“Do you have a diaper bag?”
“No. I flew out the door so fast, I didn’t even think about diapers.” He looked at his niece’s bare legs. “Or pants, apparently.”
I smiled. “That’s okay. I’m sure the nurse can give us one.”
The other little girl sat up from the stretcher and was looking at me.
Caine did the introduction. “This is Alley. She’s no help getting a diaper to stay on either.”
Lizzy and I visited the nurse’s station, and one of the aides was nice enough to go up to the pediatric unit and get us a few diapers and a small package of wipes. She also grabbed us kid-size pajama pants. After I straightened Lizzy out in the bathroom, I went back to Caine and Alley.
“All fixed.” Lizzy was smiling now. “And I think her rash has started to fade already.”
Caine examined his niece. “You’re right.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Thank Christ. The last thing my sister needed today was to come home to one of her kids in the hospital. She had thyroid cancer at twenty and had her thyroid removed. Last week she found a swollen lymph node under her arm. Doctor doesn’t think it’s anything, but she’s freaked out anyway. They’re doing a biopsy as a precaution.”
“Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. I hope everything turns out okay.”
Caine nodded. “Thank you.”
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A doctor stopped by to check on Lizzy, who was still in my arms. He pulled the curtain along the track on the ceiling and converted the open nook to a private treatment room. “How’s the little princess doing here?”
Caine answered. “It looks like the rash is starting to fade a little.”
“Let’s take a look.” He examined Lizzy’s face, belly, legs, and arms. “The Benadryl is kicking in. Let me just examine her one more time, in maybe a half hour, and then we can send you on your way. She’s going to be getting sleepy from the medicine pretty quick.” Before he walked out of the curtained area, he added, “Or not. Sometimes Benadryl can have the opposite effect on kids.”
Less than an hour later, we were discharged with a handful of papers. I walked Caine to his car and helped him strap the girls into their car seats.
“My sister insisted I take these things in case I had to go somewhere in an emergency. I told her she was nuts, I wasn’t planning on driving anywhere, but she stuck them in my car anyway.”
“Sounds like your sister made the right call.”
Caine grumbled. “She’ll lord that over me until we’re eighty, too.”
After the girls were strapped in, Alley asked if I could come back to her Uncle Caine’s to play with her. I’d started to say I couldn’t when Caine interrupted.
“I make a mean macaroni and cheese, if you’re hungry. You sure I can’t persuade you? We might have another diaper incident, and I’m almost out of duct tape. I may need to resort to Krazy Glue.”
I smiled. I was tempted, but when Caine’s face turned serious and he looked me in the eyes and said, “Please?” there was no way I could say no.
“I’ll follow you.”
His face lit up, and my damn heart started to race in response.
Calm down in there. He isn’t inviting you to a romantic dinner. He only wants you to help with his nieces. Put on a diaper, not take off your clothes.
The entire drive to Caine’s house, I tried to reason with my heart. Talk it down from the perch of excitement his invitation had pushed it out onto. But there was no reasoning with it. My head knew the truth, yet my heart didn’t really seem to give a shit.
Rachel
A gigantic black lab ran full-speed to greet me and almost bowled me over. I kneeled to say hello. “Hi, big guy. You’re so cute. What’s your name?”
Caine answered. “That’s Murphy.” He attempted a stern voice. “Down, boy.” The dog completely ignored him and attempted to burrow into my body.
I scratched behind Murphy’s ears while he went crazy sniffing me. “He listens to you well.”
“That’s your fault. He’s never going to listen with the way you smell.”
“The way I smell?” I wasn’t quite sure how to take that.
“A dog’s sense of smell is 1,000 times greater than a human’s.”
“And what, exactly, do I smell like?”
Caine walked over to where the dog was still mauling me and gave his collar a firm tug. “Come on, Murph. Give her a break, buddy.”
Eventually, the dog backed off enough for me to stand. Caine leaned in and took an exaggerated whiff of my neck with his eyes closed. “Summer. You always smell like summer.” Then he stepped back and winked. “My favorite season.”