Page 10 of Jaime
I knew I shouldn’t prolong this visit. Then again, I wasn’t supposed to be here, to begin with.
“Sure,” I said. “What do you have?”
“Coffee?” he asked. “Or water or tea?”
“Coffee would be great.”
He gave me a small, guarded smile, walking into the kitchen ahead of me.
I watched as he started to fill the pot with water with one hand, his back to me. As expected, he didn’t seem to have anywhere to put Evie down.
“Here,” I said, touching his arm.
He nearly jumped out of his skin, spinning to look at me.
I kept my face carefully neutral.
“I can hold Evie while you do that.”
He took a calming breath.
“Oh. Yeah, okay.”
With utmost care, he passed her snoozing form into my arms.
She didn’t wake up, so I settled into a seat at the table, mind spinning while I watched him move around the kitchen and listened to the sound of her soft breathing.
“How do you get anything done?” I blurted.
Jaime paused, glancing at me over his shoulder.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re always holding her, right?” I asked.
“She’s light,” he said, shrugging.
Pressing the button on the machine, he turned and leaned his hips against the counter, his gaze falling on Evie.
A soft smile touched his face.
“She looks so peaceful with you,” he said.
My heart squeezed.
“She looks peaceful with you too,” I informed him, and his brown eyes shot to mine.
“Does she really?” he asked.
“Yeah, of course,” I said at once. “You can tell she is very comfortable with her daddy.”
Jaime’s smile grew. It was filled with hope and fear all at once, and my stomach continued to drop all the way to my ankles.
“You know you’re doing a good job, don’t you?” I couldn’t help asking and my voice suddenly started to tremble, because I was finally saying those words out loud to someone who needed them. I’d lost countless nights of sleep wondering if they would have made a difference had they been said to my mother.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I watched all the emotions flickering across Jaime’s face. Finally, his expression settled into a frown, and he turned around abruptly, pulling mugs out of the cupboard.
The coffee splashed over the edges of both cups when he started pouring.
