The Journey Home(36)
Author: Kelly Elliott

He let out a breath and looked around as if he was trying to think. “Let me see if I have your proposition right. You no longer have a job.”

I nodded my head. “Correct. I’m…jobless.”

“Uh huh. You want to move in here. And be Lily’s nanny.”

I began to chew on my lip. “I don’t want to be her Aunt Maddie, Cale. I want to be more.”

“More?”

Tears burned my eyes and I blinked to hold them back. “Yes,” I said, my voice cracking.

Cale opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat. “Like, a mother figure?”

I felt a tear slip down my cheek. I whispered, “Yes.”

He took a step toward me. “If you move in, what happens when you want to have your boyfriend over? Or I want to bring a date home?”

A small sob escaped my mouth, but it had nothing to do with Lily. It had more to do with the idea of Cale talking about dating. Him moving on.

I swallowed and wiped my tears away. “I don’t have a boyfriend. We broke up.”

Cale’s eyes lit up as he attempted to hide a smile. “Why did you break up?”

I began wringing my hands. Don’t push your feelings away, Maddie. Let go of the control. Monica’s words popped into my head.

“Sometimes, I think, we have to learn to let go of the control we think we need in order to find what fate has in store for us.”

I sucked in a shaky breath. “We didn’t want the same things.”

Cale took a step closer to me. “Is that right? What did he want?”

I looked Cale in the eyes. “He wanted me to look at him…like I look at you.”

Cale’s green eyes widened as he stopped in front of me. He placed his finger on my chin and lifted my face to his. He leaned down and got closer to my lips. “Why do you look at me differently, Maddie?”

I moaned a little, knowing his lips were mere inches from mine. I’d never, in all my life, wanted to be kissed as much as I wanted to be kissed in this moment, by this man I loved with all my heart.

“I look at you differently because…” My eyes searched his face like I was trying to memorize it. I stared at his mouth and I ran my tongue across my bottom lip. Finally, I looked into his eyes and smiled. “Because I love you.”

Cale closed his eyes and whispered, “Finally.” When he opened them, he pulled me closer and was about to kiss me when Lily began crying.

I let out a giggle, “So it begins.”

“Shit. Let me go check on her, Don’t move.”

I smiled softly. “I promise, I’m not going anywhere.”

As he walked backward, Cale had a huge smile on his face. I wanted to tell him to watch out, but it was too late. He fell over the ottoman and did a pretty impressive roll. I slammed my hands to my mouth to cover my laugh.

“Are you okay?” I asked

He jumped up. “Yes! I’m more than okay. Just hold on. Don’t move.” He turned and began running up stairs, but he tripped and fell. “Shit! I’ll be right back!” He yelled as he continued running to the nursery.

I dropped my head back and hugged myself, reminding myself that I needed to take this slow. I knew I shouldn’t jump into bed with him, no matter what I felt.

“Oh, God!” Cale shouted. “Oh my God. What the hell?” he continued as he walked down the stairs, his arms outstretched, holding Lily.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I started to walk toward them. Then I smelled it. I placed my hand over my nose. “Oh my God! What’s that smell?”

“Bath! Maddie get the bath out!”

That’s when I saw it. Lily had shit all the way up her back. I ran over to the cabinet and grabbed the bath before racing into the kitchen. I began frantically taking dirty dishes out of the sink.

“Jesus, Cale. When did you last do dishes?” I asked as I tossed them all on the counter.

“I’m gonna throw up. Oh God!” Cale cried out as he began to gag.

I turned on the water and looked around for the damn rubber duck thermometer Monica had insisted we buy, to make sure we got the water temperature just right. “Where’s the rubber duck? Shit! Where’s the rubber duck?”

Cale was gagging as he tried to take off Lily’s clothes. “Right. There. Oh God, I’m gonna throw up…it’s in her hair! How the hell did she get shit in her hair?”

I found the rubber ducky and pushed it under the running water. “Cale! We can’t swear in front of her.”

Perfect water temperature. I went back to the cabinet and grabbed a washcloth and baby soap, then ran back into the kitchen where I slipped on something and went down. Hard.

I jumped back up and yelled, “I’m okay! I just slipped on…” I looked down to see Lily’s shitty clothes on the floor.

Cale pushed Lily toward me. “Take her! Oh, God, take her, I’m gonna throw up.”

I took her and felt my hands touch something warm. No. Nope. I didn’t just touch shit. Nope. I didn’t. Then I looked.

“Oh God oh God oh God! Eww! Oh my God, it’s all over her.” Cale grabbed the sprayer and began spraying Lily.

“Stop! It’s spraying in my mouth! Cale, stop!”

I turned and placed Lily in the tub. When I looked at her she had the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face. My heart soared as I noticed how big my baby girl had gotten in just a month. I smiled back at her and grabbed the washcloth and poured soap on it.

“We can’t let her sit in this water,” I said. “Grab the back-up tub!”

Cale was still gagging as he jumped over the mess on the floor and ran upstairs to Lily’s room.

“You little stinker. What did you do?” I asked as I attempted to clean her off. Cale came running back into the kitchen and put three towels down. I handed Lily to him as I said, “Here, take her for right now. I think I got most of it off. Let me dump this and fill the other tub up with clean water.”

Cale wrapped her up in a towel. “Baby girl, what are you trying to do?” he asked. “Daddy can deal with a little bit of poo…but not that much.”

I giggled as I filled up the new tub. I turned and held my hands out for Lily. Cale gave her to me and I slipped her down into the clean water to give her a proper bath.

“I’ll take all this into the laundry room,” Cale said as he started picking up the clothes on the floor.

I watched him walk out of the kitchen attempting to hold his nose as he brought the dirty clothes and tub to the laundry room. I glanced back at Lily and shook my head to get the naughty thoughts out.