so this should be interesting.”
“I’ll take you,” he said. “I’ll run to the station and borrow a car seat.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. I didn’t even know the guy, and now we were going to shop for a baby I also didn’t know.
“Sure. I’ll be back in about half an hour.”
“Okay, well, thank you so much.”
My initial physical attraction to Mark Spinoza had evolved to a neutral feeling, like he was a big brother. We looked good together, but so did Ryan and I. That was as far as it went. I was afraid that my years of escorting had taken a toll on my ability to even be interested in a man.
Mark came back within the hour with a car seat in the back of his car. It took us five minutes to figure out how to get Jessie strapped in. He took me to Target, the only store in the city I was familiar with that had baby stuff. I spent a small fortune on a portable crib, a stroller, and the rest of the things I’d need to take care of her.
We walked down the aisles together, examining baby items with a new interest. He even seemed interested, which I found amusing.
“Do you want kids?” I asked.
He looked at a tube of diaper rash ointment. “Yeah, I think so. I’ve never given it much thought before, but yeah.”
“Me, too. I want to have a baby someday. That is a new and kind of disturbing development. My friends don’t believe it.”
“Why is that?”
“Oh, just my previous lifestyle, I guess.”
