“Did you just get home, Rochelle?” he asked after stepping into my apartment.
“A few minutes ago. What’s up?” I asked as Ty grabbed my forefinger with his chubby little hand and cooed. Smiling, I leaned over and kissed the top of the baby’s head. He took after my sister and was dark-skinned with black hair.
“Sorry to bother you, Rochelle, but we’re out of milk again and I have to give Ty his bottle.”
“Raven working late again?”
“Uh-huh. That girl took off the second I got home.”
“I hope this new job she’s got is good-paying.”
“Me, too. Especially with all the long hours she’s been putting in.”
Odd, I thought. What kind of job had my sister, who was hardly able to hold on to one in the past, rushing out to it as if her very life depended on it? “Here’s the milk. If you need anything else just holler.”
Our fingers briefly touched as I handed Wayne the milk. A delightful sensation flowed straight through me to my very core. I tried to mask the desire I was feeling by reminding myself he was my sister’s husband and could never be mine.
I’d thought when Raven got married she’d straighten up and fly right. She’d snagged the most wonderful guy in the entire world, the one man I truly ever wanted. And if he were my man, I’d make it my business to be home every night to keep him happy and satisfied. My little sister had to have a few loose screws to behave the way she did. She treated that man like dirt. If she didn’t watch out, she was going to lose him one day.
We said good-night, and I watched Wayne walk back to his apartment. Again I thought how my little sister had better start taking better care of her husband. He was too prime to lose.
* * *
One night nearly a week later, my phone rang at eleven o’clock. I’d been about to make myself a soothing cup of herbal tea and crawl into bed with a hot romance novel.
“Rochelle, it’s me, Wayne. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No. You sound upset. What’s wrong?”
“Something’s wrong with Ty—”
“I’ll be right there,” I said, hanging up the phone. I threw a raincoat over my nightie, grabbed my keys and rushed out the door. My sister and her family lived only two doors down. I’d found them the apartment after she’d gotten married and needed a place to live.
As I knocked on the door, I could hear Ty crying. Wayne looked pale and worried as he gingerly handed his son to me. “He’s been this way for more than an hour.”
“Where’s my sister?” I asked, already knowing the answer as I carried my nephew into his room to check him out on his dressing table.
“Working,” Wayne said, following close behind me. “Lately, that’s all she does. I think she’s forgotten she has a baby to care for.”
At this hour? It was difficult to work in my raincoat, so I took it off, forgetting that I was just in a nightie. I’d feared at first that Ty’s problem might be his appendix; however, it turned out that Ty was only very gassy and needed a good burping.
“Wayne, relax. It’s not serious. Ty’s gassy.”
“That’s a relief. Is there something you can do to make him more comfortable?”
“I’ve got to get some of the gas out of him. Did you burp him after he had his bottle?”
“Sure. I always do.”
“Well, he’s still got a great deal of air trapped inside that little body of his and that’s what’s making him uncomfortable. Can you please hand me a towel to put on my shoulder?”
Wayne disappeared a moment before coming back with a small towel, which he handed to me.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.” I placed the towel on my shoulder and held Ty upright against my chest with his head resting on the towel in case he spit up. Gently, I patted his back and was rewarded with a little burp. It wasn’t enough. He didn’t have to start fussing and fretting again for me to realize he was still very gassy.
Poor Wayne looked so worried, and he watched what I was doing closely. I laid Ty on his back on the dressing table again and began to move his pudgy little legs in a gentle bicycling motion, slowly pushing one leg up near his chest and pulling it back while pushing the opposite leg up to his chest. I repeated the motions several times as we listened to the baby’s bodily functions. Alternating between burping and farting, he cracked us both up. Finally Ty seemed comfortable enough to be able to sleep. That was about the same time my sister came breezing through the door as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
Raven was dressed as if she was coming from a dinner date, not work. One look at me and she was on the offense. “Do you always entertain my husband in a nightie when I’m not home?”
Embarrassed, I grabbed my raincoat and struggled into it as quickly as I could. “Ty wasn’t feeling good and Wayne needed help.”
“Sure. So you came running over dressed for bed,” she said in a sarcastic tone as she tapped the toe of one of her red high-heels.
I wanted to grab her and shake her for so many reasons my head spun with them. She looked like she’d just been out on the town and not working…unless she had the kind of job that I didn’t want to put a name to. That would certainly explain the