Rachel: I owe you one. For everything. For showing up to make sure I was okay, for talking to me about Davis, taking me home and giving me your secret recipe for a hangover-free morning. Actually…maybe I owe you two. LOL
Caine: We’ll call it one, and we’re even. But can I cash that one in today, if you’re feeling up to it?
I’d forgotten Caine had asked me to cover his class this afternoon. I was working the day shift, but Charlie wouldn’t mind if I left a little early. Late afternoon was always dead anyway.
Rachel: I can cover your class. Sorry, I forgot that was what started my drunken rampage last night.
Caine: Thank you.
Things between Caine and me had changed last night. Our attraction was out in the open now, so I figured cheeky was okay.
Rachel: I’m not covering for you to have a nooner, am I?
I visualized Caine’s lip twitching as he shook his head.
Caine: I do have a date with two pretty girls. But one is two and a half and the other is four, and they usually cry when they see me.
Rachel: ?
Caine: Sister’s kids. She’s having a biopsy this afternoon and needs me to watch her little monsters.
Rachel: Oh. I’m sorry. I was just joking. I hope everything is okay. I’ll cover the class no problem.
Caine: Thank you.
After class was over, I sat in Caine’s chair for a while, waiting for the students to empty out. Sitting in his spot at the front of his room somehow made me feel closer to him. Since I was thinking about the sexy professor, I figured I’d send him a text to see how he was making out babysitting. The thought of Caine wrangling two little girls made me smirk. I wondered if he changed diapers—I’d guess he’d have to in order to watch two girls under four.
Rachel: Class was good. I think they like me better than you. ;)
Caine: That’s good. You might be taking over my job when my sister kills me.
That didn’t sound like things were going well.
Rachel: What happened?
Caine: I forgot Lizzy had a nut allergy. We’re in the emergency room.
I was pretty surprised that Caine had taken me up on my offer to come give him a hand at the hospital—until I got there. I’d lied and said I was family to get into the back treatment area, and I spotted Caine in a little open-curtained examination area on the other side of the nurse’s station, looking uncharacteristically freaked out. He had what I assumed was the two year old dangling from one hip while she cried at the top of her lungs. The older girl was sprawled out on a stretcher, blowing up a latex glove like a balloon.#p#分页标题#e#
As I got closer, I got a better look at the little girl. What the? What the heck was she wearing? It looked like a backwards T-shirt and a strange diaper of some sort.
“Hi,” I said.
Caine was definitely relieved to see me. “Hey. Thanks for coming.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Lizzy is going to be okay. It’s just a rash, luckily. They gave her some Benadryl, and the doc wants to keep an eye on her for a while.”
I smiled at the little girl on his hip, and she quieted her screaming to check me out. “Hi, there. You must be Lizzy.”
I’d assumed the older girl lying in the bed was the patient, but the niece Caine was holding had a rash on her face and neck.
The sweet little girl nodded while her bottom lip quivered. She had a crazy head full of red ringlet curls. I reached out and fingered one. “I love your curls. They remind me of Merida. Do you know who Merida is?”
She nodded.
“I bet you’re brave just like the Disney princess.”
I pushed a long curl that was plastered to her wet cheek back off her face. The bracelets on my wrist jingled and caught her attention.
“You like those?”
She nodded again.
“I’m Rachel—a friend of your Uncle Caine’s. You want to wear one?”
He eyes lit up, and she nodded again, only faster this time.
I slipped two of the bracelets from my wrist and held them out. She smiled and let me put them on her. It was then that I got a closer look at what the poor thing was wearing.
“Ummm…Caine? Why is her diaper duct taped?”
“I couldn’t get the damn thing to stay on.”
I held back my laugh as best as I could. The poised picture of perfection was so out of his element and frazzled.
Extending my arms, I smiled warmly at Lizzy. “Can I hold you? Maybe I can fix your diaper and put your shirt on the right way.”
Caine’s brow furrowed as he looked at his niece. It was obviously news to him that her shirt wasn’t on right. Lizzy was apprehensive, but eventually she leaned toward me, and I took her from her uncle’s arms.