Caine: We’ll call it one, and we’re even. But can I cash that one in today, if you’re feeling up to it?
I’d forgotten Caine had asked me to cover his class this afternoon. I was working the day shift, but Charlie wouldn’t mind if I left a little early. Late afternoon was always dead anyway.
Rachel: I can cover your class. Sorry, I forgot that was what started my drunken rampage last night.
Caine: Thank you.
Things between Caine and me had changed last night. Our attraction was out in the open now, so I figured cheeky was okay.
Rachel: I’m not covering for you to have a nooner, am I?
I visualized Caine’s lip twitching as he shook his head.
Caine: I do have a date with two pretty girls. But one is two and a half and the other is four, and they usually cry when they see me.
Rachel: ?
Caine: Sister’s kids. She’s having a biopsy this afternoon and needs me to watch her little monsters.
Rachel: Oh. I’m sorry. I was just joking. I hope everything is okay. I’ll cover the class no problem.
Caine: Thank you.
After class was over, I sat in Caine’s chair for a while, waiting for the students to empty out. Sitting in his spot at the front of his room somehow made me feel closer to him. Since I was thinking about the sexy professor, I figured I’d send him a text to see how he was making out babysitting. The thought of Caine wrangling two little girls made me smirk. I wondered if he changed diapers—I’d guess he’d have to in order to watch two girls under four.
Rachel: Class was good. I think they like me better than you. ;)
Caine: That’s good. You might be taking over my job when my sister kills me.
That didn’t sound like things were going well.
Rachel: What happened?
Caine: I forgot Lizzy had a nut allergy. We’re in the emergency room.
I was pretty surprised that Caine had taken me up on my offer to come give him a hand at the hospital—until I got there. I’d lied and said I was family to get into the back treatment area, and I spotted Caine in a little open-curtained examination area on the other side of the nurse’s station, looking uncharacteristically freaked out. He had what I assumed was the two year old dangling from one hip while she cried at the top of her lungs. The older girl was sprawled out on a stretcher, blowing up a latex glove like a balloon.
As I got closer, I got a better look at the little girl. What the? What the heck was she wearing? It looked like a backwards T-shirt and a strange diaper of some sort.
“Hi,” I said.
Caine was definitely relieved to see me. “Hey. Thanks for coming.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Lizzy is going to be okay. It’s just a rash, luckily. They gave her some Benadryl, and the doc wants to keep an eye on her for a while.”
I smiled at the little girl on his hip, and she quieted her screaming to check me out. “Hi, there. You must be Lizzy.”
I’d assumed the older girl lying in the bed was the patient, but the niece Caine was holding had a rash on her face and neck.
The sweet little girl nodded while her bottom lip quivered. She had a crazy head full of red ringlet curls. I reached out and fingered one. “I love your curls. They remind me of Merida. Do you know who Merida is?”
She nodded.
“I bet you’re brave just like the Disney princess.”
I pushed a long curl that was plastered to her wet cheek back off her face. The bracelets on my wrist jingled and caught her attention.
“You like those?”
She nodded again.
“I’m Rachel—a friend of your Uncle Caine’s. You want to wear one?”
He eyes lit up, and she nodded again, only faster this time.
I slipped two of the bracelets from my wrist and held them out. She smiled and let me put them on her. It was then that I got a closer look at what the poor thing was wearing.
“Ummm…Caine? Why is her diaper duct taped?”
“I couldn’t get the damn thing to stay on.”
I held back my laugh as best as I could. The poised picture of perfection was so out of his element and frazzled.
Extending my arms, I smiled warmly at Lizzy. “Can I hold you? Maybe I can fix your diaper and put your shirt on the right way.”
Caine’s brow furrowed as he looked at his niece. It was obviously news to him that her shirt wasn’t on right. Lizzy was apprehensive, but eventually she leaned toward me, and I took her from her uncle’s arms.
“Do you have a diaper bag?”
“No. I flew out the door so fast, I didn’t even think about diapers.” He looked at his niece’s bare legs. “Or pants, apparently.”
I smiled. “That’s okay. I’m sure the nurse can give us one.”
The other little girl sat up from the stretcher and was looking at me.
Caine did the introduction. “This is Alley. She’s no help getting a diaper to stay on either.”
Lizzy and I visited the nurse’s station, and one of the aides was nice enough to go up to the pediatric unit and get us a few diapers and a small package of wipes. She also grabbed us kid-size pajama pants. After I straightened Lizzy out in the bathroom, I went back to Caine and Alley.
“All fixed.” Lizzy was smiling now. “And I think her rash has started to fade already.”
Caine examined his niece. “You’re right.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Thank Christ. The last thing my sister needed today was to come home to one of her kids in the hospital. She had thyroid cancer at twenty and had her thyroid removed. Last week she found a swollen lymph node under her arm. Doctor doesn’t think it’s anything, but she’s freaked out anyway. They’re doing a biopsy as a precaution.”
“Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. I hope everything turns out okay.”
Caine nodded. “Thank you.”
A doctor stopped by to check on Lizzy, who was still in my arms. He pulled the curtain along the track on the ceiling and converted the open nook to a private treatment room. “How’s the little princess doing here?”
Caine answered. “It looks like the rash is starting to fade a little.”
“Let’s take a look.” He examined Lizzy’s face, belly, legs, and arms. “The Benadryl is kicking in. Let me just examine her one more time, in maybe a half hour, and then we can send you on your way. She’s going to be getting sleepy from the medicine pretty quick.” Before he walked out of the curtained area, he added, “Or not. Sometimes Benadryl can have the opposite effect on kids.”
Less than an hour later, we were discharged with a handful of papers. I walked Caine to his car and helped him strap the girls into their car seats.
“My sister insisted I take these things in case I had to go somewhere in an emergency. I told her she was nuts, I wasn’t planning on driving anywhere, but she stuck them in my car anyway.”
“Sounds like your sister made the right call.”
Caine grumbled. “She’ll lord that over me until we’re eighty, too.”
After the girls were strapped in, Alley asked if I could come back to her Uncle Caine’s to play with her. I’d started to say I couldn’t when Caine interrupted.
“I make a mean macaroni and cheese, if you’re hungry. You sure I can’t persuade you? We might have another diaper incident, and I’m almost out of duct tape. I may need to resort to Krazy Glue.”
I smiled. I was tempted, but when Caine’s face turned serious and he looked me in the eyes and said, “Please?” there was no way I could say no.
“I’ll follow you.”
His face lit up, and my damn heart started to race in response.
Calm down in there. He isn’t inviting you to a romantic dinner. He only wants you to help with his nieces. Put on a diaper, not take off your clothes.
The entire drive to Caine’s house, I tried to reason with my heart. Talk it down from the perch of excitement his invitation had pushed it out onto. But there was no reasoning with it. My head knew the truth, yet my heart didn’t really seem to give a shit.
Rachel
A gigantic black lab ran full-speed to greet me and almost bowled me over. I kneeled to say hello. “Hi, big guy. You’re so cute. What’s your name?”