Page 48 of Karma Kitty Christmas
About the time he was shaking out his hands, he heard a rustle down the hallway and Patricia came stumbling out, her hair sticking straight up and her eyes glazed over with sleep, clutching one of the books Roxy had packed in her diaper bag. He set aside the blanket gratefully and held out his arms.
“C’mere, precious,” he murmured, and she stumbled right into him. He set her on his lap and pulled her back against him, taking the book gently.
“Book?” he asked.
“Music,” she mumbled. “Sing.”
He leaned against the back of the chair, that hot, sticky, solid weight in his arms, and began to hum to the Shins’ “The Past and Pending.”
That’s where he was when Luca woke him up with a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, baby,” he murmured. “Allegra and I ignored what you said and brought takeout anyway. Kids can’t live on fruit and cheese alone.”
Isaac glanced around with sleepy eyes to see that Allegra had scooped up the sprawled baby from the floor and was rocking her against her shoulder. Month five had given her tummy a rise, like an emerging volleyball, and she was down to three days a week, with Jimmy Bob’s niece taking the other two days. Between the heat and the baby, Allegra was beat, but Isaac watched the way her face lit up as she absently patted little Sparrow Anne’s back, and he remembered Luca’s assertion that day back in May when he’d thrown out the idea for the baby blanket, the thing that had started it all.
His sister was going to make an amazing mother. It was true she’d already made the decision to do that, but watchingher now, Isaac thought it was the thing that would make her happiest.
He suddenly felt incredibly lucky to be part of their lives when she did so.
And then Luca distracted him with a gentle hand smoothing his hair back from his face. “C’mon, baby,” Luca said throatily. “You guys can’t sleep all day or the kids will never sleep tonight.”
“We gotta go slow,” Isaac slurred. “It’s bad when they wake up cranky.”
“I hear ya,” Luca murmured. “Here, let me take her—looks like she woke up and fell back asleep again.”
“Yeah.” Isaac yawned and struggled to sit up after that warmth and weight was moved from his lap. “Here, let me go get Justice.”
Luca shook his head grimly—yeah, they’d both discussed how Falcon Justice was just not going to be a happy ending for the poor kid. He’d probably change his name to Franklin Justin before he hit puberty.
“Should we wake Roxy?” Allegra asked, blowing softly in Sparrow Anne’s face.
“No,” Isaac said decisively, remembering the way one good laugh had wiped his friend out. “She’s exhausted, and we’re going back to work next week. It’s still hot—it’s gonna be so brutal.”
With that, he managed to toddle down the hallway to turn the light on in the baby room. He’d brought his phone with him, and now he turned the volume up a tad—enough to wake up instead of lull back to sleep. He left it on the window ledge and went back into the front of the house, pleased to see Luca had set Patricia up on the booster seat Roxy left at his house and was excitedly pushing her chicken nugget around in the special sauce.
Allegra was cooing at Sparrow Anne, who was regarding her with open eyes.
“Practicing?” Isaac chided gently.
“Well, yeah,” Allegra said. She smiled at Isaac a little sadly. “I… I don’t have any friends who are doing this right now, you know? Have I thanked you yet, for giving me a home and a friend?”
Isaac chuckled softly, pleased that Allegra could play just like Roxy could. “I don’t count?” he asked, pretending to be wounded.
“You’re my brother’s boyfriend,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You don’t get to double dip.”
“Sure he does,” Luca said from across the table. “He can beyourfriend,myboyfriend, and Roxy’s friend too!”
At that moment they heard the stiff little footsteps and groggy whining of a child who wasn’t quite awake yet.
“Mommy?” Justice asked, his voice just as small as his four-year-old body.
“How about Uncle Isaac?” Isaac asked, holding out his arms. Justice didn’t care who it was, apparently, because he ran straight to Isaac, and Isaac hefted him up. “You’re big,” he said, nodding at the boy.
“Daddy says it’s ’cause I eat my weight in nuggets,” Justice said, leaning his head on Isaac’s shoulder. “Can I eat some nuggets to see?”
“Smooth, young man. So smooth. But we just opened a hot box of nuggets, so I think you’ll get away with it.”
The boy giggled into his neck, and Isaac gave him a squeeze. He was almost done with the blanket, he thought happily, and enough sweaters to last Allegra’s baby through the next three winters. It was time to start making Roxy’s kids sweaters so he could start knitting for his high school kids in November.
