Firefighter's Babysitter

by Flora Ferrari

  I set the timer on my phone for twenty minutes. I want to even out my tan today and twenty minutes on each side should be more than enough.

  Bryson’s latest forty-eight hour shift ended at noon. I had lunch waiting for him when he arrived home and after a little enjoyable time together talking over a coffee after we finished eating he just had to lie down for a few hours. The guys at the station drink so much coffee it barely has an effect on them anymore. We joke about getting him an IV, but I think even that wouldn’t work these days. Bryson can down two cups and fall straight to sleep.

  I hear the shower water turn off and I know he’s about ready to start his nap.

  I reach around and remove my bikini top and then slide out of my bottoms. I’m not sure why, but I still feel naughty sunbathing nude. It’s not like anyone can see me, but still.

  I put a towel over my face and lie on my back, feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun on my body. Does it ever feel good.

  I hear some shuffling inside the house, but pay it no mind. With Delilah asleep and Douggie soon to be asleep at the side of the bed next to Bryson it’s my peaceful time in the afternoon.

  I might even catch just a bit of sleep. Wouldn’t that be nice?

  CHAPTER 13

  Bryson

  I finish toweling off and just as I’m about to jump into bed I hear the doorbell.

  The doorbell? Who in the world drops by unannounced these days? I thought door-to-door salesmen were a thing of the past.

  Aubrey’s outside getting some sun so she probably won’t hear it.

  I slide into my shorts and head towards the door. I’m not going to put my dirty T-shirt back on, plus this will only take a minute.

  I don’t even look through the peephole. I just pull open the door ready to dismiss this guy as quickly as I can so I can get some rest, but when the door opens halfway my mouth opens all the way.

  As in hits the floor.

  “Bryson!”

  Adam is standing on my doorstep with a wheeled luggage next to him.

  “Adam? Hey man!” I try and change my tone as quickly as I can. And my mind immediately starts going through the mental gymnastics of what incriminating clues might be lying around the house right now. And the numbers certainly do add up to a lot. “What are you doing here?”

  “I flew in for a conference and I wanted to surprise you.”

  “Well, you were certainly successful in doing that.”

  “Good to see you, buddy!”

  “Good to see you too. And it is, but the timing is completely off, and timing is everything right now.”

  “So I come in for the conference, but the hotel is completely overbooked. They don’t have anything. They sent me to a couple other places but it’s like the entire town is completely sold out. I hope it’s not too much trouble, but I was hoping…”

  Oh hell no.

  “Sure, man. Mi casa es su casa.”

  “Thanks, man. Sorry to just drop in like this.”

  “Are you kidding? No problem.”

  “How’s everything going with Aubrey.”

  “Great. She’s doing a wonderful job with Delilah.”

  “Awesome. I knew it would be a good fit.”

  Then the awkward pause.

  “Is she around? I really want to surprise her.”

  Oh, you’re going to surprise her all right. And I need to put a stop to that right now.

  “Baby, who is it?” comes from the other room.

  Adam looks at me strangely.

  “The baby’s fine, Aubrey. She’s sleeping.”

  I see Adam looking up and to the left as if he’s trying to piece together what he heard, and what I’m trying to make him think he heard.

  I place my fingers to my lips and make a shhhh sound.

  I quickly whisk him off to my bedroom and shut the door.

  I turn around just in time to see Aubrey butt ass naked standing in the hallway!

  I frantically motion with my hands for her to get back, moving toward her quickly and motioning to put on some clothes!

  “What’s wrong?” she says.

  I give her the same shhh motion and half a second later I’ve got her wrapped up in my arms and moved into the kitchen.

  “Your brother. He’s here.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I’m not joking. He’s in my bedroom. He just showed up. He wants to surprise you. He could come out at any second.”

  “Oh my god.”

  Aubrey grabs for the sliding door, but just before she pulls it I grab her by the wrist.

  “No! If he’s by the window he’ll be able to see you!”

  I tiptoe, in my own house, to the laundry room and grab a pair of shorts and a T-shirt from above the washer. Thankfully we keep our extra clothes in there.

  Before I’m even in the kitchen I toss them to Aubrey and she scurries to put them on.

  Just as she slides up the shorts, no panties, the bedroom door comes flying open.

  “Surprise!” Adam says. “I heard you two talking. What’s up, sis?”

  My chest is heaving as is Aubrey’s.

  “What’s going on?” Adam asks. “You two look…rattled.”

