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“Have fun. Win lots of money.”
He chuckled, finally bringing a bit of joy into his eyes. “They’re gonna wipe me clean. They always do.”
“Well, you’ll still have fun.”
Corey kissed Amelie on the head, lingering longer than she anticipated. The light scent of his cologne enticed her. Made her wish she could lean forward and grab her own kiss. Yet, she forced herself to stay frozen like a statue.
He finally moved away and stared at her. “Call me if you need me. For anything.”
“I will. I can handle this. She’s safe with me. I won’t do anything you wouldn’t approve of. I promise. You can trust me.”
She desperately needed him to trust her. She wished for it more than anything else.
“It’s not you.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I have a hard time leaving her. My brother has been watching her during the day and it even guts me to leave her then. He’s been helping me find a new daycare, but I’m not sure I can do it. Leave her with strangers. Anyway,” he cleared his throat,” call me if you need me. I’ll be no later than ten.”
She nodded, deciding it didn’t matter how many times she reassured him, he needed to say it. It was a sort of coping mechanism for him.
He left, more hesitation as he shut the door. As soon as it was closed, she flipped the lock and looked at Amelie.
“Party time, sweetie pie.”
She figured Corey had done tummy time with her already, but she decided she do some herself. Amelie loved it, pushing herself up and turning her head this way and that. She felt like a personal trainer encouraging her to get those knees up, get in a full table position. After about ten minutes of that, she put her in the little half-circle pillow to help her sit. Although she did put down a blanket first, then the pillow because the look of the floor gave her the heebie-jeebies. It was so old and stained, it concerned her the amount of germs hiding in the bristles. Not that Corey could help where he lived. She wasn’t going to judge him for that.
But she wished he’d find a cleaner building to move into.
They played on the floor, working on her posture, yet having fun with tickling and making funny faces before eight o’clock rolled around. Bath time was an adventure. Corey hadn’t lied when he said Amelie loved to splash. Water went everywhere, even on her clothes, although she didn’t mind. She was soaking up every moment of this. Genevieve didn’t realize how much of a wiggly worm Amelie could be when she went to dress her. That was an adventure in itself.
She paused in the living room when she stood up from the floor where she had dressed her. Where did Amelie sleep? Corey never mentioned it.
The hallway wasn’t long and only sported two doors. One for the bathroom. One for the bedroom.
Well, shit.
She slept in Daddy’s room, no doubt. As he only had a one-bedroom apartment.
“Nothing we can do about that,” she said as she shared a look with Amelie.
She grabbed the book from the counter and headed to his bedroom. The bed was made, which surprised her. Maybe because she never made hers. It seemed pointless when she’d be messing it up hours later to go back to sleep in it.
Though the room was on the smaller side, it managed to hold a queen-size bed and a small crib on the side of it. There was barely any room to walk between the two and she wondered how Corey laid her down after rocking her to sleep.
Well, she’d figure it out.
She sat on the bed, sitting Amelie in the crook of her arm, and started reading the book as best as she could one-handed. With her high-pitched and animated voices, Amelie was smiling and making her sweet baby noises she made when she was happy. By the time the story was over, Genevieve was sad. She’d enjoyed that as much as Amelie had.
“Oh, shoot. We did this backward. It should’ve been your bottle then storytime. Well, we’ll repeat the story after your bottle. Yay for us.”
She set Amelie in the crib while she made the bottle, then fed her in the bedroom. Once finished, she got a nice, solid burp out of her then reread the story, just as animated as the first time.
It didn’t take long to rock her to sleep by walking back and forth in front of the bed. She imagined this was the same routine Corey did because her eyes closed quickly and her breathing became even without much fuss. She had an awkward time putting her in the crib but managed to do it without waking her up.
Once the door was closed, she sighed a breath of relief. Bedtime down without much fuss. When she walked out to the living room, she looked around, wondering what she should do for the last hour.
The dishes called her name because they were piled high in the sink and she couldn’t stand to look at them. She might be messy in some areas of her life, but she hated dishes sitting in the sink for too long.
Of course the dishwasher wasn’t working so she was forced to hand-wash. It wasn’t a terrible task, and once done, she wiped down all the counters and organized the baby supplies scattered around. She folded the blankets in the living room. And blew out a breath when she realized she had nothing else to do but wait.
Plopping down onto the couch, another deep breath released.
