“Of what?” The baby quieted down, seeming curious about this turn of events.
“That you’d wipe your hands of all this. Us.”
“Oh, Seth,” she said with a wry chuckle and a shake of her head. “I’m a little tougher than that. I could see how shocked you were. I was just giving you time to deal with her. I’m here. What can I do?”
“First things first, Jayne.” Seth gestured to the baby. “Meet Tobias Jansen Carter.”
Tobias huffed in a couple of post-crying-spell breaths and whispered, “Toby.”
“I think he prefers Toby.” Seth stroked his cheek, and the tenderness in his expression brought tears to her eyes.
She cleared her throat and tried to swallow the growing lump in her throat. “Then Toby it is.
It would be completely dark soon, and while the baby was cute as all get-out, he was definitely not fresh.
“Où ma Mimi?” Her high school French was rusty but it sounded like he’d posed the question, “Where my Mimi?” but Jayne didn’t know how to respond.
“We’re letting in bugs,” she said as she cleared the front door and closed it. “Grace and some of the gang will be here in a few minutes. Tell me what happened.”
Clapping her hands softly together, Jayne held them open for him. Toby responded to the universal signal and leaned toward her. His solid, warm weight settled into her arms, and he patted her hair gently then grabbed a big handful and pressed it to his nose.
“Ma Mimi.” Jayne’s heart clenched in sympathy for him as it seemed he hid his face in her hair.
Seth directed her to sit in the recliner and perched on the coffee table in front of her. “While Tamar was talking, he made eye contact with me and…my heart stopped. She said, ‘I can’t handle him anymore. Do you want him?’”
“She did?” Jayne reflexively tightened her grip on Toby but then stroked his back so he wouldn’t be upset by her reaction.
Seth caressed the bottom of Toby’s little socked foot. “I don’t think he understands much English, otherwise I wouldn’t repeat this. Tamar said, ‘I can hardly even look at him, if you want to know the truth. He reminds me too much of you.’ Jayne, I took one look at him and…he owned my heart. How could I say no? How could anyone say no?” Intense emotion sparked in his blue eyes as he held her gaze, seeming at a complete loss to understand how Tamar could be so cruel.
Without even realizing it, Jayne had begun rocking Toby in the recliner. His eyelids grew heavy. “Ma Mimi.” His little lip quivered and he began to cry again.
She rose from the recliner and stroked his head as he sat upright again. “We need to get him cleaned up and his diaper changed. The last thing he needs is to fall asleep dirty and then be awakened for a bath. It’s still early. Can you take him and I’ll fill the tub?”
“Sure.”
When she went to release him to his father, Toby clung to her like a little burr. Seth and Jayne smiled at each other.
Seth said, “Okay, I’ll fill the tub.” She imagined that she’d just been sent into the twilight zone, and wondered if she felt that way how it must be for Seth.
She followed him down the hall. “Who do you suppose Mimi is?”
“I’ve been thinking about it, because he’s been asking for her since Tamar left. It didn’t faze him at all when she walked out. She never even looked back, Jayne.” Seth shook his head as he started the tub filling with warm water. He perched on the side and adjusted the water temperature as she peeled Toby’s socks off. “I vaguely remember Henri speaking to a member of the waitstaff at his manor house and calling them by that name. She had long reddish-brown hair similar to yours.” She held a fussy Toby while Seth hooked the elastic waist on his britches and peeled them off. “Um, Jayne—” Jayne winced at the odor but chuckled when Toby made a heavy-duty grunting sound.
Perfect timing.
“Knock-knock!” Grace called from the front doorway. “Emma and Charity are with me.”
Seth went to the bathroom door. “Come on in. We’re in the bathroom.”
Jayne could hear bags rustling as packages were laid on the kitchen counter, and voices speaking, then cabinet doors opening and closing.
Jayne smiled when Dr. Emma Rivers peered around the doorway. “Hi, remember me?”
Jayne grinned at Emma as Seth greeted her and introduced her to the baby who was sucking on his fist.
“Grace called and since I was home, she swung by and picked me up so I could take a quick look at him. Hello, little man,” she whispered as she stroked his cheeks. “You made a stinky, didn’t you?” As if in response, Toby grunted and kicked his legs.