  “It’s Delilah,” I say. “Something’s wrong.”

  I take off through the sliding door and move towards the crib. I scoop her up and bounce her in my arms. “There. There.”

  She starts crying because I woke her up so quickly.

  I feel like a complete jerk. I can’t believe I just used my child to cover for myself. In my own house!

  I have no problem telling Adam straight up what’s going on, but I haven’t talked to Aubrey about it yet. I don’t want to put her in an uncomfortable position, and we’re dangerously close to that already.

  I can only imagine if word got out back home. In small towns word travels fast and rarely with grace and dignity, and often with damaging effects and as the story gets retold it only gets more aggressive, condescending, and rude.

  Not good.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Adam asks.

  “Yeah, she’ll be fine. I just don’t like to hear her crying.” And it’s true. I don’t and she rarely does.

  But right now she’s balling, Douggie is barking his brains out, Aubrey looks shocked, and Adam is the houseguest from hell. And he hasn’t done anything wrong, other than show up unannounced.

  This is spiraling out of control quickly and I need to live up to the moniker of man of the house and get this ship righted.

  CHAPTER 14

  Adam

  I take a drag of my cigarette and stare into the night trying to figure out just what in the heck is going on.

  Something is definitely off.

  So the three of us go out for burgers after Bryson woke up, but Bryson didn’t eat as much as he normally does. The guy’s an animal at the dinner table. The way he works out plus his line of work requires it.

  That and the conversation wasn’t there. We haven’t seen each other for months and for the first time since we met it was like we ran out of things to talk about. No way that’s normal.

  And then we get home and put in a movie and it’s like three strangers sitting around the TV. Nobody’s guessing what’s going to happen next. Nobody’s eating the popcorn that’s on the table. And the movie is a weird choice, like it’s something that’s just noise to try and draw attention away from the awkwardness that’s going on.

  And it’s even affecting me. I barely ever smoke, but I brought this pack along anyways. And this is my third cigarette and the packs finished. I only ever smoke when I’m anxious or feeling unsettled or nervous. I guess those are kind of all similar, but the feeling I’m getting now isn’t any of those three. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

  Well, whatever’s up will present itself soon enough. I just need to be patient.

  At first I thought something was going on between my best friend and my sister. It’s like all their stuff is pretty much mixed in together but I
guess that makes sense since they live in the same house. It’s not that big, plus they don’t have time to be worrying about what goes where when they’re trying to raise a child together. I laughed off the idea almost as soon as I thought about it.

  But wouldn’t it be funny if Aubrey saw me smoking. Nobody in my family knows I smoke, and although I’m an adult and really don’t care what anyone thinks, I just don’t want to deal with it. Plus it would worry my mother and that’s definitely not what I want to be doing at her advanced age, or ever really.

  I look around and see that Bryson has his trash bin out already. Jackpot. Tomorrow must be trash day and although the neighbors seem to be slacking, Mr. Prepared Bryson of course has his out the night before. It’s not like this neighborhood is going to have stray dogs or anything like that.

  I’m really impressed with Santa Barbara. I can see how great it would be to live here. I wonder what my sister’s going to do when the time comes. I mean she can’t be a babysitter forever can she? She’s got aspirations to be a businesswoman, that I know.

  Well I guess she’ll cross that bridge when she gets there.

  I need to toss this empty package of smokes and try and get some sleep. I’ve got presentations to make this week and I don’t need to be stressed out and looking all worn down when I’m making them.

  I walk over to the green bin and lift the lid. I don’t want to just toss the empty pack in casually because it might fall out when the garbage truck picks up the trash. I need to put it in a bag.

  The things we do to keep secrets.

  Luckily the top is sealed with a twisty tie. Again I’m lucky it’s Bryson I’m dealing with here. Not only is he prepared, but he’s organized and orderly.

  I untie the top and toss the pack in before starting to put the tie back on.

  My hands stop.

  Wait a second.

  Was that…

  I didn’t see…

  Did I?

  This isn’t my business and I should just go back inside, but the curiosity is killing me. Plus if that’s what it looks like then I just got to the bottom of this mystery.

  I breathe out hard. I’ve got to know. Got to take another look.

  I untie the twisty tie and look inside the bag.

  Well I’ll be.

  I feel my face get hot and my blood rush through my veins. I’m angry. Pissed the hell off.

  I reach inside and remove the little “souvenir.”

  We’re going to have a talk about this in the morning. If I can keep from blowing my lid until then.

