Page 51 of Broken SEAL'S Secret Baby
“Oh, Cece!” I exclaim. “What did I tell you about asking before you put anything in your mouth?”
“Always ask…but we put the little red peppers in stuff. I just wanted to see what it tasted like. I only bit off a tiny piece.”
“Thank goodness for that!” I say. “Those tiny peppers are good in chili or with beans, but even then I only put in a little bit because they are very strong. But maybe this will help you remember not to bite things without asking first. What do you think?”
Charles comes bursting in through the door. “I saw the lettuce on the walk!” he exclaims. “Is everyone all right? I don’t see any blood.”
I can tell that his attempt at a joke is a feeble one. He knows me well enough to know that I would never throw food down carelessly.
Before I can explain, Cece says, “Miss Kate says I should always ask before putting anything in my mouth. But it was in our garden so I thought it would be ok. I only bit a tiny little piece of it.”
Thank goodness Charles looks amused rather than angry. “Jalapeno?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say. “I didn’t buy any Scotch bonnets or habaneros. But I wanted something to give our hamburger or beans a little bite.”
“It bited hard!” Cece exclaims. “I had to eat a cracker and drink some milk.”
“And now we need to clean your fingers and wash your face,” I say, “So you don’t smear hot pepper oils in your eyes.”
It is nearly an hour later when I finally get our evening meal on the table. When I prepare the taco meat filling, I show Cece how I always wear gloves to cut the little hot peppers, and that I use only one tiny one to go in a whole batch of flavored meat.
After we have eaten, watched a family sit-com, and Cece is in bed, Charles and I go out and cuddle together on the back porch swing. The fireflies dance on the lawn.
“You are very quiet,” Charles remarked. “Are you all right?”
“I think it is all starting to catch up with me,” I say. “Finishing my semester on time, the storm, moving, and managing a new household. And Cece is getting bigger. She’s impulsive and curious. She jumped from the play set platform onto the fire pole today.”
“Did she make it?” he asks.
“Yes, but if she’d missed, I would never have gotten there in time to keep her from falling,” I admit.
Charles reaches over and takes my hand in his. The feel of his skin warms me and starts a now familiar heat in my middle, but it does nothing to allay my fear of what he mightsay next. “I’m asking a lot of you,” he says. “Would you like someone to help?”
I nod. “I think so. It is hard to be on duty twenty-four seven, keep up with the housework, and make sure that Cece is safe.”
“Do you have someone in mind?” he asks.
“My college roommate. She is going nuts with two sisters and a bunch of cousins at her family’s house. She’s been doing field work for pocket change.”
“Ask her,” Charles says. “I’ll pay her what I was originally going to pay you, before you had to take on household management as well as childcare.”
I text Grace.
Me: Hey. You want to join me with taking care of Cece?
Grace: Isn’t that your job?
Me: Me house manager, you nanny.
Grace: Eye roll emoji.
Me: seriously. She nearly got hurt twice today. I can’t stay on top of everything all the time.
Grace: What did she do?
Me: Jumped off the play platform to slide down the fireman’s pole and ate a hot pepper.
Grace: Oh, my. But didn’t we all try the peppers at one time or another?
