Page 31 of Black
He got the hint and moved his hand with the washcloth to my belly instead but stayed in safe distance from my chest.
“I think I’m clean now,” I said a bit harder than I intended.
Gabriel actually took all this craziness seriously, and I guess he should have a medal for his patience with me.
After letting out the water, he dried me off without ever really touching me anywhere inappropriately. Ten minutes later I was back in the baby costume with a baby bottle full of water.
“I think I better brush your hair,” Gabriel said and sat down behind me. His hands were clumsy and maybe that’s why he overcompensated by being extremely careful when brushing my hair.
“It’s not a wig… my hair won’t fall off if you brush a bit harder,” I bitched.
“I just don’t want to hurt you.”
“That’s nice, but at this pace it will take you an hour to comb my hair.”
He sped up and brushed it harder. As soon as he was done I lay down and pulled the cover over me.
“Bruce asked me to sing you a lullaby but I can’t sing and I don’t know any lullabies,” he said with obvious frustration.
“That’s fine with me.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want him to keep you a baby for another day just because I failed to sing to you. I think I might know a few of the words to a song my mother used to sing.”
“Okay, or just hum something,” I suggested and tried not to bat his hands away when he tucked me in and brushed my hair behind my ears.
“Hush little baby, don’t you cry, daddy’s gonna buy you a diamond ring, and if that ring something something, then he’ll buy you something else,” Gabriel sang in a voice much softer than his normal deep voice.
Somewhere inside of me laughter bubbled. Even I knew that he was screwing up the song lyrics, and it was funny to see him so out of his element.
I closed my eyes to avoid offending him with my laughter and felt him caress my hair while he kept humming and singing.
“And if that mockingbird won’t sing, daddy’s going to buy you a bull and if that bull won’t pull a cart da da da, you’re still going to be the sweetest baby in town.”
He was off-key, singing the wrong lyrics, and messing up the simple melody, but he was here. For the first time in years I wasn’t alone.
I lay completely still, feeling the heat from his body and his big calloused hands that clumsily caressed my hair. And all the while, I kept my eyes firmly shut and close to the pillow. If I hadn’t, he might have seen my tears.
