Page 55 of Goodbye Paradise
Daniel put both hands on the rail he’d been sanding, and dropped his head. “Shit. Did they use the words ‘postpartum depression?’”
“Yeah. That’s it.”
“Shit.Shit!” He slammed his hands down. “I should have caught that.” His eyes came up again, staring me down. “Andyouknew about that? I am such an idiot.”
This made me laugh. “No, dude. It was all Josh. And he didn’t know either. It’s just that he was willing to call a doctor and freak out over the phone.”
Even dropped his head again. “Fucking Josh. Obviously smarter than the rest of us.”
“So true.”
“I’ve evenreadabout this before. It’s in all those fucking pregnancy books Maggie made me read. Goddamnit.” He kicked the foot of his sawhorse. “Sorry,” he said quickly.
“Daniel, you can goddamn any goddamn thing you want. I don’t care.”
He gave me a weary grin. “Okay. I’m gonna go apologize to Josh, then explain to Maggie that I’m taking her to the doctor.” He shut off his table lamp. “Hey. Do you think Josh would take the baby for a few hours? Ugh. I hate to ask him.”
“I think he’d be happy to. He only wants to help.”
Daniel grabbed his jacket off a chair and headed for the door. “He’s really good with Chloe. Makes me feel like an idiot.”
“I feel like an idiot pretty much all the time,” I told him. “Why should you fare any better?”
Daniel shook his head, and we walked back to the house together.
* * *
Ten hours later, Josh and I sat at opposite ends of the sofa, our legs tangled together. We were watching a TV movie in a half-assed way. Josh was preoccupied with Chloe, who was drinking a bottle on his chest. And I was preoccupied with Josh.
“What?” he said, after the third time he caught me staring.
“Nothing. I just like you.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re smirking.”
“You’re cute, okay? I can’t help it.”
He made a face. “She makes me useful. I really don’t mind it.”
“Youareuseful. You were a fuckingherotoday. If Maggie starts feeling better, she and Daniel are never going to forget this.”
“Don’t say fuck,” he admonished me. “If it’s Chloe’s first word, I’m not taking the rap for that.”
I poked his hip with my toe. “Why don’t you want me watching you?”
He sighed. “It’s not my most manly hour.” He set the bottle on the coffee table and turned the baby onto his shoulder. With mild thumps, he patted her back.
You couldn’t have paid me to look anywhere else. His long hands made the baby look tiny, and the arms he held her in were strong and sexy. “I think you have it all wrong,” I said quietly. “A real man does what needs doing. He takes care of the people he loves. You know this instinctively, even though every man in your own life treated you like shit.”
He looked up fast, and with so much surprise on his face that I felt a pang in my heart. “Except for you,” he said.
“Except for me,” I said. Taking good care of Josh was the only true achievement I could claim. That, and having good hands when it came to engine work.
Absently, he whacked Chloe on the back, until she gave a very unladylike belch. “Good girl,” he sighed, turning her again until her eyes peeped at me from his chest.
“Is that something you think about?” I asked.
“What. Burps?”
