Page 30 of Born into Chaos

He’s not lying. I undo the diaper and dry heave while he lets out another laugh from the safety of the sidelines.

“How can there be so much?” I whisper through the shirt that’s still hanging over my nose.

“Better hurry,” Vitya warns me. “She’ll get antsy soon.”

A wiggling baby is the last thing I need right now, so I brace myself and get to work. It’s hands down the grossest thing I’ve ever done, and I’m only about halfway finished when she starts getting fussy. Vitya hears her whimper and immediately reaches for her pacifier, an automatic response that he doesn’t even have to think about. I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s a very observant guy. He always seems to know what I need before I even know it myself. She latches onto the pacifier, giving me a few precious minutes to finish up what I’m doing.

“She needs a name,” I tell him. “We can’t just keep calling herthe baby.”

He’s still right next to me, brushing a thumb over her soft cheek. “Maybe it’s best if we don’t.”

I grab the diaper cream and look over at him. “I think we’re past that stage, don’t you?”

“What stage?”

“Theif I name it, then I’ll just get attachedstage.”

He knows I’m right. He’s already attached. Hell, I just got here, and I’m attached. It’s impossible not to be.

“You choose. What do you want to name her, Sveta?”

I try not to think about how close he is, but even though I’m doing the most unromantic thing on the planet right now, it’s still Vitya, and the man gets me worked up no matter what we’re doing or where we’re at. Putting my focus back on the diaper cream, I slather it on her and think about names, but suddenly one pops in my head.

“Samantha,” I tell him, securing the fresh diaper and grabbing her sleeper.

“As in Molly Ringwald’s character inSixteen Candles?”

I let out a surprised laugh. “How did you remember that?”

“It’s one of your favorite movies,” he says like it would be weird if he didn’t know that bit of information about me, and then he adds, “Molly Ringwald makes everything better, right?,” proving that he may know me better than I know myself.

“She does,” I whisper back.

He looks at the baby, who’s watching the two of us with an intense stare, and strokes her cheek again.

“What do you think, little one? You like the name Samantha?”

She flings an arm out, making him smile.

“I’m going to take that as a yes,” he tells me.

I throw away the offending diaper and scrub my hands clean while he gets her back into her sleeper, and when I walk back into the living room, he’s already putting her into a little reclining seat that has a row of soft toys attached. He buckles her in and then presses a button that makes it softly vibrate.

Looking around his apartment, I take in all the supplies, noticing that many of them are still in their boxes.

“Did you just spend the night shopping online and changing dirty diapers?”

He sits back on the floor with his back leaning against the couch. “Pretty much, yeah. I didn’t know what else to do. Istilldon’t know what to do.”

“I’ll help you,” I tell him. “You know that, right?”

He scrubs a hand over his face and groans. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to get involved in this.” Arching a dark brow at me, he adds, “You just couldn’t keep your ass upstairs for one day, could you?”

The cuss word has me darting my eyes to Samantha, but she’s already asleep, looking peaceful and perfectly content now that she’s eaten and had her diaper changed.

“Would one day have really changed anything?”

“No,” he admits. “I was planning on being sick with the flu all week.”

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