That wasn’t what Thad wanted. He had no qualms about making his opinion known. “Do we really have to be this regimented about it?” he asked. He had envisioned a much looser arrangement. One that had them popping in and out of each other’s homes, at whim.
Michelle painted the same way she made love, with slow, thoughtful strokes. “The court will want to know, Thad.” She focused on her task. “And I think it’s best. This way we’ll avoid any misunderstandings.”
“Like what?” Thad countered, feeling as if they were on the verge of their first fight.
Finished with the spot she was in, Michelle shifted several feet to the left. “We should split the cost of William’s babysitter. Whoever is off first should pick him up.”
Thad used a brush to paint along the trim line. “That seems reasonable.”
Michelle pressed her lips together. “That way he won’t have to be with the sitter more than three or four days a week at most. As for nights…that’s a little trickier. I’d like to have him fifty percent of the time, if that’s okay with you.”
Wow. She had thought this out. Though Thad knew it was only fair she enjoy her share of nighttime feedings, since those were the times when William was likely to be most in need of rocking and cuddling.
“What else?” He tried not to think about the evenings he wouldn’t spend looking after William anymore. Funny how quickly the little guy had become a major part of his existence, to the point Thad could no longer imagine his life without him.
“My home,” she said, “is not set up for a separate nursery. I can put the crib and changing table in my bedroom for now, but eventually, I’m going to have to hire an architect and put a two-story addition on if I want a room for William upstairs next to mine. Which I do.”
“Okay,” Thad said, not sure what she was getting at.
“And it could take a while to get the construction completed. In the meantime, I really think he needs the comfort and stability of his own nursery.”
His hopes for a more congenial arrangement rose. “You want to stay with us on the nights you’re the responsible parent?” He could go for that.
She looked at him as if shocked he would think her so presumptuous. “I want us to do what some divorcing couples do when they share custody and want to give the kids the reassuring comfort of their own space, in their own home. It’s called ‘bird-nesting.’ The kids stay in the same place—it’s the parents who come in and out, when it’s their turn.”
“So on your nights, you’d sleep here…”
Michelle nodded. “And you’d sleep at my house, in my bed.”
Thad could easily imagine trekking everything back and forth, but to sleep in her bed—and have her in his? How would he be able to do that and not think about making love to her again?
But then, maybe that was what this was all leading up to. Maybe she just needed him to slow down in the romance department while they figured out how to co-parent. All Thad knew for certain was that he wanted to be with Michelle as much as he wanted to be with William.
A spot of color appeared in Michelle’s cheeks. “It would certainly keep us from having to duplicate everything—in the short term. Until the adoption goes through, officially. And then, as William settles in and I get a place set up for him in my home, we could gradually transition him into spending half his time with me and half his time with you.”
“Sounds…complicated,” Thad said. Almost as if she already had one foot in the door and one foot out.
“Not really,” Michelle said, not meeting his eyes. “This is actually going to be easier for us in the short term. And it’s not like William would never be at my place with me. He would be. At first, like now, for small periods of time. For afternoons. Naps. While I’m also doing laundry and things like that. But once the construction starts, you know as well as I do that it’ll be too noisy and disruptive for him to be there.”
She had a point there. The sound of nail guns and hammers drove him crazy, Thad thought, and he was an adult. Just the sound of the vacuum cleaner had awakened and frightened the little guy the other day.
Michelle knelt to refill her paint tray. “The bottom line is, we have to be as proactive and consistent as possible in what we do where he is concerned.”
“And here I thought we’d just parent by the seat of our pants,” Thad joked.
Michelle lifted a censuring brow and rolled the last of the dark blue paint on the lower walls.
Thad had seen women lose their sense of humor when it came to issues like this. He’d hoped Michelle would not be one of them. He cleared his throat. “Seriously, I see your point. Although I don’t think William is all that aware of his surroundings.”
“But he will be,” Michelle predicted. “He’s getting more and more alert every day.”
“Speaking of which…” Thad finished applying the light blue paint and set the roller in the tray. He glanced at his watch. It had been nearly four and a half hours since the last feeding. “William should have been awake half an hour ago.”
Alarm flashed in Michelle’s eyes. Thad knew exactly how she felt. Usually William let them know when it was time to feed him.
“I’ll check on him.” Michelle was out the door like a shot.
Thad was hard on her heels.
They bounded down the stairs and into the living room, over to the Moses basket, where William was sleeping.
Eyes open, he had worked one arm out of his blanket and was lying quietly, looking up at the ceiling. Although he wasn’t making a sound, Thad noted his cheeks looked a little pink.
“Hey there, little fella,” Michelle said, reaching down to pick him up.
She frowned as she held William. “Thad? I think he feels a little warm.”
Chapter Ten
“Thanks for meeting us at your office,” Thad told his colleague Sandra Carson forty-five minutes later.
“No problem.” Sandra switched on lights as she went. The forty-two-year-old pediatrician was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt bearing the name of her youngest daughter’s T-ball team. “The game was just over when you called and the kids were going out for pizza with their teammates. My husband will bring them home.” She winked. “As well as a little dinner for me.” Sandra paused to wash her hands at the sink, then looped her stethoscope around her neck. “So what’s going on?”
