Page 44 of Due North
“Ba!” she yelled in her sweet little voice, and he was down the stairs in his stocking feet and grabbing her from my arms before I could climb them.
“Poppy Rose,” he said, snuggling the little girl close to his chest. “Why am I not surprised to see you tonight?”
He held the door open for me, and I stepped inside and closed it behind me. I didn’t take my coat or boots off. I just motioned at the now happy little tyke snuggled under his chin.
“She refused to go to sleep. I swear she knew I was leaving. Then she wouldn’t put her boots on, and trying to get over here with her was a lesson in wrangling Jell-O.”
He chuckled and started to unzip her coat. I caught his hand and shook my head.
“We aren’t staying. I just wanted to come over and let you see for yourself that I wasn’t backing out of dinner because I wanted to, but because I had to.”
“You could have called,” he said, unzipping Poppy’s coat anyway and stripping it off her.
“I was going to, but I didn’t want you to think I was using her as an excuse.”
“I would never think that, Cece,” he said with his head tipped to the side in confusion.
I stared across the room and noticed the table set with candles and a bottle of wine. “I’m sorry, Caleb,” I whispered. “This is the perfect example of why it’s a bad idea to even want one date with me, much less more.”
“Because you have a toddler?”
I nodded and handed said toddler her blanket. She took it and stuck her thumb in her mouth, sucking away happily now that she had Ba.
“It might be a bad idea if I didn’t love your toddler like the little piece of joy that she is, but since I do, it’s not bad. It’s just different.”
“It’s complicated.”
Caleb tossed his head back and laughed so loud even Poppy looked up at him from the vibrations. “Sweetheart, life is complicated. You sure as hell know that by now, right?”
I shrugged rather than answer him. He walked to the couch with Poppy and sat down.
“Caleb, we’re not staying. She should sleep.”
“Take your coat off, Cece. She can sleep here. The food is in the oven staying warm, and the wine is ready to pour whenever we’re ready to drink it. We’ll get our little drama princess to bed, and then we can still enjoy a nice dinner. Go ahead and let Amity know she can go home.”
“I already sent her,” I said, reluctantly stripping my boots and coat off. “No sense keeping her there when Poppy wasn’t going to settle down.”
“Good, then you have no obligations for the night other than to stay here, take a break from mommy duty, and eat some good food.”
I sat next to him on the couch and let out a heavy sigh as I put my hand on Poppy’s back. “That’s not a thing, Caleb, and I feel like you don’t understand that she’s now part of my life forever.”
“I do understand, Cece,” he assured me, kissing the top of Poppy’s head. “Maybe even more than you do. I was the caretaker of children that weren’t mine for many years. I understand how they are all-consuming and change every plan you make every time.”
My curls fell around my cheeks when I hung my head. “I’m sorry, I should have taken that into consideration.”
His warm hand slid up under my hair to cup my cheek. “Cece, look at me,” he ordered, and the tone of his voice told me I’d better do it. “You don’t need to apologize. I was trying to say I know how to roll with the punches when it comes to kids, okay? Kids are a lot like working on a ranch. You wake up in the morning with a plan, and at the end of the day, none of it went as expected. I’m used to it, so I don’t want you to think otherwise. Go look in my bedroom.”
He shooed me into the other room, and I stuck my head around the bedroom door to see a playpen set up in the corner, a pillow, blanket, and stuffed horse filling it. My heart melted right there, and my eyes filled with tears. He was the sweetest guy in the entire county. Tears fell down my cheeks as I walked back to the living room and sat next to him again. Poppy was nearly asleep on his chest as he rocked her. He reached up and wiped away a tear.
“Grab her cup from the fridge? There’s fresh milk in it. Maybe she’ll settle in for the night.”
“I left her cup at home,” I said, but the lowering of his brow told me not to argue, so I got up again and opened the fridge to find aPaw Patrolsippy cup waiting on the top shelf. I grabbed it with new tears in my eyes and carried it back to my little girl.
While she sucked happily, her eyes heavy, Caleb wiped another tear from my face.
“Where did you get the playpen?” I asked, clearing my throat. “That was sweet of you, Caleb.”
“I picked it up at the feed store. Crazy the things they carry there, right? I thought since I’m not going to be working as much, maybe I could help you out by watching her during her naptime in the afternoon.”