  CHAPTER 15

  Aubrey

  I sit down at the table for breakfast and I can feel Adam’s eyes burning a hole right through me.

  “How’d you sleep…sis?”

  “Okay,” I say. But it was anything but.

  “Really? I heard you tossing and turning all the way from the couch.”

  “I was? That’s weird.”

  It is weird and it’s even weirder that he knew and that he heard me.

  “Yeah, I’m concerned. I mean after what I heard coming from the bathroom this morning.”

  “That was me,” Bryson says. “Sorry about that. What I ate yesterday didn’t agree with me.”

  I try and think and realize there were no weird noises coming from Bryson’s room this morning. Is he covering for me?

  “Not your bathroom, Bry,” Adam says. “The one Aubrey and I are sharing.”

  I just ignore him hoping it will go away.

  “I heard you puking, sis. Are you sure you don’t want to get that checked out? By a doctor maybe?”

  What in the world? Where is he going with this.

  “I’m fine. And I wasn’t puking. I was just coughing really badly. Something smelled like smoke and you know how cigarettes bother me.”

  Two can play at this game. I could smell it on his T-shirt this morning. I had no idea he smoked, but it sure seems like he’s started.

  “A bad cough and dry heaving aren’t exactly the same thing. You know you could probably get something over the counter…to you know run a test and see if you’re okay. You know…over the counter tests work pretty well these days. So I’ve heard.”

  What is wrong with him? And what’s up with this passive aggressive line of questioning?

  “You know when you picked up Delilah this morning and brought her to your chest I saw you wince.”

  “So what! What the fuck? What’s wrong with you? What do you want?”

  I can’t believe I just lost it.

  “What’s wrong with me? What in the fuck is wrong with you two?”

  “Nothing until you got here.”

  “Yeah, because I came and ruined your little party, huh? Let’s see…”

  “Not feeling well.”

  “Not sleeping well.”

  “Breasts hurting.”

  “Come on, Adam!” Bryson says, but it doesn’t stop him.

  “Looking like shit, because you’re not sleeping.”

  “Get the fuck out of my house, Adam!” Bryson says pointing towards the door.

  “And you peed three times already this morning? Why? Because of this!”

  He slams down a box on the counter and then pulls his hand back, crossing his arms over his chest like he’s all proud or something.

  I look down at the box and my heart drops in my chest.

  Bryson’s about to grab Adam by the back of the shirt but when he sees the box he freezes.

  And then looks up at me.

  I look away.

  “Aubrey?”

  “I was going to tell you last night. I just found out, but then this jerk showed up.”

  “So that means?”

  I nod.

  Bryson steps toward me and wraps me up in his arms. A wave of emotions hits me and the waterworks start flowing immediately.

  “I knew it!” Adam says.

  I feel Bryson step back and pivots on the balls of his feet just before he lands a punch right to Adam’s jaw.

  He goes down immediately. He reaches up for the table to try and pick himself off the floor, but all he manages to do is tip the table sending the home pregnancy test box sliding down its surface and hitting him right in the face.

  CHAPTER 16

  Aubrey

  Bryson had Adam out of the house so fast I don’t think he knew what was happening.

  He yelled at him to get a hotel in Ventura, half an hour south, and not bother us anymore.

  He didn’t want to see or hear from him again until he was ready to be an adult and support his supposed best friend and his sister’s decision.

  Adam didn’t say much, but how could he. He left with his tail between his legs which was fine by me anyway.

  Bryson came back inside and spent the next hour holding me and making me feel better.

  He was so excited about the news and I was too. I was just disappointed in the way he had to find out.

  But once we got past that, or should I say I got past that since Bryson seemed to be doing such a good job by forgetting that Adam ever even showed up, there was cause for celebration.

  Bryson was practically bouncing off the walls he was so excited. I reminded him we needed to confirm at a doctor’s office, he wanted to throw caution to the wind. I had to slow him down from calling all his friends. He really was clueless when it came to kids, birth…basically how life gets started other than the whole making it part.

  He was definitely an expert in that regard and that more than made up for his lack of knowledge in the other areas. That and his exuberance and the way he looked at me. He’s always looked at me with such admiration but there was just something different about it now. It made sense though. I would expect you’d look at the soon-to-be mother of your first-born child differently. Not that Delilah didn’t count, not that at all, but there’s something different about your first child that you yourself make with someone else. Especially when that someone is your soul mate, which he reminded me of over and over countle
ss times this morning.