“William woke from his nap with an elevated temperature.” Thad laid William on the examining table. The baby began to cry. Beside him, Michelle looked about to tear up, too. Realizing for the first time what it was to be the parent of a kid in this situation, instead of the doc in charge, Thad swallowed around the unaccustomed lump of emotion in his throat. “I know what I think it is, obviously, but I wanted an expert opinion.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right place.” Sandra unsnapped the knit sleeper. Her expression intent, she listened to William’s heart and lungs, then gently palpated his abdomen, checked him for any stiffness, looked into his throat, ears, nose. “There’s an enterovirus going around—usually lasts around three days—but I want to do a little blood work to confirm.”
Thad had expected as much. He began to relax. “We’ve been seeing it in the E.R., too.”
“It’s that time of year,” Sandra said sympathetically. “My kids had it week before last. They weren’t feeling very well, but they were happy to miss school.”
Michelle and Thad both chuckled.
“If you’ll hold him, I’ll do the prick,” Sandra said.
Michelle winced as William let out an enraged wail. Empathetic tears slid down her face.
“I’d like to get his temp again, too, when he calms down,” Sandra said before slipping out of the room.
Not sure who needed comforting more, Thad handed William to Michelle. The moment the little guy was wrapped in her arms, he stopped crying. “Guess he knows who his pals are,” Thad said.
He reached for the thermometer. While Michelle continued to hold William, Thad took his temp aga
in, as unobtrusively as possible. By the time Sandra came back in, the thermometer had beeped. Thad read the results out loud. It was a degree and a half above normal.
Sandra made note of it on William’s chart. “Not too awfully high, but you’ll need to keep an eye on it.” She looked up. “The blood test showed it’s not bacterial. So the treatment, as you know, is going to be acetaminophen, fluids and a lot of TLC. He may get a little worse before he gets better. Most important thing is to keep him comfortable, well-hydrated and his temp down.” Finished, Sandra held out her hand to Michelle. “I’m sorry. We got down to business so fast, you and I haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Sandra Carson, William’s pediatrician. And you are…?”
“Michelle Anderson, Thad’s neighbor…”
“And William’s mom,” Thad finished.
THAD’S COLLEAGUE looked like she could have been knocked over with a feather, Michelle thought.
“We’re both petitioning to adopt him,” she explained.
Sandra looked at Thad. “I didn’t even know you were involved with anyone.”
“He’s not. I mean, we’re not,” Michelle said, aware that even as she spoke the words felt untrue. Because they were involved, more so with every moment they spent together. Just not the way people expected.
“It’s complicated,” Thad said.
Michelle pretended an ease she didn’t feel. “A friendsbecoming-family thing.”
“Michelle will be every bit as involved in William’s care as I will be,” Thad stated casually.
Sandra blinked. “That’s great. Congratulations. William is one very lucky boy.”
“You okay?” Thad asked, when they were back home and getting William out of the back of his SUV.
Michelle nodded, though in truth she still felt a little shaky. It was always upsetting when a little one was sick. And with William barely two weeks old…She swallowed. “I know it’s supposed to be my night to take care of him, but I’m thinking…under the circumstances…that we should do it together at my house.”
Noting William had drifted off to sleep again on the short drive home, Thad left the baby strapped in the car seat and lifted the infant carrier out of the base. “Agreed.”
Trying not to think how nice it would feel to be with Thad all the time, Michelle walked slowly toward his front door. “One of us will have to sleep on the sofa bed.”
A warm spring breeze drifted over them. “No problem,” Thad said.
She studied the gentle, respectful light his eyes. He had such an easygoing attitude. “You sure?”
Thad nodded. “With him sick, I wouldn’t be comfortable away from him. And as William readily demonstrated in Sandra’s office, he needs you, too. So what do you say we gather up everything we need and then head across the street?”
Relieved they were on the same page, Michelle said, “Sounds great.”
They walked into the house. Michelle noted that the red light on Thad’s phone in the foyer was blinking. “Looks like you’ve got a message.”
Thad set the baby carrier down on the living-room floor, well out of any draft and away from any noise. He came back and punched the play button. A female voice floated out from the machine. “Hey, Thad, it’s Violet. How come you haven’t called me back? I thought you really needed my help ASAP but—”
Thad punched the end button. “I’ll listen to the rest of that later.” Guilt flashed across his handsome face as he studied her stricken look. “I know what you’re thinking. It’s not what it sounds.”
That was good, Michelle thought grimly, because it sounded like he was two-timing her—or would have been, had they been dating. Which, Michelle reminded herself firmly, they were most definitely not.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said.
“It does.” Thad caught her by the shoulders and turned her to face him.
Michelle held on to her dignity by a thread. Aware she’d already inadvertently revealed far too much of her feelings, she said as nonchalantly as possible, “Look, you’re free to date whoever you please, whenever you please. I am, too.”
He let her go. Stepped back. Studied her face, his own expression impassive. “That’s really the way you want it?” he asked. She noticed that his voice was a bit hoarse.
