Page 46 of Coast

“Everything alright?” another woman called up from somewhere below.

“Hey, Tasha! Yeah! Baby is feeling better,” Brooke called down, leaning over the railing.

“Does Zoe need any help?”

“She’s got a friend with her.”

“Okay. Well, tell her I hope the baby gets better soon.”

“Will do! Night-night. You heard her,” Brooke said, giving Zoe a small smile. “You need anything, though, you know where to find us.”

“Thanks, Brooke. Really.”

Brooke waved that off. “You take care of the girls,” she said, looking at me.

I gave her a nod before she headed out.

I closed and locked the door as Zoe pulled Lainey out of the car seat.

“Thanks for staying with us,” Zoe said. “I was…”

“Freaked the fuck out?” I filled in for her. “Yeah, I noticed. It’s nothing.”

“Wait, what is all of that?” she asked as I started to pull everything out of the bags and line it up on the nightstand.

“Supplies.”

“I didn’t say I needed diapers. Or formula.”

“From what I know, you always need diapers and formula at this age. And I got you some shit. I got a feeling that you might come down with something too. So just in case. And I got this for you,” I said, pulling the tag of the rattle plush and shaking it in front of Lainey’s face.

“That’s too much,” Zoe said, looking up at me as Lainey grabbed for the rattle.

“Nah. It’s nothing.”

“That’s, what, a month’s worth of formula. That’s a couple hundredalone.”

“Yeah. Like I said… nothing.”

“Coast…”

“I’ll make a bottle.”

“You don’t have—”

“Still gonna do it.”

So I did.

Then took turns trying to get Lainey to finish the whole thing so she didn’t get dehydrated.

It was while I was burping Lainey that Zoe started nodding off on the other bed.

Until, eventually, she was out cold.

“Looks like it’s me and you, kid,” I told Lainey as she stared up at me. “I think your mama needs a rest after the scare you gave her, don’t you?”

“Ooh,” Lainey said.

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