“… planetarium didn’t understand the importance of proper planetary placement. Are you listening to me?” Joe asked, his pink lips flattening.
“Sure! The planetarium wasn’t cool with your planets?” He frowned. Fuck, that was even cute. “I’m sorry. I’m about to crash here. Can you give me the basics?”
“I helped my sister raise her daughter. I still live with them. I’ve taken all the required courses online such as positive discipline, water awareness, stress management, safety in the home, food safety, sleep training, brain development, trends in childcare, and gender-neutral parenting. I also have my CPR and water safety certification.”
“Dude, I’m impressed. And you study space too?” He nodded, looking pleased with himself and his studies. He should’ve been. I’d barely gotten through college. All I’d wanted to do was make music and play hockey. “I’m sold. The Westman-Reids totally vouched for your agency, and Simon has already run a criminal check on you and your family. When can you start?”
“Rushing things, aren’t we?” Simon said. I hadn’t even heard him come into the room.
“You ignoring the rules, and you and your security shouting in the hall, is that a thing?” Joe crossed his arms over his chest, and I wasn’t sure that we had him squared away. I didn’t like the prison guard vibe, but for Maddie Boo I would do anything.
Simon moved to where I could see him, and we locked gazes. I knew what he was asking, that I don’t leave the gates open, or let my bandmates in, or one of a hundred other things I was fucking up. He raised an eyebrow.
“It won’t happen again,” I said. “So when can you start?”
He paused for the longest time. “Time off for my family, a proper contract, and I can start now… I guess.”
“Sweet.” I stood, the last notes I’d played dying away as I wiggled my sleeping daughter out of the sling and placed her into Joe’s nicely defined arms. “The nursery is upstairs. Can’t miss it, it’s all yellow and white with bright blue, green, red, and purple polka dots. Some friends of mine came over with samples and they just went mad. You can put her down for a nap, yeah?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll give you a two-week trial. Is that fair?” He held Madeline as if he were born to bounce a baby.
“Yep, completely fair.” We bumped elbows in lieu of shaking as his hands were full of the most precious cargo on the planet.
He walked off, my girl in his arms, and I threw myself onto the gold couch with a groan that usually only escaped me when I was busting a nut. The cushion smelled of cheap beer, cigarette smoke, and salmon fritters. Didn’t matter. I closed my eyes and was asleep instantly, my dreams centered on my baby girl and the intriguing man who had the soul of a mama grizzly and eyes as pure blue as a spring sky.
Six
Joseph
I wasn’t sure what had happened. Somehow I’d agreed to two weeks, and now I was standing in the middle of a color explosion. The nursery wasn’t rocking the pastel shades at all, no gentle lemon bunnies or pale pink teddies. It looked as if someone had just randomly painted shapes everywhere. At first I winced, but when the initial shock passed I realized the dots made patterns and numbers, and the bright colors would be wonderful when Madeline Celeste could really make them out.
“Ryker and Alex did it,” Simon said from the door. I’d sensed him following me upstairs, so I assume I was the new big worry in his life. On top of security gates being open, and that weird guy at the bar with the white powder, Buck, or Buick, or something?
“Who?” I turned to face him and he filled the doorway without much room to spare.
“Team mates of Colorado’s at the Craptors, sorry, Raptors. I need to stop calling them that, but I’m a Boston fan to the core.” He thumped his chest, which I guess was his way of underscoring the sentiment. I’d never followed organized sports and chest-thumping wasn’t something we did in science club; the odd semi-ironic eureka! every so often, but no chest-thumping.
“Oh.” I swung back to stare at the wall, making out the numbers three and zero. “It’s actually very clever and you know, although an infant's color vision is not as sensitive as ours, it’s generally accepted that babies have good color vision by five months of age. I’m guessing that Madeline Celeste is what, a month?”
“Maddie,” Simon corrected and came into the room. Thankfully it was a big room with a vaulted ceiling space and cross beams that would look fabulous with hanging mobiles, and maybe some stars. “That’s what C calls her. Maddie. Sometimes Maddie Boo—where that comes from I don’t know.”
“Okay then.” There was another door from the room and I opened it, aware that Simon was right up close. The door led to a bathroom unlike anything I’d seen before. There was a sunken bath, a triple-sized shower, the gleam of steel, and so many mirrors I could see myself and Maddie to infinity. On one side there was a long wide cabinet that had been dragged in, given the dent in the wall, and on top of that was a changing mat, and a pile of supplies. The two sinks were enormous—easily big enough to bathe a baby, and the pile of fluffy towels in ten different rainbow colors were above the sink on a shelf. I headed back out, Simon blocking my way momentarily before stepping to one side. I guess it was a show of who was in charge but I wasn’t going to confront him and push the