She avoided his gaze. “We’re both adults, with needs and…and desires. Simply put, this is the only way this arrangement of ours is going to work.”
MICHELLE’S VIEW on how their parental partnership should be conducted did not change Thad’s mind about where he wanted their relationship to go. But figuring his agenda could wait until after William was well, Thad did not pursue the issue. Rather, he said simply, “No matter what, Michelle, I want us to be friends.”
“I do, too.”
“Good. So, on to getting what we need for the evening ahead…”
While William continued to sleep in the baby carrier, Michelle collected clothing, blankets and diapers. Thad got the bottles, formula, baby first-aid kit containing acetaminophen and his medical bag. They heaped everything into an oversize laundry basket and took William across the street to her house.
Since the things they had purchased would not be delivered until later in the week, Thad returned for the portable crib and Moses basket. Realizing belatedly they probably needed the baby bathtub and assorted baby lotions, cleansers and wipes, he returned to get those, too.
When he came in, Michelle was in the kitchen, a fussing William in her arms. A half-made bottle of formula sat on the counter. “Need a hand?” Thad asked.
She nodded, her relief palpable. “I don’t know how single parents do it.”
Neither did Thad. He needed Michelle tonight, as much as William did.
Quickly he finished preparing the bottle and handed it to her. Michelle leaned against the counter and gave William the bottle. He drank a small amount, then started to drift off to sleep.
Michelle looked at Thad, a question in her eyes.
“We have to get more fluids than that into him,” Thad said.
Michelle shifted William to her shoulder, jostling him enough to wake him. She patted him on his back. He looked around, seeming listless and out of sorts. “I feel so bad for him,” she murmured.
“He’ll get through it,” Thad promised.
When William burped, Michelle tried again.
William sucked on the bottle without much interest. It took quadruple the amount of normal coaxing to get two ounces into him. Finally he pushed the nipple out of his mouth.
Thad touched the back of his hand to the little guy’s cheek. It was cool. The acetaminophen they had given William in Sandra’s office was doing its job. “Maybe we should put him down for a while and try again in two hours, instead of the usual four,” Thad suggested, knowing they were likely to have a long night ahead.
“SURE YOU HAVE everything?” Michelle asked Thad some five hours later. Thad looked at the sofa bed she’d made up for him in the living room. It was outfitted with cream-colored sheets, the same hue as the sofa, and a matching quilt. The pillows looked luxurious.
William was already settled in the mesh-sided portable crib upstairs next to her bed. Pushing aside the yearning to take her in his arms and give her a proper kiss good-night, Thad said gruffly, “I’ll be fine. Let me know if you need me.”
“I will.” Looking for a moment as if she wished he would kiss her, she gave him one last, grateful glance. “And thanks for staying over.”
“Nowhere I’d rather be,” Thad said.
Michelle smiled and slipped upstairs. Thad heard her moving around on the second floor as he went into the guest bath to change into a clean T-shirt and jersey sleep pants. By the time he’d climbed beneath the sheets, all was quiet again. He turned off the light and lay there, thinking about the day they’d had and the many more ahead of them. The next thing he knew Michelle was standing next to the sofa bed.
“There’s something wrong with William, Thad!” She shook him roughly. “Come quick!”
&
nbsp; He leaped from the sofa bed and raced up the stairs after her.
William was still in the portable crib. He was lying on his back, trembling and uttering a weak, distressed cry. Thad didn’t even have to touch him to know he was burning up. Calmly he lifted William and carried him over to the rumpled covers of Michelle’s bed. Although his adrenaline was pumping, his actions were measured as he coated the rectal thermometer with petroleum jelly. “Fill the baby bath with lukewarm water. Get a towel ready, and a clean diaper and change of clothes. I’ll be right in.”
By the time he entered the bathroom with a naked, stillwhimpering William, Michelle was ready for him.
Thad eased the baby into the tub, holding his tiny body in the palms of his hands. Being careful to keep the little guy’s face and neck above water, Thad said, “We need to lower his temperature as quickly as possible.”
Michelle edged in, her expression one of maternal distress. “How can I help?”
“Sponge him down with that washcloth.”
Michelle gently did as directed. “How high is his temp?”
Thad noted she was shivering, too. Probably from anxiety, since the interior of the house was warm and draft free. “One hundred three point eight—almost three degrees above normal.” “When do we worry?”
“If it goes any higher, but it won’t. I just gave him another
dose of acetaminophen. That, plus the bath will help.”
William’s wailing approached a normal pitch.
Over and over, Michelle gently sponged him down. “He really doesn’t like this,” she murmured to Thad.
“I know,” Thad said, cradling the infant in his hands. “But he’ll feel better soon, I promise.”
Together they worked on cooling William’s fevered skin, both of them reassuring him with touch and soft words. William continued to cry. Finally Michelle began to sing. She had a lovely voice, clear and lilting. As the sweet sound filled the bath, William’s cries lessened, then eventually stopped. As his body temperature fell to normal, he looked up at Michelle, with a mixture of wonder and what Thad could only describe as love. And the most incredible thing of all was that Thad felt it, too.
Found: One Baby Page 13
