I also want to snuggle and kiss his father, though, and now that I’ve given him the meager encouragement of touching his side, Mateo prowls up closer. Awareness ripples through me and pleasure blooms in my chest as he leans in and brushes his lips across mine. He nibbles on my bottom lip, then leaves soft kisses at the corner of my mouth before murmuring, “We should have Ju take him for the rest of the night.”
I lean back, eyes widening in mild horror. “What? It’s his first night as a person. We can’t send him with the nanny.”
“I mean, we could. That’s why I have a nanny.”
“He wants to cuddle with us,” I inform him.
“Oh, does he?” Mateo asks, peering over at the baby snuggled against my arm.
I nod my head. “He told me.”
This causes Mateo to smirk. “You weren’t kidding about those impressive vocal chords.”
“He’s a boy wonder,” I state, nodding solemnly. I release my husband to put my hands under Roman’s arms and pull him up, handing him off to his daddy.
Given no other option, Mateo takes the baby. He rolls over on his back and puts Roman on his chest, his brown eyes taking in the wiggly little human on top of him. “Hey, you. How’s being alive?”
“He says it’s pretty good,” I provide.
Mateo slants me a look of amusement. “Funny, I didn’t hear anything.”
“He only speaks to me. I’m a baby whisperer. I should’ve told you.”
“Well, he is a male Morelli, so I’m not surprised he already loves you,” Mateo remarks, dryly.
I snuggle up against him so I can touch Roman’s little arm and my husband all at once. “When Casey was born, my mom had a brief bout of postpartum depression. It only lasted a few months, but it felt like a year. Anyway, my mom stayed in bed for a month, then she had to go back to work, and by the time she got home, she was zapped. So Casey started to think of me as her mom, I think. I was the one who did everything for her, I was the one who fed her, snuggled her to sleep, lulled her with round after round of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star… The only problem was, it started to interfere with my grades. I would show up at school exhausted, having been up until 2 or 3am with the baby. I forgot to turn in a book report, couldn’t focus on a test, almost fell asleep in class. At one point I was so overtired I started crying over answering a question wrong. My mom tried to take over at night so I could at least get some sleep, but Casey wouldn’t have it. I would go to bed and try to let her handle it, but Casey would scream and scream and scream until I came back and held her myself.” I pause, recalling one night toward the end, lying in the floor with my mom on the couch, holding Casey’s hand while my mom held her so she knew I was there.
Roman dips unsteadily in my direction, like he’s interested in the story—or more likely, trying again to get milk out of my useless breasts.
“Anyway, my point was, Casey isn’t a Morelli or a boy, so I think I’m just a baby whisperer in general.”
Mateo smiles tenderly, reaching over and grabbing my hand, lifting it to his lips for a kiss. “Maybe that’s why you do so well with the lot of us. Maybe we’re just big, asshole babies.”
I laugh at that, as well as the mental image of Rafe, Adrian and Mateo as babies, trying to kill each other over the same toy. “Raising baby Morellis is going to be fun. I’m excited that we’re adding boys to the mix.”
“Oh yes,” Mateo answers, dryly. “Me too.”
“I’m going to teach them all about women’s rights.”
Mateo snorts as Roman makes a little more progress on his quest to my boobs. “I think this one’s going to be a star pupil.”
“I’ll use Rosalie’s Barbies and act out workshops. If Ken wants to give Barbie a kiss but she tells him no thanks, what should Ken do?”
Mateo pretends to consider, rubbing his jaw and everything. “Kidnap her, buy her presents, and eventually kiss her anyway?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“Sabotage her relationship with the guy she likes better until she says yes?”
“Definitely not.”
“How old is Barbie? Buy her from her parents—who am I kidding? If she’s hanging out with Ken, she only has one parent—and make her entirely dependent upon his good will.”
I shake my head. “That’s terrible. Ken is terrible.”
“Are we sure the answer isn’t kidnapping? Ken has a dungeon. He can wait her out.”
Roman is halfway off Mateo now, so I pick him up before he falls and settle him on my tummy. “Daddy’s going to teach you lots of things, but not this crap.”